Faith

Swipe right for Jesus – Monday, 1st Week in ordinary time – Mk 1:14-20

The Gospel of Mark records the first homily that Jesus preached and it was all of eighteen words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Jesus pulls back no punches. He is not here to win a popularity contest for the religious. His message is short, direct and hard hitting.

To most religious leaders, such a homily would only serve to drive away a congregation. As St. Paul says, ‘congregations have ‘itchy ears’ and sadly these are pandered to.’ Yet the Lord has a method to what might seem like madness.

The world was in need of a Messiah, not a magician or a great king. It was in need of one who would free them from their sins. Sin cannot be washed away unless it is preceded by sincere repentance. The word ‘repentance’ in Greek, translates loosely as putting on a new mind, a new way of thinking. Jesus’ first homily was a radical demand – change your mind and change your heart and then the Gospel comes alive.

The Gospel records two callings. The first was to all and it was a call to repentance. The second was also vocational (from the Latin, vocare=to call) but deeply personal. Both have a sense of urgency (Euthus in Greek), especially the call to all, because the “time is fulfilled”.

The time that harkens back to the prophecy of Isaiah, has now come to pass with the coming of Jesus. The call of the disciples is equally urgent as the kingdom of God is at hand and ministry must now be set in motion. The response of the first four disciples chosen by Jesus along the shores of this harp shaped Lake of Galilee, was also immediate. The Gospel uses the word “immediate” each time in response to the brothers who left their profession and their family to follow Jesus.

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Simple Truths- If you’re too busy judging you can’t be loving.

So here is a simple truth, the more you love someone the less you judge them; the more you judge them, the less you love. Now just for second, think of the person in your life that you once loved or someone whose very name now makes your skin crawl. Ask yourself, ‘why do I not love them as I once did or why do I hate them so much?’

Truth be told, the ONLY thing that crosses your mind right now is how much you dislike them and are unable to think of a single nice thing about them, because all you end up doing is judging the other FIRST. There is no room for anything in YOUR mind but hate. The problem ironically is not so much with them as much as it is in your head. Hate consumes you to such an extent that there is no time to even grant them an ounce of goodness, and in the bargain you become a prisoner of negativity.

The first time I met Fr. Agnelo Gracias (now Bishop) was when I was interviewed as a candidate for the seminary way back in 1991. Fr. Agnelo was the Rector of St. Pius X College and I was all of twenty one year’s old, fresh out of my course in Hotel Management. In his typical style, he took me for a cup of tea and then when I was a bit relaxed, he began the interview. I recall the meeting as a bit comical, for he punctuated every line with the words, “good good.” It was hard to supress a smile if not control my laughter. It was always a double assertion of the word good and if he was super happy, the ‘good’ knew no end.

At first I used to think that these repeated assertions of the word ‘good’ were a little annoying. How can anything and everything be good? But Fr Agnelo never had the time to judge people, for he always loved first. The repeated assertions of the word ‘good’ had now become a way of life for him; everything he saw was good and anyone whom he came across was first loved. It’s almost like he had no time to judge; the goodness was all he saw in the other.

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Simple Truths – Stop showing them the finger

I am not sure if this is an Indian phenomenon or just plain universal. Somehow we seem to have grown up with this ‘blame the whole world syndrome’. Nothing deters us from finding a finger to poke at someone else.  God is the usual suspect but if that does not assuage our frustrations then any and every living being can be a good substitute, to say nothing of the ridiculous compulsion to blame that which is inanimate.

Let me illustrate this with something that most Indians would identify with, if not actively participated in. Little children always fall, either because they are still discovering the joys of two feet and their ability to traverse ground they were once forced to crawl on, or they just seem to be like a yo-yo with  two feet. In any case, they are bound to fall.

Better sense has taught us to be silent to a child’s initial shock when they fall and not to contribute to it by transmitting our own fears. Gentle concern in a soft non agitated voice is more helpful than a hyper agitated adult attempting to calm a now bawling child who has inadvertently discovered that his or her pain and shock has more attention value than they first thought it had. The voice decimals are needless and pointless.

This brings me to the matter at hand (even though we are discussing feet). Now that the child has stumbled and fallen and the noise of the super agitated adult has sufficiently mixed with the distraught child, a solution to the matter at hand needs to be found. Here is where the child learns perhaps one of its first and worst ways of dealing with challenging situations.

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Simple truths – Do you choose to be happy or right ?

Here is a simple truth I learnt many years ago; in any relationship one can be happy or one can be right, you can’t be both. It’s a choice you have to make because relationships demand that such a choice be made.

So then are all relationships a series of well accepted compromises? Call it what you want but compromise is really not a bad word in a relationship and the more you grow to accept it the happier you shall be.

 Think about it. If you make a choice in your relationship to be simply happy then being ‘right’ (about anything) with the other is of little consequence. The belief that your spouse or significant other continues to hold is immaterial. In reality you know the truth and you choose to let go. You are happy while they believe they are right (often ridiculously so).

But should you choose to be right then you forfeit your option to be happy. Now you cling on to the thoughts and beliefs in your head. You are convinced that your way is the only way and there is no room for the opinions of others. You won the battle with your argument and clever words, you made your point but you know you lost the war. You are now ‘right’ but sadly left feeling all wrong. Your partner may have conceded but you know you have ended up in a hopelessly unhappy situation around you.

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Simple truths – Why am I unhappy?

For some, today might just be a bad day. For others it’s been a bad week and still for many more this is a bad month or year. The simple truth is that no one has it easy three sixty five days of the year and yet we live in this illusion that grass is greener on the other side.

Of late I have been struggling with some issues too, primarily due to my second attack of Bell’s palsy and the emotional roller coaster  of “why’s” and “what if’s”. Accompanying the challenges to my health have also been personal matters that annoying have a habit of crossing my mind. Like a bad penny in your pocket, you always seem to stumble on them first. Being a priest does not give you immunity from pain and I have had some really low days (chill I am not depressed)

What bothers me is that these emotional swings cause me to feel low and often that feeling hovers over me like a monsoon cloud that won’t move on; you get my drift right? To make matters worse, I have this public image I have to live through; in fact we all do albeit to different degrees and social groups.

So I looked deep within me to find solace in my wells spring of happiness and it struck me that for many, our link to happiness is unfortunately deeply rooted to either our aspiration or achievements. We want to get something or become something and IF we do, we ‘seem’ to be happy. If our aspirations or achievements don’t materialize on an hourly, daily or weekly basis( depending upon our fix), then a feeling of low sets in and we succumb to the low feeling  or seek  a quick fix solution for a few hours only to be haunted by that every pervading feeling of being low again.

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