Faith

‘Ars’ NOT ‘ours’ – Memorial St John Marie Vianney

Eight years ago I was appointed to St Jude Church, Malad East as priest-in-charge of a parish with a congregation that now stands at 799 souls. These have been the best eight years of my pastoral ministry spanning eighteen years; years of truly living the faith among a faith filled people.  Faith is not something that we in the Catholic Church are called to ‘sell’, it is something that we are called to live. You can’t just preach it from the pulpit, for conversion does not take place with mere words as much as it does when the heart encounters a life lived in faith.

Bloom where you are planted is easier said than done especially when your Church is all of 1200 square feet in size, no rest room, a desk for an office, where three pews serve as a class room for catechesis and were neighbours of other faiths take umbrage that you run a Church on the ground floor of a residential building (I quite understand their annoyance).

St Jude’s parish is no walk in the park; geographically it encompasses a large area though the Catholic faithful are few. Poverty is a way of life for most people and job opportunities are hard to come by. A devout congregation such as this has to often make a hard choice between attending a Sunday mass or earning bread for the family. There are challenges galore but here live a people of faith who don’t ask God to reduce the conflict they face, as much as they ask him to increase their courage. In this parish, I have been blessed to minister.

Vianney Sunday cannot be about the priest only for without those entrusted to his care what priesthood would he have? And so I share the joy of this feast day with my people of St Jude’s family (we don’t call ourselves a parish for we live the bonds of a family). I share it with a faith filled people who accept the priest they get with his strengths and failings and don’t get to pick and choose the priest they want. I share it with a family that welcomes us priests into their hearts and homes often sacrificing much more than the ‘sacrifices’ that the priest is called to make. I share it with friends who slip their arm around you, comforting you when in pain and shielding you from attack when in fact that is what the priest is called to do.

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Faith

Familiarity breeds contempt – Friday, 17th week in ordinary time – Mt 13:54-58

Matthew’s community was no stranger to rejection. The times that they lived in were marred by bitter hostility between the Jews and the followers of Christ who still clung on to their Jewish roots. The rejection by Matthew’s community was sealed with the pronouncement of the ‘ birtkat ha minin’, a Jewish curse on heretics (minim)which also include Jewish Christians.

Turned away from the synagogues they once prayed in, the followers of Christ most certainly found comfort and solace in the narration of Jesus’ own rejection in today’s Gospel. Yet the positioning of the Gospel is itself confusing.

Perhaps what perplexes us is why did Matthew place this Gospel at the end of the parable discourse? It seems a bit odd for the evangelist to end a series of powerful teachings with the rejection of Jesus. Perhaps the fault lies in the fact that the Gospels were originally written in continuous format; there were no chapters and verse. It was Robert Estienne who in 1551 introduced the numbering of verses within each chapter. The rejection of Jesus would read better if it was part of Chapter 14.

Chapters 14 to 17 are an interesting twist that Matthew gives to his Gospel. In placing the rejection of Jesus by His own countrymen in Nazareth, he contrasts it with the next four chapters with the acknowledgment of Jesus by his disciples. While Jesus is rejected by His own He is sought after by everyone else including the Canaanite woman, sworn enemies of the Jews.  It was Matthew’s way of assuring his community that they were not alone in their rejection but they will also find acceptance within the community and acceptance by the world.

Interestingly Jesus is rejected not because He has said anything blasphemous but simply because they were unable to accept the notions of Him that they had in their head. For them he was the carpenter’s son whose family members they knew of. For them, familiarity bred contempt.  Eugene Peterson’s says, ‘the people think they know who Jesus is; therefore they end up asking disdainfully, “Who does he think he is?”

Fr Warner D’Souza

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Faith

Looking within – Thursday, 17th week in ordinary time –  Mt 13:47-53

There are two ways to approach today’s Gospel – with fire and brimstone towards others, or with introspection for myself.  Let me choose the latter, not because I am afraid to play the ‘fist thumping preacher’, but because that method may be effective till one reaches the  exit doors of the Church.

The seventh and last parable of chapter thirteen mirrors the second parable, the wheat and the darnel. Both parables draw their imagery from every day Palestinian occupations, namely farming and fishing. Both parables deal with eschatology or the end times. Both parables end with God’s reapers or angels who weed out the evil and sort out the good. The kingdom is not insulated from attack. We could either be attacked by Satan who plants evil, or we could be attacked from within; everyday people around us are plotting destruction! 

There is no getting away from the reality of these parables as a whole. The seven parables allegorically attempt to cover the reality of the kingdom of heaven.  It is a kingdom whose reality includes attack, search, temptation, and judgement. The kingdom is not all hunky dory and fearful as the closing parable may seem; it is not merely a parable of doom.

So what then is this parable about? Dragnets, as their name suggest were fishing nets which were dragged along the bed of the sea and in its wake, picked up everything. Made of flax cords, they were equipped with lead weights at the bottom and wooden floats at the top. In mentioning specifically the type of net, Jesus was telling us that the kingdom is not a place where people are picked and chosen; the kingdom comprises of all sorts. We don’t get to choose the people we want to live with in the world.   

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Art/ Heritage

THE KISS OF BLISS: ‘The meeting at the Golden Gate’ by Giotto (1304 – 1306)

Barren! That is what they called her; for even after twenty years of marriage, they had no children. As she walked down the narrow streets of Nazareth, a town in Galilee, the side-walls often echoed scorns and despiteful whispers. Cursed! They repeated. Her husband Joaquim though perfectly pious was sterile. They were regarded childless and unfruitful. And yet, how great was their faith, for they continued to serve the Lord trusting in His greater providence and mercy. 

It was the day of solemnity in Jerusalem. All the men in the city had gathered in the Temple built by Solomon to offer their choicest gifts to the Almighty. Joaquim, blessed with riches and a generous heart, brought a double offering to the Most High. He sought forgiveness and atonement for his sins. However, how terrible was his remorse when the minister of the Temple drove him away with these words, ‘Thou art not worthy to enter into the Temple for you have not conceived a child for Israel.’

Having been insulted and shamed in the midst of a large congregation, Joaquim left the town weeping and lamenting. He went off to the wilderness to fast and pray and did not return for five months. His wife, Anna, was disconsolate. Childless, she was now at the verge of widowhood. How could the God of Sarah and Rachel, Samson and Samuel not pay heed to her exceeding distress?

Her constant knocks opened the gates of heaven. The angel of the Lord appeared to her saying, ‘Do not be afraid for a daughter will be born unto you. She will be your descendant and will be called blessed for all generations. Arise, therefore and go up to the Golden Gate. As a sign of what I have said, you will meet your husband of whom you have been so concerned.’

 Anna wept for joy! She hurried across the town towards the Golden Gate. As she raised her eyes she saw Joaquim at a distance arriving with a herd of lambs. At once, she threw off her black cloak of mourning and dressed herself with the colour of hope. Then, she ran to him and embraced him, thanking God and exclaiming, ‘I was a widow but now I am not anymore.’

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Faith

A kingdom made in heaven –  Wednesday, 17th Week in ordinary time – Mt 13:44-46

Today’s reading allegorically fits in beautifully with fidelity in a relationship. For the kingdom of heaven is like the spouse one clings to, forsaking all others, having realized the worth and the value of the loved one.

The Gospel of today is a meditation; not only on the kingdom but also the subjects of the kingdom. Jesus uses two examples to make a point. He compares the kingdom of heaven to a treasure hidden in a field which a man finds, and to a pearl of great price that a man seeks passionately.

In one case the kingdom is stumbled upon and in the other, it is actively sought. In either case, the person having found it, realizes the great value at hand and then does the next obvious thing; even if that would involve a great deal of inconvenience.

Palestine was a hot bed for civil and political unrest. Its geographical location made it the default route to be taken, if you were marching to war against one of the great empires that surrounded this tiny nation. War would bring plunder, and the best safe deposit vault was a natural one; dig a hole and hide it in the earth.

But wars also had the ability to change the landscape. ‘X’ no longer marked the spot, for ‘X’ could have been a tree that was uprooted as a consequence of the war and with it, the location lost forever; that until someone came digging.

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