Opinion

From the heart it has come, to the heart it shall go…

“You often say, ‘I would give, but only to the deserving.’ The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.” —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet.

The recent ban on the use of a number of plastic items by the municipality of Mumbai brought a loud hurrah from most quarters, especially the environmentalists. I too joined in the cheer. Thousands of plastic bags were being doled out in the city at the drop of a hat on the purchase of just about any item.

In a fast growing culture of use and throw, most of these plastic bags found their way to a dustbin or even worse, carelessly thrown on the road leading to the clogging up of a collapsing British era drainage system, the results of which lead to the flooding of the city each time the heavens open up.

There is no doubt in my mind that for a city bursting at its seams, drastic measures such as these are essential. But every action has an equal and opposite reaction and that I discovered this week, as I chaired a monthly review meeting of the parish. Ironically the poor always get a beating when it comes to the implementation of many poorly thought through government policies, be it demonetization, GST or the ban on plastic.

While a mere 44% of my parishioners are employed, a 100% of those above 65 years are dependents. Most of the families in the parish supplement their incomes by assembling tiny bits of imitation jewellery together for a paltry sum; yet to them it is an integral part of their earning which often keeps their head above water. With the ban on plastic, the suppliers of imitation jewellery, colloquially called ‘maal’ or material, simply dried up, as imitation jewellery is either mounted on a plastic board or simply wrapped in plastic bags.

Overnight incomes dwindled and those whose livelihoods entirely ran on this business, found themselves penniless. As usual the poor are always collateral damage. Mercifully the parish council of St Jude’s has never been caught up with parochial bureaucracy and red tapism; the poor have a greater identification with the sufferings of their own ilk. The council was quick to sanction help in the payment of bills and groceries.

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Is 12 the new 13? Monday, 14th Week in ordinary time – Mt 9:18-26

The gospel of today is also found in Mark 5: 21-43 and Luke 8: 40-56 and put together with Matthew reveal layers of interesting detail.  When seen together (the meaning of Synoptic) we know that the synagogue officials name was Jarius whose twelve year old daughter was raised from the dead and that a woman, suffering with a haemorrhage for twelve years, was cured.

Interestingly, the gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal gospel, also known as the Acts of Pilate (Πράξεις Πιλάτου), mentions the name of the haemorrhaging woman as Bernice. Eusebius of Caesarea, a Greek historian of Christianity, an exegete, and Christian polemicist mentions that the woman was a gentile from Caesarea Philippi.

So is there some magic to the number twelve? None whatsoever unless you also believe there is a curse in the number thirteen. While Jarius was ‘blessed’ with a daughter for twelve years, the woman was ‘cursed’ with a bleeding for twelve years. So rather than looking for solace in numbers, Jarius and the woman chose to look to the Lord, with eyes of faith.

Interestingly the interaction with the dead girl and the woman with the haemorrhage would have rendered Jesus ritually unclean. A pious Jew would think twice before touching a dead person. Remember the priest and the Levite who walked past the man beaten and left for dead in the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’? Their ‘heartless’ actions were perhaps a reaction to the fact that they were on their way to Jerusalem. To touch a potentially dead man would only involve more ceremonial cleansing. They followed the maxim, be safe rather than sorry, and walked on. Sensitivity was lost to ceremonials.

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Name or Nature?  14th Sunday in ordinary time  -Mark 6: 1-6

We move from belief to disbelief, and the fact that this disbelief comes from Jesus’ own hometown in Nazareth, makes this incident all the more shocking. But this brings to a close on Mark’s collation of the rejection of Jesus in Galilee, a rejection that began in Chapter 3:7 and reaches a crescendo in 6:6.

Jesus moves from the western shore of Galilee, inland towards Nazareth, and here the rejection is personal. Rejection is always harder when it source is one’s own family. His own did not accept Him while strangers in Capernaum did!

Jesus comes to the synagogue in Nazareth and begins to teach. The initial reaction of being ‘astounded’  to such wisdom, gives way to more negative comments which are personal in nature. Unlike Jarius and the haemorrhaging woman, they can only see a face, not faith – they recognise a name, not His nature. One would never understand why the ‘son of the town’ who has such wisdom, would not be celebrated? But then again human beings are fickle!

The description of Jesus as the ‘son of Mary’ was more an insult than a desire to identify Him. Jews were customarily known by their father’s name; they should have called Him the ‘son of Joseph’.  But it is their own thoughts that scandalize them (vs3). Interestingly the translation of ‘they took offense’ is ‘skandalon’ or in English scandal, whose roots reveal that a scandal is more a ’stumbling block’. It is not the words or the person of Jesus that cause His hometown folk to be scandalized, but their own thoughts that become a ‘stumbling block’ to His acceptance. 

Perhaps we need to look at our own stumbling blocks, the coloured glasses that we look at people with. Often we glibly dismiss people for their colour, creed, and sexual orientations. We see their actions as a scandal, and so reject them. Remember the words of Pope Francis, “who am I to judge?” In doing so, we dehumanize a human person and fail to see the ‘prophet’ in them. We close our doors to them and our hearts to Jesus, reducing them all to mere ‘carpenters’.  

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Sinners at my table ! – Friday, 13th week in ordinary time- Mt 9:9-13

Someone once well put it, Jesus ate His way through the gospels and He certainly must have eaten a lot. His detractors even accused Him of being a friend of gluttons and drunkards. Not without reason did Jesus sit at table to eat. In Judaism, table fellowship was not merely a time to tuck into stew of vegetables, lentils and chickpeas spiced with herbs. To be invited to someone’s home for a meal, was to be invited into their inner circle.

Matthew would have had more than just a vegetable stew the day he invited Jesus over to dine. He had every reason to celebrate, for the famous son of Capernaum, now a wonder working Rabbi had asked him to be His follower. Just the thought of it was unimaginable for tax collectors such as Matthew were a hated lot and considered to be traitors, for they worked for the enemy, the Romans.

Matthew had more reason to be hated. He was tax collector in Capernaum, which was situated on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it connected major population centres of the world. It was famously known as the Via maris or the way of the sea. Matthew surely made a killing in overcharging taxes from those who passed that way.

All this had now changed and amidst the lavish meal of roast lamb and broiled fish with figs, olives and pomegranates, Matthew and his ‘many’ tax collector and ‘sinner’ friends must have heard a pin drop when the Pharisees asked the disciples of Jesus why He shared such company.

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Body and Soul, both made whole-Thursday, 13th week in ordinary time – Matthew 9: 1-8

There are two ways to approach this passage – from a pastoral reflection point of view, or from the evangelist’s intended purpose.  This morning, I will briefly dwell on both approaches.

In order to understand evangelist’s purpose, we must place ourselves somewhere between the years 80-90 AD, when Matthew penned this Gospel. Matthew is not the first to write New Testament literature. Paul had been writing letters and Mark has already completed his account of the Gospel in around 64-69 AD.

The circumstances that surround the accounts of Mark and Matthew are very different. By the time Matthew has written his Gospel, the Romans have attacked Jerusalem, pillaged it and destroyed the temple. The Jewish authorities, seeing the lack of co-operation from the followers of Christ in defending the city and temple, now excommunicate the ‘followers of Christ’ who still considered themselves to be Jewish.

A bitter family feud between the Jews and the Jewish followers of Christ breaks out. Matthew, writing in these troubled times, uses as his foundation, the Gospel of Mark, albeit with the circumstances of his community in mind.  For Matthew, Jesus is the Son of God come to fulfil the law and the prophets, corrupted by the Jewish authorities who likewise, have an intense hatred for Him.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus, in healing a paralytic in His own home town earns the ire of the scribes when He says, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Immediately the charge of blasphemy is brought up. This is the very charge that will cost Jesus His life in Matthew, 26:65.

Unlike Mark, who will narrate this Gospel passage, peppered with great detail, Matthew chooses to get to the point; a point that Mark did not make. For the Jews, an illness such as paralysis was a punishment from God for sin. Matthew wants to present Jesus as not merely a miracle worker, but the Son of God who has the ‘authority’ to extend this power to forgive sins, to his Church.

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