Faith

Discovering the Lord of the prayer- Tuesday, 1st week in Lent – Mt 6:7-15

 Rattling the Lord’s Prayer has become second nature to most of us.  Jesus gave us this prayer in the context of how we ought not to pray and rattling it was certainly not on His mind.  Empty phrases do not please Our God and so Jesus gave us this simple prayer of dependence before Our God. Our rediscovery of this prayer may help us to understand the gift given to us in this precious prayer.

This prayer of Jesus emanated from His heart, yet in more ways than one it was revolutionary. Addressing God as ‘Abba’, Father, was unheard of.  The name of Yahweh itself was never uttered I the Old Testament.  In giving us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus brings in a dimension of intimacy and trust between the believer and God. God is no longer that distant vengeful God but a loving Father.

The prayer has a strong communitarian dimension.   It may be said by a disciple or by a community of disciples but it is always said keeping the petitions of all in mind. The prayer begins with the word ‘our’ and this word is scattered all through the prayer. This fifty eight word prayer has the words ‘our’ and ‘us’, seven times and at least each time in every petition.

Pope Benedict XVI, commenting on the Lord’s Prayer said, “The Christian does not say “My Father” but “Our Father”, even in the secrecy of a closed room, because he knows that in every place, on every occasion, he is a member of one and the same body.”

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Faith

Righteous not self- righteous – Wednesday, 11th Week in ordinary time – Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

I have often come across Christians who justify their absenteeism from Church and religious disciplines with a classic excuse. There justification is that they don’t want to associate with ‘certain hypocrites’ that they see in Church whom they abhor. This is most certainly an excuse for not exercising ones Christian disciplines and if I may add, a silly one.

To such ‘excuse wielding  absentee Christians’ whose non participation they ‘justify’ by what they consider hypocritical behaviour, Jesus gives a perfect reply. His solution is to do exactly the opposite of what they see in others and disapprove.  So if your excuse for not going to a community meeting or Church is that you disapprove of your ‘Bible quoting, hypocritical neighbour’ the answer is not staying away but attending and doing just the opposite of  what you would consider, hypocritical in them.  

The Jews at the time of Jesus were ‘self-righteous’ not righteous and it is their self-righteous actions that Jesus does not want us to imitate. Jesus exposes the behaviour of the Jewish leaders not merely for our information but for our transformation.  These disciplines of transformation are seen in three works which have now become expressions of Christian discipline, especially during the season of Lent.

Interestingly, the three disciplines of almsgiving, prayer and fasting are not limited to the Lenten season   but are given as a daily expression of our faith. Jesus does not give these to us an option; but as a way of life for a Christian. The words are not, IF you fast, or pray or give alms but WHEN you fast, WHEN you pray, WHEN you give alms. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are daily and necessary works of piety for every Christian.

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Faith

Hit list or Prayer list? Tuesday, 11th Week in ordinary time- Mt 5:43-48

The last of the hyper theses really tests the endurance of a disciple, for the challenge it poses is felt in our everyday life. “Love your enemies” seems like a winning statement for the Nobel Peace prize and yet those who have advocated it have been assassinated and put to death; Christ, Martin Luther, Gandhi to name a few. It is interesting that world leaders winning the Nobel Peace prize call for peace never for love. Peace without love is a truce ready crumble.

Yet the message advocated by Jesus to Christians is not some hopeless idealism. Remember that the hyper theses taught by Jesus, were a way to challenge the disciple towards being more and giving more as well as a strategy for overcoming the persecutor.  Christ is not calling the disciple to “an introverted aggression but an aggression transmitted into a strategy for winning through the wisdom of love. (JBC)

In presenting the last of these six hyper theses, Jesus is also contesting the false and twisted teaching of the Pharisees and Scribes. It is for this reason that He begins by saying, “you have heard it was said.” It was the scribes and Pharisees who took the Divine law of ‘love your neighbour ‘(Lev 19:18), dropped the words ‘as yourself’ and added their own non biblical words, “and hate your enemy.” Clearly the blasphemers were the ‘teachers’ of the law themselves.

Jesus corrects this teaching when He asks us to ‘love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.’  In His teachings on love for enemies, scattered all over the Gospels, Jesus has been consistent on who the neighbour or enemy is. In quoting selectively only the love of neighbour and mandating the hatred for enemies, the Jewish authorities had given a carte blanche to the Jews to only care for a fellow Jew; hatred for the pagans and outsiders had a religious approval.

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Art/ Heritage

 

 ‘The Miracles of St. Anthony of Padua’ by Titian (1510)

Tiziano Vecelli (anglicized as Titian) is one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school of High Renaissance art. Born in the Republic of Venice in 1488-90, his vivid application of colour had a profound influence on the artistic world. His imaginative temperament earned him the title of a poet-painter. The fluidity in his painting, the increasing freedom of brushstroke and his deft ability to grasp personality can be well noted in today’s series.

The subject of the painting is the dearly loved St. Anthony of Padua (1195 – 1231).

In 1510 an epidemic broke out in the water logged port city of Venice. The effect was disastrous. The pestilence took away the life of 32 year old Giorgione, one of the city’s most celebrated painters and a close associate of Titian. Escaping the contagion, Titian moved to Padua in 1511. It is here that he received one of his first religious commissions to paint three large frescoes in the main hall of the Scuola del Santo, a confraternity devoted to St. Anthony. 

Often regarded as a miracle worker (a patron saint of lost people and things), Saint Anthony in today’s painting is presented primarily as a ‘Saint of the People’ or as Pope Leo XIII says ‘Everyone’s Saint’. The painting illustrates three turbulent tests which through the intercession of St. Anthony turn into a testimony of hope and faith. The frescoes are grouped in a frieze like arrangement with the primary characters in the foreground placed against an atmospheric background that enhances the narrative clarity and the dramatic emphasis.

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Opinion

Err on the side of kindness

Let me state my case clearly; while I am tremendously proud of the good works taking place in the Catholic Church, I am equally ashamed at the behaviour of many Catholics when it comes to dealing with the poor. There is something going horribly wrong in the way we approach charity with little attempt to correct it, both at the grass roots and from the pulpit. The Catholic Church is known for her charity to the poor but what bothers me is not so much ‘what we give’ but ‘how we give’ and the thinking that governs such giving.

A few years ago I developed a very close relationship with a financially challenged family in my parish. Poverty and fate’s cruel twist had left them without a father and no source of income. The boys quit school to help their mother and educate their only sister, and together they struggled to put just bread on the table.

In this miserable situation they turned to the Church. While they always praised Fr Michael Goveas, the parish priest, they were deeply disturbed by the laity who were in-charge of distributing aid to the poor. They were made to wait in line like they were refugees waiting for their next meal and often spoken to harshly, if not in an insulting manner. As they young man said to me, “their insults first filled our bellies, their food was hard to swallow but hunger forced us to eat.”

The recounting of this incident made a deep impression on me and I was determined that this would not happen in my parish. To my horror that was exactly the case and I was horribly embarrassed. So I began to catechise those who distributed aid to the poor, sharing with them the mind of the Church. I also decided to invite a few people to be on the committee that cared for the poor. It was my hope that the poor man would understand another poor man. Immediately two members on the committee left citing differences with my approach and may I say I was exhilarated with their exit!

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