Faith

Madly in love- Friday, 30th week in ordinary time- Romans 9: 1-5

“Being madly in love” is a matter of perspective; either you are the one experiencing this love in which you have madly fallen into or you are the one observing with shock, the unfolding scenario of madness that the one in love lives out. Love defies logic and if you are the observer then you can never understand how someone can love so much that they are willing to let go of their own happiness, for the sake of love.

St Paul was madly in love with Christ whom he once persecuted and as a consequence never counted the cost to make Christ know. All through his letters he lists the hardships and persecutions that he has undergone and he does so like a madman in love; no regrets.

But Paul has one task at hand that he has not succeeded, namely to convince the Jews of his new found love for Christ. For all of Paul’s missionary zeal, he had not managed to convince his own people, these ‘elect of God’, that they who were the chosen ones were now to be followers of Christ.

Writing to the Romans between the years 55-58, it became more and more apparent to Paul, that the Christian Gospel had not received a positive response from the majority of Jews who heard it. These do not appear to be circumstances that Paul had anticipated or imagined and therefore caused great anguish to both him and the Christian converts.

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Faith

He Went down to Hell- By Rev. Fr. B Joseph Francis

“Hell” refers to “Sheol”

Many a Christian today is surprised by this statement in the Apostles’ Creed which is not found in the Creed of Nicaea (325 AD). They ask, what this hell into which Jesus descended is like? Old Testament speaks of “Sheol“. Scripture scholars are agreed that the concept has been much influenced by the thought patterns of other peoples in the Middle East.

In the beginning it was considered to be a dark cavern below the earth, to which went all who die, both good and bad. There they led a shadowy, sleep existence. Read I Sam 28.3 ff. especially v.18 where the dead prophet complains to king Saul who had asked a witch to bring him up from “Sheol” to answer his question: “why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”. There are many references to it in the book of Job and psalms (Cf. Job 7.9-10; 10.21-22; 14.12-14; 17. 13-16; 30.23; Ps 88.3-6; 28.2; 30.9; 6.5 etc.).

Pathetic also is the prayer of King Hezekiah who is told by the prophet Isaiah that he is to die soon. Read Is 38.1 ff. especially vv. 10-11 where the king is bitterly complaining “I said: In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. I said, I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon mortals no more among the inhabitants of the world”. And his pleading is poignant in v.18 “For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness”. The implication is: “please let me live so that I can at least praise you for a while longer, if not, it would be a loss for you”!

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Faith

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

I am reproducing for your benefit a series of questions and answers taken from the Catechsim of the Catholic Church that will help you understand this day better.

What happens to us when we die?
In death, body and soul are separated. The body decays, while the soul goes to meet God and wants to be reunited with its risen body on the Last Day.

What is eternal life?
Eternal life begins with Baptism. It continues through death and will have no end.

Will we be brought to judgment after death?
The so- called particular or persona judgment occurs at the moment of death of the individual. The general judgment, which is also called the Last Judgment, occurs on the Last Day, at the end of the world, when the Lord comes again.

In dying every man arrives at the moment of truth. Now it is no longer possible to repress or conceal anything; nothing more can be changed. God sees us as we are. We come before his tribunal, where all is made right of if we are to be in God’s holy presence at all, we must be “right” with him, as right as God wanted us to be when he created us.

Perhaps we will still have to undergo a process of purification, or maybe we will be able to fall in to God’s arms immediately. But perhaps we will be so full of wickedness, hatred and denial of everything that we turn our face away from love forever, away from God. A life without love, however, is nothing but hell.

What is purgatory?
Purgatory, often imagined as a place but is actually a condition. Someone who dies in God’s grace but who still needs purification before he can see God face is in purgatory. When Peter had betrayed Jesus, the Lord turned around and looked at Peter: “And Peter went out and wept.” – A feeling like being in purgatory. The Lord looks at us full of love and we experience burning shame and painful remorse over our wicked or “merely” unloving behaviour. Only after this purifying pain will we be capable of meeting His loving gaze in untroubled heavenly joy.

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Faith

Solemnity of All Saints

To my mind, eulogies delivered in Church often over focus on the human skills and qualities the deceased loved one possessed, rather than the virtues of their Christian calling by which they lived. Sometimes the emotions of the eulogists run so high that virtues are magnified to the level of sanctity and I am often times tempted to look into the coffin to see if the person spoken of is really the same person that I know.

And yet there have been funeral eulogies which have deeply moved me. One such eulogy that deeply impacted my life was the funeral of the father of Fr Anil Rego, one of the priests of the Archdiocese of Bombay. The deceased gentleman’s spouse, Philomena had passed away a few months earlier and now it seemed that Leonard had died of a broken heart. The son who delivered the eulogy spoke not of his deceased father but of his parents, for he said he could not conceive even talking about his deceased father without mentioning in the same breath his mother. They were joined at the hip, not at birth, but by marriage and they lived their Christian calling as a holy family.

I left the Eucharist feeling deeply moved with the distinct feeling that I had attended the funeral of a saintly man who lived a saintly Christian life. I had never met Leonard Rego in life and yet in death he had stirred my heart to love Christ even more and I believe of all those sitting in the congregation that day. I went back to the parochial house nourished by both, the Eucharist and the example of a man who lived a saintly life.

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Food

Garlic chutney

For quite a while now, friends have been asking me to blog about food; after all it’s one of my passions and that which I was trained and qualified in. My professors at HAFT (Sophia Polytechnic) who trained me in both hotel administration and culinary arts were masters in their own right.

So what finally pushed me over to blog about food? Ever so often, I come across people who just don’t know how to cook, mainly because they have never tried. Cooking does not require genius it just requires passion and most people would do well to flip open a cook book with simple recipes and experiment with small portions. Make a pickle, chutney or just a soup for starters and then let the magic take over.

My first tryst with teaching people to cook was in the seminary when I conducted a week long crash course for the professors and seminarians. The idea was to empower those who did not know how to cook to be able to rustle up simple dishes and not starve in their parochial houses. The seminary ended with the participants cooking “Indian Chinese” for the community of a hundred strong.

My first recipe is garlic chutney. It was made and sent to me by my neighbour,  Surekha, who prepared this with steaming theplas, a gujarati bhakri or roti which has finely chopped fenugreek leaves (methi) with coriander (dhaniya) turmeric, garlic, curd and sesame seeds.

I love garlic in my food but this hardy bulb vegetable also has a number of health benefits in its raw form; though I dare say you may not make many friends after consuming it raw. They say that “Shallots are for babies; onions are for men; garlic is for heroes.” The flavour of garlic when roasted or on a butter naan or bread is certainly one that sets any one salivating.” Careful though how much you consume, for they say that ” garlic makes a man wink, drink and stink”

Garlic chutney (to be eaten with thepla or bread or turn it into a salad dressing with olive oil)

Garlic (skin off obviously) 25 large flakes
Jeera (cumin) 1 table spoon
Chilli powder 2 tablespoons you could add half more if you like it spicy
Rock salt 1 tablespoon
Refined oil to mix

Begin by pounding the cumin seeds in stone or metal pounder. When coarse add in the rock salt and blend together. Throw in the garlic and continue to pound the ingredients, adding finally the chilli powder. To blend this all into a thick paste, add oil.You could make the chutney coarse or pound the garlic into a paste.

Resist the temptation to do all of this in a blender; it just does not taste the same. You could refrigerate the chutney but it always tastes better when made fresh.

Fr Warner D’Souza

 

 

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