Faith

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Opinion

Log Kya Kahege? ( What will people say?)

Over the past several years, I have come across newly married couples carrying a heavy burden; often well within several years after their children are born. It’s a burden that they either took upon themselves but most often one that was emotionally foisted upon them by parents and often distant relatives with the classic lines, “log kya kahege?” (what will people say)

Weddings in India are a multi-crore enterprise. Currently, the Indian wedding industry is worth over Rs 100,000 crore and is growing at 25 to 30 per cent annually. The estimated cost of a wedding with no expenses spared could be between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore. The pressure to conform and match up with the Jones is tremendous, leading young couples to enter into a whirlpool of debt in the first few years of married life; years that could well be the most testing for any newly married.

Yet this grave crisis is rarely spoken from the pulpit. If handled with tact it can become a great turning point among Christians who wish to scale down their weddings to match their bank balances with a realistic celebration rather than swipe their credit cards in favour of wishful expectations.

For the priest, the fear of addressing this contentious issue is realist. Congregations could always glibly misconstrue such a well-meaning suggestion as interference into their personal lives. Lest we catch the bull by its tail, the case being made is for celebrations that are debt free, celebrations where expenditure matches bank balances and where local customs (not Church requirements) do not contribute to making marital life a financial nightmare.

If I may use the license of my imagination applied to the Gospels, I would like to think of the wedding at Canna as a debt free marriage too. What if the bride and groom had spent all their money on the wedding and then the wine ran out? Six stone water jars filled to the brim and holding 20-30 gallons would total to 120-180 gallons of wine or about 680 litres. Jesus’ mother saw not just an embarrassing moment for the couple but the consequences of the future.

Many of my parishioners have often expressed their desire to marry but the reality of homes no larger than 200 square feet and the fear of wedding expenditures simply make what should be a natural calling into an impossible dream. Yesterday, the parish of St Jude situated in the suburb of Mumbai broke that glass ceiling.

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Art/ Heritage

THE COMMANDMENT OF THE CROSS: ‘The Pharisees Question Jesus’ by James Tissot

Jacques Joseph Tissot, later anglicized as James Tissot, was born near the busy port of Nantes, France in 1836. At the age of 17, he embarked upon his artistic mission. His career spanned three successful periods. In the first phase in Paris (1859-1870), he enjoyed great success as a high-society painter. His leisured and charmed life was soon skewered among the struggles of the French Revolution.

The fall of the Second Empire in 1870 and the bloody Franco Prussian war in 1871 compelled him to flee to London. After a successful 11 year sojourn, he suffered an emotional disaster. In 1882, his dearly loved mistress, Kathleen Newton died of consumption.

While working on a series of paintings themed, ‘The Woman of Paris’, James Tissot visited the Church of St. Sulpice in order to sketch the portrait of a choir singer. Here he encountered a vision of Christ tending to the broken and the down trodden. This was his route to Damascus; his Metanoia! The experience he had led to a renewal of his faith and a shift in his artistic focus.

He took off on a research trip to Holy Land, beginning his 10 year campaign to illustrate the New Testament. The result was ‘The Life of Christ’ popularly called ‘the Tissot Bible.’ It is a monumental series of 350 water coloured imagery with profuse archaeological observation and lucid realism.

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Faith

confessions of a pastor- Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Seven years ago, I was appointed as priest in charge to St Jude’s Church in Malad East. The parish lies bang smack in the centre of Mumbai’s growing suburb, but has a tiny Christian community as compared to the several sister churches on the west. We don’t call ourselves a parish for we believe we are a family; a family of 880 people, many for whom the daily necessities of life can be a challenge. This is my home, these are my family members and I feel blessed to be a pastor here.

It took me some time to get used to it all; after all the lifestyle of Bandra has a way of impacting your perspective. But something struck a chord in my heart when I got here; there was love. You could touch it, see it, experience it and most of all, it is freely offered. But soon I discovered that this love comes from faith in Jesus, a faith that I don’t dare glibly put down to a lack of a choice caused by poverty, as some suggest; Malad East has genuine faith in Jesus, for the parishioners are married to the Lord in good times and in bad. 

We were taught in the seminary to grow in awe and wonder of the mysteries of the sacraments that we celebrate. I can’t speak for others, but I can confess that at times my body was physically at the Eucharist while my mind was in space. Looking up I would become aware of a face lost in prayer or a tear fall from a cheek, a smile on the birthday child or the fear of someone about to lose a child to the clutches of death, and I would be reminded of what I am presiding over. 

We are never ordained only for personal sanctification but for the sanctification of the community. Without a faith community, the sacraments would be empty rituals; how poor is a priest without his people. The parish community has so often reminded me of these sacred mysteries that I am privileged to celebrate on their behalf. 

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Faith

The war within- Friday, 29th week in ordinary time – Romans 7:18-25a

You almost think St Paul is a mind reader for he seems to reflect the struggle of all Christians and may I dare say, of humanity itself. There is no one who, in their right mind, desires sin. Perhaps there are some who fall so deeply in sin that they feel compelled, over a period of time, to justify it. But no one wants to live a life of sin.

Robert Louis Stevenson, in 1885 wrote about the strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. It is unclear if his book was inspired by Romans chapter seven but what we do read is that his story and this part of Paul’s letter deal with the same universal issue. Dr Jekyll doesn’t like Mr Hyde and does not want to become him, but his unknown desire to become evil has more control of him. We all struggle with two natures. There is in each of us a desire to do good and a desire to do evil; to be a monster or serve the master.

Paul’s teaching is based on the tension and struggle between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh. We know what is right–we just do not do it. The gap between willing and doing is a universal phenomenon. How then, according to Paul, can this gap be completed?

In the first part of chapter seven Paul talks about trying to battle sin by simply clinging on to the law; that for Paul is a war you cannot win. In the second part of chapter seven he focuses on fighting sin with the Son and that is a war you can win. Paul is acknowledging the conflict in the innermost depths of humanity, between reason dominated desire and actual performance.

For most people who read this text, their understanding of sin is that of their own personal sin. When Paul writes of sin, it is not merely of ‘a’ sin; it is sin with a capital ‘S’. Sin is more than the sum of human misdeeds. Sin for Paul is a force to be reckoned with, a force set against humanity and God alike. Sin takes advantage of the person and compels one to actions contrary to one’s best understandings and intentions. Sin opposes God, drives humanity to destruction; and only God can deal with this evil power in such a way as to liberate humanity from its force.

This force, this sin, will use anything including that which is good, like the law, to destroy human beings. This does not make the law in itself is bad or a failure, for it is man who succumbs to this force of sin. This sin is so deadly that it allows even something as good as the law to be used for evil. This is why Paul respectfully rejects the law as a means to be saved.

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