Food


Ingredients

I cup – corn which is pureed in a blender
¼ cup refined flour or rice flour
¼ cup semolina or besan
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves
3 tablespoons of beaten yogurt
2 green chillies minced.
Salt to taste
Cooking oil
Banana leaves cut into 5 inch circles or squares

To make corn panki, combine all the ingredients along with 2 tablespoons of water in a deep bowl and mix well. This should be a relatively smooth flowing batter. Apply a little oil on one side of each banana leaf and keep aside. Now place about two table spoons of the batter on one half of the greased side on a banana leaf and spread it evenly and thinly. Place another greased banana leaf with the greased side facing downwards over it and press it lightly. Cook on a non-stick pan for two to three minutes each side till the leaves brown a bit. Serve with the leaf and then take off the leaf exposing

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Faith

Taking your faith through the roof – Monday, 2nd Week of Advent/Isaiah35:1-10/Luke 5:17-26

Jesus Christ, Superstar!
By the fifth chapter of the Gospel, Jesus is clearly a superstar. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law have come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. He is the emerging national icon of religious life and the go to man for healing and preaching. This was the first mega-church long before others ‘invented it.’

As petty as a Pharisee (a newly coined simile)
Yet even the Messiah is not immunized from human pettiness. The religious leaders have come to him perhaps hoping for an ally to boost their religious world and yet the miracle eludes them simply because they choose to trip over the technicalities of his words rather than be blessed with his heart.

Stop at nothing, just get to Jesus.
Jesus has just called his disciples (5:1) and cleansed a leper (5:13). Now, a faith filled bunch of men came with a paralyzed man. Luke’s Gospel does not mention how many they were but does indicate that they were faith filled; actually, Jesus acknowledges their faith (5:20). These super achievers can’t take no for an answer. Imagine shoving your way through a crowd with a paralyzed man only to find no way in. ‘Plan A’ had to be improvised, and some one’s roof just got ripped off. This is the go-getting faith we are called to have. Stop at nothing, just get to Jesus.

He sees, He deals, He heals.
Hard work coupled with faith, is rewarded. There are no words exchanged between Jesus and the men, who by now, must have been peering down from the roof. Jesus does not need prodding or direction; he sees the actions of the friends; he deals with the spiritual need of the penitent and he heals the paralytic. Amazingly, this is intercession on its feet. The men intercede and that teaches us the power of intercession, even for someone who may not believe in Jesus or thinks he can’t work a miracle for them.

Two legs to walk into hell?
Interestingly, at first, Jesus does not give the paralytic a healed body. Jesus knew what the man’s real need was, and what his greatest need was. His sins had to first be forgiven. What good was it if the man had two whole legs, and walked right into hell with them? We can imagine how the friends on the roof felt. They went to a lot of trouble to see their friend healed of his paralysis, and now the teacher seemed to only be concerned with his spiritual problems. Jesus first addressed the man’s greatest need, and the common root of all pain and suffering; man’s sinful condition. Then to make a point he healed his body too.

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Faith

Permission to disobey Jesus – Friday, 1st Week of Advent – Isaiah 29:17-24/Matthew 9:27-31

No sight, lots of insight
Yesterday our text spoke of those who cry out ‘LORD LORD’, and do not do the will of the Father. Today two blind men are also crying out to Jesus. They address him with a messianic title “Son of David.” This acknowledgment of Jesus as the ‘Son of David’ is simply amazing considering the stubbornness of the entire religious establishment to acknowledge who Jesus was. These two blind men had no sight but certainly had insight.

Not just some guru
As the first of many reflections today, allow yourself this advent to recognize and acknowledge who Jesus is. It is true that we know and recognize Jesus from images and statues and we have read about him in Holy books but do we acknowledge the Lord publicly as these blind men did? Are we able to tell our friends that Jesus is the Son of David, the saviour of the world or do we water him down to be a spiritual guru with some happy thoughts on love and forgiveness?

Examining our hearts in private
We have established that these two blind men have both recognized and acknowledged Jesus before men. It’s interesting to see what happens next. We are told that Jesus enters a house and the blind men follow him. Now Jesus examines in private what they professed in public. Like the blind men and the text of yesterday, Jesus hears us cry out,” Lord, Lord” or “Son of David” but he wants to examine our hearts in private. The blind men’s public acclamations of Jesus are now examined in private with a simple question, “DO YOU BELIEVE that I am able to do this”?

Professed in Public, believed in private
The Gospel does not record a consultation that the two blind men had with each other in response to Jesus’ question. There was no theological debate recorded by St Matthew about his divinity or humanity. The Gospel records a simple acclamation of faith on the part of the blind men, and that too recorded in all of two words, “Yes Lord.” Their response is certainly one of faith but not just any faith. The answer was “yes LORD”. He was the Son of David in public and still their Lord in private. What they professed in public they also believed in private. They recognized who he was and what he could do.

A lie that could have been exposed
What happens next, is nothing short of putting their faith to a test. Remember, Jesus asked them, “do you believe that I can do this?” and they said, “yes Lord.” Now Jesus puts their faith to the test with the words “according to YOUR FAITH let it be done to you.” What if they never had faith? What if their public profession of calling him Messiah was just a show? Think about it, if all this was nothing but a well scripted drama on the part of the blind men to win a miracle, scripture would have recorded for posterity the next line of the Gospel as the lie of two blind men.

Be it done to you according to your faith
We miss the dynamics and the drama of this text because we have heard the miracle so often and we know that Jesus did work many such miracles. We assume the end to be a scripted happy ending with a miracle thrown in for good measure but the first disciples did not know all this simply because they had neither read a book on the life of Jesus or were presented with a copy listing the miracles of Jesus. The first disciples, these blind men, believed with all their heart and that is why their miracles were granted. That tremendous moment of faith is recoded in one verse of scripture, in verse 30 with just four words, “their eyes were opened.”

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Faith

“Not everyone who says to me, “Lord Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21

Clearly, this text is not meant to be a tool for a verbal slinging match between those who think others are hypocrites and those who think not. The text has one point to make and one point alone. It is not about what you say but what you do; or in simpler language, do you put your money where your mouth is? If you want to know what you truly believe, you only need to examine your behaviour. If you truly believe that Jesus is Lord then does it show in your actions?

So let us look at this text in its context and not misrepresent what God wants to say to us in Advent. The text forms part of the first of Matthew’s great sermons. The Sermon on the Mount begins in chapter five with Jesus addressing the twelve and ends in chapter seven with Jesus address the crowds of disciples (7:28). The words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, challenging as they were, did not drive away the crowds but drew more in. That’s the power of speaking the truth with love.

In the text of today, Jesus is addressing the crowds and by extension all of us. He reminds us that ‘not EVERYONE who says to him, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Clearly Jesus is not implying you can’t pray if you don’t do his fathers will. Jesus is not imposing a ban on prayer but a course correction for worshippers. This text must not be read as a restriction but rather than permission to do more!

Look carefully, Jesus is directing this bit of information to those who turn TO HIM in prayer; he says, “not EVERYONE who says to ME.” These two words EVERYONE AND ME needs a bit of clarification. Jesus is not disparaging prayer. Prayer is not a duty it’s a privilege. Prayer is not an option, it’s our lifeline. Prayer is not our spare tire, it’s our steering wheel. You must and should go to the Lord and cry out to him several times shouting LORD, LORD! But here is the point; What Jesus is doing is encouraging a life of prayer that ought to be on par with his Father’s will. He is encouraging us to match what we say with what we do. He is calling us to do both not either or.

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Opinion

Honesty is NOT the best policy but conversations are helpful – thoughts on relationships

Coming from a priest that title may seem odd if not ironic. After all, is this not what one should hold on to? Is this not what should be advocated in a world that has made dishonesty is home and called it alternative facts? I am writing these thoughts specifically to address the issue of honesty in relationships. I am doing this not because a smart line crossed my imagination but simply because as complex as relationships are, I have come to believe that given certain circumstances, honesty is not the best policy.

Let me begin with my life learnings. I have been known to call a spade a spade and I use the past tense ’know’ with a certain sense of responsibility. On hindsight I think I was very brash years in the early years of my priesthood. I said what ‘I wanted’ to say rather than choose what needed to be said. Well. I did get a lot off my chest and I did feel I was being ‘transparent’ and not shady in my opinions. Diplomacy I thought was for diplomats, I was just expressing the need to say things as I saw them. I paid a price. You see, you may say this is not a matter of honesty but of discretion and yet I insist that brashness aside, the honest remarks made on several occasions did not go down well with even those I loved.

Life is not as simple as we would like it to be. While we may feel that an honest sharing of ‘everything’ is essential; while I sense the need to be transparent one hundred percent, the consequences are not as often as a religious admonition on honesty may be. There is a price to pay whether you shoot your mouth off or honestly express an opinion or level up with what gnaws at your soul. Ironically, instead of the reward that honesty purports you might end up paying a nasty price for what you consider an honest opinion. Sometimes sugar coating serves a purpose.

Am I advocating dishonesty in a relationship? Well, for starters, not everyone can handle a good measure of honesty, after all you were given a consolation prize and made to believe you won something when in reality you lost the race. So, the system devised a dishonest, sugar-coated way of dealing with what should have been an honest situation and told you to go home empty handed. Sadly, we grow looking for consolation prizes and think that life served us lemons for that passionate desire we had to plant a lemon tree.

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