Food

Thai pork stir fry with shrimp paste

Ingredients
Pork meat – 200g, 1 red chilli, 1 stem of lemon grass,  4 pc karffir leaves, one green chilli, Red shallots, one small sized Garlic, 4 cloves,1 tbsp shrimp paste, 1 tbsp palm sugar, 1 tsp fish sauce,1 tbsp oysters sauce, 1/2 tbsp tamarind sauce

Tear the kaffir lime leaves vertically half and remove the central vein. Cut the red chilli lengthwise into strips. Cut the lemon grass finely.

Cut the outer skin of the pork and cut the pork into thin and flat slices.

In a pastel smash into a paste the lemon grass, green chilli, shallots (red onions) and the garlic. Once done add the shrimp paste

in a pan, heat some oil and fry the smashed paste. Stir for half a minute and add the pork. Add a bit of water so that the paste does not burn. Now add the palm sugar and the oyster sauce and keep stirring. Add the tamarind and fish sauce. Stir the dish well. Add water as required and cook till the meat is tender. If not tender keep adding half cup of water at a time till the meat is tender and the dish has very little sauce. Taste for salt and add accordingly Add the red chillies and kaffir like leaves. Stir and serve hot

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It’s not what he says but what he does not say – Tuesday 26th Week in ordinary time – Job3:1-3,11-17,20-23

We see a very different Job in Chapter three. While Job does not curse God for what could only be called a decimation of his life. Job is no longer uttering pious words of praise as he did in chapter one and does not hesitate to express his anguish in the strongest terms. He laments his miserable existence and wishes he was never born. It is an odd lament uttered almost entirely in a series of questions.

Let us put this text in context. Twice the adversary or ‘the satan’ (remember we are not taking about the devil but an adversary in heaven) has alleged that Job’s loyalty to God was based on that fact that God had fenced Job with blessings. While the adversary was permitted to take away everything precious around Job, he was forbidden from touching his person. This was a riches to rags scenario but one that was also filled with personal grief. Not only did Job lose every one of his sheep, oxen, camels and servants, the very dwelling in which his ten children lived in fell on them, killing them instantly.

Satan had lost his wager; he had failed to get Job to curse God. So satan changed his game plan and accused God of an unfair wager; as long as the man himself continued to enjoy God’s protection his loyalties would still be with God. So, what if God took away a ‘few trinkets’ from Job’s life? Lift the protective shield around Job and let the person of Job be open to attack and see how he would sing a different song against the God he worshipped. And God permitted even that; for God, it seems, was confident with his “blameless and upright servant.

This time Job was stricken with loathsome sores. Job cracked under pressure but he did not crumble under its weight. It’s not what he said that should occupy us in chapter three but what he did not say; he did not curse God! He was silent for seven days, numbed as any father would be at the loss of ten children in one blow.

So far, the book spoke of what afflicted him externally, now we get a peek into his mind and his soul. As he spoke in his deep distress, he cursed the day of his birth but not once did he even come close to cursing God as Satan thought he would. This round too, belonged to God.

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Sunday, September 18, 2022 – 25th Sunday in OrdinaryTime
Amos 8:4-7; Ps 113; 1Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13

Whenever we read from the books of the prophets, it is essential to bear in mind that these prophets were people of their day and age, not ours. Therefore, if we really want to understand what they said, we must desist from giving to their statements, meanings which the original prophet never intended to convey. What they did intend to convey, however, is the people they ministered to were living contrary to God’s plan for them and were therefore on the path of self-destruction.

Amos, in our first reading today, makes this amply clear. Sent to the Northern Kingdom (NK), he is to prophesy against them for their social inequality. Very often, because of the religious language involved, we are prone to misunderstand that the primary thrust of Amos’ prophecy is against idolatry. Quite the contrary, for the fact that the people of the NK are visiting a shrine, means that they are seeking God -we must understand here that strict monotheism was still at a developmental stage when Amos was prophesying in the 8th Century BC – and because they are seeking God, Amos is able to approach them and point out that the faith they are practicing isn’t what Yahweh wants them to be doing. Their outlook of God was that He was a distant God who would not condescend to meddle in their mundane everyday affairs. It is here that Amos points out that God is not only interested in their daily lives but he, contrary to their belief, is rather disinterested in their festivals and sacrifices. And so, Amos will be scathing in his criticism of them, for they think they are good Jews since they practice all the rituals required by the Law of Moses. Which good Jew would “trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land” or cheat by altering weights and measures for profit, selling the poor for “a pair of sandals”? which good Jew would stoop so low so as to even sell the “sweepings of the wheat” to those, whose severe hunger forces them to buy even those sweepings? How could they even think that their dealings reflected a God who is Holy? These piercing questions find their full force in Amos’ words, tearing at their conscience and ripping through their comfort zones.

Paul writing to Timothy speaks on similar lines, but with a much kinder tone; kinder, only because of the presumption that the Christian community has already learnt what God wants from them. And so, he will ask Timothy to convey to the Christians that we should “pray for everyone” in order that everyone can live “religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet.” This seems quite a lame asking from Paul, till we come to the end of the reading where he qualifies the “praying”. The community must offer their prayers “with lifted hands” – a sign of surrender to God- and “with no anger or argument.” To have no anger or argument implies not a state of diplomatically induced peace but rather living a life of altruistic brotherhood. This, obviously includes, living a just life as Amos would require us to live.

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Conspiracy in Heaven; the story of Job – Monday, 26th Week in ordinary time – Job 1:6-22

The book of Job is one of the seven books that form part of wisdom literature. It is a book of prose and poetry. The bulk of this book is poetry but the prologue and epilogue is in prose. The prose section mirrors a style of writing from the patriarchal age, that is from the time of Abraham. Why do we say so? In the prose section, wealth is not measured in terms of coin but in terms of the number of cattle and slaves or notice the age of Job, it mirrors the long life of the patriarchs. Also, Job makes sacrifices like a priest indicating that there was no temple at this time. Because of this, there arose in the Jewish Talmud a thought that the author of this book was Moses himself though the fact is that we do not know who the author of the book is. Scholars have opined that this book was written sometime between the 6th century BC and the 3rd Century BC though some peg it as close as Genesis itself.

Job is not the name of the author; Job is at best a nick name which means hated or persecuted. The author, who was a Jew, has given his work a foreign setting. That is fitting, since the problems that Job faces transcend national boundaries. Even more, the language he speaks is the language of human suffering that is experienced by everyone.

The book deals with every day questions. Why would a God of love permit suffering and where is he when people suffer? Why do the innocent suffer? No book in the Bible has ever asked as many questions as the book of Job does; in fact, it has three hundred and thirty questions. The book of Job raises question, it does not answer them. It encourages us to wrestle with these questions, but does not give neatly packaged answers.

Job is presented to us as a righteous man, in fact it is God who in verse 8 brags about this “blameless and upright servant” whom God says “there is no one like him on the earth for he fears God and turns away from evil.” This is the most beautiful compliment that God could pay any human. God says, “there is no one like him on earth.”

Job is from the land of Uz which probably located in the desert east of Palestine and North East of Edom. Job is a man prosperous beyond measure. He is blessed with a family of ten children; seven sons and three daughters. No father is more devoted to his children than Job, for when the children feast together in celebration of a birthday, Job, fearful perhaps of some irreverent conduct on their part, continually makes intercessory sacrifices to God on their behalf (verses 4-5).

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Wednesday, September 14, 2022 – Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Nm.21:4b-9/Phil.2:6-11; Ps.78; Jn.3:13-17

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, also formerly called the Triumph of the Cross. The feast recalls three historical events: the finding of the True Cross by St. Helena; the dedication of the churches built by Emperor Constantine at the sites of the Holy Sepulchre & Mount Calvary; and the restoration of the True Cross at Jerusalem by Emperor Heraclius II. But in a deeper sense, we celebrate God’s direct intervention in the historical affairs of the world, and as such the feast celebrates the Cross as an instrument of our salvation, highlighting God’s unique way of saving us through the death of Jesus on the Cross.

The word “exaltation” in the name of today’s feast means “lifting up”. In the Gospel reading from John, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of being “lifted up” on the Cross. He compares it with the incident in the Book of Numbers (1st Reading – Nm.21:4b-9) where a plague of serpents is sent as punishment against the Israelites for their constant complaining against God whilst in the desert.

Moses intercedes for his people, and God asks him to “Make a seraph (Hebrew name for a venomous “fiery” serpent) and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” Accordingly, Moses “made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived”.

The story of the seraph on a pole is one that was told to those returning from the Babylonian captivity in the 6th Century BC. Stories like this one reimagined the past events of the Exodus, helping the returnees to bolster their faith, for they returned to Judah which was quite desolate and could barely have anyone imagine her past glory. But why choose such a strange story? Part of the reason is because it was a known custom to use bronze serpents to ward off actual venomous snakes. (Archaeologists have found small copper snakes dating back to the 13th Century BC in the area mentioned, and it is presumed that they were used to ward off snakes.) But what is most bewildering is that this particular story should be preserved in the book of Numbers, especially since it’s in a direct contrast to “Thou shalt make no graven images” (Ex 20:4), the cornerstone of Israelite monotheism. One possible reason is that this was a common practice of those days and by ascribing the practice to Moses acting on God’s orders, they succeeded in making a virtue out of a necessity.

Jesus, too would be “lifted up” on the Cross, “so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life”. Just as the serpent on the pole, through Moses’ intervention, spelled salvation for the Israelites who looked on it, so also Jesus’ death on a cross spells salvation for those who believe in him. Jesus says that when he is “lifted up” he will draw all peoples to him.

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