Faith

We don’t need to ask why because we know why – Sunday dedicated to the Word of God

If Elon Musk or Mukesh Ambani stood up and said to you, I want to tell you about a book I am reading, a book that speaks to me, a book that moves and challenges me; everyone would want to hear the title of the book, the author of the book and the publishing house. Overnight sales would skyrocket and every single copy would be sold out and perhaps several editions might have to be re-printed. But our attention will only be piqued because Elon Musk and Ambani are business tycoons and we would certainly want to know every detail of the book that has made such an impact in their lives. Our hope would be that we too, reading that book would most certainly transform our lives if not our luck.

Yet we have a book that is well within our reach. We know that according to the Guinness World Records as of 1995, this book is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed. It has a roadmap for a successful and happy marriage, a content life, perfect relationship advice. It was written to correct the misguided heart and move the soul to its divine destination; to inform and to instruct. It deals with this life and the afterlife. Yet this book written by no less the God the most powerful and supreme, lies dusty on our shelves and never read by most Catholics.

Today the Church celebrates the Word of God Sunday, a day dedicated to God’s word but subtly a day given to the clergy and laity to sit up and remind us of what ought to be important in our lives. I can’t help but compare this day to the lip service we pay to other such ‘special days’ that the secular world throws at us. Mothers and fathers may be important the whole year through but we are encouraged to buy a card for our fathers and get a rose for our mothers. Love can be celebrated on any day, yet Valentine’s Day is when we think of sunsets and dinners by candlelight when any Wednesday evening is good enough to say I love you. As heartwarming as these days may seem, the absurdity of these celebrations, limited to one single day, almost a reminder to humanity, cannot be lost on us; Love your mother, smile at your father, find some to express your love and all of this defined for us on a day. Sadly, I think we do the same with the ‘Word of God Sunday’.

I don’t want to sound like a preacher who because he has a microphone can lecture long and hard to a passive if not often a dormant congregation. The Sunday homily has become story time or even worse, five points to live a happy life. The Roman missal instructs the homilist to break the word. The homilists in not to break his thoughts or ideas; he is to break down the word of God which may not be clear to the congregation because of their lack of scripture study (not that it is not available to the laity). But as St Paul says, we pander to itchy ears. We have become a Church that wants to be entertained not educated. We want to hear breaking news rather than the good news that ought to broken for us.

The first reading of today taken from the 8th chapter of Nehemiah should have us hang our head in shame. The people of Israel were exiled into Babylonia, there to be subject to a pagan faith. Now under the Persians they have been allowed to return to their homeland. Today’s text tells us what happens when a community comes together to hear the written word proclaimed and interpreted. Women, men, and children, with a crowd of folks, lay and ordained, standing in the square as the word of God is proclaimed and interpreted. They hear of texts from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. For six hours straight they stand and listen and when six hours are up, begin to celebrate. People bless God. People give voice to their certainty, their faith, and their trust. People let the actions of their bodies match the words in their ears and on their lips, lifting their hands to God in petition because they recognize that God alone grants life (cf.Nehemiah 9:6). People fall to the ground in profound humility, knowing that God alone can lift them up and help them to stand.

When they hear the written word proclaimed and interpreted, people weep because they hear their sins spoken out loud and they know they are not innocent, but guilty. People weep because they fear death and the justice of a God who by no means clears the guilty (cf. 2 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34; Exodus 34:7). People weep because they do not know how to bridge the gulf that separates sinful humanity from the faithful God who made them.

Yet none of that happens today and we don’t need to ask why because we know why

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Food

Rejection abounds – Monday, 3rd Week in ordinary time – Mark 3:22-30

To understand the background of the text we need to step out of this passage beginning chapter 3:7 which deals with the rejection of Jesus . We will continue to see this rejection of Jesus all the way down to chapter 6; but for now let us pick up on the last line of the previous section.

Mark 3:6 reminds us that the Pharisees joined hands with the Herodians in a plot to ‘destroy’ Jesus. When you can’t attack a man on his good works then you have to resort to the dirty tricks department; make personal accusations. This is their first attempt to do so in the Gospel of Mark but certainly not the last.

We are told that the relatives of Jesus have already been influenced by the powers that be. The had come to take Jesus away because they thought that he was ‘besides himself’. In short they thought he was losing it. Now we are told that the Pharisees come down from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the ‘Vatican’ of the Jewish world. Descending from a position of authority they come with a clear agenda that we have seen earlier; ‘destroy Jesus.’ But this is easier said that done. Chapter 3:9 and 3:20 tells us that large crowds have been following him and while the ‘Jerusalem theologians’ think little of him, Jesus is hailed as a the most sought after rabbi in Israel by the masses.

The Pharisees decide to throw a cat among the pigeon by sowing the possibility of doubt. Just what IF Jesus was satan himself? What IF he was disguised as a ‘good rabbi’ to draw the unsuspecting masses from the ‘true faith’. What was now a whisper campaign is now escalated to headline news with the Jewish establishment declaring publicly, ‘He has Beelzebul’ and by extension Beelzebul has him under his power and together they cast out demons. They seek to discredit him in the eyes of the people by planting the idea that Jesus is working by Satan’s power instead of God’s power. If the scribes can succeed in making their charge stick that Jesus is working by demonic power, they can bring legal action against him

Before we get to the absurdity of their reasoning , notice, that the Pharisees admitted that the demons were cast out by Jesus. There was never any attempt by the religious leaders to deny that the miracles happened; and how could they? They saw the miracles with their own eyes.

But who or what is Beelzebub? Beelzebub is the Greek form of the word Baal-zebub. (2 Kings 1:2-3) or may mean “lord of the flies”. In Hebrew and Jewish literature, the name is translated to mean “lord of dung” or “lord of filth.” In any event, the scribes are accusing Jesus of accomplishing his healing miracles by the power of “the ruler of the demons” (v. 22). There are strong connections to Baal worship in conjunction with the worship of Beelzebub. Baal was a Canaanite fertility god in the Old Testament. The term ‘zebub’ means “exalted dwelling.” When we put those two terms together, we have the name prince of demons.

Jesus demolishes their silly contradictions. If he was working with or for satan why would their mission be directed to destroying their own interest?  Jesus now reveals his mission and this can be seen all through the Gospel of Mark; he is here to destroy satan and not make an alliance as alleged by the religious establishment. Jesus has come to plunder Satan’s household and bring about his end, not by division from within but by stealth and force from without. Jesus, who was stronger than John the Baptist (1:7), is stronger than the strong man Satan too.

In all of this, the humanity of Jesus should not allude us. It is clear that Jesus did not fit in; his mindset and those of the religious establishment was like cheese and chalk. The loneliness of isolation from what should have been his own fraternity, was starkly evident. We see Jesus cope not only with opposition from scribes and Pharisees but also disbelief from his own family.

Pause for a moment as you speak words of comfort to the Lord. His loneliness will follow him to the cross; “ My God, my god why have you forsaken me.

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Food

Chicken Pulav – a great Sunday one pot dish.

Chicken – 500 grams with bone
Basmati rice – 400 grams

To marinate the chicken
Turmeric – 1.4 teaspoon
Salt – 1 tea spoon
Lemon juice – 1 tea spoon

For the green masala and to be ground very coarse.
Green chillies – 5
Ginger – 1 inch piece without skin
Garlic – 5 cloves
Corriander leaves – ½ cup (no stems)

For the dish itself
Oil – three table spoons
Shahjeera – 1/2 tea spoon
Bay leaves – 2
Onions – 2 medium, sliced very finely
Tomatoes – 1 large
Salt – to taste
Coriander powder – 1 tea spoon
Garam masala powder – 1 1/4 tea spoon
Mint leaves -20
700 ml of chicken stock/ water

Browned and crisped onions for the garnish

Method
Clean and wash chicken and remove the skin. Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes; this is very important. To the chicken add the marinated items as mentioned above; turmeric, salt and lemon juice, mix well and set aside for 30 minutes.

Grind together the ingredients mentioned above for the green masala, namely the green chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves. Grind this coarsely. If you overgrind coriander you will end up making the dish bitter.

In a pot heat the oil and allow the shahjeera to crackle. Now add the bay leaves and sliced onions. Allow the onions to brown. Stir constantly for even browning. This may take about ten minutes on a low flame. Add a sliced tomato and a pinch of salt. Fry this for four minutes or till the tomatoes have been rendered down. Now add the marinated chicken and fry on a HIGH FLAME for four minutes. Drop the heat and add the green masala and mix well. Add the coriander powder and the garam masala powder and fry for 5 three minutes on a medium flame. You may need to add a bit of water. Do this whenever you add dry masalas to a dish as this will prevent the masala from burning. Now add the mint leaves. Drain the soaked rice and add only the rice to the pot. Stir the mixture well but do this lightly as you don’t want to break the rice grains. Add the chicken stock. If you don’t have stock add a chicken cube to hot water. Add this to the dish and now taste for salt. Remember that if you are using ready-made chicken stock or a cube it already has a high salt content. Bring this to a boil and drop the heat to a simmer and cook for ten minutes with a firm lid on. The steam should not escape. Now open the lid and give the rice and chicken a quick stir and cover the lid again. Cook on a very low flame for the next ten minutes. Turn off the gas and allow the rice to continue to cook in its own steam. Garnish with brown onions and serve.

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Tisroys – Shell fish in a thick gravy

Shells – one pan full

Wash any sand off the shells and boil them in water. The shells will now open up. Break the shell which has no meat and discard it. The stock needs to be preserved however make sure you discard the sediments in the stock which generally has sand.

To make the gravy
Coconut – 1/4
Garlic – 10 pods
Pepper corns – 10-15
Turmeric – one teaspoon
Jeera – one teaspoon
Tamarind – lime sized ball
Ginger – one inch

Grind the above ingredients in a blender into a coarse paste. In a pot add oil and saute two small onions that have been chopped fine. Fry till golden brown in colour. Add the ground masala and fry for two minutes on low heat. Add the stock about a cup and continue to cook making sure the gravy is thick. Add the cooked shells and mix well and continue cooking. If needed, add a bit more stock. Do not add salt as the shell are salty. Make sure that the gravy is thick.

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Food

Pork Roast

Pork – 11/4 kg boneless with fat
Onions – two sliced or cut into quarters.
Garlic – 12 pods
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Pepper corns – ½ tea spoon
Cinnamon stick – 2 inch piece
Cloves – 10
Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon
Sugar – one tea spoon
Kashmiri chillies – 6
Goan Vinegar – ¼ cup
Cooking oil – 3 tablespoons
Salt – to taste

Method
In a grinder, add garlic, ginger, peppercorns, turmeric powder and a pinch of salt and half the vinegar. Grind this into a smooth paste using the remaining vinegar if needed. Set this aside.
Prick the meat with a fork on all sides and season with salt. Now add the ground paste with the sugar and massage this into the meat. Set this aside in the fridge for at least a day. If you are in a hurry keep it standing out for at least one hour.

Remove the marinated meat from the fridge and let it stand outside for an hour and a half. It is important that the meat must come down to room temperature. In a large pan heat the oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon and onions and the marinated meat. Add in any marination juice. Break the red chillies in half and add them to the pot. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 25 minutes on low flame. Turn the meat over and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. In this time the meat will release its own juices.

Turn the gas off and take the meat out. When it is cool slice the meat into desired pieces. Now return the meat to the pot which will have pan juices and continue to cook for till the pan juice is reduced to a thick sauce.

Serve the meat with the pan juices on it.

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