Simple Truth: Oversized brains, shrunken hearts (with malice to none)

The simple truth is this; the Bible is not a ‘challenge’ to understand it’s just that we make no effort to understand it. Over nineteen years of being a priest I have heard devout Catholics crib  and cry about how little they know about the scriptures, yet there is no dearth of  excellent courses in scripture ranging from a couple of hours to a two year course in the Archdiocese of Bombay. The truth is that they are poorly attended by the ‘faithful’.

Two and a half years ago I took a decision to stop telling ‘stories’ in my homily; you can find the fairy tale you so desire in any library. While an anecdote makes for good listening and may provide for value based learning, the Bible has truths that no story can give you and ironically these narratives make for great listening if not literature reading. The book of Job is studied in the Mumbai University under the section of literature.

But there is another reason I stopped illustrating my homilies with stories and that is because the Bible has enough to offer us. Sadly even the clergy don’t break the word as is instructed by the Church and continue to feed the sheep with food not found in green pastures but ‘genetically modified’ to the whims and wants of the sheep.

We need to go back to the word of God as sustenance for our living and we can’t rely solely on  the clergy to jump start that for us; If you were hungry you know where the fridge is and how to raid it even at midnight. Fact is we know every restaurant on Zomato! Having made the decision to study the word (not just read it) one needs to devote time.