Many Parables, One Message.

In most of the parables of Jesus, there is a sharp, focused, and disturbing message that comes across clearly.

In many of the parables, we see two groups of people. There is the first group for whom everything seems to go well. They are the close friends of the master, they work hard the whole day in the vineyard, they don’t wander from home, they are close to the altar and pray with uplifted hands. What is impressive about this first group is their virtues. They are hardworking, dedicated, chaste, sacrificing, and obedient,  they say ’yes’ to their father’s request, and they are punctual. They are not thieves nor are they adulterers. Everything seems to go well with them.  They are held in high esteem by people. These could very well be considered candidates for Canonization!

There is a second group in most of the parables for whom everything seems to go wrong. They live in the lanes and by lanes, they are lazy and report for work at the eleventh hour, they wander far from home  wasting their father’s property, and they come close to the church-door but don’t enter.  What is evident about this second group is their sins: They are disobedient, they rebel,  they wander, they are lazy, they are thieves, rogues, and adulterers. Their friends, their families, the society know their sins and treat them with disdain.

What is shocking is the conclusion of these parables. The good ones turn out to be the grumblers, unhappy, resentful, jealous, angry, refusing to go inside the house while the rebellious, lazy, sinful ones are celebrating at home, they are  happy and contented.

 The rebel son who wandered far from home is celebrating inside the house,  while the hardworking obedient elder son is in the servant’s quarters refusing to go in. The lazy ones who reported at the eleventh hour for work go home whistling and singing while the hard-working ones who worked the whole day under the sun, are bitter and angry at the generosity of the master. Those from the lanes and by lanes are in the banqueting hall celebrating, while the close friends of the master are outside busy with fields, bulls, and wives. The rebellious ’no’ son repents and does the father’s will, while  the ‘yes’ son refuses to do what the father wants. The sinner near the door of the temple goes home sanctified while the Priest in the sanctuary goes home satisfied.

What message do these parables have for us who are good Christians,  Religious or Priests? To which group do we belong? Do we consider ourselves hardworking, poor, chaste, obedient, staying close to the altar, presbytery bound, close friends of the master?  Or do we find ourselves lazy, disobedient, gone far from home, living in the lanes and by lanes, sinful, and in need of forgiveness?

These parables offer a message of hope and forgiveness to those who have wandered far. At the same time, it is a warning and a challenge to those who consider themselves ‘good’ and ‘holy’. It is better to be a sinner who repents than a ‘saint’ who counts his virtues and condemns others' failures. It is better to live in the lanes and by lanes and accept the invitation and attend the wedding banquet than to be friends of the master and take his invitation for granted and be busy with buying,  accounting, building, and finding fault. It is better to say ‘no’ and repent and do the father’s will than be the ‘yes’ sons and daughters and never do what the father wants. It is better to wander and come back home and celebrate with the father than to be at home and never know the father. 

                                                 -        Fr TVGeorge sdb      

 

 

        

                                                              The Broken Bricks

(A Reflection on Lazarus and the Rich Man Lk.16.19f)

In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man Jesus seems to mock our purple and fine linen, our life of ease and comfort, our love of wealth, and our richly laid tables.

Despite Jesus’ strict warning, ‘This shall not be so among you’(Mt.21.26), we continue to have our purple caps and red buttons as symbols of power and authority. The one we have professed to follow is the one who stood before Pilate like Lazarus covered with sores, clothed in rags, and crowned with thorns. He was nailed to a cross, forced to satiate his thirst with gall, and buried in a borrowed tomb.

Jesus is Lazarus bearing witness eloquently and simply to the truth that money, power, position, and wealth are a lie instead suffering, cross, pain, deprivation and simplicity are the truth. The truth is on Jesus’ side. Falsehood on Pilate’s side.  Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” He thought he who had power, authority, money, influence, army, palace, purple, and fine linen was the truth. Whom do we follow? Truth or falsehood? Facts or fake? God or mammon? Lazarus or the Rich Man? Jesus or Pilate?

The rich man living in a mansion, dressed in purple and fine linen, eating the best of food and drinking the choicest of wine was insensitive to the needs of poor Lazarus who lay outside his gates. The poor man wished for the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Even that, he was denied.

There are many who follow the rich man and continue to deny even the scraps to the poor. Scraps take many forms.  I know of a poor man struggling to build four walls and a roof over his head for a small house to shelter his family. Near the village, there was a rich man building a four-storey building with funds he had obtained for the upliftment of the poor villagers. His stated goal, no doubt was the education of the poor. As the big embellished building was being completed the poor man one day went to see it.  A JCB was at work leveling the place to make a path to the building. The poor man  seeing how the broken bricks and scraps of iron pieces were being covered under the mud painfully sighed and said, “ If I only could have those broken bricks!”

Another rich man got a project approved for the education of the poor villagers. One of his friends who was helping the poor children in one of the villages asked him if he could assist two helpers who were voluntarily coaching the poor children. The rich man thought it over and finally agreed to contribute one thousand rupees a month. He thought he was being very generous and making a gratuitous gift to them by giving a thousand rupees a month! At the same time the rich man had no scruples to spend thirty times more just for an evening entertainment with his friends! He too had forgotten how and in whose name the funds had been collected. Even the scraps he promised had to be reminded again and again because he was busy taking flights to collect more data for more projects!

At the project-making stage, we are very much aware of how many children there are in our mission centers, and how uneducated they are, and of our obligation to those on the periphery. We tell our sponsors how we are unable to reach the villages due to a lack of vehicles, and how helpless we are to educate them due to the lack of a place.  But once our projects are approved and the money is in our account, I don’t say we use it for ourselves, but we tend to forget in whose name and for what purpose we received the money. The mission centers in whose name we got the fund continue to languish. The children in whose name we requested the help remain uneducated. The teachers for whom we requested help get the scraps. Our Catechists continue to long for ‘the broken bricks’ while ‘the rich man’ builds memorials more to perpetuate his name and display his wealth than for the needs of the poor. The mission stations are more a means for statistics for projects than a genuine interest in the development of the poor. 

 The only place some of the mission centers find mention is in the list of those who have not contributed to the Mission Sunday Collection. All through the year, no one seemed to have any interest in these centers, no effort to find out if people had priests for mass, if Catechism was being taught if children were being educated.  Some centers have been disowned by authorities with the excuse that the names of the baptized are not recorded in the Register. But when it comes to Mission Sunday Collection even these disowned centers find a place!

 Wealth blinds us to humanity.  Often the one in command of money lives far from beneficiaries in distance and mentality. They suspect their helpers will take advantage of their wealth. They become insensitive. Even the broken bricks they refuse to share. All the while they will be most passionate to preach love for the poor and the frugality of life one should be living. Like that Scribe who was rushing to preach on Charity at a prayer service and did not stop to help the one who had fallen victim to thieves. We can hurry to implement our projects and not notice the man lying at our gate. We love the poor but we cannot tolerate the ‘smell of the sheep’. The mission stations are often only our propaganda tools. We are unaware of their pains and needs. If we visit them at all,  it is to gather data for another project for the poor!

There are some equals in life. Death is one of them. Lazarus died first. Soon the rich man also followed Lazarus to the grave. There is a rehearsal of fortune after death. Lazarus is at the bosom of Abraham and Rich man in the fires of Hades!  How he longs for a drop of water. Just like Lazarus who longed for the scraps or the Catechist who longed for the broken bricks, the rich man now pants for a drop of water. But he who did not share the scraps will not have the drops.

-                                                                                                                                                                                      -  Fr T.V. George sdb

 

 

 

 

 

                                                     “Now is the favourable time”

( A Lenten reflection)

If we remove the article ‘the’ from the above statement of St.Paul,  four words remain – now, is, favourable, time.  All the four words are intimately linked and mean the same.

Let us start with the word ‘is’. It is not difficult to identify the same meaning in ’is’ and ‘now’.   ‘Is’  is something that is now, in the present moment. That is why we call it the present tense.

Let us take next the word ‘time’.  It is much more difficult to see how ‘now’ and’ time’ are related. Some even speak of time and now as opposites. It all depends on the meaning we give to the word ’time’.  What is ‘time’? When we are talking about time we mean one of these three – past, present, future.   If we say time is past or future, it is an illusion.   Yesterday is gone, you have only a memory of it. Tomorrow is not.  Past and future have no reality of their own. Their reality is borrowed from the present moment, from the now.  The future is an imagined now. When you think of the past or future, you do it now.

When we speak of ‘time’,  if it means this one point of time, this present moment, this ‘now’,     it makes sense. ‘Now’ is all that there is. All you are given in life is now. Life is now. There is never a time when life is not now. The past and future are an illusion with no reality of their own.  Don’t be fooled by the memories of the past or the promise of a future.          

The art of living is to make peace with this present moment. That is all we are given in life – this present moment. He who finds happiness in the ‘now’ finds blessing, finds favour, finds heaven.

The Lenten season starts with the word ‘now’. On Ash Wednesday the first reading from Prophet Joel starts as follows, “ Now, now- it is the Lord who speaks.” The Lord speaks now.  The second reading from St Paul concludes, “Now is the favourable time.” Jesus in the Gospel speaks of  alms giving, prayer and fasting. The time for it is now. The place for it is where you are. The reason  why you do it is for heavenly reward. The person for whom you do it is the heavenly Father.

Make your ‘now’ a favourable time. Make friends with 'now' and you will find heaven, you will have your reward, and you will meet the heavenly Father. Make all your moments like this moment. Then you will have found your eternity. Between now and eternity there is no time. Between now and heaven there is no time. Now is eternity. Now is heaven.  Live Now. Live heaven. Live eternity.

-        Fr T.V. George sdb