19-Sep-2009 Dear Friend,
God has created one world and wishes that all humankind live in unity. Unfortunately, we human beings tend to divide and fragment our community through our words and actions. We like to think of ourselves and our group as the do-gooders and others are the evil and bad ones. Goodness is to be found in everyone if we only look for it and recognize it. Evil too is in us and can easily be found around us. Life is an echo! Let’s celebrate the God of goodness this week, whose reflections can be found in the least expected places and people! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Twenty-sixth Sunday of the year ‘Responsible for good or evil’ 27-Sep-2009 Numbers 11: 25-29; James 5: 1- 6; Mark 9: 38-48; Today’s reading reminds us that evil can enter our hearts and minds even when we are engaged in the work of God. We see a clear example of this when we see how Joshua, Moses’ right-hand man, grows jealous when two people, who do not belong to the official group of elders, begin to prophecy in his name. He forbid them and tells Moses about it. Moses reminds him that no one has a monopoly of God’s spirit. Let as many people as they wish work for God and let God work through them. Seeing the Face of God Turgenev, the Russian novelist, tells about how once when he was worshipping with peasants in a simple village church a man came up and stood by him. He had a face like all mens faces. “Can this be Christ?” he said. “Such an ordinary, ordinary man. It cannot be!” Then at last the truth came home to him. “Only then I realized,” he said, “that just such a face like all men’s faces is the face of Christ.” James Feeban in ‘Story Power!” In today’s second reading St. James warns his listeners not to hoard riches and let their heart get attached to material possessions. Riches are meant to be shared and can be a means of caring for others. If we keep them for ourselves they can be our downfall and ruin. Giving each one his or her due and not being just to those working for us and with us makes us liable to judgement. Ecce Homo -Behold the Man! A war story provided William Sangster with the picture he wanted in order to show that we see ourselves only when we see ourselves in Christ. “During the war a soldier picked up on the battle fields of France a battered frame which had once contained a picture of Christ. The picture had gone but the frame still bore the words: ‘Ecce Homo’. The soldier sent it home as a souvenir, and someone at home put a mirror on it and hung it on the wall. One day a man went into the house and understood the startling words ‘Behold the man!’ as he saw himself in the mirror. We only see ourselves when we see ourselves in Jesus. Blots we barely knew there come to view in his white light” James Feeban in ‘Story Power!’ In today’s gospel we see a similar situation to the one mentioned in the first reading. One of the disciples of Jesus complains that a person who is not a disciple, is preaching in Jesus’ name. The disciple asks Jesus to stop him from preaching. Jesus refuses to restrain the man. In fact he wishes to acknowledge the source and the possibility of goodness in all peoples. We sometimes like to believe that we belong to the inner circle, we are the elite of God and God is on our side. The truth is that God has no favourites; God can give his spirit and grace to any one and everyone. Goodness and God’s grace can be found to be working in the most unexpected places and people. Let his work be carried out in whatever way he wants. We should not be barriers to God’s work through our pettiness and narrow-mindedness. The rest of the passage reminds us that just as all can be channels of God’s blessings, we can also be responsible for evil in the world. We have to be careful to give a good example especially to the little ones and the weak in faith lest we become responsible for their downfall. Wherever we see goodness let us praise God and acknowledge that people are his instruments. At the same time we have to watch carefully over our behaviour and motives lest we be the occasion of other’s downfall. Jesus also warns us of undue attachment to wealth. We are called to love people and use money. Sometimes we love money and use people! Jesus Focuses on Possibilities There is a saying that some people see only the problem, while others focus on the possibility. This saying brings to mind one of my favourite verses by Reverend Charles Cummings, OCSO.: “There is a stronger hope for the possibilities that lie hidden within things, situations and peoples.” This idea of hidden possibilities demonstrates how Jesus looks at people. A story of seeing hidden possibilities is told about Michelangelo working in his studio when a young boy interrupted him while he was chipping away with his mallet and chisel on a huge shapeless block of granite. The boy asked the sculptor what he was doing. Michelangelo told him, “Can’t you see it?” He had picked up the boy and stood him on the workbench. “There’s an angel trapped in this rock. I’m chipping away all the pieces that are not the angel so I can set it free.”-Jesus is the master craftsman who sees and sets free the hidden possibilities in every man or woman, boy or girl, son or daughter. Brian Cavanaugh in ‘Sower’s Seeds of Christian Family Values’ “The Jansenists depicted the crucifix with rigid arms raised upwards, symbolizing a salvation reserved to a few, and betraying a complete misunderstanding of the Spirit who invokes the boundless possibilities of charity. What a contrast with the Christ-figures of the middle ages! Even nailed to the cross, they appear to embrace the whole world with their outstretched arms. The authentic way of being a Christian is to be open to the dimensions of all humanity, in the manner of these mediaeval figures. A sympathetic, understanding outlook and the refusal of spiritual and religious monopolies should characterize the disciples of Christ. Joshua failed to understand the prophetic charism of the two men who had not come to the Tent of Meeting. John could not understand how people could expel demons in the name of Jesus without belonging to the Twelve. As for ourselves, how frequently, under pretext of orthodoxy, do we identify belonging to Jesus with some kind of exclusive option of a denominational, social or even political kind? No one can take possession of the Spirit of the Risen One: he is greater than any human group, any social movement, any religious family. He rejects all ecclesiastical provincialism, every pretention to monopolise the dynamism of which he is source. It is necessary to add that such exclusivism is no more legitimate inside than outside the Church. In our congregations there are so many little ones, weak, ill-instructed people, whose religion we consider obscurantist and whose faith we dismiss as puerile. Nothing authorizes us to reject or despise them. Still less may we scandalize them as though, having the monopoly of the Spirit, we were free to do what we liked.” -Glenstal Bible Missal Small is Beautiful For months the chapel was decorated with artificial flowers. While they looked pretty they lacked one vital thing – they emitted no scent. Then one day someone brought in a small bunch of fresh bluebells and placed them on the altar. As soon as you walked into the chapel you noticed the difference. The fragrance given off by the little bluebells filled the entire chapel. How the genuine article shines out, how it quietly makes its presence felt. It doesn’t have to be big, even the dew lessens the heat. Jesus said that anyone who gave one of his disciples even a cup of cold water would be rewarded. The ‘cup of cold water’ is a symbol of the small kind deed. Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sundays and Holy Day Liturgies’ Envy Destroys In Greek history we read of a young man who so distinguished himself in public games that his fellow citizens raised a statue in his honour, to keep fresh the memory of his victories. This statue so excited the envy of another rival who had been defeated in the races, that one night he stole out under cover of darkness with the intention to destroy the statue. But he only nicked it slightly. He gave it a final heave and it fell – on top of him and killed him. –Envy always harms the one who is guilty of it. May we rejoice at the successes of others, especially when good is done! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my remodelled web site www.netforlife.net Thank you. Add whatever you love to the Yahoo! India homepage. Try now! http://in.yahoo.com/trynew
