Bearer of God's Image versus Caesar's Image

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Readings - Isaiah 45:1,4–6; Psalm 96:1,3–5, 7–10; 1 Thessalonians 1:1–5; Matthew 22:15–21

(Image courtesy: Jean-Marc Arakelian)

Mass and Homily - Audio

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Courage of Holy Martyrs must strengthen us

The 29th Sunday of the year which falls on the 18th October gives us a very challenging message with the feasts of martyr saints falling before and after as a symbol for a different interpretation. Because on the 17th October, the Church celebrates the feast of  St Ignatius of Antioch ((-107), one of the earliest Holy Martyrs of the Church. He is remembered greatly for his astonishing but bold words that he spoke at his martyrdom which took place in the Circus Maximus in Rome by the lions: "I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ."  On the 19th of October the Church commemorates the memory of  the martyrdom of saints John de Brebeuf, Issac Jogues and companions.  The boldness of these saints to give life for Christ at such gruesome, cruel death is truly staggering. For example, St Issac Jogues (1607-1646), a French Jesuit, even though on a earlier occasion he was peeled of skin of his body and mutilated his fingers, once again returned to the mission territory of Huron and Iroquois tribes to work and for the second time he was peeled of his skin and killed. Looking at his courage, his killers (Mohawks) seems to have eaten up his heart because it resembled such an amazing courage. Jogues words speak about his impeccable endurance to follow the Crucified Christ: "My heart tells me that if I have the happiness of being employed in this mission, Ibo et non redibo [I shall go never to return]; but I shall be happy if our Lord will complete the sacrifice where he has begun it, and make the little blood I have shed in that land the pledge of what I would give from every vein of my body and my heart."  One of the most fascinating hagiographical (holy life) accounts that I have ever read and captivated my imagination of boldness of a missionary priest is that of a martyr saint that is of St Issac Jogues. 

God of Faith and God of Science

(Image courtesy: Jean-Marc Arakelian)

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Discoveries and inventions are very little in front of the immensity of knowing God

What Christian Scriptures want to say to us is that God is present everywhere and powerfully present in the working of this immense universe. I suppose we are conditioned by God's omnipresence and omnipotence in the affairs of this world. When this Corona is threatening us at our door steps, we are made aware that all our learnings and scientific discoveries in the medical field are so small, so little and so tiny. It's like a drop in the ocean. That means in order to draw strength, we should begin to think about the immensity and knowledge that is in God and kneel down and just begin to contemplate this unutterable mystery that we call God. All our discoveries and inventions have no effect or meaning at all at the face of our littleness and shallowness. The more we know our fragility, smallness, emptiness, vagueness, in fact about our life itself, we see the immensity, greatness and vastness of God. In other words, we are putting constraints around ourselves in knowing our God.

Courageously Joyful in Chasing the Dreams of Jesus

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Readings - Isaiah 25:6–10; Psalm 23:1–6; Philippians 4:12–14, 19–20; Matthew 22:1–14

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Every call is holy, just and considered

"For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). These words of Jesus must wake us up. Am I one of those who are called? Am I the chosen out of "many"? We often see this dichotomy of many and few. Why is that God does not choose all of them who are called? Many wrongly understand these words of our Saviour.  Often people believe that only a few are called to be priests or nuns or consecrated people. By our Baptism God has called and chosen everyone and left no one. Perhaps only a few make a real commitment to the call Jesus mentions about. Every call is holy, just and considered whether it is to form a family, remain single or be consecrated. Our call is to do the will of God. 

God's Omnipotence and Motherly Protection Versus Corona's Omnipresence

(Image courtesy: Jean-Marc Arakelian)

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Fear of Covid and Faith in God

The intense fear of Covid and deep faith in God seem to be keeping our life going in these days of so much uncertainty. The unexpected arrival of the Corona virus into our country, state, and place of our inhabitation has made the omnipresence of this nasty infectious virus more than tolerable. A good number of seniors and those who could not tolerate the onslaught of Covid 19 have left this world to eternity. 

Corona virus has left no one untouched, from a pious lay person to a ferocious politician, from a simple beggar to a holy priest corona has played its game and won it. Those who are still around might be thinking when will this corona affect and take them as a victim. Others might be thinking what this nonsense of corona lockdown is, and in number of countries this laxity in people's behaviour has led to increase a sudden surge of corona infections. Many have downplayed the enormous health hazards this virus brings and succumbed to this killer bug as if a punishment to their pride and arrogance. Moreover, during this time, we must have lost count of the days, weeks and months. We are already in the eighth month since the Corona virus started to make news in India. 

Taking Care of God's Vineyard and My Responsibility

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Readings - Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

Listen to my reflections in audio format here

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Listening to the Master

In short, the Sunday readings bring home a very important idea that is taking care of God's vineyard. This Old Testament symbol "vineyard" tells about Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7), the Church and the Kingdom of God. Ultimately, God is the planter or the owner of this vineyard and we are just tenants or workers in the vineyard. Vineyard gives job to people, grapes to eat, beauty to eyes and wine to drink. In other words, vineyard gives security and solace to the one who does his or her job well. Unless and until we get back to the plan that God has for us, we would be remaining idle in the vineyard. Someone said, "an idle mind is a devil's workshop". Therefore, our job is just doing the job the owner has called us to do and not undoing what God intended for us. Jesus wants us to listen to him, listen to the owner of the vineyard who may appear in different persons. 

Christian Media and Solidarity: Where are we now?

Recently, I have turned my attention to reading a number of Catholic journals published in India. We do get a good number of journals in our Jesuit Provincialate. I read through recently published - Vidyajyothi Journal of Theological Reflection, Jeevadhara, The New Leader, Jivan, Indian Currents, In Christo, Salaam, Word & Worship, Kristu Jyoti, Asian Horizons, Prabodhana, Journal of Indian Theology, Magnet, Ignis, etc. I was pleasantly surprised by their content. All these journals do deal with Covid 19 and  its repercussions. Certainly the editors of these journals should be appreciated for their courage and resilience to think about the present day reality and respond to it in their own way. Here are some of the titles of the articles that appeared in the journals. (Due to space constrain, I have restricted only to a few)

Live Streaming even while Taking over the Provincialship!

Taking over ceremony as Provincial Fr Stany and Fr Dion (L to R)

Corona is making our life really difficult especially in India with its number of infection rates scaling high reaching almost to number one of the global tally.  However, with the technology at our fingertips we can use this challenge as an opportunity. This is what happened on the 26th September 2020 in Bangalore (KAR), India when the change of Provincial took place. P. Stanislaus D'Souza who is now appointed as the Provincial of South Asia (POSA) handed over the charge of Provincial of Karnataka Jesuits to P. Dionysius Vaz. 

As a number of Jesuits of Karnataka were infected with corona and majority of them being members of younger generation, handing over the Provincialship which usually brought together a  seizable number of Jesuits at one place this time was restricted only to a few. However, we thought of uniting the whole Province and our collaborators through a live streaming of the Eucharist and the felicitation program. KAR province has 307 Jesuits with 227 of them below the age of 49. And the median age of the province members is 35 years. Jesuits watched the live streaming either on a big screen at the community level or individually who felt that best suited for them. Many expressed a great satisfaction at the program saying, "we felt as if we were at Loyola Mandir witnessing the event of handing over." Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIz2w6ihR7o&t=170s

- Olvin Veigas, SJ

29th September 2020

Update: 07th October 2020.

The above news is published in four languages, namely, French, Spanish, Italian and English on the website of the global Society of Jesus in Rome - https://www.jesuits.global/ on 07th October 2020 with a title, CREATING UNITY IN KARNATAKA IN TIMES OF COVID. Below are the snap shots.

Follow Your Heart and See with Your Eyes

 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Readings - Ezekiel 18:25–28; Psalm 25:4–9; Philippians 2:1–11; Matthew 21:28–32

Andrey Mironov, 'Parable of the Two Sons'  (https://creativecommons.org)

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Righteousness flowers when the heart is in the right place

These days, we have been reading from the book of Ecclesiastes. There is a very powerful line which should attract our attention straight away: "Follow the ways of your heart, the vision of your eyes" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). These words are ringing very true to us as we hear the readings of this Sunday. All the three writers, Prophet Ezekiel, St Paul and St Matthew bring home the above message very clear. All that matters in this world is to walk in the path of righteousness that God has set before us. In order to do that God has written the laws in our hearts says the Prophet. "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ez 11:19). Further the prophet repeats again, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).  Another prophet Jeremiah utters these words again to his people, "for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33 & Hebrews 8:10). And St Paul puts it beautifully once again in his letter to the Romans, "so they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them" (Romans 2:15).  Perhaps only through this Christ would be successful in His mission and would deliver the humanity from the slavery of sin and satan.  

Life or Death but Health is Wealth

Photo by the author

Recently, I stumbled upon in my notebook what I wrote  while I was discerning whether I should go for a major operation or not in 2018. I was extremely uncertain then what the future was going to hold for me. After almost two years I see the relevance in what I jotted down just out of my curiosity. 

Readiness for a life of self-encouragement

"Be ready always for a good death" is a common phrase that you would hear from devout people while growing up. But I never heard how well you should be prepared when long, chronic illness sets in you at your young and prime age. More and more I try to grasp at the mystery of life and death, I’m compelled to think more about our life here on earth. Life is precious and our time on this universe is certainly short. However this shortness should never allow me to live a life unhappiness and burdensome, instead our life should be blossoming, energetic, positive, fascinating and full of passion. Even though chronic illnesses or other health issues creep into our mortal body, but we should never give up our passion for a fruitful and enjoyable life. Whether we like it or not we are living in a digital world in which individualism is going to stay and grow. Each one would be looking for self reliance, self sufficiency and self satisfaction either in good health or in bad.