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Thursday, October 15, 2020

God of Faith and God of Science

(Image courtesy: Jean-Marc Arakelian)
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.

Saturday, October 10, 2020

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

Image courtesy: Creative Commons

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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. 

Thursday, October 8, 2020

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. 

Saturday, October 3, 2020

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

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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. 

Thursday, October 1, 2020

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)

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

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.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

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.  

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

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. 

Saturday, September 19, 2020

Abounding God's Compassion vs Littleness of Human Thinking

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Readings: Isaiah 55:6–9Psalm 145:2–3, 8–9, 17–18Philippians 1:20–24, 27Matthew 20:1–16

Photo by the author

The scriptural readings for this Sunday invite us to look at God with fresh eyes. Undoubtedly, the readings are challenging. They encourage us to put ourselves in the shoes of God. In other words, the readings urge us to think differently than what we usually do, so that, we may submit ourselves totally to the call of God. Thus, we might be able to transcend the human boundaries which often derail us to come closer to God and encounter Him in Word and deed.   

Wanting to do more for Christ

Let's begin with St Paul's letter to the Philippians where he speaks about life and death, spirit and flesh, joy and happiness. St Paul writes this beautiful epistle which is called "Paul's joy letter" from a prison in Rome. Naturally, the topic seems to be very dear to the Apostle of the Gentiles that is "life in Christ". In a life dedicated totally to serving Christ, Paul had faced everything from good to worst. The burning flame to serve Christ our Lord does not diminish even a minute of life. His words are astounding, "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Phil 1: 23-24). Paul still wants to strengthen his people in faith, wants to get back to the Philippians. He feels that there is still more he can do for his dear people of Philippi, a Macedonian city. For Paul, being alive in physical body is very important in preaching the Good News of our Lord. The Apostle does not feel that he is old, imprisoned, chastised, and without hope. However, he trusted Christ to work it out for his deliverance. There is an incredible, inextinguishable  hope in him that he would be back to his dear people. The close affinity that he has does not allow him to say goodbye to his people in spite of being certain that his death is imminent and which is going to be bloody in Rome.