Easter 2021: Refute death!!

 

Get used to Resurrection!

All our fears emanate from the fear of death!

Humans go into tantrums due to fear!  A psychotherapist handles them with medicine and science!  Religion creates beliefs for faith consumption!  Rebirth, Resurrection, Eternal abode are some of them!  If it can help handle fear in you it is very good!  The strongest proponent of all these are those who have no idea or any experience about any of them!

Resurrection after death is not my worry or concern!  Resurrection in this life is my concern!

A tomb is a place where a dead body gets struck!  The dead body has no potency to rise and break the tomb!  The tomb is constructed with concrete or a stone that you don't easily escape from it!

Many elements in this world want to bury you in a safe tomb where you don't agitate, or question or rise up and be active! 

When you get affiliated to a political party, all the leaders become saints par excellence and those opposing them are all devils!  You lose your freedom to think!  You are stuck in a tomb!

You get resigned to fatalism!  A few defeats make you motionless!  You don't want to take any more risk or effort!  Sorry, you are stuck in a tomb!

You get struck with ideologies, You get stuck with prejudices, You get struck with habits, You get struck with practices (for example, people say, bribing is normal here!), You get stuck with your emotions!  What not?

Get up from them!  Don't allow anyone to lay a stone over you!  Roll it out!

An iota of life in you has the potency to move the entire corpse and bring back life in every cell in you!

If a scientist can believe that they can bring back dinosaur to life a single genetic material why not you and me?

Imagine the number of prejudices you suffer from naming them as unquestionable beliefs!  "Drunkards don't change", "Cancer cannot be totally healed", "RSS will never change", "Diabetics will remain forever", "I am old and what can I do now?", "The fullness of truth is only in my religion",  "My race is the best race in the world", "My caste is created by God to rule the entire universe", "Dalits are low caste, Brahmins are higher than all!", "evangelization is not possible anymore"  Just pause for a while and count the number of sludge, you are stuck in!

You have such a massive potency to fly around like an eagle but you get stuck in a little murky idea and refuse to move even a bit and are willing to die quickly!

Here is a man who is refusing to die even after dumping "it" into the tomb and shut it with a massive stone!

Why do you want to die when you can be fully alive? Get up and Fear Not!!  Resurrection is not an event after death!  It is refuting death!  YOU, don't die!! then why do you want to die?

Good Friday 2021: Lose battles to win the War

 

I am against the death penalty!

People who support the death penalty think that it will be a deterrent against crimes!

Indian Penal code allows the death penalty!  But the vast number of crimes both direct and indirect violence are countless!  For example, corruption causes poverty, and poverty kills many people!  It is an Indirect murder!  Therefore, looking at the number of crimes in India one can conclude that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crimes!  The death penalty is a sign of a weak government!

Weak governments use more violence!  They are all the time fearful, authoritative, and full of cowardice!   Activists work hard, get tired, and sleep well!  But, politicians don't get sleep!  They fear all the time that someone including their sons and daughter will overthrow them anytime!  They get drunk with authority that reasoning and history do not educate them!  They make the same mistake which their ancestors did 2000 years ago!

"Eliminating a person will eliminate an ideology" is what they think!  Those among them who have access to weapons use them to eliminate and others use random and many other ways of assassination; cooking up stories, dirty gossip, words, looks, Republic TV, and what not?

Gauri Lankesh was a woman journalist and a human rights activist!  She was allegedly murdered for translating a book into the local language on the Gujarat riots!  Such are many these days!

The theory and practice of Jesus was irritating the rulers especially the Jewish religious authorities!  Their business under the garb of religion was getting damaged!  Their product of God was losing its market!  Obviously, they don't like to see him around!  They quickly joined hands with the politicians to exterminate him and thought that they finished him off!

Be watchful with the enmity that you cultivate in your minds!  Because that leads you further into action!  It is easy to plug out when it is small!   Instead, allow variations, respect the dissent,  oppose the opinion but accept the person, say hello to them, Try to bring in positive thoughts when there is a heavy inflow of negative opinions about others.  Be flexible to change your opinion any number of times, but truthfully!

Elimination tools are many!

Guns, bullets, killer viruses are one type!  The other types are; creating opinions, brainwashing, damaging someone's name, opinion polls, injecting false opinions, listening to Modi and many such!

Plain murderers such as hired hooligans use the first type, the hardware!  Others such as the media use the second type, the software!  But rulers use both!

Good Friday is nothing but a battle between; Truth and such foolishness!  Jesus versus a herd of fools!  Consciousness versus compulsions!  On that Friday morning, Jesus lost one more battle to win a War!  He gracefully turned his painful moment into a powerful tool of conversion!

Therefore don't worry that you continuously lose battles, Be patient and continue to persevere, and be grace-filled!  War is what you want to win!!

Maundy Thursday 2021 Priesthood is Disposition not position!

Fr. Rodney from the Archdiocese of Kolkotta left the priesthood and joined BJP a right-wing political party.  There were a big hue and cry about the same in the Christian circles as BJP is not only a political party but with a strong fundamentalist leaning.  A couple of years ago, Frs. Gheevargeese and Fr. Thomas from the state of Kerala also joined the same party.  There are a few priests in Tamilnadu who openly support the DMK party which is known for corruption had supported ethnic cleansing in Srilanka and known for its anti-people policies. At least in the case of Rodney, he left the priesthood probably realizing that they don't go together!

Jesus was involved in Politics; liberation of the poor, justice for the downtrodden, equality among human beings, and so on!  That is a different type of Politics that every follower of Christ must toe in line with!  Not, petty politics.  Rather, equal distribution of Power, Rights, and Freedom is Politics.  On the other hand, the accumulation of power in the hands of a few is politics!

Jesus was tempted to get into petty politics, like many think that getting into the existing political power structure would help bring forth transformation and justice!  By the time some of them go near the pinnacle they are well-entrenched into the same very corruption they once wanted to eliminate!

In the 80s, Mr. Prabakaran was offered by the Indian army the chief minister's post of the Tamil-dominated North and Eastern Srilanka!  He profoundly refused to accept the offer but fought an armed battle till the end!

Co-opting is an art of politics!  "Get into our gang!", "Get into the system"!  You can have your security, perks, and power!  Many good people get lost in this murky ground with a very poor judgment and a tipsy temptation!

Such nasty political maneuvering has deeply infiltrated into the life of the church and the followers of Christ as well!

Today we celebrate Priesthood in the model of Jesus!

A priest is a leader not just for "Catholics" alone!  He embraces all in compassion more especially the poor in need!  The word Catholic means, universal or all-embracing!  So, if you are a Catholic, don't get into ghettos and small circles drawn by religion, caste, race, and politics!

Priesthood is leadership!  A priest is a leader, leading by example! 

But what type of leadership has attracted you?  Hitler was a leader!  Modi is a leader!  Gandhi was a leader!  Narayanaguru was a leader!  Mother Treasa was a leader!

Leaders of the world use the people to climb the ladders of power and from there they rule the people!  There are other types of leaders who lay down themselves as stepping stones to help people climb the ladder!

A school teacher stays in the same very classroom for many years helping young children to move forward!  These days I see so many illiterate farmers sacrificing their lives to help their children get educated and come up in life!

When you make more and more people serve you, you can very well join one of those parties!  When you humble yourself in service despite your many pains and struggles, Jesus encompasses you!  It is not the spotless cassock that makes you a priest, but the smell of the downtrodden on you, your close association with them, your empathy for them!  Therefore, Priesthood is a disposition to serve and not a position to be achieved!

Next year (2012) for the Maundy Thursday ceremony; how about inviting a couple of Hindus, a couple of Muslims, a couple of Women, a couple of Dalits, a couple of Non-believers, a couple of Physically and Mentally challenged persons, couple of those Uncared orphans?!  Don't worry about the number 12! It is only a symbol; there could be many more!  Instead of getting stagnant with symbols, rubrics and rituals; Expand the ministry of Jesus during the year!  Empower the downtrodden!

Palm Sunday 2021 Freedom is inclusive

 

Freedom is inclusive!

When we liberated ourselves from British colonialism, the British also got liberated!  The oppressor also has clutches to be removed!

The very fact that you suppress someone or inflict pain on someone or use violence against someone you act from slavery; which often is unnamed or unrecognized!  Maybe you are enslaved by an ideology or a mindset or greediness or what not?

People take pleasure in violence against someone, especially those they think are their enemies!  People also do take pleasure in other addictions such as narcotics, tranquilizers,  alcohol, and so on!

Enslavement is also an addiction on both sides!  The oppressed majority gets used to it!  Once when they become aware of the enslavement they want to get rid of it.  The oppressor on the other hand enjoys pseudo authority and one is not aware of the enslavement and therefore does not make an effort to be liberated but enjoys the same!

That is why I say any act of liberation must be inclusive!

I recently saw a video taken in Northern Tamilnadu; a caste mob ransacking a Dalit colony.  It is a terrible act against humanity not just against the Dalits alone.  In fact, it is an act against themselves too!   They don't behave as humans should normally!!  They have reached an inhumane state through indoctrination (in the past) and intoxication (in the present)!  (They both go along well as they belong to the same family.)

Women battering, domestic violence, child abuse, caste, and ethnic violence are all crimes against humanity!  They erupt from poor, weak, and enslaved minds!  Resorting to violence comes from weaklings, even if it is a war between two nations!

Who gets killed in a war?  Poor soldiers who are indoctrinated with nationalism and ideologies will be given rifles and killer weapons to act!  Then they are willing to kill "enemies" or die for their country and their bosses!  They create artificial enemies across the artificial borders!  But, what about the kith and kin of the rulers?  They go into the safe bunkers or go behind the bulletproof vehicles and fortifications.   They get up again and go for electioneering with fresh inflammatory speeches pumped with nationalism and ideology!

In the case of Jesus, a bunch of soldiers take pride and pleasure in torturing a single man!  They are cowards in my opinion as many of us are!

We have no guts to speak the truth or stop bribing officials or bow before rotten politicians and government officials!  We loot the poor through concocted justifications!  We immorally abuse women, children and domestic servants in many subtle and in explicit ways!  When we are in a group we behave like a mob succumbing to group pressure and sacrifice truth, the weak and the poor.

I don't think, Jesus was interested in going through physical pain, beaten up and getting killed!  "Kindly take away the cup of suffering from me" (Lk 22/42) He pleaded with God!  He is not a vampire; as many projects that he was willing to shed blood!

He was a just man, who articulated truth with boldness, he was interested in the liberation of the poor, he was against exploitation, he was annoyed at the temple and overthrew the tables on the corridors!  Like any truthful person, he felt like kicking back the oppressor!  You often see such reactions of Jesus throughout the gospels.

Are you angry, annoyed, agitated, and upset with the system?  You must!  Any human should be!

But, are you part of the system, colliding and collaborating with the corrupt, the castist, the chauvinist, the looter, and the power monger?  Stop it and get out of it!  Become a human first before attempting to be a Christian!

One of the temptations of Jesus must have been to resort to an organized violent reaction against Roman colonialism and its unholy alliance with the Jewish authorities!  People had to shoulder double taxation and two-fold oppression!  Politics and religion were crushing them under!!

Violent reaction to overthrow them seemed to be the logical move!

But, violence would replace the actor, not the plot!  Like aspirin, it eliminates the symptom not the cause!   Temporary and not lasting!!  Nonviolence gives the space for the oppressor to repent and change!  Nonviolence needs more mental stamina, real determination, boldness and terrible patience!

There is no use in replacing male chauvinism with female chauvinism!  One suppressing caste with another suppressing caste!  The liberator becoming the oppressor is not the solution! 

Think; Are you for abolishing untouchability or create another group of untouchables?  We were a British colony for a few centuries.  Are you now going to make Briton your colony?  Will that solve the issue?  Will revenge solve the issue?  Will the replacement of suppressor solve the issue?

A clear stand against oppression is Christianity!  Articulate, Agitate, Organize, Propagate, shout, yell but In the process, don't destroy the person including his or her character!

We want to eliminate the sin not the sinner!  Love the sinner!  Love includes, "vaccination" , "medication", "injection" , "surgery" depending on the level of sickness or siness!

The soldiers had compulsions to be violent!  Jesus decided to be Nonviolent!

Move from compulsions to decisions!  Move from a "soldier status" to "Jesus status"!

By the way, I am saying all these to only Christians who belong to many religions or even religion-less!

5th Sunday of Lent: Cage Him not! Let Him rise!!

 

Release Him, Let him Rise!!

I read an interesting study done among kids.  One of them was this; they showed a picture of an elephant and asked the Indian kids, "What is it?" Everyone replied, "It is an elephant"  But the Japanese kids replied, "It's a picture of an elephant!"

In 1977 Robert Powell acted as Jesus, in the film Jesus of Nazareth.  Then on you see all over the world; in churches, homes, shrines and grottos  Jesus being venerated with the Picture of Robert Powell.  He cried out a few times, not to venerate his portrait!  But who heeds?

"Can you show me Jesus?"  the Greeks asked Philip.

If someone asks you, "Can you show me Jesus?"  Where will you take him?  To your church? To your convent?  To your school? To your home?  To your ministry place?  To your community? To your village? To your parish?  To yourself?  Where?...  where will you take him?  or will you show him the pictures of actors such as Diogo Margado,  Walter Mbamy, Jim Caviesel, or Robert Powell, and others who had acted as Jesus in films?

Or,  Is He Dead?

We are too often busy guessing and highly preoccupied with the historical figure of Jesus!  How he looked like, Did he have a beard or not, What was the exact way in which he was born, died or risen?  This intellectual curiosity however useless will remain forever.  I would say, Just don't get into it, if you want to get enthralled in Jesus!  If you want to do a study on him, anyone can do it! even an atheist can; on dead Jesus!  Jesus of history!!

But, how to encounter him?  The gospel indicates another way!  Those who live for themselves will lose it and those who don't care about it will find eternal life.  If you are self-centred, it is impossible to follow Jesus.  In short, Jesus was selfless and he instructed, "Follow me!"  Where there is selflessness and generosity you will find in your deeper self the Him, even today!  Yes, He is alive!

He will live as long as you are alive, vibrant, active and motivated to love!

When you help someone in dire need or in great difficulty they will always attribute that to God's intervention and if they are believers will attribute to Jesus!

Is your home filled with love, forgiveness, joy, jokes, and laughter?  Jesus lives there!

Is your church or parish filled with acts of compassion, equality, sharing between different castes and social groups?  Jesus dwells in there!

Is your community; other centered? a charity home? Joy-filled? gossip free? caste free? filled with concern and care for each other especially for the sick and the elderly? that there is happiness overflowing on the faces?  Jesus is there!

If you are gloomy, stiff-necked, long-faced, dogmatic, rubricant!  The hell with it! Not only he, no one would like to come closer! Don't imagine that your exquisite theological exhibits will grab him! Nor your prayers and penance will bring him down to your ghettos!  He hates ghettos!  He came to bring down ghettos! 

Therefore, Break your "walls" and build bridges!  Break fences and defenses!  Allow others to enter your life, your community, your homes, and your churches! 

You cannot drag him to hell!  He dwells in heaven and only in heaven!  Therefore, if you want him, make your home, your heart, your community, your church, your parish a little haven; the abode of God!

Some of us are so conscious and rooted (and rotten) in rubrics, statutes, rituals, bells, and all the unimportant matters.  We wrongly think that they please God!  They are matters that are related to an association or a club or an army!  Christianity of Jesus is not even a religion!  Christianity of Rome, Yes!

Jesus is an unending spiritual force!  Don't try to lock him down in cubicles, statues, and shrines.  In fact, You will not be able to!  Let him flow through your acts of love, compassion, charity, forgiveness, encompassing the other, embracing the little ones, hugging your enemy, caring for the deserted ones.

If you don't do this or put an end to these, you will leave him dead in your life!

He dwells in you!  Don't cage and bury him in yourself!  Let the rocks of stubbornness roll out!  Allow Jesus to rise from your heart! 

4th Sunday of Lent; "In"LIGHTenment!!

 

In one of the seminars that I conducted I asked a religious brother, "What would be the best number of students in a classroom?" "Between 20 to 25!  Beyond that, the teacher loses focus and personal attention" he said.

In the same seminar, I asked another brother who had been in the field of education for a long time, "Should medium of instruction be in the native language or a foreign language?" "Definitely in the native language especially in the mother tongue of the student", he replied cogently.

Then why do you admit 60 or 70 children in a classroom or why do you start English medium schools?  There is no frank and truthful answer!

In most of my recollection talks to the religious, I start with a two little questionnaire lasting just 5 minutes.  For example, the first question I ask in the first survey, "What is the big problem the religious of Tamilnadu face?"  1. Caste issues 2. Money related 3. Power related 4. All three.  Almost all of them would tick on the 4th answer,  "All 3".  The next short survey is on self-analysis.  One of the questions is; Are you caste-minded?  All the 14 wrote, "No".  Are you money-minded? "No!".  Are you longing for authority?  "No, not at all".

Then, where is the problem?  When we can be ruthlessly objective about society, There is no frank and truthful answer when it comes to the self!

"People like to remain in darkness!"  we read in the gospel today.

Darkness gives a kind of comfort!  "Darkness" makes it easy for self-justification!

Can I kill animals for my food? Heart says, "No!".   The brain misled by the tongue created a theology, "God created all for humankind!"  Therefore, instead of being a brother or a sister to nature; you self-appointed yourself as the manager!  The entire nature feels frightened at your very sight!  They run away or fly away feeling that a killer is approaching!

Certain philosophies and theologies and sacred books created by you, help you enjoy that darkness!

Tamilnadu state elections are around the corner!  Vow!, almost all of them sound, saints!  The worst is, that they truly believe the same!  The very persons who had shed the blood of the innocent civilians come camouflaged as saviors!!

Option for the poor and Liberation theology picked up momentum among the religious circles from the 1980s!  Then on, the chapter documents or written constitutions smelt with total revolution.

But, ask them, "What is the percentage of the money they spent on social work, health care ministries, ministries for the poor, social justice, hospitals, rural development, education of the rural populace, peace building initiatives in the villages, working with victims of alcohol or drugs, working for sexually abused and their rights? compared to what they had invested on CBSE schools and shrines"  A big smile covers up all the rest!

I am curious, Why people rush erecting English medium schools?  Why turning matriculation schools into CBSE schools? Why rural children's education is forsaken?  Why do you have 60, 70 or 80 children in a classroom?

Ask the government employees, "Is the salary you receive is comparable with the wages of the common people?"  When you demand increments every year and an increase in pay every other year, what about the domestic workers?  Can they manage their life with this salary?  Do I have the same criteria that we use in deciding my salary and my servants' salary?

Treatment of young persons in schools and formation houses is sometimes alarming!  Their right to question, their right to free expression very often are crushed in the name of religion and culture.

When my intellectual comfort goes against the comfort of my heart, it indicates that I prefer darkness to light!

One way of getting out of this discomfort or dichotomy is to make honest efforts to be integrated, being congruent, and being humble enough to accept the reality objectively.

Religion creates the concept of hell to frighten people to come out of this very darkness.

Religion creates gods and goddesses to inspire and invite people to move into the light.

The gospel writer, John connects it with the person of Jesus to lead from darkness to light.

The choice between hell and heaven is nothing but a choice between darkness and light.  Enlightenment and preferred Ignorance!

In other words, The choice between a split personality and an Integrated personality is yours!  Let me caution, being an integrated person is not being a perfect person!  Integrity is not perfection!  Integrity is honesty; both in acceptance of reality and in making honest efforts.

Lucidity is luminosity; means brightness or soundness of mind!

Read the gospel (Jn 2/14-21) again!  You see it.

Ref: John 2/19-21  ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

 

3rd Sunday of Lent: Market Spirituality

 

Market spirituality!

Moses was introducing a day of rest! (Read Exodus 20/1-17)

Many years ago I read a book titled, Intimate enemy! The gist of the book is this; the enemy might have left you physically but the traits you imbibed from him dictates from inside!  The British left you but you continue to be "British" in many ways!  Language, dress, behavior, type of education, right-hand drive, police ill-treatment, Laws and so on!  Many even today continue to live in British India.

These people with Moses were in Egypt as slaves!  They had crossed over to a land of liberation.  But the "slavishness" has not gone yet!  They continue to slog.  Probably new types of rulers have emerged from within! Some of them might have been worse than the British! sorry, the Egyptians!!

The tough task of relieving them from Pharaoh is over but now the toughest task for Moses and other leaders is to introduce civilization, culture and a better life.

Domestic workers, cooks, daily wage earners, gardeners, errand boys and girls, farmworkers, construction workers, women with menial jobs are all unorganized and have no voice!  They continue to be exploited in terms of hours of work and salary.  Sometimes, when they ask for their rightful rest or higher salary; many think they are arrogant.  We often call them in the singular.  On the other hand, those who are well organized with Labour unions or in government jobs or associated with political parties; they ruthlessly eat up the vast junk of the hard-earned Gross National Income.  Imagine, the way in which the majority of the government employees work and the un-proportionate income they get.  If it is their right, what about their duty towards their job?  If they can easily claim their rights, what about the majority; the unorganized sector which forms a huge number of the population?  Then the more important question, if the state employees who constitute 1% of the total populace enjoy the majority of the income,  what about the exchequer on social sectors like, education, health, road construction and so on?

We are in 2021! The chasm between these two sectors of the working-class indicate that we stay far behind the time of Moses in many aspects!

A few days back, I read the news that a businessman from Theni in Tamilnadu, who loves Lord Vengadesha in Thirupathi Temple, offered 3 and half kilograms of gold as an offering.  There were a lot of reactions from different quarters to this act, that he should have given the money to the poor or to the orphanages and so on.

Kindly understand human nature!  when you love something, somebody or some gods or goddesses; you don't have any reason to justify that!  Most of us are that way!  I have seen people pampering pet animals.  I have no idea about it.  But, if I begin to judge people from my social perspective, I will be simply condemning these people. And they can condemn me, saying I have no mercy for lives on earth.  So, it is better not to read and judge others from my own perspective.

Churches, Temples, and Mosques in this country have plenty of property offered by such "lovers" formally called devotees.  They love God or their deity and offer their gifts!  The administrators of these Holy places must think together constructively, think in support of the poor, think in support of the common man, think in support of the needy, and think in support of God!  God attracts this wealth not for Himself but for His people!  But the intermediaries play havoc in the name of God!

Jesus was furious in the temple.  The temple in Jerusalem sounded like a market place!  (Read John 2: 13-25) Money, money, and money!

Play on the emotions of the people, you can earn quite a lot of money.  Many shrines look like malls in the cities.  Alluring and bargaining! Sounding crazy!

The doctor would tell the parents, "Your girl must go through cesarean and pay 25,000 immediately!" They will sell anything to do that.  Because they love their girl and don't want to take any risk.  Many hospitals have become markets!

The lawyer would say, "Pay or you may have to go to jail"; you will sell your property and pay. Courtrooms have become markets!

You will pay in the police station, you will pay to the judge, you will pay in government offices,  middlemen, priests, gods, and goddesses!  Your attachment and fear are great opportunities for those who want to exploit and earn!

Beautiful professions have become opportunities for exploitation, earning money, and imposing cruelty.

"You cannot serve both God and money at the same time" Jesus once said! (Mt. 6/24)

When we run schools, hospitals, service centers, churches, places of worship, shrines, old age homes; what is the primary purpose? Money or service?

Today's gospel ends by saying, "He knows the heart of every man!"

Do I know my heart?  Where does it lay?  Charity, Love, Compassion or Trading, grabbing and exploiting?

Attempting to stop exploitation will not stop exploitation!  Start doing good, begin sharing, begin loving, extend your hand to the needy, smile at your enemy, hug the indifferent one.