The Bamboo Tree & the Purpose of Suffering

Bible verse: Luke 22:19- “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

There is a story about a bamboo tree that stood tall and proud in his Master’s garden. Because the Master came to admire it every day, the tree felt happy and wanted. One day, the Master told the tree it was needed for a special purpose and would have to be cut down.

The bamboo tree felt sad and angry and it cried for a long time. But because it knew the Master wanted to use him for another purpose, it finally bowed and said, “Take me, Master, cut me down and use me for whatever you will.”

The master took the bamboo tree and cut it down, slashed off all its beautiful branches and leaves, cut it in half and tore out its core. Then he laid the tall tree on the ground, joining it to a clear stream.

The water ran from the stream through the tree’s hollow channel onto the rice fields.
When autumn came, the fields looked magnificent, full of beautiful yellow rice that became the nurturing grain for many people.

The bamboo tree saw this and became happy again. In its health, it was beautiful and glorious; in its brokenness and humility, it became more glorious as the channel of life for many people.

Read more

Miracles this June!

Great indeed are your works, O Lord! Now and ever more!!!

At the outset, I wish to praise and thank God for the stable and secular government we have in India. It is truly remarkable that for the second time in a row, poll pundits were proved wrong. I do believe a lot of prayer and intercession across Churches and across the country has backed these elections, including our March monthly intercessory diary. May the Holy Spirit, the great unifier and our ‘parakletos’ (Jn 14:16), truly make us all one – in one accord and one mind (Phil 2:2).

I do wish to specially mention (and thank God especially) for the verdict in Orissa. I can only imagine the Lord saying, “I have observed the misery of my people… I have heard their cry… Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come to deliver them” (Ex 3:7, 8). Truly, “the Lord has done great things… holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-49)

As we continue to marvel at the Lord walking with us, we are also humbled by the responsibilities at hand as ‘people of God’. Are we truly living our Christian calling? The tasks are enormous, yet as we have oft heard ‘whom the Lord calls, He equips’. I would like to add a couple of more words and say ‘whom the Lord calls, He equips… with Himself’. We have just celebrated the feast of Pentecost, where the Lord Himself comes to dwell in us and in a two weeks time we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Truly the Lord desires to nourish and equip us with Himself. As beautiful prayer of St Francis of Assisi states,

O sublime humility! O humble sublimity!
That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself
that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread!
Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him!
Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by Him.
Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves; so that
He Who gives Himself totally to you, may receive you totally.

Let us approach the Holy Eucharist for what it truly is, the source and summit of all Christian life (CCC1324). This month we reflect on John 6:35-51 and the various parts of the mass, that help us prepare to receive ‘the body, blood, soul and divinity’ of Christ in a worthy manner.

It is also a matter of great joy to note that Pope Benedict XVI will declare on June 19, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the commencement of the “Year of the Priest”. The pope said he was calling for the special year for priests in an effort to foster the priest’s yearning “for spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends.” We commit our prayer warfare this year for our priests, especially in August - the 150th death anniversary of St. Jean Marie Vianney.

As the new academic year begins, we pray for our young people. May they grow in excellence in a Christ-centred life and be led by the Holy Spirit in their career choices.

As we reflect on the in-dwelling Most Holy Trinity, whose feast we celebrate in June, I borrow from St Paul to end by praying that “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.” (2 Cor 13:14)

Let the Children Come to Me!

Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you that whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Then he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on each of them and blessed them (Mark 10:14-16).

It was first to minister to the children that I came to India more than two years ago. My spiritual journey brought me in June 2003 to a Catholic school in Kerala where it had been arranged, that I would spend some weeks volunteering as a teacher. Excitedly I prepared for the trip by getting many nice children’s books about the saints, Mother Mary, CDs with Biblical stories and even one film about the story of St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes (I remembered seeing this same film in first standard). I came to the simple school with the children so full of excitement and joy at my coming; there were on the wall pictures of Jesus with the children and crucifixes in the classrooms.

I was not in America, but our Catholic faith was still the same and so I was also excited to begin to teach the children. My joy was quickly extinguished when the Father principal told me not to speak about Jesus in the school. It was then that I began to learn the sad state of things in the faith development of the children in Indian Catholic educational institutions. The faith could not be proclaimed openly even though the schools belonged to the religious congregations.

Was it “could not” or rather that people “would not”?

This became the real question that I began to ponder.

Read more