Abundant Life

I know a person who owed a debt of ninety lakh rupees. Even after disposing of all the family possessions he was not able to clear his debts. He sold off everything and then onward he would spend one hour every day praying in the church.

After some time he got a few good business offers. Within six months he paid off a debt of fifty lakhs. He was able to come back to a decent position. “My son, do not be anxious because of poverty. You must be faithful to God and avoid falling into sin. If you do what is righteous in God’s sight, you will be blessed with much abundance” (Tobit 4:21)

The life of Job also teaches the same lesson. God had blessed him with many riches. But when His hand was withdrawn the devil came and destroyed everything. Since his faith and trust in God remained unshaken, God gave him back tenfold of everything he had in the beginning. The devil will not have access to the wealth or the person of the one who sincerely prays to God. God will build a wall to protect him and his property.

An alcoholic will meet with disaster. He will drink until the last penny. His own health and his family will be ruined and at the same time he will be drowned in debt. He will be overwhelmed with guilty feelings and self-incrimination and despair, culminating in tragic disaster. Similar is the case with pleasure-seekers, idlers, deceivers, as well as those who get deceived. They all end up in debt and are not able to prosper.

There are people who are not grateful to God for what He gives but instead squander away God’s gifts. To some, God gives in abundance, but sometimes He stops giving.

When He gives plentifully we must save and secure for the future days. In the Old Testament, Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, stated that the seven fat cows indicated seven years of plenty and the seven lean cows meant seven years of famine.

Even in our own lives God keeps on pointing out days of famine and scarcity. We must look for these revelations, we must ask wise people. Thus when we seek to know God’s will, He will forewarn us about future wants.

But for this God has put some pre-conditions: we must obey Him. Because of disobedience Adam and Eve lost Paradise. (Gen. 3:14). When they went after forbidden pleasure they were cast out from prosperity into the world of pain and sweat and dust.

I know a family consisting of father, mother and six children who lived in poverty and struggle. But every day they would all kneel together and holding each other’s hand would recite the rosary. As a result, food and clothes came when they needed them. They were protected from ailments. All the children studied and reached good positions. A family that prays together will not come to face starvation or debts.

If we live in accordance with the teachings of the Bible we shall be prosperous. “He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work, so that you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any. The Lord your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today.” (Deut. 28:12-13)

Let us confidently kneel in His presence. He will certainly guard and protect us and make us prosper.

The Slighted Guest

A while back, a friend kept inviting & re-inviting me to stay at her place if I ever planned to holiday around her parts. When I finally did take her up on her offer though, I was in for a rude shock.

For all her seeming enthusiasm on the phone and every time we had met before, she hadn’t done one thing to prepare for me coming to her house. The room I had to sleep in was untidy beyond belief; the sheets hadn’t been changed - or even cleaned, there was a huge mud stain in the middle. My friend didn’t bother about my meals the whole time I was there, very often not even bothering to talk with me at all the whole day except for once or twice when she mentioned in a round about way how me being there was so much extra work for her!

I felt slighted and unwanted, even though she was the one to invite me in the first place! “Perhaps she didn’t really think I’d come?”, I wondered, “maybe all the invitations were just a farce?”.

I tried to ignore my friend’s rude behavior and subtly ask if everything was okay with her but was met with more rudeness in reply so I changed my plans around so I could stay in a hotel in a different city, so as to not insult her and not burden her either.

The whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth though - and now I am very wary of staying with friends homes while on holiday.

–

To change the topic, I woke up very grieved this morning at the immorality of some married people I happen to know. One married man has an open relationship with his girlfriend, taking both his wife & girlfriend to every party he attends. His justification is: “so many ‘others’ are having extra marital affairs, at least I’m being open, upfront and not hypocritical about it. Besides if my wife doesn’t have a problem, who’re you to judge me?”. Another (single) man I know is now ‘dating’ a married woman, because her husband is ill and apparently “doesn’t have a problem” with it.

In the higher rings of Indian society, these types of alliances (& worse) are heard of, far more commonly than one would like (the very sad toon alongside is one I found online, depicting an Indian woman in a sari as the wife of a man with a shapely mistress). Many of us Indians like to think of the “big bad western countries” as the place with degrading moral values, but an honest look at our society (especially but not only the higher classes) reveals a deep thread of immorality in our midst.

So many of our politicians and film actors openly flaunt their affairs. Recently the cell phone provider BPL Mobile which changed to Loop Mobile had a series of advertisements for prepaid customers to get itemized billing, one such advert which was splashed on billboards all across Mumbai city read “Wife 20 minutes. Girlfriend 240 minutes”.

It’s very sad when you hear of people of any religion behaving this way, but it’s all the more heart breaking when you hear of Catholics or Christians who do these things.

This is because when Catholics administer the sacrament of matrimony to each other - or when Christians marry - they invite Christ into their partnership as a third partner. We hear the “Christ is the third partner of our marriage” slogan very regularly!

Yet, all too often we - and I’m not just talking about the people I mentioned earlier - but lots of married Christian & Catholic couples - just seem to forget all about their third partner.

How can any married person justify immorality saying husband and wife both agree to it? Christ the third partner has never agreed to any immorality. He has, on the contrary, asked us not even to lust for other people in our minds. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27 -28).

We invite Jesus into our marriages as a third partner and then treat Him as an unwanted guest. Or forget He’s even in the house. Or worse still, brutally kick Him out with our sins, as if He came in without permission.

And what about us single people? Or us charismatic people? Or us simply church going people? Do we also not invite Christ into our lives, time and time again - whether at retreats or at prayer services - or at Mass every single time we receive Holy Communion?

And what do we do after all our enthusiasm and our seeming wanting Christ to come into our lives? The bedrooms of our heart are ill prepared to keep Him. We try to house Him in the same room as sins we refuse to give up. We refuse to surrender or share our problems with Him. Worst, we think we have the “right” to do what we like with our lives because they’re “our lives”, as if He didn’t pay for our lives - literally - with every drop of His blood.

This Christmas as we all will re-invite Christ into our lives again - lets make an honest attempt, with His grace, to not treat Him as an unwanted guest. Let’s not invite Him in at Christmas Mass and then slight Him by forgetting all about Him in the merriment of the holidays. Let’s not forget He is partner with us in our marriages and that every decision we make, should also be approved by Him.

It’s His birthday - let’s give Jesus the love we profess and the love He’s due.

Revisiting Unapologetics

A couple years ago I wrote a post on my blog entitled, Help me coin a new phrase- Unapologetics. In the intervening two years, I have trying to live out the premise of the original post in living my faith in my everyday life.

When I was growing up there was a sense that Christian values were something to which people aspired, and the practice of personal faith was a character trait that was admired. In our ever increasingly secular-humanist society, it seems that a person or a family that shows devotion to their faith becomes an object of scorn or derision. There is a pressure on Catholics to apologize for what we believe and who we are.

In this environment, I would like to coin a new term unapologetics to represent the act of a person humbly and proudly living out their faith in the world at large.

Wikipedia defines Christian Apologetics as:

the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of Christianity. The term “apologetic” comes from the Greek word apologia, which means in defense of; therefore a person involved in Christian or Bible Apologetics is a defender of Christianity. Someone who engages in Christian apologetics is called a “Christian apologist”.

A person practicing unapologetics would be witnessing to their faith, not through oratory and defense of their beliefs, but by the simple and humble practice of their faith in their daily life. Simple things like saying grace (something my family frequently neglects), or avoiding Sunday sports or activities which would exclude you from mass. Through prayer and practice of faith, one does not need to actively “witness” their faith to others. “They will know we are Christians by our love”.

Please join me in spreading the term and the practice of unapologetics.

After I posted this article, I discovered that I was not the first person in the blogosphere to use the term unapologetics.  There are people on the net using the term to make arguments against Christian beliefs.    I stand my my concept though that we need to stand humbly but proud in our practice of our faith.

Related: ‘Do you know Why you believe?’

T. J. Smith’s ‘A World Away’ (The Quest of Dan Clay, Book 1)

‘A World Away’, is Book one in a Trilogy by T. J. Smith.

Back Cover:

“To avert a potential underworld mutiny of horrific proportions, these fifty insurrectionists were relocated through a portal from the pit of hell to the dark Eldritch Forest of another world, parallel to our own. Upon their banishment, the condemned were transformed into half-man and half-serpent creatures.

Thirteen years ago, William Clay—then a mere child—disappeared from a nearby forest, never to be seen again. Only recently, his younger brother, Dan, acquired information on the forest fables from a questionable source. After analyzing fact and legend, Dan suspects that his brother may have fallen through the portal into the parallel world and is being held captive by the fifty fiends. Join Dan and three friends as they embark on an out-of-this-world journey where they are hunted by savage beasts along the footpath to a demonic castle.

The protagonist, Dan Clay is everything a hero shouldn’t be. He’s picked on and mercilessly bullied and publicly harassed in school. However we find out that Dan always wasn’t this way - this retreat into a shell was caused by the mysterious disappearance of his elder brother Willian thirteen years prior.

A faithful Catholic family, the Clays haven’t really recovered from the loss of William. Then suddenly Dan lands himself in a place where he seems to discover the truth of the matter - a parallel world; full of fiends so ruthless that hell wasn’t enough to hold them.

It is to this world that Dan to must journey & we see him and his three friends battle mystical and evil creatures in the dark forest in their quest to reach the castle where William is suspected to be help captive by the fiends.

It’s a dangerous and life threatening journey and it makes for an interesting ride for the reader.

T. J. Smith does a great job in bringing the parallel world alive and skillfully weaving a story of faith, morals & character - and all in a very refreshingly Catholic light.

If you’re stuck for gift ideas this Christmas for young adults or lovers of sci-fi action, this may well be an excellent choice!

[Will review 'The Harrowing Escape'; the second book in the trilogy shortly. Book three is scheduled for release early 2010.]

Great Expectations

Tension ran high during the final seconds of the match as the home team made one last, desperate push toward the goal. Down one to nil, they needed the equaliser or the match was lost. The home team expected their two prolific forwards to come through again.

Both players charged toward the goal, defenders desperately trying to stop the inevitable. The hometown hero drove hard down the left into the 18-yard box, blasting a shot toward the right corner. The sweeper brilliantly deflected the shot toward the middle, only to have the hometown center put a curving shot toward the left corner.

The diving goalie fisted the ball to the left and into the waiting chest of the hometown midfielder, who cushioned the ball to the ground and fired at the goal. The ball smacked the post and bounced harmlessly away toward the corner as time expired. The only sound in the stadium was the whooping cheers of the visitors.

The home town fans expected one of their two great forwards to tie the match. The action in front of the visiting net made a score seem likely. When the mid-fielder took the shot, every fan in the stadium stood, expecting - knowing - that the equaliser was about to be scored. Imagine the deep disappointment when what seemed likely faded away into a scenario never considered.

During this Advent season, I find myself facing a scenario I never considered. The prevailing economic conditions here in the U.S., my continued unemployment and other circumstances weigh heavily in my life. I never expected to find myself in this kind of situation. I had hoped to find work quickly after graduating school last year. More often than not, I feel like the mid-fielder, having kicked the ball off the post. Things look kinda bleak, if I’m to be honest with you. Which is why my expectations surprise me a little bit.

You see, I find myself, surprisingly, not too worried about my economic status. In fact, I am remarkably peaceful on these things. God continues to provide for my family’s needs, so I gratefully count my blessings. But this isn’t why I’m surprised. I’m surprised because there is in me this deep, deep expectation that God will show himself to me in a way I haven’t known before.

For a time, this was, for me, like the pained silence after the missed kick off the post. Hopes and dreams shattered in a moment, leaving only the bitter taste of defeat. Still, I began to hear things again, like an old familiar melody. The are birds singing, even though it’s winter. The wind is dancing through the trees while they clap their empty fingers in rhythm. Someone is laughing, off in the distance. I can even hear my own heartbeat from time to time. Amid this music, playing within the silence, I am surprised by the simple joy within me as I look for Him.

I expect to hear His voice call out to me and see His smile as he warmly embraces me. I expect to sit with Him and speak with Him and hear what He has to say about the things going on today. I expect to encounter Him in prayer and in the Word. I expect to embrace Him fully in the Eucharist, and see to His needs in the poor and the hungry. I expect to find Him in the unlikeliest of places and hope to see Him when I least expect Him. I look for Him around every corner and scan for Him amid the faces in the crowd. Like the deer that pants for living water, I am delightfully surprised that my soul, my heart, and all that is within me is aching with a deep, deep longing for Him. I just want Him. I even think I am beginning to understand when the woman said “If I could only touch the hem of His garment…”

So I wait. With great expectations.

Review: “The Clown of God” by Tomie dePaol

Suffer children to come to me and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child shall not enter into it. - Luke 18: 16-17

“Many, many years ago, in Sorrento, there lived a small boy named Giovanni who had no mother and no father. He dressed in rags and begged his bread and slept in doorways.

But he was happy, and he could do something wonderful…

He could juggle.”

So begins the beautiful tale of the boy who escapes poverty through his God-given gift; a gift that propels him to unlikely fame, has him traveling the land, and sought-after by dukes and princes. The highlight of his performance is always the same: a rainbow of colored balls, crowned by a golden one he calls the “Sun in the Heavens.” For years, he leads a life of ease and comfort.

Eventually though, Giovanni finds that he has grown old, and his skills have diminished. He has become poor again. Alone. But this time, he lacks the thing that sustained him in his youth - happiness. He decides to return to the home of his childhood. And it is in the monastery in his Sorrento that he returns to God the only thing that he had left - his gift. And in doing so, he becomes like a child again. Giovanni shows us that it’s not what we give, it’s the love with which we give it that counts.

“For You, sweet Child, for You!” he cries in the dramatic finale.

After thirty years, this simple retelling of an old French miracle story still leaves me choking back tears as I read it to my own children. Sometimes as adults living in a hostile and jaded world, it’s easy to forget that God loves each and every one of us, and especially so the lowly, the bankrupt and defeated. Overtly mimicking “Le Jongleur de Dieu,” with its message of the naively-genius spirituality of Saint Francis, you’ll also find this story engulfed in the theology of Saint Therese’s “Little Way.”

Simply written, and lovingly illustrated with sensually soft watercolors, The Clown of God is Tomie dePaola’s own gift to us that should be a treasured part of every child’s library. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself returning to its pages even more often than your child.

The Clown of God (ISBN 978-0156181921), first published in 1978, is still in print and available through many outlets, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For Unto Us

Dear Brother / Sister in Christ,

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6)

What an awesome privilege. Yet do we realize it. Unto us. Not only unto the Jews, not only unto the whole world, not only unto the entire humanity, but unto ‘us’ a child is born. For you and me. We could so easily lose this very ‘specific’ reason of the coming of our Lord in all the communal preparation and celebrations. He comes for us. And should we need even further confirmation (now from the New Testament), then the words of the angels are even more specific, “For to you this day, a Saviour has been born, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). To You. And Me. WOW!!!

And so this month, in line with the Church’s wisdom, in the season of Advent (ad venio: to come to) we focus on preparation for His coming. Preparing the only home the Saviour desires. The heart of humanity. Beginning with your heart and mine.

As we rush around our homes ‘spring cleaning’ for Christmas, we slow down and silence our hearts and souls to clean them for the ‘spring’ – “Lo, how the shoot is springing from Jesse” (Is 11:1) (Jer 33:15). And the manner we do this, is two-fold,
1. We seek the light and guidance of the Holy Spirit to clear out the dirt and grime from our hearts. Hidden sins, vulnerable areas, hurts, guilt, shame – all the mess and dung we have collected. Day by day we surrender to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary and Joseph who removed the dung and mess from the manger and replaced it with the warmth of love and adoration.
2. With the help of our Divine Helper, we forgive all the people who have hurt us and release all the anger and revengeful feelings we are carrying. We bless them and pray for them (Mt 5:44), with the love of Jesus. Truly, we can love God only as much as we love the person we love the least.

And while we transform our guilt-edged hearts into gilt-edged hearts, we decorate them with acts of love for the Christ Child. Each day till Christmas, we take step after thoughtful step, in reaching out to Jesus dwelling in our less-fortunate brethren. Thus, this December, our Intercessory Diary is different. Our focus this month continues to be prayer – but coupled with action. There is a suggested activity each day – sometimes as simple as sharing a smile or a glass of water. A ‘lived’ spirituality bringing to life the message of Christmas, “Peace to earth, Goodwill to Men”(Lk2:14). May we be the bearers of the light, amongst people “in deep darkness” (Is 9:2).

We also focus our prayers in the Christmas-octave on the family; that our Christian families be modelled on the Holy Family, rooted and grounded in love and nourished by the Word and the Sacraments.

As we come to the end of yet another year, I thank God for each one of you who have journeyed and laboured with us in prayer each day of this year. May we be assured that ‘in the Lord, our labour is not in vain’ (1Cor15:58). I once again assure you of the prayers of the Sanctuary Intercessors of the Fellowship of the Burning Bush and seek your prayers for us. With gratitude we thank God for the year that has been, and in faith, we thank him for the year to come. We wish you and your families a Blessed Christmas and a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led New Year 2010. God bless you.

We don’t know what the future holds, but we know Who holds our future. Maranatha.

December 2009

Daily Intercessions through the Word of God – December 2009
Sanctuary Intercessors – India Branch of FBB
International Catholic Charismatic Missionary Intercessors of the Fellowship of the Burning Bush (FBB)
The ‘Intercession Diary’ has the approval and blessings of the Bishops’ Team of the Archdiocese and contains intentions of our Cardinal and the Bishops
(Join us in agreement to intercede each day according to the Scriptures, ask the Holy Spirit how to pray to actualize God’s promises in each situation)

Day/Date Interceding According to the Mind of Christ
Tue
1/12/2009 Luke 2:7And she gave birth to her firstborn son … and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn
This month we travel to the manger. Step by step. But not only in prayer, but also action. We replace the coldness of the night that welcomed the Christ Child and the coldness of humanity that closed its doors on Him, with the warmth of the love He has poured into our hearts. We take one step a day towards the manger, bringing Him our simple gifts – our prayers and acts of love. Today, World Aids Day, we pray for all those abandoned due to the dreaded disease. Step for today: Visit/call a person affected by AIDS or any incurable disease

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