WWW: WEALTH, WELLBEING & WORLD

The Web of Life in today's World

25th Sunday in Ordinary time - September 18, 2022
Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

We have needs, wants and desires... they are but human. One has to be attentive about the difference between these three- how many times we confuse among these! Our wants and desires fill our minds so much that we make of them much too big than what they ought to be - we are happy only when we get some desires come true, we are fulfilled only when we get things that we want... yes, we turn these ordinary wants and desires into needs! Just imagine today, the number of things that we have made necessities of life: are they really needs? or just wants and desires? Be what they may be, the fact is that, only when they are fulfilled we are happy and grateful; when they are not, we keep beseeching the Lord, sometimes requesting, sometimes begging, sometimes obstinately pressurising, sometimes fighting, sometimes complaining and so on! 

Prosperity, from the time of the theology of the promised land, has always been looked at as a blessing from the Lord. Even today how many preachers take up this as a way of alluring people - whether tey are alluring towards God or towards themselves - we are not here to judge! The focus here is on that so-called prosperity... in simple terms, Wealth.

Wealth makes our life easy and our living pleasurable. By the very fact that it is a blessing, it is obvious that it is 'given' and it is to be given. Wealth is a means provided for one not only to live his or her life, but also extend his hand to the needy, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the have-nots, so that their life becomes blessed through someone's instrumentality. Wealth, is a blessing, and more over a means, to be a blessing to the others! Prophet Amos minces no words in the first reading today. Swindling the other, manipulating the other and hurting the other for one's own well-being, is not Christian attitude; and it is no well-being at all.

Well-being is not merely one's individual pleasure and possession! Even if one possesses everything, if there is no harmony in his or her surroundings, he or she cannot cherish those possessions. How many individuals who possess enormous riches but lack a internal serenity bear witness to this fact. How many nations today which seem rich and affluent but lack peace and security attest to this fact. Authentic Well-being is harmony in every sense, within oneself, around oneself and with the entire universe! It is the 'quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in everyway', that St. Paul speaks of in the second reading. Selfishness and Greed can never lead us to this well-being. Concern and Compassion, a collective thinking of 'all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth' - only such an outgoing spirit can grant the world, a real Well-being.

The World and the life we live today is an opportunity given to us, reminds Jesus in the Gospel with his intriguing parable of the prudent steward! Intriguing it is, because it seems to advocate slyness and fraud. But that is not the point. The focus lies on another perspective, and it is: however limited and burdensome, the present life we live is all that we have, here and now, to make our journey toward our 'eternal abode' pleasant and meaningful. It is said, how we live our life here will define and determine how we will exist hereafter.

We have the gift and the Giver: of these, what matters to us is the crucial question. It cannot be that both gift and the giver are important - one cannot serve two masters, warns Jesus. Once we give the first place to the Giver, the Eternal giver, the Loving giver, the Wonderful giver, everything else falls in place. Wealth becomes a means, Well-being becomes harmonious living and the World becomes an opportunity for us to create a paradise here and now, as we live our life in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters!

INDIFFERENCE - THE MOST UNCHRISTIAN ATTITUDE OF ALL

From blindness and selfishness to malice

26th Sunday in Ordinary time: September 25, 2022

Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

Indifference, the worst of all vices and the most dangerous of all attitudes, is one thing that can be considered absolutely unchristian, something that the Lord cannot bear! Woe to those who are indifferent, warns prophet Amos. And that is precisely what Jesus presents in his parable too. It is something that God just cannot stand - the Lord will 'spit you' out of his presence, if you are lukewarm (Rev 3:16) and indifferent. If you have a living faith, then fight the good fight of the faith, challenges St. Paul in his letter today. 

'Blessed' are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6), not those who remain in their safe havens caring nothing for anyone around. St. Paul recalls to our minds today, how Jesus bore witness to his faith and to the truth, right upto his cross! "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth," declared Jesus with a courage that disturbed Pilate (Jn 18:37). When it came to bearing witness to truth and righteousness, or feeling compassion for those who were helpless, or reaching out to the sinners and the outcast, or speaking out for the rights of those who were oppressed - of their right to be healed as sons and daughters of God, of their right to dignity and of their closeness to the Reign of God - Jesus never hesitated; and his true disciples would never hesitate too!

Today we live in a world that has innumerable justifications for being indifferent towards others - one's duty and family, corrupt system and government, anti-people policies and laws, legitimate development and technology, rapid growth and advancement - the list can go on endlessly. And it is effortlessly easy to cast the blame on someone else and hide behind the mask of myself being part of the 'affected' and the 'left behind'. In simple terms, the Word challenges me today to place myself in the shoes of the rich man and look at the world around me! Have I done whatever I could in my context, for justice, righteousness, dignity of all and true freedom of the children of God. If I say, 'what can I really do?' - beware, that could be the visible trace of the Indifference within!

Indifference is the most unchristian quality one can have. The readings today outline the three levels in which INDIFFERENCE grows.

First Level: Indifference as a fruit of Blindness - the inability to see the suffering around, the incapacity to sense the heavy burdens that persons around me carry, the failure to feel the unseen tears of those crying out for help... these are unchristian to the core. LOOK says the Lord, perceive the sufferings in the eyes of your brother and sister... even if you cannot do much, atleast be there for them!

Second Level: Indifference as a sign of Selfishness - even after seeing the sufferings and the pain, if I fail to be moved, if I refuse stand by someone because I could get into problems, or because I could lose my opportunity to go ahead in life, or because I could earn enemies in the bargain, I am unworthy of being called a disciple of the Lord who died for me! THINK of others, and not solely of yourself, says the Lord. Can I think of anything other than Me, Myself and Mine? I am my brother's keeper!

Third Level: Indifference as a form of Malice - it is a sin! "Silence encourages the tormentor; never the tormented!" says Elie Wiesel an holocaust survivor, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He continues,"the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." How perfectly Jesus would agree to these words! For, this is what Jesus meant by that parable! 

You just cant be a silent spectator, you just can't stand by the sidewalks and see things happen, not even sit in the stands and cheer! No... FIGHT the good fight of the faith! That means living our life to the full, living our life for the other, living our life in a prophetic sense of love and compassion for the other. Remember, that is how indifference grows and moves - from blindness to the other and selfishness of sorts to malice that makes you evil. 

Let us take care that no trace of indifference invades our lives... we are called to fight, fight the good fight of faith, until we reach the bosom of our loving Father and Mother, as one family in heaven!