What is TRUTH?

          Once, during my Hermeneutics class for the third year philosophy students, I posed a question to the students, What is TRUTH? and in fact I asked them to write and come for tomorrow's class. Well on the next morning it was interesting to see what is truth for them.

         However, I was glad to hear from a particular student's perspective on what truth is. He said, the truth is relative and it is all matter of one's disposition and attitude to the reality and of course with one's self. There cannot be any objective truth.

       The truth is always relative because he has his own truth, she has her own truth and there is also the truth itself. So, it is highly personal to accept or hold on to what exactly a truth or the truth is....

FAITH: A COVENENTAL GIFT...

All of us who believe Jesus as the savior and redeemer can raise with one voice echoing that Jesus is truly Son of God. Well, it is very nice and easy for us to utter that Jesus is our Lord. But, let me ask you what exactly is FAITH? Off late I have experienced how difficult it is/was to define what Faith is. However, the probable answers could be Faith is what I believe, Faith is what the Church teaches, Faith as what my fore-fathers believed  and handed down to us etc.,  

I would like to give an explanation about what faith is. Faith is first and foremost a gift of God, as we learn from our catechism. When it is a gift, it is free and benevolent. Now you might ask me a question saying, do we deserve this gift? My answer would be No. We do not deserve the gift of Faith. Because we have no reasons to take on our credit for the gift of faith. In fact we have lost the loving relationship with God as existed between God our first parents before the original sin. Yet, the wonderful thing about our God is that he never abandoned us. He never let us go to the dust. Because he created us in his own image and likeness. Which means God is deeply in love with you and me. Hence, he cannot but save us from our peril. To this eternal endeavour he had to send his only son to be one among us and be put to death. Thus he paid his own blood as a ransome for our salvation. The Bible gives us many accounts of the individuals who kept faith in God despite the danger posing under their nose.

This reminds me of the faith of Abraham, Moses and Mary who were called forth by God and responded to Him faithfully. We know the result of their faith in God. One has become the father of the faith for the generations and the other led the Israelite to the promised land and Mary was privileged to be the Mother of the saviour. 

One who believes faith as the gift of God then will surely bound to know that he/she is called to go forth where people are crying for need and for God; just like Abraham for the generations, Moses to the captive Isralites and Mary to the Elizabeth who was in need. Like wise, you are being formed to serve the people waiting for you. Now the question could be who are those people waiting for you...?  This could be the mission and the charism that we are entrusted with. Therefore, our faith never demands the service rather commands our disposition, availability and accountability. 

St James reminds us in his letter that faith without works makes no meaning. Therefore, Faith is also thanking God for the gifts received. If we thank God for the simple things that we have, I am sure God will give us more and more to be grateful to Him more. Because God likes to be blessed by his creatures. This we can witness where in the Gospels ten lepers get healed on the way but only one leper returns to Jesus in gratitude. Therefore, if we practice our faith then, we will not be in the list of those ungrateful lepers. Jesus asks, where are the nine lepers?

Great things happen when God mixes with us, great and beautiful and wonderful things. Faith is like a rudder that directs the captain of the ship to sail over the ocean of life that encounters waves of difficulties, struggles, and deep ice burgs of temptations and unwanted desires in the course of life’s journey. It is through faith we will be able to sail the ocean of our life safely in spite of umpteen number of troubles that come on our way. For when Jesus is our Friend who can stand against us. Therefore, dear friends Faith is like ice cube, either you use it if not you lose it. Faith as a gift of God reminds us time again that we cannot reach God through our intellect. Only through the rudder of our faith we will be able to sail our life of faith. Faith reminds us that God calls us despite knowing our weaknesses. Because he first loved and formed us as his beloved. Only through Holy Spirit we learn to live in faith. Because it is the spirit that teaches us everything. Thus dear friends we are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ. Because faith reveals to us what is Truth, what is Righteousness and Gospel Peace. Thus we are justified by our faith. 

Dear friends I am sure you will now agree with my statement that faith is the gift of our Covenental God. So, faith is generous, gratuitous and benevolent gift of our covenental God. So, since faith is a gift we need to nurture it and treasure it while accepting and believing all the sacraments as the external means of internal grace. We can never forget the fact that Faith is God’s initiative to save his lost sheep in the wilderness and in sin. Our task is to respond to the precious and generous gift of faith and express our gratitude while part taking in the sacraments. That’s how we in turn give our positive appreciation for the unconditional initiative of God. For this, there are individual and collective moments of prayer and adoration in the catholic services where we thank God and engage in dail 

Faith beyond boarders...

ouge with him and thus we enter into a covenental relationship with him. Therefore, faith metaphorically speaking is like a rudder that directs first the captain of the ship and then all the passengers in the ship.

Dear friend, I would like to conclude by quoting the scripture that we no longer go by our sight rather go by our faith. (2 Corinthians 5: 7) Because, We look at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2: Corinthians 4:16-18)

Br Naresh Neelam, SDB

LIFE; RELATIONSHIPS

Today life is on the rat race. What I mean by saying this is very simple. Life is noting but of relationship. This presupposes that life is all about relationships. That's might be the reasons why Philosophers have that we are social animals.What ever be the reason in our relationships there are three levels. Relationship with oneself (intra), relationship with the other (inter) and relationship with God (spiritual). So, now we know that life is not a single commodity but a series of relationships. Primarily of all these three, Intra relationship is primordial. Because this is where one is in touch with oneself. In this process one comes to know the depth of person hood. In this process of knowing one's relationship with oneself, one also comes to about the quality and quantity of his/her contribution to the other.

One can give something to the other only if one has something inside. For example, I can only what I have, either ignorance or wisdom. If I have ignorance I share ignorance, if I have wisdom I share wisdom. 
So, it is always an ideal thought that one require to build up not only external personality also internal depth and integrity of character and person hood.

Path Breaking Problems

            Dear Friendz, I am staying in Hyderabad during this summer 2012-2013 for my holidayz. Over here I got an opportunity to address young people of our Campus and around. Well they are about 35 of them, of which the boys were in minority. I just wish to pen down the sum and substance of my interaction with those youngsters.

            It is always interesting to have an interaction with the young people of current generation. One of the reasons could be their multiple dimension of mindset and varied interests of habits and what not. Therefore without much thinking I  agreed to interact with them.

            Today, young  people are in a way like moving machines and magics. Because they think that they can move all, on speed and instant. As a result they also wish and desire to have things immediately and move things instantly. This tells us that they (youngsters) have no time to waste in thinking and reflecting. We can see this mindset even in the market terminology 'Instant Coffee',  'Fast Foods', 'Fast Track' and etc. 

            I am reminded of the person who goes to the church for a favor from God. He asks God, "Dear please give me the gift of patience but immediately." This exactly the attitude to the current generation. May be may not be.  But what is my concern is to make the (youth) to  think about what they are thinking about their attitude. So, we must focus on our attitude and mind set in all our decisions and the circumstances. If not we may also end up our life just like the person  who asked God for the gift of patience but on condition of immediacy.

The Secret Word of FR. AURELIUS MASCHIO

Aurelius Maschio was born on 12^th February 1909, in the village of Vazzola in Italy. His father Giuseppe was a firm, hardworking and kind business man who was noted for his devotion for God. Aurelius’ mother Orsolina Dalla Cia was known for her prudence and qualities of heart. She attended to all her children’s needs with utmost love, of which Aurelius was the sixth of the twelve. Thus with her nature and grace she won the affection and friendship of the other mothers around the village. In spite of a big family, twelve children, nine brothers and three sisters they were yet a happy family. That highlights the saying ‘a family that prays together lives together.’

Once his elementary school master said: “He is an intelligent and diligent student endowed with strong good will.” So, his parents chose Genoa, a long way from home, about two hundred miles over the plains of Lombardy to reach the Salesian school at Sampierdarena. There came a time where he revealed to his parents about his desire to become a priest, to which his parents gave a smile and agreed to join him to a minor seminary. Then before joining in the Apostolic School at Penango in Piedmont, he got clarity about God’s call and told his parents about it. His parents supported him saying ‘If God calls; we cannot but say ‘yes.’’ On 5^th October, 1924 at a grand and moving ceremony in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, he received the missionary Cross along with other 18 Salesians as missionaries.

It was on 17^th November, 1924 that he first stepped into Indian sub continent where God would work wonders through him. He was sent to North-East India. What a change from sunny Italy, the land of olives trees and wine to the humid and green plains of Assam known for its forests and wild life. Yet the energetic youngster was a hero of the context with his passion for Christ; professed in Shillong on Christmas night 1925. On completion of his philosophical studies in Shillong he worked at St. Anthony’s High School as a teacher. After which it seemed as if heaven was in a great hurry to make him a priest, so after completing his hard study from 1930–1933 by kerosene and candle light, at the age of twenty four, the most joyous day of his life dawned. It was on 29^th April 1933 he was ordained as a priest by Mgr. Perrier, Archbishop of Calcutta. Then he was assigned as an assistant parish priest to Fr. Mlekus at Cherrapunjee for six months. His pastoral love, commitment and dedication found no barriers, neither of language nor of culture and habits of people. What a thrill he must have had being an Italian, in learning and writing Khasi. He made used the language of the locality to enter into the lives of the poor. To his credit he mastered the language so well that he wrote two books in Khasi of which, the Government of Assam used as the text books for the Khasi Schools.

This speaks how much was rooted in Assam, mastered language, culture and habits. Suddenly when he received his new assignment to leave for Bombay he felt as if he was being uprooted from the North East India. It was like a thunderbolt not only in his heart but also in the hearts of the people whom he administered tirelessly with the pastoral love of the Good Shepherd. However, he took it up with complete trust in God and obediently moved to Bombay as his new mission field. It was in 1936 at the age of twenty seven, still in the freshness of his youth, he reached Bombay with a spontaneous smile on his lips, hoping for the best to come. His openness to learn another culture and another language was something to be appreciated. This was how he transformed the practical challenges into profound opportunities to draw more people to God.

As soon as Fr Maschio arrived in Bombay he resolved that the number increase ten times over, where he was assigned to care 500 boys at Don Bosco School at Tardeo. There he started putting into action some ambitious plans and began looking for a dream-plot for his dream-school to another hired bungalow at Cumballa Hill. In 1939 he acquired a plot for a school at Matunga which was a muddy mosquito-infested piece of land in the middle of nowhere. At that time there were many comments, one of many was “Could he not find a better place?” Who knows what might come, for, God’s ways are not our ways. Don Bosco High School today is considered a ‘premier’ institution thanks to his vision. All these will solemnly proclaim that he was a man of great vision. He opened a Technical Institute of St Joseph’s which today houses the prestigious BIT (Bosco Institute of Technology.) Then for orphans and boys from unstable homes, he opened Dominic Savio Boys Home at Andheri…and many other institutions in and around the city.

Here a building was completed but elsewhere a foundation had already been laid shows that the cement never dried upon his ongoing visions. Yet, it was not a multiplicity of schools but a mosaic of institutions tailored to suit the needs of the youth. To make the youth good Christians and honest citizens he opened an orphanage, a seminary, a technical workshop. Today, for instance, at the headquarters at Matunga, Mumbai, there is a Skills Training Centre that equips young, bright and less fortunate youngsters from the bastis–slums around, to improve their communication skills, with the basics of conversational English and a smattering of computers to work and live well in the society. It was the city of Bombay that was destined to witness be the magic of touch of Fr. Maschio while he transformed a barren muddy wasteland into the imposing complex of buildings that is today Don Bosco High School, Matunga, Provincial Headquarters, Shrine office and the grand richly-decorated shrine in honour of Mary Help of Christians and the vast playgrounds. Through his monthly “Don Bosco’s Madonna”, eagerly awaited in thousands of homes, he still continues to bring the message of Christ, the example of His Blessed Mother and the teachings of the Saints to innumerable souls all over the country and abroad. He had a great heart for the poor and the deprived of society while he used to provide food for hundreds of poor people. Even today this yeoman service is continued giving bread and alms to the in the poor in the surroundings of the shrine.

Every magician has a secret word, a word from which one would obtain strength. It was the same with Fr. Maschio who had been reputed to have had the golden touch that came from his secret word. He kept it in his heart, loved it and cherished it from the days of his youth, throughout his life in India. The magic word that kept Fr Maschio was the dearest prayer of our Father and Founder St John Bosco that echoes everyday in the heart of every Salesian as “MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS.” This word was his key strength to accomplish all his efforts and endeavors as a dynamic Salesian, visionary and a Pioneer. He is exceptionally an icon of inspiration for all of us as we aspire to imitate the same charism of Don Bosco.  

WHY EVER SEXUAL ASSAULTS & VIOLENCE?

Before I begin to write my reflections I wish to share about how I spent time struggling to frame the title. Sincerely speaking, there were many thoughts going crossing my mind, for example, off late sex in the nation, values taken for granted, Sex violence in India and etc. What I want to tell you is that, the sex violence has become so common that, any title is accepted for the issue to speak on the indecent situation widely prevalent in the country. Especially those are hidden under the carpet.  

Today sex is a well known phenomenon in the society and much more about the current generation. Why all this? However I wish to leave this to your reflection. But I want to bring to your notice something which is shocking indeed. If I ask someone about Indian culture and tradition and value system I am dam sure that the entire nation will roar saying India as the hub of cultures and values. Yes it is all true only in the history of the country, in the books and religions. It is all an external show of which we speak great values. Internally at praxis level it is all a great question mark. This reminds me of the Pharisees and seduces about whom Christ spoke as white washed tombs.

I feel the same with our Indian cultures and tradition in which the vice lies underneath. For example, Indian movies especially, the value systems, culture, comedy and violence projected by the Bollywood, Tollywood, and Kollywood have to be blamed for what is happening in the country today. Some Indian movies like, Dirty Picture, Agneepath, Daisy Boys, Thupaki, 22 Female Kottyam, Magadheera and Chatrapati etc. I am sure all these Indian moves irrespective of their region, language, culture and customs have projected a lot of violence, sensation, doubt and immoral values into the minds of the youth and the people. The fights, item songs, lyrics, songs, rape scenes and scenes showing man power, women’s weakness and as attractive, are to be questioned about the intentions that filmmakers, producers and the sponsors have in mind. Do they concern about the youth, children, young men and the students who can very easily carried away by them. I think in the stories that are of stereotype are mostly projecting immorality, vice and what not. I cannot but feel sorry for what is happening. I feel like doing something for the people who are ill treated, deprived and plundered by the strong. Why this? Why this? Whom to blame? Whom to ask?

I think in this regard we need to conscientize the people about the dignity of their life as humans. Because this is the need of the hour in India where women are treated not as co traveller but as an object, as a thing, as a product to be consumed and used. This is very clear when the girl child is not accepted as grace to the family. Girls are not treated equally, in the family father beating the mother, daughters are deprived of the privileges, benefits and education, uncles and nephews abusing the kith and kin. Therefore, we need to question our frame of mind, our mind set, and our belief systems and value system that our mother land stands as an icon to the world at large. Shall we contribute to the growth of the humanity or shall we crucify the women with our muscular power and strength? There are people who are like wolfs in the human skin. Values are at the bottom of everything we do. They determine a lot of what we attempt and accomplish in our lives.

If we give weight and importance to something we will give it time and energy. But can values really be taught, or are they passed on from one generation to another through inspiration and perspiration! Yes I would say. In today’s context this is what missing as the tech and science are advancing with surprise and innovation. As a result we are carried away by the virtual world than our real world. Because of which relationships, friendships, families and life have become suspicious about each other.