MUSIC THAT IS SOUNDLESS

Music Within...is the Voice of God.....

Music that is soundless is a translation of a line from a poem of the mystic John of the Cross by the author Philip McShane. The title is taken purely from the poem “The music without sound/The solitude that clamours.” Very interestingly at one pint the book unfolds the truth that all of us, the entire creation (each member, each group, all are a wave in the eternal truth. He considers life as a crystal tear-drop on which snow falling in the tear-drop and little figures trudging around in slow motion. If we only look into those tear drops for the next million years, we will never figure out who the people are, and what they are doing. Sometimes we sit lonesome for a storm. A full blown storm where everything changes. The sky goes through four days in an hour, the trees wail, little animals skitter in the mud and everything gets dark and completely wild. This he says, God playing music in his favourite cathedral in heaven-thundering on the keys – perfect harmony and perfect symphony and perfect joy. If we are attuned to our self, the other and the nature I am sure will begin to find meaning of the word God growing in our hearts.

He tells us a method by which we begin to understand God. For this he gives an example of the scientific understanding of the self. Just as a blind man cannot understand a disquisition on colours, so a person with no experience of direct understanding cannot be expected to reach by introspection an understanding of what direct understanding is: and similarly a person without experience of introspective understanding cannot be expected to reach by an introspecting of the second order and understanding of what introspective understanding is. One must begin from the performance, if one is to have the experience necessary for understanding what the performance is.”

This is how Bernard Lonergan has explained about the scientific self-meaning of God. Further he adds all ‘Music calls to an ear not the musician’s own, all sculpture to an eye not the sculptor’s, architecture in addition calls to the step as it walks in the building. To summarise, God is Understanding, has a meaning towards which one is oriented by self-appreciation, that it has a meaning which is the meaning of each man’s history and all men’s history, of history and eternity. So we can speak of God as Understanding where one means also LOVE, JOY, DELIGHT, LIFE, ATTENTION etc. Therefore God is the unrestricted act of understanding, the eternal rapture glimpsed in every Archimedian cry of Eureka. So God is glimpsed too in human love and human joy. But if God is glimpsed in the contemporary world it is perhaps partly because there is something inadequate, something sick, about human love and human joy, human aspiration and human meeting. 

Our Creed (Faith) Entails our Deeds

Our Creed (Faith) Entails our Deed

Our Christian faith is a gift of God that strengthens us in Christ individually and collectively. The same faith leads one to cherish personally and share this gratuitous gift with the others in the community. For this common cause the Catholic Church disposes the Liturgy in which the faith is celebrated and shared individually and collectively. As a result, faith becomes a profound belief in the Risen Christ whom we encounter in the event of the Eucharist, as person of Christ himself who humbled down to the simple form of Bread and Wine that we share in communion. Thus, faith is both a personal act that needs to be lived and communicated to the world at large. This is very tangible in the words of St Paul (2 Tim 1: 12) “I know Him in whom I have believed.”

There was a story of a peasant which heard in my early childhood, which I feel wroth sharing with you now. He was a poor peasant lived in a small village. But it was interesting that he was noted for his daily labour and at the same time his trust in God in his own humble manner. So, everyday on his way to the farm land he would stop at the entrance of the gates of the Church and make the sign of the cross and then would go to his work. And again on his return to home he would stop at the gate of the Church and thank God for the day’s labour and would make the sign of the cross and go to his house. This had been his regular practice of day irrespective of sun, shower or wind. Thus he was faithful to his work and worship.

Well, now what I would like to drive home from this small anecdote is very simple. It is just like the letter of St James which tells the Jewish Christians that if it is the real Faith, it will lead to the faithful living. Therefore, for me FAITH is that ties up both my creed and my deed, like the farmer who believed the hand of God in his work and in his work the hand of God. This implies to all of us that we have to give our best in all that we take up and leave the rest to God, just like the farmer, the sowing of the seed was his responsibility, the watering of the seed too was his responsibility but the little green sapling arising from the seed is God’s responsibility. Therefore, Faith teaches us that, once we have done our best, then God will surely do the rest. In this manner faith is simply letting our work in God and letting God in our work just like that of a poor peasant whose work and faith was tied up together.  

St James in his letter (Jas 2: 14-18) says that, Faith is the precious gift of God that nourishes us to savor the love of God at all circumstances irrespective of trails tribulations and triumphs. Because faith without charity bears no fruit, therefore faith and charity each require the other to bear witness Christ like the apostles who fearlessly radiated the word of God across the world. In this regard for us Christians, Jesus is the perfect model of faith because, He was faithful to the Father from the very time he was conceived till the time He was crucified and as a result he was resurrected from the dead as a perfect model for us to look up to him in faith.

Don Bosco for example was indeed an icon for us to imitate him in his faithful living of his/our Master Jesus in a unique way. We see Don Bosco as a powerful communicator of faith in Jesus to the young people. It was very tangible when he used to insist upon the holy sacraments, especially of the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation that which bind them all in the perfect faith in Christ. Therefore, this year of faith is an opportunity for me and for all of us to turn towards Jesus Christ, and encounter him in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and thus we shall rediscover the Faith that we live in Christ.  

We see the world today in deep turmoil and unstable due to the communal violence and many other social and ethical issues which hamper the peace and cause blood shed at the cost of many innocent lives. At this crucial time the apostolic letter of the Holy Father Porta Fidei insists that world is drastically in need of the people of faith and credible witnesses who are enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord to pray and foster the peace and security of all in grace and mercy of God. Thus may our faith in Christ lead us and guide us to foster harmony and equality of all through our faith entailed by faith.

Dear friends in Christ you can catch up with the Holy See’s dedicated web site for the Year of Faith, which provides ample information over the topic:

www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en.html

May the peace of the Risen Lord reign over our lives…Amen…

Naresh Neelam

Thank You

Existence is Victory over Non-Existence

Well, the title is taken from the the words of St Thomas Aquinas the doctor of the catholic Church. He is a great theologian and a philosopher who gave the philosophical reasons to prove how the life/existence is precious on the face of the earth. Indeed it is very true and in agree to his valuable words. The very fact that we are existing is the fact that we have defeated the nonexistence by which there is the victory of life over non-life. Besides this Thomas Aquinas tells us that human mind or the intellect is ever great on this face of the earth if compared to any existing being. 

interdependency

"no man can live as an island" goes an old adage. it indeed true to hundred percentage. for, we all try to live on our own yet we depend upon the others for we cannot but do. 

At the Lap of the Mother Nature

On 23rd March as I was working in our lotus pond (lawn) something captured my mind. I was assigned there to keep the place clean. Since the summer is setting in the trees began to shed the leaves and as we know the place under the trees filled with dry leaves, dry branches and flowers. As I was sweeping the lawn there were many thoughts that were going on in the mind. Something that creped in my mind was a saying that I heard in my school days, “god gives and so the nature gives, God forgives but nature will never forgive.” I hope the message is clear especially as we are the witnesses of the global warming. Besides this, as I was cleaning or sweeping and collecting the Asoka leaves, I suddenly remembered the saying “every dog has it’s day” of course it is in the wrong context but all the same if it cab be applied here each leaf has been the part of the tree but now such leaves are down dried having no sap. I noticed as the wind is strong the leaves rhythmically following down. Such leaves teach a lot. Today this has become a meditative thought for me. After cleaning the lawn I moved to the lotus pond which has got around a dozen lotus flowers. Here the pond became rather dirty due to the dry leaves in the pond. So, I was trying to clean the pond and remove the dry leaves. As I was removing the dry leaves from the water again to my great surprise the water was almost stinking. Yet it is amazing to the lotus fully bloomed on the surface of the pond. I saw keenly into the water, aging to my surprise there were many buds that were getting ready to come out and bloom. I knew that the lotus blooms on the water or rather dirty water. But I never knew that even the preparation to bloom comes out from in side, irrespective of dirt, smell, shade, clean or muddy. It is a great learning for me to realize the lessons of the nature in all its humility and gentleness. The nature is one of the best teachers of the world provided we are keen enough to learn from her invariable teaching.

Learn from me for I am Gentle and Humble in Heart

Today the youth think that they know everything. But they realize later that they knew so little and to be known is vast. Why am I saying this? It is because, very often the youth seemingly speak rash and harsh. They speak like that just because the other is taking their precious time and energy by asking for a favor or begging for little help. They have no time to render their help to the the other but they spend hours and hours spending time at their P.C, Video games or watching television. As Heraclitus rightly said that the world is in a state of flux. Yes the world is in a state of flux not exactly as he meant physically but today it is very true if we notice our behavior, attitude, culture, habits, food and what not. 
Dear friends I myself am not clear about the change and the state of life that we are living today. When God created the the earth and heaven he said that it was all good to his sight. But are we sure that the same God, to say the same thing today while looking at the world. I at times wonder and doubt if Jesus would have lived on this earth today, I don't know how will be facing the world today. 

MARY, A NEW ISRAEL

MARY, A NEW ISRAEL

             I am glad to share with you some of the reflections on the theme “Mary a new Israel.” Before I begin, allow me to acknowledge Fulton J. Sheen whose reflection I am going to share from the theological point of view.

            Dear friends, not one of us has the power to make our own mothers as we wish. If we had this power, I am sure that we would make our mothers most beautiful and most perfect. I made this statement, because Jesus preexisted Mary and so He could make mother perfect and pure. Thus, the concept of the Immaculate Conception pre-exist in the mind of God. He thought of her before she was born.

            When the first Paradise was lost by the sin of our first parents God thought that He would remake paradise which was defiled but not destroyed. So, in the Old Testament we see Israel as a loose woman loved by God. Therefore, God told Moses to make the tabernacle so that He could dwell with his people. The cloud overshadowed the temple of the Lord at day and the Pillar of the Lord at night.  

            In the N.T we see Mary as the new Israel from whom the Lord comes forth. The angel Gabriel asked Mary to become the Mother of God. Mary knowing the consequence of the law replied ‘I’m a virgin, I know not a man. The angel replied “the Holy Spirit will over shadow you.” He will be born of you and shall be called the ‘Son of God.’ As a result the word was made flesh as the tabernacle within her. Mary professed her faith singing the magnificent song “my soul proclaims the Lord and my spirit rejoices in the Lord my Saviour”, as gratitude of His love for her. Later she carried Jesus within her (the body, the blood, the soul and the divinity) to her cousin Elizabeth.

            Thus the womb of Mary was the first tabernacle of God’s presence on the face of the earth. The Eucharist within her is made one with the church and all its members and all humanity. Thus the Church includes Mary as a faithful woman along with this new Israel. As a result we do share the resurrection of the Lord as Mary did.

            She was full of grace, because of which she was able to stand even at the foot of the cross. She is honoured by God as she shares the divinity with her son in her holy conception, passion, assumption and coronation. The church honors her by garlanding her with the four dogmatic mysteries of her life.

            Now what we can take home is very simple. I wish that Her prayers and intercessions make us more aware of the blessings that we are given. As a response let us live our life happily bearing witness to Jesus. Thus may we become like Mary a new Israel to the youth, to friends and more especially to ourselves. May our life and action be a hymn of praise to God like the Magnificat of Mary. 

Thank you