KSJ DECEMBER 2015

DECEMBER 2015DECEMBER 2015 Writers’ ForumWriters’ Forum0202

EDITORIALEDITORIALVishwas Misquith SJVishwas Misquith SJ

he cry of intolerance is resounding in our

ears. The horror of fundamentalism both in TIndia and around the world, especially

'ISIS' in Iraq and Syria, is troubling our peace. The

tradition of black money and corruption in India is

ruining the developmental works of our nation. This

also results in a wide gap between the rich and the

poor. The cry of our dear mother earth is unheard.

Pollution keeps increasing, causing high

temperatures and turbulence in the weather; natural

calamities keep increasing. And much more is

happening around us,

disturbing us from all the

four corners of the world.

And in this background

we are going to celebrate

the birthday of our dear

Lord Jesus – 'Prince of

Peace', 'Saviour of the

World', 'Ray of Hope to

the Hopeless'.

H o w d o w e

address and face the

challenges of the world

as we gear up for the

solemn celebration of

Christmas? That remains

a question. The call to be

instruments of peace and love in this war- stricken

world is a challenging call and no one dares to

challenge these conflicting situations. And on the

other hand the world longs for peace. Today Jesus

calls and appoints us to be 'Saviours' in the

challenging situations of our lives and the lives of

others. Can we be the bearers of peace in our own

houses/communities and neighbourhood?

We are all called to be 'Saviours' in this

world, especially during this Christmas. 'Saviours',

to the people suffering and suffocating from the

different problems of the world. Can we practice the

beautiful prayer of St Francis of Assisi, of being an

instrument of peace, to spread love where there is

hatred, to bring pardon for the injured, to deepen the

faith when doubt arises, to be a sign of hope to those

in despair, to be light to those in darkness, and to be

joy to those in sadness?

L e t t h i s

Christmas be a

special one to all of

u s o f b e i n g a

saviour to those in

need, those who

long for love, peace

and harmony, those

who are mislead by

the desires of the

w o r l d , v i z .

corruption, drugs

a n d w o r l d l y

p l e a s u r e s ,

p r o t e c t i n g t h e

mother ea r th -

p r o t e c t i n g h e r

r i g h t s , a n d

especially to the

poor and the homeless. So that when Jesus comes

again in his glory may see his dream of kingdom of

God fulfilled.

This issue of Christmas is on the theme 'Saviour in

today's World'. Wishing you happy reading.

We wish you all a joy-filled Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

Lancy Fernandes SJLancy Fernandes SJ

hristmas of today is romanticized and

sentimentalized. The culture of sending CChristmas cards though is becoming less,

shows sanitized cribs, well cleaned stables, soft hay,

clean swaddling clothes and well dressed parents.

Was it so systematically arranged? How can

Christmas make sense to this modern technological

world of today? How can it be communicated to this

generation? We need to look at Christmas in the

media ethos, namely in the

language of communication

and social networking.

G o d b e g a n h i s

n e t w o r k o f d i a l o g u e

(relationship) with us

through nature and the

creation of the first humans.

But then this network of

d ia logue encounte red

several constraints because

of a barrier called sin that led

to lack of adequate signals

from above. Thus God and

humans lost the eternal

connectivity (relationship)

that was open from creation.

But then God from his side,

sent several linesmen like

the prophets, the judges and

people filled with the Spirit to repair these broken

lines of dialogue. Yet they were not efficient enough

to restore the connectivity of signals. There was a

need for a major restoration project. God felt that the

best solution would be to meet the issue face-to-face.

Thus he opted for an 'incarnational dialogue' with

humans rather than through an electronic gadget.

The Depth of God's Dialogue:

The word 'dialogue' comes from the Greek word

(dia+logos = Word across). This can be understood

as Word (Logos) coming across to us. Christ's

coming broke the barriers created by sin and

smoothened the lines of communication between

God and humans, thus truly indicating that there can

be nothing greater, more intimate relationship

(communication) between two persons than by his

becoming one like us - a

lesson for us to live by.

The Christmas carols we

sing flow from the joy of

c e l e b r a t i n g G o d ' s

threefold dialogue with

us: a dialogue of love, of

s a c r i f i c e a n d o f

simplicity.

a) Dialogue of love –

Only love can explain

how a master can serve a

slave, a king his subject

and the creator his

creature. God, out of his

great love, wanted to be

one with us in love (Jn 3:

16). Thus this dialogue of

love was of great risk for

the Almighty, because

love involves risk.

b) Dialogue of sacrifice – Jesus did not mind

leaving his honour and prestige for our sake (Phil 2:

6-11). This dialogue involved pain and animosity.

God knew that the world would not recognize him

easily, yet he took the plunge to come closer to us so

as to make us His own.

0303 Writers’ ForumWriters’ Forum

THE CELEBRATION OF GOD'S TRIPTYCH

DIALOGUE WITH HUMAN BEINGS



DECEMBER 2015DECEMBER 2015

c) Dialogue of simplicity – He could have chosen a

palace to be born in when coming into this world.

But he chose a manger to tell us that greatness before

God is not in having status or power or wealth, but in

possessing the power of love. Simplicity of God was

God's option to side with the poor, the less

privileged and the ignored lot. By this he restored

the sacredness of human dignity and assured that

God sees the heart of

the poor that is always

dependent on Him

rather than the ones

tha t a re busy in

building a life of

c o m f o r t a n d

s o p h i s t i c a t e d

technology.

Yes, through this

triptych of dialogue he

meant to renew the

relationship with us

and his creation.

Christmas Today:

Today Christ needs to

be the focus of our

celebration. Santa

needs to become like

John the Bapt is t ,

giving the centre-stage to Christ. This is very evident

today as most non-Christians think it is Santa's b'day.

The birthday baby whom we need to admire and

emulate seems to be forgotten.

Christ is not going to be born again during Christmas. Therefore cribs and decorations are not the focus of Christmas.

They are helps to create an atmosphere of

celebration of God's goodness to us through the

triptych dialogue. We need to gain inspiration from

the silent dialogue of God for our life. The mystery

of incarnation in Christmas reminds us how we can

be renewed to be Christ-like in the world through

our self-sacrifice, unconditional love and joy of

simplicity of life.

Christmas should be

a season of renewing

relationships at the core.

Relationships today have

distorted the understanding

of agreement. Dialogue

between couples has come

down to the minimum.

Christmas is a time to

renew our age-old way of

f a c e - t o - f a c e

communication which has

become less attractive

today. Social media and

mobiles have created more

barriers to intimacy than

being helps to build

relationships.

“The human person

is both the event and locus

of God's self-communication (dialogue) in Jesus

Christ,” says Karl Rahner. Through this dialogue,

God offered divine life and divine qualities to

humanity to live by. He became God in a human way

and human in a divine way by his self- giving and

self-revelation. Are we ready to imbibe the message

of the Triptych dialogue of Christmas?


Lancy Fernandes SJLancy Fernandes SJContd. from pg. 3Contd. from pg. 3

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS THE CELEBRATION OF GOD'S TRIPTYCH





ears ago Fr Lancy D'Souza, of a certain

diocese in North India had to travel back Yto his mission place from Mangalore

central railway station via Mumbai. He boarded the

Matsyagandha Express. His tickets were confirmed.

He felt within himself a kind of fear of travelling.

Meanwhile he received a call on his mobile of his

friend priest of Mangalore diocese who requested

him not to travel since an important programme was

arranged in the city. Fr Lancy walked back to his

house. On his way back he regretted for cancelling

the tickets. He could not understand why he felt a

great relief in

cancelling his

tickets. The next

morning as he

woke up he found

many missed

calls in his mobile

and an SMS that

r e ad , “P l ea se

watch any news

channel.” The

news was “Matsyagandha Express derails; 14

dead”.

I was in a remote mission station for my

Christmas ministry. I left no stone unturned to make

the celebration a memorable one to the people. The

church was shining with colourful lights.

Everything was set ready. The church was full with

the faithful. It was 11:45pm and we were about to

begin the vigil Mass. My choir members were eager

to sing the entrance hymn. Suddenly the electricity

went off. Everything came to a standstill. We had no

other alternative power suppliers. All were quiet. I

was sitting near a window, desperate within myself

as to what to do.

I saw the full moon shining brightly and shedding

his light on us through the windows. I asked the

people to open the windows widely. In such a silence

a month-old child cried loudly. Our choir began the

entrance hymn Silent Night. A true Christmas

indeed!

We have burdened ourselves with external

pomp. Our external sounds of Christmas have

engulfed us. I may be mistaken in generalizing but

truth is that we spend minimum time in listening to

our inner voice in the month of December. We

strongly believe

t h a t e x t e r n a l

p r e p a r a t i o n s

would help us in

i n t e r n a l

preparation. Why

can it not be other

way round?

Today we are

challenged with

many ex t e rna l

forces. We are afraid of speaking aloud our religious

convictions. Every new rule and project of the

government is motivated by polarization. We find

clouds surrounding us and curtailing our freedom to

live and to profess our faith.

Our Christmas can be meaningful if Christ is

realized in our day-to-day activities. Advent is not a

time for just waiting. It is a time of waiting for us. We

need to come back to ourselves. We need to realize

that our inner voice is more important than the

external voices. He wants a place to be born in us. He

wants us to be simple in our hearts. Let our hearts be

ready to welcome Him.


LET EVERY HEART

PREPARE HIM ROOM

LET EVERY HEART

PREPARE HIM ROOM Anush D’Cunha SJAnush D’Cunha SJ


What is life? It is a mystery. The famous

Philosopher Gabriel Marcel would define mystery as

that thing which I am part of. Life is definitely part of

me. At times it thrills, at times it satisfies, at times it

showcases the greatest of my gifts while at some

other times it even pins me down or hangs me upon

my weaknesses. Life is that which ushers itself in

with a cry and takes its leave with a moan. All this

gives life its meaning.

Life is popularly associated with movement,

for that which

does not move

is suspected to

b e d e a d .

Science also

upholds the

l a y m a n ' s

notion of life as

a c t i v i t y .

Bishop Fulton

Sheen would

go one step

f u r t h e r i n

defining life as

an immanent activity. The lowest forms of beings are

minerals and chemicals formed deep inside the

earth. Needless to say they that are part of the

mineral kingdom, belong to the non-living. To these

activity is supplied from outside. For living things

activity is supplied from within. A plant grows from

within. It has the power of generation, it can grow

mysteriously by itself and it can nourish itself. But a

plant is made to remain fixed in one place. The

greater the immanent activity, the greater is the life.

An animal has a higher life than a plant, the beast has

a fuller life than the grass it eats, so also does the bird

than the pollen it gathers.

Therefore animals have a twofold immanent

activity, one of movement and the other of sense

perception. But animals are bound by their instincts.

Moving one step higher in the hierarchy of

all created things is the creation of human beings.

Humans have a higher immanence, namely of

thinking and willing. What makes human life

special is the capacity for knowledge and for love. A

thought in the mind of a human being is equally

spiritual as is the activity of an animal towards

g e n e r a t i n g i t s

kind. The Psalmist

has wonderfully

s a i d t h a t l i f e

c o n s i s t s i n

k n o w l e d g e .

Others are doomed

t o s a m e n e s s ;

humans on the

other hand are

g i f t e d w i t h

creativity. Above

all things, we have

the capacity to

commune with the Ultimate that is good, true and

beautiful. A stone will fall according to the law of

gravity, an animal will be a slave to its instincts

whereas a human being has got the capacity to make

a free choice: to do or not to do a thing. This choice

comes from within. We are co-creators. We have the

capacity to choose something as our food, the power

to harness the waterfall, even to treat nature as we

like. But how can we become perfect? Neither

minerals, nor plants nor animals nor even human

beings can be looked up to as models of perfection.

Perfect life is that which is free and independent of

everything else. That is what I would call God.

THE GIFT OF LIFETHE GIFT OF LIFERyan Rodrigues SJRyan Rodrigues SJ

0606 Writers’ ForumWriters’ ForumDECEMBER 2015DECEMBER 2015

Life is God's greatest gift to us and what we

do out of it is our gift, given back to God. The glory

of God is man and woman, fully human and fully

alive, happy and holy. Life is full of experiences and

the only thing that we have to do is to pursue these

experiences awaiting us. That is immanence. Don't

we find it so very meaningful? Yes, Life is wonderful

and worth living.

The month of December is special for us

Christians. We celebrate God who came and pitched

his tent among us. He chose to live among us. This is

the mystery of the incarnation. By taking human

nature upon Himself, the second person of the

Trinity laid aside his divine prerogative to sanctify

us, to save us and to redeem us. The human body is

therefore not a thing to be despised; rather it's a

temple of the Holy Spirit. As we celebrate the birth

of our Saviour we celebrate the gift of life in all its

fullness. Let us cherish this gift and live it to the full.

Merry Christmas!


JESUS OUR SAVIOURJESUS OUR SAVIOUR

Arun Lobo SJArun Lobo SJ

Contd. from pg. 6Contd. from pg. 6

Jesus, you are our holy Saviour

You came down to transform our career

You are always very near

We can find you in the

poor.

For us, Jesus, you were

born

You were made to

wear the crown of

thorns

Your life was of one

marked to die

After your death

millions cried.

You're at our side through times

good and bad

You are with us when we are

happy and sad

All we need is to see you

though in poverty clad.

We brought along no

gold or silver

Save ourselves, but

found the empty manger.

Help us to see you in a

stranger

And proclaim that you're our Saviour.

THE GIFT OF LIFETHE GIFT OF LIFERyan Rodrigues SJRyan Rodrigues SJ


“Christmas, my child, is love in action.

Every time we love, every time we give,

it’s Christmas”

“Christmas, my child, is love in action.

Every time we love, every time we give,

it’s Christmas”

PEARLSPEARLS


Dale EvansDale Evans

Jo

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tin

SJ

Jo

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KSJ DECEMBER 2015

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