Christmas

Christmas is ChrIst mUst

Christmas is not X’mas

Why do I say Christ must because it is His birthday we celebrate today

Why do I say not X’mas because this “X” is simply cuts/replaces CHRIST which is and must

Hope this Christmas celebration you and I will let Christ enter our hearts for this is the only reason He came into this world to be LOVE.

Let CHRIST be in & LOVE will be...How true the words of this song Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in you heart....

Christmas is CHRIST MASS

Why do I say Christ Mass...

Most of you will be going for midnight Mass...if not midnight at least for Mass...but for what?

Is it to see Jesus or to show ourselves?

Is it to receive Jesus in the form of Holy Eucharist or to receive praises & WOW for ourselves?

Is it to wish Jesus “Happy Birthday” or only to wish each other?

Is it to give Jesus a present/gift or only to take and exchange gifts with each other?

Is it like Jesus a sign and an act “of giving” or only “of receiving”?

Is Jesus the center of today or You and me?

Is it a really real CHRISTMAS or a reel real CHRISTMAS?

DON BOSCO FARM

As I was Reading the note provided by Fr Edison Fernandes SDB Chapter 1 from the French Revolution to the Fall of Napoleon reminded me of a classical novel Animal Farm. This is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. The novel addresses not only the corruption of the revolution by its leaders but also how wickedness, indifference, ignorance, greed and myopia destroy any possibility of a Utopia. While this novel portrays corrupt leadership as the flaw in revolution (and not the act of revolution itself), it also shows how potential ignorance and indifference to problems within a revolution could allow horrors to happen if a smooth transition to a people's government is not achieved. Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005); it also places at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels. It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996 and is also included in the Great Books of the Western World.

Drawing a reflection from this book, I arrived on a thinking that pushes me to think laterally on Don Bosco Farm. This is a grown, well-appreciated congregation over the last century which is well known by the world.

Coming back to the book Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, calls the animals on the farm for a meeting, where he compares the humans to parasites and teaches the animals a revolutionary song, "Beasts of England".

We see Don Bosco himself giving us his dream before he passed away from this earthly life. But being with us in and with the constitutions he handed to the first Salesians. We too, in our congregation have so many meetings with regard to formation, mission, the general chapters, the provincial chapters, the council meetings, house councils, annual meetings to come out with rules, regulations, solutions, resolutions and lines of action and many other tasks at hand.  We could all day long sing the “Salesian Anthem – We are Salesians or to work among”.

  

When Major dies three days later, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, assume command and turn his dream into a philosophy.

We see here those in positions like the Rector Majors, the Provincials, the Rectors and others of whom you think are in positions and authority always wanting to turn a dream into a living philosophy.

The animals revolt and drive the drunken and irresponsible Mr Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm".

We see in our congregation many Salesians revolt against the authority many a times and feel the renaming or reframing the way we think of the Don Bosco Farm or the Salesian Farm. Thus we see the calling for Return to Don Bosco.

The Seven Commandments of Animalism are written on the wall of a barn. The most important is the seventh, "All animals are equal."

We in our congregation also speak of equality but the equality is seen alone in the act of speaking.

All the animals work, but the workhorse, Boxer, does more than others and adopts the maxim — "I will work harder." Boxer is a loyal, kind, dedicated, and respectable horse. He is physically the strongest animal on the farm, but impressionable (a major theme in the book), which leaves him stating "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right" despite the corruption.

I believe this is my maxim too…as a Salesian…I see myself applying the maxim of Don Bosco: “Work, Work, and Work.” Call me whatever you like I will work harder. Don Bosco is always right.                            

History V/s Hermeneutics

Robin Morgan, in her book, Sisterhood is Powerful, coined the neologism ‘herstory’. Etymologically the word history which comes from the Greek, istoria, meaning ‘learning or knowing by inquiry, has nothing to do with the possessive pronoun his. Nonetheless, Robin felt that coining a word like ‘herstory’ would drive home the powerful message that conventional history suffers from a great blindness in that it has systematically ignored the life and contribution of women. It has treated women as if they do not exist; as if they were a different species altogether. The question that needs to be asked is that considering that women constitute half of humankind, how did a discipline that prides in its attention to detail and objectivity miss out something as obvious as this? What needs to be done to ensure that women and other groups that mainline history has systematically ignored thus far are not overlooked anymore? It is difficult to disagree with the women who think that a discipline which has such major blind spots cannot make claims to great objectivity or credibility. Having said this which is an attempt made by Dr Ashley Miranda SDB a professor of the Institute of Salesian Philosophate – Divyadaan, to which I totally agree. I would further move on to say whether you like it or not there has always been a dichotomy in life. Be it – his/her, male/female, man/woman, boy/girl, baba/baby, good/evil, right/wrong, true/false, positive/negative, black/night, earth/sky, cause/effect, high/low, right/left, up/down, dark/bright, active/contemplative, empty/full, question/answer, and problem/mystery.  Let us take a look at what philosophers have to say about this with regard to Don Bosco’s life.

Ernesti 

      Don’t focus only on what don Bosco did or said but also historically, geographically and contextually.

      Interpret parts of Don Bosco’s life in the context of his whole life. Therefore a holistic understanding of don Bosco is important. Don’t concentrate on just the part of don Bosco’s life but on his life as a whole.

Schleiermacher

      Understanding Don Bosco is not a science but an art.

Herder

      Meaning of what Don Bosco thoughts depend on linguistically how he was able to express himself. I may have good thoughts but may not be able to express myself. A person can only think if he has a language and can only think what he can express linguistically. Meanings are also essentially grounded in (perceptual and affective) sensations.

Schlegel

      Linguistic interpretation of Don Bosco needs to be complemented with psychological interpretation of Don Bosco.

      There are unconscious meanings and thoughts in writings by and on Don Bosco which need to be considered when we understand Don Bosco.

Hegel

      All past meanings and understanding of Don Bosco are implicitly teleological in nature and thus leading or directed to our present understandings.

Ricoeur

      We have understand not only the surface meaning of what Don Bosco did but also the underlying meaning (hermeneutic of suspicion) of why he did what he did.

Heidegger

      If we want to understand Don Bosco we must possess the language to understand him.

      Fore – understanding is more fundamentally a matter of active engagement with the world than of theoretical contemplation (a detached reflection of Don Bosco) of it, more fundamentally a matter of the world being “ready-to-hand” than of its being “present-at-hand”.

Gadamer

      Interpretations of Don Bosco change over time and these changing interpretations are internal to the meaning independent of the text, or discourse in question, so that there is after all no such thing as an original meaning independent of these changing interpretations.

      The original meaning of linguistic expressions of Don Bosco from the past is always strictly speaking unknowable by us due to the essential role in all understanding of a historically specific for of ‘fore-understanding’ or ‘prejudice’ which one can never entirely escape.

Derrida

      An understanding of Don Bosco is something that only arises through an open-ended process of re (interpretation). We can understand Don Bosco more by differing with existing meanings or understandings or interpretations.  

We have surely gained some insights with inverter after looking at U & I of Don Bosco. Hopefully it has dawned some darkness in the light of which we live.

HUT…

The word HUT is normally understood as a hut wherein the people stay in especially near the roadside or footpaths. There is also another understanding of this word when someone wants to shuuu away a fly, a dog, or anything that comes one way. Another understanding of the word is when one wants another person to get away from oneself or to keep quite.

Well I know of a person who uses this word quite often but I am damn sure it is not out of malice but with innocence and love. Thinking about this word, I would like to attribute this to this person who uses this word, allow me to mention his name Naresh Neelam lovingly called Narry.

HUT…H stands for Handsome, I tell him that you look like an actor and should join the film industry but he says he is Happy where he is. U stands for Understanding, I tell him that you have the gift of understanding but he calls me Useless fellow and ask me why U telling me. T stands for Teaching Talent, I see in him the sense of and for synthesizing after quite a few presentations for the class I commended him for his synthesis.

I see that he is living the word HUT with the HUTness.  

Mary - THE Friend

We see Mary in many ways such as Mary the Mother of God, Mother of Jesus, Mary the disciple and the list could go on if I asked you to speak of who is Mary to you…surely we cannot deny the fact that she is our heavenly Mother and the many titles could be attributed to be it from the litany or from the ejaculations we often say. We her sons in Jesus Christ and Don Bosco call her under the title - “Mary Help of Christians,” or “the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” In our lives we have spiritualized and divinized of and on Mary, as true devotees, which is right and good as Christians, Catholics, or even as religious and Salesians. I stand here before you all my brothers to reflect on Mary as my friend. Jesus openly reveals the depth of His love for his disciples when in John 15:15, He says: “I call you friends, since I have made known to you all that I heard from my father.” We see in the life of Jesus Himself, she proved to be a friend, from the very moment of the Annunciation – Immaculately Conceived till the death of her son and even after that being with the Apostles.  

Why did I choose this title to understand Mary? Mary is the type and model of friendship. Mary’s own life can give us a living image of friendship. I think that it is more appropriate to look through Mary to get an idea of what a friend means to be and live, to have a realistic outlook full of experiences.

This reminds me of Eddie Catherine Doherty who wrote a biography entitled Wisdom’s Fool. In this work she penned about a priest called, Louis de Montfort. “There lived on earth a man who was in love with Mary, the Mother of God. He was so in love that he could truly think of nothing else but Mary.” As sons of Mary we too are called to be in love with her. Let us draw for ourselves a reflection in our daily living. How much of time you and I, really spend with her in thoughts, words, and deeds. There is no way but through Mary to Jesus. For without Mary there would be no Christmas, no Epiphany, and no kings undertaking long journeys by the guidance of the one bright star. Without Mary, we would have no Golgotha, no Cross, and no Easter! Without Mary, you and I would not be Christians. There would be no sons of Don Bosco, no dream, no Jesus entrusting his Mother to Don Bosco and to us Salesians. All this came to pass because of this one single three letter magical word – YES! by Mary.  She is full of grace, she is beautiful, of a beauty which I call holiness; in the words of the canticle the church calls her all beautiful (tota pulchra). Her grace is the grace of the new covenant. In defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the Church declared that Mary was preserved from sin, “in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, our savior.” In this sense she is really, as Dante said, “the daughter of her Son,” and as Ratzinger said, “Daughter of Zion,” and Pius IX – called her the splendor of an entirely unique holiness. Let our hearts seek passionately to live in and with this holiness all our lives.

There used to be and still is a very popular spiritual book: The Imitation of Christ. People do not talk much about it now-a-days. Perhaps it is time that we think of writing another one: The imitation of Mary. It may not be one to be published or best selling but to reflect on Mary’s and my relationship seen as a friendship: the selflessness, listening attitude, the faith element, being active and contemplative, living life and doing the will of God. She has a special place and role of leadership and empowerment, indicated by titles like ‘mother’ and ‘sister,’ there is nothing like calling her a ‘friend.’ For in a friend what I treasure the most is the element of trUst with a capital “U,” The U – stands for understanding, emphasizing the ‘other’ in my life. This is what Mary did all her life.. And this is what I would continue to do all my life she being there for me always, showing me the path to lead others along with me, as a friend, a companion.

I would conclude by saying that Mary is my soul friend and to spell it out in each letter:

M – Maturity

A – Attitude

R – Relationship

Y – Yes to all    

ATHEIST NEED TO BE MORE CRITICAL

What should an atheist apologist do when facing not one, but two specialists in historical Jesus studies, and the topic is the resurrection of Jesus? Should he confront the evidence head-on, knowing perfectly well that the arguments he uses among his hyperskeptical friends are practically useless against people who’ve done the research? Or should he avoid the evidence by diverting the discussion to secondary issues, knowing that if he can’t refute the data, he can at least keep people sidetracked for a while? 

Many atheists would reject the idea that their arguments are useless against scholars; however, I don’t mean this as an insult. It’s a simple fact that there is often a tremendous gulf between popular arguments and scholarly critiques, and this goes for Christians as well as atheists. For instance, a pastor might give members of his congregation a basic Design Argument to use when discussing God’s existence with their skeptical friends. This may help them defend their beliefs, but it would be unwise to use the same argument in a debate with, say, Richard Dawkins. To debate Dawkins, better evidence and a far more sophisticated approach are needed. 

Similarly, an atheist apologist may give his readers a collection of arguments they can use when discussing the resurrection. But it would be quite presumptuous to think that such arguments would be effective against. While I grant that certain important objections may be raised against the resurrection, it’s no secret that practically all atheistic responses are utterly at odds with the facts we know about Jesus and his followers. (Note: If you just thought to yourself, “But we don’t really know anything about Jesus and his followers,” you now have a perfect example of a claim that is thoroughly rejected by scholars, despite what atheists get away with saying). Thus, if an atheist is going to offer a convincing response to the resurrection, he needs something more plausible than “Maybe Jesus passed out on the cross and woke up later,” or “Perhaps the disciples just hallucinated.”

The problem for atheists is that criticisms of the resurrection don’t get much better at the scholarly level. The arguments may become more sophisticated, but this doesn’t mean that they become more plausible. Nor does it mean that they account for the evidence any better. We may contrast this with, for instance, Design Arguments, which can be developed as rigorously as a scientist’s mind will allow. To put it differently, certain Design Arguments seem superficial, but on closer examination they turn out to be thoroughly grounded in science and reason. Criticisms of the resurrection, on the other hand, also seem superficial, but closer inspection only shows that they are superficial.

What, then, should an atheist do when discussing the resurrection with Christian scholars? I’m not sure what the best approach would be, but if I were still an atheist, I would probably go ahead and use the standard atheist responses, even though they don’t fare well under scrutiny. 

Dialogue between Mary and John

Narrator: It was the year 70 A.D. Mary was sitting on a rock at the shore of Patmos Island. The Mediterranean ocean was continually caressing her feet with its waves, as if to pay homage to the Mother of God. She was deep in contemplation with eyes fixed at the horizon. The sun was just setting in the western sky throwing up a riot of colours on the sea and on the sky. The breeze was gentle and cool. A flock of sea gulls made a circle above her before continuing their flight home. May be they wanted to have a glimpse of their queen!

John: “Mamma, what are you thinking about?” called John as he approached and sat by her side.

Mary: “Well son, you know that the object of my contemplation is only one!”

Narrator: John knew it, of course. Jesus was the single object of her meditation. She had been like that all her life. Jesus had gone up to heaven already about 40 years ago.

John: “Luke has written your story beautifully it seems, Mother. Did your hear about it?”

Mary: “No, I did not.”

John: “You yourself told him the story of how you became the mother of the Lord and the events of the infancy of Jesus. How else could anyone know about it? He did also some research about Elizabeth, Zachariah and the circumstances in which those events took place.”

Mary: “I did not want to narrate those events to anyone. But at his insistence I did. After all, the world has to know that Jesus was of God, and not born like ordinary humans.”

John: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!”

Mary: “What did you say?”

John: “I like to call him the Word. Is he not the Word of Yahweh, the very substance of the Almighty?”

Mary: “John, I don’t understand your theological concepts. But I knew right from that marvellous day in Nazareth and he was God’s Son.”

John: “Yes Mother, he came to give all of us the right to become children of God, children not born of the flesh, nor of the desire of man, but by God.”

Narrator: Mary went into reverie again. Mary: “John, you are so poetic about your Master.”

Narrator: John went into a thoughtful mood and said: “The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. He came as the light that enlightens all.  But the world did not recognize him. He came among his own and his own received him not.”

Mary: “Don’t mention that John. I have forgiven our people who rejected and killed him. It is a thing of the past. They are all my children now.”

John: “Sorry mother. I know that it hurts you. If you will excuse me, I am a bit curious to know how you managed to stand under the cross those three hours. Somehow my contemplation is always on Calvary.”

Narrator: “Hummm,” sighed the Mother. Mary: “You were there. I knew that Jesus and you were close friends and it must have been a torture for you too.”

Narrator: John was silent and let the mother speak.

Mary: “Well son, I will share with you a sort of crisis of faith I went through, standing under that cross.”

Narrator: John widened his eyes in surprise. He moved and sat near her feet looking up eagerly at her face.

John: “It was a moment of crisis for all of us, mother,” he said soothingly.

Mary: “For all of you, yes, to some extent. But it was the worst for me. For you it was just that your Messianic hope had ended. For me it was different. At that time only I knew something that none of you knew.”

John: “What was that mamma?”

Mary: “That Jesus was truly God’s Son!”

John: “Oh yes, now that you say it. We all thought he was the Messiah and a man sent by God. Jesus was constantly calling God his ‘Abba’. But we never truly understood that. How could it ever occur to us that the one and only God might have a Son. It was beyond our wildest imagination. Our Scriptures have called several people sons of God, but it was a figurative speech.”

John: “I heard that Peter once confessed that Jesus was the Son of the Living God.”

“Yes, I was there, and I heard it. But I am sure that Peter did not understand the nature of Jesus as we know it today after his resurrection. I knew Peter’s mind well. Now we know from your own mouth that he was born of God. Only you knew this at that moment.”

“Yet, standing under the cross, I hear Jesus crying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabaktani’! And the crowds were shouting, If you are the son of God, come down from the cross”.

This was a sacred moment. Mary was opening her soul to her adopted son! John dared not interrupt.

Mary: “The words of the Angel Gabriel came and hit my heart like hammer blows. He had said that the child would be conceived by the power of the Most High; that he would be called Son of God; he would sit on the throne of his father David; and his kingdom would have no end.”

Narrator: The Mother’s face was aglow with an unusual brightness.

Mary: “And here was my crisis. Could this Son of God die like a common criminal? Could God abandon his child? Was Jesus himself going through a faith crisis on the cross? Was I mistaken in that house of Nazareth when I heard the message of the angel? Or was I having hallucinations under the cross? The whole thing did not fit together. It all looked absurd.”

Narrator: John ventured a word. John: “I was standing there, holding you in my arms. And I did not know what you were going through.”

Mary: “It was as if Satan were haunting me. ‘You were cheated’ he seemed to heckle. I began to pray as I have always done. Then I understood something.”

John: “What is that mother?”

Mary: “That God’s ways are not ours. His plans are not for us to understand, but to believe. If God had told me that Jesus was His Son, so He was! And if God had decided to allow His Son to be killed by hanging him on a tree, He must be having his reasons. It is not for me to question His wisdom.”

John: “Oh dear, Jesus must have also known what you were going through.”

Mary: “I think He did. I saw compassion in his eyes in spite of pain, as he looked at me; but also confidence that I would understand and believe. And I decided to believe, despite all. I decided that if it were true that my Son was dying, it was also true that he was truly God’s Son!”

John: “Now I know the real reason why he entrusted us to you, Mother. You are the only one who could sustain all of us in our crisis.”

John: “I realized that. So I steadied myself and stood firm next to you and to Mary Magdalene. It is faith that made me survive that day. Without it I would have died right there under the cross.”

“We all started believing only after the resurrection. You were the only one who kept the faith alive on that day! Mother, for this we your sons will do whatever you tell us to do!”

Narrator: Mary had a smile on her face. She got up and moved towards the cottage where they were staying as it was becoming chill.

Narrator: John let her go and said to himself: John: “Behold a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, wearing a crown of twelve stars…!”

Narrator: Mary went up till the door, turned back and called John inside. John immediately sprang up to her. John looking at her said, John: “I Love you mamma”

Narrator: Mary in return told him, Mary: “I Love you, too.”

To The Girl I Loved, Am Loving And Will Love…

I am God’s Creation,

But you are my Intention,

At the same time a Partition,

By an act of your Suppression,

I lead to the waters of Depression,

At the time of your Celebration,

I was the source of Dissatisfaction,

At the time of Examination,

I filled you with Distraction,

Today, I thought of our Contraction,

But fell for the Interaction,

I think about the conversation,

And soon fall into a deep Concentration,

This is all my Love Extensions,

To you unanswered Questions,

Hope, One day and the days to follow your loving affection,

Will one day clothe all my Imagination?

With full of Gratification,

And a sense of Application,

To my love, for my love, with my love and by my love…

Is truly, souly, surely, and wholly…

Just not an Infatuation,

But all my life’s Meditation

I, Me, & Myself

Guitar is my Passion,

Dance is my Action,

Game is my Recreation

Acting is my Addiction,

This calls for my Audition,

It is my Life’s Ambition,

For my Satisfaction,

But for this I always live in Tension,

When I am in Temptation,

I am a sum of Subtraction,

By the scene of Attention,

I am a sign of Multiplication,

But above all I am God’s Creation

PRAYER IS A LANGUAGE GAME

Language Game is universally understood in a not so good sense and has a negative outlook towards language and life. I would like to express my understanding of Prayer – Language Game.

Why do I call it a language? Because you and I, as we call ourselves ‘humans,’ language is apparently a necessity, a need therefore it can be seen also as a necessity in Prayer. Language is simply using words, signs, symbols, meanings, concepts, ideas or whatever you think of…Now, thinking of language, is language something complex or simple, and I leave it you for your opinion on this query, but for me it simply means in a simple way to communicate – who you are? And what you are? You and I stay in communion, in connectedness with the other. You and I use language to know, to understand, and to be understood. Language is needed for conversation, for dialogue, for living our lives to the full.

 Why do I call it a game? I know for certain that to play a game we need two players, be it on the ground of physical, or psychological, or ethical, or virtual, or as a matter of fact even spiritual. So speaking of spiritual, it is very much got to do with PRAYER.

A...

I am writing this after I receive Jesus in the form of Bread (Holy Eucharist) on the 8^th September 2011, Our Virgin Mother’s Birthday (just a thought to ponder though this is not the issue for the moment to reflect on, put nothing like thinking over this…How can a Mother be a Virgin or rather how can a Virgin be a Mother?).

I don’t know how, why, when and where it all began – whether to call it something, or what to name it??? But I think know for sure that she truly is ‘A,’ what I mean here is an ‘Angel,’ but normally I address her as ‘A.’ When she is there around, I get a thrill, a sort of feeling that cannot be expressed but touches my soul. Whenever I talk to her (sometimes for long minutes, or sometimes just see her in passing or sometimes simply a hi-bye). When I look at her it sets my heart on fire and my mind in attire that feel’s pleasant.

I am happy to have this Angel in my life. And genuinely hope that every one of you (yoUth) too may have an Angel just like mine. I can trUst my Angel for she cares for me and knows me, prays for me and has regard for me.

She is full of Life, and Love and Light. She is normally in White which I vouch, speaks of her humility and Purity. She is truly human yet divine.

I owe to GOD (if exist, really HE does exist, for God is…) for giving me this A…