Christmas is here, isn't here?

I would like to shed some light on the pre-Christmas, actual Christmas and post-Christmas Season and how significant to know the difference. Christmas is not here yet. We begin pre-Christmas season which is called Advent and then the actual Christmas when we commemorate the birth of Jesus and there is Christmas Season that follows Christmas until the Baptism of the Lord. Christmas is one of the most important days of the Church year, second only to Easter itself. It is the feast of the incarnation, the feast of God becoming flesh (the Latin "in carne" means "enfleshment"). It is a uniquely Christian teaching, the Divine choosing to become one of us. Because of this belief, God is not only Transcendent, but also wholly Immanent, Emmanuel (God-with-us). While remaining Transcendent (meaning we must rise above our present condition to reach Him), He is at the same time Immanent (meaning He is with us as we rise toward Him).

This weekend, the Christians begin Season of Advent. Advent means waiting or coming and we wait for the coming of someone we love. During this season we focus on waiting for the Lord, waiting for the coming of Jesus. In Guyana, we begin the novena on 15 to 23 December. Christmas Novena has its long history and tradition, which could be traced back to 1861 when Fr. Benedict Schembri celebrated Christmas midnight Mass at the newly constructed Church on Main Street. This Church was basically helped the Portuguese from Madeira who spoke mostly Portuguese. Under the “padroado” (The privilege of patronage extended by the Pope to the King of Portugal) system, initially Sacred Heart operated as “the Portuguese Church” being the Centre of pastoral activities for the Portuguese community throughout Guiana. Only in 1932 was this status revised and Sacred Heart constituted as a normal parish. The indefatigable Schembri established guilds and charitable associations, organized religious and cultural events and generally strengthened the bonds of fellowship and faith among the Portuguese. Of particular note was the introduction of the Christmas Novena, with a 3;00 am mass on each of the 9 mornings before Christmas. This practice rapidly became a popular and enduring feature of Catholic churches throughout Guiana. Even the “Bemdita Sajaes” a hymn to Our Lady with words in the Madeiran dialect of Portuguese became a much-loved feature of many an African and East Indian family Christmas.

Cleaning and decoration for Christmas plays imperative part. In all this Christmas tree takes the precedence. The use of the Christmas tree is relatively modern. Its origins are found in the medieval mystery plays that depicted the tree of paradise and the Christmas light or candle that symbolized Christ, the Light of the world. According to custom, the Christmas tree is set up just before Christmas and may remain in place until the Solemnity of Epiphany. The lights of the tree are illuminated after the prayer of blessing.

Rev. Fr. Jerri Dias SJ

Let it go!

A tale is told about the Buddha, Gautama (563-483BC), the Indian prince and spiritual leader whose teachings founded Buddhism. This short story illustrates that every one of us has the choice whether or not to take personal offense from another person’s behavior. It is said that on an occasion when the Buddha was teaching a group of people, he found himself on the receiving end of a fierce outburst of abuse from a bystander, who was for some reason very angry. The Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vented his rage, and then the Buddha said to the group and to the stranger, “If someone gives a gift to another person, who then chooses to decline it, tell me, who would then own the gift: The giver of the gift or the person who refuses to accept the gift?” “The giver,” said the group after a little thought. “Any fool can see that,” added the angry stranger. “Then it follows, does it not,” said the Buddha, “Whenever a person tries to abuse us or to unload their anger on us, we can each choose to decline or to accept the abuse; whether to make it ours or not. By our personal response to the abuse from another, we can choose who owns and keeps the bad feelings.”

The Advent is the time to ‘let it go’ of anything that stops one from encountering God and neighbor. Each human being is unique and has a fair share of joys and sorrows, struggles and accomplishments but importantly every human being has a story to tell. There is no human being who has an insignificant story because each story is unique and important for the person in the story. It is normal for us to ponder on those characters in the story both protagonists and antagonists, both positive and negative events in life. Our story becomes real only when all these characters play their role actively. Hence, when they play their role in our lives, our lives become more real and pragmatic with all the experiences it brings to the equation. But always remember that the storyteller is the person on whom the story is written. That person controls how a storyline has to happen or how a story has to be narrated. The storyteller has the complete monopoly over the story of his/her life. The storyteller can keep the character or just let go of the character so that the story of life can go on. There is ample time for the story to be completed. The story is completed only when we leave this world to the netherworld.  

Let no one control your life. Someone else can control your life only if you allow them to do so. Let our past, present, and future not control us if we want to grow freely as the children of God. Freedom comes from within each one of us because we hold the key to the freedom and happiness. When we hang on something that has passed or someone that has hurt us, it is hard for us to move forward because we tend to focus on something or someone always hence ‘stuck in life’ situation. This situation comes only when we allow ourselves to be controlled by something or someone. Letting go is for the benefit of oneself so that a person can at last move forward. It is to benefit the storyteller and not to benefit the characters in the story. So the story becomes original and without anyone’s influence.

If we are carrying a past baggage and not allowing it let go, the baggage becomes heavier and slows us down. The longer we carry the slower we become. This will show on our physical bodies because baggage is heavier to carry hence we are tired. It can also have serious consequences on our psychological and physical health. In order for the story to move forward, the storyteller has to make some drastic and hard choices to let go of those characters who continually destroy the authentic flow of the story. The choice is yours because you control your life story. Characters appear and go but you remain to the end of time. You are the alfa and omega of the story of your life. Let it go off the things that create a negative impact and slow you down.

How do I let go? Ask yourself, does this character in the story help me build my story or destroy the storyline? Does the negative feeling help me? Do they serve any purpose in life? Do they work in your favor? Do they allow one to move forward? If you say no to all these questions, why am I still holding on to it, let it go and let you focus on important things that move you forward? One must distinguish what is important to one’s life and keep at it.

Once you have important things to focus, allow yourself to have an action plan as to what and how you want to achieve those important things with due priority to the super important things in life. The goal is not to be thinking about successfulness but to achieve what is important to your life and success will follow.

Start living in the present and living it now. This is the key to moving forward because we know the present well and we can work on any situation in present. Living in the now will make us positive persons in life because we look, listen and learn from the situations that come to us. We appreciate what is happening in the now.

Bring in more positive characters into your story because they will build on what you have started and never allow you fall by making use of you. They will allow you to be on the wheel to run your own life. Positive people bring positive vibes to life and positive vibes make your life cheerful. Good people will see your goodness and allow your build on that goodness. During this Advent, let us ask for the grace to ‘let go’. Only you know what you want to let go off. The choice is yours and Advent is the time to make that choice so that you can move forward.

Waiting in hurry!

Well-known preacher and writer Norman Vincent Peale tells us of his life experience. When he was young he was walking down the street with his father who himself was a pastor, they confronted a beggar who was dirty and smelling. He came to Norman and touched his hand and asked for some money for food. Norman seeing the man dirty and poorly dressed in tattered clothes recoiled and brushed him aside. His father told him that he must respect the man and not behave in this way. The boy replied that after all he was worthless and dirty, and he could do nothing more. His father told him that in this world there is no one worthless for all are the children of God. Then he took out one dollar, all he could afford and gave to the boy and said give to that man and tells him that it is in the name of Jesus he is giving this gift. Norman refused at first but on his father’s insistence he ran after the man and gave him saying this amount he is giving in the name of Jesus. The man looked at him and gave him a big smile and said: I thank you, my son, in the name of Jesus. Norman says that in this genuine smile of the man who looked worthless he found the real face of Jesus which he never forgot in his life.

Today we begin the season of Advent. Advent means waiting or coming and we wait for the coming of someone we love. During this season we focus on waiting for the Lord, waiting for the coming of Jesus. We have the three-fold waiting. We know that Jesus has already come in history and we remember that during the week before Christmas our waiting changes to waiting for our celebration of the birth of Jesus. We also wait for his final coming at the end times when he will take all to himself. We also experience his daily coming into our life through the Eucharist, word of God and in the various persons and events of life. Waiting is something very important in the life of the human person. Anytime we wait we do so because we expect something to happen or someone to come. In our daily routine of life, we wait for something to take place, maybe we wait for a friend, for a bus or train, and there is the eagerness within us that makes us look forward to something new that will take place. During Advent we look forward to Jesus who will come in a total gesture of love: God becomes a man. Today’s readings assure us that the Lord is coming. But an individual must be alert and must be on watch. The first two readings of this liturgical year bring us face to face with a God who is Father and with the reality of our own sinfulness before him. We have wandered away from him, but he is faithful and has sent his own Son to free us from our blame. Prophet Isaiah makes a prayer of yearning asking God to come and save us from sin. Paul in the second reading stresses on the fidelity asking people to remain faithful to Jesus to the end. The Gospel of Mark invites all to a spiritual vigilance. He tells us all to be ever alert so that the coming of the Son does not find us unprepared for no one knows the day or hour of his coming.

On the First Sunday in Advent, I would like us to ponder and wish for the virtue of patience. I would like to narrate a simple example; if you are caught in the traffic and especially during the rush hours, you will know what I am going to share. There is a tendency to be reckless and impatient on the wheel whilst one is running late for an event. I have experienced impatience myself whilst on the wheel and on rare occasions I have honked at someone. But, later when I think about it, I feel how narrow-minded am I to do such thing. Basically, I must be extra patient especially if there are new drivers on the road. I am asking for the grace of patience on this Sunday in Advent. Our world is moving rapidly, and we are forced to rush to catch up with the rapidity of the world. If we don’t move rapidly, we would have lost so much. But do we really lose if we don’t move rapidly according to the rapidity of the world? There are myriad answers to this based each one’s charisma and blessings. Only one thing is significant to ponder when one moves rapidly to catch up with the world must not be a hurdle or a nuisance for the others. It is important to be patient if our speed involves others. In hurry, we might forget important people and things in life. We might even hurt someone in a hurry. Let us remember the traffic rules for life too; we wait on the red and we ready ourselves to move on amber and of course on the green, we move. In all this let us have patience so that we have time to look around us. When we look around and listen, we will see the beauty of each person, beauty of nature and certainly, the joy will be ours. Patience is the mantra for this week. We wait but in hurry, let us change that into wait but in patience.

Jesuit paleontologist and theologian, Teilhard de Chardin writes, "trust in the slow work of God. Humans are naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay." Patience is truly a spiritual gift from God which helps us to fight frustration and restlessness. Patience helps us to wait, watch and know when to act so that our actions are truly noble and lasting. It is imperative to be patient in order to achieve lasting fruits. Patience helps us to discern and decide and dedicate. Patience could be boring and neverending but we can make it interesting and fruitful. Therefore, it depends entirely on each one of us to be in the state of active patience. In other words, a hopeful patience because it is in hope that our waiting becomes meaningful. I wish you a Patient Advent.   

Not a Church for Young

It was when I was studying theology at Heythrop College, I was feeling of non-youth category, because, the majority of lay students were just out of their high school. This was a real struggle as a person who is preparing to be a Catholic Priest. There was a feeling of aloofness from the usual class. Every young student felt at home in the class and I was in a dilemma to remain within my small world or mingle with the young class. A few attempts made me to realize that the young class was not very comfortable around me. This experience had a great impact on me and that experience corresponds to my reality as a priest in the parish. There is gap between young church and olden church. This is not an unenthusiastic remark. It is natural for any organisation to have gap, because of the moving times. Every organisation has to try its utmost to lessen that gap between young and olden, old times and modern times, old school and new school. It would be the duty of every individual to strive and persevere to lessen that gap. If not, the organisation will have more challenges to make peace between those two points, hence, its energies are squandered in this alone. Scholars strive to analyse the gap to give an accurate reasons and solutions towards a better world.

The preparatory document for the 2018 world Synod of Bishops on youth instructs the church to “give major importance to young people’s involvement in the structures of participation in diocesan and parish communities, starting with pastoral councils, inviting young people to make their creative contribution and accepting their ideas, even when they appear challenging.”

The Church needs everyone so that it is truly a Body of Christ. Failure to have everyone in the Church will be a failure of the Body of Christ. If older generation were missing from the Church, it would be a Body of Christ without arms and limbs, and if the younger generation were missing, it would be Body of Christ, which will be weak because older arms and limbs need young support to carry on. In our modern world, the Church needs to accommodate and enable the needs to everyone. There has to be a common goal or vision in the Church but ways to reach this goal or vision could differ. Our vision or goal has to be, to remain in the Head, Jesus Christ. Is this possible in our Church today? It is possible if we do away with the following.

Suspicion: Young persons have to catch-up with the modern times and this requires their time and their resources. This is why; the tendency will be to sacrifice everything else to catch-up. Sacrifice is good, but what we sacrifice is momentous for our lives. What we sacrifice now will help us to build our future.

Older Christians have to keep up the traditions with their wisdom and experience. The tendency could be to impose strongly the traditions and experience on the others, when a younger person might take time to understand and to live.

Thus, suspicion about each other must not be on the horizon. We need a Church without any suspicion about each other. We need a Church that understands and respects each other. This could be a gigantic challenge for our Church today.

Empty rhetoric: The Christians are good preachers. Preaching takes priority in our Church both altar preaching and non-altar preaching. It is natural, as Christians we want to guide others through our words and deeds. But very often our guidance through words takes priority than guidance through our deeds. St. Teresa of Calcutta says, ‘preach and if necessary use words.’

We are flooded with rhetoric through media, books, Internet, social media, politics and so on. Information is so great; it is hard to rely because information and counter information goes hand in hand. There is a whole of lot of junk being disseminated through the media, and we might be prey for that junk. We have to guard against this empty rhetoric that might mislead our tender minds and hearts. We have to keep the teachings of Christ at fore of our decisions in the Church. We have to rely on Christ’s teachings so that we can follow the true Master and Teacher.

True leadership: Jesus Christ called, empowered and sent Peter to catch people as the rock of the Church. Peter was the true leader who listened and learnt from His Master. This teaching empowered him to a true leader of the Church. For Peter, Jesus was the Master and Jesus knew that Peter would fail but would be true to his mission. Peter embraced humility and openness, humility to accept his mistakes and openness to learn from the Master.

We need leaders like Peter in our times both at the Church and in the world. Span and see our leaders today, do they have the qualities of Peter? If our leaders in the Church truly exhibit the qualities of Peter, our Church is in the right place; Body is in the Head, Christ. If your answer is no, then we are following not the Master but our own whims and fancies. True leaders will have the humility to accept mistakes and learn from it. True leaders will have the openness to learn from others without any individualism. We have to guard against those prophets who will come in the sheep cloth to devour the sheep.

Hearsay heresy: This is a common temptation to act on hearsay. It is natural for humans to depend on someone else for guidance. When Jesus asked a question, ‘who do people say I am?’ The answer was, ‘some say you are Elijah, some say you are John the Baptist and others say one of the prophets.’ But Peter gives a true answer, ‘you are the Son of the Living God.’ Peter gives that Messianic response not from hearsay but unlike others he had a true encounter with Christ as the Living God. Hearsay is a heresy that we have to fight and defeat.  

Empty rhetoric also could be paralleled with hearsay or gossip. We need to rely on proper sources and not to depend on hearsay. When we depend on hearsay, we allow ourselves to be fooled by a few powerful people who can convince us with their empty rhetoric without any reliable and true source. This happens in our day-today life too, bigmouths win the debate. We have to unpack the bigmouths before we can believe. Hence, search before believe.    

Shedding-skin culture: There is a phenomenon in our Church that we are saints in the Church; hence, we must behave like one. This is the separation of Church from our day-today lives. We shedding our skins at the door of the Church and wear it as we leave.

When the woman came to wash the feet of Jesus, the disciples rebuked her, but Jesus allowed the woman to wash his feet; a woman with ill reputation was allowed to touch Jesus. She was able to encounter Jesus without shedding her usual self. We need to do this in our Church too. We must allow sinners and saints to pray together in our Churches. We have our own little secrets but when we come before God, we have to bring it along with us to offer it God so that God can help us to improve. If we come before God with our human imperfections, God will surely make us perfect. Let us not pretend before God; rather let us pour out our lives like libation because God knows our entire self. Shedding-skin culture has to be replaced with wearing-skin culture.

Vibration conscious culture: Advancement in technology resulted in us to be vibration conscious. We need our mobile phones all the time. We sleep, wake up, walk, eat and do every possible thing by always being conscious of our mobile phone. We are mobile phone conscious generation. We have to look at our phone every so often. There is a tendency to feel the vibration of the phone even if the phone has not vibrated. In other words, we might feel lonely without a smartphone in our hands.

Jesus said to the disciples at the garden of Gethsemane, ‘could you not keep away with me?’ The Church is all about keeping awake with the Lord. To keep awake, we have to let go of our vibration conscious and allow ourselves to be immersed in the Lord. It is a enormous challenge for us to let go of our vibration culture and give fully to the Lord. Our Church needs persons who can dedicate fully without any preoccupations and distractions.

“Crisscross” philosophy: Often the people in the Church do not have their own peer group with whom they can communicate. It is an extreme of old school or new school. This is unfortunate that these two groups do not crisscross because they don’t express on the same level. Sometimes, one group will not come to Church because the other group’s way of doing things does not correspond to their way of doing things. At times, we might street talk that Church is for old people or Church is for women. This is parallel philosophy, which will not help us to build the community. There needs to an exchange of ideas, creativities, and faith with each other without any suspicion and backbiting. Modern Church needs a ‘crisscross’ philosophy so that old school can hear new ideas and new school can benefit from experience and wisdom. This way our Church can truly grow to our changing times by reading the signs of the time. We will witness a true communion of minds and hearts.

In conclusion, let us remember that our Church is strongly built on the Rock and on the apostolic foundations. Each of us needs to support this foundation through our prayer and sacrifice. We need to work towards strengthening this foundation when it is weak and rejoice when the foundation is strong. We have to accommodate everyone in our Churches, irrespective of their age, race, language, culture and background. Everyone needs is part of the tapestry and the Church is the true tapestry of people. Let the Church truly be a place of revelation of God. God comes to meet us in the Church.

Am I leaf or root?

Now that Lent has drawn to a close and the season of Easter has unfolded the mother of all events, the resurrection of Jesus, we are invited to enjoy and savour the fruits of Easter during this season. We are invited to continue our reflection on our own lives, in order to cement our relationship with God and each other. It is a favourable time for us to introspect to gaze at our relationships with our brothers and sisters. In our modern times, social communication has helped to large extent to converse and build relationship from far and near. This has made our world truly a global village. But, the question always remains, has our modern world brought people together only virtually or in reality?

I thought the analogy of a tree given by Mr Taylor Perry would be helpful to unfold our relationships. Perry through the analogy of a tree explains the people who visit our life, be it friends, family, acquaintances, employees, co-workers, and so on.

Leaf People: Some people come into our life and they are like leaves on a tree. They are only there for a season. We can’t depend on them or count on them, because they are weak and are there only to give us shade. Like leaves, they are there to take what they need and as soon as it gets cold or a wind blows in our life they are gone. We can’t be angry at them, that is just what they are.

Branch People: There are some people who come into our life and they are like branches on a tree. They are stronger than leaves, but we have to be careful with them. They will stick around through most seasons, but if we go through storm or two in our life, it is possible that we lose them. Most of the times they break away when it is tough. Although they are stronger than leaves, we have to test them out before we run out there and put all our weight on them. In most cases they can’t handle too much weight. But again, we can’t be angry at them, it is just who they are.

Root People: If we can find some people in our life who are like the roots of a tree, then we have found something special. Like the roots of a tree, they are hard to find because they are not trying to be seen. Their only job is to hold us up and help us live a strong and healthy life. If we thrive, they are happy. They stay low key and don’t let the world know that they are there. And if we go through an awful storm they will hold us up. Their job is to hold us up, come what may and to nourish us, feed us and water us.

While a tree has many limbs and many leaves, it has only a few roots. Look at our own life. How many leaves, branches and roots do we have? What are you in other people’s lives? While thanking God for the gift of roots let us also make efforts to be roots in other’s lives. That was what Jesus was and we are called to be like Jesus our root.

Undoing the Motto

There is a Guyanese proverb, “Wha rain can’t full, dew can’t full.” It means, if it didn’t work, nothing else will make it happen. This proverb seems to be a reality in the Politics of Guyana. We have tried hard to unite the nation through various means but invariably we have failed because of the divisive political adherents. On the part of the political arena, we have tried to unite this nation or not? We have to acknowledge humbly that humans are selfish beings and by all means we will try to put forward an ideology that suit our own selfish interests. Last few weeks have proved that politicians can never unite this nation who are supposed to uphold the slogan, “one people.”

In the wake of political unrest in the nation, should the Church or religious body speak up? Should we prove aforementioned proverb untrue?

True religion will certainly care for the holistic growth of its believers, namely, body and spirit or temporal and spiritual. If the religion does not care for these two realities of the devotees, then the religions will fail in its teachings of justice and peace for every religion must promote justice and peace, which are two important attributes of God.

The Catholic Social Teaching emphasises two important aspects, namely, life and dignity of human person and solidarity as one human family. Every Christian must uphold these aspects because we believe that God created humans in his image and likeness. If we try to divide the people based on political ideologies or colour of skin, we certainly go against the teaching of Christianity by distorting the image and likeness of God. Are we subtly led by our leaders to distort the image and likeness of God?

There is a fearful tendency among Church people that politics is dirty game and this dirty game must be played in the Church. This makes one to stay away from any political issues in the nation. This tendency is the hot cake for the political leaders. Hence, on the one hand people remain cold towards political differences on the other hand politicians truly enjoy because it matches their way of life. In other words, politics is the opium of the mass. As long as this opium is ingested, politicians will keep enjoying their freedom.

In this nation, politicians have got freedom and the people have not yet got the freedom. They still live under the colonisation of the elect few. This is the new way of colonisation. Just think for a moment, how many of the politicians truly care for the poor? How many political leaders have true concern for the poor who still live in logies and in the swamps? How many of our politicians have ever donated their fat salary to build a decent shelter for the poor? Catholic Social Teaching talks about care for the poor and vulnerable. We don’t even know why our political leaders are in friction with each other. The day any leader fights for the care of the poor, our country has truly seen a great leader.

Our political situation must be everyone’s concern. We need begin with “Politics Matter”, hence, every religion, organisation, institution must speak up objectively by applying those teachings of Christ, life and dignity of human person and care for the poor and vulnerable. No politician should tell us you are Indo-Guyanese or Afro-Guyanese. The prefix must be erased and only suffix should matter to us because we are truly Guyanese and we are Citizens of Guyana and not Citizens Indo or Afro- Guyanese. If we can organise our families, business and institutions so well, why not organise our own nation. After all, we make the nation not one or two political leaders. Let us go and get it.

Concerned Citizen of Guyana

World Day of the Poor

Holy Father, Pope Francis, at the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy offered the world a “World Day of the Poor” so that throughout the world Christian communities and everyone can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need. It is in this view, the Holy Father has called Sunday, 19 November as the First World Day of the Poor. On this day, we are invited as men and women of good will everywhere, to gaze on this day to all those who stretch their hands and plead for our help and solidarity. God has loved us first and he has given up himself for us on the Cross. Such love is cannot go unanswered. We have to love Him back through welcoming God’s grace and through his merciful charity in our hearts, so that our will and even our emotions are drawn to love God and love our brothers and sisters.

Poverty challenges us daily in myriad ways, in faces marked by suffering, marginalization, oppression, violence, torture and imprisonment, war, deprivation of freedom and dignity, ignorance and illiteracy, medical emergencies and shortage of work, trafficking and slavery, exile, extreme poverty and forced migration. These above kinds of poverty have faces, and these faces will remain as they are unless we reach out to each other in due time. Tragically, in our own time, enormous wealth accumulates in the hands of the privileged few, often in connection with illegal activities and through appalling exploitation of human dignity, hence, pushing people to extreme poverty. Pope’s message is self-explanatory as regards to how one acquires the wealth. The World Day of the Poor is meant above all, to encourage us to reach against the culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter. Meantime, everyone, independent of religious affiliations, is invited to openness and sharing with the poor through concrete signs of solidarity and fraternity. It is time to break barriers, walls and fences and uphold the God’s original gift of humanity to all. We are invited to make every effort to create moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete assistance.

One might brush aside these wonderful thoughts of the Pope with usual parlance, “go preacher” but it is significant to pay attention to the reality that is marred by poverty of several kind. Even though, Pope has invited the Catholic Church to observe this Day, it is truly an invitation to everyone to be concrete and pragmatic in our approach to the poor. It is significant to identify who are the poor of our society or is there poor people in my neighborhood or do we care to see poor people lying around our cities? It is a crucial call given by the Pope, who follows a simply and a humble way of life. I also would extend my gratitude to all people who help the poor in their need not merely during Christmas but all round the year. Let us live and share a happy and good life.

Fr. Jerri Dias SJ