Lent Day 19: Lent as a time of multiplying

What would we like to be in life? Would we want to be a source of healing through our prayers and compassion? Or would we want to be a poison, which spoils everything? Everything is looked upon negatively and those who think in terms of poison would want to poison even the minds of people by sowing seeds of doubt and anger in young and old minds. Poison has its effectiveness. The only problem is that it negates and devalues human life.

Leaven is not like that. It transforms the rest of the flour, almost miraculously. Being leaven in society means that we would sacrifice for the good of society. We would want to provide, add, multiply and value human life. The leavened bread used for communion is a sign of the positive element of community and human life. Communion should lead to life and life in abundance. The very reason for Holy Communion in society should be to be a source of life, miracles, healing, love and compassion.

In St. Luke 13: 21, Jesus speaks of comparing the kingdom of God to something. He says, “It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” Communion is an act of healing and blessing. Lent is also an act of healing and blessing. Our fasting and lent should be a blessing to our family, community and more so to our society. There should be a multiplication of everything. A multiplication of love, a multiplication of food, a multiplication of compassion, a multiplication of giving and a multiplication of goodness.

The concept of communion and sharing is to break. During lent, we should first of all be the leaven which transforms. We should then break the bread that we are and share. Once in a house, the mother cooked two rotis each for her three children. But that day the middle child was still hungry. He could have grabbed the roti of the third child but he did not. The elder son then divides his remaining roti into two pieces and gives to his younger brother. In the house, the mother is the leaven and the son is the breaker of bread. Till the bread is broken and the food is shared, we will think of the division of the rotis as a just process. So, no one need give to the other because everyone has got two rotis. But hunger creates a problem which is then solved by the division of roti or bread by the elder child.

This lent, let us be the leaven and the breaker of bread. Everyone can take up one role and be a blessing in society. Lent is indeed a time to be broken and to break. May the breaking of bread in our houses and families provide for those who are hungry. Amen.

Lent Day 10: Remembering the sacrifices of our forefathers and foremothers and the working class of the church

The Christian community should be seen as a giving community. It is not just the money or donation one gives but the effort one puts in to make the community one which forgives, understands, helps and loves. If it is true to say that time is money, someone who gives their time for the church is of immense value to the church. When we love and give, there will be a limit up to which others can take it. After that it will have to come back. It is not just to say that we have to do good if good has to come back to us but to say, if we water our plants they will grow and bloom but we don’t have to water them too much.

The church and Christian community is now plagued with the problem of having people who will always make others think that they will give. The rich are cleverer in this than others. The leadership will be behind the rich with great expectations but the middle class and ordinary people will be the ones who actually help the community. While one group does things or promises to do things with the expectation of gaining positions, power and authority, the other group does things and helps out because it is the right thing to do. They are usually not found hobnobbing with the leadership and do not have dreams of being in power.

There are other ordinary people who help with their time and labour. People who help in cooking food, doing arrangements in church, helping to serve food, cleaning up after everything and not minding to get their clothes dirty in church. They try to work hard and give their time for the benefit and welfare of the community. There are also people who help with paper work, accounts, coordination and meetings. Others who pick and drop children to Sunday school and youth programmes and offer their vehicles, services and time for the church. They may not always be visible inside the church but will make sure that church programmes are successful.

St. Luke 6: 38 says, “give, and it will be given to you; in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Jesus here is very clear about the reward that is awaiting people who give their best for the benefit of the community. And yet good is not just done expecting good in return, but that is a natural consequence of good actions.

The problem today in all churches is that the ordinary people are ignored and posts and chairs are given to the rich and powerful. The poor man’s (sic) church has now become the rich man’s church. It is natural that the younger generations of several families have undergone an upward social mobility by way of better education and business acumen. But that does not mean that the nature of the church has to change to an exclusive club of people who want the ordinary people only to fill the church but not for decision making and any kind of recognition.

The churches have to take care of the proletariat, the working class, the one’s who work very hard to help their church and community. Without them the numbers of the church will come down drastically and will affect the very nature and survival of the church. In Kerala there is the interpretation of two political dispensations. One is a cadre party where workers do the work and the other is the party where everyone is a leader and there is no one to do the work finally. This lent, may we recognise the hard work of our forefathers and foremothers, who kept away rice, vegetables and fruits for the church and brought it so that it would be auctioned or exchanged to take care of the needs of the church. Shall we also remember the people who walked to church, built the church by offering their labour because they did not have the money to give. May we also remember the women and men who set aside coins like the poor widow and gave it to the church so that the church as we see it today would go on uninterrupted. Amen.