Mass Readings:
I Cor 1:3-9 and Gospel Mt 7:7-11
St Paul, while addressing the Corinthians, says that every one is God’s grace and blessing. For him, each one is unique and each one is a gift of God to us in our life. No two are alike, including the identical twins, in everything. Each one has been contemplated, as Paul would write to the Hebrews, before the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4) and each one has to fulfill something unique in this world’s history of salvation. Only you could accomplish that – No one else.
You might have seen ‘puzzles’ of big pictures. A picture is cut into so many tiny bits in a way that each bit would fit, in the large picture, in only one place. In the same way, we each one have been created in this world to fulfill something unique and special. It is up to us to know, realize, and live out that unique mission in life chosen for us by God.
Once Fr Pedro Arrupe, the 28th General of the Jesuit Order, was travelling in a train. When the train stopped in a station, three youth, followed by a relatively elderly person, boarded the train and found seats adjacent to Fr Arrupe. From their conversation, Fr Arrupe understood that the youngsters belonged to a football team and they were returning home after winning a tournament match and the elderly was their coach. The elderly asked the youth: Now you are going to leave school, what are you going to do in life?
One responded immediately: I need not worry about it – My father would take care of it. The second one narrated: I want to go abroad for higher studies; I want to earn a lot of money and wealth; and I want to enjoy life. The third one was keeping quiet. The coach asked him: Frank, what are you going to do? Frank, hesitatingly replied: I want to go to a far away place where the poor and needy would need my helping hand. I want to make the unfortunate happy. At that point Fr Arrupe interrupted saying: Frank, I appreciate your boldness to take a road less travelled. May God bless you and your way leading to the needy and the unfortunate. You would find not only God in them but yourself.
We pray for God’s grace to lead us daily, especially in our future life how to handle ourselves. And Jesus tells us, rather assures us:
Ask, you shall receive.
Knock, it shall be opened unto you.
Search, you would find it.
No prayer goes unheard – At times it might be delayed but it brings forth the desired fruits. Gods says in the Bible:
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater; so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please,
and it shall tprosper in the thing for which I sent it (Is 55:10f).
So is the case with our prayer. Once a cancer specialist was invited to address the world congress. As he went to the airport, there was heavy thunder and shower – The flights were cancelled. The doctor wanted by all means to reach the place as his talk was slated in the following morning. He immediately hired a taxi and started off. The thunder and rain grew in intensity – The driver could not see the road and he just stopped on the way. They looked out and saw a stream of light coming from a nearby house. They went there – The lady in the house was very hospitable: She gave them something to eat. As they were relaxing, she went to the nearby room and knelt down in prayer. The curious doctor looked into the room and he could barely decipher the emaciated body of a boy lying motionless on bed. After the prayer, he enquired after the boy and learnt that he was dying of cancer. The mother said that she did not have the means to take him for special treatment. The next day morning as the sky cleared, the doctor took the boy to his clinic in Chicago and treated him. The boy eventually got well. Prayer might get delayed but it would be eventually heard. We need perseverance and patience.
We knock at the door, Jesus says, when we need anything. William Hunt drew the world famous painting (in 1851) where Jesus is standing at the door with a lantern in one hand and knocking at the door. A critique told him: See, there is no handle on the door. The painter replied: This door needs handle inside – The one who hears the knock should open it from within. We need to hear the cry of the poor and the marginalized and we need to open our heart. Just like Frank, who travelled with Fr Arrupe, you could hear the cry of the poor and open your heart and mind to help them.
Jesus assures us that we shall find if only we could search for it. Let us search for our peace and joy in the inner cave of our heart. As children we lived without worries but as we grow up our worries too seems to grow. But let us take refuge at the feet of Jesus and he would give us peace and joy. Tagore writes in his Nobel-Prize winning book Gitanjali:
I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by your side.
The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards…
Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with you, and to sing
dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.
We can say this not only to God but also to your friends and people we want to serve. The Lord has called us and He will accomplish his plan in and through us – Just trust in him and walk with him in the company of our fellow human beings. The hostel atmosphere, here, should create in us the spirit of marching together for a purpose in building up a better society of justice and harmony. Wish you all a happy Hostel Day.
Francis P Xavier SJ
09 Mar 2020