Readings: I Kg 19:10-13; I Cor 12:4-14; Gospel Lk 4:1-13
Unity and Harmony
Dear Members of Loyola Family, I am happy to be with you today to invoke God’s abundant blessings on us, our studies, our teaching, and all that we are engaged in for the good of humankind. As we gather in the presence of the Lord, let us offer ourselves with what we have and what we need to have. We pray that the Lord who invited us to this campus, may shower His blessings on us and our studies so that we become His ambassadors to build a new world of unity and harmony. As Loyola’s motto: We can let our light of values shine to the world.
In the very beginning of the Bible, we read that “earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:2). It is this Spirit that brought in order and harmony, life and prosperity, joy and happiness, meaning and fulness in the universe. And we are here today to ask the Lord to bless us and to renew and refresh us in our studies, formation, and life. And let us join Rabindranath Tagore and sing:
I have come to You, (O Lord), to take your touch before I begin my day.
Let your eyes rest upon my eyes for a while.
Let me take to my (study and) work the assurance of Your comradeship.
Fill my mind with Your music to last through the desert of noise!
Let your Love’s sunshine kiss the peaks of my thoughts
And linger in my life’s valley where the harvest ripens (the Gitanjali).
Yes, we are here at the feet of the Lord to listen to his words of life and wisdom that would form us men and women for others. St Ignatius of Loyola had a great devotion to the Holy Trinity. The Spirit of the Lord led him through. Let us surrender ourselves, our studies, our teaching, our administration, and everything we have and what we are to the Lord that the Lord may walk with us and transform us. May the Spirit of Jesus show us the way and enlighten our way.
Our Prayer Today:
The Mass of the Holy Spirit is a tradition in the Jesuit institutions. In fact, before we begin any work we are expected to have the purity of intention, namely that we have the grace of God to do everything for the good of all – And this is also the way to focus our heart and mind in what we do. In fact we expect the Lord to be with us to work with us and to walk with us in our life journey. Repeating the words of Prophet Isaiah we ask the Spirit of the Lord to rest on us; we request the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding to form us; we implore that the Spirit of counsel and might accompany us; and we entreat the Spirit of knowledge and wisdom to be our counselor and mentor (Is 11:2-3). And with this disposition and attitude the Lord will be delighted with us and he will dwell and work with us and for us.
And today we reflect on the prayer of Solomon to the Lord. When God asked Solomon what he wanted, he did not ask for possession, position, or power. But he just asked for two things: i. a discerning mind; and ii. an understanding heart in order to do the right and just things for his people. He asked the Lord for the power of critical thinking and a heart to love all. He wanted to have a balanced head and heart so that his hand would be strengthened to do good to his people. Jesuit education, as we now realize, is a holistic formation of head, heart, and hand. The syllabi enrich you with knowledge and intelligence; the Jesuit values you imbibe during your studies forms you to be fully human and fully alive to the needs of others; and the outcome is your going out as leaders with social responsibility to transform the world. Thus, the formation of head, heart, and hand are realized through information and formation for transformation. In this process, we might use artificial intelligence but we are careful not to lose our intelligence. Artificial intelligence such as cellphone, Google, WhatsApp, FaceBook, Instagram, and even computer and Robot may offer you immense information but they cannot impart compassion and love because they cannot express their emotions and they do not possess soul. They are only means and not end to attain our goal in life. We have this emotions to embrace all and the soul that follows the goodness of the Lord in serving the people.
This service is based on love. J. Murphy in his bestselling book The Power of Your Subconscious says, “All you owe any person in the world is love, and love is wishing for everyone what you wish for yourself – health, happiness, and all the blessings in life”.[1] In the same way, St Paul when writing to the Corinthians says: You may be able to move mountains; but if you do not have love, your ability is of no use. He adds that love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; and endures all things. And finally he asserts that love is even more than belief and hope (I Cor 13:1-13). So, it is not acquiring knowledge that matters but what you do with the knowledge that you have obtained is all that matters. It is to grow in the love of all our fellow human beings and thus to love God. Also we need to nurture the nature that has been taking care of us for so long – As Ignatius says, God is at work for us in the nature. So this love is triple-phased: Love of God, compassion for our neighbors, and care for the nature.
Ultimately it is love that is basic and starting point and it all begins with love of oneself. In contrast, jealousy is the cancer that will not only kill your joy but also take away all your friends from you. Replace jealousy with love and you would be a happy person. Once someone came to a Zen master and was shouting at him with unparliamentary words. The Zen master just sat there smiling. When the person left him, his disciples asked him why he did not react to the shouting of the man. The Zen master asked them: “When someone brings you a gift and if you accept it, it belongs to you. But if you do not take it, what happens?” “It is with the person who brought it”, responded the disciples. The Zen master replied, “When someone criticizes you or levels false allegations, if you do not take it to the heart, unless it is true, then it would not affect you. Rather, it goes back to the one who damages your good name.” Yes, you reap what you sow – What goes around comes around. Ingratitude is the greatest of evil that even the Holy Spirit would not forgive. As Paul says: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21). The world is not just and fair, but let us ask the Spirit of the Lord to make us ambassadors of peace and harmony among the people we live. We need to be the light of the world, shining the goodness of the Lord.
Mass Readings:
Today’s readings also remind us of our journey from good to better towards unity and harmony: Elijah encounters God. Not in the fearsome cyclonic wind that shake even the mountains; not in the devastating earthquake which literally uproots people and properties bringing in fear and trembling; not in the destroying fire that reduces everything to ashes; but in a gentle breeze God is present and speaks in mild whisper to Elijah. God is not present in external sound and pomp but in the stillness of our hearts. Ignatius compares the words and action of God – It is not like drops falling on a stone which would be shattered but like drops that gently falls on a sponge that is accepted and absorbed. The teaching of the Lord we need to absorb and in turn the word of God would purify us and bless us and sanctify us and lead us on.
This Spirit of God today moves amidst us to purify us and to sanctify us. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians describes the characteristics or signs of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is poured down on us so that we manifest the same Spirit to all by our doing good for all by our relationship building and working in team. One may be good in making a bow and another may be good in shaping an excellent arrow but you need a person to shoot the arrow accurately. We have a variety of talents: Some have the power to heal; some could engineer a society; some might build people and nation; some could make use of their academic and linguistic abilities to enlighten and inspire others – And Paul would say that all the talents are not given for your personal use but for the good of all humankind. The Jesuit education is not given to you as individuals but to the society you come from so that with the values you imbibe in this temple of learning you should go forth and transform the society for the better. Paul finds each one of us as a replica of the society: He says as one body has different parts each one of us are entrusted with specific role to play in the society as we are unique. It is up to us to find out what is my mission in upbuilding the society. Ultimately we need to work for the unity and harmony of the society. We need to see that each one us is chosen to be a leader and we need to ask the Spirit to make us understand our individual role to play. We are like a piece in the large picture – As one piece of puzzle would fit in one place only, we need to find out the role cut out by God in the society. We celebrate our differences as we need to come together to offer our contribution for the common good of the society at large. We need to build up unity from the differences and we need to look for clues of success amidst failures, for we learn more from failure than from success.
We ask the question: How to do this? P.S. Krishnan in his soul searching book A Crusade for Social Justice (2020) depicts the society in two sections: On the one hand we have the group with Possession – Position – Power and on the other hand we have the group that is Propertyless – Pushed down/Punished – Powerless. And we are torn between these two groups of Have’s and Have-Not’s. What should be our stand? We might be in a dilemma?
Jesus took his stand with the powerless and the marginalized. He viewed all events in his life from the perspectives of the poor and the discriminated. He could convert stone into bread and overcome his hunger – But he thought about those who have nothing to eat. And he declined to use his power for Himself. Then, He is tempted to gain possession of the world but Jesus thinks of those who do not have anything as their possession. He rejects the offer – His property and possession are the people he serves. Jesus is not for any position of power but for empowering the discriminated people. Again, Jesus is challenged to prove his godly power – It is to jump off from the height. Jesus ignores this tempting offer – He knew the angels would provide safe landing if He jumps down from the pinnacle of the Jerusalem temple. He is not to show off His power but to serve the powerless.
Jesuit education is to make the powerless, leaders of the society, nation, and the world. You have the capacity and capability and we are there to make you whole and full. Jesuit education is to bring in the people from the periphery of the society to the center of the society; to help the people at the bottom of the social pyramid to reach the top of the pyramid; and to make the people at the receiving end as the decision makers in the society.
Our Response to the Spirit:
As we are invited, purified, sanctified, and sent on mission to change the world a better place to live, we need to check what our response to this invitation would be. We live in a world of good and evil – There are people of truth as well as people of lie. We need to distinguish the good from the evil. We need to safeguard ourselves from the people who are bad influence in our lives; and we need to avoid people who betray us. At the same time, we need to identify people who inspire us and we need to discard people who mislead us. We ask of the Spirit of Jesus for enlightenment and clarity. Let us pray on this day that the Spirit of Jesus leads us on and to show what is good and what is evil. Let us pray for the grace that we become the blessings of God for others to bring His peace and joy. The Lord who invited us to this world and who welcomed you to this campus, will form you leaders of the society and would get everything done for you in life – for your good and for the good of others in the world. Let us follow the Spirit of Jesus in the footsteps of St Ignatius of Loyola. All the best in the academic year 2022-2023.
Francis P Xavier SJ
26Aug2022
[1] J. Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious, Amazing Road, Mumbai, p.231.