By Maria Sangeetha
Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and says it is for a purpose – that we would be empowered to be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Ac 1:8). It was no accident that Jerusalem is mentioned as the first venue of our witnessing to Jesus. Jerusalem refers to the homestead. Clearly we need to radiate Jesus in our homes first. As Mother Teresa famously said “Charity begins at home.”
A person who preaches Jesus to the world and does not practice love at home becomes a curse to his children. He becomes case for scandal and leads to a breakdown of faith he acts as a counter-witness; those who see him failing to ‘walk the talk’ are likely to conclude that the word of God is not liveable or practicable. Jesus in fact said, our witness is the witness of love. “It is by your love that you will be known as my disciples” (Jn 13:35). Our entire standing with Jesus depends on living by the Lord’s command of love.
“Love your neighbour” Jesus said, concluding that this, alongside the command to love God was paramount. “There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk 12:31). The word neighbour’ refers to the person next to us.
Again Jesus said, “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did for me.” (Mt 12:40). No doubt, this refers to the poor and the rejects of the society. But not just to them. It includes those who are least in our estimation. There are people we have dismissed as poor, ugly, sinful, mad, threatening and hurtful. It could very well be one’s spouse, parent, child – that person who has fared badly by our expectations. It could be the domestic help who shirks the work, the salesperson who annoys being overbearingly pushy, a co-worker or a group who try to malign us all the time.
In fact the love Jesus demands of us is not some abstract feeling of sympathy and outrage for the people being killed in Iraq by heartless terrorists. He demands us to be kind, respectful and supportive to the persons in my own home and passing my way. “Jesus loved His own and He loved them to the end”(Jn 13:1). He was obedient and He honoured His parents though they were mere mortals and He was their God. He loved His disciples and deigned to wash their feet while fully aware of their petty malice, cowardice, fickleness and betrayal lurking in their heart. “Our own” firstly refers to our immediate family members. There is no qualification when Jesus says “Judge not” (Mt 7:1). Even if they are downright unrighteous and unpleasant, my duty is to honour them as the gift of God.
Pope Francis is someone I admire much. I was imagining that if I managed the briefest audience with the Pope and he should give me a flimsy plastic cross, what would my reaction be? It may be that this was the kind of pious item which I would never buy. Maybe even if someone should give it free I may not accept it. But because Pope Francis gave it, I would carry it with me wherever I go and treasure it till I die. If by some accident it breaks, I would glue it together and put it in a protective case and take even greater care to prevent such a mishap again. The people in my life are gifts from a great God. Perhaps they are not exactly the kind I would chose to spend time with. Yet I accept them for by this, I honour the Lord.
Firstly we owe these others the benefit of doubt. When someone is less than cordial, we must remember to desist from jumping to conclusions that they have anything personal against us. Everyone must be suffering some personal struggle that no one can guess. Before we reach any conclusion, we need to, as the saying goes “walk a mile in his or her shoes.” Perhaps we would have fared worse. Maybe my mother-in-law or daughter-in-law colleague has hurt me deliberately. Before I complain and wail to the world about it, I must consider how I would have reacted if it were my own mother or daughter – there would have definitely been greater charity. Perhaps there is a cantankerous old man in the neighbourhood. Let us imagine it was our own dad- how protective we would have been of him then! I see a drug addict wandering around and well my first reaction would be pharisaic and I am just wishing he would disappear. After all he is a menace to the society. If it were my brother how different would be my heart’s intent. I would want to save him at all costs! Perhaps my spouse has been unfaithful to me and there is so much hurt that has festered into hatred. Let us consider if it were our own child who did this mistake, how much we would be rooting for them!
Some time ago there was a shocking headline in the news – so difficult for me to get over. In the city I hail from known for the warmth and simplicity of the people, a girl was slashed with a knife several times. This happened at the railway station. For hours she lay there bleeding to death. There were several people around there but they just turned their heads away, got into their trains and went to work that morning like nothing happened.
Some weeks later in the same city, a schoolgirl died in a road accident because no one would come forward to take her to the hospital. She was lying in the road for hours bleeding and by the time the ambulance reached her to the hospital, she had died. The doctor told the mother that if only the girl had been brought half an hour earlier she could have been saved. How can one console the mother? It is true that in both these cases the public kept away from involvement because of the rules of the road being so complicated. But let us consider if it were my own sister wouldn’t I have abandoned all my plans and programmes of the day to save her life!
The Good Samaritan did not happen to pass that way. I tried to console myself that this human apathy would have been there even in the gospel times. It is not a mere scourge of our modern age. But the fact is we have definitely become dead to all sensitivity to others’ pain. The news keeps flashing cruel events conditioning our hearts that over time we lose all sense of shock and ordinary human feeling.
The classic poem goes: ‘Everyman’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. Therefore, Do not ask for whom to bell tolls? It tolls for thee.’ We cannot afford to be unaffected by evil happening to someone we consider as unconnected. Our very own could one day be that ‘someone’.
This teaching is difficult no doubt, when applied in our own life and in our daily dealings. Every one of us has failed in this mission of love. Truly in the context of the commandment of love “we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). But we need to begin somewhere.
To be Christian we need to be tough – that is why Jesus speaks of the “power from above” to fulfil this mission. The Holy spirit will pour love into our hearts” bankrupt of love (Rom 5:5). In prayer we shall receive sparks of love. Prayer specifically means raising our eyes to contemplate the face of God – the merciful face of God in Jesus. We have encountered, perhaps far too often, pious people who are strikingly hard-hearted and scandalously mean. Did not Jesus encounter many such hypocrites? Some of these He depicted who went to pray with the publican and returns condemned in the eyes of God. On the other hand when we set our eyes on the amazing grace and mercy Christ has revealed to us through His life, His healings, His death on the cross, His love that conquered the grave and His ever present consolation through the Holy Spirit, we would begin to reflect that love. We cannot but put aside our agenda to follow the call of the Spirit to respond in love – just as Mother Teresa had done. Then the world will be so blessed that we have passed its way.