Am I saying, therefore, that the church should not address the pressing question of the sustainability of nature? No, not at all! All I am saying is that, for our posturing to command credibility and authenticity, we need to incarnate a lifestyle that is conducive to the sustainability of nature.
The CARPENTER’S SON – A Christmas Reflection Lal Varghese, Esq. Dallas
The question often asked in this regard is as follows. The church is a small, powerless thing. How is it to make a difference in this respect globally? When such questions are asked, I derive comfort and confidence from the parable of the mustard seed. It is not the ponderous scale of the beginning, but the relevance of the vision, integrity of purpose, and the willingness to endure over time, that make the difference. Here’s what I have been doing, as a private individual, to mind the sustainability of nature. -I began to reduce to consumption of paper very substantially from three decades ago. As an author, this poses serious difficulties to me. Editing one’s texts on the screen in risky. But I have given up taking printouts altogether. More trouble for me, less for nature on account of me. I used to subscribe to more than one newspaper. I have now reduced it to one. -I maintain my needs at the lowest minimum; whether it is water, petrol, clothes, or phone. It suffices, for example, to open the tap to a quarter-measure for the sake of personal hygiene, except when having a bath. -I have been reducing travel –especially air travelgradually. By now I have renounced air travel, which is a major cause of ozone depletion. It is not talked about because it could affect the elite sections in all societies. -I work like a quasi, amateur farmer. I am convinced that farmers are the greatest friends of nature. They sustain the vitality of nature. Sadly, though, succumbing to the greed that modern culture injects into the veins of every human being, farmers too have come to endanger the integrity of creation. In this I won’t blame them; but blame the state of affairs, which forces them to be so. Man, as a parasite on nature, will be a predator in relation to nature. I feel that my sweat is in relation to nature is what the blood of Jesus is in relation to human nature. It is only when work and worship become one under the umbrella of sustained daily communion with God that man becomes a caretaker, or steward, or nature. Anything short of this -within the church, without the church- will sustain the war on nature, even as truce is declared on nature. As St. Augustine says, the people of the world will preach peace and prepare for war at the same time. To me, nothing summaries human hypocrisy in relation to nature better than these words.
Jesus was chosen to be born as a carpenter’s son in a borrowed manger, but he is the son of our heavenly Father who was with the Father from the beginning of time (John 1: 1-5) and to be buried in a borrowed tomb. God could have chosen many ways for His incarnation, but He selected Mary and Joesph. By inhabiting the womb of Mary, a village girl from Nazareth, a very clear message is made about where God's priorities lie. There is no bias towards respectability, wealth, prestige; indeed, all of things, which we too often value, seem to have been deliberately avoided. A west Texas man was in a Church with shabby clothes. The pastor of the Church was upset about his dress and asked him to talk to God and come back dressed like others. He came back wearing the same rugged clothes. Pastor asked him, "I thought I told you to talk to God and return dressed like all others." He said, "I talked to God, but He said He was never been to your Church." Christ chose to be born in a manger and not in a palace. If Christ were to come to our parishes, probably we may not recognize Him and may even ask to Him to do the same thing the pastor asked the west Texas man. It is not in the way we dress, and the appearance when we attend the church, which matters, but it is our faith and commitment to live the gospel, which matters. Christ must be born within us so that we can be Christ like. The one who created the whole world chose to be born in a manger. The one who has our destiny in His hands chose to submit to His father’s will and to die on the cross. We celebrate Christmas without knowing the reason for the season. We often forget the child born in the manger when we celebrate His birth. This child’s life and His death on the cross should be able to change our life and the life of others around through us, and our parish life. (Continued on Page 43)
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