Within the high four walls with just sixty people sitting at distance in the spacious holy place in the quiet, was graceful, much more, participating in the Holy Eucharist in an unpacked ambience gave a thrill to the Soul on all souls day and it was indeed an unique experience! It wasn’t a dream but rather a heartfelt understanding of the grim situation in which we now are facing, with colourful masks looking like the apes of Tanzania! Oophs! What more days are left to come cannot be predicted. Nevertheless, a parched soul was refreshed from the living waters that gushed forth physically from the holy altar after long seven months as I noticed the joy on people faces!
This reminded me of the word “unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you” (cf. John 6: 53) while psalm 100: 3 says “… he made us we belong to him and further St Paul writing to the Romans 14:8, exclaims: whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Yes, whether we live or die, which means in whatever situation; in whichever condition you are – healthy or sick; weak or strong; with masks or without masks; with clothes and naked; on the earth or in space, we/I belong to the Lord. Yes, indeed it is a privilege to feel belonged to the Lord. For psalm 139, says “you are my prized possession”! While Isaiah 43: 4 “God says: you are precious in my eyes and honoured and I love you”.
Honestly! to long to be where I belong is a natural feeling and desire! Yes, an emotion that perpetuates our goal and innermost yearning. This belongingness was deepened as I listened to the gospels these days. In this present situation the passage from St. Luke’ gospel was enlightening: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them”.
Well, what were the people doing? Eating, drinking, marrying… one would say is there anything wrong? Absolutely not!!! Then why did the flood came and destroyed all of them? So too, in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, anything bad? Extremely not! Then why did God rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them as soon as Lot left Sodom? Is this similar to what we are doing?
Noah told the people to shun evil, to repent; that God would send flood; people laughed at him when he constructed the Ark on the mountain; they refused to enter the Ark even when they could still save themselves! While in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with God like a child shamelessly bringing down the count to five, even then God did not find any one! All because, they did not fear God! Yes, there was no God in their life; in their happenings, in their planting and building…
Does the present situation in anyway invites us to introspect our life to avoid a similar situation and Obey the Word the God!
