Touch and Go
Grace makes the difference
It was March 19, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic was
sweeping the developed countries having begun in Wuhan, China. It affected
Singapore too, but the government’s proactive measures on the virus’s virulent
nature had the spread of the virus in check. At least, it seemed that way then,
but we were to know better, later.
My mother was in Singapore then, staying with my
younger brother. My mother was scheduled to return back to Kochi, Kerala, on
the 24th. My brother had a sixth sense that Mum’s stay in Singapore
was untenable, even for the few days that was left for her scheduled departure.
He took a call and made efforts to advance Mummy’s
flight back to Kochi, Kerala. There were cost implications of changing booking
dates, but in the light of what was happening, it weighed less on the decision.
My brother targeted to book Mummy back on 19th March.
Meanwhile in Kerala and Karnataka (we stay in
Bangalore), the fear of contracting the virus was spreading and restrictions to
free movement was being considered by both governments.
At the International airports in India, the incoming
passengers were being screened and tested. In Bangalore, some of the passengers
were taken further outskirts, and tested at temporarily set up facilities with no
toilets and amenities, sometimes involving 10-12 hour wait for the passengers
who were already bone tired from the journey and immigration process.
Some were being ordered to be quarantined in their
homes for 14-28 days. The international passengers’ return to their residences
and localities was spreading fear among their neighbors. Municipal wards where
incoming passengers were staying were notified to the public to ensure
restricted contact.
In Kerala, taxi drivers were refusing to ply to the
airport to pick up international passengers.
My mother is 80 years old – but physically many years
younger – she still travels everywhere on her own. But the fear created around
the virus and attendant restrictions, quarantine, cab drivers’ uneasiness to
ply to the airport to pick up passengers, neighbors turniing hostile toward the
returnees from abroad – had created a pall of gloom and trepidation to an
otherwise feisty lady – my mum.
It was in this milieu that my wife and I decided that
we will travel by car to Kochi from Bangalore to personally pick up Mummy from
the airport and bring her home to a place we have on Kuzhuppilly Beach.
Expecting mummy’s flight to be booked on 19th
afternoon and arrival in Kochi by 10 pm in the night, my wife and I, packed up
our bags to leave for Kerala by car early on 19th morning.
Then we got a final confirmation about my mum’s travel
plans by late 18th
evening. The flight on 19th was full.
The last flight to Kochi from Singapore (due to the pandemic) was on 20th
and fortunately my mum got one of the last few seats on the flight.
God’s providence.
However, between 18th and 19th
the scenario for my wife and me completely changed. The Karnataka government
had imposed restrictions on traveling out of Karnataka with checkposts put in
place. There was also concern that the Kerala government was responding
likewise to restrict entry and exit of vehicles between the states.
We had to drop our plans and inform Mummy accordingly.
God’s provision prevailed again.
Mummy had no problem when she arrived at Kochi
airport, other than the mandatory 28 days quarantine at home. She got transport
easily. One of the cabs plying to the airport picked her up and dropped her
safely home.
As I write this reflection, we are on April 26, 2020.
More than 37 days from the day we were to travel to Kochi from Bangalore. The
plans then were to return back to Bangalore in a couple of days after settling Mummy
in with all that she needed. Or alternatively, bring Mummy with us back to
Bangalore.
The big ‘IF’.
If we had left for Kerala as planned on 19th
March, we would still be in Kerala with no definite end date in sight, locked
down in Kerala while our five children
are lockdown in our home in Bangalore.
A worldly response to the last-minute changes to my
wife and my plan to travel by car to Kochi, and the potential consequences as
narrated above would have been, “How lucky we are?”
Our response was, “Thank God for your mercy and grace
on Mummy and on us”.
“But because of his great love for us, god, who is
rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Eph 2:4,5
To be blessed with God’s grace is such a marvelous
benediction. It wards off danger. It opens up opportunity. It closes doors (we
were restricted from going). It gets you entry into places where admission is restricted.
Grace is free. You cannot buy it or work to earn it.
It is given. For a purpose. To draw us closer to God.
He showers His grace on those whose hearts are yielded
to Him.
You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you
so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Jn 14:16
You may not be the paragon of virtue. You may not be
steeped in prayer. You may not be righteous in every sense of the word. You may
not be practicing charity and alms giving. Yet you may be a candidate to
receive his grace.
If the twelve apostles Jesus chose for his ministry were
to be put to the above test of virtue, prayer etc., they would woefully fail.
It is not that all the apostles Jesus called to
follow Him had the benefit of receiving something: ‘miraculous catch of fish’,
led Simon and Andrew and James and John, sons of Zebedee to follow Jesus; Nathanael
marveled and followed Jesus when Jesus said he saw him under the fig tree; Mary
Magdalene, because Jesus cast out seven demons from her.
Matthew, the future apostle, evangelist and Gospel
writer, may have witnessed Jesus’ miracle at Capernaum where he was running a
tax collection booth for the Romans – a much reviled Jew collecting taxes from
his own, the Jewish people. Jesus said, follow me, and he left the booth and
followed Jesus. Jesus had not done anything personally for him from what we
know. In fact, Jesus asked Matthew to host him and his disciples for a meal.
Matthew was rich.
There were 5000 men and 4000 men again (and their
families) on two different occasions, who were sumptuously fed by Jesus on five
loaves and two fish on one occasion with 12 baskets of fragment left over after
the eating.
The breaking and the multiplication of the bread was a
prefigurement of the body and blood of Christ that we Christians receive in
communion and at every Eucharistic celebration commemorating Jesus’ death and
resurrection.
The fragments were sacramental and could not be left
around to be trampled. It had to go back to the ‘tabernacle’. On Jesus’
instruction it was assiduously collected filling the 12 baskets.
Did all of them who were witness to the miracle of the
multiplication of the loaves and fish follow Jesus? Maybe they did. Maybe they
did not.
We don’t know for sure except that 3000 and then 5000 were
converted in Jerusalem on Peter’s bold, spirit-filled preaching, after the Holy
Spirit descended on the 11 apostles, Mother Mary, and other disciples who were gathered
in the Upper Room.
In that Upper Room during his 2014 visit to Jerusalem, Pope Francis’s
homily highlighted three major events that took place in that sacred space, two
millennia back, and it continues to be reflected in the life and image of a
fruitful Church even today:
“Here, where Jesus shared the Last Supper with the apostles; where,
after his resurrection, he appeared in their midst; where the Holy Spirit
descended with power upon Mary and the disciples, here the Church was born, and
she was born to go forth.”
Those who followed Jesus had their hearts yielded to
Jesus.
Was it easy to follow Jesus under opposition from two major
forces at that time in Church history?
1.
The “elders, Chief priests and scribes’ in the
Sanhedrin who opposed Jesus, with the notable exception of Nicodemus and
Gamaliel who argued for Jesus and Peter and Paul, respectively
2.
The Roman occupying forces, who found Jesus and the
emboldened apostles a nuisance to peace in the occupied area
Following Jesus also meant giving up everything you
owned to the common kitty so that all the early Christians irrespective of what
they contributed, their needs would be met equally.
Jesus offered neither protection from persecution or
individual prosperity.
However, In Luke 10:19, Jesus did say, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions
and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
To support the great commission given to the apostles and disciples, the
promise is repeated by St Mark in his Gospel Mark 16: 17-18 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name
they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they
will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it
will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be
made well.”
Why did the early Christian risk their life and their
possessions to become part of this community? What was the compelling reason?
The Jewish people were waiting for a messiah since
Moses brought them out of Egypt and from slavery to the Promised Land. Now, the Promised Land was occupied by the
Romans. The general expectation from a Moses or Elijah-like messiah was to
overthrow the occupiers and gain freedom from their oppressors. But Jesus did
not fit their conception of a messiah.
For that the Jews will have to wait for Jesus’ second
coming.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek
to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon
the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplications: and they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced, and they shall
mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Zechariah 12:9-10
But there were those among the Jews (and Gentiles) who
were able to see that in Jesus there was redemption and salvation: forgiveness
of their sins and eternal life, which no one else could offer.
Jesus demonstrated that He had the power to forgive
sin and (so) He had the power to grant eternal life.
Jesus healed the paralytic lowered from the roof
marveling at the faith of the people who had brought the paralytic to Jesus in
such a dramatic fashion. To the disapproving Pharisees, He said, “But I want
you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."
So, he said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, take your mat and go
home." (Mt 9:6)
How do we in our times reach the level of maturity of
the early Christian to hunger for redemption and salvation – for forgiveness
of sins and eternal life?
How do we shed our possessiveness and sense of
entitlement to our God-given wealth and be more liberal to tend to the least of
our brethren without feeling stressed like Ananias and Sapphira who hid half
their property sale proceeds from Peter and the community pool and were struck
dead?
How do we wean ourselves away from our creature
comforts and transition to wanting eternal life – making that desire salient to
our life – working toward salvation of our soul?
How do we make sin our #1 enemy, not people?
How do we seek to unite our families around the
crucified and risen Son of God, Jesus Christ?
The questions are infinitesimal and so will be
eternity if we are not able to find answers for them at a personal level and at
the level of the community.
We need grace. Or it is touch and go.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
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