-COMPASSION+

It is a strange title! Isn’t it? What is meant by the minus and addition signs along with the word compassion? It is rather confusing! Has the author used it just to catch attention?

The Destination called ‘Purpose’

Ever wondered what your purpose in life is? Perhaps it is a question that keeps you up at night!
I know I have pondered over that multiple times myself, and as a student of Philosophy, I’m surrounded by people who wonder the same. If that wasn’t enough, I read and study about the works of people who, over time, have encountered the same conundrum. The answer to this big mystery is merely in the journey of life.

An Invitation to Dine

The Parable of the Great Banquet

¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Luke 14:15-24

This passage may stir some confusion in us. Why would the man invite ordinary people to the banquet? In Letter to the Colossians 3:5-14, St. Paul talks about our old, immoral practices lacking of the Creator’s wisdom. We are called to be the imitators of Christ, “Christians”. He calls us now to be renewed in compassion, kindness and patience and to forgive as we have been forgiven by God.

God has invited us all to the vast banquet that is his kingdom. How we respond to this invitation is important to our moral well-being. If we do not attend it despite being invited and choose to use the invitation at our own will, we would be like those who born into the Church in someway and then took it for granted. On the other hand, if we consider this invitation with a lot of importance, we would enthusiastically attend his banquet every single time. These are like the Gentiles, who were converted and redeemed by the grace of God. Because we know that like them, the cause of our redemption too was this banquet from the Kingdom of Heaven, and so we can not do without it.

We are honoured to be invited to such a banquet, but we have to fulfil certain duties as a Christian individual in order to continue receiving gifts from the kingdom of God. Analogously, although we receive a lot of grace during Mass, that doesn’t imply that we can enter the Kingdom of God. We have to be Christ like, as St. Paul says, change our old ways, rid our youthful follies, and clothe ourselves with ‘’compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’’. And we must do this not out of a sense of effort, but by emptying ourselves so that we can be filled by the Holy Spirit. So, during this season of Advent, let us make an attempt to clothe ourselves with gifts of the Holy Spirit, everyday.

Collaborated by Arun Soni and Joel Vasanth.

Broken Crayons Still Colour.

Back when I was a kid, I received a huge Crayola box full of crayons and I felt like I held in my hand, every colour in the world.

I remember how sad I used to be whenever a crayon broke, and how the broken pieces were so small compared to the others in the box.

While the ‘perfect crayons’ stood tall and proud, the ‘imperfect crayons’ cowered below, short and stout. The ‘perfect crayons’ held their place, while the ‘imperfect crayons’ wiggled out of the box and sometimes even got lost. The ‘perfect crayons’ were easy to colour with, while the ‘imperfect crayons’ were hard to hold and even more difficult to colour with.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the brokenness in your life, but you must never ever let your past, your brokenness and your hurt define you, but let them mould you into someone stronger than you were as you redefine what lies ahead.

No matter how broken you may be, what you’re made of hasn’t changed. No amount of brokenness can change that. You are still you, and all of your broken fragments too.

You were created in the glorious image of a God, who wants to carry your hurt and your burdens for you, and He wants you to see you healed and restored and whole again.

You may think you’re a mess right now, but you are one beautiful and unique colour in God’s masterpiece. There is no one like you.

You are your own crayon, full of vibrancy and life. You are purposeful and you add your own signature hue to all you do. There is no colour like you.

You may not see His big picture right now, but God has already drawn the outlines, and He knows where each colour will go to complete His work of art.

God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. His masterpiece consists of a colour palette so beautiful and varied because He uses all the crayons in His box – the broken and the unbroken.

Our past may have broken us, but that does not mean we cannot colour out a beautiful future.

Broken crayons still colour.

So will you.

Serve and not be Served.

A week before the Crucifixion of Our Lord, the wife of Zebedee, approached Jesus asking for a favour – to grant her sons to sit, one at His right and the other at His left when He comes in glory (Mathew 20:21). Our Lord knew that everyone had been impressed with the wild popularity and the adulation of the crowds and had assumed that it was only a matter of time before Jesus became the Lord of Jerusalem and drove out the Roman soldiers.

But Jesus knew what would happen in the space of only a few days. “You do not know what you are asking,” He told them. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” The Apostles failed to perceive what leadership meant in the Kingdom of God. Leadership in the world is all about prestige and pride. But in the Body of Christ, it is all about self-sacrifice. It is all about surrender and submission. It is all about setting one’s own interests aside for the sake of others. It is all about laying down one’s own life so that others may live. Jesus explained that unlike when the Gentiles rule with tyranny, here it would be “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all“ (Mark 10.42-44).

We see our Lord opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, strengthening the legs of the lame, opening the minds of the unbelieving, and forgiving the pollution of sinners. Do we not see Him most clearly, as a Servant, when He bent down, at the Last Mystical Supper, to wash the feet of His disciples? And do we not hear Him call us to the same service?

As He has become our Suffering Servant by ascending the Way of the Cross, so also must we become His servants, and the servants of our fellow man.

Serving our fellowman requires that we point man to paradise; it requires that we give up our own demands for prestige, for power and influence, from getting in our way. Let us show kindness to one another. Let us be gracious and merciful. Let us treat each other with the greatest respect and honor. Let us be patient with eccentricities and limitations. Let the world know that our fellowship is bound together with cords of love, forgiveness and grace. We can achieve this only when we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts to attain the level of humility our Lord reflected.

“.. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

–Matthew 20:28