Family Corner

THE CLARION CALL
Author: Vijitha Sebastian Adappoor

Family Corner
Man is endowed with many precious gifts of heart and mind. Yet man conducts himself very miserably at times. Forgetting the divinity within him, he immerses himself in worldly desires. He tends to lead an animal existence. With his power of speech and power of discrimination man can conquer many hearts.

When we hear the different disturbing news items regarding godmen who do not abide by the law of virtue, we become baffled and distressed. The lure of money may drive a person crazy. He flouts all norms of ethical living and this eventually becomes a source of great mental agony.

The mind must be weaned away to help man to refrain from indulging in prohibited acts and regain his self respect and reputation. Arrogance regarding our capabilities and possessions will never remain with us when we adopt servitude to God. To be a religious person is a process where we continuously gather knowledge and this needs to be updated regularly. It is truly said that nothing dedicated to God would go waste. Separation from children and the yearning to be with them is experienced by most parents. Similarly God also yearns for his devotees to come back to him. Just like the parents who ask their children to come home even if it is just for a day, every small act of faith pleases God abundantly.

Vijitha Sebastian Adappoor
Jesus has called us to be his witness. A person is called as a witness to prove what the other person has said. This attracts others and they begin to believe in it. I am sure it will be a great pleasure to the one for whom we become a witness. Won’t it be much more to be a witness to the Word of God? Jesus himself was his Father’s great witness. John 8; 28 says, ‘I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say.’

Through our words, actions and behaviour we become witnesses for Christ. We will be ready to be a witness only when we fully believe in the Word of God. By doing so, we are adding to the kingdom of God and we give importance to the first commandment. It will also contribute to our happiness and well being. Preventing God’s grace leads us to sinfulness. Moving away from the grace of God makes man disconsolate.

When birds give a clarion call, they can be heard for two miles on a quiet morning. As Christians we also have to give a clarion call to action an urgent or inspiring appeal to people to do something to revive the social fabric and regenerate the church. Religion is important to man. The rites that we observe should be done with interest without anticipating any reward. All our actions and thoughts concerned with our belief and prayers to God are assimilated by the generation following us. They should feel replenished as they continue the journey after us and experience the communion of their brothers and sisters in Christ as they take part in the Eucharistic celebrations. So we are being given a call to take better care of the quality of the Eucharistic celebration to confer meaning to everyday events.

As parents we must respond to this call and help our children to discover the invitation of Christ. It will also give us an opportunity to evoke in them peace, compassion and bliss. It is our chance to make our children aware of the dynamic presence of Christ in the Eucharist lest they be carried away by the rituals. The consumerism and religious indifference in our lives today distances us from our faith.

We also need to put a stop to the hate belching that is going on around us. To do this we need to let go our resentment and forgive each other. Our magnanimity should touch our children and help them to open their hearts and understand each other in the many situations that life unfolds for them. They will also learn to accept each other’s apologies and when the need arises offer their own without any hesitation. Our children should become witnesses to the dependable goodness that they have encountered.

We should realize that no one can escape the consequences of one’s action but by the grace of God we can overcome our difficulties. We should never be ungrateful to those who help us to discipline ourselves. A personal friendship with Christ should be the root of our Christian formation and the transmission of the same should be done to the next generation. We should always accompany those who cherish faith in God so that we remain spiritually nourished and lead an intense sacramental life. It will also help us to deepen our knowledge of Christ and set a high standard of Christian living.
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Stop Wasting Life, the Father Still Waits!
Author: Jacob Chanikuzhy

God's Own Words
The Book of Sirach admonishes the fathers of Israel: “To son or wife, to brother or friend, do not give power over yourself, as long as you live and do not give your property to another …For it is better that your children should ask from you than you should look to the hand of your children… At the time when you end the days of your life, in the hour of death, distribute your inheritance” (Sirach 33,1924). Jewish rabbis reiterated the need for maintaining one’s control over one’s property by giving the following teaching: “Three cry out and are not answered. Viz., he who has money and lends it without witnesses; …he who transfers his property to his children in his lifetime.”

The father in Jesus’ story of the prodigal son (Lk 15, 1132), however, was so generous and optimistic that he gave his younger son his share of inheritance. Neither the motive behind the father’s conceding to the demand of the son nor the son’s intention behind the demand is known to us. After all, in the bible there is no lack of stories which show favouritism to the younger sons: Jacob’s favourite son was Joseph and when Jacob heard that Joseph had been killed, Benjamine became the apple of his eye. Moses was younger to Aaron, David and Solomon were younger sons. The line of Israel’s inheritance was through the younger – Abel, Isaac and Jacob.

Here in our story, the younger son seems to have sold all his inheritance before he left for a far away land. Never has he wanted to return to his father’s home, it seems. His father’s gifts gladdened him but the presence of the father seemed intolerable. His search for absolute freedom from the control of his father, family, fatherland, faith and God landed him in a gentile land. There he began to squander his money. He had no pains in gaining it and no pains in losing it either.

Sin is wasting, misusing or trading the precious gifts of the Father for the passing pleasures of this world. Health is wasted for the delight of eating and drinking. The heart is misused as the residence of evil affections; the head, of wicked thoughts and plans. All the five senses are made the servants of lust. Faith is traded for pomp and glory; heaven for earth and God for mammon. But, eventually there arrives a mighty famine where one is no longer in a position to enjoy the muchwanted pleasures. The sight is gone, hearing is lost, appetite is vanished… The desire for the wicked indulgences increases but the capacity to gratify it decays.


The younger son broke away from home promising himself all enjoyment the world can offer for a young man. But now he suffers from hunger, hard treatment, base ingratitude from his former companions and from a deep consciousness of his most degraded condition. When the misfortune struck him the prodigal came to his senses. He prepares a confession without making any excuses (like it was not really my fault; many are doing even worse things etc.). He does not make any high sounding promises either. He just wants to put him under the mercy of his father. So he returns. The story shows that the younger son was forgiven even when he was far off.

A rabbinic story reads: “A king had a son who had gone astray from his father a journey of a hundred days; his friends said to him, “return to your father;” he said, “I cannot.” Then his father sent to say, “Return as far as you can, and I will come to you the rest of the way.” So God says, “Return to me, and I will return to you.”

The father now turns to be an embodiment of mercy. His gracious “eyes” sees the son from far off; compassion spills over his merciful “heart;” his “feet” rush to the street; he puts his forgiving “arms” around his beloved; his merciful “lips” kisses him passionately and his tongue utters the kindest of words. Before, the Father had put his possessions at the service of his son and now his whole self. Yes, the father does not seem to have learnt his lesson despite the unkind and ungrateful act of his younger son. He is taking greater risks now. How will the son respond to the magnanimity of the father? The story does not tell us anything about it. It is left to our freedom to decide the course of action of the prodigal son because he is none other than you and me.
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STORIES
The Shepherd and the Suit



Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly, a brand new Jeep Cherokee screeches to a halt next to him. The driver a young man dressed in a Bironi suit, Cerutti shoes, Gucci sunglasses, Cartier wristwatch and a Charvet tie gets out and asks the shepherd, ‘If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?’
The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the grazing sheep and replies, ‘Okay.’ The young man parks his car and connects his notebook to the Internet. He logs in to the NASA website, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and prints out a report on his portable printer. He turns to the shepherd and says, ‘You have 1586 sheep here.’ The shepherd answers, ‘That’s correct, you may have your sheep.’
The young man takes his animal and puts it in the back of his Jeep. The shepherd looks at the young man and says, ‘If I guess your profession, will you return the animal to me?’
‘Yes, why not.’
‘You are a consultant.’
‘That’s amazing, how did you know?’
‘Very simple,’ answers the shepherd. ‘First, you come here without being called. Second, you charge me for something I already knew and third, you don’t understand anything about my business. Now can I have my dog back?’
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The Peacemaker



IT is reported that two kingdoms were on the verge of war for the possession of a certain embankment which was disputed by them. And the Buddha seeing the kings and their armies ready to fight, requested them to tell him the cause of their quarrels. Having heard the complaints on both sides, he said:
“I understand that the embankment has value for some of your people; has it any intrinsic value aside from its service to your men?”
“It has no intrinsic value whatever” was the reply.
The Tathagatha continued: “Now when you go to battle! Is it not sure that many of your men will be slain and that you yourselves, kings, are liable to lose your lives?” And they said: “It is sure that many will be slain and our own lives be jeopardized.”
“The blood of men, however,” said Buddha, “has it less intrinsic value than a mound of earth?” “No,” the kings said, “The lives of men and above all the lives of kings, are priceless.” Then the Tathagatha concluded: “Care you going to stake that which is priceless against that which has no intrinsic value whatever?” The wrath of the two monarchs abated, and they came to a peaceable agreement.
Other Youth & Children :-
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The Flame of Pain
Author: SAdhu Ittyavirah


When a car speeds along a highway, it is on the flame of fire within, it does so. Inside the car, there is the internal combustion engine, which is not visible to an onlooker.
When the car is in the garage and is as it were lifeless, there is no fire inside. It is when the internal combustion sets in, the car becomes as it were alive and begins to run, doing the work for which it has been made.
It is the flame of fire which gives to all vehicles (cars, lorries, buses, aeroplanes, rockets, space vehicles like the Discovery…) the thrust to move forward. Without this thrust they will be lifeless, almost like logs of timber.
It is on the flame of pain, all of us move forward. All of us have something or other to suffer. It is this flame of pain, which gives us the thrust to perform our mission. Without this flame of pain, we will be like lifeless bricks.
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Tolerance



I remember walking down the hall of the elementary school with the principal to my new third grade classroom. As the door opened, my biggest fear was confirmed. I was the only AfricanAmerican in the room. I felt all twentyeight pairs of eyes looking right at me. The teacher halfsmiled as she showed me to my seat. Wishing to be back in my old town and my familiar school was all I could think about as I struggled with the emotions welling up inside me.
I didn’t expect it, nor did I know how to react, when one boy came over at recess and asked me if I wanted to play ball. He led me toward the main group and announced that I was going to be on his team. Grumbles could be heard, but it was obvious that this boy was a leader and no one objected. We became instant friends.
Through the years, I watched this boy befriend every new student and consider myself lucky to be part of an evergrowing circle of friends — a friendship without boundaries.
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The Donkey and Us



An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town.
The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked.
As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.
The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.
Then, later, they passed some people who remarked, ‘What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.’


So they then decided they’d both walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride.
So, they both rode the donkey.


Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.
The boy and man figured they were probably right, so they decide to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned. The moral of the story?
If you try to please everyone, you might as well...
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Daily slaughter of poor Indian girls



ActionAid, a charity and NGO, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have sounded the alarm bells. In a report titled Disappearing Daughters the two groups have found that in India baby girls are being disproportionately aborted or neglected and left to die. In one area in the state of Punjab, there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys among high cast families, the report claims.
Findings from areas across five states in north and northwest India reveal that the asymmetrical sex ratio between girls and boys has not only worsened but is accelerating compared to the last national census in 2001. In many rural areas tradition dictates preference for sons, who work in the fields, over daughters.
It is estimated that around 500,000 female foetuses are currently being aborted every year; 10 million may have been aborted in India over the last two decades.
CBCI Vice President Card Oswald Gracias told AsiaNews that “in India the Catholic Church has been striving selflessly to promote life from conception to its natural end, through our medical centres and nursing homes. In the most rural and remote areas of our country, the Church has been defending life irrespective of caste and creed.” –ASIAN