April 25, 2017 Tuesday St. Mark

I was invited to offer Novena Mass in preparation for the feast of St. Joseph, the worker at Kadavanthra.  The liturgy was dedicated for environment workers (activists?).  Do I belong there? 

In the gospel, Mark chapter 16, it was about proclaiming the good news. Are our salutations genuine, and bear the good news that I am there for you? 

Is our coming, our being a good news for others? 

Is our human/christian presence a good news for the planet and life, in general, and for other humans in particular? 

Our commitment to environment appears like our 'good morning' greetings! It is just the training.  It is merely good manners and means, in fact, nothing - though theoretically I wish you a  good morning when summarised as 'good morning',  is a pledge and commitment to do whatever possible to make his/her morning really good.  

That is why, while we are discussing environment, and dedicating the prayers for environmentalists, we are merrily using flex banners and those plastic decorations which will all add to unmanageable waste for the planet. It is something like being George Bush when he says  'American way of life cannot be compromised'.  We speak many things, but our way of life cannot be compromised. 

In today's reading, St. Paul's exclamation  'that I have run my race well' (1 Tim 6) appears timely.  We are all in a race, but a race to GROW MORE!! grow more money - greater GDP? Is this possible? Then, there is a counter poser: Is it possible for the generations to come to be? ഇനി വരുന്നൊരു തലമുറയ്ക്ക് ഇവിടെ വാസം സാധ്യമോ?

Now there are more people running - within one's  house, in far away open areas - they drive till there by car, and then 'work out' to keep fit. It's more like 'run for your life'.  But is our quality of life improving? Yes the QoL indices indicate that - but they are replete with contradictions - hospital beds available per thousand population is one indicator, we seem to be improving upon that; but is that an indicator of 'good life', or a life style that is more prone to illness, requiring more support of medicines and all the paraphernalia that accompanies modern medicine? 9% of Kerala population is said to be prone to depression? There is greater morbidity among Keralites, life style diseases are becoming increasingly common among them. 

In this connection, we remember St. Joseph the worker and we are reminded of the biblical dictum, 'with the sweat of your brow, you shall earn your bread'.  Is this a curse, or just a way of understanding the inevitable human predicament? We are in a culture where the human effort is to avoid toil to the extend possible.  The effort is to avoid the 'sweat' at any cost - by means of technology, by introducing amenities that will avoid toil and sweat.

Coming back to an earlier theme, we are in an economy termed 'money economy', where money is expected to grow - grow on a continuous basis, endlessly.  However, as the ancient Cree Indian saying goes:  “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.” 
It is very interesting to note some of the malayalam sayings in this regard: 
കൈ നനയാതെ മീൻ പിടിക്കുക 

പത്താഴം പെറും  ചക്കി കുത്തും 
അമ്മ വയ്ക്കും ഞാൻ ഉണ്ണും  This indeed is a statement of the present generation of Malayalees.  

In this context, I am inspired to share a two fold action plan to celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the worker.
1. That a Christian family will devote the amount of time it collectively spends to consume food, shall be spent also to produce food. It is proved that even with a minimum of two cents of land, such a life style can ensure green vegetables for the family all through the year.  Our experiments with organic kerala have proven that.

2. That all parish celebrations will ensure that there would be NO DAMAGE to the planet, that there would be no activity that would pollute the earth, water or air.  That it would be free of disposable plastics etc

Then the dedication of the day, for environment workers, would be meaningful.

Lastly, a special dedication - the true environment worker (actor) today is the food producer - the farmer who produces food. They are the most neglected and the most afflicted section of our money economy.  With my experiments in food production, paddy cultivation in 3.5 acres of land, I can vouch for that.  As we were reminded by the Indian saying, we need to remember that 'money cannot be eaten', and we cannot take for granted the co-creator work of the food producing farmer.  They are our sustainers, they need to be sustained, they need our prayers.