In a workshop we organized in
Poonamallee Seminary, Chennai, on how to improve the formation of future
priests, knowledgeable persons from various backgrounds took part. We
received valuable feedback.
The talk I remember best was that of a
Hindu professor from Loyola College, Chennai. Working in Loyola, he had
got to know Catholic priests, bishops, religious and seminarians. To get
home his point, he narrated the story of the King and the Rat.
A wealthy, powerful king tells a holy
man: “Guruji, I have wealth and power, but no peace of heart. What
should I do?” The guru tells him: “Go to the forest by yourself, and
meditate for a year. I will see you after that.” He told the king to
dress and live as a simple man while living in the forest.
The king, being keen on achieving peace
of heart, took to the forest, wearing a dhoti, and carrying a spare
dhoti. He sat down to meditate.
But, very soon, something disturbed him.
A rat was climbing up the tree on which he had left his spare dhoti.
So, the king called a passerby and told him: “I am the king. Go to the
palace, and tell them that a rat is going to eat up my spare dhoti.”
Immediate action followed. They brought a
strong cat from the palace to catch rat. The cat needed milk; so came
the cow. The cow needed looking after; hence a worker. He brought his
family along; they needed provisions, …. and so on.
Very soon, a whole new town sprung up in the middle of the forest. The king got busy administering the town.
When the holy man returned after a year,
he found the king engaged in anything but meditation. He asked him,
“What’s all this? What’s going on here?”
“Oh, all this,” gestured the king to the busy town, “it is meant to protect my spare dhoti.”
The professor asked us, seminary
professors and students, “Aren’t all your structures and works and books
and training meant to spread the simple message of a simple man? I
think that is precisely what many of you are forgetting.“ He said he
had certainly met inspiring priests and religious and bishops, but he
also added, “about a number of your bishops, priests and religious, the
less said, the better.”
Organized religious life—vowed life in
celibate communities, with no property in our name, and making
availability for mission the core of our work—is about living the simple
message of that Simple Man. It makes sense only if that Man and His
message are real for us. Otherwise, why waste our energies on selection
and long formation, retreats and much community prayer, structures and
rule books? Just to do the work we do—education, medical work, social
services, fund-raising for the poor, administration of institutions—we
do not need faith, spirituality or religious life. Celibacy, in
particular, would be a cruel joke—depriving normal people of two of
life’s most beautiful and most challenging experiences, namely, spousal
love and parenthood.
I have known religious who are in love
with Jesus, and whose lives radiate joy and love. Many people have been
impressed by the committed service done by religious. I have also known
religious who are power-hungry and comfort-loving, and others who told
me they were better before joining than afterwards. No setting makes any
of us automatically good or bad, happy or miserable. That depends on
how we take responsibility for ourselves, use the given opportunities,
and become the persons we want to be.
The Salesian superior general, Fr
Pascual Chavez Villanueva SDB, has an expression, “Perseverance is not
fidelity.” May we not simply stay in, but truly be faithful—to the
simple message of that Simple Man, who lived and died for us, and who is
alive within us and among us. To the degree that those who meet us
experience something of His compassion and love, our religious life can
be richly meaningful.
Don’t just stay in. Live the simple message of the Simple Man.
Better still, let us help one another to become more like that Simple Man.
Source: Joe Mannath SDB, National Secretary, CRI
