To the least of my brethren

Fr. Dr. Wilson D’Souza, OFM, Cap

On the occasion of the ‘International Day of Persons with Disabilities’ our source of reference is Mat 25:40: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”. We shall highlight in this article some of the basic issues: Who are my brethren? What type of ‘least of’ does Jesus speak? And why does Jesus identify himself with these least? The whole article takes into consideration Matthew 25:31-46. This particular passage is called parable of the final judgement.

The word ‘brethren’ comes from Greek ‘adelphoi’ means one born from the same womb. It has connection with physical relationships. It figuratively and spiritually speaks of relationships between the people of Israel or Christians. In the Jewish society, it was a relation within the nation of Israel because the

twelve tribes were descended from the twelve sons of Jacob (Gen 29:12ff, 43:33). In the Old Testament, it is pictured as God’s relationship to his people (Hos 2:1-3). Thus, the term designates both physical and established relationship by covenant fellowship. The brethren have to be taken in a much broader sense, the poor, the disabled, the distressed, whoever they may be should be regarded as Jesus’ brethren. Pope Francis calls each brother and sister as the presence of Christ himself.

Matthew in his gospel widens the meaning (12:46- 50). He declares that spiritual union in the family of God takes precedence over blood family lines. The early church was known as ‘brethren or community’ (Acts 1:15, 6:3), and council extended to the gentile Christians, as the part of the family of God (15:23). Love is to be characteristic and went on to say that to

The least of my brethren of Mathew refers to all the afflicted who have fellowship with Christ in his suffering. These are people who are vulnerable members of the society and suffer from poverty. They depend on the hospitality of others. It is not because of their faith relationship but because of their vulnerability that Jesus identifies himself with them. Every gesture of love towards one of these least brethren has been made to him. When Jesus was in need may be hungry or thirsty, were we compassionate and gave him food and water? We extended hospitality when he was friendless and without shelter. It was a compassionate regard for the least of these brethren of mine as equivalent to deeds of mercy done to Him. In this context brethren has been understood in two ways: generally refers to anyone in need and specifically to the plight of Jesus’ people.

The Lord so perfectly identifies himself with the human family. He assumed our human nature; he made their sorrows, suffering his own. He suffered with the sufferers. From this identification, it follows that he regards that which is done to others as done to Himself. The main message of this story was to tell the people and to teach them to do good. Giving to the least, last and lost means we must push ourselves to do good to them. Doing this means we are obeying the command which is love your neighbour as yourself. There is a huge difference in giving to people and giving to the least and the reward is everlasting happiness or misery.

Those who were not moved by human compassion, gave no help, showed no compassion, did not do service to Him for they failed to recognize Him (Lk 10:29-37). They were not aware of the fact that Jesus was hidden in the least of His brethren. They actually have to see Him in them. They only called him Lord, Lord but failed to do his will (Mt 7:21- 22). They were perhaps pious, said many prayers, but overlooked their least brethren who were within their reach. What was refused to the least was refused to Christ and whatever service was done to them was done to Christ.

Matthew does not speak of mystical identification of Christ but to be served only in the service of His brethren. These brethren are not only Christian and believers but also all those who objectively need help, whatever may be their religions and belief system. It is solidarity with the whole human misery in all its ranges and ultimate depths. These works of love have to be done to anyone.

Let me conclude with two examples. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Martin of Tours put this gospel teaching especially to the least of my brethren into action. Francis being a wealthy, high-born and highspirited was not happy with his life. He felt life was incomplete. Francis was riding on the horse, met a leper loathsome and repulsive in the ugliness of his disease. He dismounted from the horse and flung his arms around this leper. What seemed bitter turned into sweetness of soul. In his arms the face of the leper changed into the face of Christ.

Martin was a Roman soldier. One cold winter, as he was entering the city, a beggar stopped him and asked for alms. Martin had no money, seeing the beggar depressed and shivering with cold he took off his soldier’s coat and tore it into half and gave half to the beggar. That night he had a dream. In it he saw the heavens open with angels and Jesus in the midst of them. Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier’s cloak. The angel asked Jesus, Master, why are you wearing an old torn half cloak? Who gave it to you? Jesus softly answered: My servant Martin gave it to me. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren you did it to me.

The writer is a member of the Capuchin of St. Bonaventure Province Maharashtra. Presently he Vice Rector of the Capuchin theologate, Pune. He also teaches at several Theology Institutes. He has a doctorate in Biblical theology from Rome. Even preaching retreats to priests and religious at various congregations.

Build a Life, Not a Resume

Carol Rebeiro

Auniversity professor started off his class by picking out of his back pocket a 2000 rupee note. In this lecture hall of about 200 people he asked, “How many of you would like this note?”

Naturally, all 200 hands went up. He said, “Interesting.” He then said, “Before I let you have it, let me ask you this question.” He took the note and folded it in half twice and then he said, “How many of you want this note?” Still, 200 hands went up. Now he said, “Let me try something else.” He took the note and he crumpled it. And he said, “How many of you want this note now?” Still, 200 hands went up. Finally, he chucked the note on the floor. He screwed it with his shoe and crumpled it even more, picked it back up, now with dirt, and said “How many of you want this note?” All 200 hands were still up. He said “today, you have learned an important lesson. No matter how much I crumpled that note, how much I scrunched it up, how many times it was trodden on, you still wanted it, because it was still worth 2000 rupees. “In the same way that 2000-rupee note held its value so do you.” No matter how many times life will tread on you, life will crumple you, life will scrunch you, and life will squeeze you, you will always keep your value, that spark within us all of

bliss, knowledge, and eternity that exists, that spark will never be taken away.

Our value is not created by the price of our clothes or our bank balance or the job title that we have. We should be building life and not just building our CVs.

In the middle of 2009, there was the software engineer that no one wanted to hire. He had 12 years of experience at Yahoo, but he was rejected by Facebook and then rejected by Twitter. He’d been to a great university. He had a great CV. But he decided to team up with one of his alumni members at Yahoo and started to create an app and focus on the startup space. In five-years time he sold that app for $19 billion to Facebook. Believe it or not, that was Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp. When he was rejected from Facebook, he said it was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people and look forward to life’s next adventure. When he was rejected by twitter, he responded by saying, “Worked out, it was quite long commute.” It’s so interesting to see that someone from two of the top internet companies actually responded with humour and actually responded with positivity.

what we thought we were chasing. But actually I’ve noticed that when you don’t get that, later down the line you look back and you reflect and realize that what you’ve gained is so much greater. Failures are only failures when we don’t learn from them, because when we learn from them, they become lessons. And we actually head on to all of these teachings and actually get more insight into how we can improve the way we work and how we can actually drive with a different energy.

our scope. We need to be ready and build ourselves up for the next level. Actually, what we end up achieving is far greater than what we’d envisioned for ourselves. And this divine plan, this orchestration can’t be happening without this intervention that occurs, because if we had it our way, we’d just settle. We’d just accept what we thought was our goal, The challenge we have is that we only talk about people’s failures when they succeed. And that’s how they become this taboo or we feel like their failures never happened. We need to share these stories earlier. We need to bring out these stories and experiences on the journey so that people who are on the journey can actually follow in those footsteps. And that’s why Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect with dots moving forward, you only can when you’re looking backwards.”-Anonymous The writer has been working as a Digital Marketing Analyst in Mumbai. She is also a volunteer for an NGO as a teacher. Dancing and Writing, are some of my interests. ‘PLAY BASED EDUCATION’ Training for Pre-Primary Teachers In keeping with the “Guidelines for Pre School Education” by the NCERT, for the cognitive, emotional, language, sensory, personal, social and motor skills of young minds, the Society of Pilar Sanguem and Padre Agnel Bhavan Margao, under the leadership of the Provincial Superior Fr. Mateus Fernandes sfx, the Secretary Fr. Joaquim Rebello sfx and the Jt. Secretary Fr. Allan Noronha sfx, organised a training session for the Pre Primary Teachers of their schools. The Resource Persons Lea Furtado and Givani Fernandes stressed on the need of the above skills, through practical and highly informative sessions. The teachers went home enriched and were full of appreciation which was felt from their feedback. Thirty two teachers participated in the programme. The Chief Guest Fr. Joaquim Rebello appreciated the teachers and the Resource persons .The Guest of Honour Sr Maria Julia AC, the Superior of Fatima Convent Margao, spoke at the valedictory function and also distributed the certificates to the participants. Pilar News