Mother of all crises
Are you overwhelmed by the ways of the world and believe the corrupt get away unharmed? Well, those who imagine they hold God in their pocket are sadly mistaken. Not only has God foretold the course of human behaviour, He has numbered the hairs on our head. Most of all, He has listed acts of commission and omission that will come back to haunt us some day.
Consider the First Reading (Amos 8: 4-7). It’s a clear message to those who ‘trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land’ – those crooks who snatch bread from the tables of simple, credulous citizens, and rather than be sent to jail are sent to Parliament! It also addresses those who, in the privacy of their homes or institutions, tell lies, bully and beat, exploit and cheat, drink and debauch, and without any qualms of conscience go out and preach. Amos, who shines in history as a prophet of social justice, warns that the Lord will never forget a thing they have done!
Thankfully, in God we trust. As the Psalm says,
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor
to seat them with princes,
with the princes of his own people.
For our part, then, how are we to conduct ourselves? Wherever we may be, we are stewards by default – managers of the time and tasks entrusted to our care. And it is never for long; popular wisdom says, ‘Sonvsar charuch disancho’. Yet, how casually we handle our duties and responsibilities, joys and sorrows, problems and solutions!
In the Gospel (Lk 16: 1-13), Jesus is appreciative of the shrewd steward’s efforts to provide for his future; it is not the steward’s expediency but his decisiveness that Jesus focusses His attention on. Then come two most illuminating remarks: ‘The children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light,’ and 'You cannot serve both God and mammon.'
Who can deny that the worldly-wise are more diligent than the spiritual-minded, and evil more active than good? That’s a clarion call to God’s people to be more dynamic and combative! We have to show greater enthusiasm and go forward together with our united strength, for indeed the price good folks pay for lukewarmness is to be ruled by evil doers.
The world is a common inheritance we have received from God. Whoever prevents us from enjoying its benefits is guilty of a grave crime. Which puts the spotlight on elected representatives: if they lack a moral compass, they easily turn responsibility into revelry and God’s kingdom into their personal fiefdom.
Truly, moral crisis is the mother of all crises. Hence, St Paul in the Second Reading (1 Tim 2: 1-8) invites us to pray that our leaders be instruments of peace and justice leading us to our eternal salvation as Jesus envisaged it.
Banner: https://useum.org/artwork/Parable-of-the-shrewd-manager-Luke-16-1-13-Marinus-van-Reymerswaele
Goan Presence in Bombay
The recent passing of Gerson da Cunha in Mumbai, a man of many parts, took me back to when his namesake granduncle José Gerson da Cunha wore many hats. The Origin of Bombay was just one of the many books the latter authored. It triggered my thoughts on the long presence of Goans in the metropolis and their contribution to its growth.
Goans had sporadic dealings with Mumbai, and the nearby towns of Chaul and Bassein for centuries. But it was not before the nineteenth century that they began to see Mumbai as a second home. It all started when some Goans in the employ of the British army stationed in Portuguese India (1799-1813, ostensibly to ward off an attack from the French), went along to British India as cooks, musicians, tailors, and so on. Thanks to their qualities of head and heart, a few even joined the Peshwa army and settled thereabouts, or moved to Mumbai, a city in the making.
Mumbai beckoned. It was an upcoming centre of education, trade and industry. Elphinstone College and Grant Medical College had seen many Goans even before the University was set up in 1857 and the J. J. School of Art soon thereafter. At that time, the textile mills, the tramway companies and the printing presses were employment hubs. Desperate to earn a livelihood, Goans travelled by patamaris or on riding-animals; much later, the metre-gauge railway line and the coastal steamer service emerged as express corridors to that bustling port city.
In her book Goan Pioneers in Bombay, Teresa Albuquerque states that ‘except for the lower classes pressed by abject poverty, Hindus generally refrained from migration to Mumbai until the middle of the nineteenth century.’ However, their population eventually grew ten times larger than that of the Goan Christians; they merged easily into the mainstream, while Christians, better attuned to the city’s western cultural ethos, including use of the Roman script, grabbed every opportunity to rise.
Life in an alien land never comes easy. Goan Christians were fortunate to escape the shanties, thanks to lodging and boarding available at their respective village kudds (clubs) scattered across the city. There they shared their joys and sorrows; and at times they drowned these at a tavern or at the tiatr, a new art form they had developed collectively. The more religiously inclined found solace at a wayside cross, chapel or church, while the more cerebral ones vented themselves through the newspaper columns. At any rate, every Goan worth his salt awaited a wedding, a church feast or a zatra to draw them back to home and hearth. Joseph Furtado’s nostalgic poetry of exile says it all:
I now live in the city
But my heart’s in the country;
In the city I languish,
And a wild thorn or tree,
If I happen to see,
It thrills me with anguish.
By and large, Goans were not ghettoised. By their natural ability to be all things to all people they secured work as seamen, cooks, butlers, ayahs, bakers, confectioners, tailors, musicians, coach builders, jewellers, millworkers and undertakers. According to Albuquerque, ‘while most of the Goan emigrants in Mumbai were miserably poor and struggling to survive, there were also a few – very few – who could have been considered fabulous tycoons’, most of whom, sadly, are ‘not remembered for works of philanthropy.’ There were also intellectual stalwarts, eminent physicians, social workers, sportsmen, entertainers, and many notables who promoted education and culture (including the University and the Royal Asiatic Society), engaged in welfare services, and set up periodicals in Konkani, Marathi, English and Portuguese.
A curious feature of Mumbai is that, until the nineteenth century, Portuguese was almost a lingua franca amid the Christian community, both Goan and East Indian. Certain churches were under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Padroado. Until 1928, records were maintained and ceremonies conducted in that language by priests that churches in Dhobitalao, Cavel, Dabul, Byculla, Mazagaon, Dadar, Mahim, Bandra, Vile Parle and Kalina largely drew from Goa. In The Making of Mumbai, Benny Aguiar concludes his narrative about the metropolis and its Catholic past with a Goan, Valerian Gracias’ appointment as archbishop of Mumbai in 1950.
By mid-twentieth century, Goans were well established in Mumbai. There was probably no sector without their presence. Oncologist Ernest Borges, gynaecologist V.N. Shirodkar, professors Armando Menezes, Manuel Colaço and C.D. Pinto, educationist Aloysius Soares, journalist Frank Moraes, singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale and Kishori Amonkar, cartoonist Mário Miranda, painter F.N. Souza, poet Dom Moraes, top cop Julio Ribeiro, scientist Anil Kakodkar, architects Charles Correa and Edgar Ribeiro, engineer Manuel Menezes, beauty queen Reita Faria, historians John Correia Afonso and George Moraes, ad gurus Frank Simões and brothers Gerson and Sylvester da Cunha, artistes Micky Correa, Chris Perry, Lorna, Souza Ferrão, Braz Gonsalves and Anthony Gonsalves, to name but a few, were household names.
‘Bomboicar’ or ‘Bombay Goans’ – the hoi-polloi more than the gentry – favoured their families with remittances that helped change the face of the homeland. Nonetheless, back in the Portuguese era, they were by and large looked down upon. There was perhaps a subtle animosity between the cash-strapped homegrown Goans and their anglicised counterparts. These latter indicated that they belonged to a modern industrial-urban society while their country cousins languished in sossegado rural environs. It is quite likely that this love-hate relationship stemmed from long-standing Anglo-Portuguese colonial complexes.
All in all, it has been a win-win situation. In his book The Portuguese Presence in India: Latter-day Thorns amidst Tranquillities, John Menezes talks about “the Goan voice, once vibrant and contributing richly to the pluralistic fabric of the city”. Today the Goan presence in Mumbai is so diffused that individual roles are more difficult to pin point. But they love the city and contribute greatly to its civic life, like da Cunha did. The Goa-Mumbai relationship will be alive and kicking as long as those Goans keep thinking of the green, green grass of home.
First published in The Goan Review, August 2022 https://online.fliphtml5.com/cmlao/gqia/?1660569685081
Banner: Gateway of India, https://pixahive.com/photo/gateway-of-india-mumbai/
Elephantine Blunder
It is significant that, close on the heels of an elephantine blunder that we have witnessed in our archdiocese, this Sunday’s liturgy of the Word comes down heavily on those who scandalously turn to other gods.
In the First Reading (Ex 32: 7-11, 13-14) God is rightfully angry with His people for forgetting Him Who had delivered them from the slavery of Egypt. Now they worship abominable little gods of their own making.
How is this any different from Catholics ‘jumping on the idol worship bandwagon’ [1] in Goa? More than one priest is known to have gone on pilgrimage to Ganesh household shrines. If it was a plain social visit, this priest’s prayer posture absolutely begs an explanation.
What is the rationale behind bowing before idols? It is one thing to build bridges on the social plane, say, by having colleagues from other faiths and enjoying their company at work or in the neighbourhood; it is quite another to be praying before their deities. If this is not a breach of the First Commandment, what is?
The laxity in the practice of our faith seems to be a natural consequence of an ‘inculturation’ gone awry. It has shown us the true colours of the so-called ‘inter-faith dialogue’. And the project is rendered even more sinister by the fact that there is a concerted effort to play to the gallery, at the national and international levels. And playing the game is a clique of fifth columnists that collects funds for a misplaced ‘evangelization’.
That is to say, what we have witnessed in Goa is not an isolated incident; it is not a case of one priest going astray but rather a case of one expressly led astray. It fits the bill.
If we are not to sit in judgement without listening to the other side, it is sincerely hoped that the matter will be clarified by the ecclesiastical authorities in the archdiocese and by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), of which our Archbishop and newly-appointed Cardinal is the president.
At any rate, we also hope that the teaching of our religious doctrine will stop being fuzzy; that its practice will be truthful and firm, and that we will decidedly stop walking on the razor’s edge.
(This post was first circulated on Whatsapp, Sunday, 11 September 2022)
[1] https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/goa-new-cardinal-winks-at-ganesh-idolatry
Crucible of love and mercy
It’s never too much to talk of love and mercy. God is a crucible of love and mercy – celestial material that humans yearn for. And be it between parents and children, husband and wife, neighbours, friends or foes, love and mercy are of the essence; they keep the machine of life oiled and running sweetly.
God the Father, who is the source of all that is good, has set the example. In the First Reading (Ex 32: 7-11, 13-14) God is rightfully angry with His people for forgetting Him Who had delivered them from the slavery of Egypt. Now they worship abominable little gods of their own making.
In the Gospel (Lk 15: 1-32), we read three delightful parables that highlight the extent of God’s love and mercy. The Divine Master’s abiding concern is to reach out to those in need, so He responds to those who fail to appreciate His mingling with sinners. Jesus speaks of the proverbial shepherd going out in search of his lost sheep and of a woman who is in search of a lost coin.
Alternatively, we could look at the lost sheep and the lost coin as entities hoping to be found or saved by their respective owners – in the same way as our spirits thirst for the love of the Father!
Yet, the most heart-warming part of the trilogy on redemption is that parable about the Prodigal Son. It covers a whole gamut of human experiences: if the younger son could be booked for greed, lust, gluttony and sloth, the pharisaic elder one is symbolic of pride, greed, envy and wrath. Between them they have all of the seven deadly sins! And whereas the son is prodigal – extravagant – with his money and possessions, the father is prodigal – overgenerous – with his love and mercy.
Finally, St Paul’s frank testimony (1 Tim 1: 12-17) echoes a common experience. Just as he acted out of ignorance, sometimes we too aren’t careful about how we judge people and situations. We dub parental concern or spousal devotion ‘paranoid’; neighbours’ concern, ‘inquisitiveness’; and friends suddenly become foes for unexplained reasons. In the midst of it all, and much against the evangelical command, we stay put and criticise everyone; we don’t care to lift even a finger to help those in need – maybe for fear of getting it wrong, or simply out of laziness or indifference!
That’s when it will pay to remember that the divine crucible of love and mercy is peppered with justice!
Banner pic: https://www.gospelimages.com/paintings/96/the-return-of-the-prodigal-son?
Surrender and Win
We have heard it said so many times that life is a mystery; but isn’t that so because the One who has created us is a Super-Mystery? We have neither seen Him, so as to be able to judge for ourselves, nor have we heard enough about Him to say we know Him completely. Yet we go on from day to day, based entirely on our relationship with Him who is the Unknown but also the only One who can save us.
We humans are eyeballs that can’t see and earlobes that can’t hear, especially when we are immersed in the world. Yet, the Almighty addresses those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, particularly when we renounce worldly attractions, our mind and all our senses give us an understanding of the present and the final reality. When we give ourselves up in sweet surrender, God lets us in on the secret of His wisdom (Wis 9: 13-19), through the working of the Holy Spirit who has meanwhile descended upon us. Then we begin to appreciate God's ways and desires, for He reveals Himself to those desirous of that unique experience.
Seeing that humans had foolishly turned in on themselves and were acting like little gods, our Father in Heaven sent His Only Son Jesus to the world. In the Gospel today (Lk 14: 25-33) Jesus shakes the people out of their complacency. Putting all His cards on the table, He demands nothing less than total commitment, total acceptance of God’s ways and total surrender to the Father. As He says elsewhere, ‘Whoever is not with Me is against Me’.
It is paradoxical but true that the more we give of ourselves to God, the more we feel free – it is a freedom easily verifiable from our everyday experience. Who can deny that the more we are attached to the ways of the world, the more we are in chains? Unbridled love for earthly things, be it money, power, influence, knowledge, is enslaving! On the other hand, how liberating it is to know and love God more and more!
That is why St Paul (Phil 9-10, 12-17) pointed out to Philemon, a man of high social standing, whom he had converted to Christianity, that it is of the essence that his slave, also a neo-convert, be treated humanely, as a brother in the faith. This new spirit in which the Apostle of the Gentiles wrote his short but important letter indeed prepared the world, mentally and spiritually, for a great transformation that finally led to the abolition of slavery.
The Lord has been our refuge from generation to generation! The readings of today invite us to keep a tab on the life of our minds and hearts, and to find out what can fetch us true peace and happiness. One thing is sure: without God’s help, we can do nothing – we are nothing! A sweet surrender to His will is a promise of our final victory.
Switching off our vanity lights
Today’s readings form an exceedingly beautiful trilogy. The folly of vanity is illustrated with a parable and rounded off with a nugget of wisdom about gazing heavenward. They make an interesting counterpoint to the capricious lifestyle of contemporary man.
Did you know that there was a time when ‘vanity’ simply meant ‘emptiness’ or ‘uselessness’ (from the Latin vanitas)? When used to represent arrogant or boastful obsession with one’s appearance, possessions or accomplishments, it underlined the same meaning. The original Hebrew term, sometimes translated as ‘illusion of illusions’, literally meant breath, wind, vapour, implying that things are uncertain, empty, futile.
The First Reading (Eccl. 1: 2; 2: 21-23) could not put it better. Life is indeed a string of vanities! Omnia vanitas: all is vanity. In fact, everything that is extravagant – and not useful or indispensable – is usually conceited: it focusses on the earthly creator and forgets the Divine Creator. This aspect of fallen man is something that Ecclesiastes, one of the ‘Wisdom Books’ of the Old Testament, has bared to thinkers and commoners alike. When its anonymous author says that there is ‘a time to be born and a time to die’, he tells us in no uncertain terms that life is brief and death inevitable.
That we are not masters of our destiny; that what we do lasts brief hours and weeks; that death comes like a thief: such thoughts flood our mind as we hear the Parable of the Rich Fool. Why, then, do siblings fight over land or even honest people build mansions to keep up with the Joneses? Is it not true that we must seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be given unto us? How about burying our egos, surrendering to God’s will and giving up our acquisitive instinct for things that genuinely matter?
In today’s Gospel (Lk 12: 13-21), Jesus asks: ‘The things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ That’s a very pertinent question, for alas, how we take solace, nay, pride, in the abundance of our possessions, as though we are going to live for ever! But then, Covid-19 has taught us someting as perhaps only Covid can: that our life can change in an instant and from one day to another we may be catapulted to the presence of God. That’s when we will learn, albeit late, the full import of these words from Deuteronomy, with which Jesus shot down the devil in the desert: ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
In effect, we are faced with an existential question: are we to sell everything, pack up our bags and head to the nearby forest? Clearly, not everybody is called for so radical a decision. We have to live in the world without being of the world; for it is not where we live, but how we live, that matters. Hence, St Paul, in the Second Reading (Col. 3: 1-5, 9-11), exhorts us to seek the things that are above, where Christ is; to set our eyes not on things that are on earth. He sets before our eyes a catalogue of vices that our old self has to be stripped of, and five virtues that our new self has to be clothed with, through baptism: a radical transformation by the action of the Holy Spirit.
But is it all that straightforward? In the world today, it is difficult to be a Christian – not because Christ’s teachings have lost their relevance but because we seem to have lost our conviction. It is true that the secular powers-that-be are continually conspiring to splinter Our Lord’s precepts; on the other hand, haven’t the spiritual powers-that-be played to the gallery and capitulated to the ways of the world? And what are you and I doing to clear the stables? To be ruled by evil men is the price we pay for indifference to civil and ecclesiastical affairs!
The question remains: how do we proceed from here? Flashing before my eyes is St Pope Pius X’s motto: Instaurare omnia in Christ, to restore all things in Christ. To be committed Catholics, living the Gospel values to the best of our abilities, a life in communion with the Resurrected Lord should be our goal. The said Pope was acclaimed for his efforts to root out the Modernist heresy, which he dubbed ‘the synthesis of all heresies’, in his Encyclical titled Pascendi Dominici Gregis (8.9.1907). Much as we are programmed to love the word ‘modern’, Modernism represented an agnostic doctrine that attempted to pull the rug from under the Catholic faith. And, alas, it still does!
The trilogy of readings today invites us to go beyond self and see the world as it is. Isn’t vanity the leitmotif of the contemporary world? A culture of death is being promoted disguised as the culture of life. Engrossed as we are in our own personal worlds, more often than not we miss the larger picture. In fact, you and I unknowingly aid the advance of those cultural forces by the choices that we make every single day. It is high time we shunned the clutter outside and saved ourselves of that painful emptiness inside. Let not the city lights overwhelm us; let us switch our vanity lights and set our gaze on the True Light of the World.
Finally, on the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, let us pray that the words he famously said to St Francis Xavier soften our hearts too: 'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?' (Mt 16: 26; Mk 8: 36)
Prayer must be a way of life
To every believer whose desire is to know how to pray, here are some heart-warming pointers: in today’s Gospel (Lk 11: 1-13) we have a formula par excellence, and in the First Reading (Gen 18: 20-32), an illustration of how to pray. It is not ours to reason why, for if we are to survive, praying must come as easy as breathing. As Alexis Carrel, Nobel Laureate for Medicine, puts it: ‘Simple souls feel God as naturally as they feel the heat of the sun or the fragrance of a flower; but the same God, accessible to those who know how to love Him, remains hidden from those who do not understand Him.’
Abraham had no difficulty in relating to God who visited him in human form. They talked about Sodom and Gomorrah that were slated for severe punishment for their grossly offensive conduct. That is when Abraham began to do a deal with God, like a child would with his parents: he was concerned about the safety of his nephew Lot who had relocated to Sodom in a huff. Abraham left no stone unturned to secure a good ‘bargain’ as only he can do who knows God intimately.
Thankfully, Christian mystics from St Paul down to St Padre Pio have elaborated on kinds, methods and levels of prayer, and offered formulas; but none of them are crucial, for a child talking to his parent follows no fixed action pattern. The best policy is to be our honest selves, ready to do our Father’s will in all things, as the ‘Pater Noster’ counsels. While St Augustine reportedly said that he who sings, prays twice; St Aloysius of Gonzaga believed that work is prayer. Which goes to show that it is of the essence to establish a hotline with God and not merely employ a certain formula or method.
That God finally took a softer line at Abraham’s instance should be an eyeopener to those who doubt the efficacy of prayer! Such doubts stem from a secular attitude or a spirit that excludes God from our life. It is clear from today’s parable that God wants us to ask and persevere in the asking – while all the time believing with The Imitation of Christ, that ‘Man proposes; God disposes.’ And how can we forget the words of Our Lord Himself: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you’!
Of course, that promise comes with a rider: we must have a change of heart; deep faith and trust in God; and pray calmly, humbly and confidently. We must praise and thank God, petition Him and intercede for others. When we leave it to Him to fix our broken lives soon we will hear our lips sing, ‘Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me… Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands.’ We have the Lord’s promise: ‘If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’
But is that all as simple as it sounds? It is so if we do not let sin snap our hotline with God. At any rate, the Sacraments that can help restore it. We also need to create the right physical and psychological conditions to communicate with the Creator: for instance, personal prayer in the privacy of our rooms, and communal prayer in the sacral ambience of our churches. Notice how the interior of a monastery or the protected area of Old Goa or even a quiet and sprawling campus like Don Bosco’s situated in the middle of Panjim city can set the tone for a divine encounter: they are oases of tranquillity fit for the angels of India!
Although forces of evil are pressing against us, we must not be disheartened. St Paul in the Second Reading (Col 2: 12-14) puts things in perspective when he says that God has given us the ultimate gift of love through His Son Jesus Christ, thus securing us a return to the One we are united to through Baptism. So, even if our outer shell be diseased, the core of our being finds healing through prayer. We remain insulated against the fear of suffering, sickness and death if our life be a prayer offered to God, ‘an elevation of our soul to God’ (Tanqueray, The Mystical Life, cit. The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, p. 765), a way of life!
Active and Contemplative
Do you wake up listless and dejected, upset about things not going your way? Do you dismiss a brand-new day as just another ordinary day? Well, if we give time to time, we might suddenly see things changing unexpectedly. What’s more, we will find that all things are possible – especially the impossible – when we are sustained by God’s Word! That’s putting things in perspective.
In the First Reading (Gen 18: 1-10), we are privy to a miracle. If Abraham, kind and obliging even at a ripe old age, seems to be without a worry in the world, it may help to know that he and his wife Sarah were heartbroken but had lovingly come to accept their situation. Abraham obliges his guests, not because he sees something in it for him but because he is an honourable man. The threesome leave before long – but not without announcing the good news that Sarah will bear a child. No doubt she laughs it off (note that Mary in her own case wondered, ‘how can this be’!) – but so it is: she gives birth to Isaac, a name that means just that: ‘he who laughs’ or ‘he who rejoices’! In short, nothing is impossible with God!
The Gospel (Lk 10: 38-42) has a matching situation. Here, Jesus is hosted by Martha and Mary. The elder sister’s busy chores are her presents for Jesus; the younger one, awestruck by every word that Jesus utters, honours Him with her presence. Truly, if simple living and high thinking is what a self-respecting guest values, it is more so Jesus, who is always about His Father’s business. Mary makes these words her own: ‘Speak, Lord, your servant hears; you have the words of eternal life.’ And Jesus praises her, for she has ‘chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.’
My dear departed grandmother used to say that faith and education none can take away from us. After all, that is what matters, for man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So, when it is the Living Word alone that can sustain us, why settle for less? But alas, how often do we think of God in our everyday chores? How zealously do we mention Him at our glitzy social gatherings? How well do we recognise the voice of God in our daily encounters? Note that if Abraham were to despise the three men – seen as God Himself with two angels or, alternatively, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – the ‘Father of Many Nations’ would have been father of none. Like Abraham, let’s get our priorities straight!
Can we rightfully say with St Paul in the Second Reading (1 Col: 24-28): ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your [the Colossians] sake, and in my flesh [through his body] I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church’? As Christians, we are duty-bound to shun sadness and joyfully put our belief, hope and trust in the Lord – and then go on to love God and our neighbour as ourselves. We must stand firm for ever, as the Psalm says; if not, how will we admitted to the holy mountain?
To conclude, if all work and no play make Jack a dull boy, imagine how dull – and empty – we should feel if we always work and never pray! Let us make it a point to set aside quality time for God, listen to His voice and do His holy will. Let us delight in the presence of God and bless His Holy Name. Let’s not get too caught up with worldly things; rather, like Mary, let’s choose the good portion, and everything will fall in place. Let us balance action with contemplation.
Just as Jesus was not going to be with His friends for too long, we too will not live too long on this earth, will we? Let us, then, receive God in our hearths and homes today, so He recognises us tomorrow, when we knock on Heaven’s door!
Goencheo Mhonn'neo - I | Adágios Goeses - I
É possível que a literatura oriental seja ‘o mais precioso repositório de adágios e provérbios, como o é de fábulas e de contos populares,’ afirma João de Figueiredo[i] no prefácio à Enfiada de Anexins Goeses, obra bilíngue (concani-português), de Roque Bernardo Barreto Miranda.
Filho do grande literato Jacinto Caetano Barreto Miranda, de Margão, além de trabalhar como chefe da impressão da Imprensa Nacional, em Nova Goa (Pangim), colaborou na imprensa local com prosa e verso. De entre a sua obra poética, encontram-se Coisas sabidas (1923), Disparates em verso (s. d.), e ainda um e outro trabalho inédito.[ii]
Na Enfiada, vêm à luz 200 ditos regionais, que nas palavras de Barreto Miranda são ‘flores do folclore de Goa’. Recolheu-os, em primeira mão, na conversação da gente, traduzindo a maioria deles em duas versões, literal e livre, ambas transcritas mais adiante. Não se trata, pois, de provérbios, máximas ou sentenças, o que seria de sabor clássico, mas, simplesmente, de adágios, ditados, ou rifões, de sabor popular.
Dir-se-ia que esse trabalho prima pelo seu valor sociológico e poético. Uns anos antes, monsenhor Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado publicara, pioneiramente, em Coimbra, Florilégio de provérbios concanis (1922), contendo 2177 provérbios. Mas havia, sem dúvida, espaço para mais gente na seara.[iii] Barreto Miranda publicou anexins, dos mais correntes, no Heraldo, diário panginense, porém, numa altura em que poucos teriam dado conta do serviço que estava a prestar à terra.
Ainda por cima, traduziu os adágios, primorosamente, em verso, pondo-os assim em pé de igualdade com a sabedoria comum dos povos e a literatura universal.
Ora, quanto à ortografia e pronunciação dos vocábulos concanis, transcrevemos a seguir, como informação de utilidade, e não menos de curiosidade, as palavras de Barreto Miranda:
‘A escrita do concani – cuja ortografia em caracteres romanos, por não estar ainda bem definida – foi feita, para facilitar o leitor, possivelmente, conforme a fonologia popular em voga.
‘Relativamente à pronunciação: por não haver no alfabeto romano fonemas com que se possam exprimir precisamente certas palavras concanis, servimos da geminação de letras – letras cacuminais – as quais têm de ser fortemente articuladas com a ponta da língua, para dar o som aproximadamente natural da pronúncia concani. E para fácil enunciação, devem as palavras pronunciar-se em sílabas separadas. Para exemplo: melyá – kaddlyar – dounddolyá – vaurtolyak – devem ler-se assim: me-l-y-á – kadd-ly-ar – do-un-ddo-ly-á – va-ur-to-ly-ak.’[iv]
Não subscrevo de todo o sistema ortográfico seguido pelo estimado autor da Enfiada, limitando-me a observar que, quase um século após essa sua advertência, e apesar de, no enretanto, ter havido várias tentativas no sentido de uniformizar a ortografia e pronunciação da língua concani (sendo uma delas segundo o sistema Jonesiano, apresentada por monsenhor Dalgado), a situação continua no mesmo pé. Mas isso pouco retira o valor à Enfiada de Barreto Miranda.
Tradução literal | Tradução livre |
|
Melyá bagór sorg melâ na. |
Não se chega a ver o céu sem morrer. Não se alcança qualquer bem ou ventura sem passar por trabalhos e amargura. |
Tondd aslyar vatt assá. |
Quem boca tiver, tem via que quer. Chega para onde quiser, no país desconhecido, quem sua língua souber. |
Boreak guelyar fattir yetá. |
Por ir alguém fazer o bem, mais das vezes o mal lhe advém. |
Tenkdênn momv kaddlyar, tonddant poddâ na. |
Nunca a boca saboreia quando se quer apanhar, com cambo, o mel da colmeia. É melhor por si fazer, p’ra, o que se deseja, obter. |
Dounddo’lyá fatrár pãyon dovorçó nay. |
Não deixar nunca o pé assente sobre uma pedra movediça, (por se deslocar facilmente). É sempre acto de imprudência meter-se em negócio incerto ou coisas de contingência. |
Dongrá-vôylim zaddâm Dev ximptá. |
As plantas dos oiteiros (desprezadas p’la humanidade) são por Deus regadas. Aos que não têm lar, nem pão, sempre a Providência toma sob a sua protecção. |
Dholé add, sounsar padd. |
Fora da vista (e cuidado) o mundo fica arruinado. Quando o dono está ausente, as coisas, que lhe pertencem, são roubadas livremente. |
Muclyém zot vetá taxem, fattlém zot vetá. |
A junta de bois de traseira segue conforme anda a primeira. Do que o de diante faz, segue o exemplo o de traz. |
Dek’lem moddém, ailém roddném. |
O ensejo de encarar o cadáver, fez chorar. As ocasiões provocam acções. |
Borém corchém ani fattir gueuchém. |
Fazer o bem e afinal receber p’lo dorso o mal. |
[i] Enfiada de Anexins Goeses, dos mais correntes, traduzidos em verso, de Roque Bernardo Barreto Miranda (Goa: Imprensa Nacional, 1931), p. VI.
[ii] Cf. “A Evolução do Jornalismo na Índia Portuguesa”, de António Maria da Cunha (in Índia Portuguesa, volume 2, Nova Goa: Imprensa Nacional, 1923); A Literatura Indo-Portuguesa, de Vimala Devi e Manuel de Seabra (Lisboa: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1971); Dicionário de Literatura Goesa, volume 1, de Aleixo Manuel da Costa (Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau e Fundação Oriente, s.d.); Dicionário de Goanidade, de Domingos José Soares Rebelo (Alcobaça, 2012). Embora o Dicionário de Literatura Goesa se refira a um inédito intitulado “Frutos sem sabor”, disse-me Jacinto Barreto Miranda, sobrinho do Poeta, que não consta nenhum manuscrito desse nome no espólio do tio.
[iii] Thomas Stephens (c.1549-1619), missionário jesuíta inglês residente em Goa, publicara alguns adágios goeses na sua Arte da Lingoa Canarim, os quais foram traduzidos livremente pelo orientalista J. H. da Cunha Rivara (1809-1879), na segunda edição dessa gramática por ele publicada, em 1857. Isso para não falar de conjuntos posteriores, traduzidos em português e em inglês, estes por V. P. Chavan (Konkani Proverbs, 1900); S. S. Talmaki (Konkani Proverbs and Idioms, 1932), António Pereira, jesuíta goês, (Konknni Oparichem Bhanddar, 1985), e, mais recentemente, por Edward de Lima (Konknni Oparincho Kox: A Book of Konkani Proverbs, 2017); ou ainda os publicados em outros lugares de expressão concani, tal como nos estados indianos de Karnataka e Kerala.
[iv] Enfiada, pp. X-XI.
(Publicado na Revista da Casa de Goa, Serie II, No. 17, Julho-Agosto 2022)
Being a Good Samaritan
Who can deny that the world would be a better place if we followed God’s commands to the hilt? No doubt, sincere people take to them like fish to water; they don’t find them difficult to follow, ignore them, play up or spurn them. The natural moral law is etched on our minds and we know it by heart. As the First Reading (Deut. 30: 10-14) says, ‘The Word is very near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.’ In the modern lingo, we are hardwired to love God’s law and must beware of worldly-wise, pirated software designed to infect the system!
God is not crazy or eccentric; His law is not ‘out there’, unusual and unconventional. He has had covenants with us, but alas, we have failed to honour them! In days of old, God spoke directly to His people or to a prophet. But then, being invisible had its flip side: God began to seem distant; so, He sent His Only Son to be born of a Virgin. Jesus walked the earth, spoke the language of the land, worked out miracles to everyone’s amazement, and died for our sins in an unprecedented outpouring of love. The essence of his parting message was that we love God and neighbour.
But isn’t that easier said than done? In the Gospel (Lk 10: 25-37), a Jewish scriptural scholar, after admitting that one can inherit eternal life only by loving God (Deut 6: 5) and neighbour as oneself (Lev 19: 18), demands to know who is our ‘neighbour’. His question makes sense for, to the Jews, only a member of their religion or race was a ‘neighbour’. The scholar probably wished to hear a novel definition that would navigate through issues like religion and ethnicity (Jews/Gentiles) gender and class (clean/unclean). Instead, Jesus responded with a parable that unimaginably expanded the scope of the term; and He topped it up with a question that dispelled all doubts!
In that touching and famous Parable of the Good Samaritan – reported by St Luke alone – he who attended to that half-dead man, with compassion, was from a region that the Jews looked down upon, thanks to their mixed ethnicity and their worship outside Jerusalem. Yet, Jesus introduces us to an individual Samaritan whose behaviour is a far cry from that of the Jewish priest and the Levite (temple assistant from the Hebrew tribe of Levi). Were these two too busy to stop and help, or were they merely playing it safe, for touching a dead man would prevent them from carrying out their temple duties! Or maybe not, for Jesus talks about them going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and not the other way around. While Jesus leaves the backstory a mystery, we can rest assured that God had moved the Samaritan to set an example to generations to come!
Which brings us to the Second Reading (Col 1: 15-20) in which St Paul emphasises that Jesus alone can inspire and help us humans to love and serve. The Apostle of the Gentiles portrays Christ as the mediator between Creation and Redemption: He who was present at the time of the creation of the world will also be the One through whom the world will be redeemed. Shouldn’t He, then, be the focus of our life? Our life makes sense only through Him. Note the repetition of the word ‘all’ in the passage: the writer wishes to emphasise the fact that there is nothing outside Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the be-all and end-all of our existence. This reality can never be emphasised enough, lest we begin to sacrifice the truth of the Gospel to the distorted values of the contemporary world.
The values of the contemporary world are centred on money, influence and power. They keep us bonded; they prevent us from reaching out to others in love, as Jesus did. Subservience to the material world is a despicable form of bondage that only God’s laws have the power to liberate us from. Hence, Jesus alone is deserving of our trust and confidence; He is our only model for doing things through love. So, it is not good businessmen but Good Samaritans are God’s instruments of hope – fools for Christ, in this mad, mad world!
However, being a Good Samaritan does not mean being naïve; it does not demand suspension of our critical faculties. In the near-Godless world we live in, steeped in malice and misunderstanding, Good Samaritans must indeed act with discernment. Wherever we may find ourselves – be it at home or at work; in a school or a hospital, in the street or on the battlefield – reaching out to our neighbour is of the essence. One sure way of doing this is to ward off pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. When we evict those seven trespassers, God comes into our minds and hearts, moving us to be Good Samaritans in a way that is most pleasing to Him.