Praying with the Sikh Community

 

Last Sunday, I was invited by our veterinarian Dr. Graywal to attend his Sikh community worship service. A Sikh house of worship is called a gurdwara. Typically, a gurdwara includes a commercial kitchen as well as a hall for community worship and meals.

As I entered the gurdwara, I removed my shoes and washed my hands that reflect the community’s way of showing respect for their scared space. I was next given a cloth to cover my head. Sikhs greet one another bringing their palms together at chest level (known as Anjali) and slightly bow their heads in a humbling and respectful way. They greet one another with the Punjabi salutation—Sat Sri Akal (roughly translated as “Blessed is the person who says God is Truth.”) The essence of this gesture is the belief that the divine exists within each one of us. As Catholics, I like this greeting and might introduce this gesture at all my Masses reminding people that “I see Christ in you.”

Dr. Graywal explained that the word Sikh (pronounced "sick") means 'disciple' or 'learner.' The Sikh religion was founded in Northern India in the fifteenth century by Guru Nanak Dev Ji and is distinct from Islam and Hinduism.  Sikhism is monotheistic and stresses the equality of all men and women.  Sikhs believe in three basic principles; meditating on the name of God (praying), earning a living by honest means as well as sharing the fruits of one’s labor with others. Sikhism rejects caste and class systems and emphasizes service to humanity. 

As I entered the gurdwara sacred space the men were wearing turbans. Turbans are worn to cover their long hair and with respect to God. The Sikh turban (dastar) is a crown of commitment and dedication to serve all humanity. It is an article of faith that represents honor, self-respect, courage, spirituality, and piety. 

 Salvar Kamees is a Sikh women's wear. Salvars are baggy loose fitting pants with ankle cuffs called ponche. The salvar is worn beneath the kamees, a dress top which is available in as many styles as there is imagination, and color, often decorated with embroidery. The very devout tend to wear simple prints or solid colors with a little embroidery, as an expression of humility. 

The Sikh faith is committed to the equality of women, as it defines God as gender neutral, perhaps one of the few major world religions to do so. There is no activity in a gurdwara or within the community that is permitted to a man but not to a woman. There is no religious function from which women are barred at any time of their lives.

Entering the main prayer hall, I felt an uplifting and soothing feeling. Musicians playing traditional Sikh devotional music filled the room with a beautiful sublime song. Many sat and prayed on rugs on the floor, while others bowed and placed offerings before a raised platform containing the Guru Granth (the holy book). I sat cross-legged and felt the peace and calm, being careful not to point my feet towards nor turn my back on the Guru Granth. 

After the service, I took part in the Langar. Langar is a beautiful tradition that takes place every day in every Sikh gurdwara around the world. Langar refers to full vegetarian meals that are funded and prepared completely by volunteer worshipers and served to anyone who wishes to partake in them. The kitchen was a hum of activity as people stirred giant pots filled with lentils. Back in the sacred space of worship, people shared in the great meal, and everyone pitched in to the dishes. The sense of true community and care was profound. As Catholics, we enjoy our Lenten Friday fish meals or once a year Spaghetti dinners. Perhaps, we need to start offering breakfast buffets or dinners after Sunday Mass to reflect our love for one another.

 Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are Baptists, Lutherans, Jewish, Sikhs , Roman Catholic, Polish National Catholic and all faith traditions who gather each week to give you praise and thanks. My humble thanks to Dr. Graywal and all the members of his faith community who graciously welcomed me to their worship service and sent me home with a lots of homemade Sikh foods.

 

 

 

 

 

Why Do We Allow Weeds in Our Garden?

 

I wonder if Jesus is a terrible farmer or is he trying to make us think?

Jesus says that the kingdom is like somebody who sowed good seed in the field, but then found that there were weeds growing along with the wheat.  The field workers ask if they ought to pull up the weeds, but the owner says, “No, you would risk pulling up some of the good stuff at the same time.  Just wait till harvest and then we’ll sort it out.”

It is a ridiculous approach.  It is the opposite of what you would actually want to do.  Most of us know from experience that if you don’t control the weeds in your garden, by the end of the summer you might not even be able to find your peppers and tomatoes for all of the weeds.

In this world, there is good existing alongside the bad.  There are weeds among the wheat. Of course, we like to think of ourselves as the wheat, the good person, while the weeds are the bad guys. The question for us is, “What do we do about those weeds?” Another question that might make us uncomfortable, what about the weeds in my life?

We all have wheat and weed within us. I think we are both. We are all capable of great things and terrible things.  It might be more helpful to think of the wheat and weeds being mixed up – in our world, in our community, in our church, even within ourselves. We might ask ourselves: Why do we allow weeds in our garden?

Thank God, He is patient. Thank God, He is loving.  Thank God, He is merciful.  That’s the good news of this Gospel.  That Jesus sees the potential within each of us to be a weed or abundant fruit – and keeps giving another chance, keeps waiting, Because even when we’ve made a mess of things, even when our sins have caused a mess in our lives and hurt others, He can create something new.   

So much is messed up in our world right now.  But before I let that completely unsettle me and go down unproductive rabbit holes where I start making judgments and suggestions to the Lord on how things ought to be, I’ve learned it’s then that I need to stop… And to come back to being grateful, for example, knowing that the Lord has given me more time – to be attentive to my own weeds in my garden.  And maybe that’s the Lord’s hope, His plan – how much better would the entirety of His garden look if we all were to do the same?

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who have many gifts of wheat like joy, kindness and compassion. We are grateful for these graces. However, when the weeds appear like impatience, anger and judgment let us learn to pray to be honest with ourselves and ask Our Lord for wisdom to burn the weeds out of our garden and grow to be abundant fruit.

 

 

Are You Big Hearted

 

This past Sunday, I shared some thoughts with Fr. Erick about giving the “dreaded money talk” to his parishioners. 

 

Scientists tell us that every second, inside the sun, the equivalent of 4 million elephants are being transformed into light, an irretrievable, one-time gift. The sun is giving itself away. If this generosity should halt, all energy would eventually lose its source and everything would die and become inert. We, and everything on our planet, alive because of the generosity of the sun.

 

The sun reflects the abundance of God, a largesse that invites us to also be generous, to have big-hearts, to risk more in giving ourselves away in self-sacrifice, to witness to God's abundance.

 

But this isn't easy. 

 

Instinctually, we fear and we horde. Because of this, whether we are poor or not, we tend to work out of a sense of scarcity, fearing always that we don't have enough, that there isn't enough, and that we need to be careful in what we give away, that we can't afford to be too generous.

 

But our God is generous, and wasteful beyond our fears and imaginations. Nature too is stunningly overwhelming and generous. We see this in the biblical parable of the Sower: the Sower, God, whom Jesus describes, is not a calculating person who sows his grain carefully and only into worthy soil. This Sower scatters seeds everywhere: on the road, in the bushes, in the rocks, into barren soil, as well as into good soil. He has, it seems, unlimited seeds and so he works from a generous sense of abundance. We see that same abundance in the parable of the vineyard owner, where the owner, God, gives a full day's wage to everybody, whether they worked the full day or not. God, we are told, has limitless wealth and is not stingy in giving it out.

 

God is equally generous in forgiveness. In the parable of the Father who forgives the prodigal son we see a person who can forgive out of dignity and calculated cost to self. And we see this same largesse in Jesus himself as he forgives both those who executed him and those who abandoned him during his execution.

God, from everything we can see, is so rich in love and mercy that he can afford to be wasteful, over-generous, non-calculating, non-discriminating, and big-hearted beyond our imaginations.

 

And that's the invitation: to have a sense of God's abundance so as to risk always a bigger heart and generosity beyond the fear that has us believe that we need to be more calculating because things seem scarce.

 

My good friend Steve who comes every two years to maintain our water conditioner, choose to return a second time when I found moisture on the floor behind the tank. He diagnosed and repaired the problem and when I asked “how much for the repair?” he simply said “no charge.” Instead of money for his time and travel, in exchange I gave him two referrals. One to Hickey Freeman to get nice clothes for a wedding and the name of the washer and dryer company that farmers use that’s built to last. He was estatic and truly grateful with this gift of information.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are “big hearted.” I have never met a truly generous man or woman who didn't say that he or she always received more in return than he or she gave out. To be generous and big-hearted we have to first trust in God's abundance and generosity. What will you give today that resembles God’s gift of love for you?

 

I Will Give You Rest

 

Last Sunday, I shared Jesus’ teaching about acts of kindness that will not go unrewarded. Last Monday morning, a retired teacher and forester came to my farm to cut down a hanging log that smashed the tractor windshield. Later in the afternoon, I listened to Sarah’s fear that her parish in Las Vegas will need to look for another church building.

On the Fourth of July, our fire chief helped change a flat tire on a trailer stranded in front of his house. The tourist had no spare so he gave him a tire to get back home. Later on the 4th, Fr. Don called that a former parishioner of mine from 47 years ago returned from hospital in Florida. She is good friends with his wife Yvonne. I thought it might be nice to send her a gift but instead of flowers I remembered the afghans volunteers at the cathedral sewed for the sick. I now have a beautiful afghan that I will put in the mail this morning.

Then on Wednesday, I received an email from a dear friend in Farmington who regretfully received a bill for 1.2 million dollars for his wife’s heart surgery. He is a compassionate caregiver to his lovely spouse but their insurance is challenging the hospital billing. Once again, I am sadly aware that our medical system in this country is broken. Later in the afternoon, I drove my wife for her first physical therapy appointment to cope with a chronic back pain. By coincidence, Maggie, my neighbor, also comes to this PT office and missed her appointment thinking it was later in the week. I shared with the office staff that Maggie’s sister is her “uber” driver and gave the staff her cell phone number to schedule future visits. Then at the end of the day, a package arrived from Fr. Erick. To my surprise and delight, it was bottle of imported tequila from Mexico in thanks for helping him in his challenging ministry.

This Sunday, we hear Jesus teach: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke

upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Make no mistake, Jesus knows we sometimes carry heavy burdens. But Jesus is saying, “Your burdens are so much of your own making. Why do you burden yourself so cruelly? Come here. Take up the burden, the yoke I have for you. I have an easy yoke and a light burden. Yes, my child, in your life you will have to carry a burden, but why not carry my yoke? I assure you it will immediately put you in eternal life, and it will be a light yoke, an easy yoke. Come on, try me. You will find rest for your souls.”

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends whose acts of kindness help others bring relief of their burdens. We have a shoulder to lean on when our burden is too much to bear. Be at ease my friends, for Jesus is callin: “Come on, try me. You will find rest for your souls.”

I wonder if in the life of Jesus anyone ever gave him any special gifts?

 

 

Random Acts of Kindness

 

In our gospel passage, Jesus tells his disciples that "whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these lowly ones because he is a disciple will not want for his reward". In other words, no act of kindness, no matter how small, will go unrewarded. 

 

As disciples of Christ , we are invited to see others as potential disciples, persons who may see Christ in our acts of kindness to them. And, in the true Spirit of one hand not knowing what the other does, these acts should be performed even when the recipients cannot reward us.

 

I am returning from Rochester after providing a critical incident debriefing and get a phone call in my car. It’s the case manager from my neighbor case manager home care agency who informs me that she has received a notice that Maggie’s Medicaid will be cancelled June 30^th. She says she doesn’t understand why Medicaid informed her with only two days notice. This is outrageous since Maggie has been receiving this benefit for over a decade. Why is it being terminated? Maggie’s has one sister and I am her advocate when it comes to helping get her benefits like food stamps, a wheelchair, emergency life alert necklace, or her cell phone doesn’t work. The case manager suggests to contact social services. In the meantime, I call Maggie’s sister and learn that they had filled out some forms and took them to social services a month ago. What the paperwork was all about she had no idea?

 

I called social services and of course you get a voicemail to leave a message that says keep it short be and leave a number. “Margaret J., Medicaid cut off in two days, please help, call my number.”

Now I call in reinforcements and send a prayer to her guardian angels. My reply was a voice mail from social services. Sorry we can’t talk to you because of HIPPA. The privacy laws prevent this worker from discussing her case with me. So, I fax her a power of attorney and wait again to discuss her case. I get a call from her sister who shares that the social service case worker called her to explain that the cancellation was a mistake. Maggie is not losing her Medicaid. I get a return call from social service who tells me to wait till 10am tomorrow to call back her home care rep that her Medicaid benefits will not be terminated. I look at my cell phone and the clock reads 3:59pm. Thank you angels.

 

Just as our Lord noted in today's gospel, an act of kindness need not be something done on a grand scale, but something as little as a glass of cold water. All that is needed is some thoughtfulness, with a dash of understanding and compassion thrown in for good measure.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends grateful to Brad who repaired the basement light, Susie who donated the bird seed, Denny who shared his homemade maple syrup, Jeff who repaired the broken tractor, John who cut down the fallen trees. Your acts of kindness keep me safe and sound. May your acts of kindness bring a smile to all you touch by your thoughtfulness and compassion.