knock on your door...

I remember when I was in grade four, our Religion teacher Mrs. Bonifacia Bien, told us a story which I can never forget. It is a story of St Martin of Tours. Have you heard of this story? Well, anyways, let me continue with my story as related to us by our teacher, that St Martin of Tours met a beggar who was very dirty. He was asking for some alms. St Martin had nothing in his pocket. The only thing that he could offer was his cloak. But he said, “If I give you my cloak, I will have no more cloak to use.” So he took his sword , cut his cloak in half and gave one half to the beggar. That same night, St Martin had a dream where he saw Jesus wearing the other half of his cloak.

I thought it was a fairy tale. I thought it was Jesus coming in disguise. I thought it was one of the fairy tale stories which featured a frog who turned out to be a prince, or a rag-clad Cinderella who was transformed into a beautiful woman. But the Gospel in Mt 26:31-46 proves to us that Jesus does not come with a disguise. Jesus is the poor, Jesus is the prisoner, Jesus is the one who is thirsty.

There are no disguises which convey the notion that a person is not what he actually is. If we say that Jesus is disguising, it will mean that it is not Jesus but he just appears to be like Jesus.

What the Lord is telling us is not to be interpreted that way. The Lord is telling us, “It is I . I am not coming in disguise. It is I who is coming to you; in the poor, in the neglected, in the marginalized.”

Sadly however, so many of us find it very difficult to understand this, or maybe, we simply refuse to understand.

It might be so because we would rather enjoy praying the rosary than attending to the poor. We would rather enjoy hearing Mass in the air-conditioned church or in the church with an adequate heating system than reach out to the people in depressed districts and calamity stricken localities.

Unfortunately, we are missing the whole point. If we will continue this way, then I’ll have the reason to say, that religion is truly the opium of the people as what Karl Marx had said.

But religion is not the opium of the people. Religion should make us aware of the needs pf the poor.

Blessings to us all as we continue with our FOURTH week of Lenten observance.