By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Panaji: Christmas day is quickly followed by the feast of the Holy Innocents–the massacre of the little children by King Herod (Mt2:13-18), hoping to terminate Baby Jesus. He would do anything to secure his kingship, transient as it was.
It is as if God is reminding us that life is filled with both joy and sorrows. About the feast of Holy Innocents Pope Francis wrote, “Christmas is also accompanied, whether we like it or not, by tears.”
The Holy innocents repeat to us that Jesus became one among us, one of us, in our complicated, and painful reality. He did everything out of love for humankind, for each of us.
In 2020 we seem to be surrounded by many “cries.” We celebrated Christmas in the shadow of Covid-19. Different challenges in various parts of India awake us to listen to the cries of the innocent, and to the cry within us anxious to respond to them.
Innocent ones are being silently massacred even in our own times, in different ways. Listen to a young law student living at Vasco, the entry point of the coal import, “The large coal beds at Mormugao port is harmful to the health of people living in this area. I am having constant cold. My younger brother, 9 years old, is also having the same problem. The open coal lying at the port, brought in by Adani and Jindal, is carried by the wind and spread around causing lung related illnesses.”
The holy innocents in our time suffer while the corporates continue with their business unmind of what happens to the larger public.
The broadening of the highway, the double tracking of the railway lines, result in felling many trees and taking the powerline across the forest at Mollem will damage the wildlife habitat. The double tracking of the railways is to help the transport of the coal from Vasco port to production site of Adani and Jindal in Karnataka. The future generations in Goa will suffer its ill-effect.
The holy innocents in our state are suffering to make the rich, richer.
On December 19, a group of youth, on their way to Panaji, to celebrate the Liberation day was picked by the police at the bus stand. Another youth group that was already at the Immaculate Conception Church Square, where the opinion poll that led to Goa’s Liberation took place, was also picked up by the police and bundled into a bus.
All of them were taken around, men and women, for 5 hours, from one police station to another. One woman was crying for her child left behind at the church square. But the police, kind and gentle they were, were acting on orders from the higher authorities. They were afraid that youth would protest in the city against Mollem project. It was the day the Indian President was visiting the state to inaugurate the 60th anniversary of Goa’s Liberation Day.
The holy innocents of our day are crying.
The farmers’ protest at different borders in New Delhi is for the benefit of the entire farming family in India. There are thousands of tractors, and hundreds of thousands of farmers protesting on the borders of the national capital. It is the longest march in the history by farmers for rollback of three laws imposed on them by the present government. The laws in favor the corporate houses but will adversely affect farmers and the entire Indian subcontinent in the long-run.
The holy innocents of today are crying for their daily sustenance, and for their future generations.
Someone has said, “We are all not in the same boat, but we are all in the same storm. Some have yachts, some canoes, and some are drowning. Just be kind and help whoever you can.”
We can all contribute our mite to face these challenges of our times and get justice.
“Treat victory and defeat, gain and loss, pleasure and pain alike and get ready for battle,” said Krishna to Arjuna.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “You are always a winner. Sometimes you win; sometimes you make others win.”
We battle now to win a better future of India, and for our future generations.
Most of us are among the holy innocents of today in different parts of India and in the world. Will the Government hear our cry? Will they see through our tears for the future of India and her children? As Swami Rama Tirtha says, “Within you is the ocean of Nectar Divine. Seek it within, the Self.”
May our trust in the God of the Universe help us use our divine energy to enlighten the leaders of our country. The Divine in us can awaken the conscious of our fellow beings to the reality, to the challenges around us.