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Welcome to Swarga Dwar.Rev. Fr. Carlo Torriani PIMETHE KINGDOM OF GOD IS FOUNDED ON A STONE REJECTED BY THE BUILDERS Let us look at the Reality around us. The discarded ones (the leprosy patients) remind us of the Discarded One: Jesus Christ. The gospel tells of Him: "The stone, which the builders rejected as worthless, turned out to be the most important of all. The Lord did this: What a wonderful sight it is" (Mark 12:11). This sentence is a great consolation for leprosy patients. it can be a consolation also for us, if we feel or ever felt discarded and useless. But it is also a warning for all, particularly for those who are in authority, to be careful never to discard anyone out of prejudice. Living for so many years together with leprosy patients, I rediscovered the profound meaning of this quotation and, for me, it has become the key for reading all scriptures. Six times it appears in the Bible. At first we find it in Psalm 118; all the three Synoptic Gospels quote it; Peter quotes it in the Acts and in his first letter. The theme of a "foundation stone" can be traced in the prophets of the Old Testament. Isaiah 28:16 "I am placing in Zion, a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone." Zechariah 4:7 "you will rebuild the Temple and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, "Beautiful !" Daniel tells of "a stone which broke loose from a cliff and it struck the statue made of iron, bronze, clay , silver and gold." Psalm 118 is a celebration of victory. "Give thanks to the Lord, because He id good and His love is eternal." Verses 22-23: "The stone, which the builders rejected as worthless, turned out to be the most important of all. This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is ! This is the day of the Lord's victory; let us be happy, let us celebrate!" it is Jesus Himself who applies this sentence to Him after narrating the parable of the tenants in the vineyard who beat the messengers of the landowner and kill his son. (Mathew 21:42; Luke 20:17) He tells the chief priests and the Pharisees: "Haven't you read what the Scriptures say? The stone which the builders rejected...."' They knew that He was talking about them, so they tried to arrest Him. But the most interesting quotation from Acts 4:11. After Peter healed a lame man, he gives a message in the temple. He and John are arrested. Before the council of the leaders and elders he defends himself. he says: "Jesus Christ of Nazareth - whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, is the one whom the scripture says: "The stone that you builders despised, turned out to be the most important one." From this action of God, making the last becoming the first, Peter draws a principle for the salvation of all: " Salvation is to be found through Him alone, (that means : "only in this way") in all the world there is no other way whom God has given who can save us" This principal is a consequence and must be interpreted in the light of the previous sentence. Usually the sentence: "There is only one name in which all can be saved" was interpreted as "only those who believe in Jesus can be saved". But read in the contest, it does not have an exclusive meaning but a universal meaning.
HOW WILL ALL BE SAVED? WILL ALL REACH IT'S FULFILLMENT? There is in no other way but the way of God who starts from the last ones. It is a system of universal salvaging, a rescue of all humans, all living beings, all things, starting from the discarded ones, from the last ones. The message is that every body and everything is saved if you want to make this world the kingdom of God, we must give place to every body. Peter understood that this would be a scandalous message for those who believe themselves to be the chosen ones, the only ones to be saved. In fact, in his first letter (chap. 2,4-10) he comes back to this contrast between "chosen race" and "universal salvation" and says: "this is the stone (the truth) that will make people stumble". The entire world is based on selection: the stronger, the most efficient, the cleverer succeeds since the beginning of the world, evolution in nature has come out of selection. The principal of selection is: "the stronger survives the weaker is eliminated." Society also is based on selection: school, industry, economics, political history... But the kingdom of God is not based on selection but on election. With the appearance of man on this earth, things have started changing: the family protects the weak. With Jesus we have the turning - point of history: God does not select but elects, he started from the last, the lost, the discarded... " the last will be the first." ( Lk 13:30). Jesus said: " the will of him who sent me is that I should loose nothing of all that he has given to me." (Jn 6:39). "GO BACK AND TELL WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN.... 'LEPERS ARE CLEANED". (LK 7:18-23). This phrase is the one that gives all the Christian and missionary significance to the work that we do in SD and LSS. To understand it we need to read in the context. John the Baptist hears about the miracles of Jesus and what the people say: " amongst us has appeared a great prophet." He does not know what to think. He would like that Jesus personally should confirm his mission. Being in prison, he sends two of his disciples to question Jesus. " Are you the one who is to come or must we wait for someone else?" Jesus gives an answer not only with words but also with facts. "Go back and tell what you have seen and heard: the blinds can see, the lame walk, lepers are cleaned... the Good news is preached to the poor." These are the signs of the mission of Jesus and of the Kingdom of God. Our mission is not only preaching the salvation of God by words but to continue to show it's signs. At present, in India, it is not the time of explicit preaching but of a silent operand testimony. And no one should be scandalized by this. Jesus him self says: " happy is the man who doesn't lose faith in me." He knew that putting himself on the side of the poor and the discarded would cause scandal. This is our way of being Christians and missionaries. MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE PEOPLES (Is 56:7). Since the people who come to our ashram do not come for the search of a particular spirituality but simply out of need for a place to stay and for a piece of bread: since they belong to different religions, it became necessary for us to find a way of praying together and a place where everyone should feel at home. This sentence of Is: "my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people", quoted by Jesus in the gospels (Mk 11:17; Mt 21:13; Lk 19:46) gave us the idea for a ecumenical (universal) chapel. The religious man must know to respect all religions. That's why we have put the symbols of the most known religions of the world on a pillar i.e. at the centre of our prayer room. On the side which is facing the entrance we have put the symbols of the religions born in India, so that those who enter may feel immediately at home. For Hinduism we chose the monogram "SHRI", THE LORD; For Jainism the important of the FEET of the fourteen founders; for Buddhism the WHEEL of the destiny. On the left side of the pillar we have put the symbols of the children of Abraham: for the Jews the STAR of David; for the Christians the CROSS of Jesus; for the Muslims CRESCENT. On the right side of the pillar there are the symbols of animism a MASK of Africa; of Taoism the CIRCLE with the opposite principles; the Shintoism THE TORII, The ARC at the entrance of the temples. On the back side we have put the symbols of the other two Indian religions: the Khanda for the Sikhs; the FIRE for the Pharisees or Zoroastrians; The twelfth symbol not exactly the symbol a religion but just the contrary, it is the symbol those who deny religion: the atheist, the humanist for them we chose SICKLE AND HAMMER. Our purpose is to pray with all men without exclusion. We know that there are religious - believers and non - religious - believers. The religious - believers base their faith on a personnel Supreme Being: God. But in our time more and more people believe only on human values like honest, integrity, truth, love, Justice, solidarity... to give a symbol to these people who mainly believe in man we chose sickle and hammer. For us it is not a symbol of a particular political system but one of human hope. we can not deny that for more than a century it has been the symbol of hope for a million of people, and so it can legitimately stay together with all other symbols of human hope. If we think of the three traditional Indian ways of salvation: jnana yoga (the way of knowledge), bhakti yoga (the way of devotion), karma yoga (the way of duty); we, in Swarga Dwar, follow the way of duty, of the manual work, hammer and sickle are the instruments of our daily work and so of our salvation. Not, of course, without the grace of God. At the top the four sides of the column there is the symbol of OM, which in India is the sign of the Absolute, to signify that the same god is above and beyond all religions. Christian people may be surprised that the cross and also the Christian religion has been put in line with the other religions and not at the apex. we should note that the cross we have chosen as the symbol of Christian religion is the lobed cross (Syrian Cross ) which represents a particular inculturation of Christianity. The Christian message could inculturate in India with aspects different from those that have occurred in the West. The central place of Christ is represented by the Greek monogram of Christ's name, which is at the top of every column between the religions and OM as the Universal Mediator. It is also to be noted that at the base of pillar there are the more ancient religions; at the top there are the most challenging ones at present. Everyday we pray with the believers of certain religions and we use some of their prayers, on Sunday we pray with all the Christians, celebrating the Holy Mass in the chapel.
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