The Cup (Phörpa) a 1999 Tibetan-language film depicts craze for football among the students in a Buddhist monastery. The plot involves two young football-crazed Tibetan refugee novice monks in a remote Himalayan monastery in India who desperately try to obtain a television for the monastery to watch the World Cup football final. They do not have sufficient money to pay for the rental. So one of the young monks pawn his watch to pay the rent. That evening as all the young monks watched the game with excitement, only the monk who pawned his watch was unhappy. Another monk who noticed this monk being unhappy decides to sell everything he has and walks out to get the watch and make his friend happy. He meets the master of the monastery at the gate on his way and the master hugs the monk and says, “You are very poor in math. Because you were ready to sell everything you have to make your friend happy. You are really suited for monastic life.”
The Divine Mercy Sunday falls on the first Sunday after Easter. It epitomizes the unending mercy of God for mankind. This Sunday reminds us to accept the divine mercy of the Lord. We are living in a selfish world each one trying to see what he can amass even by cheating or crushing up others. This attitude has stepped into personal relationships and family lives taking a dangerous turn. In this situation the feast of the divine mercy reminds us that we should lead a selfless life and embrace the divine mercy of the Lord.
The realization that our material wealth and whatever we think as our own, our time and life, is a gift from God to help the needy. Let Jesus who came down in the human form, humbled himself and accepted death on a cross and with his resurrection filled us with the hope of eternal life be an inspiration to all of us.
“Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).
Fr Prince Chakkalayil CST