Feast of St. Alphonsa - 28th July
In the pitch dark and solitude of
life, we are oblivious of the unknown diabolic force with which we are
entangled in a wrestle. Isn’t this the reflex thought that emerges
when remembering St. Alphonsa? By the
time we are in the know of the gruesome force, it would have inflicted casualty
on us. Over a sublime moment, we realize
that we were pitched against God and that in the darkness of the night, deluded
were we, to take Him for an incomprehensible self. In the final analysis, the wrestle ought to
be directed at self. There is the
invisible hand of God in effecting the death of “I” in me and in its stead, the rise of
God. The inevitable endurance is nothing but the
indispensable wrestle. The venue for the
wrestle is the corporal body. Being
able-bodied, St. Francis Assisi used to torment himself, whipping. St. Alphonsa was at the whipping end of chronic
ailments. In both cases, there is the
resurrection of a more refined version of Human and God. In the case of Jesus, the endurance and self-tempering
was in the shape of crucifixion.
There is no room for despair,
sorrow and death in the face of the conviction that endurance is the
inalienable chalice of life and God has graciously endowed us with the strength
to accept it. That is why in Christian vision, tragedy is a non-entity.
At the outset Assisi bewailed, “Do
not ply me, I may crumble”. A rethinking
prompts him to muse, “When you are the plier, why should I be scared of being
crumbled?” On acquiring the strength of
viewing endurance in bright light, free from the veil of darkness, Blessed
Alphonsa mustered the strength to perceive it as a bosom friend whose
frequenting was prayed for. Tennyson’s
adapted version of Tithonus prayed for immortality, but failed to pray for
eternal youthfulness. Old age conquered
him, turning the very boon of immortality into a bane. When
does a boon become a bane? - it is when
we fail to acquire the virtue which is compatible to the boon. Boon is the gift of God; virtue, we need to
earn.
St. Alphonsa teaches us to get
reconciled to reality. Oftentimes, we
are bewildered at the disparity between reality and illusion. In worldly life, we are not endowed with
infinite youthfulness. It belongs to the
mind scape.
Joy and happiness are not
infinite and attitude is its mother. The
protracted years of endurance seldom eclipsed her into hell-like torment. The
long years of endurance, if in the company of Jesus, boils down to a split
second. St. Alphonso felt like the psalmist who experienced scores of years as evanescent
as a single day.
When this virgin started looking
at her nunnery as the abode of God and her caretakers as the guardian angels,
her house of endurance turned out to be the abode of God.
Before death swallows us, we have
the responsibility to enrich life. That
is why Jesus reminded his followers that his final call was not yet due and
that the inevitable chalice was outstanding yet.
Tennyson makes the celebrated
reminder, “the best is yet to come”.
Alphonsa maintained that even in the midst of the ferocious strife to
recall her life, coveting death is uncalled for. For, more beautiful things are yet to come by
and turn out. That is why St. Alphonsa had
the divine whisper in her, “ beautiful is the endurance that was; and those yet
to come, are even more”.
The ailment-stricken body posited
St. Alphonsa in front of death and kept reminding her that life is
transient. One’s spirituality becomes
intense at the thought that the longevity of life is just a few weeks, days or
hours. It heightens the liking for the
world, harbours the complaint that love is not yet loved out. Nevertheless, one can see in St. Alphonsa, the preparedness to court death any moment sans
begging for its deferment.
She tempered the body to temper
the soul. She maintained singular
rapport with God; she was trying to equip herself to court God as her beloved
man. Upagupta kept telling his amorous
fan Vasavadatta, “it is not yet time”. St.
Alphonso considered the tempering and endurance as the inevitable preparation
that precedes the face-to-face with God.
