‘God looks at the goodness within you’

COLUMN: SPIRITUAL MATTERS

Says June Jose, Vice-Principal at Pallikoodam, Kottayam

By Shevlin Sebastian

“One day St Augustine was walking along a beach trying to fathom out God,” says June Jose, Vice Principal of Pallikoodam, a school at Kottayam. “After a while, he saw a little boy who had made a small hole in the sand.”

The boy was running towards the sea, collecting the water in his cupped hands, and pouring it into the hole. St. Augustine watched for a long time. Then he asked the boy what he was doing.

The child said, “I am trying to empty the ocean into this hole.” St. Augustine said, “How can you do that? The ocean is so big and this hole is so small.”

So the child, who was actually an angel in disguise, said, “Aren’t you trying to do the same thing? Trying to fathom the Almighty God with that small head of yours?”

Says June: “This was God’s way of saying that the human mind has a limited vision. We are only small holes in the ground. So how can man understand the immensity of God?”

June, a practicing Christian, goes for Mass every morning at a church, near her house.
So what does she pray for?

“I pray for the welfare of others and for my family,” she says. “I ask God to help me be a good teacher always. I also pray that my children and my students do well in their exams.” Many friends and colleagues tell June to pray for them. “If a friend’s daughter is pregnant, she will ask me to say a prayer for a safe delivery,” she says.

When June closes her eyes, to pray, she sees the image of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and The Holy Spirit.

“For the Father, I have the picture of an old man with a flowing white beard, just like Santa Claus,” says June. “For Jesus Christ, I see a very serene face, with eyes that are very powerful, drawing me in. My image of the Holy Spirit is of a dove.”

There are Gods and doves, but no goddesses in Christianity. As a woman, does this rankle? “It does not matter to me whether God is male or female,” she says. “God is love and love has no gender."

June has the same love and respect towards other religions like Hinduism, Islam, Jainism and Buddhism.

“Whatever religion you belong to, when you come in front of God, He is not going to say, ‘You are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist,’” says June. “He is going to look at the goodness within you. And He will ask you one question: have you lived by the values of your religion? Your answer will determine His attitude.”

June says her prayerful attitude has resulted in God blessing her in many small and big ways. One day she was idly thinking, ‘It has been quite a while since I have travelled on a plane.’ One week later, June was flying to Singapore on an official trip.

(The New Indian Express, Kerala)