Designs of the Heart

 “I think everybody has their own way of looking at their lives as some kind of pilgrimage…” said Eric Clapton.

According to a person’s belief and faith, pilgrimages to a shrine are common all over the world. While pondering about it, a train of thoughts ensued as many of us undertake such journeys.  Will such a journey create any kind of spiritual awakening? Or is there a chance to get connected to the divine? Will we acquire any kind of spiritual powers by visiting the places where miracles were performed by saints?

Instead flip the coin to find the divine in every human being and extend the ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy to all. There have always been good people whose humanitarian strain has touched the lives of many people. In our corner of the world too we had Fr. Agnel Dmello. He steered through a life time of wide travels to not far off lands but to every heart that he felt needed him. Caste and creed was no barrier for him. The young and the old, the healthy and the sick, all had a place in his kind and humble heart.

 He dealt with each one and tried to carve out beautiful sculptures from the rough and irregular boulders that we are. He had a count of all of us and while passing by our house or through an occasional phone call, he would enquire if we were hale and hearty. It was quite obvious that there was a herculean gap in the way faith formation took place during his younger days and now. He always insisted that we follow the teachings of the church as it has come down to us through the older generations and that it cannot be tampered with according to each one’s whims and fancies.

In this matter he would hold his stead and never allow any kind of laxities adopted by the modern culture. We, in the crowd, would fret and fume for a while saying that the old priest was so unaccommodating. Through his experience he knew quite well that his flock needed to be pushed a little and they would surely see reason. As an apostle of God, he stretched himself to visit the jail many kilometers away in the city, a palliative care centre for the terminally ill cancer patients, the old age home, the centre for the handicapped and not to forget the slums nearby. In all these journeys he did a very loving thing and that was he picked and chose a few of us every time and took us along so that we too could taste a pinch of that mighty satisfaction that he derived out of them.

The words of Abraham J. Heschel were quite apt about this holy person – “Faith is not clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”  The fruitful journey of his life was cut short on his way to the Holy Land. Our Lord surely knew that the journeys that he undertook to every home and heart, was holier than the journey he foresaw. Probably Fr. Agnel too never realized how deeply he had changed our lives through his simple ways.  He had cared for many who were disturbed, calmed those who were irritated and befriended those who felt lonely. “How happy is the person who has understood his inner worth in terms of what God sees in him and what God has bestowed on him”