Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Pope Francis was a saintly, enlightened religious leader. His death is undoubtedly a loss for humankind. I started reading his autobiography, Hope , nearly two months back and am still reading it. I could have finished it long ago. But I didn’t want to. Because I loved every page of it. And I wanted this soothing and refreshing feeling, that I got every time I returned to the book, to last as long as it could. So I read the book slowly, one chapter a day, or even slower sometimes. There are lines in the book that set me thinking for long. There are personal episodes from the Pope’s life that remain etched in my heart. I already wrote two posts based on my reading experience. War is Stupid: Pope Francis & The Pope and a Prostitute . I would have written a lot more. The A-Z challenge I took up in April became a hindrance. But I continued to read the autobiography because I needed the inspiration as well as comfort it offered. There is compassion on every page of the book. Th...

I started reading the autobiography of Pope Francis a few days back as mentioned in an earlier post that was inspired by chapter 2 of the book. I’m reading the book slowly, taking my own sweet time, because I want to savour every line of this book which carries so much superhuman tenderness. The book ennobles the reader. The fifth chapter describes a few people of his barrio that the Pope knew as a young man. Two of them are young “girls” who worked as prostitutes. “But these were high-class,” the Pope adds. “They made their appointments by telephone, arranged to be collected by automobile.” La Ciche and La Porota – that’s what they were called. “Years went by,” the Pope writes, “and one day when I was now auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, the telephone rang in the bishop’s palace. It was la Porota who was looking for me.” Pope Francis was meeting her after many years. “Hey, don’t you remember me? I heard they’ve made you a bishop.” She was a river in full flow, says the Pope....

Image by Google Gemini I am reading Pope Franci’s autobiography, Hope . Some of his views on war and justice as expressed in the first pages [I’ve read only two chapters so far] accentuate the difference of this Pope from his predecessors. Many of his views are radical. I knew that Pope Francis was different from the other Popes, but hadn’t expected so much. The title of chapter 2 is taken from Psalm 120 : Too Long Do Live Among Those Who Hate Peace . The psalm was sung by Jewish pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem for religious festivals. It expresses a longing for deliverance from deceitful and hostile enemies. It is a prayer for divine justice. Justice is what Pope Francis seeks in the contemporary world too in chapter 2 of his autobiography. “Each day the world seems more elitist,” he writes, “and each day crueler, toward those who have been cast out and abandoned. Developing countries continue to be drained of their finest natural and human resources for the benefit of a few pr...

Pope Francis Pope Francis has declared that the Big Bang theory and his religion are not in conflict with each other.  The Bible is fiction.  The Bible is scripture.  It is not meant to teach science.  As Galileo put it beautifully, “The Bible teaches how to go to heaven, science teaches how the heavens go.” Even the religious fundamentalists are interested in how the heavens go rather than how to go to heaven.  Even they know that there is no heaven.   All that religions have been doing so far is to manipulate.  So that they have power.  Power.  No exceptions.  Exceptions became extinct.  Or evolved.  And gained power.  Or are begging/fighting for power.   When power rules, humanity dies.  Because power belongs to the animals. ‘ Might is right’ is the law of the jungle. Religion originated as a quest.  A search for the beyond.  What could not be understood was lab...

You don’t mess with the Zohan is a 2008 Hollywood slapstick comedy.  Zohan is an Israeli counter-terrorist who becomes bored of all the violence and moves secretly to the USA where he becomes a hairdresser assuming the pseudonym of Scrappy Coco (names of the two dogs with whom he had shared the flight).  He lives in the lower Manhattan where Middle Eastern Americans abound. The Palestinians and the Israelis live on opposite sides of the street.  Zohan becomes a freak success in the salon run by a Palestinian woman named Dalia after giving a haircut to an old woman with whom he also has sex soon after the very ‘loving’ haircut.  Dalia’s business booms because of Zohan’s double services and a corporate magnate who wants to evacuate the emigrants in order to construct a roller coaster mall is beaten.  A lot of hilarious comedy and much Hollywood action later, Zohan the Israeli marries Dalia the Palestinian.  Pope Francis at the wall built by Israel...

Christians all over the world commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus today, Good Friday.  Jesus, in all probability, did not intend to found a new religion; he wished to reform his own religion, Judaism.  This is the opinion of many well known theologians like Hans Kung.  In his brief history, The Catholic Church [Phoenix Press, 2002], Kung says, “... he (Jesus) did not seek to found a separate community distinct from Israel with its own creed and cult, or to call to life an organization with its own constitution and offices, let alone a great religious edifice.  No, according to all the evidences, Jesus did not found a church in his lifetime.” (page 12) In Dostoevsky’s novel The Karamazov Brothers , there is a Grand Inquisitor who asks Jesus who appeared in Russia teaching people freedom and love, “Why do you come to disturb us?”  Will Jesus be a nuisance to the Church and its leaders if he comes again today?  Will the priests seek a way to el...