60th Anniversary of the Department of Neurological Sciences
Sunday October 4, 2009

A short meditation

It is very appropriate that time-tabled into the center of our 24 hours of celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Department, we spend a few minutes in introspection, and most importantly, thanking God for all his gifts to us in the past and pray for his continued blessing in the future of CMC and the Department.

It is on days such as these that one should first listen to the scripture. You remember Jesus’ words, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”. This is a wonderful thought for the anniversary. If we are sincerely accepting this statement not only as a promise, but a challenge, then we should be prepared to fully help in accomplishing this grand scheme.

Listen to how Dr. Scudder responded to a very critical period in the history of CMC when faced with the possibility of closure because there was no money, inadequate staff and lack of buildings. I quote from her diary. “First ponder, then dare, know your facts, count the cost. Money is not the most important thing. What you are building is not a medical school. It is the kingdom of God. Don’t err on the side of being too small. If this is the will of God that we should find some way to keep the college open, it has to be done”.

What a wonderful legacy for the present staff of CMC and the Department to think about and accept. But are we ready, capable and wholly fit for participating in such a venture? If we do an internal audit ourselves to see if we are personally committed? The check list would be as follows:

Have we deviated or has there been a loss of direction from a ‘purpose’? A purpose that brought us here in the first place and kept us here thereafter. Once there is a compromise to the original purpose in our lives, there is loss of innocence. The loss of innocence leads to an inability to see the good in our colleagues, even in Nature around us, and most tragically, we are unable to see any good in ourselves. This inevitably leads us into being isolated, empty, frustrated and lonely

If we have compromised on our original purpose, an inability to hold on to our ideals naturally follows. When we were filled with a ‘purpose’ we were idealists, now from being ‘Knights in shining armour’ we have become wheeler dealers. Veritable pimps for our own power and popularity.

Once we have deviated from the ‘purpose’ and compromised our ideals the “Will’ to be a part of a grand plan to help with the vision “that they may have life and have it more abundantly”, becomes the final casualty. We become unfit to be a team member anymore.

Interestingly this tragedy occurs not because some grave sin has been committed or laws and rules broken. Not at all. You remember the whole tragedy among the Jews was, that men in their devotion to good causes like peace, order, religion or freedom were the ones who finally crucified Jesus.

The High Priests, Pharisees and Sadducees of the scripture and their modern day `Avatars’ never break the law or rules; they only deny access to divine love in their lives. This evil of denying Divine love that is freely offered is like a typical virus that has little power in itself. It becomes powerful only when it is able to use what is good for its own purpose.

The free gift of Divine love is only possible because God is love and He is offering Himself to us. Our denial is therefore not a crime against any law but against love. We have not broken any law; we have only broken God’s heart.

The loss of purpose, dereliction of ideals and the erosion of the will which results from this denial of divine love forces us to erect barriers, maintain divisiveness and exclusion.

Paul in Ephesians described ‘inclusiveness’ as ‘those who were far of being brought near’ and goes on to say that the barriers erected in the temple have been torn down. He says that after the advent of Divine love in human affairs barriers are not tenable.

Of course, putting up barriers was not only a Jewish prerogative. The Greeks thought there were only two classes of people in the world. The Greeks and the Barbarians. In India we have the supreme example of ‘caste’ and untouchables’.

In the life at CMC and in the Department do we find splits and barriers? If we do, we can be sure we are headed in the wrong direction.

In a multireligious pluralistic society such as ours, the need for running a Christian Medical College must be based only on one factor and that is there is no better recipe for the foundation of character for a doctor or a health worker than a gospel of love and inclusiveness and the college should exist for the purpose of introducing young women and men to the task of ‘That they may have life and have it more abundantly”. We may therefore claim that such institutions are engaged in a national service of high order; and in this task we think we deserve well of the Government and public in India as well as men and women all over the world who look for the dawn of a new day of mankind.

It is the spirit of love, inclusiveness and cooperation with all others who have the same ideals in a worthwhile cause that gives meaning to and value to life and gives reality to fellowship between fellow beings. Such cooperation is necessary I maintain in the interest of national solidarity as well as of international understanding.

On our 60th Anniversary we ask ourselves are we ready to meet the challenge of the next 60 years? Is our purpose, ideals and will attuned to respond whole heartedly to a God who for his divine love for mankind sacrificed his only son?

It has once and for all time been shown that man can only be loved into God’s kingdom, he cannot be organized into it.

This is the recipe for healing in life for the individual, the department and the institution.

“He drew a circle that shut me out,
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to coin
We drew a circle that took him in”

Lord help each one of us to be absolutely unnoticeably Holy.

Jacob Abraham