A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE Rev. Fr. K M George ; The Test
As children we used to be amused by the song of the Indian Cuckoo, popularly called "Achen Kompathu pakshi" or "Vishu pakshi" in Kerala.
This was a rather shy bird that appeared in Kerala during March- April. It was not easily visible, but its song was loud and resounding. Children used to parody the rhyming sound of the bird in humorously absurd words like "achen kompathu, amma varampathu". Hence its name "achen kompathu". As children we would exercise our creative skills and compete against each other by inventing funny two-line parodies. Some of us associated the bird song with the exams as the Achen-kompath bird used to appear in the season when we were preparing for our school exams in March. Later we also linked it to the Lenten season. Retrospectively one sees both the exams and the lent as a kind of test. Jesus was tested by the tempter, and He passed the rigorous exams in the desert's desolation after a 40-day long test.
The Achen-kompath bird was also a sign bird. Suppose you are praying hard to God for an answer to some knotty personal questions, but you do not receive a response. You may become dispirited and confused. Then, according to some, this bird's song might give you a clue to the solution of your problem.
A great man of God in our time, Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Osthathios of blessed memory once told us an amusing story. Staying at the Bethany Ashram of the Malankara Orthodox Church as a young sub-deacon he was praying for divine guidance as to his vocation- whether he should become a celibate priest or a married priest.
After several days of prayer and meditation he was still wavering without any clear answer from God. Disappointed, he was about to depart from the ashram. All of a sudden he heard the song of this bird in the thickly wooded environment of Bethany.
An interpretation of the bird call spontaneously rhymed in his mind. "Ippo kettenda. Pattam kettikko" (Don't get married now. Get ordained !). You may believe it or not. But he followed the bird's message to the great blessing of Church and society as later history proved. God's will can be revealed to us in mysterious and totally unexpected ways in nature. Some sort of a theophany, manifestation of the divine!
Recently I was visiting the family of a good friend of mine. They were passing through a very distressing time as their ancestral home, a very fine old building, had been destroyed by fire. By the grace of God no one was physically hurt. As I was taking leave of the family after the pastoral visit, we heard two "Achen-kompath" birds, hiding at some good distance from each other, make the familiar resounding call. With the burned house in the background the bird's sound simply rhymed in my mind as "Kathipokkotte. Daivam Koottunde" (Let it burn out, God is with us). My friends were strong in faith and trusted God's providential care. They too, I believe, probably heard it in a similar consoling way.
The family was literally passing through a fiery test. Some sounds and sights in nature can be a timely message from heaven. In this context I dared to interpret this as a sign of assurance about God's empowering presence and care in our moment of testing.
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