Stop Racism!

Have you ever heard yourself saying, “these dogs …”, or “this bitch”, to those whom you do not like, or tolerate? I have heard my self, saying that several times! It looks like Jesus too was trapped in such emotional display that a Canaanite woman once challenged.

Christian scriptures have recorded one of Jesus’ encounters with a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28). Here is a woman who does not belong to the caste, class, or creed of Jesus, or his disciples. Jesus was a Jew. This woman was a Canaanite. Jews of Jesus’ time, I learn from my readings, frequently looked down on the Canaanites and considered them as dogs! So, naturally when the Canaanite woman approached Jesus for some favor – here she wants Jesus to heal her daughter (Matthew 15:22) - Jesus spontaneously tells her that it is wrong “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). It is too obvious that Jesus considered his people, the Jews as children and the Canaanites as dogs!

Jesus went further to justify his “gut level feelings” with sophisticated theological arguments. He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Jesus covers his own prejudices by implicating God, and God’s “sent-ness”. Neat argument! Isn’t it? Now, who comes to back Jesus? His own followers! They say: “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us” (Matthew 15:23). Here, I notice, that their support to Jesus comes even before he makes a request from them.

Jews of Jesus’ time was a very exclusive, insulated community. They built strong walls of separation from other communities. Jesus and his disciples belonged to this exclusive community.

I am quite aware of those who would argue that Jesus was not an exclusivist but evolved a program to break this exclusivist attitude among his contemporaries. Yes, there is supportive materiel in the Gospel for this particular stance.

My point however is, this specific incident reveals the spirit of exclusivist attitude that this woman challenged and Jesus gives in by adopting a more inclusive spirit towards this foreign, alien, strange woman. At the end Jesus commends her “spirit of inclusivism”. Hence, Jesus said: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Matthew 15:28)

I wonder if Jesus were to look at the present attitudes of bulk of the Canadian Christians towards people who are not their “caste, color, class, or creed”, will he discern and identify this inclusive spirit and say: “Great is your Christianity”, or “Great is your spirituality”, or “Great is your religion”? Do contemporary Canadian Christians through their thoughts, words and deeds promote passionately an inclusive, global, one world community that transcends color, caste, class, and creed? These are, I know, very difficult and sometimes very embarrassing questions. But they are exceedingly essential to establish faith and incredibly crucial to all faith communities.

The table that most practicing Christians walk to on a Sunday morning – I refer here to the Eucharistic table – is an inclusive table. And it demands similar attitude in the participants of that banquet the Lord of the Church has prepared.

I believe if we increase the spirit of inclusivism in the church community and the wider community and become more accepting towards people who are not our color, caste, class, or creed, the world we live in will have less conflicts and wars. Do you think I am very naïve in advocating a more inclusive world in order to stop conflicts and wars?

The Psalm 133, one of the shortest psalms, a poem, points to a beautiful vision of an “inclusive community”. It does not tell us how to establish this. But gives a taste; it inspires. A piece of poem like Psalm 133 tries to move, or persuade human emotions towards the vision that it carries within. But with those emotions, I believe, we must pull our will together to realize that vision here and now in our lives!

In the Bible I discover that our love for God and our love for humans are one and the same. In rejecting one you reject the other! When I look down on a black or a brown man or a native woman I am looking down on God. When I name him with that “derogatory” name “Negro” I am rejecting God who created him in his image.

Life in abundance for Jacob’s children who were divided depended very much on their coming together. The graphic reminder of this truth we are able to read and reflect in the story recorded in Genesis 45.

We will, I strongly believe, either live together, or die together! The future choice of the world is not between those living an abundant life and those living a life of scarcity! No! Either we all live a life of abundance and peace, or all live a life of scarcity and war with all its consequences!

Paul, a Jew, after his conversion to God, on his part, have always argued that in God’s vision both the Jews and the Gentiles are included, no matter even if they have done very badly. (For examples I read Romans 11:1-2, Galatians 3:28 and other passages!) All people in the world are “people of God”, with no distinction of color, caste, class, or creed.

God’s world is inclusive. Heaven and hell are all inclusive. The Lord’s Table is inclusive. And I am invited to build within me an inclusive mind, heart and will that eventually will pave way to an inclusive community, community where racism is only a past history and a Canada that sternly stops both overt and covert racisms.

Walking to the Beat of a Distant Drum

Paul wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds …” (Romans 12:3). Paul’s dual concern expressed in this quote – “not be conformed” and “be transformed”, continue to fascinate me. “Transformed Non-conformist” is the title Martin Luther King, the slain American Black Leader, gave for the sermon he preached on Romans 12:2 in the 1960’s!

Martin Luther King, in that sermon, said: “We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds? Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul saving music of eternity?” (Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 29.)

The two midwives mentioned in the beginning of the Book of Exodus (Chapter 1), Shiphrah and Puah provide, for me, examples of non-conformity. They refused to march to the music of the King of Egypt. The two women by choosing “non-conformity” as their life style perhaps missed much awards and accolades and actually risked imprisonment and possibly death from the powerful Pharaoh. Many today may think this as imprudence and utter foolishness, a kind of psychological and social maladjustment!

Elsewhere in the Christian scriptures, I read, Jesus patting Peter for his “not conforming” to the views of the people of his time! There was this question: “how do you see this Jesus, the Son of the carpenter Joseph and his wife Mary?” From the text I learn some of the popular views suggested that people considered Jesus was “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and one of the prophets”! But Peter did not walk to that beat when he confessed Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. (Cf. Matthew 16:14-16)

I believe there is definitely a need today for “holy disobedience”, as during the time of Shiphrah, Puah, Peter, and Paul. I need to stop being “a parrot” that repeats the easy popular slogans and conforms to dominant creedal and cultural mould in imitating its values in preference to those values of God’s Rule! During the time of Shiprah and Puah they had the Pharaoh to disobey; for Peter and Paul they had the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman secular authorities to disobey! Don’t I have in my own times the need to disobey the “Multinational Corporations”, the “Mass Media”, and all other paraphernalia that supports these structures. These, I see, as the present day Emperors and the High Priests, promising personal progress and prosperity, distorting our humanity and dictating our living style.

I cannot be a non-conformist if I am not willing to let go the faith and religion of “profit” and “progress” that ignores the humanity of the masses! This would mean I should make the right choice. Shiprah and Puah had to choose between “obeying the King’s command” on one hand and “God’s command” on the other! These women chose in favour of God’s rule! I can’t please both God and the Mammon! I cannot compromise!

For me as a Minister under God’s rule, to become a non-conformist in the Pauline sense, I must choose between “actively serving and dining with those in the center” and be rewarded by the powers on one hand and on the other, “committed to those in the margin” and being marginalized even by the institutional Church! For me as a preacher of the Gospel my non-conformist stance provokes me to challenge the traditional wisdom that I may become a partner with God in making all things new.

Likewise, each one of us will have to find our little corner and the manner in which we are going to be a “non-conformist”. It is then you and I will “shine” for Jesus but you in your small corner and I in mine! For Jesus is the non-conformist par excellence. Without that “maladjustment” to the world “opposed to godly values” you and I can’t be Jesus people, “authentic Christians”.

I am aware that Buddha before Jesus and Muhammad after Jesus also presented this, very same, call of “non-conformity” and “maladjustment” to the ever present “rat race” to their respective followers!

That “maladjustment” to the world in Pauline sense is an important component to that “well adjustment” to the authentic life, the Kingdom of God! The poem titled “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” by that American non-conformist poetess Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) provides me further inspiration for the path of “no-conformity”. She said:
“Much madness is divinest
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness.
It is the majority
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you’re straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain”

Non-conformity is a costly way, a way of the cross and crucifixion! And non-conformity is not possible unless I am transformed within. Or, I may put it this way: “non-conformity” without “transformation of the inner self” is irrelevant to the Gospel cause that comes to tame my “ego” and will have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God! I will not adjust to “non-conformity” in the authentic sense until I am transformed inside my soul! In a sense, transformation of the soul and not conforming to the world go together. They are like the two sides of the same coin. When I do one the other follows; and when I refuse one the other I consciously reject!

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” is a call that comes to all. But only a few will respond. For the path of Jesus is not the path the majority chooses, it is the way for remnants, the little flock – not for masses, not for religious experts, but simple minded disciples of Jesus! Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:14). For the majority in the Church always chose “conformity” so much so the Church with her leadership always appears fully conformed to the world! But I, member of this little “flock” can be different, and should be different!

Scattered Petals!

I stop. I turn around and look the path I have walked, the life I have lived. This passage had been for six years today. Do I want to rest awhile? Is it time for the Sabbath? I am not sure! What would be my trail in the future? I do not know yet! But what follows are thoughts, some of my tools, with which I carved my last six years! This rosary of thoughts that I call scattered petals are prayers I uttered, sometimes clearly, and at other times only muttered in the cave of my heart even as I drifted like a failed rain cloud. These petals I now offer in honor of my father Isaac and my brother John.

1

For what you put in many plateful
You take out only one or two handful
That resulting from an unchangeable rule!

16.08.2002

2

Did I, desert those truly peaceful rock pigeons
For watching gulls, pretentious prairie doves!

16.08.2002

3

You take from this world nothing
But what you are
This you also take
To your eternity

19.09.2002

4

Let me be both
Gentle as breeze and hard as rock
With my daughter
Lest she ends up
As a slave of someone

19.09.2002

5

I saw my father in the mirror
Eyes gone deep inside
And face wrinkled

20.09.2002

6

I am glad God isn’t a mother
Running towards me
To lift me and feel me
Every time I’m hurt

23.09.2002

7

To crave for the Crucified Christ
Goes together with being
Critical of the Civilized Christianity

14.10.2002

8

Respect is the greatest gift
That I may give to
Or receive from someone

14.12.2002

9

My thoughts are the tools
That makes me a person
Or a scum of no worth

14.12.2002

10

Not by giving in
But by giving up
I grow

14.12.2002

11

I went not only to bury Evelyn’s frame
But also to prevent
Her personality being buried together

24.01.2003

12

Three that are most beautiful
And only three you take to eternity
Humility, simplicity, and beauty

25.01.2003

13

Like the little dragonfly let me move swiftly
Like her let me also sit on deep waters
Still and with inner serenity

30.01.2003

14

Your tongue in your flowers
And your speech in my thoughts
Is, your speaking to me
Help me listen

30.01.2003

15

Underneath my minute consciousness
I hear the rolling and roaring of your ocean
Keep me ever in this awareness

30.01.2003

16

Many are your miracles
That you bring into being
Create one more in my eye
That I may see the many

30.01.2003

17

As aura of aspen in autumn
Let my being always broaden
Goodness and peace

30.01.2003

18

When mind is trapped in dreams of littleness
The soul deep within invites
To glimpse the vastness within
To release self from self-imposed prison

30.01.2003

19

Only those who give love and unselfishness
Receive love and unselfishness
By giving you receive
But to receive you cannot give

30.01.2003

20

Exhibitionism in spirituality
Is, indeed, a contradiction
But not a living witness to faith

30.01.2003

21

I went on speaking
The politically incorrect language and idiom
In that the wise deciphered poetry
Calling me a poet and a prophet

07.02.2003

22

This expansive enormous creation
Its purpose I perceive not
Its mystery I shall solve not
Its owner I will encounter not
Its beauty I will sing with exultation
Its violence I protest with great vehemence

03.03.2003

23

Parading piety is for Pharisees
Not crucified their ego
Perching on, and preaching from every pulpit

03.03.2003

24

Power of powerlessness is not for Pharisees
Not crucified their ego
But practicing pomp and prominence

Henry Victor 03.03.2003

25

Let me never be inactive
But let my active activity
Be marked with my soul’s inactivity

03.03.2003

26

Shrimp waved antennae
Saying thumps up for swift shark
Unperturbed by praise

19.04.2003

27

Shrimp protested
Swift shark disturbing that calm
The big fish ignored

19.04.2003

28

Defeating is my natural inclination
Vehemently avoiding victory of being defeated

19.04.2003

29

Two that I desire most: One that I walk to my grave
Two, I make this stride without my self

17.05.2003

30

Accomplishment comes from
Taking that single most risk
Than waiting to grab that luck when crossing my path

17.05.2003

31

Time I have for that risky task
Wisdom I need to perform the work
Lest I see not friends at fireside

17.05.2003

32

I detect and discern
My authentic self in that my no self
Like that seed whose true being is its death

17.05.2003

33

I have learnt through some struggle
To find God’s stimulating presence
In the sure and certain divine absence

17.05.2003

34

Those that spend excess time at the beach
Rolling on sand and making sandcastles
Will never appreciate diving in deep sea

17.05.2003

35

When beetles defend themselves
It is terrorism
When elephants walk to defeat
It is battle for freedom!

21.06.2003

36

Affairs of the world deeply troubles me
So are my own

21.06.2003

37

I proposed to work an extra ten years
After my retirement
Only to be disposed ten years early

21.06.2003

38

Desire to dominate
Is not same as
Serving the Servant Lord

22.06.2003

39

Joke the joke! But not make life a joke
Lest the others choke your hour, day, and week
Until your years choke, and you die

19.07.2003

40

I’m listening to the chattering and chirping
Of sparrows whose genus I neither know
Nor my own intentions

22.07.2003

41

Three I received from my father
And three I pass on to my daughter:
With secrets practice restrain
In sweating curtail energy
And in posting never trust another

02.08.2003

42

Am I surprised that I’m scared of my own honesty
That brings more pain and suffering, and at last
To my own death on the cross, my own construction

02.08.2003

43

Events are designs that the unseen artist sketches
That I may ponder in my heart the secret intentions of the artist
But never am I permitted to publicly interpret
Or proclaim the meaning of artistic events

02.08.2003

44

It is indeed an unjust race
Even if the most just judge judges
If race is between an elephant and a tortoise

06.08.2003

45

In my neighborhood
The smaller ones on smaller bikes
Never catch up with bigger ones on bigger bikes

06.08.2003

46

My home is the university
I teach, research, and publish
With no book releases, promotions, or increments

16.08.2003

47

Greatest achievers are those who have learnt the art
Of discarding, omitting, ignoring, and leaving behind more
With much joy and no regrets

16.08.2003

48

Cougar trait I trail
Strong, resilient individual
That I want to be

19.08.2003

49

What has happened is the best
That can happen; better, therefore, to accept
Rather than rage in revolt

Henry Victor 06.09.2003

50

When the flower was not visible
It was not that it was not there
But the bud was hibernating

06.09.2003

51

Lord of the Worlds may delay but will never deny
You the blessing; for those who perceive
Delay is nothing but a blessing

06.09.2003

52

I waited not with patience
But faded not the supreme patience!

06.09.2003

53

Seed met with patience and the leaf evolved
Leaf exposed to patience and the flower arrived
Flower copulated with patience birthing a fruit
Fruit made life to prolong piping for patience

09.09.2003

54

Beauty that stimulates subterranean joy within my being
I sought it in women, and Satan, my lust, got released
Beauty that stimulates bliss deep within my soul
I sought it in shoe-flowers, and Song, my muse, was let loose

09.09.2003

55

A road that was not closed I cherished much
That I may reach home like mother bird to feed nestlings
But now a road that is never open is that I desire
That I may never leave home

09.09.2003

56

Put on the garment of patient placidness
And the coat of love that let goes
For your strong and swifter movement

20.09.2003

57

My neighbour’s poplar and poplar’s neighbour
Both teach a lesson I never let my heart learn:
‘To grow, I must let go’

17.10.2003

58

In middle of autumn the mountain ash
Has let go all her lush, much of her load
Only to shine with bright red light!

17.10.2003

59

Trash pits are gold mines I dig for wisdom
Gold that never corrodes nor thieves steal
Revealing self and core of my community

11.11.2003

60

Much printed materiel is re-cycled
Without being read in the first place

11.11.2003

61

Much of spoken word is heard
Not for its intrinsic worth
But for its entertainment value

11.11.2003

62

Bulls listen
Only to a bull with a bell
And I have seen this again and again!

11.11.2003

63

Turkey, chicken, cow, sheep, pig, and many
Dwell deep within my bosom
Determining values for my now and eternity

11.11.2003

64

I am much bigger than I see
And I am much smaller than I conceive

11.03.2004

65

As a priest, I realize
I need not know much theology
Nor learn too much liturgy
But, politics I must sing!

11.03.2004

66

What my father achieved in harder way
I like to achieve in the easier way!

11.03.2004

67

Spirituality, my Christian friend thinks, is:
Sharing the pain of a dead
Ignoring the pain of the living!

11.03.2004

68

Life is stronger than death
When death is embraced with open arms

16.03.2004

69

Those who embrace death
With open arms, never die

16.03.2004

70

As I embrace, with open arms
My daughter and wife
I embrace insecurity and death in life

19.03.2004

71

Mutter and mutter, and call it a sermon?
Nothing but a clutter of empty words
To litter the world of serene silence!

20.03.2004

72

I, for sure, saw your grace
And sat down to draw that face
But my lines, a flaw in your space!

29.03.2004

73

Laugh, and laugh louder
But let not that laugh create disorder
To the already chaotic order!

15.09.2004

74

Woe unto me if those around me feel
What they sense, say, and act must have my approval
Better that a millstone is tied around my neck
And I am dropped in waters oceanic!

04.12.2005

75

Doing what you can do
And doing with joy what you do
Leads to a life of sanity, that life eternal

27.03.2006

76

Serving, and serving with joy
Serving with a wanting to serve
Transforms my self from a slave to a Master!

28.03.2006

77

Faith is that venture to create a meaning
In an otherwise world of meaninglessness
In that creating I create also a Creator to anchor my faith!

28.03.2006

78

Hope rooted not in a lofty dream
But in well informed wakefulness
That blooms to become real

17.04.2007

79

Drunkenness, I have seen
Many times, walking into wilderness
In roads less traveled

06.05.2007

80

Human nature, I have seen in plenty
In the communities of Canadian geese, loud
With quarrels and battles for space

06.05.2007

81

Human potentials, I have seen in abundance
Among the flocks of Canadian geese in flight, unison in speed
As they battle the common threat of a cold winter

06.05.2007

82

Watched pot never boils!
But conscious breathing
Brings baskets full of blessings!

14.05.2007

83

Death is the destiny I see
For the mighty river rolling into the ocean
Repeating the deathless cycle

25.05.2007

84

To hit back the Siamese fighter
Aches with enormous ache
But is trapped in his destiny

25.05.2007

85

Early, at dawn, in my garden
Many colorful flowers bloomed
Only to be scorched by the noon sun

25.05.2007

86

Morning after morning, very early
Flowers in my garden embraced the dew
The night had offered them, but only to let go!

07.07.2007

87

Days have arrived when dentures smile
Knowing not this, smile not
To be transformed into a growling ass!

07.07.2007

88

Gusting wind outside
Bird sits on tips of branches
To risk I expose

21.04.2008

Henry Victor 14.08.2008

Practicing the Presence!

I read the story of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, a story of three generations put in a nutshell (Genesis 37). It is a story of perils and success of “migration” into a new land. The land of Canaan was not so friendly towards Isaac, Jacob’s father. And Jacob worked very hard to get the land to somewhat respond to his needs in a more welcoming way, while he sent his roots deep into the soil that he had taken as the land which the Lord has given for him and his descendants. But the third generation, Jacob’s children, have their conflicts, and pain. The reasons for those conflicts may be partly due to Jacob’s folly of favouritism and partly due to the envy of Joseph’s brothers.

One thing I learn from this story is that wherever humans are, the disagreements and conflicting purposes are bound to be there. They are very real. And I need not pretend as if they are not there and everything else is going very smoothly.

Then I go to another story; a story Matthew record poetically in his gospel (Matthew 14:22-33). Here I see more of other human characteristics. It is a unique story of “Jesus walking on the water”. Jesus was quite at ease in walking over the water, perhaps like a Pheasant tailed Jacana, a water bird, or as some of the water bugs walking very swiftly on water without getting wet by water, or drowning into the water. Probably it is that that prompted those who discovered that lizard which walks on the water to be named as Jesus lizard!

In that story when Jesus summoned Peter to walk on the water, he walked initially but began to drown when Peter got “lost in him-self”!

I very consciously use that phrase-“lost in him-self”! Rather he should have got “lost in the Master” who summoned him to walk. In fact in most mystical religious traditions the goal of human life is the “human soul” becoming part and parcel of that greater soul, God. I, instead of becoming part and parcel of me, must get merged into God like a raindrop becoming part of the ocean, or as a river that returns to the ocean, its own beginning!

Peter, in that mystical lesson, was not quite at ease like Jesus while walking on water. Peter started sinking when his vision was turned from the Master to the storm! I realize that I must note this subtle lesson of the sacred scriptures in fixing my focus on the Master something that Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph naturally practiced throughout their life of turbulence. Focusing my vision on God enhances my “ease” to walk in this world, which is not just “a bed of roses”, but also full of thorns!

I recognize that it will be possible for me to say boldly, like the psalmist, “even though I walk through the valley of death I fear no evil”, when I can also say: “for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4); God with me!

This, I realize, comes not merely from a cognitive or intellectual knowing but a stronger feeling of the presence of God that has to become part and parcel of my life in this increasing mechanized and consumer world. I should somehow recapture this “invisible aspect” in my life. It is this that kept Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph alive and bold in a hostile land in which they were immigrants!

I am, personally, also as a somewhat newer immigrant to Canada, this so-called “land of opportunity”, beginning to realize the value and truth of this. In fact, throughout the history of the Christendom “practicing the presence” of God was one of very fundamental spiritual exercises. It is very easy for me to slip into becoming part of a “religious community” that is not constantly conscious of this “presence of God”. And when this happens I, as a member of the religious community will loose the power and boldness that I see in the early Church of the Acts of the Apostles.

The psalmist’s injunction, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually” (Psalm 105:4), is then a reminder to me. I may have to continually keep reading that phrase: “seek God’s presence continually”. When I consciously and continuously practice the presence of God a moment would come when I will “feel and realize” that there is no escape from this presence. Elsewhere, the psalmist says: “You (referring to God) hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5). Or a little later in the same Psalm, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7).

However, I must remember that this “presence”, or feeling the “presence” is not to manipulate God, or to practice magic to enhance my ever-expanding “greedy needs”. Sacred Scriptures has no space for this. Instead Jesus, my Master, spoke of the cross! Presence for suffering, and suffering for others sake! In all this “the presence of God” takes me out of “my self”! “Unless the corn dies” is the metaphor popular with Jesus.

When Peter was sinking he called upon Jesus to save him, literally, prevent him from drowning. And Jesus gave his hand immediately and caught him! Paul, about whom I have mixed feelings, once said: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). But just two verses above he wrote: “No one who believes in him will be put to shame” (Romans 10:11). I know that Paul was firmly grounded on this truth. He knew that “God” Jesus revealed, “God” who was in Christ Jesus, is “God” totally dependable. And in this “God” there is no distinction of “colour, class, or creed”; this, for me, is something that is not only relevant but also very, very urgent. So Paul that man from Tarsus wrote: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).

I clearly note the phrase “no distinction” and the word “all” repeated several times in that verse. Someone once said: “God is colour blind”. To this I may add: “God is authentically ultra liberal”.

With this Paul also reminds me of my mission, the purpose of my life in this world. Paul actually raises a series of serious questions to those who call themselves Christians, including my self: “But how are they (now this “they” refers to the people in the world I live) to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? …” (Romans 10”14).

The presence of God is not for me, alone, to take comfort for my self and enjoy. It is for me to share. It is for me to proclaim with my words and more with my deeds. But in that, for sure, there is no space for coaxing or proselytizing! It is then, and perhaps then only, the presence of God becomes really “alive” in this world, and becomes relevant to my thought and living. I believe that the spirit of God is also in me, persuading me to believe in the presence of God, calling me and inspiring me to perform heroic acts of compassion and transform this world with hatred, competitions, and conflicts into that heaven, the footstool of God.

Relevant Faith

Why am I preoccupied with “faith”? For I have felt intensely and explored intentionally this “faith” for over four decades now!

Faiths, not just Christian but also other faiths, point to a presence of the transcendence, the unseen and invisible person, power, or energy, that most people call God, and persuade from humans an increased sense of accountability. It is this that is the concern of Christians around the world as they regularly join public worship and enter into private personal praying.

Faith, then, is that which emerges from my awareness of that which is bigger, greater, and worthier than my puny self. Faith, then, should make me to see my self with another perspective – not that is self-centred.

Extending kindness and compassion to the other, particularly the frail ones – children, the senior, those of lesser affluence, and those with special needs – caring for the world that is in some sense is so fragile, and sharing of the resources of much are non-renewable, are some of the outcome when “faith” is the preoccupation.

As such, concern for “faith” is likely to improve both our individual and communal life. But preoccupation with “faith” has led to the opposite as well. Then we call that “distorted faith”, “irrelevant faith” that needs to be discarded.

Saved to Serve

My “goodness” and “greatness”, I am now convinced, are purely related to, and dependent only on the “services I render” in my neighbourhood. If so, the economic abundance – the type of car I drive, the size and location of the house I live, the stuff I pile up in my abode – or a superior social status, or even higher educational qualifications that I am inclined to do not determine, or add up to my authentic stature, or to my real greatness. They do not in any way increase my goodness. Hence, I do not need to be crazily craving for all these. All what I have to be concerned in my day-to-day living is “my little acts of good works”. This is the ‘basics’ of faith. It is the only purpose of spirituality. All the fundamentals of religion are contained in that “little acts of good works”. All the rest are lee and scum of religious faiths and secular philosophies!

Those trained in a little Christian theology, I know, may object to my saying these words! Are we not saved only by “Grace and through Faith alone”? Are you preaching a Gospel of “Good Works”, they may query? God’s Grace alone saves us, they may warn me!

To them, I would say, “Sure”! But what I want to affirm here is that “we are saved, and we are being saved, only to serve”. God saves us that we may work his good and great works to those around us!

The Book of Proverbs 31:10-31, twenty-two verses, is an acrostic poem on “good works” of a woman, through which she earns the title of “a good and a model wife”. I know it is unfortunate that we do not have a similar poem on “a good and a model husband” to complement this! Without getting into an argument about the “andro-centrism” of the Hebrew Scriptures, I note, the heroine in that passage becomes good and great only by her diligent caring for her family. She becomes the ideal only by her eager sharing of her energies for the welfare of her husband and children – her immediate neighbourhood!

Conscientious care for those in my neighbourhood, and eagerly sharing – lovingly sharing – what I have and enthusiastically giving my self is that call I receive from that ever silent, odourless, invisible “More” – that some call God, others call Nirvana, some others call Allah, Yahweh, Brahman, etc. – that is always present!

That was the essence of the message Jesus of Nazareth taught! He even dramatized the same message of diligent care and eager sharing to his disciples, who, like me, were inclined to becoming great and good in the worldly sense of addition and accumulation! To them Jesus said you become first and great by becoming last and through serving – the word Jesus offered them is servant, serving as a servant! (Cf. Mark 9:35)

Jesus once took a little child, in Mark 9:30-37, and said: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37). The point here is my diligent care for and an eager sharing with one of the least in my neighborhood. This, then, is that which will drive me towards “goodness and greatness”!

James, the writer of the little book in the Greek Scriptures, (which some may consider as one of the actual brothers of Jesus), like his friends who did not understand this at the beginning, appreciated the importance of diligent care for and keen sharing with those around him as the Wisdom. He therefore wrote in his letter, “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness” – your works with gentleness because you are doing to the least among you – “willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:13b and 17).

Hence, I – giving it a title “Work the Faith” – say to myself:
You have been set free

To set others free

Faith is not

A spectator sport

Learn a simple truth

Share it

Discover your gift

And release it

Hook up

On a project

Not as the boss

But as a partner

Give your ear

Not your tongue

To talk her story

Look for opportunities

And meet the needs

Others passed

By the other side

Let Go the Colt!

Mark narrates (Mark 11:1-11) the story of Jesus’ “bold entry” into Jerusalem with poetic brevity. The phrase “as it was already late”, part of the last verse, is likely to create a sense of urgency – no space for lethargy, no time for procrastinating! And Jesus moves forward. The disciples are with him in that journey. There were others, willing to “let go”, or “offer” what belonged to them for the sake of Jesus’ mission culminating in “sacrificing of the self”, a final overcoming of the ego!

If every single Christian takes time to read this little story and allow it to echo in their heart, will they then sense the urgency to walk with Jesus? Where will this walk take them? Are the Christians today ready, for sake of Jesus, to offer their “colt” that they jealously guard? What is that “colt” in their “heart”, in their “wallet”, that they must now “let go” for the mission of Jesus of Nazareth, the Missio Dei, the Mission of God – very different from the mission of the Christendom, particularly of the western world – to continue in God’s World?