Saturday, July 28, 2012

Rest from Passion?


“Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passion, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair” (Pascal, 1958)

Pascal seems to be describing what, in these days, we call “burn out”. Burn out suggests an inability to cope rather than exhaustion from labors. What we find is that many people are psychologically debilitated and overwhelmed even before they begin a task. Either the enormity of the challenge, or the perceived enormity, appears so staggering that they cannot face up to it. So emotionally, they retreat, and as they do, guilt overcomes them. The word of excuse-burn out.

In June of 1530, Martin Luther wrote to his young friend, Hieronymous Weller, who was overtaken by the spirit of melancholy. “Depression destroys many and is good for nothing……..The Lord does not confuse you……therefore, do not succumb to evil but courageously oppose it. In this struggle the best pattern is not to give attention to these thoughts and dwell on them and like hissing goose despise and go by them…..Wherefore you will do the right thing if you choose diversions with others, or find some other enjoyment, and ….have no scruples regarding games or play.”

There are good and not so good reasons why some people feel as they do. We would all be well advised to deal with their situation by heeding the analyses and counsel of Pascal and Luther.

“Lord, help me to throw myself into my work with passion, preparation, and abandon; into my home life with love and zeal, and into play with a freed conscience. Then, when the bedding hour comes, let me turn the world and its cares back to you while I sleep the sleep of a carefree child”.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Loving Jesus for stones turned into bread is like loving our cow for grass turned into milk


Why do we love God? Do we love god, because He is the dispenser of heavenly goodies? Do we love God, because He is God? A life full of profit would pack the churches. Jesus did not do a thorough market research before He decided to launch his mission of the Kingdom of God. But Jesus did consider the options. Jesus was not willing to prostitute his divinity by dazzling the masses or by building a following based on free food (Matthew 4: temptation of Jesus). Loving Jesus for stones turned into bread is like loving our cow for grass turned into milk. To love God as God is to follow Jesus on the way of the cross and not just in the Palm Sunday parade and to allow the spirit to fashion us.

Let me conclude with the words of Mathew Fox (Meditations with Meister Eckhart, 1983), “Some people, I swear, want to love God in the same way as they love a cow. They love it for its milk and cheese and the profit they will derive from it. Those who love God for the sake of outward riches or for the sake of inward consolation operate on the same principle. They are not loving God correctly; they are merely loving their own advantage”. Let us genuinely love God, because He is our God!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Love: Verbal or Verb?


Faith is known by love, and love is not a feeling but works of love. The proof of faith, proof of love, is not in the language of words but in the language of the works of love. “Christ’s love was not an intense feeling, a full heart, etc., it was rather the works of love, which is his life” (Kierkegaard,Soren Kierkegaard’s Journal and Papers, 1967). So often we say “it would have been so easy to show our faith and love if we had been contemporary with Christ”. Ah, but we are contemporary with the sick, the poor, less privileged and the suffering. Christ made it very clear that if we do works of love to the“the least of these” we do them to Him (Mat 25:31-46).
The Great commandment, the one Christ calls “the great and the first commandment” (Mat 22:37-38) says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Christ did not say“You shall love God as you love yourself”. Instead, Christ pinned that phrase to the second commandment: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. The word “shall” and the phrase “yourself”place God in the middle of every human relationship, hence love to neighbor opens the door to love to God. The little phrase “as yourself” causes us to think and struggle with what it means to love ourselves; in this struggle we learn to love ourselves in the proper way so that we can love the neighbor as ourselves.

“Love to God and love to neighbor are like two doors that open simultaneously, so that it is impossible to open one without opening the other, and it is impossible to shut one without shutting the other.” (Kierkegaard, Soren Kierkegaard’s Journal and Papers, 1967)


Saturday, January 7, 2012

My bellybutton!


We have entered into a new year. It is relevant and appropriate that we reflect on Meister Eckhart’s bellybutton theology. Only God has no bellybutton. All of us have a bellybutton right there in our centers to remind us that life is a gift-entirely gift. The apposite response to this implausible gift is gratitude. But appreciativeness does not come easily and impulsively for us. Our culture is bent on economic growth, and economic growth is dependent upon the constant stimulation of our appetites to want more. We are conditioned to be more “graspy”. We believe we become worth by showing off our acquisitions.
Have we ever wondered why it is that we have to teach our children to say “thank you”. Would it not just be a natural and reasonable thing to do, given the gifted character of life? Should not our children be able to figure out how much that is undeserved flows into them? But, it is precisely that giftedness to which we are blinded by sin. Consequently, our prideful egos convince us that we are getting what we deserve. We often think we are the centre around which universe revolves. We even think that we are the universe. But our bellybutton reminds us that we are not that centre of the universe.
Therefore, “thank you” is primal and primary. In 2012, let us treat each person we meet with the gloves of “thank you”. Let us say “thank you” to the living God from whom all blessing flow. Let me close with the words of Mathew Fox, “If the only prayer you say in your entire life is “thank you” that would suffice”.
Wish you all a very blessed New Year! God bless!