Life-giving!

I prefer the phrase ‘life-giving’ to all other words to describe the nature of Christ. Was he gentle, meek, humble, healing, preaching….? Was he angry and acted violently against injustice? At every movement of Christ there is an inspired perspectival choice. It was for and towards ‘life.’

Life surprises us with spontaneous emergence. There is also such surprise at times may be shocking too, in the spontaneity of the inspiration of Christ. It reveals in the moments of history, cultural emergences, cry of the oppressed, in nature both in its beauty and in its pain. We may be afraid, because we are not at ease with strangeness. Our confidence is the trust in him to know that it is Christ. Basic nature of faith is not some clear definitions or principles, but it is Christ and his character.

Something to ponder is this: How much is the Christness in the ‘christian’ life we live, ‘christian’ beliefs we hold dear, and the principles we want to defend? Are they life-giving?

If we are finding shelter in Christianity of some preferred ideologies, we are creating bubble houses for us. We are at the risk of losing them, so always in a concern its protection.

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Reflecting on St Luke and the nature of the gospel he narrated.

See first the number of gods in your God!

How are African, Asian, Amazonian cultures and religious aspirations still pagan to some others? Perhaps the eyes are closed against the Word which was present there with unfathomable richness and beauty.

There was no difficulty in celebration of the birth of the Sun God, and the rising Sun with a new meaning given in relation to Christ. Yahweh was a subordinate Canaanite god under the Most High God El, seen as an old man with a long beard and wings, the father of heaven and gods, and the head of the divine pantheon, and husband of Asherah. Among the gods, Yahweh’s work is to make things (One who makes what is made). He had a Bull head, and so his priests wore a headdress with horns. The children of El were collectively called as Elohim. In singular it can mean same as El or Eloa. Elohim could also mean simply powers like wind, water and fire. El roi was an Egyptian desert god who watches or sees. El Shaddai which means God Almighty who is a great/mighty warrior has Akkadian origin that meant God of the mountains, or God with breasts. Canaanites called him Baal-Hadad, the storm god who was a mountain deity. The patriarchs, worshiped Shaddai together with the Canaanite El. Adonai and Elohe Tzevaot of Phoenician origin were gods of armies. 

Remember the verses God creating, god appearing in the clouds, travelling on wind, God on the mountains, God leading armies... Those gods which once were called pagan were taken into Israel and to the Bible as attributed to a single deity where as they were different gods of the region. They were not simply some qualities of gods, but they were gods of the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Egyptians, Phenicians, Syrians…

These 'pagan' gods could enter into our concept of God, the Roman bureaucracy could become the form of Christian governance, and Christian way of worship could be modeled with adaptation of Greco-Roman rituals. Today when an attempt is made to see deeply into the community forms and religious aspirations of the indigenous people of the third world, they are condemned to be pagan worship. It is nothing other than a continued form of cultural colonialism.

Revelation and Conscience

It is the values that are cherished and lived that function as the lived culture that is transmitted from one generation to the other. Values define the quality of conscience and so, the formation of conscience is a responsible task of every community. Our emphasis on cultivating ‘religious beings’ does not ensure this conscience formation. Because often it centers on forms of religious practices and one’s ‘loyal’ adherence to a community. It can well encourage a scrupulous or a ‘hypocritical’ conscience. The first seeks a confirmation from other who confirms one’s actions, and the second justifies one’s actions within. 

Whether it be a person or a society, only a sincere conscience can recognize God’s message in a particular context. Only in genuineness the stirring within can be fruitful, and the message becomes clear. Revelation of God does not happen in light and cloud, it occurs in clear conscience. A society must ensure that its structures enables the formation of good conscience within its members.

Treasures of the Word kept aside

Indigenous people's feathered headdress no sillier than the three-peaked hat worn by certain officials in Roman dicasteries. It was a response from Pope Francis at a sarcastic comment about a pious man with feathers on his head who brought an offering.

Honoring native cultures, he urges the Church to respect their histories and traditions, rather than imposing ideologies on them in a new form of colonization. 

The Church cannot be constrained within a particular culture, but having the spirit of Christ the church seeks to find the depth of her soul in the Word present in native cultures, and wants to express it in faith. For long, we may have neglected this richness. It is Christ himself that stirs the conscience of the Church to look into the depths kept aside.

Mother Church! Rediscover Your Fruitfulness in the Joy of Mission!

“Mother Church! Rediscover your fruitfulness in the joy of mission!” are the ending words in the homily of pope Francis … Extraordinary mission month is a challenge for all of us, not only for a commitment for mission, but also for restructuring some of our perspectives. 

The Pope encourages us to go ahead with hope, and asks us to avoid crisis mentality and pessimistic outlook. A missionary church, he said, “does not waste time lamenting things that go wrong, the loss of faithful, the values of a time now in the past.” 

Many of us go through life-questions, of our own, of our society, and of the Church. Pope says that God is not asking us just moving through life, but “to give life; not to complain about life, but to share in the tears of all who suffer.” Is it something missionary enough? The intention of the missionary month is to “motivate us to be active in doing good. He asks us to focus on the dimension of witnessing. Pope Francis emphasizes that "the martyrs are the primary witnesses of faith: not by their words but by their lives. We become missionaries by living as witnesses: bearing witness by our lives that we have come to know Jesus. It is our lives that speak." …. Faith truly lived as witness to the Gospel should not take the form of a propaganda or proselytism: it is a respectful gift of one’s life. It is to be lived "by spreading peace and joy, by loving everyone, even their enemies, out of love for Jesus." Missionary enthusiasm can sometime make us “notaries of faith and guardians of grace” as to think that we are the providers of salvation. “God will not ask us if we jealously preserved our life and faith, but instead whether we stepped forward and took risks, even losing face,” he says. 

He says that it is a sin against mission whenever we think of ourselves as victims, or think that no one loves us or understands us. We are to be people spreading joy. Thinking of ourselves so poorly that we cannot enrich someone else is also a sin against mission he says. Because God has given us many talents. We also sin against mission when we give ourselves to the fears that immobilize us, when we let ourselves be paralyzed by thinking that “things will never change”. He encourages us not to give up on the way, for the Lord is our strength. 

Mission does not depend on ‘our’ planning, competence, and strategies. It is wrong, he says, to do doing missionary work like business organizations, with a business plan. "The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of our mission," and the Holy Spirit has been already present there where we are expected to be a witness of the Gospel. 

What we need to do is to live the Gospel, in love, peace and joy, and share this joy that is in our life with the neediest who needs our love. It is a great and courageous effort, not much in word but greatly in life.

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Pope Francis, Homily at vespers for the beginning of the missionary month (October 01, 2019) available at http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20191001_omelia-vespri-mesemissionario.html 

See also Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Pontifical Mission Societies, Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World; Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019 (Milan: San Paolo, 2019). available athttp://www.october2019.va/en.html 

Imitating Christ the Faithful Servant

Servanthood can be described in many modes; slavish, blind, scrupulous, being obedient based on duty, discipline etc. Christian servanthood has its model in Christ which is none of the above. It is based on faithfulness, a faithfulness because of belonging to the other. About Christ it is said, “in loud cries and bitter tears he offered his prayers and supplications to the one able to save Him from death. Because of his faithfulness he was heard” (Heb 5:7).

He was doing the will of the Father, but Father was doing His works through him. He had the freedom in doing what Father would desire. He was able to trust the plan of the Father. He came in the form of an anointed servant to bring Good News to the poor, to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free (Is 61:1; Lk 4:18) Even when he died in humiliation as a curse, he trusted in the Father and said that it is accomplished (Jn 19:28).

We are called to imitate the anointed servant in his words, life, and death in faithfulness. We may not achieve everything that we desire, but it is our trust that it is the work of the Father. This trust cannot be experienced in a duty-based service or in a slavish obedience, it can be nourished in a relationship of belonging. There is a freedom, to love, to fight, to complain, to open our heart in sorrow and anguish. If we do not know Him in belonging, our deeds will be in fear and doubt of the approval of the master. 

Faithful servanthood is not set within a stereotyped circle, there is spontaneity and creativity. God does not ask us to perform a puppet play, he opens new ways as best as it can be. Only in trust we can open ourselves to these ways out of routine. Faithfulness also will help us to wait in patience rather than being in eagerness to see the results immediately. After all it is God who is establishing his kingdom.

The upright shall live by his faithfulness (Hab 2:4).