Nehemiah, the new discovery!

 This morning hearing the presentation on the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, I realised I heard something new from the Bible.  The text and the story of Nehemiah.  I can't remember hearing it before, leave alone reading it myself.  But the story left a deep impression on me.  There was this animated video of the story of Nehemiah played, as part of the narration of the Encyclical, and it was inspiring.  

• risk of power without accountability 
• prayer before action
• trust in God
• synodality and participative leadership
• response modes and content of the response, in the face of adversaries
• facilitating rather than autocratic domination
• restoration of not just the walls and gates, but of the people 

But as we finished viewing the animation clip, I said to myself I need to review the same clip, but this time, without the self-glorification of viewing myself as Nehemiah!  I certainly need to see that clip! I should read the text! I need to see and feel God's grace speaking!  

Jordan turned back on its course

 My ignorance of the Bible came to the fore (for myself, once again!) as I read the first reading during the Mass today.  It was the passage where the Israelites pass through the river Jordan on dry ground, with the ark of the covenant parting the waters!  Just the same as the Isrealites were escaping the Egyptians passed through the Red Sea!  

What surprised me was this instance of the people of Israel passing through the Jordan (river) on dry ground.  I never before came across this passage!!!  I was under the impression that the incident of the Red Sea was the only one of its kind. Now I know that the Israelites had made walking through water, without getting wet or drowned, a habit! 

As I read this passage during the Mass, the meaning of the Psalm that we read for our morning (or evening?) prayers, where it says 'Jordan turned back on its course'.  So that Psalm (no. 114) was referring to this incident. I had no clue! 

Whew! 

Perspective of God, from God's side

This morning during our common discussion, Palli made a very profound intervention.  Though very many were up in arms against him for that statement, without actually giving it a thought, they actually proved him right - even in their criticism of him! 

What he pointed out to us all was that we Catholics often project ourselves out of the world and speak of ourselves as if there is the world outside of me and then there is me (or us).  

While elaborating that point he made another distinct point which went unnoticed.  It was about our perspective of God or even that of Jesus.  We hold onto that perspective, most often what is commonly preached in the church, and refuse to see that perhaps sometimes even God himself may not be happy with that imagery we have of him.  

To drive home the point Palli stated that Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of your brethren you do it for me... he never said, do it to your brethren because you love me.  This reference to the Scriptural quote was to drive home the point that God does not wait for us to do good out of love for him. The very fact that we do some good to those in need is already done for God - even if we do not have that intention of attributing or sourcing it from God. 

While trying to get my head around his passionate appeal, I was reminded of Richard Rorty's book Philosophy and the Mirror of nature.  Remembering a philosophical title after long!!!

Marriage isn't for everyone

An interesting translation of Mathew 9: 11-12

But Jesus said, “Not everyone is mature enough to live a married life. It requires a certain aptitude and grace. Marriage isn’t for everyone. Some, from birth seemingly, never give marriage a thought. Others never get asked—or accepted. And some decide not to get married for kingdom reasons. But if you’re capable of growing into the largeness of marriage, do it.”

I think this edition of the text is much much more mature and sensible, than the one's I always have heard.  The translations I have heard so far are always used to exalt the 'supremacy' of priestly and religious life - something I have always condemned. 

No vocation is greater or lessor.  Only our response to it! 

 

Creation lessons

The creation story in the Bible has God working six days of the week and on the seventh day, taking rest. There is from then on, this whole lord of the work vs lord of rest debate.  Interestingly the Lord works six days and rests only one day... after admiring all the good he has done.  In general, we tend to focus on the final day of rest as special, important.  So Sunday is always special.  It is holy day.  

Let's look at it from the creation's perspective.  I think there was nothing special about the day.  From the work and creation perspective it was a break.  A pause.  A time to recuperate, rejuvenate, revive.  Not just the Lord, the creator but creation as well.  

As for the debate between the lord of work vs the lord of prayer... we need to primarily keep in mind, that ultimately it is the same Lord!!  

The OT floods then and the ecological crisis today

The story of Noah and the flood is an interesting insight into the mind of God and the early historians who wrote that part of the Bible.  There is God frustrated with the evil of man.  He is driven to such a point as to do a complete 'formatting' of his creation.  

What is interesting is that due to the evil of the human beings, even the rest of creation is wiped out!  The animals, and birds, and reptiles did no wrong.  They did not sin.  It was basically the humans who fell out with God and his initial plans.  So why destroy them? The humans deserved punishment and only they should have been eliminated.  

I think there is a parallel for this in the new testament when Jesus speaks of the parable of the wheat and the darnel.  The farmer realising that uprooting the weed would actually harm the wheat, lets them all grown and at harvest, everything is cut up.  There is no selective elimination.  God even if he wanted couldn't have wiped out the human race alone, without in some way affecting the rest of creation. 

The present ecological crisis of climate change that we are coming to terms with offers another perspective of the OT narrative. Perhaps it is not God who risked the lives of all the other creatures.  Perhaps it was actually the greed and sin of human beings that caused the extinction of the rest of creation.  God only tried to salvage what could be.  For one who created the world, from nothing in the first instance, it would not have been a great challenge to do it again.  But in spite of what humanity did to the rest of creation, God was keen to preserve as much as possible - two or seven pairs of creatures, not just one like that of the humankind! God didn't destroy the rest of creation - human beings had already done it by that point! 

The Akedah

Before delving into the whole 'philosophy' of the Akedah (the binding of Isaac), I thought it would be a good exercise to ask myself what was the purpose of including that incident in the Bible. 

Among the many reasons that my mind could come up with, the one that was a bit weird but different was the following.  The test of Abraham's faith was not to prove God's righteousness or graciousness.  The demand to sacrifice his only son, was for Abraham a test for himself and others.  God actually has very little to do in this whole scenario.  This is the only sensible way of interpreting not just the whole episode but also responding to why the 'test' at all.  It was basically for others to know Abraham better.  That's it, and nothing more. 

The simple analogy that I can think of is the corresponding exams and tests we have in schools and colleges.  The one who does the evaluation is hardly known or remembered.  What counts is the score.  The recorded score is the one by which everyone comes to know of the academic 'qualifications' of the student; but they only serve as an introduction, not a conclusive explanation.  When one applies for a job, the certificates and marks are considered because they are a way of assessing the candidate.  However, once on the job, the marks barely matter; what one actually does is the criterion.  So one might have a very high mark, but if the person is unable to really work, he or she may soon find himself or herself, looking for a new job! 

The akedah is therefore for me a mere introduction of Abraham to someone who would not know him.  But once you know Abraham, from the various other aspects and experiences, the initial introduction hardly matters.  

Ismail or Isaac?

Began reading Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, some time ago.  But prior to that was quite surprised when a colleague informed me that while Christians believe what is written in the Bible about the event where Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, Muslims believe it was actually Ismail who was about to be sacrificed.  

In all these years it never occurred to me that it could be Ismail and not Isaac.  Especially given all those years as a child when we witnessed all our Muslim neighbours celebrate Bakrid.  They'd send us too a portion of the meat.  All those years, I was aware of them celebrating the sacrificial event of Abraham, but what I never thought that it would be involving Ismail; not Isaac.  Though the willingness of Abraham lies at the centre of the celebration or commemoration, it does not make a huge difference whether it is Ismail or Isaac.  However, the event also stresses Abraham's acceptance of God's command of sacrificing his only son!  I'm told the Jewish have a slightly different take on this episode. 

Bible as a rule book?

A couple of days ago I was in a group that was discussing the Bible.  One point mentioned therein was that the Bible is not a rule book.  While some felt that it basically boils down to that, others weren't sure.  I feel the book is certainly not a rule book.  It is more of an inspiration and a guide book.  A recommendation of instructions, at the most.  But not merely a list of do's and don'ts. 

Imagine a game without boundary or rules.  Without instructions of any kind.  It would be too confusing to everyone.  The players could do anything and everything.  The spectators watching the game would not understand head or tail of it - there wouldn't be anything to understand! 

The Bible too is like a motivational guide, if I were to speak in non-religious terms.  I do things or behave in a particular manner, not merely because the Bible-says-so, but because inspired by what I find in the Bible, I choose to be or do so.  I feel inspired by what it says and internally fell the thrill of living by those values.  

Soul becomes spirit?

Even after years of listening to extracts from the Bible, everyday during Mass and prayers, some passages still catch my attention.  Perhaps the version I hear has something to do with it. Or maybe it is the reading I'm engaged in/with currently as part of my research.  Or maybe just that I'm hearing that section of the Bible for the first time (possible!!).  Anyway, was surprised to read the following this morning.

Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come... It is the same with the resurrection of the dead: the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable.... when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit. If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment. 

Now those two lines are new to me.  The Bible making the distinction between soul and spirit?  And after death the soul is transformed into the spirit?  I remember I've thought about the embodiment after resurrection part before, but not this soul-spirit distinction and transformation.

Words do have the strange ability to confuse and confound!  God is no better! 

Patience and perseverance

Elisha cures Naaman, the Syrian of his leprosy.  Here's an imaginative aftermath of the event...

Many of the lepers in Israel hear of Naaman's cure and rush to the Jordan to take a dip.  Some wash themselves more than 7 times.  Some do it for 7 days continuously.  None of them are healed.  (Don't ask me why!).  Some go to Elisha and ask him to heal them too of their leprosy.  To each he prescribes a different course of action - all of which often take many days of perseverance and continued effort by the 'patient'.  Of these most give up very soon, because nothing of the sort that happened to Naaman is happening to them.  Of the few who continue being faithful to the 'prescriptions' of Elisha, not all are optimism. As time goes by and no healing happening, they begin to lose hope.  Only the most adamant and the most distressed, 'hell-bent' on getting rid of the disease continue and are ultimately healed.  But by this time, Elisha has moved on.  Those who were watching all this, hawk-eyed, have long got bored and gone on to find something more 'instantaneous' to amuse themselves with.  And those handful who actually are cured as now not so sure that it is only the 'prescription' of Elisha that has worked. 

Hannah and childlessness

In the readings of the day, we see Hannah re-visiting the temple to offer Samson to the Lord.  She meets Eli, and reminds him that it she was the same woman whom he found desperately praying for a child not so long ago.  She thanks him and offers her son for service of the Lord at the temple.

The clock has come a full circle today, when we hear parents not wanting to have children at all or having them aborted. In most early civilizations barrenness was conceived as a sin or a punishment from the gods.  Any woman not having children was often looked down upon and being cursed.  For the woman herself it was a big social stigma.  Times have so drastically changed that women today no longer want to bear children.  Couples who do not want to have children.  Women undergoing abortion merely to ascertain that their body is theirs and they have the right to decide what best to do with it.  Couples deciding to bring home a puppy instead of starting a family with children!  Woman bearing more than three children are seen as 'supermoms'!

Today's prayer: for all aborted children and the women who live with the adverse consequences of abortion.

Re-reading Biblical texts

After supper almost every evening, Br Mateusz practices the following day's Mass readings with me.  Listening to him, who is a first time learner of English coming from Poland, I sometimes am amused by what he reads.  Of course, he is making his best efforts, but what he utters sometimes changes the meaning drastically!  Am reminded of the same struggle of some of the Brothers back in Kondadaba and Karunapuram. Here are some things which I found very amusing, though not all are from Mateusz's mouth...

• The Lord has filed my lips ... (filled)
• His joke is not heavy and his burden lit ... (yoke) (light)
• The childless wifi has children and the fruitful wifi bears no more... (wife)

Mixing means and goals (2)

The Bible, dogma, doctrine, magisterium, tradition... are means to help us understand and live close to God.  They can be compared to a map.  Just like a map, they show us the way, offer us a route to follow.  However, the map is not the road, nor the journey nor the purpose of our journey.

But is not all of the latter found in the map, to some extent at least?  Yes, indeed.  However, it would be foolish to give up the road, journey and the purpose of travelling merely because one is enthralled by the indicators of these on the map!

Yet that is what we often do: give up loving and living close to Him, in our obsession to follow him.  We forget that God is a person, a living being, not a set of rules, principles and beliefs.  

Mixing up means and goals

In our enthusiasm to be devout and spiritual we tend to often fail to grasp the real meaning of being so.  We comfortably - and obstinately - settle for the means rather than the goal.  The means is something truly good and noble but we turn that into an end in itself, forgetting that it is supposed to lead us to the living God.  One simple example: the Bible.  The scriptures are meant to help us come closer to God.  However, it is also possible that we get so lost in the Bible that we forget God!  For those who contend that the word cannot be separated from God himself, need to ask themselves ' Is God so fossilized in the written word that he can no longer speak and make himself known through other means?'  If so, then they've never really understood God; some may have perhaps made the Bible into their God.

We Christians run the same danger of the Jews in Jesus' time.  The Jews then were sure of the scriptures, knew exactly what God was like and what he wanted.  But there comes a man named Jesus, saying and doing all the wrong things, and yet claiming to have been sent by the very God whose 'laws' he was breaking!  Today we are so 'full' of Christianity, that God himself may find it hard to enter our lives.  The readings of the day (God appearing to the Israelites on Sinai and 'blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear') are a stark reminder of waking up to this reality, rather than blaming those gone by for failing to notice the presence of God amidst them.

All that we say or do is for us to feel the presence of God.  Trust that He can use any and every means to reach to us.  We are only called to be open to His message.  Not be fixated on something so stubbornly that we block out not only any further communication from him but Him altogether!

Places in heaven

Preparations for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation have already been underway since long here in the UK.  Not only Protestant but also all the Churches are trying to get involved in some way or the other in reflecting on not just the event but its aftermath as well.  Hardliners always swing to the extreme and call for greater clarity between one's own Church and other denominations, falling back on the founder's distinctive characteristic.  Like the Orange Order (Ireland) calling on Protestants to refrain from using "RIP" for the dead as they deem it is a prayer for the dead - something they find superstitious and bad.  After all, as per their belief all that one is to earn, of course by faith alone, is here on earth.  Nothing more can be achieved after death.

Anyway, that was what I was distracted with during Mass when I heard the words of the Gospel wherein Jesus tells Salomi, the mother of James and John that the places on either side of him in heaven are for those the Father has allotted.  Is it that they have been earmarked for someone and no matter what or how good one strives to be, one can never ever secure those?  Well, I don't think so.  That they have been allotted does not mean the one's who will occupy them has been finalised down to the particular individual.  But basically the characteristics and virtues of those who get to sit there have been made clear.  It is like the reserved compartments in trains wherein those who have planned their journey, bought the tickets in due time and have paid the required amount are eligible to occupy. Those passengers do not own those seats but are worthy to use them for having fulfilled the requirements.

However, let me also add that I don't think, for those people who really 'deserve to be at the right and at the left of the Lord' in heaven, it really matters where they sit, as long as they are in the presence of the Lord! It is a strange paradox: for those whom it matters, don't deserve; and for those who deserve, it does not matter!

Synthesis of Community life

I have come across the following passage from the Thessalonians (1 Thess 5: 13) earlier as well. However, this particular version of it stood out very much as a perfect synthesis of community life:

Try to get along with each other in the community.  Warn those who are doing too little, encourage those who are anxious, and reach out to those who are burdened.  Be patient with each person and sensitive to individual needs.  When you get on each others nerves, don't answer back without thinking.  Look for the best in others, and try to bring it to the surface for the good of the whole community.  Stay cheerful whatever happens, thanking God for everything.  This is the way people are called to live the life of the risen Jesus. 

The Lord hardened Pharoah's heart...

The first reading of the day begins with this statement:

"The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart..." (Ex. 11: 10)

Honestly if only Yahweh did not do this, there'd be no Passover, no slaughter of the Egyptians at the Red sea and no hurried exit from Egypt.  Just that one act of making Pharaoh obstinate resulted in all this following confusion.  So why did he do that?

Some would prefer to believe that he did that in order to fulfill his promises to the Israelites; or to show them his greatness.  These could be 'good reasons' but not 'valid or real reasons'.

The fact is that he didn't!  Yahweh, the almighty could inspire Moses and Aaron and lead them to guide the Israelites out the Egypt, but he could not and would not change the heart of Pharaoh.  That was something beyond his own nature... to meddle with the decisions of human beings.

So then, is the Scripture wrong in making that statement.  Well, can consider it one of the many anthropological modes of expressing an experience of God.  

Burden and strength

The Israelites were slaves under the Egyptians till Moses, under Yahweh's guidance, leads them out of slavery.  The first reading of the day, records God instructing Moses to go to the people of Israel and the Pharaoh to tell them of the end of their slavery in Egypt.

Interestingly the gospel speaks of burden and yoke.  The Lord does not say that He will take away the burden.  Instead He says, "My yoke is easy and my burden light."  There is no talk of taking away the burden or difficulty.  But only the assurance that neither will be too much to bear.

In our moments of difficulty and trial we often pray that the difficulty be taken away, forgetting that a genuine prayer would seek for strength and courage to go through the difficulty.  Even in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering be taken away but if it was His Father's will, he was also sure that the Father will give him the necessary grace to endure.

Fearing imagination

No sooner did I complete reading the first reading of the Mass then it did strike me that the situation therein was not very different from the present situation of the West.  The reading from the book of Exodus, speaks of the fear among the Egyptians of the growing number of Israelites.  

The situation today of the West too is similar.  In the context of the immigrants and migrants, there is a sense of 'fear' among the residents that they would be overrun by these 'outsiders' sooner or later.  Hence the animosity, anger, protests, ill-treatment... The strange but true fact of human nature - then and now - is that when I fear, I start oppressing the other.  Rather than tackle the fear within me, I begin to make others frightened of me!  

The gospel offered very mixed and strange response to this dilemma: those of the household shall become enemies;  whoever loves life will lose it...; whoever receives you, receives me...; whoever gives a cup of cold water to these little ones....  Interestingly it does not mention of fear.  

I guess there is a logic in the statement that fear clouds clear thinking.