Blessed among Women

Photo: Amerindians from Kumo village in Rupununi

The dignity and respect for women has become a constant subject in the wake of recent happening in this nation. Women have been invariably going to the streets with placards in order to picket against male dominated authorities. Does anyone hear their desperate cry for justice? Even if anyone hears their, the authorities seems to calm them down with few sweet talks. Are women really free in this 21^st century, where women have gone to the leaps and bounds of the society? I want every woman to ask this question today, do women feel that they are also equal to men or even stronger than men, in regards to intelligence, talents, gifts, power and more importantly love?

Are women really free? When a husband in the flare of the anger sticks a gun against his wife’s forehead, is she really free? What will be her experience with that husband? This is an extreme example of violence against women. In the beginning of this year, Savitri Palmer, a hardworking taxi driver was sexually assaulted and killed near Timheri. Has justice been done to this person, even if justice is done, can anyone bring Savitri to life. I can keep citing incidences in which women have been victimized because of the violence against women. Every women reading this article will have some story to share, if not a nasty story, at least an experience of being teased or whistled at the street corners when you walk your way. If you have such experiences, then why are you silent? Who are you waiting on? Time has come, for you to show that you are no inferior to men. Let us try to break the chain of thought that goes on to think women are feeble and fragile. Let us break the popular understanding that men are the head and women are body or faculties. Men and women are complementary to each other.

NCN presenter, Mrs Bibi Narine asked me a question in an interview on the topic violence against women, how do you see man as the hard drive and women are the other programmes that won’t function without hard drive? I think that was a fantastic question. Jesus Christ is the foundation and head of the Church and we are his body. Jesus as the head showed a noble act of caring for women particularly the marginalized. One such caring gesture is, Jesus at the well with the Samaritan Woman. Jesus knew that as a male Jew not allowed approaching Samaritan woman, but He does an extraordinary act of care, love, compassion and life. He gives hope in life for the woman. Jesus Christ as the head showed love and compassion for the woman sent to the fringe of the society. Another incidence, in which, Jesus rebukes the men who wanted to stone the adulterous woman to death. Jesus protects her from the violent male dominated beasts who needed to clear a splinter from their eyes first before they could point a speck in someone else’s eye. Hence, our Head, Jesus Christ showed how to be compassionate towards women.

Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem, says, “the hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved…women are the gift of God, what he, as Creator and Redeemer, entrusts to women, to every woman…the Church gives thanks for the mystery of woman and for every woman – for that which constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the great works of God.” Every human person is a gift from God, temple of God and God’s spirit is in each one of us. No one has the right or privilege to destroy that temple or the spirit of God. If one does destroy, it is clearly we are destroying God himself. If women are the temple of God, no man should destroy that temple of God. The temple, which is sacred in which God, lives, hence every one should respect that sacredness of a woman. In fact, women are gifts from God and they become co-creators in God’s noble act of creation, and if anyone tries to snatch that noble act of creation from a woman through violence, we are in serious problem in our world.

St. Paul speaks in Ephesians 5:22-33, wives must submit themselves to their own husbands, as they do to the Lord. Husbands must love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.

Man and woman cannot live in domination to each other, but rather as complementary to each other. Both have to coexist to continue God’s creation in this universe. They both have myriad gifts to offer to each other and to the society. Let us make our women feel good in our families, in our work place, in our Churches, in our streets and everywhere. Let them know that we love them because we are blessed among women.

 

Who is God?

Photo: An Amerindian mother/child from Guyana

We human beings time again ask a question to ourselves, who is God for me? Have you asked this question before? It is, when we ask this question we get clarity about my relationship with God. It is necessary to know who is God for me. By our nature we tend to adhere to something, which is material than immaterial, practical than theoretical and sensory objects than non-sensory. This is perfectly fine, because we are humans and we need these. But they not necessarily satisfy our human needs; mental and spiritual needs. We can have best material things, most attractive material things but still we human being look for happiness that wells up from within oneself. No one or no material things can give that happiness.

John Pridemore, author of “gangland to promised land”, goes on to share his life as a famous gangster who had every luxury in this world but he was lacking that happiness and God’s love. He transforms his life and thereafter he becomes the ambassador for peace to the broken boys and girls in the prisons. I was privileged to meet him whilst I was volunteering at Wandsworth Prison in London. Material world will not build our world, for it will give us a temporary abode after which we have to retire to ourselves to find peace within. Do you have that peace and happiness?

We are physical, psychological (mental), spiritual beings. We need to grow in all these three aspects of our being; hence we become an integrated human being. It is natural for some of us to depend too much on one aspect and ignore the others, in which case a person is not integrated being. We have to find our own resources to feed these three aspects of our lives in order to be healthy human being. It is natural for us to depend on material goods, but when material goods fail, we need immaterial being; we humans are mortal, non-eternal, finite, limited and none of us are perfect. So there is urge in us, which makes us starve towards an immortal, eternal, finite, unlimited and perfect being; can we call it God?

It is not important what you call it, but it matters what you mean it. Based on our experiences of that immortal, eternal, unlimited, finite and perfect being, we name it, God, Supreme Being, intelligent designer etc. When every human efforts fail us, than we depend on this Supreme Being to liberate us from our suffering and pain. I mention only suffering and pain, since these two realities make us abnormal beings and we crave to be normal like most humans.

Philosophically, everything is based on the principle of “Union of Opposites”. It simply means, ‘there is light, there should be something opposite of light, that is darkness.’ ‘Right and wrong ‘,’ good and bad ‘,’ truth and non-truth guide our universe. Hence, logically, when there is mortality, limitedness, imperfection, non-eternality in this world, there should also be an immortal, unlimited, perfect, eternal principle. Can we call it God?

Let me go back to original question; who is God for you? When I ask this question to people of different affiliations towards God, they have myriad answers, by having altogether different concepts in their minds, about this Supreme Being. Some of them could be as follows;

• Ø  An Aspirin God: An aspirin tablet come handy when we are suffering from aches and pains. Likewise, some f the people would go to God when they need Him in their needs, particularly, suffering, difficulties, loneliness, sickness etc. There is an element high dependency on God only to a particular need.
• Ø  A Cop God: God is like a cop waiting to punish us when we err. Hence, we do good in order to escape punishment. This indeed limits my freedom to see God as non-punisher.
• Ø  A shopkeeper God: Some of us relate to God as we relate to a shopkeeper, as you give me this and I pay you this much. Likewise, God you do this favour for me and I will offer prayers, money, service, worship etc. We limit God by testing His ability to grant our desires.
• Ø  A puppeteer God: We are puppets in the hands of God. He is there a master who pulls the strings so that we have the movements. An unmoved mover. He moves us in this world. Hence, an element of final judgement, final goal, final end, predestination sets into our lives. Here we limit God to a merely super power who controls us according to His whims.
• Ø  A Laundry God: We see God as cleanser, who cleanses us from our sins and wrongdoings as we take our soiled clothes to laundry. We limit God to merely an object of our frail human condition.

Hence, we need to ask this question, ‘who is God for me?’ Only you can ask this question and only you can answer this question based on your experience of God.

For me God is love. His love is unconditional and eternal. It is like my mother, who loves me unconditionally. Her love has not conditions and expectations. That love is pure and selfless. There is no resentment, malice, deception, folly but it is kind, patient, without envy, without boast. God’s love is above all this, much more than my own mother. As St. Paul says, three cardinal virtues are, faith, hope and charity (love) and love is greater than all others (1 Cor. 13:13). It is this love, which no object, no wealth or anything can give. It fills the vacuum and loneliness where we our lives are empty. This love boosts us when we are downcast. This love cures us in our sickness. This love makes us see good in others as Jesus said, love your neighbour as you love yourself. Therefore, let us try to have a right concept of God, this will make us follow a right God and as a result makes us act rightly.

Enfeebled Voice of a common person!

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” When I browse the national news of the Country, invariably I hear is only one thing, ranting about politics and their each politician’s tactics to prove that one is better than the other. I am not too keen in those matters, despite knowing that it affects each individual in this nation, because we are one nation, one people and one destiny. It seems like two people, two destinies and we two nations; one of the leaders and the other is of the common person like me. We will get nowhere since we are on parallel roads. Hence common person will be silence since he does not want to speak.

In 1968 the women workers on the Ford car plant in Dagenham, Essex, got up from their sewing machines and walked out on strike to make the authorities to recognise their work as skilled and equal to their male colleagues. Women never gave up until their demands were met. This action fanned out across the UK and led ultimately to the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. Can someone speak up like these women and stop the leaders who invariably tighten their party reputation. It seems like we the common people do not have a say, we are silenced for several years. We elect our leaders to meet our needs, needs of the common person. But in reality, our leaders become powerful and suppress the voice of the common person.

It is always a joy for me to see small groups of young persons taking interest in cleaning up the city, picking up garbage. This shows their interest in the one nation. How many our leaders can come out to the streets to compliment these young groups of people? Of course, they won’t because it won’t affect them, since they drive a luxury car or live in a clean environment. Last week, I saw something beautiful, children from the Rose’s High school painting the wall, which was dirty looking. Now it looks very soothing for the eyes when we walk along the wall. I think we have to look at these good things happening in our city and make it news, so that there is a positive vibe among the young people. One day, they will decide, ‘wow this city is so beautiful, I will work right here.’

My appeal to our leaders and news agencies to please publish more of these good happenings in our country, rather than publishing all the time about our leaders who target each other for their own backyard interests.

JM Dias

Georgetown, Guyana.

This letter was written for Stabroek, Keiteur, and Catholic Standard news papers. 

Psalms: A way to pray

·       The Psalms are the prayers of Israel, the prayers of the God’s people, a people to whom God revealed Himself most clearly.

·       The people of Israel, inspired by God, put in writing this unique book.

·       Thus giving us a masterpiece of songs, and poems.

·       The Psalms are like mirror of the Jewish community throughout their existence. People of Israel turned their prayers into Psalms.

·       The Psalms have come from the Jewish people and express the purest and prayerful emotions of the monotheistic faith of Israel.

·       They express the true attitudes, supplication, trust, praise and hope of the people of Israel.

Are all Psalms equal?

·       Every Psalms is a compartment in itself.

·       Every compartment has its own key. To enter into the heart of Psalm, we need to find the right key. Every situation in life was different for the group who created each Psalm; some express happiness, others revolt, others a desperate cry for help, others a comforting peace etc.

·       Every Psalm is based of the experience of the particular person and persons; situation in which they prayed. Hence situation is diverse.

Types of Psalms

A.     Hymns:

1.     Hymns of Praise

2.     Psalms that showed the kingship of God: 47, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99.

3.     Songs of Zion (city of Jerusalem): 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122, 132.

B.     Individual Psalms:

1.     Individual Supplication: a prayer done during the time of suffering of an individual or group.

2.     Actions of grace: in which person/s recognise a grace given by Yahweh.

3.     Trust in God: people express that God is their ultimate security.

Individual Supplication: 7; 12; 5; 6; 13; 17; 22; 25; 26; 28; 31;

35; 36; 38; 39; 42; 43; 51; 54; 55; 56; 57; 58; 61; 63; 69;

70; 71; 86; 88; 102; 109; 120; 130; 140; 141; 142; 143.

C.     Collective Psalms:

1.     Collective Supplication

2.     Collective graces

3.     Collective trust in God.

Collective Supplication: 44; 58; 60; 74; 77; 79; 80; 82;

83; 85; 90; 94; 106; 108; 123; 126; 137.

D.     Royal Psalms: Theme of Kings, political authority, a function to liberate the people form the enemies and promote justice and right: 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, 144.

E.     Didactic Psalms (teaching, morals): reflections to teach the people to live a life according to God’s will,

1.     Liturgies: Shows the celebrations at the temple of Jerusalem.

2.     Prophetic exhortation: 14, 50, 52, 75, 81, 95.

3.     Historical Psalms: narrate a history of the people of Yahweh: 78, 105, 106.

4.     Wisdom Psalms: teach and reflect a concrete experience and teach a way of life: 1, 19, 8, 14, 37, 49, 73, 91, 112, 119, 127, 128, 133, 139.

Who wrote Psalms?

In the first verse of many of the Psalms give us the information such as author (David: 7:1), the type of Psalm (Lament 7:1), the musical instruments used to accompany the tale (eight strings 12:1), Collection and repertoire of the Psalm (master of singing 12:1), statement that express situation the Psalm was composed (song to Yahweh, concerning Cush and Benjamite 7:1 = 2 Samuel 18:21).

At that time it was customary to attribute the authorship of the Psalms to famous person like king David, a musician, poet and man of prayer. So he is seen as the patron of the Psalm as Moses was the patron of Law and Solomon was the patron of wisdom.

9 November 2014

Fr. Jerry Dias SJ