Lose Wisdom

Monday, May 26, 2014

A Laughing Church

It is said, laughing is a good therapy and it flexes the facial muscles. It is also said that people who laugh live longer. I think it is significant to explore, why the Church comes across to us as serious and solemn. When we laugh, do we dissipate from the primary focus of the Church, Christ? Will Christ not be happy if we laugh and enjoy in His house? While I was growing up, the Church was a place of worship and seriousness. We had to go out to speak or socialize. Laughing was forbidden in the Church. The Church was place of seriousness and solemnity with its smells and bells that scared the children and young persons. I would like to explore whether we can bring back laughter and happiness into the Church. Most often we tend to shy away from bringing our own day today life experiences to the Church. Hence we just avoid laughter in the Church.

I was celebrating the Eucharist in a particular place, and usually I would break the ice by saying a few lighter words of humour. But to my surprise I got to no response from the small gathered congregation. I was wondering, whether my English accent was not audible. But then I learnt during the course of the time that congregation that I was trying to joke with was indeed serious and solemn. They admired and respected the solemnity of the Eucharist, which is quite right. It is here that I was moved to write this small article “Laughing Church.” If one has to explicit one’s emotions, why not spectacle it? We know that God knows our hearts and our intentions, hence there is no need for us to hide our emotions of any sort.

St. Philip Neri was a humorous person in the early 16^th Century. He wanted to put smiles on the faces of people and break the dreariness in Church activities. He was a admired person in Rome during his time, but he did not like to be popular and more importantly he wanted to avoid the hero worship. Thence he hilariously broke hero worship. St Philip Neri was an enemy of solemnity and conventionality. One instance made me burst into laughter whilst I was reading his life story, and that is, when some of his more pompous penitents made their confession to him (he was famous as a confessor) he imposed salutary and deflating penances on them, such as walking through the streets of Rome carrying his cat (he was very fond of cats). Through this instance we know how jaunty and humorous saint he is. It is noteworthy that he brought laughter and joy among the people of his time by simply saying some thing very ridiculous. This did not belittle him rather people admired for breaking the monotony of the day-to-day worship in the Church.

Over the years, people are made to understand that God is a serious God; a God wears grey beard and sits on a huge decorated throne. These images somehow have crept into the Church. Sometimes may be our elders put into us fear of God in order to help to live a righteous life. This way fear of God has been instilled in our hearts. This fear, by and large is coupled with the solemnity and seriousness which has effected the faithful to avoid showing of any emotions in the Church particularly laughter.

We read from the scriptures that Jesus showed his emotions out-rightly, for example, he was irate at the temple when he over-turned the table of the moneylenders. He was sad while he learnt that his friend Lazarus had died: he wept at the tomb of Lazarus; he was anxious and felt the extreme pain in the garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. There is not much said about His laughter, perhaps while Jesus appeared to the woman after the resurrection as a gardener, I think, he might have laughed when he revealed that he was the Christ. Or while he appeared to the disciples as a ghost in the waters, he would have laughed when the disciples recognised him. These are my own reading of a laughing Jesus. We have seen the portraits of laughing Jesus. They showcase a humours Jesus. The classic book on this subject is “The Humour of Christ” by Elton Truebood. There are considerable places in Scripture where Jesus is most likely making a joke: when the Syrophoenician woman quips back that even the dogs get the crumbs. When the Pharisees strain out the gnats but swallow a camel. When Jesus describes the Pharisees as the blind leading the blind. Hence we are shown an emotional Jesus, particularly a laughing or joking Jesus.

We, as Christians have to break out of the seriousness and wearisomeness of the daily Church activities and put smiles on the faces of the faithful. We could laugh when we have to laugh, be it be in the Church or outside. Let the Church be a place where we can bring whole of our life with emotions of joy, sadness, anxiety, confusion and so on. Let us have a laughing Church and not a monotonous serious type of Church. While I say this, I don’t mean to belittle the seriousness of the liturgy and the worship. The liturgy and the prayers have their own tempo of seriousness, we are not flouting that tempo but rather we have to laugh when we have to. Let us put smiles on person sitting next to us in the Church or in our prayer meetings. If everyone us does this, then there will be a peaceful and ever cheerful ambience in the Church.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Narendra Modi: World’s Newest Powerful Man

World’s largest democratic process of electing the leader of the nation has officially ended in India. A sigh of consolation and relief supposed to have been set in the hearts of the people of India. People can now breathe the fresh air of the new cabinet headed by an experienced statesman Mr Narendra Modi, will take control of the second largest population in the world. Hopefully India will move out of an economic status quo that prevailed for several decades. A few questions that whiz through my mind at this juncture are; Will India is a Hindu right winged nation? Will the minority of India really breathe the fresh air? Will the foreign policy of India change, particularly towards USA? Will Mr Modi put some money into the pockets of the poorest of the poor? Will India shine despite its longstanding religious taboo, in other words, will India uphold its secularism and pluralism?

Vatican Insider reported after Modi had won the landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, “India is officially in the hands of the Hindu right wing, the Catholic and other religious minorities are concerned with the new man in charge in India.” It is obvious that Modi is a Hindu, thus it is quite natural for him to have a soft corner for the Hindus. He might favour the Hindus, that is because he is born and brought up in Hindu environment. Will that quality to make premature judgements that Modi will not take care of the minority in India. If he is a real Indian he would take care of the minority because of the fundamental right of religious freedom. Thus the statements and reflection in the minds of the people on Modi as being a threat for the minority must be nullified until it is proved true. It is not right for us to make premature conclusions before even he is sworn in as the next Prime Minister of India. Modi is a street tea vendors son, thus he had a humble beginning which will come in handy when he sees the minority being persecuted by the Hindu fundamentalists. He is accused of causing communal riot in Gujarat, but he has proved it to be an accusation. I only hope that Modi will prove everyone wrong that he is allergic to minority people and rather takes care of them like the shepherd that cares for the wounded sheep. I only hope that Modi puts sanctions on the Hindu fundamental groups. This will console the entire minority population of India to breathe a fresh BJP (Bharatiya Janatha Party) air.

Technically Mr Modi must be the most powerful man in the world and certainly in Asia because he is the leader of the second largest population of the world. He is the leader of approximately 1/6 of the population of the world. He is the leader of the largest democracy in the world where about 814 millions electors participated in the process of election. He is the leader of the largest emerging economies of the world. He is the leader a largest secular country in the world. Hence, I would attribute him as the most powerful man in the world. This is not to make him a dictator style of functioning but it’s for his credit that he makes India as the most powerful country in the world. Modi can make the India economy visible to the world where world will march towards India. But then it is a huge challenge for Modi because there is an ever-widening gap between the poor and rich. Every GDP statistics showcase the ever-rising growth in the India economy. That does not really qualify the real growth because most Indians live in acute poverty. Modi has a great challenge, first of all to alleviate the ever-growing poverty and then put the Indian economy in the world spot. Modi knows what is it to be a poor, because he was a son of a street tea vendor. He does not have to make any effort to know the poor since he has gone through it in his early days.

The Indians like to celebrate life despite the social evils that is impassable during the past years. I have fond memories of celebrating Diwali with my Hindu brothers in my neighbourhood and celebrating Ramadan with my Muslim brothers. As Christian, my family always distributed sweets and cake for the Hindus and Muslims in my neighbourhood. These are the few never forgettable moments of my life. I looked forward for this kind of celebration where we forget our differences and doctrines; rather we celebrate as human family. Modi would have been brought up not in a compartmentalized Hindu family rather; he is from a mixed neighbourhood. He too has had umpteen numbers of Muslim and Christian friends. We can hardly come across any Indians who never had a close friend of other faith. For Modi it is not a huge challenge at all to safeguard the secular style of government where his cabinet will be made up of ministers from different religious backgrounds. It is hard to have sheer Hindu cabinet of the government especially a country like India. Thence, Modi might have to watch out people who influence his decision to favour only the Hindus.

I am always sceptical about people talking about Modi being inclined towards a Hindu nation. I might be completely wrong, but my instinct says, that Modi will rise as the superstar of Asia and put India in the limelight. As far as I see, Modi will be more concerned about the Indian economy than the religious allegiance. Modi has a strong charisma will allow him to make his own decision that help a nation that is limping for the past one decade. Being a minority Indian, I might sound very optimistic about Modi, it is because Modi is passionate about his country. We have witnessed his passion for India through his untiring election campaigns throughout the past year. His electrifying election campaigns have overshadowed the lousy and ineffective campaigns of the Congress party. Finally, I wish that this most powerful man, Modi may modify India and make each Indians, poor and rich proud. Let every Indian may exclaim, “We needed this man at this time.”

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Divorce in the Church: an emerging concern

I have had an interesting conversation with a divorced Catholic who has ceased to go to Church based on two commonly and long standing opinion in the Church, namely, divorce is sin which impacts the exclusion for the communion and a feeling of guilt and shyness to face the so called righteous people on the pews. She has been grappling with this situation for number of years. As a good Christian my immediate advice to her is to welcome her to the church communion. But that does not satisfy her long held believe about sin and divorce.

The Catholic Church is faced with this reality of divorce and remarriage. The Church has been criticised for being liberal and for being too conservative; that makes the task of the Church ever harder. The church is evolving with taking on board the current realities of life. If the Church imposed strict sanctions on the divorcees and remarried persons, they will shy away from the faith, that dissipated the primary goal of evangelization of bringing the kingdom of God. Pope Francis has been on the wheel to take this forward by sending out a questionnaire in view of the upcoming Synod on Family in October. Most people would have felt that the Church must welcome the divorced and remarried into the communion because if God wants it, who are we to stop it. Having said that, this must encourage the faithful to take advantage of the goodness of the Church. Hope this will be foreseen in the Synod on Family, where there will be an extensive discussion and reflection on the pros and cons of allowing divorced and remarried to the Communion.

Theologian and Cardinal Walter Kasper reassured in an interview that the Church is of sinners and we are all sinners. He said, “There are those who believe the Church is for the pure. They forget that the church is also a church of sinners. We are all sinners. And I am happy that’s true because if it were not then I would not belong to the church. It’s matter of humility.”

The church for me is like a mother. A mother will always love her children. That means whatever she does with the children is with love. She will embrace the children, she will shout at children, she will show a long face on her children, but this is all done in love not with hatred of shunning the children away. A mother will never ever abandon her children or disown her own children. When one of her children is erred and returns home, a mother will always welcome them with an open arm. Is not same with the Church? If Church is instituted by Jesus, and Jesus welcomed people of all sorts, particularly sinners; Jesus ate with the sinners. Hence, it is preposterous when someone who is presumably righteous says that divorced and remarried cannot be in communion with the church. This will make them feel the brunt of life even more.

Our God is a forgiving God, not a God who keeps grudges. Our God is a welcoming God without any discrimination based on status in life. The church doors must be open for all sorts of people because God can touch anyone anytime, God can choose anyone anytime. In fact, we as church need to reach out to the broken people because Jesus came not for the righteous but for the sinners.

Can they receive communion? That is hard question to answer, but someone has to answer, may be the Synod on Family might come out with a brilliant light to that question. The Synod might focus on the aspect of communion as Jesus willingness to enter into receiver and the receiver’s response or the intention to welcome Christ into his life.

An obvious question we can address is, will this reception of the divorced and remarried into the communion belittle the sacrament of matrimony? No, and it must not try to redefine the marriage whatsoever. The threefold feature – that is, unity, exclusivity and indissolubility must be held high. But in our pluralistic situation the church is faced with a huge challenge to maintain the sacredness of marriage. Probably, every member of the Church must think as the body of the Christ and not individual opinions. In the case of the latter, it can be detrimental, as everyone will have his or her own self vested interest in the matter. Therefore, it is significant for all the faithful to think and reflect as to what God wants from a marriage.