Heaven on earth

A scenic view from Tigar Pond, Guyana

St. Therese of Lisieux is called as ‘little flower Jesus’. She is one of my inspirational saints ever. Her simplicity and pragmatic approach to life has made me realize that, ‘what matters in life is not great deeds but great love’ (story of a soul). She lived a simple and spiritual life that is worthy of God’s love. She showed to everyone around her that God loves us.

I would like to reflect on two important ideas that I gathered from this great little saint, namely, God’s love affair with us (human person) and spending heaven doing good on earth.

People in love would clearly know what is it to be in love with a woman or man; a person gives completely to the other without any condition. Has that been your experience? Most often we give several attributes to God, like Father, mother, creator, almighty, king of kings etc. I would like to think that God is in love with the humanity, in other words God has an affair with us. This affair is consolidated whenever we stand before our God completely naked, naked from our own faults, inhibitions, limitations, and unworthiness. We can go before our God like a child going towards their mother; completely dependent. St. Therese saw the seasons as reflecting the seasons of God’s love affair with us. She loved flowers and saw herself as the little flower of Jesus. She was one little flower in the garden of Jesus who gave glory for its creation and beauty. As Therese says, seasons show that God is in love with us. God expects us to respond to this love. God will wait for our response when we delay. God’s love affair comes to a completion only when we respond to his love, if not, it still remains incomplete.

Most often we tend to think that heaven is somewhere out there and it is a reward for our good deeds on earth. We think it’s a place where we are destined to go after life according to our deeds. I would like to think that heaven is here and now. It is a situation or an atmosphere where God’s values prevail. It’s an ambience of Kingdom values. Therefore it is not so much a place rather it is a situation or ambience. Most often values of the kingdom and values of the world don’t match; they conflict with each other, hence we have evil in the world. Evil values dominate as opposed to the kingdom values. As St. Therese says, we have spend heaven here on earth, in other words don’t wait until one dies rather live heaven now. She spent her heaven doing good on earth. It is a tedious task to fight against the evil (worldly) values in our current times. At times it seems that invariably evil values dominate. A Challenge would be to stand against the temptation of being carried away by the mass that adheres to the values of the earth. We have swim against the current to proclaim the kingdom values. Therefore, we will have our heaven now on earth where peace and harmony will flow like a river.

Love Dew

There’s a time everything

Time to fall in love

Time to cherish that fall

Bounteous beauty love divine

Love’s like magnificence delightful

Radiant as star, shrill as noon sun

But just for a moment

There’s time to unlove

My being fills with wrinkles

Broken heart’s tears sprinkles

Tears drop in arid ground

Crying with a garish resound

God wraps me with love divine

Love that creates ripples

Shields my soul with kisses perpetual

Kisses engulf my sadness

Where’s love’s pastures?

A mystery without victory

Love’s life gone with morning dew

Now, I sit in morning dew hope

A hope fills my love dew.

A Poem inspired by a concept of love and its whereabouts.

How about Women?

Photo: Jerri Dias: Women at the Rio World Youth Day

Our society today has progressed leaps and bounds. Every human person has contributed towards this progression and others have benefitted from this organic progression. It is an organic progression because of its originality and selfless continuity. Human society wanted to see light at the end of the tunnel, may be we have seen the light. My optimistic spirit speaks about the hope that was oblique has transformed into a clear hope in our world today. Men and women of our society have worked hard for this progression of human race. If you observed, I have put Men in block letters and women in lowercase, this is no typo but a deliberate attempt from me to show that our society has still apprehensive about women being in the lime light. Are women really free in our society today? Of course, every woman who enjoys privilege of being treated, as equal would surely negate my statement that women are free. It is because of their positive experience in life in society. Let me nail my argument; is our society inherently patriarchal?

I have known a few women, who have been victims of domestic violence from their male partners. Some of the women are abused and beaten almost on a regular basis. What if your male partner draws gun at you in anger in the middle of the night and of course apologises saying that he did not mean it? Will you still continue to live with that kind of partner? What if your male partner cuffs you on your eyes with anger or drunkenness? Will you still continue living with him? Apparently, some women continue to live with their violent partners despite the atrocities committed against them. I wondered why it is so. Some of them do accept that they are servants and inferior to their male partners, hence a virtue of submission is the key to their relationship. Some of the women stay on in that relationship because of the societal, cultural and religious affiliations, in other words taboo of women being considered evil if they were to leave their partners. So they continue to live in the abusive relationship. God bless them.

I was watching an interview on Al Jazeera’s head to head at Oxford Union with the American-Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy who shot to fame after she published an article in controversial magazine saying that Arab men hate women. She argues that Arab world is inherently patriarchal and men suppress women in all the possible ways. Of course she speaks from her own experience of being supressed in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. She opined that women cannot walk freely in the streets at night, women cannot drive, women have to wear burqa etc. She feels strongly that women have to treated equally and they should be given all the rights that men enjoy; which is correct. This reminds me of a movie I watched not long ago called “made in Dagenham’, which showed the struggle of women to pay-rise in the gigantic Ford car company. That was real struggle of women to show that they did equal work as men, in fact more, but paid less then men. That struggle of 1970’s made all the difference for most women all over the world and are entitled to the same pay as men. Cheers to those women who made this possible.

Let me stick my thought to one example of women not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia; can anyone give me a solid reason as to why women cannot drive? When women have made such progress even stepping into the space like Kalpana Chawla, why cannot women drive a little motor engine? I would be happy to be driven by a woman. Now, women not allowed to drive are really a trivial example. What about women being raped in India? I am not arguing the reasons for it, but as far as I am concerned, one of the main causes of rape is male domination and women considering themselves as muscle-less. I try to reinforce women saying they are equally strong as men, may be stronger at times; thence why not strike back in defence of your own life. If women sit lay back and wait for the male dominated justice system, women will reach nowhere, rather they will be further victimized.

My writings frequently touch upon one single issue of equality, i.e. gender equality. This can be done with the help of men of our society who care for the women. We as responsible men have a significant role to play in empowering our women. We have to grow complementarily as man and woman; this applies not only for spouses but also for every woman of our society. Woman has an important function in our human race, it is they who help our human race to grow and multiply. Of course not to deny that most women are gentle and lovable human beings on earth as someone said, God could not be everywhere thence he created mothers. Let us help these women who are suppressed by so called male chauvinists and rescue them to give them human dignity that helps us grow as one human family.

Cross as a Symbol

I have always had a difficult time with the cross as symbol. The pain and suffering associated with crucifixion really bothered me. The one song resonates in my mind is; on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, and I love that old cross where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain.

Has it occurred to you as me, why would you wear a representation of the tool used to execute the man who saved the world? If he’d been electrocuted would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck?.

So what does the Cross mean? Historically, crucifixion was reserved for those the Romans considered the worst offenders: Enemies of the state, Slaves who rebelled; and the worst criminals. Thus Crucifixion was not an unusual means of execution, which is why it is remarkable that the cross became a symbol based on this one instance.

The cross is most certainly the central symbol of the Christian faith; the first century tool of human destruction, is clearly the most identifiable representation of our faith. We find comfort in the Cross; the symbol of cross has transformed from an instrument of torture and death, to a mark of comfort and care.

What does Cross mean to us today?

It always makes me wonder as why someone has to wear a huge cross whilst rapping. Is the rapper a staunch Christian? One has to know the significance and the meaning of cross.

I know someone who used to wear a crucifix to match her outfit. She had number of crucifixes of different style and texture, obviously to match her dress. Not to mention the crucifix was indeed highlight of the clothing because it was part of the whole dress code.

Is Cross s symbol of fashion? A cross to match our outfit or just to show that I am a Christian or do I understand and comprehend that Jesus our Saviour died on the Cross for you and me.

We got to understand that cross which was a symbol of shame and cruelty has become a symbol of love and life. Through Cross of suffering we have victory and life. For, without suffering there would be no healing today, and without the death there could be no new life. Our God has triumphed over death. He will certainly help us to triumph over our own sufferings and shame. 

Religiousophobia: Reconciling Faith with Freedom

Irshad Manji

We are bombarded with plenty of news about Islam being stretched to the extreme of making a peace loving religion into a hate loving religion. I had several Muslim friends in my school and college. Most of them are still in touch with me. Sometimes I am enticed to ask my close Muslim friends as to what is their opinion about making a secular state into a Muslim state. I am sure most of my friends would negate that concept of Caliphate because most of them are born and brought up in a secular environment.

Why then a group of people have to struggle with violent crusades to make a secular state into a religious state in this technocratic world? It mesmerises me about that group which promulgates the ideologies of hatred and violence. Most often I wonder whether they are driven by religion or religion is just shield to spread their own crooked ideologies. Why cannot we live as brothers and sisters because ultimately what matters is, whether I have loved God and whether I have loved my neighbour (the greatest commandment that Jesus proposed). 

Quran also teaches about love of our neighbour,  “Serve God, and join not any partners with Him; and do good - to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (ye meet), and what your right hands possess [the slave]: For God loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious” (Q:4:36). Hence, if anyone has ever read Quran would know, what it teaches and promotes, indeed love of neighbor. Then why do some of the brothers who instill violence on their neighbor?

Prolific and controversial Canadian Muslim writer Irshad Manji, in her book, ‘the trouble with Islam’, expresses her concern for a reform of her faith (Islam) with her own life experiences especially oppressiveness that made her to take up this task of reform. According to Manji, tyrants have hijacked Islam and gotten Muslims to stop thinking critically about their religion, their traditions, and their practices. She further says, the trouble with Islam is not simply the tyrants who have hijacked it, but the average Muslims who have allowed this to happen and have retreated into self-pity and victimhood. My take on this is, why would anyone allow my faith to be hijacked by someone else? If so, I am being controlled and filtered what God is trying to tell me or what God wants me to do. One must not allow one’s faith to be hijacked by someone who is ‘false prophets.’ Jesus had warned about false prophets or who use the side gate to steal the sheep. I would say the trouble with religion is, one does not recognize the false prophets because they can look ‘real’ than genuine prophets. Hence, any religion must not allow these false prophets to take root in our society. If we allow them, we will have plenty more troubles in our world. It is a Hercules task to identify the trouble and uproot it before it can spread its roots. It is the task of every faithful to identify the real and non-real prophets in our society.

Same author in her second book, ‘Allah, Liberty and Love’, mentions how one can reconcile faith with freedom and thus discover Allah of liberty and love – a universal God who gives us enough capacity to choose. Our faith must be free from conditions and boundaries. I am not underestimating the teachings of the religion but I am hinting at forced and instilled faith in someone, in which case it might become opium of the poor (Karl Marx). If my faith is only indoctrinated then it can crumble like the house built on the sand. If my faith is based on my experience of God and complemented by the teachings of a religion, then one’s faith can become strong and might move mountains.

My initial concern about creating a religiously run state would not help our neighbor to be free. One might take any means to achieve this goal of state religion. In our world today we need a free-to-practice religion. One must be confortable to find God in their lives. One cannot find God through force and power but we can find God in our hearts whilst we are serene and tranquil. If that is disturbed then there will be thin layer that will block us from seeing God in our day today life experiences. We will be like trying to look at the bottom of the well in a stirred water. It is crucial for the human person to find God but not through force and power rather through love and liberty.