Failures as stepping stones

I know one thing for sure, I do not determine the success or failure of the things I am engaged in. Though I would desire success in all that I do, I do not succeed in achieving it; I am not able to say if there is something basically lacking in me, or if I am expecting far too much from life. I do have a good share of success in life, and for that I would ever be grateful to God; there were times when my companions and friends had envied me, and I had floated in vain glory. I even thought that I was smarter than what I had been imagining myself to be, or what others had thought me to be. But at the end of the day, I cannot help but admit that I am a mixture of success and failures in life, and I cannot hold on only to successes, for the real stepping stones in life are failures.

The world around me insists that success in life is the yardstick to measure the worth of life, but if that be the case a good majority of the human population would be condemned to failure in life, because what they had managed to achieve in life in terms of success are too negligible to mention. I know that success alone cannot be the indicator of how I have fared in life; I need to look for some other objective criteria, which will help me to assess my own self and that of others. Unfortunately the whole world may shout in unison that I was a utter failure in life and had not scored well in the examination of life, even if I had done my best. But I know with God there is a different kind of yardstick, and here he would look at my efforts and not so much the fruits of my labor.

Everyone around me looks at the fruits of my labor, if they are sweet or sour. There is not a single soul who would appreciate sour, but everyone would go in unison for the sweet. But the sour moments alone help a person to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the sweet. I had been overly conscious of achieving success in life, and in the meantime had failed to live life as it came to me with all its innumerable hues and colors. I had failed miserably to taste what life offered me, and even if I had succeeded in life from the point of view of the world, I have failed miserably before the Lord and before my own inner self. I had resisted the moments of my failure and cursed everyone who had made me fail in life, because it came as a bitter moment for me; it would take a life time for me to understand the secret behind every failure I had walked through.

If every single person were to succeed in life, and does not experience failure, then life would be quite different. It is only because there are failures that we could strive towards success, but there are moments when we find it hard to rise up from the fall and continue further in life. There are the moments we long for a helping hand, and who else but God stretches out his hand on the Cross and helps us to hold on to the wooden frame which is the ultimate symbol of failure. If the Son of God had gone through the ultimate symbol of failure, what is there for me to accept miniscule minute failures, which may not even leave behind their traces in my life. It is the crucified Lord who accepted joyfully the shame of utter failure, which could give me the sight to see the wonder of embracing failures when they come my way!

There is nothing more shocking and embarrassing for me than the moment of failures; this is the most unwanted reality in my life, and in fact there is not a single soul on earth, who would willingly and joyfully welcome failure. This is the unwelcome friend who alone can help us understand and appreciate the hard way to face reality. Today I stand to welcome every failure which may come knocking at my door, because it is only when I embrace it joyfully that I can enter into the very mystery of the Cross, and then I may find my way to the mystery of the resurrection, a success which may far surpass anything I could ever think of. This perhaps is the way of the kenosis, the self-emptying love of the Lord for his people. If I want to partake of the paschal mystery, then there is no other way than the path of failures, shame, scandal and humiliation which the crucified Lord walked through. Today this could be my way too to find fulfillment and true joy in life.

I am weak!

Ever since I heard the song some 27 years ago, I have been moved by the depth of the lyrics. Even today when I try to join my voice with the singer, I could feel my voice tremble. This song has become partly the theme song of my life. I am presenting the song which has become the favorite of several persons, and has moved them to tears. “I'm only human, I'm just a woman / Help me believe in what I could be / And all that I am / Show me the stairway, I have to climb / Lord for my sake, teach me to take / One day at a time.// cho: One day at a time sweet Jesus / That's all I'm asking from you / Just give me the strength / To do every day what I have to do / Yesterdays gone sweet Jesus / And tomorrow may never be mine / Lord help me today, show me the way / One day at a time. // Do you remember, when you walked among men / Well Jesus you know if you're looking below / It's worse now, than then / Cheating and stealing, violence and crime / So for my sake, teach me to take / One day at a time.”

Sometimes I wonder if something had gone wrong when God was creating me; if he had forgotten to add the proper proportion of head and heart. The weaknesses that I carry with me become the thorn in the flesh that St Paul talks about in his Second Letter to Corinthians 12:7-10. Why should my weaknesses control and direct my steps and why don’t I have the strength to withstand these temptations? I do not think that God takes pleasure in my weaknesses and falls; he cannot be such a cruel God. The more I become conscious of the ingrained weaknesses in my flesh, I could only utter the glorious words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak! There is no dearth of goodness and willingness, but the flesh falters me each time.

Ignorance is bliss; it is all the more true in the case of my weaknesses. So long I was not aware of my weaknesses and limitations, I was in bliss, and there was nothing which disturbed my peace. Though a lot of people made so much of hue and cry, I was not moved; but things have changed drastically now. I am painfully aware of my dark spots and they make me sleepless. The fear of yielding to my weaknesses is yet another demon which is chasing me night and day. Even when I am so conscious of my weaknesses, I can’t even make out when I am yielding to it. It happens so suddenly that I may not be present to those moments. I feel sad that I had not been able to resist the temptation of yielding to the temptations. I have become a loser, again, and do not see much of hope in restoring back my life.

Even in my weak moments, there is one consolation: I am not the only weak person in the world; there are millions who are just as weak as I am, and some of them are even weaker than me, and still they go through life joyfully without complaining or arguing with the creator. It is possible that I am not satisfied with what I am, and always wish to be better than what God had made me to be. I comparison to my weaknesses, the strengths that God had showered on me are too numerous, and yet I only magnify my weaknesses and fail to thank God for the many strengths. It is because of my strengths that I am able to continue with life, without taking recourse to any short cuts. There are brighter spots which are my guiding light, and how easily I ignore them!

St Paul had experienced the strength that came from God during his weak moments, and it would have been a wonderful experience for him. To surrender my weaknesses to him, and seeking him to strengthen me – this is my moment of grace. This implies that I need to take recourse to him, seek his ever abiding help, so that I am not stranded on the life’s path. For God, my weaknesses may not appear as weaknesses, and he could turn them into my strengths; nothing is impossible for him, and that is where I place so much of confidence in him, and live with hope. Even if everything were to fail and part from me, I know God will not leave me, for he would be there every time I fall and seek his help.

Strength of the Weak

There is not a single soul on earth who can claim before God to be strong enough to face all the trials and tribulations of the world; there is no one who can claim innocent before the throne of God. There is a patch of weakness and sinfulness ingrained in each one of us, and no one is spared from this. But this is no matter to worry about, because when we acknowledge our weaknesses, we can experience the strength that comes from God. In fact, those who see their sinfulness and weaknesses before God and acknowledge them are no longer weak and fragile, but are strong persons, because it is the Lord who grants them his own strength to fight against all evils which enslave them. Therefore if I want to experience the strength and power of God, the only thing that I need to do is to acknowledge my weaknesses before him, and trust in his providence to strengthen me in his own time, in his own way.

There are people who cannot see their weaknesses, and would go all length to justify each and every action of theirs, and may pass the blame on to their neighbors, and even to God. These people often look for alibi, scapegoats to pass the bug on to some others. They cannot face their own nakedness, and the blot of sinfulness stare at them and it could become unbearable for them. But who can deny the human nature which is there in me, which makes me think that I am the most perfect person that is possible on earth! I would go no justifying my actions, heaping lie upon lie, until the whole mound crashes and I am made a laughing stock before all. I might then see the Lord standing at a distance and smiling at me. He might be just as helpless as I had been, but the only consolation I could have now is his very presence.

The psalms reiterate in unequivocal terms how God comes to the aid of the weak and the feeble; he gives them the power to stand against all the powers of the world, and they would be able to stand before kings and emperors and speak their mind, and still no one would lay their hands on them. Or take the case of Moses, the man who stammered, and had no gift of speech. ‘But, how can I? I do not know how to speak’ Moses complains to the Lord, and the Lord gives him Aaron to be his mouthpiece. What is the situation of Isaiah and Jeremiah? The weak persons become the champions of God’s justice and retribution. There are several examples for the weak people, who had been strengthened by the Lord, and they found their lives taking a U-turn thereafter. It can happen in my life too; the same Lord can make me stand erect by the strength he would shower upon me.

I cry to the Lord and tell him that I am utterly powerless to withstand the storms that threaten my life, and he looks at me lovingly and asks me to put my trust in him. Paul was such a man, who was conscious of his weaknesses, and the riddle of life – he could not do the good that he wanted to do, and was doing just the evil that he did not want to. This is a great irony of life, and Paul could not be freed from this predicament. He felt helpless and the Lord stood by his side and provided him with the strength to accept life with all the light and shadows. We have no authority to question the Lord’s ways; they may be quite contrary to human thinking, but all generations would prove that there can never be better justice than in the Lord. If I do not surrender myself to him, and acknowledge my weaknesses before his presence, I might be slowly sinking in my own sinfulness.

The Lord looks at our hearts and not our physique. We have the beautiful story of the anointing of David by prophet Samuel, who looking at the brothers of David thinks one of them should have been chosen by God; but God warns the prophet and tells him not to look at the physique because the Lord looks not at the body, but the heart. A heart that is broken and is supple before the Lord can win the favor of the Lord and he would shower his strength on his chosen and help restore life. Life cannot drown us, so long the Lord is at our side; but if we decide to take full control over life, and do not allow the Lord to take control over our lives, then we might have to regret. Today my only prayer before the Lord is that I might see my nakedness before my eyes and acknowledge my weaknesses before the Lord, who alone can strengthen me and make me his very own!

God who protects the virtuous

The Holy Bible shows in umpteen ways how God walks the extra mile to protect the virtuous, because their lives are in his hands. He cannot let their lives be swept away together with the wicked. There are stories after stories in the Bible which show God’s special care for the virtuous, who follow his directives. He separates them from the evil-doers at the time of retribution and gifts them with life. Such is the case with Abraham’s brother Lot, who is taken out of Sodom and Gomorrah, before God rained fire and brimstone on the twin cities and destroyed it beyond all recognition, but he remembered to save Lot. In his old age, God promises that he would not destroy the city where he would take shelter as he ran away from the cities of destruction. That was a wonderful way how God had a special plan for Lot.

Whenever we cry to the Lord, he listens to our prayer. All that we need to do is stretch out our hands to him, and he is sure to hold us. Think of the situation of Peter, who was known for his impetuosity, and while seeing Jesus walking on the sea, he too wishes to walk on the water. Jesus loves people who dare to dream big, and therefore he invites him to step out of the boat and walk. Doubt and uncertainty grip him hard and he begins to sink, and the very next moment he seeks the help of his Master, who stretches out his hand to him and holds him tight. Jesus would not even require the request of Peter to save him from the danger of sinking, for he would not let his beloved disciple die in the sea. Such is the case with all those who seek the help and assistance of God, he would be there to protect and save them.

I may wonder if I am truly virtuous to win the favor of the Lord, and seek his protection; one thing is clear that very seldom would a mother desert her son or daughter. The children are her own blood and there is a bond which is thicker than blood; if such is the case with our human mothers, how much more would be the bond that God had bound us with himself, our creator and Lord. There is not a single person who can feel that he or she is unworthy of God’s mercy and compassion; even the most hardcore criminal and sinner could find a safe haven under the protective wings of God, because the breath that we breathe does belong to God, and he cannot forget us, even if we go far away from his loving protection. The only condition that we need to fulfill is that we seek his help and assistance, that would do, and he would do the rest.

Jesus presents himself as the good shepherd who goes after seeking the lost; as is normally the case, often times the sheep might go its own way and may lose tract of its flock, and yet the shepherd does not complain and say, let it go to hell, it was after all not my mistake! He would leave behind all the others and go after seeking the lost. There is a wonderful message in this scene of the good shepherd that Jesus presents in the gospel according to John. He is the one who leads us to fresher waters and greener pastures, for he knows better than all, what is best for me and he would do accordingly. My judgments could err, but his judgments are impeccable and they would truly lead me to life in its fullness. Today I seek the protection of God, who alone can give life in its fullness to humanity.

We have no merit to call ourselves virtuous, and if there is any trace of virtuosity in me, it is thanks to the free gift of God, which he lavished upon me gratuitously. And yet before God, we all of us can find peace and security, irrespective of how we had been relating to him. Those who refuse life are the people who refuse his free gift, and still he is not the one who would reprimand and throw us away, he would still take us close to his bosom, because life was an extension of his divine self, which he showers upon the human persons. If Jesus is the one who goes after the lost sheep, then every sinner can find a place in his heart. This is truly consoling for all of us who are trying to tie up the loose ends, so that we can find true happiness and joy all by ourselves.

Walking the Path

God may only show the way, and it is for us to walk the path; after all, God cannot force us to walk the entire journey. As the famous Indian proverb goes, we may only take the horse to the waterside, but we cannot force it to drink water. The drinking part has to be done by the horse. When we are confronted by problems and challenges, God may help us, but he may not force us to be freed from the tricky situation. We need to cooperate with God in order to help ourselves. If God were to force us to live in safety and security, then it would not be we who live, but it would be God, who would be living our lives, and that would be quite contrary to the plan of God. He may provide us with the finest food, but we need to undertake the eating part; he cannot eat for us.

God invites us to help ourselves, though he does his part in clearing the hurdles which block our way to freedom and happiness. There are numerous miracles that Jesus performs, where he invites the sick to do their part to be completely healed. Look at the story of the ten lepers coming to Jesus and asking him to heal them; Jesus who respected the role of the high priests, tells the lepers to show themselves to the high priest… that is the little bit that they could do without much difficulty. The second part of the story only shows how wicked and cunning we could be, forgetting the goodness of God, and even failing to be grateful to him for the healing we have received. The Gospel says that as they were going to the high priest, they all were healed, and only a Samaritan returns to thank God.

Or let us take the story of Namaan from the Old Testament… the prophet had invited him to go and dip seven times in the Jordon river, so that he might be cleansed of leprosy. He was indignant, the Bible says, because he claimed there were cleaner rivers such as the Euphrates, and why he should have come all the way… But strangely what God asks of those who seeking healing is something so negligible and insignificant that we might think it silly and too trivial. If Namaan was too upset for being asked to take a dip in Jordon river, he might not have experienced healing. Perhaps we might be prepared to do something more demanding and challenging, but to do what is silly and trivial is too hard for us; if God does the 80 per cent of the job of healing, he wishes us to do the 20 per cent, to bring home the point that we have our role to play in the process of healing, for part of the healing comes from within our own selves.

We could take the story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, and now they have come to bank of the Red Sea, and find it difficult to decide what they would do. Was it impossible for God to separate the waters so that his people could walk through it? Then why should he instruct Moses to tap his rod on the water, so that the water might divide? Similarly, when the people of Israel were asking for water, the Lord asks Moses to strike the rock with his rod, and water gushes forth. What is the point in these stories that God seeks the instrumentality of human persons? God is all powerful and nothing is impossible for him, and yet he depends on the human persons to bring to fruition his own divine plan, and therefore we become the collaborators in God’s salvific plan. For God, the little that we might offer to him is sweeter and tastier than all the rest.

Let me conclude with the famous story of the widow’s mite; what she had offered to the temple treasury is insignificant, and not worth mentioning, but Jesus takes note of this gesture of the widow, and appreciates her for the generosity with which she had offered to the temple. What is more important here is not how much she had contributed, but with what disposition she had done this act of contributing to the temple. One thing is sure, God cannot demand from us something which we cannot afford to give him, and he would ask us only what we can happily give to him, and he could multiply manifold what we offer him. Let us remember the wonderful story that Rabindranath Tagore narrates in his Song-Offerings about the Greedy (Kripon) man, who offers one gain of rice to the king who begged of him, and finds on reaching home that the grain he had gifted to the king had returned to him as golden grain, and he cries bitterly, ‘Why did I not give all that I had?’

Life in Abundance of Losers

Life is quite charming and enticing for the people who like to see the brighter side of things; these are the people who would look at the darkest clouds with a magnifying glass to trace thin silver lining, and that is all that is required for them to get back the zest and zeal that they require to fight back in life. There is no failure or challenge which is insurmountable to these people, because they have the inner strength to withstand all adversaries. These are not the brightest, cleverest and the smartest of people, but they know the art of living, and have learned it through the hard way, by submitting themselves to innumerable trials and errors. They have no pride to claim that they are beyond all vices; they know how vulnerable and fragile they are and yet they depend on a power which can put them at a level too difficult for the brightest, cleverest and the smartest to scale.

Let me again fall back on the wonderful miracle stories found in the New Testament. Every miracle that Jesus performs presents to us people who are weak, vulnerable, incapacitated, voiceless, unable to fight the odds by their own strength. The first step towards recovery for them comes from the fact that they do not shy away from acknowledging the situation they are in. Jesus helps them to acknowledge their vulnerability; it could be deemed as a testing on the part of the master healer, who plunges to purge their inner self, before healing them physically. What do you want? or what can I do for you? Or look at the mighty Centurion, I am not worthy to receive you, but you say only a word and my servant will be healed!

Why should the Centurion acknowledge what he is incapable of, and what was the need for him to strip himself naked in front of the wonder worker? But it is only when he stands naked could he expect the Master cover his nakedness with his own cloak. It is only the empty pitcher, which can be filled. If I do not acknowledge that I am empty, no one can fill it. I shall present one lovely poem by Rabindranath Tagore from his Song Offerings (Gitanjali, 77) : “The day is no more, the shadow is upon the earth. It is time that I go to the stream to fill my pitcher. The evening air is eager with the sad music of the water. Ah, it calls me out into the dusk. In the lonely lane there is no passer-by, the wind is up, the ripples are rampant in the river. I know not if I shall come back home. I know not whom I shall chance to meet. There at the fording in the little boat the unknown man plays upon his lute.”

Those who cannot accept what comes in life knocking at their doors, do not want to accept their vulnerabilities, their weaknesses. It requires far more guts and courage to acknowledge one’s weaknesses than to accept the strengths. That is why Jesus strengthens every person why present their vulnerability in front of him. The first lesson towards freedom, and its subsequent peace and happiness comes from accepting my own frailties. No one on earth is perfect; even the most perfect person would be quite impure in the sight of God. Thus to acknowledge one’s weaknesses is not a heroic act, but one which requires quite a deal of humility and submission. True healing can come only when I have the disposition to surrender myself fully before the all-powerful God, and prepare to follow his counsel.

Any loser who accepts and acknowledges his or her own defeat or loss immediately springs to hero or heroine. The healing that Jesus bestows is as an acknowledgement for the heroic act that they have displayed by accepting their weaker selves. Consider the story of Barthemeus, who is fully aware that he lacked sight and longed to see. ‘That I may see’, he cries out to the Lord, and he restores sight to him. The woman who had been suffering from haemorrhage for twelve years knows that only Jesus could restore her health, because she is aware that that was her real self, which had been haunting her for all these years. If I want to taste life and be enveloped by the aroma it emanates, all that I need to do is place myself before the Lord and accept my vulnerabilities, so that he could touch and heal me; why a word from his mouth may be enough to bring wholeness to me!

God of the Fighters

St John presents God as the God of the living in his gospel of Jesus Christ; he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. God cannot belong to the realm of the dead, those who have crossed the threshold of life and have passed into the netherworld. God by his very nature is living, and his life gives life to the world. Therefore we cannot think of God as anyone different from the living. No wonder then that St Peter in his famous declaration of his faith to his Master, calls him as the “Son of the living God”. What a wonderful title for Jesus, whose life was characterized by life, life in its fullness. He had life overflowing in him, and all those who were living life half-heartedly, began to brim with the fullness of life, which made his enemies shudder.

God takes the side of those who dare to take life as it came, and not those who ran away from it. God invites the daring to fight, even with him, and he is sure not to impose his power and might on the weak creatures, but gives due weightage to the fight. The Old Testament presents such a beautiful picture of Abram fighting with God, and is also rewarded for his boldness to wrestle with the Mighty God. Abram becomes Abraham, and he gets a new identity, after winning over God for his side, and I tend to believe God would have been delighted to “fight” with his servant Abram, very much like bitches love to play with their puppies, and they have so much of fun in the play. God invites his children to even fight with him, so that they might grow from strength to strength.

The Bhagavad Gita too presents such a God who beckons his disciple to go fighting, and not to shy away from his responsibility. Arjuna refuses to fight the battle, resolving to retreat, because it would be dishonor to fight with one’s own kinsmen. It is easy to give up at the thick of the battle, and it takes a lot of guts to go forward, unaware what fate awaited him. Arjuna might have also been afraid of the consequences; what if he were to lose the battle? It takes the whole of the Bhagavad Gita for Lord Krishna to instruct Arjuna, so that he might go forward to fight, come what may. He was not to think about the fruits of his labor, but only do his duty. That is why at the end, Arjuna surrenders to the Divine Lord, saying ‘karishye vachanam tava’ (I have resolved to do your will). That is when the actual battle is won.

The world unfortunately has more losers and retreaters than fighters; there are too many fears stopping even those who have the strength to fight the battle. There are bad companions who counsel in wicked ways, and there are circumstances which puts off even the valiant soldiers. Life’s battle does not come with too many risks; there are difficult times and hardships, but they can never destroy a person; what can really destroy a person is his or her unwillingness to take the fight and do it to the best of his/her ability. Those who wish to run away from the battle are the losers in all the cases. For the brave, no army is too large to win; it is the inner battle that one has to win before winning the physical war. This is the wonderful lesson that many of the biblical stories present to us.

Let me end with yet another beautiful story from the Bible, and this time a boy dares to fight with a monster, and defeat him. No one can take David, the shepherd boy, when he approaches Saul to fight against the monstrous Philistian’s Goliath. The boy is made a laughing stock, which the boy has the heart of steel, and he knows for sure to defeat this monster, what he needed was not physical prowess, but spiritual strength, and the boy had in abundance. And we are amazed at the way the boy swings the catapult and drowns the giant. No one can believe that was possible for a boy who knew only to tend his sheep, but David is a warrior who won the battle of the heart before defeating his enemies, and he invites today every one of us to our battles, here and now!

Life, the web of relations

There is no other creature on earth which experiences the bond of being related as much as the human beings. We are linked to everything we see in the world; there is a bond of fellowship and fraternity with everything living and dead. Scientists would go all the way to prove that every atom on earth is linked to everything around it; it might be easy for scientists to prove it because the fundamental principle linking everything is the same. It is the same atoms which form myself, which is also found in the most hardcore criminal on earth; the microorganism which I am made of is the same as the one my pet dog is made of. In that case what distinguishes me from my dog is something that could be questioned scientifically, because there are dogs which are cleverer than the human persons(!), and we may come across more intelligent animals in the years to come and that may be the end of the human race.

But if every organism on earth is linked with a web of relations, why is it we behave so queerly often, and even tend to disregard this bond of fellowship. There is a natural tendency to depend on the elders during our childhood days, but as we grow big, we begin to stand on our own feet, as it were, and do not want the elders taking care of us. We would like to show everyone around us that we are mature enough, and can take care of ourselves. That may be one place where we are given too much of independence and freedom that we fail to allow our elders take care of us during our most formative years. There is also an urge within us to be independent so that we need not listen to the dictates of the elders, especially those who boss over us. Every web of relation severed is lost forever and they may never come back to us; this is a harsh reality we seldom understand, and when we might understand it might be too late.

I had chosen the image of a web (more precisely of a spider), because it illustrates beautifully what our lives are like. The bridges between us, the human beings and other organisms is so fragile and weak that they may snap at any time, and when a link is lost that part of the web is unreachable. Every time we disregard relationships and tend to strengthen and fortify our own portals, we are only inviting trouble; it might not be too late for us to realize that our fort may collapse one fine morning because we had not taken to strengthen the edifice. The pillars alone cannot guarantee safety for the building, the edifice has to embrace the pillars to provide the much needed strength and support for the building. We need to build each of the links with the world around, very much like the spider painstakingly builds each one of the segments of the web. And it is only too happy when it completes the web, and joyfully hops from one segment to another, until some external force compels the web to break.

To build a web of relations is not a laborious task for a spider, it is a joyful event; I have noticed that it might take just a night for a spider to weave a decent looking web. When the web needs to be built, it leaves aside everything else, and labors on it, and when the day breaks one can notice that the web is ready, and the golden beams of the sun pass through the web, strengthening the bonds. Just look at the accompanying picture of the web with tiny drops of snow capping the bridges; we can notice that the segments are not strong all through; in some places they are frail and weak, and in some other places they are strong. Indeed that is how our relationships with others take shape. Over the years our relationships may become weak and it may sever someday, when we least expect, if we are not careful.

It is not impossible for one spider to link her web with another web and thus enlarge the circle of relationship; and when the webs grow wider and wider, then we have greater space for relating with others, and we may also enjoy a wider area to build relationships. One cannot assess the quality of relationship with others on the basis of the number of friends and associates one has, but on the basis of the depth of relationship that they enjoy. Even a couple of friends who would stand by my side, especially when I am downcast and find life unbearable, would be far more precious than having a whole lot of friends who may even have the courtesy to call on me to check if I am OK! Today as we look at this beautiful web of spiders, let us weave our own web of relations, so that we shall have greater freedom and accessibility towards everyone we like and love!

Pilgrimage of Life

Traditionally for centuries, human life has been compared to a pilgrimage, a journey in solitude! It was a spiritual journey, on the way to the inner self, as it were. During the Middle Ages, such a journey was undertaken with great care and diligence; it was not a matter people could play with. John Bunyan, who wrote the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress had presented such a noble picture of the journey to the center of one’s own self, and many a holy men and women had traced his path in order to attain self-fulfillment, or to put in a Christian terminology, their own salvation. The word pilgrimage carries the spiritual tone implied in the act of journeying in spirit. If life is a pilgrimage, then we should know where we are heading to, our point of arrival.

It has been said several times by holy people that what is most important in the pilgrimage is not so much the arrival at the point of destination, but the journey itself. There might be only a handful of men and women, who might reach the destination, but “salvation” is in undertaking the journey and committing oneself to walk towards the destination with all sincerity. Life would present several sub-ways and glamorous pathways as we proceed on the journey, and there might be people whom we would meet on the way, and they might request our company. But if we keep obliging all the people we meet on the way, it could be possible that we might ‘miss the bus’, and land up in some other place. Saying no to what comes on the way is important in any journey.

It is not that all that we come across during the course of this journey is bad or evil; there are a lot of people who reach out to us with all sincerity and honesty, with the genuine sense of helping us out when we struggle, and we cannot afford to suspect their intentions. But anything which may distance us from the path that we have chosen voluntarily should be avoided, if we want to be faithful to our journey. Learning to say “no” with a smile is an art that we all need to learn early in life, in order to find fulfillment and satisfaction. If there are people who are easily pulled and pushed by the different pressures on life’s journey, might land up desolate and alone, and there might be no one at times to give them the solace and comfort that they might have been frantically seeking.

This is a pilgrimage with no point of return; we cannot change our mind midway. It is a deliberate decision that we take that we would walk all the way, without turning back. And probably that is what Jesus said to his disciple that anyone who puts his hand on the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of Heaven. Unfortunately it is not as easy as said; fragile and vulnerable as we are, trials and tribulations are sure to come our way and we might be tempted to turn back and run towards the familiar grounds; who wants to face the unfamiliar and harsh realities of life. But considering a return to the point from where we had begun our journey is equal to accepting defeat, and in life one can hardly walk backwards; one can either walk forward or lie down eternally on the path. It is for us to decide if we want to forge ahead or accept defeat and lie on the ground.

The eyes of the pilgrim are fixed on the destination, and there is nothing which can distract his eyes from the point, and as he takes every step, he is happy that he had walked such a long distance, and therefore the distance ahead does not come as a threat to him. When one of the great men who had reached the peaks of an enormously high mountain with just one foot, the would could not believe its eyes. They rushed to him and asked him how he managed with just a single foot to scale the entire altitude of the mountain, and his simple answer was, “I hopped just one step at a time!” What a wonderful answer; we need not worry about the hundreds of kilometers that we need to travel before reaching a point of rest, all that we need to do is to take just one step at a time, and sooner or later we might discover that we are not far from the destination!

Life-promoting at all cost

No human person or the social structure on earth under whatever pretext, has the moral authority to take the life of a human person. Sometimes I fear we have given too much liberty to the state and the state machinery to play with the lives of its citizens at will, with very little care and concern for their lives. The human made hunger and starvation in certain parts of the world, and the growing colossal waste of edible things in other parts of the planet make one to think if God had created two kinds of human beings. But that is only one side of the spectrum, where we witness people dying en masse due to mismanagement of the earth’s resources. If the state had wisely allocated the natural resources to her citizens, such a thing may not happen.

I tend to believe that the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis summarizes the entire history of the human race. If we look carefully at the way how different incidents and events in the first few chapters represent epoch-making events of the world’s history, we are awe-stuck. Let me take the story of Cain and Abel to illustrate how what transpired between the two brothers is symbolic of what is happening even today in our neighborhood. Cain and Abel are, to use a term popularized by Carl Jung, archetypes of certain sections of the society. From a simplistic point of view, they represent the good and the evil, but looking at from a deeper perspective they represent the life-promoting and life-denying forces.

In every place where life is denied, either voluntarily or involuntarily, then the spirit of Cain is at work, and wherever we encounter life is promoted and safeguarded at all cost, then the spirit of Abel is at work. Whatever be the situation and partiality that became apparent for Cain, he had no right to take the life of his brother Abel. He could never justify what he had done. No death can be final, but it might only unearth some other dirty demons out of the cupboards. In the Bible the event has been presented in a dramatic way, as if the spirit of Abel crying for justice in the presence of God. If such is true, then God should be spending sleepless nights each day, because we cannot imagine how many lives are taken forcefully each day.

One of the primary responsibilities of every state is to promote life of her citizens and provide avenues for them to nurture and cherish life. The state cannot put her citizen in an endangering situation, leave alone put them at the forefront of battlegrounds, where their lives would be at stake. Human race had fought many a battle, where millions of men, women and children had breathed their lost, in order to protect the selfish motives of a handful of political leaders, who desired to have their way, at the loss of these men and women. In the name of national security, every nation spends billions of dollars in order to keep the aliens away; protecting the lifeless borders is one thing, and killing the intruding the ‘foreigners’ is another issue.

Everyone on earth can be a life-promoter, in whatever little way it is possible. We do not need to do great things, but we could do simple things through which we could safeguard the life of a person or two. If every individual on earth vouches to protect the life of the people around, and go to all extend to promote life, then the world would be a different place altogether. Evil might be fleeing from the face of the earth too soon. It is possible for every person to do this simple act of charity : each day as I wake up I could whisper to myself that I would promote life of the persons I shall be encountering this day, and will not be the cause of the life-denial of anyone. There is nothing impossible in this simple resolution, and then we will see how the world is becoming the Garden of Eden once again, and this time there might be no snake to tempt and trick us.

Life, God’s greatest gift

No other creature on earth can value and understand the worth of life as human persons. The Bible goes to great length to bring home the point that the life of the human beings is but an extension of God’s own life. If we look carefully at how the Holy Bible presents the creation of Adam, the first human person, we are told that God “breathed” into Adam, and he came into being. Such was the greatness and privilege that human beings enjoy. We have been freely bestowed this special privilege of sharing in the very life of God, and we have the duty and responsibility to safeguard this life at all cost. We have no right to take it away for whatsoever reason. Doing so would be undoing what God had destined for the human race, and indirectly bringing dishonor to God’s goodness.

All the creatures around us on earth strive hard to cherish this life, and they put no artificial obstacle to bring an end to this life. Look at the animal kingdom, there is no animal which would voluntarily seek to end life; they would allow the natural course of life to terminate, and they would fight till the end to keep life going. That is a wonderful lesson for us, who try to find shortcuts to run away from life, especially when we find the going is tough. Even in the midst of worst adversaries, and threats some animals have devised mechanism to fight untimely termination of life. Such is the case it is said with mongoose, who would look for certain herbs after being bitten by venomous snakes, to counter the venom that might have gone into their system.

How many of the human persons do behold the life they have freely received, is a big question. We have not chosen life, it has been freely lavished on us through the coming together of our parents, and we can ennoble their union (which goes far beyond mere physical), by living life to its fullest. But in today’s world, is it possible to live life to its fullest without being coerced by external forces? It is not difficult to find fault with the social structures in order to blame why we are forced to corners, and find it hard to extend the thread of life go on. Ultimately it is within the power and control of every human person to let life take its own turns and twists, and when the time is ripe (and if it is the will of God, as God-fearing men and women might hold), we may have the humility and generosity to pass into another phase of life, called death.

What can we say of the artificial means of terminating life, such as violence, accidents, murders, killing, assassination, feticide, homicide, to name a few. There is no dearth of means to take human life forcefully, without the consent of the persons concerned. We come across events and incidents where human life is not given its due worth and importance. Even as I write this blog, I see the visuals of the train accident in Uttar Pradesh where several men and women had died. This situation is merely human-made and it is not impossible to prevent such accidents, if only the social structures do their part. These are cases where we have no control, and therefore we may not consider these as ways of forceful and voluntary termination of life.

We have innumerable accounts of men and women who had withstood all attempts made of them to rob their precious life, and they had lived to tell their stories, in spite of torture and cruel pain inflicted on them, just because they had been determined to live life to its fullest. This is one thing that goes beyond all science and human experience. If one wishes to live despite deadly disease throttling one, even if cancer cells are fast spreading, mere will power and determination may prolong the life of the person for a few more days, if not months. I have come across men and women who had been fighting a fierce battle against cancer and had proved medical science incorrect when it came to living life in its fullness.

Every person who lives lift to its fullest brings honor and glory to the creator, who created them to savor life and thus honor his creative power. We can live this life one day at a time, being grateful to God for this greatest gift he had bestowed on us, and live it to its fullest each day!

In quest of life in its fullness - Introduction

It is hard for me to explain what St John meant by the phrase “life in its fullness”, but I know one thing for sure that Jesus came as the epitome, the summum bonum of life with all its myriad hues and colors. We receive the fullness of life only from and through him. This is one fact that has been sustaining the lives of several millions of men and women down the centuries. There were people who were determined to consider their lives as worthless before the one who would give them several times more than what they had given up for his sake. They were sure to receive life in its abundance, and that hope kept growing in their hearts until they were ablaze with love for the Lord.

Every human soul is made of the same stuff as the one which Jesus possessed while on earth. Without taking recourse to over spiritualization, we could safely say that every person on earth is created to reach this fullness of life, and if there is any obstacle coming on the way, we have the duty and responsibility to remove it, so that we are not deprived of tasting what life has to offer to us. Eternity in one sense refers to tasting the fullness of life as God keeps pouring out to each one of us. There is no one who is exempted from this invitation, though there would be many who would pretend as if they had not received the invitation. These are the people who are in need of finding the wellsprings of life and labor to walk towards it.

If everyone is engaged in a quest to taste the fullness of life, there are very few who find the wellsprings; and very few who return to their own people to tell them what the wellsprings had done in their lives; anyone who drinks of the water of life cannot remain the same. There is a magical quality attributed to the waters flowing from these eternal wellsprings, and very few would dare to approach the springs and drink from it. For many the wellsprings may be far too intimidating, and we would find any number of excuse to avoid going in search of it. It is cozy and comfortable to remain in the land of oblivion, as in the case of the Lotus Eaters, but it would take a lot of guts and courage to walk in search of waters, though we have no road map to find it.

There are more and more people who are getting frustrated in life and find life is not worth living, and every hour may become for them eternity of agony stretched for ever. They would love to forget the real world and might wish to enter into a world of oblivion, where they would not be responsible for their actions, and they might do anything and even justify their actions. The rate of suicide in the world is far more than many past years put together. We cannot say that globalization and the market economy that we experience these days were responsible for the kind of situation we have landed up in the world. It is also obvious that none of seem to have the solutions to many of the problems the world is reeling under the weight of!

It does not require great intellect or holiness to understand that the way to face life with all the challenges, struggles, fears and anxieties in life; there are more and more people who are looking for answers to questions which do not exist in reality; they have created virtual world, and are busy measuring its width, height and breath… It might take just a child to tell them that they are living in a world quite different from ours. What I hope to present in the next few blogs are some of the areas that we need to explore before we find the wellsprings of life, where alone we can find waters, which can quench our thirst for life, and it is only when we have tasted this water that we would stop looking for wells, which cannot quench our thirst and yet the world may present them as the most viable alternatives. Here we take the first step, in understanding that we need water to drink!