Called to Reconcile

Lent is a season of grace, and I found that I had not prepared anything special for this lent, as a way of sharing an insight or two with the people I am committed to share the spiritual insights. So as I gave a thought to what I would like to do during this lent, so that I could share the same with some others. Coincidentally, the theme that had been ringing in my mind for the past couple of days, as I kept turning the pages of The Shack, was on reconciliation. Perhaps this is one of the most important and significant graces that we could seek from God during the season of Lent. To be reconciled and to reconcile! That is it. It might sound quite simplistic, though the implications of this phrase is far reaching and can turn our life topsy-turvy, if only we allow ourselves to be touched and shaped by the power that is within and without.

I said this is one of the most significant graces we could seek during the lent; one would understand why I said, if we recall to mind one of the two formulations the priest utters as he applies ash on the forehead, Repent (which can be paraphrased as ‘Be reconciled’) and believe in the Gospel. It is an occasion for us to turn to God. But some years ago, the 35 General Congregation of the Jesuits talked about the four-fold reconciliation, which I found quite meaningful : Reconciliation with one self, with the neighbors, with the earth and then with God. This is a wonderful chain of relationship which we need to settle, and for that we need to begin with ourselves. Let me briefly present what the four-fold relationship is calling us to, and how we could respond with greater amount of generosity and openness during the lent.

When we talk about reconciliation, most often we tend to look at our relationship with others, as if we are perfectly in peace with ourselves. If we find it hard to be reconciled with our neighbors (and subsequently with the earth and with God), it is probably because we are not in peace with our own selves; there may be several unreconciled aspects, unredeemed casualties, and unmitigated bargains. There are persons who might have hated their bodies after a bitter childhood experience, and the bitterness might be preventing them from being their true selves. I would like to see myself in the place of Lazar, after Jesus resuscitating my life, and I emerging out of the tomb, and I hear Jesus telling me, unbind him and let him go free! This is a difficult and painful task, to free ourselves from all the false security and hope, and take a leap in faith. The quality of our mission as agents of God’s reconciliation depends on the quality of our reconciliation with our own selves.

Reconciliation with our neighbors is the second level, and it obviously is based on the first level, and here we look at others not as separate entities, but as extension of our own selves. If I have great love and appreciation for my own self, then that would also impel me to have the same kind of appreciation and love for my neighbors. In the novel, The Shack, it takes quite a bit of trouble on the part of the Holy Trinity to help Mack be reconciled with the people who had ill-treated him (his father at his childhood) and the man who had caused cruelty to his daughter Missy. One way how we could enter into reconciling with our neighbors is by climbing down from the seats of judgment that we feel comfortable with. When we look at others as weak and fragile human beings, just like our own selves, then it might not be impossible to forgive others and relink the cycle of relationship with them.

The third layer of reconciliation is a notion which is of late in origin; it is only since the past ten to fifteen years that we have begun to look at this area of our need to be reconciled. No human person can claim innocence of what is happening in the world around. Morally each one of us is responsible for the plundering and decimation of the earth and her resources. We have shamelessly defaced the earth, and are already facing the dire consequences of our stupid actions. We need to remember that each and every action of ours has a repercussion on the face of the earth. Reconciling with the earth invites us to honor the responsibility that God had given to the human beings as the custodian of the earth and not to plunder her resources as if she were an object to be used and abused. St Ignatius of Loyola taught us to find the footprints of God in each and every atom of the earth, and Gerard Manly Hopkins found the earth “charged” with God’s presence. It is time that we take a close look at our relationship with the earth, and cement the union if we had caused division.

The fourth layer obviously is oriented towards our reconciliation with God, the master of the universe; this would be possible only when we have reconciled with other three lower levels. No wonder Jesus told his disciples to place their offerings at the altar and first go and be reconciled with those who might have had a grudge against them. The wonder of this level is that if we had been faithful to be reconciled with our broken selves, our errand neighbors and the bruised earth, then God will take the first step to reach us. Did not St Augustine remind us that God is closer to us than we are to him? How do we know that we are reconciled with God, and that God had taken us close to his heart? If we experience certain amount of peace and tranquility deep within us, then these are the signs that God has reconciled us to himself. In fact, this is the only stage where we do not need to do anything to be reconciled with God, because here God takes the first step to be reconciled with us (cf. 2 Cor 5:18).

The four stages complete the full “circle of relationship” that Young talks about in The Shack, and the fourth stage takes us back to the first level, where we are authentic to our own identity as the true children of God, and enables us to look at the other as extensions of ourselves, and to find the footprints of God in nature, and recognizing him as our ultimate yearning and thirst, the one for whom our heart longs for. It is time to make the circle complete by looking into ourselves and making amends.

Sarayu said it

Are you wondering who this Sarayu is? If you think that this should be a God-forsaken person, then you may have to turn the pages of The Shack : Where tragedy confronts eternity, a novel by William P. Young. The #1 New York Times Bestseller had been quite popular with religious men and women and some months ago one of our great men had recommended this novel as a worthy Christmas gift to friends and well-wishers. Here in this novel, Sarayu is one of the three prominent characters, who confronts Mackenzie, the protagonist, who after confronting one of the worst tragedies of life, the loss of his favorite daughter Missy, confronts eternity in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. I would not venture to summarise the story in a few lines and do injustice to the narrative, which resembles in more than one sense the great classic, of John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress.

It is long since I had discontinued the blog and I don’t even remember when I had blogged last, and quite a few friends had reminded me why I had not turned to blogs… was I running short of ideas? Or was I finding it hard to turn to the laptop at the end of the day to pour out the daily collection, before knocking the bed? It would be quite a futile job for me to find valid reasons for not blogging all these days, and I could give more than a dozen reasons why I should have. Be that as it may, the effect of turning the blogging may be one of the wonder works of Sarayu, the third person of the Holy Trinity, attributed to the Holy Spirit. Is she my latest lady love? For those who are scratching their heads, as to why I suddenly attribute feminine qualities to the Spirit, it is because of the Hebrew tradition, where the spirit is presented as the feminine aspects of God.

It is hard to say when the Spirit strikes us; I am aware for many a men, it is only the ‘s’pirit which would strike and knock them down at the end of the day, and seldom could they think of the Spirit to find them in their normal selves. And I am not in a place to say why I suddenly felt like turning back to blogging; there are several things in life, which are beyond all explanation, just like why we fall in love with certain persons and not some others (may be more beautiful and more qualified). That is where life finds meaning and fulfillment. But then let me turn my attention for a while to the novel, which let me caution, is not an easy reading, because of the fact that more than three fourth of the novel deal with Mack’s encounter with the Holy Trinity at the “shack”; this is what we could call Christian theology in a lay person’s perspective, and at times one might struggle to grasp what Young tries to articulate.

Life is quite complicated, and any attempt to unravel the mysteries of life might only lead to chaos and more complication. Young tries to articulate with genuine Christian faith, the reasons why there is evil in the world, and why God permits evil men and women thrive; these are the questions that each and every generation has been confronting, in their own way and in their own pace; not all of them had found satisfactory answers, but they were not altogether disappointed not finding answers to their questions, because what mattered in the process is not so much the destination, but the journey. That is why life on earth is often compared to a journey, and for religious Hindus, life is a pilgrimage (did not Bunyan referred to himself as a Pilgrim, and so did Ignatius of Loyola in the early 16th century called himself a pilgrim!), and everything that may take place during the journey is significant, though we may not heed to their importance but may have realize on hind sight that they had carried important signposts for our going ahead in life.

Young had tried to break the traditional understanding of God the Father, by placing before Mack, God the Papa in a feminine figure, and no wonder there is a preponderance of the feminine throughout the novel, and that is one of the reasons why Mack is all too full when he returns home from his weekend encounter with the sacred. What has been specially interesting for me, was the role of the eight-year old Missy, who from the start has such a lovely heart and demeanor that anyone would love her. There is a more than enough dosage of fantasy, with all the elements of the human world attributed to the divine; imagine the Holy Trinity having a hearty meal, sipping coffee; or just imagine Jesus in jeans and a T-shirt… or Papa listening to modern pop songs on her iPod… Young had presented the Trinity in a modern setup and that makes it all the more enjoyable reading. Now at least I know Sarayu could prick my mind anytime to turn to her, even if that means pouring myself out in the blogs!