A follower of Jesus Should Remain unattached

                                          "Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, 'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go'. Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head'" (Matthew, 8: 19-20). These words are a clear indication of the type of leader Jesus wanted to be.  Anyone with an eye on popularity and wishes to ride on public perception of what a leader should be would have quickly grabbed the opportunity to be the leader of a learned person. Instead, Jesus discouraged the teacher of the law by painting a desperate situation for those who would follow him!  Some of Jesus' own people had advised him: "No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world!" (John, 7:4). This was a warning against the habit of Jesus not to publicize his miracles, rarely and reluctantly performed, as he was aware that the people would not correctly understand their import and significance. The Evangelist gives the reason for their advice thus: "For even his own brothers did not believe in him" (John, 7:5).
                                           Now it is clear why Jesus dissuaded a potential follower from fulfilling his wish to follow him. Jesus, in effect, drove home the idea that appearances do not have any substance in them, as presented before us, although they may look attractive. It was expressed in the utter destitution a follower of Jesus might have to put up with compared to which the foxes and birds are well taken care of. Not only that, to lay one's head peacefully at least at the time of death need not be expected as he was going to do it on the cross! Who wants to follow Jesus, if this is the memorandum of understanding presented as a condition? Surely not that teacher of the law nor anyone of his ilk who counts on the external manifestations without the internal dispositions to support them.                
                                          What did Jesus mean by these shocking expressions of conditions in following him? He meant detachment or unattached attitude to the world as a whole as well as to the persons and things in the world. Remember he wanted us to leave behind our father, mother, wife, children etc. and our own selves to follow him (See the Post on 'Detachment'). Detachment does not mean that we should not live in houses surrounded by our family or that we should cut off all our relationships with people. On the contrary, the only commandment to all the people is to love God first and foremost as well as everyone as one loves oneself. Besides, Jesus' own example of living in houses and loving people with warmth and sincerity tells us how to correctly understand his words. The actual implementation of 'leaving one's own self behind' is an indication of the direction we have to take here in leaving behind the things, people and the world itself.  
                                          The requirement of detachment for a follower of Jesus took an unexpected turn in the case of another disciple of Jesus. "Another of the disciples said to him, 'Lord let me first go and bury my father'. And Jesus said to him, 'Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead'" (Matthew, 8: 21-22). Burying the dead was one of the most sacred duties among the Jews and the disciple probably thought that his request would not be rejected. He got a shock of his life from Jesus with an answer by which he was totally bewildered! How can the dead bury their own dead? Jesus meant to tell him that there are enough people attached to the dead person to do this sacred duty who being attached to the world are dead to the enlightenment he received. Unless he were able to immediately follow his inner light  due to which he wanted to follow Jesus, he might as well lose it to return to the world and its ways. Dilly-dallying with the graces we receive is not conducive to their effective fulfillment as our sincere co-operation is missing.
                                          The urgency in leaving everything behind for the sake of the Kingdom of God is implied in the very nature of the Kingdom. It starts with our real self as the image and likeness of God corroborated and firmed up by the new life flowing from Jesus to be completed in the world to come. Unless we are prepared to completely reverse our outlook presently turned on to the world outside and return to our true self inside , we shall remain foreigners in the Kingdom of God!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The Loss of our Birth-Right to Perfect Happiness

                                        Is it possible to lose our birthright to perfect happiness? It is possible because the right to manage it is put into our hands and if we mismanage our life, we may lose it. We see in the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob how the former sold his birthright to the latter as the first born for a little red broth to save his life from hunger (Genesis,25: 29-34). The reasoning of Esau is typical of anyone immersed in gaining material benefits alone neglecting the overall benefits one might lose in the process. For, Esau thought to himself: "What benefit is it to me to keep my birthright if I am going to die of hunger here and now?". This instance may be considered as a prototype of the general spiritual principle Jesus enunciated: "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matthew, 16:25). From the last Post on our 'false and true self', we know that this saying of Jesus may be translated into: "Whoever gains their false self will lose their true self and whoever loses their false self will gain their true self". Jesus adds the condition "for me" to indicate the purest motive needed and it means gaining 'perfect happiness' or the 'Kingdom of God' as we have already seen in the last Post.
                                       Perfect happiness or the Kingdom of God is virtually the birthright of every person born into this world. However, no one is immune to losing this right as is taught by Jesus: "Many, I tell you, will come from east and west to feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But those who were born to the Kingdom will be driven out into the dark, the place of wailing and grinding of teeth" (Matthew, 8: 11-12).
                                       This solemn pronouncement by Jesus was occasioned by an interesting incident reported by the Evangelist Matthew (Chapter, 8: 5-10). At Capernaum, where Jesus shifted his abode from Nazareth of Galilee, a centurion approached him with a request for curing one of his servants who was paralyzed and in pain. Jesus volunteered to go with him to his house when the centurion declared his unworthiness to receive such an august guest under his roof. Besides, the centurion professed his unswerving faith in the efficacy of the word of Jesus uttered from anywhere, near or far from his servant. What astonished Jesus was the depth of the blind faith of the centurion for which he adduced reasons from his own experience how things worked. He was also a man in authority who could command at will to his servants to do whatever he wanted done and  it was immediately executed. The implication was that Jesus being in authority over everything and everybody could do the same, illness and pain included, by a mere word. Jesus asked the centurion to go home telling him that let things be according to his faith and at that moment the servant was cured (Matthew, 8:13). That those who were born to the Kingdom or perfect happiness were unworthy of the same due to their lack of genuine faith was the first lesson to draw from the incident. The second lesson was the fact that the Kingdom of God or perfect happiness is not restricted by the limitations of religion, race, caste, creed , language etc. It is accessible to everyone who is open to it without prejudices.
                                     Here we have to be clear about the connection among perfect happiness, the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ and his disciples. How can one be a disciple of Jesus without being baptized with water and Spirit and be reborn as a member of the Church? The Church answers this difficulty with the provision that a well-meaning person seeking justice and righteousness may be considered as baptized by desire (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1260). The reason for insisting on the necessity of baptism is that the happiness we long for is perfected in the Kingdom of God that is identified with Jesus Christ  who is our righteousness before God (See our Post on ' What is righteousness?). Anyone, therefore, who stands for righteousness is thereby a disciple of Jesus and a member of the Church through baptism of desire. Similar is the case with baptism by blood for those who have undergone martyrdom for the sake of faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1281). Union with Jesus Christ is necessary for receiving the free gift of salvation effected in and through him by the power of God. This is why even the infants who die without baptism are entrusted to the mercy of God by the Church in their funeral rite (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1283).  
                                   The ultimate reason for the identification of righteousness with Jesus Christ is in what he did with his life in accordance with the Father's Will. Jesus became Christ through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead thereby becoming the head not only of the Church, but of the entire Universe. Specifically, Jesus became the anointed (meaning of 'Christ') through the Holy Spirit at his resurrection. He became the very principle of righteousness, setting the relationship between man and God right and anyone whose actions even approximate to what Jesus did is his disciple. All are, therefore, called to be disciples of Jesus Christ, irrespective of their various affiliations and interests in the world, through the quality of their life. All rituals and sacrifices performed should affect our lives positively to turn us into living sacrifices before God in order to be perfectly happy! 

Denial of Our False Self is the Starting-point of Our True Self

                                 "And calling the crowd to him, he said to them, 'if anyone would come after me , let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me' "(Mark, 8:34). Jesus said this to people who would like to be his disciples as an absolute condition without any exception. Why should we be the disciples of Jesus with such a heavy cost to our present way of living? Why should we take the risk of discovering our true self in exchange for our present sense of well-being? The simple answer is that this is the only sure shot method to be perfectly happy. Does it mean that those who follow other masters are not happy? Not at all! Being a disciple of Jesus is not limited by religious allegiances or various belief systems. The principle of self-denial being universal, all those who follow it are in fact disciples of Jesus. It is the only method for two reasons: 1. Jesus identified himself, through what he did with his life, with the Kingdom of God, inaugurated and gradually built up by his very being, to attain which is perfect happiness. 2. What we are called to deny is our false self, accumulated and tended by our daily involvements in wrong ways, and not our true self that is hidden in us. It is the treasure hidden in our soul as the image and likeness of God(Gen.1:26) to be chiseled out in preparation for the Kingdom of God, that is our perfect happiness.
                                 To achieve this gradual manifestation of the image of God deeply engraved in our hearts, we should make use of the art of spiritual life. The first part of this art consists in getting rid of the negativity infesting our life. It is but the outcome of our false self indulging our 'Ego' in manifold ways.These ways of appeasement of our false self appear to satisfy our need for happiness enticing us with short term and uncertain feelings of satisfaction. However, they fade away the moment we attain them urging us further to look elsewhere for additional avenues of satisfaction. All of them are merely sense-related and centered on our body and the things in the world. Gradually, we are ruled by the worldly spirit keeping us chained to our own weaknesses plunging us into boredom, depression etc. All the vices in our lives totally consume us making us impervious to our real well-being connected to our true self. What do we do then? Should we completely abandon the sense pleasures and worldly pursuits?Such a way of life is opted by some. But, the remaining vast majority only need to be aware of the nature of such satisfactions and be detached from them even while enjoying them (See our Post on 'Detachment').
                                The second part of the art of spiritual life consists in developing our true self and it is already operative when we start realizing the folly of our false self. The best way to dismantle our negative attitudes is to inject true values emanating from our true self as the image of God, which is equivalent to taking up our cross. Such values are all the noble virtues like love, gratitude, justice,honesty, humility, purity, peace-making, serviceability etc. They will effectively fight our negative inclinations like hatred, anger, jealousy, injustice, dishonesty, pride, lust, greed, selfishness etc. uprooting our false self. Uprooting and destroying our false self is what Jesus meant by denying our own self as it is the outward and visible part of our self we are used to and easily understood. The true self being hidden in our soul, spilling over into our body, we need to completely turn around, i.e., conversion demanded by Jesus in relation to the Kingdom of God and our happiness.
                                   Jesus himself gave us practical tips about ways and means to deny our self, take up our cross and follow him (See Matthew, chapters, 5-7). We have already seen in the previous Posts about the Beatitudes and the need of the disciples to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Once we have assimilated them in our life, it is possible to understand and practice the instructions given in the rest of the chapters.. The main point to remember here is to understand the sense of the instructions as against mere literal understanding and application of their supposed meaning. Let us keep in mind that the letter kills and it is the Spirit that gives life (2 Cor.5:6). It is how God Himself teaches us  (John, 14:26; 1 John, 2: 27) depending on the stage of preparedness we are in our spiritual journey.
                                  The art of spiritual life requires us to understand the Word of God in depth through study, prayer and meditation. As we understand the message, we are called upon to apply it concretely in our daily life expressing the image of God in us. This image may take the form of the salt of the earth, light of the world, servant of the people, dispenser of charities, care-taker of the poor and the marginalized etc. This is a life-long program and journey where ups and downs are normal and to be expected. We should not be disheartened by the slow progress or static stage of the journey. Such occasions can be used to refresh ourselves and restart the pilgrimage that is our life in search of perfect happiness in the Kingdom of God. 

The Rationality of Faith

                                        We propose here to take a sudden break from our train of thought so far to reflect on two fundamental questions that might creep up by now.
1. In this scientific age, where truth is supposedly measured by the Principle of Verification, what is the place for faith and religion?
2. We started out with our main title of this series "Perfect Happiness is our Birth-Right" and seems to have strayed into matters of faith without showing any connection of the latter to our happiness at all!
1. Science and Religion: This is the age-old question of the compatibility between the two tempting us to accept one as true and reject the other as false. In any dispute, the contending parties themselves cannot be the arbitrators and so a third party is needed to study the case and settle it. In our case, the third party is Philosophy that will lay out certain fundamental principles that no reasonable person can ignore and still profess to be reasonable. What are these fundamental principles? The basic ones are as follows:
a) Anything that exists or claims to exist should have a reason, either from itself or from outside itself. This is called the principle of sufficient reason.
b) If the reason is from itself, it is divided into two sub-sections: The principle of identity and the principle of contradiction or non-contradiction.
c) If the reason is from outside itself, it is called the principle of causality.
d) The principle of being open: A reasonable person will not restrict oneself to a particular mode of reality or thinking with the exclusion of all others, claiming them to be non-existent, but be open to reality that may reveal itself anytime.
                                      If both science and religion follow these principles, which are the minimum requirement of reasonableness, there need not arise any animosity between the two. They can progress together side by side keeping to their own fields of interest and ultimately converge on Truth that is but One.The Principle of Verification of Science is but a restricted tool used by various sciences in their own fields of specialization and will vary for each branch of science. It is not equipped to fight religion or faith, which have their own ways of verification of truth. This right of religion and faith has to be readily conceded since there is no uniform method of verification even in sciences. All of these principles arise from the fundamental principle of sufficient reason. Besides, it is not without reason that we qualified truth in science as supposedly measured by the Principle of Verification. The progenitors of the Principle in the Vienna Circle of Philosophers and their followers like British empiricist A.J.Ayer could try to defend it only as a principle of meaningfulness of statements and not as one for truth. Even so, it was established that the Principle could not stand as a general principle of meaningful statements in all fields of knowledge.  
                                     As for faith, though the core of faith is blind and a leap in the dark, it has its own sufficient reason not to make an unreasonable leap. This is why Philosophy is said to be the handmaid of Theology! Those who go for an unreasonable leap fall into superstitions and dark practices due to ignorance, greed for money, satisfaction of lusts etc. Thus, we have to make the fundamental distinction between the rationality of physical sciences pertaining to the visible level and the rationality of the metaphysical ones belonging to the invisible level.
2. Faith and Happiness: As for the next point of perfect happiness and matters of faith, it is the general experience of humanity that this visible world does not contain perfect happiness. Therefore, we have to search for masters who have overcome the world offering us a share in their kingdom for perfect happiness.
We have chosen Jesus Christ as our master, teacher or 'Guru', in the Indian context, to let us enter into perfect happiness. Jesus not only announced, but started building up the kingdom of heaven (of God) in this world to be completed in the world to come. We would like to be his disciples in order to be perfectly happy that is meant by entering into the Kingdom of God or into eternal life.    
                                   There is, however, a catch in this whole program initiated by Jesus. Jesus wants us to discern between reality and appearances. What appears to be true and pleasant may in fact turn out to be false and unpleasant. On the contrary, what appears to be false and unpleasant may turn out to be true and pleasant. Our attempt through the posts we have so far made as well as the ones to follow is to bring out into the open the true nature of reality and the real source of our happiness. This is summarized in the war cry, so to say, of Jesus: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew, 4:17). We are but trying to understand and follow this momentous call of the difference between life and death for us in eternity!       

The Disciples in Action

                                      The true test of genuine discipleship is possible only when the disciples of Jesus face the world. The disciples of Jesus Christ have to confront the world with equanimity. Equanimity is a direct result of the disciples practicing self-control. For, persecution and calumny may accompany them in their mission. Since they live by faith, their strength comes from within and not from the world. The world accepts and honors only those who are conformed to its ways and standards of action (John,15:18-19). Those who are conformed to the ways and standards set by Jesus and his mission of salvation to the world are on the road to persecution and calumny (Matthew, 5:11). The response of the disciples of Jesus should be one of joy because of their great reward in heaven as the prophets before them too were persecuted (Matthew,5:12). This reward in heaven is but an unlimited and enhanced love, joy and peace the disciples already experience here and now in this world. For, Jesus himself inaugurated the kingdom of heaven here on earth to be fully manifested in the world to come.    
                                    Jesus compared the disciples to salt and light in the manner in which they should accomplish their mission. They are the salt of the earth (Matthew, 5:13) and light of the world (Matthew,5:14-16). Salt has value because of its capacity to preserve food items from decay as well as its quality of flavor enhancer. Devoid of these qualities, salt is fit only to be thrown out to be trampled upon by everyone. Similar is the case with the disciples of Jesus who have a mission to announce the Good News inaugurated by Jesus himself. Being salt of the earth, the disciples should try to protect their surroundings from ungodly people bent on corrupting society (Psalm, 14:3; Romans, 8: 8). This presupposes that the disciples are not only incorruptible themselves, but also proactive in bringing about a corruption-free society. The measure of success in this endeavor is not merely positive results achieved, but specially the sound attitude of the disciples. The other quality of salt as a flavor enhancer is fulfilled in the disciples when they try to enhance the flavor of life by bringing order in a disorderly world (Luke, 6: 35).
                                   The disciples should also be the light of the world by shining in the dark world through the Word of God as well as their life by means of good deeds (Matthew,5:14-16; John, 1:1-14). Our deeds should be in accordance with the Beatitudes announced by Jesus (Matthew, 5:3-10) so that the people would glorify the Father in heaven, seeing how we live. The disciples living in the world should not be so identified with the world as to blur the distinction between them and the world. This distinction is not so much manifested through the external appearances as through the expression of our internal dispositions by means of good deeds.    
                                  The disciples should not forget that Jesus, the master, is the ultimate source of the light of the world as he is himself the Light (John, 8:12). Jesus is the light of the world enlightening every person coming into the world (John, 1:9; 3:19) and yet some people prefer darkness to light. It is because their deeds are evil that they shun the light that is meant to help us see right and lead us to life (John,3:20; Isaiah,9:2). Each person is created by God with the basic capacity of light as each one is an image and likeness of God (Genesis,1:26). This capacity is put into active use through the words and example of Jesus enlightening us on the way to eternal life. Thus Jesus remains the light of the whole world both by his life and by his death and resurrection along with his ascension to the Father in heaven.
                                  We should beware of obstacles to our saltiness and capacity to be the light to everyone we meet. Lack of peace can destroy the saltiness in us (Mark, 9:50). Failure to daily take up the cross and follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly can also destroy saltiness in us (Luke, 14:34-35). Our selfish acts may bear counter testimony to our mission of being light of the world. To remain salt of the earth and light of the world, a disciple has to remain focused on Christ and be totally obedient to him in keeping his commandments. No one deserves the name 'disciple' unless one is totally under the spell of the master who is perfection itself.    
                                  Good deeds have a cardinal role to play in our becoming the light of the world. To achieve the intended purpose of enlightening others, our deeds must proceed from good intentions and without expecting any reward from anyone. The desire to gain name and fame or wealth through our deeds of a spiritual nature is utterly foreign to the idea of being the light of the world and should be banished from our minds. It does not mean that one should not strive to earn name, fame and wealth through one's actions, but only that they should not contradict our spiritual values. The motive should be solely to please the master who would reward us at his own discretion. This kind of attitude and behavior from the disciples will lead to the glorification of the Father in heaven by the people who witness them as taught by Jesus.