Our Wealth does not Give us life

                                                  "A man in the crowd said to him, 'Master, tell my brother to divide the family property with me'. He replied, 'My good man, who set me over you to judge or arbitrate? Then he said to the people, 'Beware!. Be on your guard against greed of every kind, for even when a man has more than enough, his wealth does not give him life'" (Luke, 12: 13-15).
                                                   Life here means eternal life of which our present life is only a beginning and an occasion to promote our true welfare that would never end. However, we are usually overwhelmed by the compulsions of our physical life neglecting the source of our life, the soul. As a result, our whole concern is about improving our material and physical conditions of life ignoring our spiritual life that nourishes the soul. As both body and soul are united in ourselves as a unit, it is important to pay attention to both of them. Jesus reacted the way he did as the man in the episode was totally governed by greed, although his desire to resolve peacefully a dispute of inheritance was praiseworthy. He did not have any idea about the value of real life as exemplified by the parable of the rich man who was actually a pauper in the sight of God (Luke, 12:16-21).
                                                 Who is a pauper in the sight of God? As long as we live in this world of material things, there is a strong tendency to identify ourselves with the things and persons around us. We are drawn to them and are attached to them forgetting that our life has a greater dimension emanating from our soul. Even when we use our five physical senses like sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, the power that enlivens them comes from our soul. It is the soul that is directly connected to God and getting immersed in material things and values exclusively, weakens or alienates the soul from Him. A weakened soul in the body is a pauper before God, while an alienated one is a sinner. Undue attachment to our body, material things, wealth, persons etc. is that which makes a person a pauper or a sinner before God. The solution to this problem is in true detachment (see our post on this topic) from everything and everybody even as we lead a normal life in the world.
                                                 Jesus went a step further and declared: "The man who loves himself is lost, but he who hates himself in this world will be kept safe for eternal life" (John, 12:25).What is the meaning of hating oneself? Living in this material world, we tend to lose sight of our wholeness and identify ourselves with parts of ourselves especially our bodily image forgetting the immense riches of our soul. What has to be hated, therefore, is ourselves governed solely by bodily impulses and material attractions relegating to the background the soul and its potentialities. Since the usual tendency of people is to follow the former rather than the latter, there was no need for Jesus to specify the distinction. In the same way we have to understand the demand of Jesus to hate one's father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters and one's own life by detaching oneself from undue attachment to them (Luke, 14:26). Jesus himself has upheld our obligation to look after our loved ones elsewhere (Mark, 7:9-13).  The principle of losing one's life to save it is sometimes applicable even to save our present life as is seen in the case of Lot's wife (Luke, 17:32-33).
                                               The conclusion is inescapable that our wealth does not guarantee life that is eternal as well as sometimes temporal too. The latter case is evident in running away from disaster as in the time of Lot when the attachment of Lot's wife to her old way of life forced her to turn back and take a last look. Similarly, in the event of floods, fire, earthquake etc., it would be foolishness to tarry in order to salvage our belongings on pain of losing our life itself. Losing our present life in the world is nothing in comparison to losing our eternal life. Jesus is insistent on the ways and means to gain our eternal life for which we should be ready to lose everything else. Wealth, power, fame, influence, popularity etc. give us the impression that we are well-equipped to enjoy life. This feeling is part of 'Maya' (illusion) or appearances far removed from reality. Reality will dawn on us when we give our soul the due place it deserves to be enlightened and strengthened by the Divine Spirit.

Happiness and the Word of God

                                       "While he was speaking thus, a woman in the crowd called out, 'Happy the womb that carried you and the breasts that suckled you!" He rejoined, "No, happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it'" (Luke, 11: 27-28).
                                         It is our usual tendency to try to draw out happiness from the material things of this world and from our relationships in society. There is nothing wrong in this until we become too attached and get blindly addicted to our surroundings and situations. What is the way to get a sense of balance and equipoise to deal with our daily life and be happy at the same time? Here is the relevance of the declaration of Jesus that only those who seek out the word of God and keep it can really be happy. This is true even in the ideal situation one may be in with regard to this world, which is necessarily changing and is in transition.
                                         All of us born and brought up in different countries, cultures, religions, social situations etc. should seek out and try to truly understand the word of God as a first step to abiding happiness. Acting upon the word of God as understood by us is the acid test for real happiness. Jesus gives two examples of how people in various circumstances rightly understood the word of God and acted upon it. The queen of the south came all the way from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah (Luke, 11:31-32). This is in stark contrast to the people at the time of Jesus who go on asking for signs in spite of having the word of God with them. Jesus publicly denounced this attitude calling them a wicked generation (Luke, 11:29).
                                         Just as the eye is the lamp of our body, the word of God is the lamp of our soul. The function of the lamp is to illumine so that everything is seen in the light from where darkness flees and disappears. This is not the case with those whose understanding is clogged and who fanatically follow meaningless rituals far removed from the word of God. At the time of Jesus, it was exemplified by the Jewish pharisees and scribes who cleansed the outside of the cup and plate while they themselves were infested with greed and wickedness inside. How far one could be removed from the spirit of the word of God may be seen from further examples given by Jesus in the Gospels (Luke, 11:42-54). Should anyone expect to be really happy in this situation?
                                         How shall we benefit from the word of God by a correct understanding followed by its faithful execution? Our fundamental focus should be the readiness to be taught by God Himself even as we read or listen to the word of God. The background of a believing community is presupposed in this type of direct teaching by God. God does this by directly inscribing the right meaning on to our heart and illumining our mind on the basis of which we have to act. As a result of this twofold action by God , a clear conscience emerges in us. The two focal points, therefore, are heart and mind resulting in an informed conscience. By 'heart' is meant the center of our personality and not the physical organ that pumps blood in our body. To keep the center of our personality ready for receiving the word of God, we have to cleanse ourselves thoroughly. It is our internal cleansing from all negative dispositions we have accumulated through life's journey (See our post on 'From Negativity to Positivity'). Our mind consisting of Intellect and Will are illumined and strengthened by divine action. As a result of this cleansing, illumination and strengthening, a pure conscience emerges in us guiding us to choose our way in life in accordance with the word of God.
                                        What about happiness in this process? Happiness is the result of our adherence to the word of God as we would be brimming with love, joy and peace. The Kingdom of God is nothing else but the company of people full of godly love, joy and peace under the sovereignty of God. The difference between purely worldly love, joy and peace and the divine love, joy and peace is that between appearance and reality. The former appears to make us happy and yet it does not have substance in it as it melts away like a mirage in a desert. A thirsty person in the desert wants to drink water that is not available in the mirage in spite of appearances to the contrary. In the same way, real happiness consisting of divine love, joy and peace cannot be had without the assistance of the Word of God. A purely extrovert person cannot have real happiness for which self-reflection aided by the Word of God capturing our real nature is required!

From Negativity to Positivity

                                          A negative disposition in us, manifested through lethargy, disinterestedness, anxiety, depression etc. is a silent killer of our vitality and will to live. Thoughts of suicide and self-destruction gradually emerge in such people very soon leading to a point of no- return. It is vital, therefore, to take action to turn our negative attitudes to positive ones like optimism, social interaction, a sense of purpose etc. The Bible speaks about people sitting in darkness who prefer darkness to light fearing that their evil works may be exposed. A Malayalam poet wrote for a child thus: "Light brings sorrow, darling, it is darkness that is comfortable". It is a herculean task to get people out of their self-imposed state of unhappiness to happiness through transforming them from negative to positive dispositions.
                                         A common feature of negative dispositions is the tendency to withdraw into oneself in an unhealthy manner avoiding touch with reality. The antidote to this problem is first a healthy manner of withdrawal into oneself for self-reflection in order to return to the world with full self-confidence. For, it is our mind that tricks us into solitude and despair and the very same mind can be turned around to see and perceive things objectively. In the negative mindset what we perceive are mere appearances, whereas in the positive mindset reality emerges.
                                         The very first real perception, though implicitly, is about ourselves as spirits in bodies with infinite potentialities. When our mind succumbs to the seeming attractions of the world highlighting the importance of our body, we are lulled into sleep forgetting our real nature as spirits. In this condition, nothing can satisfy us and we become frustrated, disappointed, stressed out and withdraw into ourselves highly dissatisfied with life. The reason for this tragedy is running after appearances neglecting reality. That we can never be satisfied with anything short of infinitude for which our soul (spirit) is capable of through love, joy and peace should be brought home in order to remain happy in our life. With this conviction if we meet the world in our daily life, enjoying even sensual pleasures in the natural course of life, we remain sufficiently detached and can remain truly happy.
                                        The realization that we are in fact endowed with infinite potentialities to be gradually developed should impel us into meaningful actions. We should see that our actions do not recoil on ourselves as 'karmaphala' (fruit of our actions) through 'karma yoga' (proper way of executing actions). For this we have to act with 'nishkama karma' (actions without expectations of results) so that our actions become pure oblations to God Who is the one to decide the results of our actions. In addition, if we offer our actions to God without any motive of self-interest, it becomes true worship, i.e., work as worship. Nothing will be able to dishearten such a person as he or she is under the complete sway of God's Will. We have to nourish and sustain 'karma yoga' through 'jnana yoga' (right knowledge) and .'bhakti yoga', (devotional union with the Lord).
                                        Our negative attitudes in life originate from our seeming helplessness in facing the powers and circumstances in the world. Actually we are not helpless since we are endowed with infinite capacity of our soul aided by the Divine Spirit. It is our mind consisting of intellect and will that should be attended to in order to draw energy from our soul. Intellect is illumined and the will is strengthened by the Divine Spirit through our soul whereby we are able to draw on our infinite potentiality. In practical life, it is the mind that controls our moods, attitudes and thinking. We are able to supervise our mind and direct it through proper ways attained through 'jnana yoga', 'bhakti yoga' and 'karma yoga'. The mind should not be allowed to run riot and lead us into abyss of darkness, but should be controlled to follow our orders. This is called self-discipline that will change our negative attitudes to positive ones. We shall feel, thereafter, wholesome and happy as we are in tune with our true nature. Positive attitudes will show us the way to live life to its fullest in its real sense.     

Christ in You

                                        "...The secret is this: Christ in you, the hope of a glory to come" (Col. 1:27).
                                        Our original theme of "perfect happiness is our birthright" is rooted in the firm belief that God has adequately provided for realization of this birthright. Our faith in Jesus Christ is the remedy envisaged and made possible by God to overcome all obstacles standing in the way of our wholesomeness. This remedy for our ills is not restricted to any group or society as it is meant for healing the entire human race for which Jesus died on the cross. The duty of the Church is to announce the good news of Jesus Christ to the entire world without arrogating to itself any privileged position. This is so because the entire human race is under divine judgment and God has no partiality to anyone in particular. St. Peter realized this truth early in his ministry and spoke about it in the house of Cornelius(Acts, 10:34-35). Further, the Holy Spirit came upon the Jews and the non-Jews alike even before their baptism just by hearing the Word of God (Acts, 10:44).
                                            The presence of Christ through his Spirit is, therefore, not restricted to the members of the visible Church. The Church from its very beginning has been teaching this truth about the invisible Church as essential to the visible one. The fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead for and in place of the entire humanity means that his presence is universal encompassing all human beings. St. Paul expresses it convincingly when he wrote: " But God's act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom., 5:15). Here the use of "so many" stands for "all" as none is excluded from death, so no one is excluded from
grace  As the poison of sin ravaged the entire humanity by the sin of Adam, the antidote of redemption provided by Jesus penetrated the whole humankind. In both the cases, however, our personal sharing enlivens the potentiality for evil or that for good in our daily practical life. We may point out here that the relevance of Jesus Christ for the entire humanity is but a continuation of God's care and concern for all as is evident from the Old Testament times.
                                            The fact that God elected a certain people to be His own did not mean that He did not care about others. On the contrary, the purpose of God in electing Israel from all others was to prepare a people to live according to His own heart and be a model to others and this is equally applicable to the Church today. Whenever they failed in their mission, God punished them as severely as the others whom He uprooted and destroyed for the sake of Israel. Besides, even the Word of God was not restricted to the prophets of Israel as others too were instructed by God in favor and against Israel on occasions. All these are recorded in the Old Testament and just by way of example we may consider the last two chapters of 2 Chronicles 35 and 36 concerning Josiah and Cyrus.
                                            Josiah was king of Judah and he kept the statutes and ordinances of God like no other king and God was well pleased with him. Yet, when he wanted to attack the king of Egypt, Necho, the Egyptian king warned him to desist from the attempt as it was the word of God. As Josiah did not listen to Necho and persisted in his resolve to attack, he was fatally wounded and succumbed to the wound suffered by him. Josiah pleased God in everything he did and yet was abandoned to his whims and fancies in refusing to believe that the word of God could come from Necho, the king of Egypt, a non-Israelite. Similarly, Cyrus, the king of Persia was inspired by God to free the Jews from captivity and allow them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  
                                              In light of the above and numerous other instances, it is clear that the final and decisive remedy for the ills of humankind instituted by God , i.e., Jesus Christ could not be far from any human being. The body of Christ is being built through the infusion of his Spirit whereby we become his dwelling place. Pope Benedict XVI wrote: "If Christ himself is inside me and I inside him, the two of us are not separate individuals. This is where the doctrine of the Body of Christ begins, because we are all incorporated ... in Christ himself". However, this incorporation has degrees of perfection in various individuals. Since Jesus died and rose from the dead sending his Spirit into the world, every human being is incorporated inchoatively. This is to be perfected by consciously developing our divine potentialities hidden as images and likenesses of God. Jesus Christ being the perfect image and likeness of God , to be united with him means to be in communion with God. Union with Christ should be both visible and invisible so that we may say truly that Christ is in us. 

Keep Awake

                                               "Keep awake, then, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming. Evening or midnight, cock-crow or early dawn - if he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: keep awake" (Mark, 13: 35:37).
                                                 In our quest for happiness, the world would lull us into sleep with sense pleasures and imaginations of what a good life should be. We actually sleep internally and spiritually of which our lethargy and uncontrolled bodily sleepiness are mere symptoms. We have to be awake to the reality around us for which our internal awakening is a necessity. When we identify ourselves with the visible world through our body, senses, imaginations, intellect and will, we are in danger of being caught up in deep internal sleep. We forget about the antidote to our sleepiness deposited in the energy of our soul. Actually, it is this energy that activates life in our body and its various faculties, namely, our mind consisting of intellect and will and the five senses. Keeping awake, therefore, demands that we give due importance to the central place our soul occupies in us.
                                                The coming of Jesus as the master of the House of God applies both to his second coming as well as to the time of our death. Since no one knows the time of death, it is only prudent to be ready always to open the door to the master when he comes. The parable of the ten virgins tells us clearly how to be alert and be ready to receive the bridegroom at whatever time he comes. While the five prudent virgins took oil with their lamps, the foolish ones had only the lamps without any oil. Although all of them slept, the prudent ones were able to join the procession to receive the bridegroom, whereas the foolish ones could not, as they were unable to light their lamps without oil. Going out to buy the oil at the last minute cost them their chance to be with the bridegroom. Keeping awake, therefore, does not mean to abstain from bodily sleep, but to be prepared for the occasion (Matthew, 25:1-13), although sometimes it may be necessary to abstain from even bodily sleep to fight off severe temptations through prayer (Mark, 14: 37-42).
                                                 How should we lead our life in order to be awake and be alert at the proper time? Jesus is our model to shape our life according to his prescriptions as well as his own practices. This implies that we turn ourselves in to him for training as his disciples. When Jesus was 12 years old, Mary, his mother, was stunned to hear the reply he gave to her on inquiry why he stayed back in the Temple without his parents' knowledge. "Did you not know that I was bound to be in my Father's house?" (Luke, 2:49). This was an indication of what kind of a mission Jesus came into the world for sent by his Father in heaven. In other words, doing the Will of God was his sole mission for which all other relationships had to give way. The same applies to us as we are bound to love God first and foremost leaving our father, mother and all intimate relationships behind. Here, what we have to do is to get rid of false attachments to everything and everybody in order to be totally attached to God  Total attachment to God does not preclude our responsibilities to our loved ones as we shall see below about 'logical priority'. Physical separation does not necessarily achieve the purpose. Jesus carried forward this attitude until his death on the cross so that he could say: "it is accomplished" (John, 19:30). Jesus accomplished perfectly his Father's Will and yet interacted with people normally without keeping himself away from the crowds except for prayer and meditation.
                                                Our problem is about how to combine the two: doing God's Will and carrying out our daily tasks in the world. The secret of a genuine spiritual life is hidden in this combination. God's Will has to be first and foremost without diminishing our involvement in our daily duties. This is achieved by placing God's Will at the center of our life and keeping our worldly involvements at its periphery. Both are easily combined if we remember that a 'first' can be either one of importance (Logical priority in Philosophy) or that of chronological priority, i.e., first in time. Even if we have to be engaged in our daily duties chronologically first, the importance of the Will of God is not diminished if we place it at the center of our attitudes. The same principle applies in our praying always, i.e., the spirit of prayer pervading all our activities. Of course, for this to happen, we have to keep awake!