We are connected

My Bangkok is a huge city, but such a small world.  

Last week, this lovely American family, new to Bangkok, invited me to their home. I found my visit to be just a delightful experience, being so impressed by their three beautiful children.  

Later in the week, I attended a dinner celebrating 50 years of marriage of a couple from church.  I just know them as two dear and simple people who come to church every Sunday.  Being at their dinner, I got a fuller picture of who they were and realized, to my great surprise, how well connected they are in Bangkok.    

Their connections went as far as their touching the life of that same lovely family, I had visited earlier in the week.  I was gobsmacked.   Both families lived in the same neighbourhood, each travelling so far every Sunday to come to the same church.  It was now my mission to connect them. 

On Sunday, I could see that they already knew each other, but how well?  My litmus test and aim was to get the three lovely children onto an elephant.  Huh?  

Yes, that is right.  You see, the wedding couple was having three elephants come to their local park as part of the party they were hosting on Sunday, for their 50th.  By chance, this same park is shared by the family, with the three children, who could then go ride an elephant in the afternoon.  They would love it.  Is that what happened?  

Bangkok is a small world.  One of my jobs is to connect its lovely people.       

Meeting God

I met God on the weekend.  He had a kind face, a smile and a great outlook on life and his future, in the face of personal tragedy.  Artur was his name.  He came my way through Caritas.  His mother had sent us an email, reaching out for help in her desperation.  Her son, a young  Ukrainian, had come to Thailand.  A year ago, in Phuket, where he was living, he met near death after a taxi wiped him out on his motor bike, at a roundabout.  Seemingly, his life was at an end.   

On hearing of her son's accident, his mother raced from Germany, where she was living as a refugee from war.  There pursued much medical care and, a year later, Artur has been left paralysed from the chest down. So I can only imagine his rising plight - uncertainties aurrounding income and support, surviving in a foreign country from which he presently has no escape, his daily suffering, the list goes on.   

After being with Artur for 30 minutes, I realised that I had just met God.  Despite having faced death and all that has arisen since his fateful accident, or because of it, he now sat before me, smiling, strong and hopeful.  What a hero!  He talked about starting a new job online.  He spoke realisitically and with hope about what can be for him and where he can go in life.  Much promise!  Much life to be lived!  He has not become a victim of his plight.  Rather, he has risen above it.  He is a sign of hope in our world, hope unfailing.  Hope does not disappoint.  I truly did meet God.  

Do we miss out on the many opportunities that come our way to meet God?  Do we too easily deny ourselves this privilehge, wiping it away, thinking it is only for others much greater, holier or more special?  If we do, we miss out on so much in life which can too easily become routine and hopeless, and fall away before we know it.  .  

In case you may think I am losing the plot or becoming overcome with pride, I would like to share someone else's story. It is a story from Russia on the coming of Jesus. 

At the beginning of Advent, Pyotr said to his children, “On Christmas Eve, Jesus will visit us.”

They asked, “What does he look like?” 

And the reply came, “I do not know.  But you might be blind and not recognize him.  So pray without ceasing: Jesus, Son of David; Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.  Don’t let me be blind.” 

On Christmas Eve, someone knocked at the door.  Pyotr ran and opened it.  A nasty smell poured into the room.  There was a beggar in rags and full of sores.  Pyotr welcomed him with reverence, washed him and bound up his wounds and sores, and gave him a new suit of clothes.  He set him down at the table and served him supper. 

Then his children came and asked, “Papa, when is Jesus coming?”

Papa started crying, “Children, are you still blind?  Didn’t you pray rightly?” 

May I, a sinner, be ever humble enough to meet God.

 

Happy New Year!

Well, 2025 has begun and guess what?  The wars are still raging and world leaders are still overheating.  So what does that make of the Pope's plea for peace in the New Year?  

One could simply say that this was to be expected, but good try anyway.  Try again! One could become purely cynical and so why waste your time?  One could explain it away by appealing to the banality of humanity.  None of this sits well with me as it all serves to reduce human existence to its lowest common denominator.  Aren't we worth much more than that?  

I honestly believe that the Pope believes in peace.  I cannot say the same, however, about our world.  I share this on the basis that belief is evidenced in action.  So the rule of thumb is - what we believe determines what we do.  I just then look at my world and what do I see? 

-Hatred and bullying too often prevail over forgiveness. 

-We too easily believe the worst about others over their good. 

-We so often see the other as a threat, rather than accepting them.  

-We use others for what we can get out of them, instead of affirming them.  

In our world, hope is in short supply as the overriding trend is to rely on the wrong assurances for life.  Hand in hand, cynicism abounds due to the errant ways of humankind having their way far too often.  

So what to believe in? What gives us a firmer stand in life, a deeper appreciation of the true worth of life?  Why not believe in a God, shown by the poor and humble Christ?  Why not believe in the God revealed who embraces the life of the poor?  Aren't we all poor at heart?  Aren't we a poor humanity, knowing our true treasure when we stand together in solidarity, with the humble God, the God with us?  When we make this truly human stance in life, then the Pope's plea for peace in the world makes sense and is achievable.  

Happy New Year! 

All wars to end on New Year's Day

While I so love all that goes with Christmas, it is about much more than being nice and mushy.  Christmas is gutsy stuff.  Pope Francis appreciates this, when he challenges the world to stop all wars in 2025.  And he challenged the world to this two weeks before Christmas.  Foolish? Naive?  I do not think so.  

After all, why do we so simply accept or come to think it is normal practice to expect daily news of human destruction and bombings?  Is not such a mindset evil?  Why can't we think better of our world?  Why can't we challenge each other to rise up to the good that we can be?  

The usual Christmas greeting is "Happy Christmas".  I appreciate that Christmas cannot be reduced to personal happiness.  We can't always be happy and why should we?  Life is about much more.  So I wish ones a "Holy Christmas", "Much joy of the season" or simply "Peace".  

Joy goes to the heart of the matter.  It is of the heart and spirituality, and can never be taken away.  Like hope, joy and hope are the great values to be treasured and shared in real and active ways.  As for peace then, why not?  Ho! Ho! Ho!

The Journey is done Together

I am just back from a great three days in Singapore, which may be a small island, but it is full of wonder for a first time visitor.  What made it such a top experience was the people with whom I shared the journey.  

I went there to see a dear friend, who showed Om and me the ultimate in hospitality.  She even brought along some of her friends to accompany us on a full day tour of Singapore.  They had much to share and show.  They were all so kind and generous.  It was such a positive and refreshing experience of humanity, that I felt overwhelmed.  Thank you, my friends.   

Their planned tour for the day was jam packed, so much so that we did not achieve all they wanted to do.  So they kept expressing disappointment that they could not do it all, while I just responded that I was happy to do what we did.  At the end of the day, my good friends bemoaned what we didn't do, while I was most appreciative for what we did do.  

Then it struck me.  Neither party in this was wrong.  Rather, it was presenting two sides of the same stance in life.  Both sides are needed for a healkthy approach to life.  One side speaks of the human endeavour to achieve, of having a vision.  The other reflects human reality that we are limited and do fail, learning along the way.  Both stances are needed in life.  

Vision and reality go together in life.  It is about having a vision and living it.  Isn't that what the Christian Project is about?  We share God's vision for creation and live it as best we can, always moving forward, while often falling along the way.

One Church year ends and and another begins.

Yes, before Christmas, the Church has an early New Year, beginning with the First Sunday of Advent.  So we finished our year on the last Sunday of November.  We do like to be different, but the point is that the dates of the Church Year revolve around the timing of Easter. 

By nature, end of year is a good time to reflect, being good to stand back and ask:  How are we going?  Where are we going?  What have we learnt?   

As I get older, I reflect that life gets more challenging and interesting - more challenging with the natural losses in life and more interesting in watching our world, from hopefully a wiser standpoint.  

I recently came across an American-Vietnamese writer, Viet Thanh Nguyen, an insightful and smart individual.  For me, his wisdom was in naming that we are people in construction and that our vulnerability is our strength.  I find both to be so true as I deal with my own vulnerabilities and loss, as well as that of those around me.  

The line from another writer, TS Eliot, also stays with me at this time - In my beginning is my end.  I only came across it in the last month, while reading a work on prayer by Archbishop Kallistos Ware, but this line literally haunts me.  What is it saying to me?  Its message is slowly unfolding.  

Is it that we keep repeating the same themes in life, even if absolutely absurd?  Is it we never learn?  Is it that God's presence is eternally now?  Is it all this and much more?  Who knows?  More to come.  Life is a mystery.  It remains as such and I only grow in my appreciation of this as I go along in life.   I give thanks for a year that has been and look forward to a year that is to unfold more of God's mystery.    

Colour reflects what is essential.

Colour and Christmas are two things I so love in life.  With Christmas fast approaching, I had the coming together of these two, key themes, when I recently bought a shirt.  The woman, selling the shirts, on helping me choose which one, asked me if I liked a particular style, to which I replied - 

"Yes, I like colour and it is for Christmas". 

She immediately said to me - "Merry Christmas". 

So this went down in my diary as my first exchange of "Merry Christmas", which automatically became a red letter day in my calendar, a milestone event in my year.  

All this happened over a simple, everyday encounter which served as a reminder, that another year is about to end, which is a natural time to reflect upon how life is going.   In indulging in my annual, end of year reflections, I came across one simple, but powerful, line - "In my beginning is my end".  This so captivated me, but what was it about these six words that had me mesmerized?  On research, I did discover that this was a line from T.S. Eliot's poem, Four Quartets.  

Then it struck me.  What is my beginning?  God. What is my end?  God.  

In between, it is all about God, who is enmeshed in our human reality, all the way. With this assurance, hope is embedded in the harshest of our reality.  Thus hope lies at the core of our human reality.  Wow!