Pictures speak a thousand words

I just downloaded pictures that I took on Sathorn, a major Bangkok thoroughfare near my home. It is at the edge of the Bangkok 'war zone'. I took them yesterday. They tell my story of what is happening here. So I will not repeat myself. Instead, I would like to share some of my homily from mass yesterday as I would rather share a reflection that hopefully makes some sense out of all taht is happening and that offers some message of hope.

So here goes.

We are all theologians. As we face the harsh realities of a present Bangkok, we need to ask the theological questions and theologise on our reality.

Firstly, today is the Feast of the Ascension. This is not about Jesus being an astronaut but is firmly part of the easter event and tells us that Jesus is truly and really with us. This is our faith tradition handed down from the early Church. Even more, the same tradition affirms that we are called to be in intimate relationship with the risen Jesus here and now.

Having theologically situated ourselves, we can now ask the theological question:
Where is God to be found here and now?
In the midst of a Bangkok caught up in violence and killing, following on from long and hard political protests, the question may be more specific and expressed as follows:
How do we deal with chaos, if we say we are intimate with Jesus?
How do we deal with life when everything seems to be going so terribly wrong, if we say we are intimate with Jesus?
How do we deal with life when all seems beyond our control, if we say we are intimate with Jesus?

We can now come to a theological response. Herein, in the midst of the chaos, lies the key to our entering into true intimacy with Jesus. The key is our vulnerability. This tells us that we cannot go it alone; that we need something more; that we need someone else to go on.
Our Easter faith tells us that the key response is that God sustains us and that Jesus is our companion.