Stick to what you do best

Like me, Buddhist monks start their day early, in my street. 

"Stick to what you do best" were the words of advice, given to me, last week, by a trusted and gifted work colleague.  As I reflected on her words, regarding work practice, I applied them to everyday life and got this - Let us appreciate how much good is present in our lives".  

This past week, I was listening to a refugee, updating me on his family.  I have known him so long.  Life is tough.  I know that, but I had to stop him and remind him that it is not all bad, that life is better now than it had been over the last year, thanks to the onslaught of a pandemic, which had hit his family in more ways than one.  Too often, we are too readily overcome by the bad, the negative.  

There is so much good happening in our lives, which we too often cannot see for the immediate pitfalls and injustices staring us in the face.  Let us go beyond that immediate stare to focus on the wider context.  As Julian of Norwich said, neither unwittingly nor lightly, "All shall be well!"  And it will be.  

 

Don't fall for the trap

 

God in the brothel 

I went to the brothel 

and took God with me. 

The Madame cursed and spat 

fury and hatred, spewing it out 

all over the kitchen 

and all over God. 

The women sat listless 

in dreadful despair 

waiting for the customers 

with their dirty minds 

and cold, cold lust. 

The men, furtive and awkward 

in the smart business suits 

but itching to rape 

and to devour 

before driving home 

to the wife and kids 

and barbecue on the lawn. 

I went to the brothel 

and took God with me 

and through all the sickness, 

the sin and the stink 

God sat--trembling 

in stunned and dreadful silence.  

During the 1960s, Edwina Gateley was a lay missionary in Africa.  She went on to found the Volunteer Missionary Movement in England.  Following God's calling, she moved yet again rather reluctantly in mission to people living on the streets, in inner-city Chicago.  It was here she began her outreach to sex workers, for whom she began Genesis House, her base for ministry with these women.  Out of her ministry, she wrote this poem.  Powerful!  

She never fell for the trap.  What is the trap? 

Well from here, I was going to rave on a bit, but then I was touched by what Edwina shared in an article - Ministry on the Edges (The Way).  So I stand back and reflect.

As she was approaching  a new path in ministry, she reflected, "I sense danger when one begins to get comfortable in ministry and I had a feeling that, much as I loved my role, God was calling me away."  

That is a truism for me.  Never get comfortable.  I believe that.  Yet I know I have been in one central role in my life and ministry, for too long here in Bangkok, and I have become comfortable, even in the midst of many challenges.  While I know this,  I feel a fear in moving on, a fear that holds me back.  

Edwina knew the same.  She was approaching a whole new unknown in being called by God to a new ministry, to reaching out to prostitutes, street people, people on the edge, in inner-city Chicago.  As she was looking at her future, offered by God, she reflected. "I did not relish the prospect.  .. I felt angry with God. ... Ultimately, I simply had to trust. ... I was thrown by God's grace into a new and frightening world with a vague sense that I was to be about some kind of mission." 

I can identify with her.  Here she gives her answer to her facing fear, brought on by approaching momentous change and challenges in following God's call.  Beyond all, she knew to trust in God and let herself be thrown around by God's grace.  What a wonderful, life giving image, is captured by the phrase 'being thrown around by God'.  

The key in mission is we are not God.  Rather God is with us, as God is with everyone.  So we approach mission on the edge, not to be strong ministers, not to show what heores we are, not looking for great results, not giving something to others that they do not possess.  No, we go to the edge, knowing that God is already there with those we are called to approach in mission.   Our being there aims to allow those on the edge to know that God is truly with them, loving them as they are.  That is the transformation of the gospel, letting people know that God is truly with them and stays with them, no matter what.  

Thank you, Edwina, for showing us a way.  Mission is open to all the baptized.  We can all make our mark for good in the world.  Humility always is the key.   

Do they get it?

The guy who cooks the best fried rice in my street is Vietnamese.

I have been told for so long that the guy, who makes my favorite fried rice in my soi, is from Viet Nam.  I never got it until the past week.  My hesitation has been that he always speaks Thai and speaks it so well, or at least to my ear.  I had never heard him speak Vietnamese and, then recently, I saw him wearing his Vietnamese hat, and it hit me - he is Vietnamese.  

The guy has always been so friendly to me, calling me "Fried Rice Ham", which is my classic, weekly order.  Being sure now he is from Viet Nam, our casual friendship in the street scene has reached new heights.  I finally got it and, as a result, a whole new friendship opened up in My Bangkok.    

In the last week, I shared a message from Pope Francis where he stresses the role of the laity.  A person at church asked me - Is that us?  He never got it, until I assured the person that the Pope was talking to him.  Once he got it, he realised for the first time in his life something important about who he is.  It was a delight to see the excitement in his face. 

Do we really get who we are and the possibilities of who we are?  Once we do, we too can know new excitement, lighting up as we see a new vision of who we are and a whole vista of new options in life.    

Jerusalem

A Thai Buddhist Funeral Ritual

"Nineteen coffins of young victims, of last week's tragedy in Thailand, lined an entire wall of Wat Rat Samakee.  A long white string, a Buddhist symbol of purity and protection, ran across their tops. Placed around each coffin were items to carry the young children into the afterlife: a Spiderman outfit, a plush kitty, juice boxes, grilled pork, and toy trucks, many of them."   

Such is a graphic description given in a New York Times article (09-10-22).   Tragedy, absurd tragedy, hits humanity far too often.  What sense do we make of such senseless acts of human wantonness?   Wantonness is the pure lack of any care for the other.  

In the last week, while researching a quote, attributed to Margaret Mead (cultural anthropologist - 1901 to 1978), I discovered three principles arising out of anthropological research that uphold the core, human value of our caring for each other.   

1)  The plight of an ancient woman, who suffered a fall, showed that love and the will to live can push the human body to do remarkable things, even in the absence of modern medicine.    

2)  Times of crisis are moments of transition during which societies turn to shared meanings and experiences to make sense of what they are going thorough.    

3)  A small group of committed people can change society.  

Human tragedy, human evil are not the end.  In the midst of the pain, the loss, the suffering, there lie the reminder of the strength of the human spirit, the power of love and the possibility for humanity to grow and deepen in solidarity and kindness.   As Henri Nouwen writes, based on St Paul, powerlessness is our power.  Following the humble Christ,  nourishing and sustaining power lies in our acknowledging our need for God and each other; in our acknowleding the total human narrative, the good and the bad, as being about us, not them.  The subject of power within the human project is not ultimately dominated by the pursuits of the few, nor by the stories and successes of ill-gain and destruction.  It is rather the power of the good and the great that wins the day.    

The stirring English anthem, Jerusalem, uses the words of William Blake, the English poet and mystic of 200 years ago.  Blake was sharing his vision that the new Jerusalem, the Holy City, will not be built in some far distant fanatasy.   Rather it is being built right here and now, in the midst of human evil, not apart from it.  This is so, as evil is conquered once and for all, through Christ risen.  Evil gives way to the good of humanity, stirred up by a powerful God, working through our world and us, as we find ourselves.  So we gladly sing with great gusto - 

"Jerusalem, the Holy City, will be built here among those dark satanic mills".    

Handicapped people or handicapped society?

On the news, in these past days, I heard a visually impaired man in Gaza talking on his life's challenges, which were not to be underestimated.  Having shared the hardships of his lot in life, his last statement so struck me.  He simply asked if it is people who are handicapped or society?  How true!

Human structures are fragile, world institutionas are failing us, leadership is often lacking.  This, I propose, situates the human quest to live good and fulfilling lives, within a most difficult set of circumstances.  Truth is we pursue the great human quest within a flawed reality.  Maybe we can sum up the human situation as this - we aim to live our life as best we can, with what we've got. What more can we do?  Basically, despite all, we keep on keeping on.   

We are limted, while we also have great potential for good.  Despite all odds, the human spirit is enduring, remaining strong.   Faith is an enabler for life.  Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychotherapist, named that we can live any how, if we have a why to do so.  Faith gives us a why.  It assures us that we can do whatever life throws our way, maybe not as we would like or plan, but we can do it.  

A key is to remember that life and faith are never lived alone.  God is our constant companion on the journey.  We live, not as strong individualists, but as strong individuals in communion with our neighbour.  Life is not an individual pursuit, but a team effort.  

Strong indivduals and strong communites go together.  Faith empowers us for life.  Faith builds up community.  In faith, as members of strong communities, we can live life to the full, despite any handicap.  A handicapped world serves unjustly to handicap human individuals, but humanity cannot be held back forever.  .