We are called to be different, to be wisely crazy

Sometimes, in My Bangkok, it is hard to delineate between being different and being crazy.  Fact is some of the older, western guys in my sphere of influence here stand out for simply being crazy, having continually made bad life choices, thus ending up in unnecessary and ugly predicaments.  This is not to judge them.  It is simply to state reality and, as a great and wise friend says, we have to deal with reality.  

As Christians, we are called to stand up and stand out for the sake of the other, for the sake of good in the midst of our reality.  In doing so, ones may name us as being crazy, but really we are being different.  Maybe the most we could say is that we are being wisely crazy, not dangerously crazy.  

When encountering my western neighbours here caught up in poverty, ill health or worse, caused by their poor and consistent options, which tend to act against life, I rightly feel how sad, as do good others in My Bangkok.  However, I reflect, as a Christian, am I not called to engage them at a deeper level?  To offer a healthy challenge? 

I could go on ad infinitum, sermonizing from here, but I won't.  That is just self-seeking and entering into an unwanted domain of my appearing as being superior and arrogant.  Instead it is best I refer to my companion, Pope Francis, who said recently - 

"God suffers when we, who call ourselves his faithful ones, put our own ways of seeing things before his, when we follow the judgments of the world rather than those of heaven ... .  God is grieved by our indifference and lack of understanding." 

(25-01-2023, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity) 

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to much more than simply watch others around us decline, then commenting like all the rest, "How sad!"

There is a place for all of us

Blue Again, a "cult movie"

Last week, for the first time since before Covid, I went to see a movie, yet another post-Covid milestone.  "Blue Again" was the movie, being a social comment on Thai society.  Knowing here so well, a 3 hour 10 minute, human drama movie just flew.  I found it a powerful experience, sharing key messages that rang home.  

Ay is the central character, a young woman from the rural, northeast.  She heads off to Bangkok for a four year, fashion course at university.  Having a western dad she has never known and growing up in a Catholic community in a Buddhist country, she is different from the start.  With both height and brown hair, she always stands out as different.  She knows being bullied at home.  Bangkok is going to prove no different as she is now the poorer, rural girl amongst a more sophsiitcated and wealthier dominated set, but she goes with determination to meet her goal to stand up in life.  .  

The key life question posed is - where is our real place in this world and how do we find it?   Put another way, Gunn, a fellow classmate, who is happily gay and independent, tells Ay - "Our world cannot deal with the odd ones out".  Then I think, aren't we, as Christians, the odd ones out in our world? 

As followers of the Gospel, we are called to stand up for values that our world often thinks to be foolish or outdated, or simply dismisses.  To be a disciple of  Jesus is to be a counter sign to our world, particularly when things go wrong or thinking gets screwy reagrding human life.    

Jesus is the ultimate sign, presence, person that tells us that God is with us.  With Jesus, God's plan is defined once and for all.  The Grand Christian Narrative is that God has immersed his Kingdom in our world, while not defined by it.   In this narrative, God chooses us to be his companions, to be his way of moving forward with humanity.  Amazing!  It is God himself, through Jesus, who is calling us to be with him and follow him, so as to be builders of his kingdom in our here and now.  Can we take in how extraordinary this is?  It is no other than God who asks us to follow him.  This is radical stuff.      

Yes, we are the odd ones in our world but surely there is a place for us in a world created by God, for God himself offers us our place.  He does so simply because he loves us and chooses us out of love, to achieve so mch good.  Is this not enough for now?   Let us sit and ponder the mystery, as it evolves.  

 

The Mystery is with us

Last week, I went to Mae Hong Son, up in the north of Thailand, to visit a refugee camp for Burmese.  Going there, I got more than I ever bargained for.  

Mae Hong Son is a northern province in Thailand.  As is the way here, Mae Hong Son is also the name of the provincial capital, which is where I went.  The province is on the border with Myanmar.  On the other side of the border is Loikaw state, home of the Karenni people.  This is the smallest of the ethnic regions of Myanmar.  It is also the most Catholic part of the country.  So the two refugee camps near Mae Hong Son are for Karenni who have fled years of conflict with the Myanmar military, dating back much further than the present, brutal and tragic revolution, which only serves to escalate the enduring suffering of the brave people of Myanmar.  

I went to Mae Hong Son to visit two good, Burmese priests of Loikaw, working with their people there, to see where they work and to whom to they minister.  My experience of the camp began on my arrival in Mae Hong Son town, where I was immediately overcome by the beauty and the quiet of where I was.  The beauty and the quiet stayed with me during my short stay there.  

In the camp, I saw the beauty surrounding this place of human isolation.  As we walked around, I was struck by the quiet.  As I met people of the camp, I sensed their graciousness and strong human spirit. Given their few resources, the place was well organized.  They had built their home with outside help, but with their own hands.  As the climate is harsh and their homes are built of basic materials, they have to keep rebuilding.  Life is tough.  I came across simple churches, which spoke of true and living church, within a reality as harsh as the tropical climate.  Finally, as I wandered and talked with the two priests, I was touched by men of deep commitment and great strength.  The bottom line was my being struck by a love for their people and a depth of faith that allowed one of the priests and a Loikaw Sister, a member of the mission, to live in the camp with their people, being with them and so serving them.   

What sense did I make of my Mae Hong Son experience?  I went away knowing of human tragedy, but also knowing that God is there.  God was revealed in the beauty and the quiet, in the suffering and courage of a people enduring continuing evil launched upon them, in the commitment of church standing with its people.  God was revealed.  God was there.  God is here.  

This is all mystery for God is Mystery.  The Mystery is in the midst of life as it is.  What stops us from seeing, knowing, feeling this?  Despite all barriers, God wants to be with us, God is with us.  The Mystery is with us everywhere and at all times.  Do we believe that?  I knew it in a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son.  

By which path shall we travel?

 

The three wise men followed the star with one plan, to greet the newly born Saviour.  After meeting the reality there, they left by a different path, as the evil Herod had left his mark on all plans.  Such is life.  

I began the year with my trip, my first out of Thailand for nearly four years.  I found myself venturing out in trepidation.  For me, what had been just part of life, international travel, was now a venture into the unknown.  

I went to Saigon to visit my religious community, for the first time, and meet with my bosses in the Order.  When I got there and saw all the motorbikes, met new and good friends in my young community and enjoyed local hospitality, all fear of the unknown went out the door.  

It was a trip with a difference, not being defined by tourism, work or meetings.  Rather it was about spending time being and allow new relationships, experiences, insights arise.  I may not have gone to the Viet Cong tunnels, but it was truly a time of adventure.  

I engaged and encountered new people in my life.  The student body of the community was a vibrant group, kind and so friendly.  They gave me new life.  I encountered myself in new ways as a result.  In sharing plans, vision, ideas, conversation.  Thus, I was introduced to new opportunities.  

I did not venture far in Saigon but I travelled such a long way, in such a short time.  I truly did.  As I left My Bangkok, I was not sure of the way.  As I returned to My Bangkok, I sensed a fresh and new way to travel in life.  I went with no great plan, except to do what I needed to do.  My path was shaped by no great action on my part.  Rather it was shaped by meeting, befriending and encountering significant others in my life.  We do not travel alone, no matter where we are in life.  

Amazing Saigon! Amazing life! 

And Another Year Begins

The honest truth is that our Christmas mass at the cathedral left me overwhelmed.  It is the big mass of the year, every year, but this time it was huge.  What was it about this time?  It was about more than the number of people, even if it was the largest number I have ever seen at the cathedral.  With all the people there, you could feel the warm spirit alive in our midst.  So many people were so kind to me.  Still, my sense of being overwhelmed was about much more, something deeper, for it was a spiritual experience, an experience that spoke of the love of God alive and active in our midst.  Powerful!

This experience is for us to take away and sit with it, be nourished by and live it in reality.  Given the timing, this proved to be a sure foundation upon which to begin another year.  As I hear expressed by so many, this is not just any other year ahead, for it is a year sitting in a world that knows too much conflict, too much suffering, too much fear and insecurity.  

Despite all to the contrary, the sacred remains ever present and real in our world.  God's love is here and now for us and all creation, for creation is the fruit of God's outpouring of his love.  Love is the very essence of God's creation.  This is so, no matter what and despite us.  Our Christian faith assures us that God is with us.  That is the mystery shared at Christmas.  It is a mystery that gathers us together to remember. to celebrate, to know joy, to shed a tear.  This mystery reflects, reveals God's love in the midst of harsh reality, in the midst of our mess and chaos.  

God is the God of our mess.  I read that once and it stays with me.  So true and nourishing as we face the contradictions of life.  The challenge is how we live this mystery in our world, for it is not just something we know and experience on Christmas Day at mass.  It is what we live everyday, wherever we may be, knowing that we are never alone.  In an imperfect world, as imperfect people, we live God's love imperfectly, but we do it as best we can.  

Bring on another year and, in the words of Pope Francis, let us make it holy with the help of Mary, our Mother.  So God is with us and we are sacrament of his love, no matter what.  

Life