Who am I? Who are we?

 

My Bangkok

This is a picture of a scene from outside my front door.  The tent is a new addition.  I saw it and it struck me, depending where you focus on the scene, you see two contrasting pictures.  When you focus on the little tent, you see a rural setting.  When you shift your focus to the wider setting, you see urban Bangkok.  What you have before you are two very different interpretations of the same centre of attention, a tent pitched in My Bangkok.   

This simple photo raises the issue of identity.  What am I looking at?  The answer is it may depend on where I stand in the photo, for if I am at the little tent, I may not see all those tall buildings around me.   

Who am I?  The response depends on who is asking the question - myself or external players.  It depends on the context and perspective.  How much self-awareness do I have?  We may say, "I know myself best". However, is that always true? Then does it matter how others see me.  I know what I have to do, do I always?  Shakespeare put it this way - "To thine own self be true".  Are we always?  The questions keep coming.  

No person stands isolated from the rest of humanity.  As John Donne wrote, "No man is an island".  Pope Francis keeps reminding us that our journey is never taken alone.  Rather we stand together, even when acting seemingly alone.  Such is the solidarity of humanity.  

They are simple questions : "Who am I?  Who are we?"  Are they?  They may be easily voiced but they surely are much harder to flesh out, to live out.  This is in a world where one's identity is so easily defined by status, wealth, power, looks and fashion.  All these criteria ultimately prove shallow.  We are rather defined by the strength of our character, as Martin Luther King proclaimed.  We are defined by how we stand together and look after each other, especially by how we reach out to each other in our weakness and poverty, not just material.  As Gandhi said - "The true measure of any society is found in how it treats its most vulnerable members".  Or as Jesus taught his disciples, do not be ruled by the temptation to be relevant, spectacular or powerful.  

Sacramentum caritatis

My Bangkok

One day last week, I was on the bus and passed directly by these electricity workers, facing what I would identify as an insurmountable challenge of working with the jumbled mess of power cables, above them.  How do they know which ones to fix or change?   Mind boggling!  Yet despite, all chaos facing them, they do achieve their work, and so electrity remains connected to the neighbourhood.    

  

These days, our world is looking more and more chaotic, like those jumbled power lines in My Bangkok.  On top of wars, food shortages, rising energy prices, displaced peoples, we are seeing more and more catastrophic, natural disasters.  The list goes on.  So we can readily identify that our world is experiencing a heightened level of distress, for it knows too much death, destruction, injustice and suffering.  In too many people's lives, chaos reigns.  Despite all, this is no reason to despair, for life continues; for love is ever shared; for hope is real.    

This is not empty optimism, for it is based on the mystery of who God is with us.  God is love.  God is here.  God gives life to all our world, to all humanity, in every situation.  This is the very essence of God and of who we are, as created by a God of life and love.   It is in the midst of our distressed world that we find and know God, for this is where God has chosen to be.      

We know this reality as we give, share and receive love; not a shallow love, but love based on the divine mystery alive and real in our midst.  Knowing this, we are called to live life with the eyes of God.  Our love shows forth God with us; God who is our most intimate companion in life, through it all.  Our acts of love, our being kind and wise in treating others, all this matters, for  thus we show forth the love of God that is much deeper.  God's love can never be conquered.   

Sacramentum caritatis - our human acts of love are a sacred sign of a living and loving God with us.  

 

God is alive and active

After having been stuck at home for three years due to the pandemic, the New Year saw my starting to venture out again.  So over the past few weeks, I have been on various journeys.  They have been physical journeys to Saigon and northern Thailand.  Truth is they have proven to be much more, for they have taken me to much deeper places than physical destinations.  

What I have seen in my journeys is how alive and active God is in my life.  I know this, for there have been too mnay things hapening in my life, little things, that tell me God is working in my favour, God is in charge.  I can see how things are working out in my life, not because of me, but because of God.  I could never have planned the way I am going.  

I comment.   

I do not find this spooky; rather I find it uncanny.

This is not mgic; rather it is feeling God is guiding.  

I am not losing control; rather I feel assured, knowing a God of love is moving with and for me.  

When asked about who they were, the first Christians responded that they were on the way, following the one who said - "I am the Way".  Aren't we still on the way, the pilgrimage of life?  

The way is an unknown adventure, but we can be assured that with God, it is the way to go.  I cannot explain it, nor do I need to.  It is all part of the Mystery who is God, the mystery of life.  

Who are we not to?

 

"It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  ....  We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."                    - Marianne Williamson. 

I always thought this quote came from Nelson Mandela, but not so.  I must then first apologize to Ms Marianne Williamson, the source of this powerful insight into personal greatness.  It reminds us that greatness is the opportunity and call offered to all of us, not just a select few.  We too readily question how this can be or doubt its possibility.  

I posit that the baseline is to recognize the imperfection of our world, that here we are and, in the midst of its imperfection, greatness is possible. It is in the midst of the chaos and craziness of our world and our lives that we are challenged to greatness.  True greatness is defined by who we are with and for others.  It is achieved by our pursuit to be and act for the sake of the common good, for the voiceless and marginalized in our world.  

The gospel names it as, we are light of the world.  In the midst of darkness, in the midst of our life struggles, our goodness radiates light.  While in the Congo, Pope Francis used the analogy of the diamond. It is the most precious of stones radiating light and showing forth beauty.  He reminds us that we are more precious than the most valuable diamond, that our true wealth is found in people, in us, and in our relationships with one another.