Another year begins

Yes, another year begins, or at least in the life of the Church.  In saying this, I am not being insane.  It just is the Church arranges its own life, and has done so successfully for a long time.  

Happening this year, in Thailand, at the same time as the start of a new Church year, we are celebrating Loy Krathong.  This is a most special and lovely, Thai cultural festival.  Its theme is letting go and moving on, giving people each year a chance to start again in life.  Don't we all need this opportunity?  

These are powerful human themes captured within such a colourful and loved celebration, using the key symbols of water and light.  So everybody flocks to the rivers, lakes and other waterways, engaging in festivities, full of energy, colour and friendship.  They lovingly prepare their krathongs (the water floats), with simple symbols of their desires and hopes, and then prayerfully let them go in the water.   So we begin life anew.     

As we leave behind one year within the Church's three year cycle, we too begin life anew as Church, with the beginning of a new liturgical year.  This year is the Year of Mark's Gospel.  At this time, we are reminded yet again, that, in life, 

-we keep doing the best we can with what we've got;  

-we learn from our failures and keep getting back up; 

-we be ever true to self;

-we uphold our dignity and the dignity of all; 

-we love our own self, just as much as we truly love others, especially those in their need and poverty.  

Let another year begin.  Let us ever start anew.  It is only 28 days to Christmas.  

It's time to get out

I have a very healthy philosophy for surviving My Bangkok.  Basically, it reads like this - Get out of the place regularly.  The reason is that this is a most intense place in which to live, and so, one needs to escape regularly for the sake of one's sanity.  My recent time home in Australia only served to verify this principle for healthy living.  Still, the sad fact is that I do not follow my own philosophy.  

However, I have a renewed commitment to live it, because I know how much good my time away in Australia served me, for I have not felt so relaxed for so long.  So, off I went to Nongkhai, for two days, and I did not go alone.  I went with good companions.   And where did I go? 

I went to Sarnelli House, which is a home for abandoned, unwanted children, started and run by Fr Mike Shea, an American, Redemptorist priest, here a long time.  There, I found a special place.  I found it in the children, who are given a home, and the committed volunteers.  Together they offer a centre of hospitality, a fountain of life, for all who come their way.    

The children are just children.  At Sarnelli, they are not labelled as unloved, unwanted nor sick.   They just do not have a family and need love.  They find both there, through being under the care of such good people, who love and look after them.  

There is Fr Mike Shea, but he does not stand alone, nor would he wish it that way.  There are the others with him, who care for these children - young volunteers from anywhere in the world and two married couples who work there full-time, plus many more locals.  They are all such good people, so committed to the children.  It is one of those many grassroots places in our crazy world, that restores our faith in humanity.  It is a seed of hope.  

For me, two days at Sarnelli House have been an experience of real church, at the grassroots.  Being there was a breath of fresh air.  This is where church is found and where it is most healthy and alive.  I see this theological truism yet again.  To meet and share with such lovely people, and to become friends so easily and readily, is an experience of life that is precious and life giving.  It may be said that I work at the centre of the church.  The truth is we find church at the grassroots, where good people are church, living it and giving witness to who we are.  

Thank God for a Sarnelli House, for church at the grassroots, for the people who make us who we are.  As I said at mass on Sunday: 

A cathedral does not make church.  Church makes a cathedral.  

42 Days

It is 42 days until Christmas.  

Last week, I was standing at Ikea, admiring their Swedish, Christmas decor, which served to bring back a flood of fond memories.  As I am ecstatically wrapped up in my Christmas moment, I hear a Thai mother and son, standing beside me, looking at the same scene.  They are looking at it  and are excitedly talking about New Year, not Christmas.  Huh!!??  That is because, in Thailand, all the Christmas scenes, decorations and songs are for them, directed towards their New Year celebration.  

That is how it is for them.  Thailand is a Buddhist country.  So Christmas has no meaning here, while they love the time.  What the Thais have done is simply to assimilate what they so love, our Christmas, into their New Year, which is their big, family celebration of the year.  

Why did they do this?  Simple!  They love fun, and who doesn't?  Christmastime is full of fun, with its wonderful scenes and decorations, the Christmas trees, the silly songs, the colour and all the rest.  They love all that goes with Christmas and they put it into practice so well, despite not comprehending the context, the Jesus story, the meaning.  While Christmas Day may be just another working day here, the Thais just so enjoy Christmas in its outward manifestations, which they have skilfully included in their own big celebration of the year.  Of course, the timing is also great as New Year's Day happens a week later.  

Looking at this local, social phenomenon, one could say that we Christians do something right, or we have a great gift that the world appreciates, joy!  And there is just not enough joy in our world.  It is so badly needed.  The Thais just take on the whole "Christmas World" and place it within their own mindset and culture, putting it to good use.  Good on them!  That is how I see it and I think it is quite smart of them. .  

For now, let us not complicate matters, by getting into the issue of commercialisation of Christmas, which is an abuse of my favourite time of the year.  Let's keep it simple.  No matter what, Christmas is Christmas.  That is it!  Others can make of it what they want.  That others take it on and find happiness in it, that is great, a real gift to this crazy world.  Christmas is special, a time to come together, a time to think of the other, a time for a bit of joy.  Let's have Christmas all year round.  .  

It's communication, stupid!

Remember the great catch-cry of Bill Clinton, during the 1992 US Presidential campaign?  "It's the economy, stupid."  Well, in life, our catch-cry may be - "It's communication, stupid." 

Last week, I took up the gauntlet of communication, for I was at this two day conference, focuusing on religious communication and AI (Artificial Intelligence).  The truth is I have enough problems dealing with present day reality, as does the rest of humanity, judging by the number of wars now waging in our world.   Anyway, I was told that we are at the cusp of Industrial Revolution 5.0, and it just isn’t going to go away.  So deal with it!    

Since leaving this conference, I have been trying to get my head around what I learnt.  I was just dumbstruck to hear that, within the Christian tradition, ones are granting quasi human status to robots.  This is seemingly happening within quarters of the Evangelical tradition, or so I heard.  When grappling with robots, there then arise the same theological questions surrounding the human person.   I found that unbelievable, but that was what I was hearing. 

I find such a development crazy and dangerous.  Why does any reasonable Christian even attribute any human quality to a robot?  Human beings just do not create human beings.  Ai can’t be human in anyway, as it is a human construct.  Only God can create a human being.  That is at the basis of Christian faith and belief.  AI is a human tool, and that is it.  But this challenge is not being so easily met and contained.      

A picture of the conference stays with me.  It was a guy hugging his computer screen, as a sign of love and affection for his AI companion.  This is just crazy and dangerous at all levels of human existence.  So much to digest with a whole new world quickly approaching, while we are failing to deal with the world presently before us.  Just absolutely amazing. 

Thankfully, the church response has not been one of denial, nor simply to be reactive, but to proclaim that this newly arising tool is to be used responsibly and ethically, for the good of all humanity.  Will we?  Well, the bottom line is that religion needs to be proactive, for this outcome to occur, ever upholding the dignity of the person and transformation as the goal of all our activity as church. 

I know now a new and stark challenge is before us and is here to stay.   They key word for religion remains transformation.  Whatever the age or the technology, transformation is ever the goal of religion, for that is what the gospel is about – human transformation.   As usual, I don’t have the answer.  I just know what I know and, for now, I try to digest what I heard at a conference on religion in today’s world.