Focus on where, not who

My social work training taught me never ask Why questions as they are too closed.  Now in a paper on the plight of refugees, I read that the best focus for bettering their lot is gained by asking Where and not Who questions.  This focus refers to refugees' building up their resources where they are and not put the focus on the other to provide for them as these others may prove unable or unreliable.

It struck me to apply this same principle to me and where I have been lately in my Bangkok.  In my last entry, I maybe voiced a prophetic question, when I wrote - So where to now?

Getting around in my Bangkok

What has stayed with me over the last few weeks has been a powerful line I read from Schillebeeckx writing on Church some 25 years ago.  It reads that the Church is impelled to follow the vulnerable, even helpless, rule of God.  Wow!  This is not naming simply following God, but God's rule which applies in our physical reality.  Making it more personal, I am impelled to follow the vulnerable, even helpless, rule of God in my Bangkok, my physical reality.  So where to now for me?

Am I being derailed?  The point of the insight for the refugees is that they look to where they are now and look neither to where they could or want to be nor to some patron, even one that may be a powerful institution.  This tells me it is about standing where I am and building up my resources where I am.  What are the resources available where I am now?  In my Bangkok?     

The two greatest that nourish me in life and mission here are adventure and opportunity.  There is adventure in this place of surprises, never knowing what will happen next.  As I always say - here, my life can turn right around in 24 hours.  Then there is opportunity.  Here, I am given all sorts of tasks and responsibilities in many different areas.  You could say that I punch above my weight or to put it another way - Here I have major roles of responsibility in Caritas, while back in Australia, Caritas would never even consider me.  So my Bangkok is a place where I find life and nourishment.

Having written this piece, I came across an article on pilgrimage which struck me that nothing happens by accident for the writer made the very point that place is sacred for it is where we find God, ourselves and the other.  Reading his reflection on the theological importance of place in our tradition, I realized how meaningful is my sharing this week which started out of nowhere.  Nothing happens by accident; everything has a purpose.

We are Called to be Missionary Disciples

On 4th June 1669, the pope of the day established the local church in Siam.  So last Saturday saw a major celebration of the Thai Church to celebrate its 350th birthday.  This enticed me to travel to a place just outside Bangkok that I call the Thai Vatican as there you find the national seminary, the Bangkok pastoral centre, the Catholic cemetery, a Catholic school and minor seminary, and much more.  The area is otherwise known as Samphran.  Featured amidst all this Catholic property is the John Paul II hall where the mass for the occasion was to be held. 

As I approach the site, I am overcome yet again by its grandeur.  It is all too much for me.  Then I see so many people and all the food stalls ready for lunch.  I am just overwhelmed as is this not a small church in a Buddhist country?

John Paul II Hall

 The experience of this was one of caught between being overpowered and being overwhelmed. 

Let the event begin

Beyond buildings and presented wealth, I am then overcome by the number of Catholic Sisters taking up the front seats inside the hall.  Then the entrance procession begins and I wonder - where do all these priests come from?  This is a small church but so many priests and then the bishops.  All this in Buddhist Thailand where the church is such a minority and all this grandeur when this small church is often fearful of taking a high profile.  All too much for me.

I can sense the grandeur but do not feel a part of it.  It belongs to someone else.  I feel so small in this church, insignificant, surrounded by so much wealth and ecclesial hierarchy.  What is going on?  I name it as i am standing in a Catholic enclave in Buddhist Thailand.  It is an experience of church that excludes the little people thanks to its use of grandness.

Original dictionary by two early French bishops

I have this experience of being overwhelmed but it is also a powerful experience.  I was so glad I went for there was the history and the culture.  They had a display of church texts from their history and there was the orchestra and choir. Both just fantastic.    So where to now?

The Thai Church has chosen its way.  At this grand celebration, it proclaimed itself to be the Church of missionary disciples.  I wonder how when it is so caught up in its own grandeur.  Quite the challenge. I would think, but anything is possible in my Bangkok.  So history shows and so the choir sings.

Orchestra and Choir  

Beyond the big event, beyond the party, it is taking on the commitment of the hard work of becoming the poor and humble church, that reaches out and gives dignity to those with none.  So we be church.  So we be disciples and change both ourselves and our world.  Which is harder?

I have power over no one

In a conversation this past Sunday with a refugee I have helped for so long, he made a point that was just spot on such that it became a cathartic experience in my week. He said -
"You can't have power over the community".
While control has never been my aim and such a comment may show how much I am misunderstood, it made the point that needed to be made to make me stand back and reflect.

Then the next day, I receive a message from a good friend presently doing the Camino in Spain.  Her one word reflection on her experience which hit me in the gut was that it is "liberating".  To cap it all off, I am sent a photo from the cathedral of the Sunday mass with all the bishops (sadly I cannot download it as the picture says it all) and, as I look at it, I just naturally and loudly hear the message being voiced - "Control does not work".

So the message for me was clear and liberating. I then felt so liberated inside.  I was so excited that I posted my insight on Facebook which so highlights the age we live in.  Then another friend, who has already done the Camino, sent me a message, sharing his lasting impression of that experience.  His walking the Camino meant for him, walking from
-control to compassion;
-anger to understanding;
-task to relationship.
Now that direction in life is me.  It is what I want and seek,
and always talk about; and it happened for my friends doing the Camino.

I suspect I may be doing my own Camino.  Just, as is usual with me, in my own way; and am doing it in my Bangkok which is far from a rural and appealing Spain.

A week off

Assumption Cathedral features in my Bangkok

Every Sunday, I go to the cathedral to preside at the 10am mass in English.  It has become a focal point of my weekly routine and a source of rewarding pastoral activity.  I enjoy it, recognizing that it nourishes my life in my Bangkok.  This week, it is not to be as I have been given a day off by the Cardinal.  After all, it is his cathedral.

What is the occasion?  This coming Sunday, the Cardinal and bishops of the country have decided to host a mass at the cathedral to celebrate the occasion of Thailand's having a new king.  This highlights for me a number of reflections.  One is the relationship between culture and religion, and here, where culture is such an important feature in the life of Thais, this is ever present and ever powerful. 

There are two key elements to being Thai that are captured in their flag.  First, to be Thai is to be Buddhist.  Second, at the centre of Thai society and life is their king.  When one is Thai but not not Buddhist and belongs to a universal body, the church, there are some real conundrums at play, both at personal and institutional levels.

These can be simply named as:
I am Thai but not Buddhist.  How can this be?
I am Thai but have at the same time a central belonging to a body much bigger than my Thailand and with its pope.  What does this mean for a Thai?

In being a Thai Catholic, there are some powerful undercurrents pulling simultaneously at both individual Catholics and their Church.  Having a week off does not deny these undercurrents.  It only serves to highlight them and make one ever wonder what is really going on and where is it all leading for a Thailand in the 21st century? 

The basic challenge for Church here can be summed up by the two, age old, competing paradigms of Church - the Church triumphant versus the the poor and suffering Church.  I know where I stand.  For Thais, this remains ever a deeply rooted, conflicting conundrum as their structured and hierarchical culture pushes them and keeps them in one corner, while the universal Church of a Pope Francis serves to push them in the other direction. 

Within such a basic tension, one does need a week off. 

A saintly model

I am not presenting myself as the saintly model for life.  Instead I am presenting St Peter Chanel whose feast day was this week.  He was French, living from 1803 till 1841.  So as to follow his missionary vocation, he became a Marist Father, which led him to a remote island in the Pacific near Fiji, named Futuna, where he met his sticky end and so became a saint in the Church.

Why does he appeal to me?  Simply it was a line from a biography on him that absolutely grabbed me. It went like this:
"Anyone who has worked in loneliness, with great adaptation required and with little apparent success, will find a kindred spirit in Peter Chanel."

Being in Thailand as long as I have, I could so identify with this description of mission for, no matter how long I am here, I never cease to be overwhelmed or shocked by some of what I experience in both society and church.  The whole Thai approach to life and religion is so different as it is utterly rooted in a culture and psyche whose guiding principles feature hierarchy and obediently and blindly following orders from above. 

When applied to Church, with its own set of hierarchy and norms, it all becomes mind blowing.  A crucial reason why this is so is that the local way always overrules the universal Church way, no matter how out of proportion or irrational the resulting scenario may be.

You may be wondering where this is coming from.  Yes, there is an issue of the week that hit me in the face on Sunday at church.  A sad reflection on the nature of here is that, with its various sensitivities at play, I cannot even name the exact issue as it revolves around highly protected strands of Thai culture which, no matter what, I have to respect.

I have never lived in a country where culture has such a high priority, where it has to be absolutely adhered to by all at all times.  It is all contrary to my nature as a down to earth Aussie.  There may be no deepest, darkest jungles here where cannibals are lurking after me but it can be every bit as foreign, frightening and dangerous.  Such was the impact of the news of the week in my Bangkok.

ATMs

An Easter message from Pope Francis

Life can be very fickle and fragile, especially in my Bangkok where I see so many western males indulging themselves.   These men come here to pursue their paradise, otherwise insensitively named as entertaining their needs.  Instead of paradise what they enter seemingly unknowingly is the ultimate local game where they become the victim, while they think they are getting all they want for little investment.  I lay no judgement on anyone but neither do I join them.  I just observe and learn and share wisdom gained.

Yes, they find love, they find freedom, they find pleasure and that is okay, but what they lack is a sense of perspective, a sense of  consequence.  The latter hits when it is too late and their paradise is lost, as their lot has been built on meaningless pursuits sadly, and maybe unconsciously, based on their and other's vulnerabilities.

They come looking for love, companionship, filling a gap, answering a compunction.  Whatever their quest, it has been met by ones here who have needs as well and it is done unwisely.  For the locals, the game is summed up in meeting two basic needs - money and opportunity.  So both parties meet to have their needs met.  They presumably do not voice those needs to each other.  What I see results is that the local party is much smarter in the partnership, getting their needs met.  Meanwhile, the western male has fallen prey to what transpires, becoming angry, shocked or just resigned to the inevitable.

What is lacking time and again is wisdom and a shared sense of everyone's vulnerability.  The resulting picture put bluntly becomes one where the western male is named in local jargon as an ATM and the Thai partner is identified by the western male as the evil or conspiring victor.   

Rather than recognizing the vulnerability of each other in this narrative and responding to each in good ways, this social phenomenon in my Bangkok feeds off the vulnerability of all parties for the sake of pure and ultimate conquest.  It is about victory by one party where there are only winners and losers - never is it all winners in this unfair dynamic.

All parties playing in this local "ATM syndrome" would do well to first read the Easter message of Pope Francis shared here and take it to heart for the sake of their own good and well-being.  This message is so apt for our world, one divided and suffering and ever vulnerable.  We can all be winners.

Let the year begin!

The annual rigors of Thai New Year celebrations have been faced once again.  For a foreigner, that means dodging the ever present danger of a bucket of cold water being chucked at you on the street from any direction or any person.  Thankfully, by now, I know how to navigate the ins and outs of Thai fun with water during Songkran.

That done, it is now back to navigating the rigors of everyday life in my Bangkok.  Even after so long here, that remains ever a challenge - just as daunting and dangerous as ever.  For one thing, you keep realizing how little you understand about here, being ever the victim of unwanted surprises. 

I discover only now that Songkran, the Thai word for naming their New Year, means "to move across".  How apt.  We move from one year to the next and the movement is engaged through action with water for blessing, cleansing and drenching. 

With or without Songkran, I am endeavouring to move across to something new and different in my life for the sake of good and healthy life and mission.  I just do not want to become stale or comfortable in my lot here.  Just as I have learnt to navigate the games of playing with water at Songkran and survive, so I know I can navigate life in my Bangkok so as to reach that new direction, that new goal for a fuller life experience.  I just need to work at it and take my opportunities.  It is all possible.  Let the year begin!