And the journey can be rough going.

 

They say that a picture tells 1,000 words.  Well, here are more than 4,000 words.  These are the Four Lubeck Martyrs - a Lutheran Pastor and three Catholic priests.  For being good Christians, standing up for good and doing the right thing, they were executed.  This says it all.  

.  On November 10 1943, four Lübeck churchmen were beheaded in Hamburg:

The Lutheran Pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink and the Catholic Chaplains Hermann Lange, Eduard Müller and Johannes Prassek. The National Socialist People's Court had sentenced them to death in the summer of 1943 for "subversion of military strength, insidiousness, favoring the enemy, and listening to enemy transmissions."

Life is a journey we share

                       I have been away on a holiday that was more than a trip.  It was a journey.  

                                And what a stupendous journey it was, for so mnay reasons.  

I saw some of the most beautiful parts of the world that I have ever seen.  I naturally reflected how we are connected with nature, finding myself being enlivened, refreshed and rejuvenated.  I had approached my holiday with a "take it as it coimes" attitude.  Well, that did not prepare me for what I was about to experience, for the journey was full of the beauty and goodness of this world.  I rather needed to go with my eyes wide open, from the very beginning, and so appreciate the whole journey to the full.  

It taught me that I need to appreciate better the journey and not take it for granted, as I so often do.  So be prepared, I tell myself.  Wake up and enjoy the journey to the full.  I saw so much that left me in awe, wonder struck.  It told me that I need to get out of my bubble, for God and creation are so much bigger than my little world.  Thank God!

Life is truly a journey.  

-We meet ones along the way.  We hear their stories.  We become connected.  We learn from each other.  -The way is unknown and so we make mistakes, but we learn from them.  

-We are not alone . We share the journey with equals.  

-The journey can be both exciting and lonely, but we keep going.  We have no other choice.  

Above all, along the way, you meet people who are so kind.  This is key, as their kindness sustains you on the way.  I say - "Kindness meets kindness".  Life is a journey, a journey best shared.  

And you know what?  I would worry so much about little things on the way and I discovered that it all worked out, in the end.  Not because of me, but because of God who opened so many doors (be they ever so little ones) for me.  It is true what I often say in greeting others - Vaya con Dios!  

  

Adieu My Bangkok!

Admit that God deserves to be loved very much, yea, boundlessly, because He loved us first, He infinite and we nothing, loved us, miserable sinners, with a love so great and so free. This is why I said at the beginning that the measure of our love to God is to love immeasurably. For since our love is toward God, who is infinite and immeasurable, how can we bound or limit the love we owe Him? Besides, our love is not a gift but a debt. And since it is the Godhead who loves us, Himself boundless, eternal, supreme love, of whose greatness there is no end, yea, and His wisdom is infinite, whose peace passeth all understanding; since it is He who loves us, I say, can we think of repaying Him grudgingly? ~Saint Bernard, On Loving God

 

I read this and thought what an extraordinary insight.  Just revolutionary!  And it comes from a 12th century, French monk, St Bernard of Claivaux, theologian and church leader.  He shares so passionately on God's intimacy with us.  Who are we to be honoured with such intimacy?  Yet, who are we not to be so honoured?  Truth is it is God's choice, pure and simple.  So much love is so readily on offer to us, here and now.  Revolutionary stuff!  Yet what do we do with it?  Do we even know about it?  Sadly, we too easily squander this precious opportunity in life.    

I was struck recently by how we waste love offered, when I read a news piece on abortion.  I am against abortion, but I do not want to appear as an anti-abortion extremist or terrorist, for we kill life in so many ways.  Abortion is but one way.  Still, what I read just left me speechless.  It is the testimony of a nurse in Queensland.  

"Some babies born alive after an abortion were never held by their parents but were instead placed in witches hats, taken out of the room and left to die."  

When so much love is offered us so freely, so intimately, by a God of life, how can we do that?  Do we really get it?   God's love is such that it revolutionizes our lives.  Revolution!  It is a word we pull back from, are threatened by.  Yet our faith in God and humanity calls us to revolution, for it is so far from human conception or thought.  Are we held back by the very word?  Is it such a dangerous word?  Yet, revolution is at hand when we fully partake of God's love and life. 

If we truly believe that God loves us so deeply, so intimately, we will never be the same again.  I reflect upon this mystery in the midst of My Bangkok, a somewhat crazy place, knowing that I am about to take my leave for three weeks holiday and explore the bigger world.  Such reflections on the mysteries of life deserve a wider field of  exploration, than even that of My Bangkok.  Adieu My Bangkok!  I will return soon, hopefully wiser and healthier for the experience.    

My Bangkok is a place of spiritual enlightenment

Deutsche Welle is presently showing a further look at the dark side of Thailand.  I do not deny this reality, but I also know and experience another side of here, that which I call "spiritual enlightenment".  It seems to me few acknowledge or care to know about such happenings in My Bangkok.  I ask if any media company would like to do a story on this side of Thailand.  

I suspect not for two reasons.  Firstly, it is not sensational, nor does it offer sex appeal.  Secondly, it does not fit into the general and overused stereotype of Thailand, presented on the international stage.  I have a hunch that the latter is not based on foreign naughtiness.  Rather it is locally based, serving the purposes of some wealthy and powerful interests, for the dark side is a source of industry and huge revenue.  

Back to the local theme of spiritual enlightenment.  For a foreigner here, Bangkok can be a hard place to be grounded in life, for it has its transitory flavour and fanciful nature.  It may seem strange, but only now, after 19 years here, am I finding a solid sense of being grounded in this place I call home.  I find it happening now as, these past months, three good friends of My Bangkok have died.  The last one dying just this week.  As I deal with their loss, I become aware of the great gift of their passing for me.  They tell me that I have been here long enough to experience the full cycle of life - is excitement, its struggle; its exhilaration, its suffering; its joy, its loss.      

Spiritual enlightenment happens within reality, within a context that is beyond the fancy free Bangkok.  It arises in a Bangkok that gives freedom to those who come her way.   It is a freedom that arises from making the usual mistakes in life, that are only highlighted in Bangkok,  or from just taking a breather from a pushed routine, within an exotic and freeing Bangkok.  

My Bangkok can make one stand back and think and pray.  It is a powerful place, unleashing forces for change, change that is good.  God bless all who come her way!   

The simpler, the better

KISS is an ever guiding principle of my life.  It was taught to us, in our first year at the seminary, by the priest, who had us for logic.  His words of back then remain with me.   

"Gentlemen, if you never remember anything else from this subject, you will always remember this - the KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid".  

A Catalan restaurant recently discovered in My Bangkok

How true, his words were.  My experience tells me that simple is always best.  I was reminded of this with a wedding, I had, in the past week.  

Three months previously, the future groom appeared unannounced, before me, telling me that he needed a priest for eloping.  My first reaction was to be dismissive, but then I thought, I must listen to this guy.  What I learnt was that he and his fiancee had embarked on a three month sojourn in Southeast Asia, coming from Spain, with the determined aim of getting married here, at the end of their adventure.  I concluded that I could not say No and that I would see where we go with this, giving them every chance.  They were actually well organised, even if presenting in an unconventional way.  I thought - I like unconventional.  

So we celebrated one of the great weddings of my life, as a priest.  It was n a lovely chapel, with just the bride, the groom, the two witnesses and me.  By the way, I got the witnesses as they knew no one here to ask.  At the end of the day, I understood that this couple had a dream for their union and I had helped their dream come true.  What a great privilege!    

As for the wedding reception, it was the bride, the groom and I gathering for lunch at a great Catalonian restaurant, of their choice.  It was a grand and most enjoyable time.  It is so true - simple is best.   

It reminds me of the deeper truth that life is as simple as - We are because God is (Teresa of Avila)  

KISS always!  

Hungry Hearts

I was recently at a local shopping mall, where I heard the barking of a dog from a pram.  Huh?  Then, I saw a young woman come out of a restaurant to attend to the dog, in the pram, feeding it milk, from a baby's bottle.  I was in shock, being dismayed, horrified and just plain upset.  

My first thought was there are children starving and homeless in the country next door, because of a war, and here is a woman babying a dog.  I saw this as narcissistic behavior, wasting money and love on a dog in such a selfish way, while poor and suffering people need our attention and care.  I was stuck by how wrong this was.  I could have gone totally askew in my thinking, until a thought came to me.  

This woman is lacking something in her life.  She is hungry for something much deeper and not getting it.  So this fluffy little dog becomes the substitute, the focus of her care and love, instead of a real person.  What is going on here?  

I can only speculate from my own stance in life.  Sometime later, I find someone who supports me in my mental discomfort and assures me that I am on the right track - St John Paul II.  His welcome reality check is clear and simple: 

"Only a person can love and only a person can be loved. Love is an ontological and ethical requirement of the person. The person must be loved, since love alone corresponds to what the person is."  

Our world is a fragile place, with more than its fair share of conflict, division and fear.  Within such a world, people are hungry for more than food to eat.  They are hungry for love, for peace, for a sense of security, for belonging for hope.  These are deep, human hungers, spiritual hungers.  They will not be satisfied in individual pursuits, worldly comforts, nor personal abuse of power.    

As we pursue life, healthily nourishing our human hungers, the words of another Pope may speak to us.  They are from Pope Francis' prayer for Grandparents' Day 2024:  

"Lord, faithful God, do not allow anyone to be cast aside.

May your Spirit of love fill us with Your tenderness 

and teach us to say : 'I will not abandon you!' to those we meet on our journey. 

With the help of your beloved Son, 

may we not lose the taste for fraternity 

and may we not conform to the sadness of loneliness. 

Help us to look to the future with renewed hope."

It's never too late.

A great line of Kierkegaard keeps coming back to me, as it makes so much sense.  What was his line?  

"We live life moving forward, looking backwards."  

How true!  Do we ever get it?  

I am presently listening to the Peter, Paul and Mary classic - "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind".  Is it not obvious?  Yet we keep 'screwing up', as Americans say.  

For St Teresa of Avila, life is all about love.  Quite simply put, God within us is to be found, pondered, revered and lived.  As our God is love, it is all about love.  Know love and live it to the full. 

Yet, we remain self-engrossed, we keep doing the same, old stuff over and over again.  I need, we need, our world needs the revolution of love.