Hyderabad Crosswinds

MOVING FROM INTENTION TO CONSENT TO UNION
WITH GOD AND SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THINGS

The Sacred Word expresses your intention to consent to God,
The Ultimate Mystery who dwells within us.

The Sacred Word is a way of renewing our intention
To open ourselves to God and to accept God as God is.

While we can pray in other forms at other times, the time of Centering Prayer is not the time to pray specifically for others.
By consenting to God, we are implicitly praying for everyone past, present, and future.
You are embracing the whole of creation.
You are accepting all reality beginning with God and
With that part of your own reality of which you may not be generally aware, namely, the spiritual level of your being.

The Sacred Word enables you to unite with your Source.
Fr. Thomas Keating, OMOH (2005) p.32



I would like to reflect on the following phrases:

“Your intention to consent to God.”

We are full of good intentions. As I walk to my room dedicated to my time of prayer, I am already expressing my intention to say “Yes” to whatever God has in store for me during my quiet time. Even if God has nothing for me that day, my intention is to accept and surrender to that. Of course, Mother Mary is the paradigmatic example of saying “Let It Be Done to me According to Your Will.” Her consent led her to bear forth the Christ for the world. May our consent to the Presence and Action of God within us also bring forth Christ into the world Who along with the Daddy and the Holy Spirit is

“The Ultimate Mystery who dwells within us.”

We do not embody a mystery to be solved like a “Whodunit” such as an Agatha Christie novel. Rather, we are acknowledging that our finite minds and human faculties cannot grasp God. Our infinite God is so much more than our finite imaginations can express. Whatever our images of God, God is so much more than those. Our images of God do not do justice to God as God is and are inadequate or false images in that sense.

“Poor God!” our Father Vinny used to say because of all the damaging images we humans impose on God. This approach does not deny that we can come to a rational understanding of God’s truth, beauty, goodness, benevolence and love. However, it emphasizes as William Johnston states in the introduction to the Cloud of Unknowing that “God is unlike anything we know: we must keep in mind that the ideas of God are totally inadequate to contain God.”

It is beyond our grasp to understand that this infinitely loving God dwells within us. This indwelling causes us to become a mystery to ourselves in the same way that God is a mystery to us. (Genesis 1:26-27, John 17, Acts 17:18, Romans 5:5, 8:9, Galatians 2:20).

“To open ourselves to God and accept God as God Is.”

Let us loosen our grips on our image of God so that we may embrace God as God Is! Let go of your customary image of God. Perhaps we are accustomed to thinking of God as someone who responds to our every need. We expect God to deliver the perfect answer. We rely on our past experience of God and assume that our future experience should be the same. We think that we have figured out God and God will faithfully deliver in accordance with our expectations.

Have we captured God? Have we gained control of God? If I do this, God will do that? Is it possible that God has been rearing us much as we raise and respond to our babies and little children? Maybe it is time to grow up? Maybe we have confused God with our local parish that we love and suddenly have lost through consolidation or other reasons? Maybe we have other false gods such as material comfort or a successful profession which have suddenly and inexplicably shifted? Has the ground under our feet moved? Maybe a rug has been pulled out from under us? Maybe I am confused and all is suddenly chaotic? Maybe we need to learn to walk in the darkness of faith?

John of the Cross says that faith is the proximate means to union with God. In other words, walking in the dark by faith is the path of coming to a deeper understanding of the embrace of God’s intimacy. An intimacy that fosters the transformation into who it is God calls us to be. It is the way to intuitively grasp by love God as God is and that we are one with God. It is the path to a contemplative state whereby we once again experience God’s Presence and see God as God Is in every direction.

“You are embracing all reality.”

When we are present to God as God Is, we are present to all that God holds. God contains the past, present, and future. God is present to all things and sustains all things including our loved ones wherever they are and whatever their needs. Whether we know it or not, God is present to our concerns, worries, or joys about our loved ones in as much as we bring them as part of ourselves to our prayer before God. As we are present to God, we are in solidarity with all humanity, past, present, and future as well as all things. We are a part of everything and everything is a part of us.

“We unite with our Source.”

Experientially, we understand and intuit that the ground of our being is the Being of God that has overflowed into and sustains all being. We are one with God and all things. While God is our being, we are not God. We participate in God. Even though we experience ourselves as separate beings, we find our true selves in God. We are not isolated but exist in solidarity and oneness with all that is. Apart from God, we are literally nothing and nonexistent.

“In Centering Prayer, by participating intentionally in the Paschal mystery,
our prayer periods become a liturgy without words,
a celebration of one’s own union with Christ,
and of participation in the inner life of the Trinity.
Every little drop of experience is of almost inconceivable value
and vastly transcends ourselves.
In other words, the Divine energy that is accessed by each one’s participation
in Christ’s passion, death and resurrection
becomes a kind of universal prayer for the needs of the whole human family.
It has a radiation that is truly apostolic,
apostolic in the sense of transmitting the grace of Christ into this world.”
–Fr. Thomas Keating OCSO, Intimacy with God

I would like to reflect on parts and pieces of this excerpt.

What does it mean to “participate intentionally?”

An intention is an interior choice to cultivate a certain posture. It is a desire or a choice to be present, open and surrender or offer ourselves with Jesus. We set aside our preoccupations for a moment. In this case, we are “participating intentionally

In the Paschal Mystery.

The Paschal Mystery is the death and resurrection of Jesus. How do we “intentionally participate” in Jesus’s death and resurrection? The process is similar to what we do when we celebrate the Eucharistic. We join Jesus on the cross as we die to ourselves. We die to our personal agenda and projects. We die to having the last word about anything. We die to having power and control over every or any situation. We become one with Jesus on the Cross in the gift of his life to the Daddy and to us. “Not my will but Your Will be done.” We join Jesus in our offering ourselves and our lives to God to dispose of as God wishes.

We all think that we have more control over life than we actually have. For example, in the end or as we age, we will have to say “Yes!” to the process of aging, diminishment and death. But whatever our age, we need to align our spirits with the Holy Spirit and find the path of Life as opposed to expecting God to bless our agendas and projects that may provide us our sense of self-worth and inflate our egos. We lose our life to gain Life.

After dying to ourselves, there may be a liminal period of darkness. We may have to wait for the new life in the Spirit to express itself. It may be so subtle that we miss it initially. We will learn through patient prayer and the action of the Holy Spirit upon us how to calibrate our hearts to the sensitivity of the Spirit and the realization of new life in God. If we patiently wait, listen, hope, we will find and

Celebrate one’s own union with Christ and of participation in the inner life of the Trinity.

We discover what we have. We discover who we already are. We live and move and have our being in God. This experience is tasting or glimpsing the Life of the Resurrection that God is ready and willing to share with us as we die to ourselves having the last word. We are not God, but we do participate in God and God can express God’s self through us. We can be God for others. They (especially our spouses) will be God for us. We become divine instruments of transformation for one another as we show grace and compassion to one another.

Our participation in God is the Ground of our Being or the source of our Life and Being. It is our breath. It is our heart beating. It is our consciousness. Rather than having a relationship with God we are already in relationship to God. We are already one with God and in union with God or we would be nothing. We are nothing apart from God who sustains our life. Thomas Keating says elsewhere (Open Mind, Open Heart (2005), p.33) that “The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from Him. If we get rid of that thought, our troubles will be greatly reduced…The present moment, every object we see, our inmost nature are all rooted in God.”

Our participation in the “Divine energy” becomes a “universal prayer for the needs of the whole human family.”

We start by saying “Yes!” and participate in the Paschal Mystery as we consent to our death to ourselves and begin to experience the Life of the Resurrection. We begin to let go of our self-made worlds, having to have the last word or power or control over every situation that arises. As we sit in this posture of Centering Prayer only present to God as God is, we are present to the needs of the whole human family since that is where God already is present. We bring all our needs, our whole life experience and history, all our loved ones to God. First, our world is present and held before God. At the same time, we then are present to God. In Whom, the world or cosmos is held in being and which apart from God would be nothingness. Our loved ones are loved by us as we carry them within us to God. Our loved ones are loved by God as God sustains them and treats them as God’s beloved. As Fr. Vinny like to say, “they are twice loved.”

Our prayer becomes apostolic as it “transmits the grace of Christ into this world.” Our time of prayer is of “inconceivable value and vastly transcends ourselves.”

How may we deepen our friendship and intimacy with God? Let me suggest reading and savoring the quote from Fr. Thomas Keating. Before you read the following quote from Fr. Thomas Keating’s Open Mind, Open Heart, allow me to explain what he means by the Sacred Word. The use of a one or two syllable word that you choose is a means of detaching from distractions during prayer. This approach for handling distracting thoughts is based on the spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. Commonly referenced as The Cloud, the anonymous author lived in Great Britain during the 1300s. The book is addressed to a young contemplative who is looking for spiritual guidance on how to get to know God better.

Here is the Keating quote:

The sacred word is not a means of going where you want to go.
It simply affirms and directs your intention
to consent To God’s Presence and Action.
The Sacred Word fosters a favorable atmosphere
For the development of the more general awareness
To which our spiritual nature is attracted.

Our purpose is not to suppress all thoughts which is impossible.
You will normally have a thought after a half a minute or less of inner silence unless the action of God is so powerful that you are absorbed in God.

Centering prayer is not a way of turning on the presence of God.
Rather it is a way of saying, “Here I am.”
The next step is up to God.
It is a way of putting yourself completely at God’s disposal;
It is to submit to God’s intentionality
Which is to give God’s self completely to you.
Keating, OMOH (2005) p.22

I would like to reflect on pieces and parts of this reading:
The sacred word affirms our intention to come to our time of prayer and simply be open and present to God with no agenda. We do not come bearing a laundry list of items for God to handle for us as our butler. We do not come with our projects for God to bless. Rather we come hoping to get to know God better much as we long to develop friendship with someone that we like. We are coming on God’s terms open to where God wants to take us. That is our intention.

We consent to God’s Presence and Action as Mother Mary consented to the angel who announced to her great surprise that the Holy Spirit would bless her with a child. She responded “Let it be done according to God’s will.” So too, we open ourselves to God’s Presence and say “Yes!” to whatever God has in store for us which of course is in our interest and will deepen our relationship. God desires good for us. God desires to heal our wounds and transform us.
The sacred word fosters a favorable atmosphere for a general awareness of the God to which our spiritual nature is attracted. We are made for God. We all have a capacity for God and our hearts are restless until they rest in God. The sacred word and the daily practice of prayer will cultivate a stance of openness. This stance will enable us to open the door and welcome God’s loving, healing therapy so that we may find rest in wordless communion and union with God.

We will still have thoughts. The heart beats and the mind thinks. Thoughts are always present. We want to detach from thoughts. Let them flow though us on the stream of consciousness much like boats float past us on a river. Let them come and go. It is thinking about the thoughts that is a problem. Thoughts can fall to the background much like Muzak in a grocery store.

As we place ourselves at God’s disposal, our spiritual nature is permitted to draw near to God and we may experience a sense of coming home. The Holy Spirit heals our separation and alienation from God.
Or perhaps we may not experience this sensation. God knows what we need. We each receive what is best. Be patient. Wait hopefully. Let yourself be loved. Being loved is God’s will for us. God is giving God’s self to us whether we are aware of it or not.

Why is it that I cannot throw away anniversary cards from Kathleen or cards from my kids?  The sentiments that my loved ones express are so touching, so profound, so affirming that I cannot toss them into the garbage.  Instead, I place them in one of my dresser drawers. I may never read them again, but that is ok.  They are too precious to throw away.  A preciousness so deep that there is no bottom to it.  Infinitely deep.

God is found in what we experience as precious.  As we sing “Ubi Caritas, Deus ibi est.”  Where Love is, there God is.  God communicates Her Love to us through these words that are companions in life share with us.  That very flow of love back and forth between us and our loved ones is God.  That flow of joy and laughter among friends and family is a precious experience of God. I often experience it in the camaraderie of my golf mates.

May we find what is precious in each moment as we choose to do the loving thing in the moment.

I remember cleaning out my brother Roger’s room in San Francisco with my dad when Roger suddenly died on Memorial Day in 1995.   We found a dresser drawer full of all the letters that my mom had been sending lovingly from Chicago over the years.  So precious. 

In the 6^th century, St Benedict composed this simple but profound prayer that helps us deepen our relationship with Our Father. May we see what the Lord wants us to see and hear what She wants us to hear:

O gracious and holy Father,

Give us wisdom to perceive you,

Intelligence to understand you,

Diligence to seek you,

Patience to wait for you,

Eyes to behold you,

A heart to meditate on you,

And a life to proclaim you

Through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In life, one has experiences that open us up. Our senses are more alive and expansive.  We are more attuned.  We are in the moment grateful and appreciative.  We are awakened and aware as we savor the present and the Presence.  We experience oneness and union with God   We may even “See The Light.”    These experiences may come upon us suddenly as we contemplate the beauty and majesty of nature or they may occur more gradually as we take time apart from the busyness of our schedule for a pilgrimage or retreat.   

We may exclaim as my wife Kathleen did:   “Who knew!”   “Who knew this serenity was at our fingertips!”  The Kingdom of God is at hand or at our fingertips. 

To paraphrase the Cure d’Ars, it was a gift of God to sit quietly watching God as God watched us.  No thoughts.  Just peace.  Content to sit and sit and enjoy the reverie.  A sense of what Paul calls a ” peace passing all understanding.”  A soft light that transforms all and comes through all. 

I am not sure when and where God’s light embrace initially occurred.  Perhaps in the chapel of San Damiano or the place of Clare’s transitum.  But after a while, I came to count on such blessings  and look forward to them at all of Clare and Francis’ special places.  Most memorably they occurred at the caves where Francis slept, Clare and Francis’ tombs, Saints Paul and Bartholomew’s tombs and the chapel of the Cross of San Damiano in Clare’s Basilica.  These are places of awe.  Places that excite one’s spirit.  Holy Ground.   Why do experience this powerful presence now? Why is not available to all?  Or is it?  Why is not available to us at other times?  Or is it?  Or should it be? 

A special grace indeed. 

After  we returned home,  Kathleen yearned to continue this experience.  She said as she headed out the door, ” I will be back.  I want to go sit in a church.”  Similarly, in as much as we recently moved to a new home, I was thinking it would be great to dedicate some space in our place for meditation and prayer as our Hindu brothers and sisters do.  Kathleen reinforced this thought when she independently suggested that we turn one of our spare bedrooms into a chapel.  That is one way to continue to nurture and improve this conscious contact with God.  It is an attempt to overcome the inclination to return to the same old same old mindset as we are anesthetized by our comfortable cocoons of materialism, inactivity, or busyness which cause us to forget, ignore or suppress the challenge of Jesus and how Francis and Clare followed him.  

Our souls and consciousness were stretched to their limits.  But so often like a rubber band, after being stretched, they return back to their normal ordinary states.  Changed, but capable of more. 

Lord, You have given us much.  May we be faithful servants who do not disappoint but understand our duty and act upon it.  Thank you for your all embracing love.

 

 

My Carmelite friends would describe the grace-filled experience of our pilgrimage as one of God’s lollypops.  Within the Carmelite spirituality, there are times when the embrace of our heart by God from within and without, from above and below, surrounds and fills us and overflows into our senses.  We experience serenity.   

I wonder in these unique moments if there is a special message for me:  ” Is it a confirmation?  If so, of what?”   Rather than just accepting the embrace of God’s love, I overanalyze and wonder if this experience validates what to do, think or practice. 

My Carmelite friends say such experiences are for immature souls who require that form of affirmation.  There is likely something to that.   John of the Cross and other mystics describe a purifying of their faith in a Dark Night of the Soul in which they experience God as Absence.  Such a dark night may be accompanied by events in life that are similar to earthquakes and test one’s faith and trust.  For example, we could experience loss of control and powerlessness as there is upheaval in our lives.  Loss of a job, inability to find work, or our prized identity may be tainted somehow. 

I am sure that my friends are right. I am immature, but this experience was more like a flourless chocolate cake with a hot molten center of oozing chocolate than a lollypop and I loved it.  I want to enjoy that treat as often as possible.  I look for ways to replicate the experience and assume that spiritual growth will accompany it.  I wonder if reading spiritual books, daily scripture, thoughts for the day or practicing intercessory prayer, yoga, meditation, attending Mass would help.  The list can go on and believe me I have tried a variety of formulas to hopefully cultivate spiritual growth.  Ultimately, however, I am afraid that perhaps I have crossed the line.   Perhaps I am trying to control God or becoming more akin to a spiritual junkie looking for a fix.  Am I becoming someone who just wants the experience?   Am I just plain selfish?  More interested in myself and feeling good than I am in loving my neighbor and understanding the requirements of discipleship? 

After experiencing God, Francis was propelled to the margins as he worked with the lepers.  Rather than looking for more “experiences” of God, I should be God’s love for others as I serve Him in others.  The principles of the 12 Step program emphasize that after one has awakened to the spiritual reality of a Higher Power and seek to do the will of that Higher Power each day, one must do service to continue to grow personally and spiritually and to stay free of addiction.  So the question then becomes as part of ever deepening search “What service am I to render?”  Or to paraphrase Francis:  as Francis did what his to do, may Christ teach us what is ours to do.  (Pilgrim’s Companion p. 414) 

May we see and hear what God wants us to see and hear so that we can faithfully and obediently respond  and thereby worship in spirit and truth. “Brothers and sisters, let us begin to serve the Lord for up till now, we have done very little. “  (Pilgrim’s Companion p.409)

 

 

Fr Packiaraj SJ recommended that I go to Assisi.  He is the pastor of a Jesuit parish in South India.  It was 2013-14 and I was on the verge of retiring.  A new chapter in my life was approaching and I want to be a disciple of Jesus who is open to his guidance :”Speak Lord, your servant listens.”  Perhaps I should add “hopefully.”  Given my outsized ego that hopes to do great things for God, I should add ” Give me ears to hear or I may miss what I am called to do because it appears small and ordinary.”  While I make an effort to be attentive daily by listening for God’s voice in others and can often see God’s hand in the events of life, I agreed that a pilgrimage to Assisi could help the process of discernment. 

Like so many of our saints, Francis had a clear vision and an auditory experience of God’s direction.  While my faith or perhaps it would be better described as my unbelief would not provide the Lord such an opportunity to speak so distinctly, I still was filled with great anticipation as we went to visit San Damiano and later the Cross of San Damiano in the Clare’s Basilica.  It was while meditating and praying in front of this cross that Francis heard his call to “Rebuild My Church.”    Francis then literally started to restore and rebuild the San Damiano chapel.  He took the message literally.  Later he understood the message more fully.  Soon thousands of brothers joined him in the Umbrian Valley below Assisi.

Still I was highly skeptical  that Jesus, suspended in majesty on the cross of San Damiano,  would actually speak to me in the same way.  In other words, I would not see his lips move as he tells me to “Rebuild My Church” or “Minister to those in prison” or “Sit at the bedside of those who are dying” or “Write” or ” Be a confidant” or ” Lighten Up! Don’t take yourself so seriously!” Or “ Enough already.  Get out of your lazy boy and get busy.  The laborers are few. “  

I agree that for most of us, finding our way in the Lord is a process rather than an experience such as Francis’ or getting knocked off a horse and blinded like Paul.  I believe that we have a lot of freedom.  We sit at a banquet with a variety of delicious choices in front of us.  All are blessed.  All are signs of God’s love and caring which is greater than we can even imagine.  The choice is ours.  Our hands will be in Her hands.   

Yet, I sit and wait for clarity and direction.  After all, I am as one friend said, a procrastinating perfectionist. I sit and wait for clear sense of what to do while realizing He would likely tell me to act on a desire that is already in my heart.  I should pay attention to my yearnings. 

After visiting San Damiano twice and the Cross of San Damiano at Clare’s Basilica twice, I asked my wife Kathleen:  “Did you see Jesus’ lips move?  Did Jesus talk to you as He did to Francis?”  Kathleen was a bit taken aback and an expression mixing concern and disbelief crossed her face as she answered “No!”  Then after pausing a moment, she asked  ” Did you?”  I smiled and said “Yes.  Jesus told me,   ‘Love Your Wife.'”

 

As our adventure draws to a close,  a great sadness wells up.  We will miss the wonderful warmth and affection of the Indian people that is truly a reflection of how we swim in God’s love at all times. 

We have often experienced this warmth in our hotel stays. The hotels in India are unsurpassed.   One of the most memorable events occurred at the Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur.  The hotel was formerly the summer palace for a maharajah.  It is situated in the middle of a lake in a serene setting.   A power boat  provides a ride for the patrons to a dock in front of the hotel.   A 6’5” doorman decked out in traditional garb and carrying a colorful and ornate umbrella that must span 4 feet greeted Kathleen as he would an arriving princess.  Kathleen walked with him up the dock and  across the front of the hotel to the main door.  Just before arriving at the threshold, Kathleen smiled in surprise as rose petals fell from above which was the traditional greeting for the maharajah’s wives. 

Work requires that I go to Delhi once a month for a week at a time and we always stay at the Trident hotel in Gurgaon.  When a guest arrives, you are stunned by the hotel’s beauty with its Moorish architecture, reflecting pools, and aesthetically beautiful lighting;  but it is only a prelude to the care and attention provided by its staff.  The stories are many. 

Another expatriate had told us about the wonderful experience she had going to a Sufi tomb on a Thursday evening to hear the lively singing.  I went to the front desk one Thursday to see about hiring a guide to take us there.  The expat had warned us that there is no way that we would find our way through the warren of narrow alleys to a tomb that is hundreds of years old.  One of the attendants at the front desk  told me that there was no such guide.  As I thanked him with some disappointment and realized that I would find a guide some other way, one of the other attendants, Prateek, happened to walk in and heard the tail end of the conversation.  He immediately said that he could arrange a guide.  Even though he is a Hindu, his family and the family of the Sufi caretaker of the tomb go back 3 or 4 generations.  He called the caretaker who agreed to meet us near the entrance to the old city.  Not only did the caretaker shepherd us to the tomb, but he also explained the history  of the area that stretched back to 1200 CE.  He gave us a front row seat for the singing; later, he brought us inside the tomb and then took us to his office for more conversation where people were lined up to seek his counsel and blessing. 

That was our introduction to Prateek.  After that, he frequently met us upon arrival to take us to our room.  If I ever needed something, he would make it happen or offer an alternative.  When Kathleen’s sisters visited, I waited too long to make reservations during the high season.  Even so, he managed to get us into the Trident in Cochin, Kerala, after I was told it was full.  He could not work the same magic at Trident Gurgaon, but offered to have us stay at his house.  I told him we had already booked rooms at the Oberoi New Delhi. 

I usually arrive on Monday and Kathleen generally comes on Wednesday evening.  We then will take a weekend trip to somewhere in India.  On this particular Monday, Akanksha was taking me to my room and asked when Kathleen was coming since she had a surprise for her.  I smiled and asked if it was chocolate since Kathleen is a chocaholic.  She said it was not, but she made a mental note of my comment.  On Wednesday, she presented Kathleen with a bouquet of roses much to Kathleen’s surprise and delight.    After dinner, Kathleen had a hankering for some chocolate and the folks at the Trident suggested we visit the Oberoi Gurgaon hotel which is attached to the Trident where we could buy some chocolate.  It was the most expensive chocolate we have ever bought.  The following evening, we were sitting in our room when there was a knock on the door.  It was Akanksha bearing 3 chocolate candies for Kathleen.   

Then there is the restaurant staff.  They treat us like we are members of their family.  One of the hostesses, Poonam,  introduced us to her secret boyfriend who worked elsewhere on the property. During our last visit to the hotel,  I teased her that she is Martin’s age and that we could take her back to the US and arrange a marriage.  She thought that was so funny and was delighted.   She went out and bought a Kurtha for me as a going away present so that I would always remember her whenever I see it.  

Another waitress who would always come over to say hello whether she was waiting on our table or not, rushed out of a different restaurant in the hotel one night to make sure she knew when our last day at the hotel was.  She said that she had a present for us and wanted to make sure that she had a chance to give it to us.   Her energy, enthusiasm, affection and happiness was better than any kind of gift she could give.  Later she gave us a gift of something that could only found in India.  It was a little matchbook size model of a tuck-tuck  or auto-rickshaw with a precious note of affection. 

I always carry a venti Starbucks mug with me along with my favorite green tea.   A year and one-half ago, one of the waiters bought a Starbucks thermos mug for me.  I brought it a few times to honor his gift and then reverted back to my glass mug.  On our final night, I saw one of the managers in the restaurant rush in the door and dart behind hostess desk while many of the staff gathered around him.  I had seen a Starbuck’s mug in his hand.  I suspected something was up.  The next day at our last meal,  he presented the cup to us which had been signed with notes by many of the kitchen staff as well as service staff. 

Prateek had asked the restaurant staff to call him when we arrived for our last dinner.  He then brought Kathleen a gift.  It was a CD of Sufi singing that is mother had given him that he wanted Kathleen to have.  He then asked to have his picture taken with us.   

To say the least, Kathleen and I were quite overcome by all the displays of affection and I felt a great sadness that I would never see many of these smiling warm faces again.  However, the most difficult goodbye was for the doorman, Mohit. 

Mohit is a very simple man with warm heart.  He is always so incredibly happy to see us.  He tells us how he has been waiting for us, been looking forward to our arrival  and we always  spend a few minutes catching up with him.  On our last day, he looked as if he had had a death in the family.  As I tried to say “goodbye” to him, words could not be found.   I could only touch my hand to my heart and place it on his heart.    As my eyes welled up, I quickly turned away.

 

 

As I consider writing about one aspect of the poverty in India, I am reminded of Mother Teresa’s challenge:  “ Do I know the poor?”   She spoke about how people love to talk about the poor when they really have no idea or experience of the poverty about which they speak so knowledgeably.  With that caveat, I proceed shamelessly.   

There is an unquestioning acceptance or inurement to the poverty in India.  It has always been this way.  People in some respects are accustomed or conditioned to living the way that they live.  In fact, after living in India for almost two years, Kathleen and I also share this insensitivity.   When folks first drop into India from the West, they are initially shocked.  After a time, we all adjust. For example, Kathleen and I noted how we had changed internally when we returned to a Sufi site recently which we had visited shortly after arriving. 

Kathleen and I went to a Sufi tomb early in our stay.  Our driver dropped us off on a busy street  in the dark of the early evening where we were to meet the caretaker of the tomb.  However, he was not in plain sight and we headed down a very busy and brightly lit  alley surrounded by hawkers, people in Muslim garb,  and beggars.  We were sure that we were in the right area as we talked to the caretaker on our cell,  but were very happy eventually  to see him in the distance waving to us, the only Caucasians in the neighborhood.  He showed us where to buy scarves to cover our heads and we left our shoes with the same merchant for 20 rupees (33 cents) as we headed into a part of the city that is 800 years old through narrow passageways.   As we followed the walls snaking through the city,  we were stepping over and around crippled and deformed beggars for a quarter of a mile or more.   We were very uncomfortable.  We finally reached an open square wherein the Sufi saint is buried.  The square is an acre at most with the tomb of the saint in the middle.  It is sheltered by three walls and a ceiling.  There were hundreds of people present.  Many sitting.  Some touching the tomb.  Most listening to a quartet singing  ecstatic Sufi qawwalies which are very upbeat rhythmic songs.  We listened to the Sufi singing, spent some time with the caretaker who is Sufi scholar in his office lined with supplicants seeking prayers or advice, and then left.  As we waited for our driver on the busy thoroughfare, 2 or 3 insistent beggars kept hanging on us asking for spare change.   

On our most recent and last visit to Delhi, we decided to return to the tomb.  We did leave our wallets at the hotel since pickpockets are commonplace in India, but this time we felt no need to have a guide even though the caretaker would have been happy to show us the way again.  We recognized where the entryway was.  Put on the scarves we had retained; left our shoes with the same merchant as two years ago and headed into the narrow passageways.  The ubiquitous beggars did not bother us.  We enjoyed the singing for 30-45 minutes and left.   We are more seasoned travelers in India and more at home moving among its rich and varied texture that includes insistent hawkers and sometimes mutilated beggars who may be teaching their children the same trade. 

It is a bit discomforting to realize that we are becoming inured to the poverty much like a native of India. In fact, having personally experienced how one becomes accustomed to poverty,  I am increasingly impressed by our Catholic Indian brothers and sisters who fight the good fight and recognize the opportunity to see the Face of Jesus.  The gospel comes alive.  The relationship of Jesus with the poor comes alive.  He slept in a shanty or barn.  His father was a common laborer like so many India.  The message of Jesus speaks directly in India in a way that is generally missed in the US.   

We may hear his message, but are not touched by it.   In the West, we do not often encounter the poor who are ever-present in India.  We live in our suburbs.  Enjoy our country clubs and golf clubs.  We move in a bubble. We are fortunate and blessed to live in a country that  is rich in natural resources and has done a great job of providing a safety net not present in a place such as India.  Yet, In the midst of our materialism, the connection of Jesus with the poor and his advocacy for them do not resonate.   

Whatever poverty exists in the US tends to be out of sight and out of mind.  In India it is “in your face.”  The message of Jesus that “whatsoever you do for the least of our brothers and sisters, you do unto Me,”    cannot allow us view the plight of others from a detached and passive perspective.  Hinduism on the other hand encourages passivity.  I am struck that the various expressions of spirituality in the East frequently describe how active Christians are.  Some have even characterized Christians as social workers.  I have been puzzled by this comment and found it a bit condescending.  I thought these observations were a bit dismissive of our contemplative and mystical traditions.  Today I realize they contain a great compliment.  Perhaps without recognizing, the eastern teachers are acknowledging  that active Christians are living the message of Jesus.  Eastern passivity, on the other hand, is truly an issue from a Christian standpoint. 

For example, Kathleen and I recently went to retreat center an hour outside of Bangalore called Shreya’s.    Perhaps it is better described as a resort since it had a pool, unbelievably delicious vegetarian meals, air-conditioned bungalows, a beautiful yoga pavilion and an organic farm.  We went for a 7 day program that included 5 days of silence, 2.5 hours of yoga a day and a similar amount of guided meditation.  The yoga and meditation helps focus our minds and enables us to concentrate in the moment.   It manages the rambling thoughts that often accompany prayer while opening one to a greater awareness of God’s Abundance and Life that surrounds us.  After one of these meditations, the meditation guide made a comment that “people get what they deserve”. 

I immediately recognized what many in the East believe is an inviolable law of the universe that they call Karma.  Kathleen quickly interrupted and said “You are opening a can of worms.”  My voice changed and quavered; I could feel the words coming from deep within me: “There is no way that I have earned or deserve the incredible and unbelievable blessings that I have received.”  Kathleen added:  “That  kind of thought would say that the poor people living in shanties in the insufferable heat or pouring rain and in midst of rats or  stray dogs that bark all night are just fine.”  The guide was undaunted as he said that the poor have a lower consciousness and are happier there than they would be elsewhere.  He mentioned how some housing had been built for the poor who then rented it out and returned to the shanties.  This strikes me more as entrepreneurial and a reflection of their conditioning rather than indicative of a state of consciousness. 

The Catholic Christian perspective embodied in our gospel of social justice offers a wholly different view.  In the poor we see the Face of Jesus.  In our love and kindness to the poor, we are the Face of Jesus.  The voice of Jesus like that of the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures is all the more critical these days as thousands died in the heat of India this past week.   Let us pray for our suffering brothers and sisters in India with The Indian Jesuit Rex Pai: 

God of life and love, we look at the wonderful world you made and find it ravaged and devastated;We look at our fellow human beings, the crown of your creation and see them distorted and mutilated beyond recognition.

With broken and indignant hearts we cry out:

‘This should not be!’

And we hear you telling us:

‘That is why I created you to change the ugliness into something beautiful.’

May the groans deep within us lead us to constructive action and to lives wholly spent that others may come to fullness of life.

By your grace and in your strength may our cries of pain and those of all people be transformed into cries of joy and victory.