Jesuits and Spiritual Quests

June 29, 2014 at 11:53 am

You sometimes hear of people that come to India on a spiritual quest of sorts.   Herman Hesse, author of Siddhartha, and other early 20th century intellectuals between the Great Wars made such journeys popular and romantic.   Such quests are clearly one of the offshoots of globalization as East meets West and reflect the yearning of the human heart for God and peace.    As Augustine says “Our hearts find no rest until they rest in You.”

On some kind of a quest ourselves,  Kathleen and I have enjoyed watching the spiritual devotions and practices of the other faith communities as we visited the Ganga in some “holy” cities such as Rishikesh and Kolkata.  Of course, all cities are holy, but you cannot fault the entrepreneurial spirit.  Similarly,  Rishikesh has dubbed itself the world’s capital of yoga and so many westerners are going there that  the ashrams now have hot water and western style toilets. In another example of maximizing tourism,  Hindus are told if they die in Varanasi, they will be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth and become like salt in the ocean!  Varanasi has a particularly brilliant Chamber of Commerce.   In a desire to understand and respect other spiritual journeys despite my sarcasm, we have also visited the object of Sikh pilgrimages, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.  Not to mention that we have also accompanied a few Buddhist monks to some of  the sites where their former  monasteries were  carved out of mountains  near Aurangabad.   Despite these various experiences, the spiritual highlights for me in India are 2.  The visit to Mother Teresa’s Mother House with Kathleen, Patrick and Martin  and getting to know the Jesuits at Loyola College in Secunderabad.  I have never spent a lot of time around Jesuits previously.  Their contemplative exercises bear fruit in their lives.

A recent example of how the Jesuits continue to minister to me can be found in the Loyola  Pastoral Bulletin for June.  It mentions a recent Jesuit martyr in Syria and the kidnapping of another Jesuit in Afghanistan.  Their stories reinforce the Church calendar’s marking the Solemnity  of Peter and Paul today who are also  both martyrs for Christ.  Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the killing of James by the sword and  the imprisonment of Peter during the same persecution.  It is followed by Paul’s farewell letter prior to his martyrdom.    It is understandable that I grew up viewing those who have died for Christ as an early Church phenomenon.    However,  more people are dying for Christ and their faith today than at any other time in the Church’s history.   Many of our contemporaries can say with Paul:

“ I am already being poured out like a libation and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have competed well.  I have finished the race.  I have kept the faith.  The Lord stood by me and gave me strength…and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.”

We really do not hear much about our contemporary  martyrs in the media.  Quiet, ordinary, everyday kind of people…

Fr Frans van der Lugt, SJ ( 4/10/38- 4/7/2014) was brutally slayed some three months ago by a masked gunman in a Syrian monastery.   He had been quoted as saying “ I don’t see Muslims or Christians.  I see, above all, human beings.”  ( See also the terrific film that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2010,   “ Des homes et des dieux” .  This film powerfully shares the story of a group of Trappist monks  recently living in Algeria who also see God’s children in all people.)

The bulletin goes on “A few days ago, we received confirmation from the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS)..that father Kumar SJ was kidnapped by a group of unidentified men in western Afghanistan.  Fr. Prem,  an Indian national, Jesuit , had accompanied teachers on a visit to a  JRS- supported school for returnee refugees near Herat.  He was kidnapped from the school….Fr Prem believed very strongly that it is God’s Will that he was sent to Afghanistan. “  Fr Prem looks like a handsome Indian male in his 40s.  Could have been a Bollywood star.

The JRS is an international Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of forcibly displaced person.  With teams in 50 countries around the world, JRS provides education, health, social and other services to approximately 950,000 refugees and internally displaced persons, more than half of whom are women.  JRS services are provided to refugees REGARDLESS of race, ethnic origin or religious beliefs.  The ministry to women and the last statement of helping all people regardless is particularly powerful these days when one reads daily  about the oppression of women in Asia and  people being killed or simply shunned  because they do not share the same faith.  We should be so proud of our Catholic identity and the great work being done globally by committed Catholics for all God’s children.

Fr Heng, SJ,  speaking from Singapore continued  as he reflected  on the Jesuit mission:   “My brothers and sisters in Christ, the evils in the world that destroy precious human lives and the beauty of God’s creation in the world is a reality that you and I and all of us cannot ignore.  This is because regardless of who is being tortured or killed, they are still human beings.  And as we are all created as children of God, every single soul that exists and is born into this world is your brother and sister and my brother and sister.  This is precisely why Fr Francis died, Fr Prem is kidnapped and why thousands of JRS team members are reaching out to refugees in the world.”

“Your heart and my heart must be moved and affected personally, beginning with the aged, the sick, the depressed in our homes and in our country, and indeed to all suffering peoples of the world.”  Mother Teresa also emphasizes that we do not have to move to Calcutta to minister to the poor, sick and dying.  There are people everywhere who are lonely and need a friend.  They thirst for love.

Fr. Heng continued, “And as we are inspired by Jesus’ disciples and Fr Francis van der Lugt, who died for their faith, and as we pray for the safety of Fr Prem, let us be reminded that the degree to which we love Jesus is the degree to which we dare to say to Jesus, ‘Lord I am willing to love all the people you place in my life, regardless of how difficult it is to love them or how remote they are to me…as refugees, or other poor, needy and marginalized in the world…they are all your children…we are all your children…give us the wisdom to love them as Jesus has shown us.”

There are quests and there are quests.  Somehow, spending time in an ashram doing yoga pales in comparison to Fr Prem’s journey.  Yet, I am sure God is pleased by all who yearn and seek in sincerity and truth.  I am fortunate that God is merciful and loving as I look at my puny little quest.

Eating a Sacred Cow and The Super Bowl Shuffle

June 22, 2014 at 11:27 am

One of our neighbors is a Chinese Canadian who is married to an Australian woman, Josie,  who enjoys wearing extremely revealing outfits.  She would stop the traffic in Hyderabad if it was not already moving at a crawl.  Kathleen spent yesterday with her shopping and said that women and men were staring at her.  Even guys driving in cars were staring into Josie’s CRV.   I asked  Kathleen if guys were walking into light poles or if the cars were running off the roads.    You have to understand that women are covered up here.  Bare arms are common, but generally the Hindu women wear floor length sari’s or some form of leggings.

Josie recommended a steak place to us that we decided to try.  It is a classic hole in the wall.  There might have been 6 tables in the place in addition to 2  dining room size tables that lay flat on the floor.  Folks sat on pillows and ate  Indian style.    As I went to take my chair at a table, I was surprised to see a picture of Refrigerator Perry.  I said to Kathleen, “There’s my man.  The Fridge!”  It was a picture of him from the back.  He was standing on the sideline looking out over the playing surface of Lambeau field.   I then noticed that the walls were covered with 3 rows of photographs.   Directly above Kathleen’s head was a picture of   “Sweetness”  Walter Payton.  His helmet was off and he had a big smile.  To her left was a picture of the Sears Tower with lighting flashing across the sky.  To her right was the John Hancock Building.   I then had to get up and look at all the pictures.  All the pictures were of the USA.  The Chrysler Building, Kansas City, Boston, cowboys of the Wild West, the 1906 World Champion Cubs and on and on.  I could not believe it.

The waiter then came up to see what we might want to eat.  I asked him what was up with all the Chicago pictures.  He said Chicago spice?  And nodded his head yes.  I tried a couple of more times to see if we could get on the same page, but it was clear that he was going to prepare my steak with some kind of a Chicago preparation…who knows what.  I gave up and Kathleen and I decided to take a few minutes to order some food.  We were a little nervous.    When the waiter offered water and I asked if it was bottled, he said it was not.  Bottled water is always available for foreigners with sensitive stomachs.    Kathleen suggested that we should consider leaving since it was such a dive.

Also, bear in mind, we are living in Hindustan.  The Hindus do not eat beef.  I am not sure that they literally worship cows although they are certainly polytheistic.  They  reverence the cow  because it  gives of itself.  Cows provide milk, labor in the fields,  and their  dung is used both as fertilizer and as fuel.  They almost speak in hushed tones about the animal.  The Hindus that work as tanners with the cowhide are not respected.   I wonder with the growth of the hospitality industry if there are Hindus in the kitchen cooking the beef.    A couple of months ago, I decided to stop eating meat since whoever is cooking it rarely prepares it according to the requested temperature.  Medium well shows up rare.  Even so,  energized by a  picture of the Bears doing the Super Bowl Shuffle,   we worked up our courage and took the plunge.  We ordered the least spicy preparation of steak soaked in a balsamic vinaigrette and honey marinade.

In India, you do live with lowered expectations.  We were not expecting our steaks to compete with Gibson’s or Hyde Park and they did not. However, I have to say they were delicious.  Tender. Flavorful.  Perfectly prepared. We devoured them.   I also appreciated the waiter providing us with bottled water.  I am sure it was not a result of a request that he could not understand.

The check is never brought to the table here.  They want you to stick around and relax.  As we were looking around for someone from whom we could request a check,  a swarthy body builder who was in some of the pictures came up to see if he could help.  After saying we were ready for the check, I asked him if he was the chef.  It was Chef  Inan Khan himself.    When asked, he shared that he had lived in Chicago for 3 years before moving to the Boston area for 8.  When he learned we were from Columbus, he was excited to share that he had owned a restaurant in Dayton Ohio for a while.  He came home to India since his father’s health is failing.   As we said good night, we told him that the food was excellent and that we would be back.  What an unexpected surprise.  Thanks Josie!

Happy 100th Birthday Mom

June 22, 2014 at 11:21 am

My mom recently celebrated her 100th Birthday.  We had a great family gathering.  Over 100 family members, descendants of her brother and sister and my dad’s siblings’ kids came together for a family reunion. It was a wonderful day of Irish music, looking at photographs of my immigrant grandparents, their cousins, my  aunts and uncles, and sharing of our memories.  My mom shared that her secret to her long life was all about living for her kids and the extended family.  She also asked that I share a note that  I had written for her on Mother’s Day with the extended family. I shared the following:

 

Today we celebrate the life of my mom.

As Catholic contemplatives, we know, see and embrace God through one another, the beauty of creation and the events of our lives.

I would like to make explicit how my mother serves as an example of God’s presence to us through one another and thank the Lord for how we are blessed by God’s presence in my mother in so many ways.  My mom reveals God’s nurturing, loving, generous presence and nature.  This little acknowledgement is based on a note I wrote to mom on Mother’s day which fell on Good Shepherd Sunday.  So my note is based on Psalm 23 and is addressed to my mom.  It follows:

Surely Goodness and Kindness have followed me all the days of my life.

God comes to me through you.

Like a Good Shepherd, you watch over me.

Guard me.

Encourage me to go on right paths.

You nourish me and lead me to green pastures where I experience the abundance of life.

These green pastures include an incredibly happy childhood and many family parties that you, Jo, Marge, Loretta, and Bea  hosted.

Together you created warm environments to celebrate a variety of occasions.

 

Through you I experience love with no conditions.

You always provide insight into my areas of strengths and gifts and encourage them.

You never allow me to sell myself short.

 

Through you I see and experience God’s generosity.

You do not cling to money but use it to support us in every way.

You are generous with your life as you have lovingly devoted it to your family by creating a true home that is a sanctuary from the turbulence of life.

A safe harbor.

 

Surely, Goodness and Kindness have followed me all the days of my life.