What forces or factors are having their impact on our thinking and living? Who are the persons impacting our lives? Difficult to articulate the answer fully but it is good to become aware of these. Not every idea or ideology or thought pattern from whichever source it is coming, may not be so good and credible enough so as to eliminate or discard everything else. Within the society to which each of us belongs by inheritance or by birth, our identities are determined and our relationships are in a way conditioned. More specially, in the Indian context our socio-cultural identities based on region, language, religion, and caste are determining our relationships.
In this digital age so many things keep happening around us which are also having their impact on our life. We the Christian believers are not so insulated that we and our lives are not affected. With all the varying socio-cultural identities we are brought into one Community of believers, the Church. We should face the questions like, “Do Jesus Christ and His Gospel have impact on our life and to what extent is this impact or influence on our thinking and way of living? Do the teachings of the Church make a difference in our life and in our relationships?
- Look more at the Lord and less at the world: One of the advises given to me by one of my companion priests who was also a member of the staff in the major seminary was, “we should look more at Our Lord Jesus and less at the world around us.” He did not say, “Do not look at the world!” What he meant was that only too much focused on the world around us will leave us not in peace but in pieces. The world including us human beings is in need of redemption, liberation. Therefore, looking more at the world and more at the society with the prevailing culture, how much can we really benefit for our life – for family life, for priestly and religious or consecrated life, for good and stable mutual relationships, for the healthy growth of children and youth, etc.? But, we cannot also fully ignore or be indifferent to the world as we have to live our “bodily sphere of life” in the given socio-cultural and economic situations at the given place and time. The world promises well-being and happiness, peace and prosperity, progress and development with its own standards and criteria. Our Lord also promises peace, comfort and consolation but not as the world offers: “I give you peace not as the world gives.”(Jn 14:27). How do we live “looking more at Our Lord Jesus “while we strive to live our day to day life in the world? Can we attempt to take up the invitation or instruction of Our Lord? “Be in the world but not of the world!” (Jn: 7:14-15).
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Be in the world but not of the world: We are familiar with the words of Saint Paul in his letter to the Colossians: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-3). In the gospel according to Saint John, Our Lord’s words are very clear about how we who are his disciples should be towards the world: “…the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world” ( Jn 17:14b -16).
In the Gospel of Saint John and his letters, the world is in the clutches of evil one and therefore, is in need of salvation. But, God loves the world and wants to redeem it from the evil one: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3: 16-17).
Our Lord’s wish and prayer is that his disciples are in the world but not of the world. This means the disciples (believers) should not be victims of the evil forces that are at work in the world. We have to protect ourselves from the evil one and its forces while being in the world. It is hard and difficult but not impossible. We have to hate evil present in the world in different forms. “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one” (Jn: 17: 15). So, it is possible to be in the world without becoming victims of evil and sinful ways! We have to be like Our Lord who was in the world without being (becoming!) one of or one with the world, free from “evil one.”
- We are tempted to be “of the world” while desiring to embrace the “Way of Our Lord”: It is difficult to define the ways of the world and the ways of Our Lord Jesus or of Christian life! But, as we grow in our faith relationship with Christ, knowing Him and His love, we will certainly become aware of who Jesus Christ is and what His Way is! Here, it is a matter of making an option for Jesus Christ and what His Gospel places before us to stand for. For most of us who claim to be His disciples this personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and making deliberate option as a response to His invitation to follow Him and His way will be a gradual process. Total perfection in embracing Jesus Christ and His ways is possible in one’s life time only for a few saintly and exceptional persons.
Regarding the process of becoming more like Christ by embracing Him and His way, the journey of the first disciples is a good example: James and John, sons of Zebedee, asking for positions on the “right and the left side of His throne;” discussion and argument among themselves as to “who among them is the greatest;” Saint Peter asking the Master, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you, what will we get in return;”(Mat19:27-29); Judas Iscariot betraying him; and, all the disciples abandoning the Master when he was arrested and condemned to death by crucifixion; even Saint Peter ending up by denying the Master three times.They all struggled to understand and to fall in line with the “ways” of the Master. They ultimately succeeded but not without being corrected and admonished by the Master Jesus Christ. In our own present days, we have to look at Him, keep listening to His voice, and keep growing in the knowledge and understanding of Him and His ways.
Like Saint Paul we should say, “Not that I have already obtained this and have already reached the goal, but I press on to make my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own…this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on towards the goal…” (Phil 3: 12-14).
- Learning from Our Lord Jesus about His way by looking at Him: We pray in the psalm saying, “Let your face shine on us O Lord, and we shall be saved”. If we wish our life and mutual relationships, and daily dealings between us to be properly christian, Christian, we have to seek refuge of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot easily dissolve all the divisive forces and factors that the larger society and modern culture impose on us. But, we cannot totally be conditioned by the social or cultural or caste identities in our relationships and dealings. Only Jesus Christ has to teach us and help us. For this, we have to look at Him, listen to Him, and keep learning from Him as to transcend the forces and factors that are conditioning us! The outcome should be from our accepting and embracing the “Way of Jesus Christ!” The Way of Jesus the “way of love and truth.” The way of Jesus is “the way of obedience” to the Will of the Father and His Commandments. The way of Jesus is “the way of humane disposition” towards other human beings, especially, the poor and the needy, the sick and the suffering, the neglected and the abandoned. The way of Jesus is “the way of unconditional and self-sacrificing love, even to point of being ready to lay down His life. This will certainly appear very difficult goal to reach but we have to keep trying and striving. Each of us and each section in the Community of believers should say like Saint Paul, “I keep pressing forward.”
Conclusion: “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph 4: 1-6).