Apart from hormonal imbalance, why do you think some of us are getting rounder? Or that obesity is increasingly considered a major health issue? One of the reasons could be that the labour expended is inversely proportionate to our food intake. We eat more than what is needed for work. In other words, instead of eating to live, our philosophy, if food blogging were an indication, is living to eat.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying food because consumption belongs to the triple pursuit of happiness. We are socialised into believing that a person’s well-being is heightened by pleasure, accentuated by possession and increased by power. We are all hard-wired to choose behaviours that will increase the secretion of dopamine—the feel good hormone that the more we have of it, the more we crave. When we call someone greedy, it sounds like a dirty word but a person is greedy only because he is seeking more than the usual quota of pleasure that comes from consumption or the accumulation of wealth or the possession of the agency to control people and things. When one is able to control others, there is always a sense of triumph and achievement.
In his Gospel, Mark was rather unflattering in his reporting. In contrast, Matthew would have the mother making the request, placing the “guilt” on the mother. Whereas Mark has the two brothers shamelessly asking the Lord. The others were indignant on account of these two’s brazenness, but one should appreciate the depth of their intuition. Jesus was not the kind of King all decked up in fineries. At His crucifixion, He had only the tunic He wore and here were two brother who seemed to see beyond the physical that they were speaking to Someone more than the ordinary. In a way, they were pretty clued-in in their search for happiness and were not merely greedy for power. Still, sadly though, they equated happiness with greater power.
The path to joy and true happiness is radically counter-intuitive and can be gleaned from the three temptations that Jesus went through. He was tempted to pleasure by turning stones into bread, tempted to possession by the worship of a false god and tempted to power by putting God to the test. Therefore, when a religious priest, brother or sister embraces the three evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, he or she does it because the vows are antidotes to the disordered desires for pleasure, possession and power. Chastity stands against a culture that is hedonistic in its pursuit of pleasure by insisting on the principle that pleasure serves a purpose and not otherwise. Our purpose in life is not the fulfilment of pleasures we seek but rather that our pleasure must serve a purpose that is beyond this world. Poverty voluntarily chooses a life of simplicity and detachment contrary to a life of crass accumulation and avaricious possession. Finally, obedience subjugates pride and transforms power into a life service and a willingness to accept suffering even to the point of paying with one’s life. The power of Jesus is shown through His suffering on behalf of and as a ransom for us, poor sinners.
Today is Mission Sunday. Why do we celebrate it? It is one Sunday in a year the Church as a whole comes together in support of mission. We tend to forget that the Church by nature is missionary. Thus, she has a duty to proclaim Christ to the world. However, we inhabit a world aptly described by a French novelist, Gustave Flaubert as “There is no Truth, there is only perception”. But, we know better because Jesus Himself assured us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Hence, if we are to be faithful to Christ, our mission is to preach beyond the choir; mission is not limited ad intra because ad extra—a world out there is waiting for the grace of the Gospel.
But who is to bring the Jesus the Truth to them? When James and John jostled for the positions of power, Jesus promised them not exaltation but the certainty of suffering. The missionary endeavour of the Church is steeped in soil saturated with the blood of martyrs who have laid down their live for Jesus Christ and His Church. I have just come back from the Camino Santiago—the same Saint James who asked to sit next to Jesus is also the one who laid down his life for Christ. But, what is at the top of most our minds is probably an unspoken assumption that the mission ad gentes has to do with numbers, that is, mission’s purpose is to increase the size of the Church. The true motivation of our missionary activity is not size but rather to share the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. Sometimes that may end with the shedding of blood.
But, we are afraid of losing our lives and in a country as diverse as this, we naturally favour dialogue because it appears to be an easier option. However, inter-religious dialogue is no substitute for mission. It would be foolish to think that in the interest of harmony coupled with the fear of upsetting people, we should tone down what we consider to be true because faith to be credible must be founded on truth. Otherwise, why believe? The faculty of believing is such that it believes in the truth (even if what it believes in is false). Journalists are supposedly witnesses to truth because they are always on a mission to uncover the truth for without truth, everything becomes uncertain. And, sanity does not fare well in uncertainty. Our stock-market is the best exemplar of this human fear of uncertainty. As soon as there is ambiguity, the market turns jittery. But, if there is truth, it is also of human nature to shout it out. Have you ever heard of a researcher who after a scientific discovery keeps quiet about it? No, in fact, he will do his very best to make sure that the world knows of his discovery.
Believing is always of the Truth and the Truth must make itself known. This is why the Church is missionary by nature. As Benedict XVI said, “Some religions, particularly ‘tribal religions’ are waiting for the encounter with Jesus Christ but the encounter is always reciprocal. Christ is also waiting for their history, their wisdom, their vision of the things. We proclaim Jesus Christ not to procure as many members as possible for our community, and still less in order to gain power. We speak of Him because we feel the duty to transmit that joy which has been given to us." In that case, Pope Francis was right. His first encyclical was called “Evangelium gaudium”—the Joy of the Gospel. St Teresa used to pray, “Lord, save us from dour-looking saints” and so, our first step to credibility is to make sure that we walk out into the world radiating the joy that comes from believing in Jesus Christ. It does not mean that when we believe, everything will be fine—everything will be hunky dory as they say but that in spite of everything that afflicts us, nothing can take away the certainty and joy we have that Jesus is the only Way, the Truth and the Life.
