Jesus said to Magdalene, “Don’t cling to me …. But go to my brothers . . . tell them to go to Galilee. They will see me there.” Not holding on to him means, to go and “proclaim to all creatures”; not to hang on to Jesus but to live in union with God, and bear witness to what he lived for. We are commissioned to ‘tell’ the world the Good News mostly by our lives, and with ‘words’ only when necessary. We are to ‘evangelize’ – transform integrally from within.
The kerygma (Paschal
Mystery) is lived, and not so much ‘preached’. This is at the heart of neo-evangelization
beyond religiosity and wellness-spirituality. Universal Catholicism calls for
socio-cultural and religious transformation of the whole world. Church cannot
remain socially conservative and politically silent. It cannot not remain
‘status quo,’ and a ‘dull’ institution. Otherwise, it will dangerously sit on its
self-placed dynamite, timed for its own destruction. It happens so because of her
refusal to ‘change’ radically, while ‘clinging’ on to miss-fit ‘traditions’
with excessive conservative outlook.
After Jesus died and was buried, the disciples
had gone back to the region around Tiberius, back to their families. Peter with
others went fishing. They worked the whole night but ‘caught’ very little. Yet they
engaged themselves hoping for a big catch. They longed, hoped for a positive
‘change’… Their desire was fulfilled because they worked hard for it, without
sleep. God rewarded their efforts. At Jesus’ advice they cast the net on the
‘right’ side of the boat, and on the ‘right’ side of the river flow… they
caught 153 fish. God certainly rewards when we are engaged in our work, in
life, in fulfilling our responsibility. God works with us, when we are working;
when we are about our business in this world, ‘translating’ the Scripture into
actions.
Jesus never wanted that
we ‘cling’ to him to spend time in long praise and worship, in adoration.
Instead, we worship God in spirit and truth. Today, he tells us:‘ Go to Galilee
and tell the Good News, proclaim the message of salvation to all nations, evangelize,
get engaged in God’s mission on earth, to make it a better place to live in
peace and harmony, without violence and war.’ It is there in ‘Galilee’ of day
to day habitation that God meets us. He is there when we are truly ‘casting’
our net; when we spend sleepless night to earn our living. God wants that we
live fully our life, and not distract ourselves with just pious practices,
religiosity and sentimental spiritualism.
There is what we call
faith-experience. And this experience of faith leads some to sense-experience,
but it is always not so. Yet, in daily life’s involvement, faith has to
translate into senses, which in turn manifest in actions that are lived
concretely. Through such sense-experience that we live our Christian faith.
Faith and life (fides et ratio) thus are integrated in one. There is no
dualism, but an Advaitic (that has not second) experience.
The apostle Thomas, a skeptic and a realist, did not
believe in hear-say. He put his finger in the nailmarks and his hand in Jesus’
side. In our present time of science and modernity, we need to use skepticism
and empiricism, to discern our faith and life itself. We need to “look, see and touch” in order to be convinced for life.
Belief in uncertainty is a blind leap into the dark, based on bare trust. Though,
in life’s journey we will not know everything for sure and objectively through
sight and touch, yet we need to ‘discern’ to believe into an unknown reality,
seeking grace to work on our nature. If not, we will live with visions and
dreams unfulfilled. We will be drugged with the ‘opium’ of a false belief
system and sentimentalism – a kind of auto-spiritualism. Certainly, in life
time we will not see, touch and understand everything. Only an informed faith that
is discerned well, can lead us to truly love God and humanity.
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