HAVE REASONS FOR A FAITH THAT HEALS THE WORLD

 

A Christian should “give reason to anyone who asks to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pt 3:15), but we are often not given practical guidance on how to prepare. S/he should combine historical wisdom, practical skills, strategies, spiritual insights and practical principles inspired by Jesus, to explain to another the faith with charity and clarity; be ready to dialogue, evangelize and respond to questions about the Catholic faith in any given opportunity.

The book, The Everlasting Man, a compelling defense of Christianity, (apologetics) by G.K. Chesterton changed the young atheist C.S. Lewis, on the path toward Christianity. In fact, he was convinced that Jesus compels his disciples to make a choice: either you are with Jesus, or against him. There is no third way. This historical, mythological, philosophical, and theological story written in an obscure literary style, on humanity and religion looks quite paradoxical and disorienting, writes Ron Rolheiser. Yet, it is a classical literary genius, apt even today. It can become life story of a Christian of 21^st Century, applicable to modern life. To understand this paradox is already a step close to becoming a true Christian. 

 Jesus’ life principle was one of healing humanity and the world at large, bringing in the original order set by God, which a part of the humankind has disfigured and desecrated. This is a spiritual adventure for all of us, who are destined to heal. Like the cripple who, being healed by the apostles, began “jumping and praising God” (Acts 3:1–9). This is the hope produced by a spirituality of healing. That’s why Jesus came. In Jesus the healer, divinity and humanity meet, wherein his whole body, mind and spirit become a “conduit of God’s energy”, meant to set right a world gone wrong.  Jesus manifests the healing love of God, whose ultimate intention is establishing His totally healed Kingdom. We all can be ‘conduits’ of God’s healing energy.

God reaches out to the sinner (destroyer of the Kingdom), the sufferer, the marginalized. Jesus, following the Father’s will, seeks out the sinners with love and humility. He just wants to know if we want to be well again; if we really want to heal others. But there is always opposition to this healing process in the world. Often the healing work is condemned. There is the resistance to God’s creative work, to deny that it is not needed. The leaders of the world are confounded with diverse decisions. Many lawmakers of the state ignore ethics, natural laws, morality and conscience. Why do the governances want their way? Why don’t they seek together the common good? It is because God’s ways threaten their stay in power. They expose their strategies of oppression and exclusion to boost their egos.

Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection will continue to heal the world and restore its humanity to sanity, free those under bondage of sin, enlighten those still in darkness, and heal the ‘sick’ and hungry humanity. God will not stop the healing mission, because his love is unchangeable. God will comfort his people and show mercy to them for He is gracious, faithful, holy, just, and near to those who call upon him.

“To set right a disjointed universe, God broke open his own heart in love” writes Bishop Barron. God worked through many prophets, to gather the scattered children of the dysfunctional world into a divine life. Humanity is God’s centre of love. God’s power breaks open to include both the happy and the hopeless. The human quest for God is reversed, as God himself as the ‘hound of heaven’ goes out in search of the ‘sick’ for a wholistic healing. The essence of Christianity is, therefore, a self-emptying divine love, wherein we partake in the essential healing mission of the Trinitarian God.

In the actual world, on the contrary, we see a “scapegoat mechanism” (René Girard) worked out by the powerful of the world, who have the insatiable human need for scapegoats, in order to justify their misdeeds. According to Bishop Barron, God’s power acts in opposition to that energy of scapegoating:  God directs the energy of scapegoating violence back on the self-powered leaders, exposing the dangerous consequences of scapegoating over the unstable order of the society.

God sets a new order: a transformed world, through the divine and creative healing touch, perfecting the human nature, conformed to the original natural plan. This new order – Kingdom of God– is breaking out in the world; divided people are coming back together, and God is going to reign. Human race must live now as members of this new kingdom. People themselves will engage the enemies of the world, to deal directly with those powers opposed to God’s creative mission, confronting the “political oppressors, religious charlatans, and self-absorbed Pharisees.” And the Universal Truth will set the enslaved people free, and heal them from the worldy ‘diseases’ and its many extended symptoms. The ill-motivated people will be called to come out of their stubborn self. God wants the good, and only good of humanity. We all ought to be healed of all our ego. We all ought to opt for ‘Theo-drama’ and not ego-drama, following God’s will in our life. Consequently, we shall worship God in spirit and truth in a healed world. Ultimately, a healed humanity will realize that no devotion (worship) is more pleasing to God than that which is directed to the poor needy (St. Leo the Great). A healing faith helped by reason, like a hidden force, can bring about transformation in the world, beyond what our eyes perceive, because “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).