Psyche & Soul 26: MOVING INTO THE NEW YEAR WITH HOPE!

 Podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-26-Psyche--Soul--59-eo70mr

As 2020 comes to a close, we look forward to 2021 with Hope.

2020 changed our world. 2020 has been very distressing and disruptive and in some sense a disastrous year. A year which has affected the global society in so many negative and painful ways. Covid-19 blighted our hopes and dreams, disrupted our lives in drastic ways. It undermined our sense of security and predictability. Uncontrollable spread of the deadly virus led to over a million being infected and to the death of hundreds of thousands, leaving families in grief, sometimes in despair. The lockdown caused immense suffering, especially to the vulnerable. Travel was curtailed, social contact was restricted, and we were forced to be homebound. Economy collapsed, leading to loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Haunting pictures of deprivation and death on the road have seared into our collective memory. There is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, increase in mental illness and suicide.

In this context, hope is our greatest ally. Every New Year brings a fresh outlook; we look forward to better times. We dream.

And we really hope that 2021 will usher in that freshness and newness in a very special way. We need this newness very badly in every sphere of our lives. A newness that will help us wipe away the bad memories, the nightmares, of 2020. Hope that the New Year will dissipate the virus, restore health and wellbeing to all of us, usher in a safer, more peaceful, and a more equitable and compassionate society.

WHAT IS HOPE?

Hope is the conviction of having a meaningful future despite obstacles and difficulties, and also choosing the pathways and means to make that future real.

Persons high on hope have visions of who they want to be and what they want to accomplish in life and are able to motivate themselves, and feel resourceful to accomplish their objectives.

 Hope includes practical pathways to realize the bright future we envisage. We work hard at realizing that dreamed of future. We persist in seeking goals despite setbacks and obstacles. We are also flexible enough to find different ways to get to our goals or to switch goals, if needed.

Hope and optimism go together. Optimism provides us with a faith that the future is going to be bright, that we can accomplish our goals, whatever they may be. When in a tight spot, we reassure ourselves that things will get better. Hope thus involves faith, belief in one’s capacity to achieve desired results.

 

HOPE THEORY

This is the understanding of hope provided by C. R. Snyder, the leading psychologist exploring hope. Snyder and his colleagues have come up with what they call the “Hope Theory.” The theory holds that hope involves two types of thinking: agency thinking and pathway thinking.

 Agency thinking refers to our determination to achieve our goals despite possible obstacles,

When we are high on hope, we embrace such self-talk phrases as “I can do this” and “I am not going to be stopped.”

Pathways thinking refers to the ways in which we strive to achieve these personal goals.

It involves generating an effective route to a desired goal. When that route does not bear the desired fruit, we create alternate routes and persist until desired outcomes are realized.

 

HOPE IS NOT WISHFUL THINKING

Hope, thus, is not mere wishful thinking, an illusion. It is real. It involves having goals and working towards realization of those goals, despite obstacles. Hope calls for determination, commitment and persistence. Hope is aptly expressed in Barack Obama’s famous election slogan. “Yes, We Can!” It was not just a slogan, a belief. He set in motion a powerful election machine, and organized an army of committed volunteers working hard to make the dream come true.

BENEFITS OF HOPE

A large body of research shows that hope promotes health and happiness. Hope buffers individuals against a number of physical and mental problems and helps them heal faster and easier. Individuals who maintain high levels of hope when battling illness significantly enhance their chances of recovery. They remain appropriately energized and focused on what they need to do in order to recuperate.

 Hope is negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and anger and positively correlated with life satisfaction, positive physical and mental health, self-esteem, ability to adapt and cope in various situations and longer life.

Because of these benefits, hope would be our best companion to journey through 2021. We need to believe that 2021 will be a better year, and strive with confidence and persistence to make it a better year for us and our world.

 

Introspection

·         How do we really feel as we come to the end of 2020 and move toward 2021?

·         What is it that we hope for us and our world as we move into 2021?

·         What is the newness that we would like to experience in the New Year? What is it we need to do to bring about that newness?

Prayer

Sacred scripture provides frequent assurance from God that he will bring about better times. Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah especially speak of the better times that God will usher in particularly after times of suffering and deprivation. For example, Isaiah says, something which is very relevant in the context of the suffering and hopelessness brought by Covid-19.: “And (God) will destroy…the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…” (25, 6-8)

In the Book of Revelation, we hear the One sitting on the throne in heaven saying: “See, I make all things new!” (21, 5)

Christmas, the Incarnation of God, that we just celebrated, is not only about the embodiment of God, divinization of nature, as we heard in last week’s podcast, but also about God’s comforting presence with us. Through the prophet Isaiah God assures us: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you…. Fear not, for I am with you” (43, 2-5). And Jesus’ final words in the gospel of Mathew is: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (28, 20)

This protective and caring God, our Emmanuel, is very much with us here and now, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves at year end. We could consciously attune ourselves to God’s presence to us and spend some time talking to God about our travails of 2020, about our hopes for 2021, the newness that we would like to experience. And listen to what God has to tell us, to discern what God’s New Year gift/message is to us.

I wish you a very happy, safe, healthy and blessed New Year.

Thank you for listening.

Pictures: Courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

Psyche & Soul 25: SPIRITUALITY OF EMBODIMENT

 podcast link

 https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-25-PSYCHE--SOUL--57-entejd

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

The Coming celebration of Christmas – God embodying human flesh as we read in John’s Gospel (1, 14),  is a good occasion for us to reflect on another significant dimension of a Holistic Spirituality, namely, a Spirituality of Embodiment.

God taking on human flesh and blood in Jesus of Nazareth gives a whole new dimension to the understanding of the body -- human, but also all living and non-living bodies.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE INCARNATION

In the beginning, John tells us, God was Word, but now it’s’ flesh. God as Word was abstract, distant, unfeeling. God as flesh and blood is warm, concrete, earthly. In God embracing our humanity, our bodiliness, our own embodiment is divinized. We become Godlike.

Word becoming flesh has profound consequences for our lives. Incarnation, God taking on human flesh and blood, means that God and the human body are inseparably united. We cannot worship God in the temple, church or mosque, and desecrate, destroy, dishonor or deny our bodies.

When we forget that God is present in our embodiment, we can not only dishonor and ruin our own bodies with drug and alcohol, sexual promiscuity and immorality, and excessive pampering, but we can also destroy and desecrate the bodies of others – the collective Body of God.

When we let children starve, when the so called civilized world stands as mute spectators to sexual exploitation of children, rape and burning of women, when we tolerate crime syndicates driven by greed and profiteering ravaging the bodies (and souls) of our vulnerable young through encouragement of drug and alcohol abuse and pornography, when our vulnerable old and homeless are left forsaken on our city streets, it is the collective body of God that is being desecrated. The body that is tortured and mangled, starved and emaciated, wasting away in overcrowded and inhuman prisons, the body ravaged by a deadly and uncontrollable Corona virus and other contagious diseases, and treated inhumanely and disposed of dishonorably – all these are the body of God that is being dishonoured.

Incarnation – God becoming one like us— becomes meaningful only when we fulfil our social obligations –caring for one another, honoring, respecting and nurturing all bodies. Incarnation calls for profound respect and reverence for every body, living and non-living.

DIVINIZATION OF NATURE

God not only became a human being like us, God also became part of the earth, part of the cosmos. God becomes not only a human being, but also bread and wine, fruits of the earth and products of human labour. In the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, God has divinized every created reality. The earth is sacred. The planets are sacred. Plants are sacred. Water and soil are sacred. Incarnation calls for the deepest respect and reverence for all created reality.

THE UNIVERSE AS THE BODY OF GOD

The Incarnation makes everything in the Universe itself the body of God.

Feminist theologian Sally McFague in her book “The Body of God” presents the Universe as an embodiment of God: “God is not in the Universe,” she writes, “God is one with the Universe, as a person is one with their body” or like a “Mother who encloses reality in her womb, bodying it forth, generating all life from her being.” God is one with the universe, in the sense it embodies God’s essence, being an emanation from God. The universe is not identical with God, is separate from God, but God’s essence is in every bit of the universe (panentheism), just like the baby is not identical with the mother, is separate from her, but is endowed with her essence, her own flesh and blood.

Spirituality of embodiment invites us to see the unfolding of God’s presence and action in every phenomenon of the Universe. In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Yeshuva (Jesus) says: “Split the wood, and I am there. Turn over the stone, and there you will find me.”(#77)

The 12^th century German mystic Saint Hildegaard of Bingen, Benedictine Abbess and Doctor of the Church, hears God saying to her in a vision:  “I am the breeze that nurtures all things green… I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.” Created realities here not only emanates from God, but God identifies with every created reality.

God’s presence makes every created reality an embodiment of God, so marvelously and uniquely manifest in God becoming a human being like us in Jesus of Nazareth – the event we are preparing to celebrate in a week’s time.

Introspection

What does this presentation of a spirituality of embodiment, the implications of the Incarnation, of God taking on our flesh and blood, the divinization of nature, the universe as the body of God, trigger in us? How does it challenge us?

Prayer

We could now take a relaxed body posture, take a few deep breaths, become consciously aware of the God who became human and dwelling with us and in us, and whose essence we are in our embodiment, then hold before us the images of the Christmas story, and spend a few minutes talking to God about all that is being triggered in us, and listening to God to hear what God has to tell us as we get ready to celebrate God’s incarnation at Christmas.

I wish you all a very Happy and gracefilled Christmas.

Thank you for listening.

Pictures: courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

 

Psyche & Soul 24: SPIRITUALITY OF SIMPLICITY – “DOWNWARD MOBILITY”

  podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-24-PSYCHE--SOUL--55-enlka5

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

Last weekend we reflected on a Holistic Spirituality – Wholeness, not Flawlessness.

This weekend we shall reflect on another important aspect of spirituality – Simplicity, so essential in a consumerist culture.

Lessons from Covid-19

One of the positive blessings emerging from the Covid-19 and the lockdown that forced us to be home bound, is that we would have recognized we need so little to live a happy and satisfying life. If we have the basic necessities of food, clothes and shelter, we do not need much else. The word basic here is important because food can be extravagant, clothes superfluous and shelter luxurious.

We would have recognized that much of what we considered essential are not so. We are able to manage with so little. We would have recognized that so much of what we possess is totally unneeded, that so much of what we fill our daily schedule with are totally unnecessary or trivial. We recognised what are essential, such as our relationships, and learned to devote time to them and eliminate unnecessary activities and superficial interests. This has truly been my experience that is transforming the way I live.

My Experience and Learning

Covid forced me to be more self-reliant and simplify my life. Covid-restrictions prevented our house-maid being available for a long time. This turned out to be a real blessing – a transformative experience. I realized I could do much of what she used to do.

I cleaned my room. Washed my own clothes. I realized I needed just two sets of clothes. I would wear one set one day, and wash the other, by hand (no machines), and just use them in turn. It did not inconvenience me in any way- a few extra minutes, that’s all. I had always wondered how the Sisters of Mother Teresa manage with just one set, or maximum two, of clothes. It is possible, without much inconvenience. It actually made their life simple, unburdened by needless possessions. They could be transferred from one community to another at a moment’s notice (as it often happened!). All their possession could be put into a small side bag, and walk out to the next community.

That’s when I realized that I have so many clothes that I seldom use. They remain in my cupboard, used occasionally or never. Why not get rid of them? I will.

Simple Living

So many of us have not only clothes, but many other things that we possess but do not use, or very seldom use. We could easily give them away, to those who really need them, and simply our lives and enrich theirs. We could keep aside two or three sets of fine clothes for special occasions. For the rest, just have the minimum that is essential. And why not we ourselves wash our clothes and dishes, clean our own rooms? You know, it is simple, and one advantage is that it provides quite a bit of exercise, and invigorates us.

We need not to throw away our clothes the moment a tear appears, or has faded and rush to buy new ones. Prince Charles, who can afford anything he wants, uses the same suits again and again, even mended ones, even at official gatherings. He does not feel a need to impress anyone with what he wears. Instead, he has inspired others to live simply, and save the money for charities.

He also advocates simplicity and challenges the consumerist culture. In an interview with the Editor of British Vogue magazine he said: We have “huge opportunities” to challenge “this extraordinary trend of throw-away clothing or throw-away everything, frankly.” He added that he himself prefers to get shoes “or any item of clothing” repaired when worn out or faulty rather than discarding them. He was taught simple living from childhood. When he was a child, he and his sibling used to take their shoes down to the cobbler in Scotland where he lived then and would watch with fascination as the cobbler repaired them.

Saving the Planet

Researchers at John Hopkins University have predicted that every two.-three years we are going to have a pandemic more virulent and destructive than Corona. And the cause climate change, resulting from over exploitation of earth’s resources and polluting the atmosphere. Currently we are using 1.5 time the earth’s resources destroying its capacity for self-renewal.

Often we accuse the multi-national corporations and developed countries of contributing to climate change and over utilization of earth’s resources that cause it. But we forget we too make our contribution through our own over-consumption.

Spirituality of “Downward Mobility”

This is where the Spirituality of Simplicity comes in. Several years ago, seeing consumerism spreading over the globe, destroying natural resources, as well as exploiting the poor workers Father Pedro Arrupe, former Jesuit General and a spiritual giant of recent times, proposed a spirituality of “Downward Mobility” which is a radical move downward in the scale of material standards, trying to live with less and less rather trying to acquire more and more. But we love upward mobility. We want the latest gadgets, possess the latest fashion accessory, even though they are totally unnecessary. We often buy things, especially clothes, which we may never use! For some of us hoarding things, which we may never use, has become a hobby. Every time we buy something unnecessary we are depleting nature’s resources hastening the next pandemic.

As Pedro Arrupe observed, “The superfluous becomes the convenient; the convenient becomes the necessary; the necessary becomes indispensable.” (By Downward Mobility Arrupe also meant solidarity with the poor, the exploited and the powerless who are the most affected by climate change and globalization.)

In a consumer culture where we are constantly told to buy the latest, it is a challenge to practise downward mobility. We get so easily seduced to buy, also because we want keep up with the Joneses and flaunt our latest acquisition to impress our friends and neighbours. We need to resist the seduction by the consumer industry through its incessant advertising campaigns that lures us to buy the latest, which almost always is totally unnecessary.

There is also so much we waste. Water, electricity, food. If we men could use a mug of water when we shave, rather than let the water keep on running, for example, we could save much water. We could also make sure our plumbing is good and there are no leaking taps. We could reduce the consumption of electricity, switching of unnecessary lights and reducing the use of electric gadgets. When eating out, we could order only the food that we are confident we can consume, rather than leave behind to be thrown away. There are so many simple ways of conserving energy. What is needed is only goodwill and some effort.

For our Introspection

How can we simplify our life?

How can we avoid waste and conserve energy?

How can we practice downward mobility?

For Our Prayer

In his 1^st letter to Timothy, St Paul says: “If we have food and clothing , with these we shall be content.”

In the gospels Jesus exhorts us (Mathew 6, 26 -34; Luke 23, 22-31) to trust our God who provides us with everything and not be anxious about the future. We don’t need to hoard.

We could recall the lives of those who have lived very simple lives, such as St. Francis Assisi, St. Claire, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. We could then take a relaxed and comfortable posture and feel the presence of the God who is with us here and now. Talk to God about whatever is triggered in us by the Spirituality of Simplicity and Downward Mobility and also listen to what God has to say to us.

We could also read Mathew 6, 26-34, or Luke 23, 22-31, and stay with what these words of Jesus evoke in us

Have a pleasant weekend. Be safe. Be well. Be blessed.

Thank you for listening/reading.

Pictures: courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

Psyche & Soul 23: HOLISTIC SPIRITUALITY: Wholeness, Not Flawlessness

  podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-23-PSYCHE--SOUL--53-enb111

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

Last weekend we reflected on the impact of dualism on spirituality. This weekend we shall reflect on a Spirituality based on the newly emerged Holistic paradigm.

Several developments in science and philosophy in the last hundred years have undermined the mechanistic-dualistic paradigm and paved the way for the emergence of a new one – the Holistic paradigm.

This new paradigm is having a profound and revolutionary impact on the understanding and practice of everyday spirituality. 

Among the developments that led to the new paradigm, fundamental was Quantum Theory which ushered in the concept of a dynamic, fluid universe. The universe is not a collection of static objects which can be further decomposed into still smaller units as the mechanistic-dualistic paradigm had suggested. Rather, the universe is an inseparable and interconnected web of vibrating and dancing energy patterns in constant motion. In such a universe no one component has reality independent of the entirety. All of reality is one, and it is in constant flux.

It is not just quantum theory that undermined the dualistic-mechanistic model of the world. 

For process philosophy, change is the very essence of reality. In process thinking, fluidity and change are more fundamental than stability and permanence.

Systems theory does away with the notions of separate, discreet, and independent reality. Reality is whole and can only be understood as a whole. The essential properties of an organism are properties of the whole and cannot be found in its parts.

The result of these new ways of understanding reality was the undermining of the Dualistic-Mechanistic paradigm and the emergence of a new paradigm – the 

In this new paradigm matter and spirit are not separate or opposing realities, but rather two poles of one ultimate reality – matter being the gross (concrete) pole, and spirit, the subtle (fluid) pole. The great spiritual master, Teilhard de Chardin, expressed beautifully the oneness of matter and spirit: “Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen.”

This concept of wholeness, of the unity and oneness of all reality, interweaving of matter and spirit, has implications for our understanding of spirituality and its practice.

A SPIRITUALIITY OF WHOLENESS

Growth in spiritual maturity is not about being perfect or flawless, but about being loving and growing in relationship to the divine and to all of reality. While trying to become a loving human being, struggling to grow close to the divine and the human we can fail, we can make mistakes, sin. Our failure and sinfulness too can be means to grow in holiness. Grace and sin form one entity, part of the whole, just as matter and energy do. They are inseparable elements of spirituality. Both grace and sin are at work in us. We struggle, we fail, we succeed. In all that God is present. Spiritual growth happens when we recognize that presence and feel loved, and grow in love.

In his Stories of God, Jack Shea refers to the possibilities for finding God in our limitations, our disillusionment and our sinfulness. He writes: “When we reach our limits, when our ordered worlds collapse, when we cannot enact our moral ideals, when we are disenchanted, we often enter into the awareness of Mystery” (p. 39).

Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and retreat director, wrote a book with a rather paradoxical title, Falling Upwards. In it he describes potential inherent in our weaknesses, failures and limitations to enhance our spiritual journey as follows: “We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. That might just be the central message of how spiritual growth happens; yet nothing in us wants to believe it” (p. xxii). Yes, those of us who have grown with a spirituality of perfection, with a clear division of sin and grace, and the need to be perfect and flawless believing God d love us only when we are good, would find it very difficult to believe this. We might consider Rohr’s statement heresy.

The late Indian Jesuit spiritual master Tony D’Mello said something similar with his story of the metaphoric rope that binds us to God. When we commit a serious sin, the rope is broken, severing our relationship to God. But when we repent and return to God, then the severed rope is tied back together, making it both shorter and stronger. In other words, our sin and our reconciliation strengthens our relationship and brings us closer to God more than before our sinning!

The motto of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is applicable to spirituality as well: “Progress, not Perfection!” We seek progress on the spiritual path, not perfection. Progress can be mnade iven through our failure. What we need to do is to keep on struggling day after day to grow a little more in the love of God and our neighbor, using our failures as stepping stones.

This idea of spirituality might appear heresy to many. But, not if we know who our God really is: a God of mercy and compassion who does not hold our sins against us, but lifts us up into his warm embrace after we fall. The story of the sinful woman in Luke’s Gospel is illustrative here.  Jesus says it is her sin that taught her to love more deeply. “Therefore, I tell you her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. (7, 47)

 Introspection

What is your reaction to this presentation of holistic spirituality? Does it disturb you or challenge you? Why? In what way?

Prayer

There are many incidents in the Gospel where we see the compassion and understanding Jesus shows to sinners and those who go astray, such as to the woman mentioned above. He never condemns them. He condemns, instead, the self-righteous Scribes, Pharisees and Rabbis who prided in their goodness and looked down upon those who fail or are not righteous in their sight.

 You could now take a few minutes to talk to this compassionate and merciful Jesus about all that this podcast is triggering in you, as well as about your own struggles on the spiritual path. If you feel so inclined, you could read some of the passages in the gospel where Jesus shows mercy and compassion to sinners and those who struggle with life’s problems.

 …..

Have a blessed weekend. Be well. Be safe.

Thank you for listening/reading.

Pictures: Courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com