Breaking the Word

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Wednesday in the 6th Week of Easter
Designers or Tailors

Readings: Acts 17:15, 22-18:1; Psalm 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14; John 16:12-15
Pictures: CC Lawrence Sinclair

I know next to nothing about the fashion industry. But an occasional cursory glance at such programs as Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model sometimes leads me to wonder at the exact aim of those who operate in the rarefied atmosphere of high fashion. To my uninitiated eyes, it often seems that instead of trying to make clothes that fit people – real people – the goal is instead to choose the right people – the right models, the right buyers – to fit the clothes. How different is this scene from the far more down-to-earth one found in the humble tailor shop (if we still remember what that looks like), where much energy is spent on taking the right measurements to ensure a comfortable fit. Such seems to be the contrast between designers and tailors. The former moulds models to match the material, while the latter cuts the cloth to fit the customer.

This contrast is a useful one to keep in mind when reflecting on our relationship with God. For the approach of the fashion designer is precisely the one that Paul is speaking against in his address to the Athenians in the first reading. Rather than humbly receiving the divine revelation as to what God is like and how God acts, people with the designer mentality seek instead to mould God according to their own whims and fancies. As a result, however faithful they may seem to be in performing routine rituals of worship, they end up merely paying homage to false gods, products of their own design, idols of their own making. The One True God remains unknown to them. Which is a very serious situation, since eternal life consists in knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent (see John 17:3).

It is this serious situation that the Holy Spirit and Paul are sent to redress. As Jesus tells us in the gospel, the Spirit of truth… will guide you to all truth. And it is this truth about God that Paul proclaims in the first reading. In contrast to the designer mentality, Paul demonstrates a tailor’s sensitivity. Even when speaking about the One True God, Paul tries to measure and fit his words to his listeners. He makes reference to their prevailing practices of devotion. He praises them for being very religious. He argues reasonably, as one of their philosophers might. He couches his message in terms that they can understand. In particular, he emphasizes the otherness of God (the Lord… does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands…), as much as God's nearness to us (in him we live and move and have our being). He also stresses God’s desire to be found by his wayward children (for we too are his offspring).

But however much Paul tries to tailor his message to his audience, there is one crucial non-negotiable aspect that he cannot, and dare not, water down. For this is the crux of the matter. This is the central aspect of the Mystery: God has given all authority to Jesus the Christ, who died and was raised to life for us. And this is something that the designers cannot accept. They are unwilling to tailor their own viewpoints – they are unwilling to cut the cloth of their own lives – to fit the contours of this mind blowing Mystery.

And doesn’t Paul’s experience at Athens present us with a mirror? Doesn’t it invite us to reflect upon our own worship and our own lives? In our relationships with God and with one another, to what extent are we willing to acknowledge the truth of what is before us? Or to what extent do we seek to mould God and others into our own image and likeness? The former is the way to truth and the fullness of life. The latter leads to the relegation of the One True God to the status of an unknown god.

How are we being challenged to forsake the designer in favor of the humble tailor today?

2 comments:

AnonymousWed Apr 30, 11:09:00 pm GMT+8
=)
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AnonymousFri May 02, 08:19:00 am GMT+8
Wah, so cheeem one! :-0

When I was young, I was fascinated with all the external trappings of the religion ; incense, statues, crucifixes, holy pictures, ornate candles ... you name it, I owned it! These religious objects, to me then, gave me an identity as a Christian. And then, as I grew older, all these didn't matter to me anymore.

It is easier to be a designer than a tailor because

(1) when you are a designer, you are in control as to what you want to do and the results you want to achieve.

(2) when you are a tailor, you have to conform your thinking and work to the customer whom you are trying to please. That's hard work.

I will be eternally grateful to those who prayed for me, and for the action of the Holy Spirit in my life. It's not that what I did when I was young was un-Christian; it was just that if I had remained in that state, I wouldn't have metamorphosed from a designer Christian into a tailor Christian.
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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19