DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED When I read the gospel passage of this morning, a song we used to sing while in primary school in the 1970s immediately came to mind. I can only recall the words faintly and for we used to mumble words that we did not understand, I have never taken time to know the lyrics well. The song vaguely goes like this: Why worry, when you can pray, trust in Jesus and he will do the best; do not be like doubting Thomas, not trusting in his promise, why worry, worry, worry, when you can pray”. If we carefully examine our lives and that of others, the virus of fear, we reflected on a few weeks ago, has led us to become so anxious, worried and troubled. We so rooted in looking for solutions to our troubles that we do not have time to relax and really be at peace with our God, universe, fellow human beings and even our own very selves. Our fear has taken away our true freedom, which is peace of heart. We have indeed become prisoners of our fear. Once we become troubled, we allowed the object of fear to over-power us, control us and direct our lives. This is another form of slavery caused by the fall that Christ wants to liberate us from. That is why in today’s gospel he invites or assures us in the follow words: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God still and trust in me’. Our God is not a God of fear but a God of love; a God who invites us in his love to receive the gifts of joy and peace. Our troubles can make us to look for dependency on some person or thing that you help give a solution. The easiest temptation is to depend on created things, on money or on human beings rather than on God. However, God still gives us the chance to realise that it is only in Him that we can find rest and peace and this comes about through crisis. When we find ourselves in a crisis, we find ourselves in God’s classroom, where He God wants to teach us the lessons of life. However, it depends on us to enter into this classroom and listen or distract ourselves with noise and get into deeper crises. Most life insurances profit from these crisis of putting God off and relying on man and his inventions. A persons experience will help pass across the message better than just theorising and spiritualising. I remember once, taking a walk one Sunday after in Bamenda in 1992 when we had some political upheaval resulting from presidential elections. A state of emergency had been declared because of the destruction. Out of curiosity, I left the presbytery to experience for myself what was going on. I decided to stop by a small grocery shop of one of my friends who was so happy seeing me take that risk. She welcomed me in the usual Cameroonian way – food and drink. She bought me barbecued (roasted) fish with the usual ingredients and a chilled bottle of beer. As I was enjoying myself and getting the latest information on what had happened on that day, a young man came in to buy. He asked for an egg and a cup of garri (some powdered flour made from cassava). Unfortunately for him, he was short of 10frs CFA. This lady refused to give him all the items except he completes the money. Since he hadn’t, he just took the garri and left. I made no move myself to help him. As I was walking back home, my thoughts started speaking to me. This lady had spent around 750Frs CFA to entertain me and found it difficult to spare a 10Frs CFA for a poor person. I myself, did not make any move, though I had some money in my pocket. After all, in Cameroon, one of the church laws recited is to help the bishop and priests, not the other way round. And, behold, I was returning to a house that had more than enough beer and dinner set on the table. I felt so ashamed I could not be of help to this man myself. From the look of things, I knew instinctively that that was the only meal that person would have had on that day: fried eggs and garri. In all honesty, I made a decision on that day to change my eating habits, not just to pray for the poor, but to see how I could also be of help practically. Since then I have come to realise that I am more secured and less worried than I was when I thought money and material things could solve my insecurities and fears. By opening up to so many, I have come to a new world: the more I care for others, the more they care for me; the more I think about the good of the others, the more they think of my own good. Why worry or become troubled when there are so many around me to see to my needs, open their doors to me and so on, just because somewhere and someday, I did it to them!!! Yes, charity begets charity!!! We can best think about the good of others when we read the scriptures, the living traditions and magisterial teachings of the church, through which God speaks to us. In understanding the mind of God, we come to understand the mind of the human being who has been created in the image and likeness of God. At that point, our worries, troubles and insecurities are taken off and replaced by the peace of the Risen Lord. Whenever we avoid God and place our hopes in people and in material things, we find out that, instead of becoming gentle (the result of peace), we become violent (the result of worry and troubles). As described by Henri Nouwen: Our hands no longer caress but grab… our lips no longer kiss, but bite… our eyes no longer gaze lovingly, but look suspiciously… our ears no longer hear, but overhear. Suddenly we realise that, in wanting from other people a divine solution, we make them into gods and ourselves into demons. We become violent precisely because we expect more from each other than we can give.” Once we find ourselves in this situation, we end up looking for more securities that end up making us more of prisoners than freed persons since no one can answer the deepest longings of our hearts. Could we conclude with this beautiful story, again from Henri Nouwen: Once there was a people that surveyed the resources of the world, and they said to each other, “How can we be sure we will have enough in hard times? We want to survive whatever happens. Let us start collecting food, materials, and knowledge so that we are safe and secure when a crisis occurs.” So they started hoarding, so much that other people protested and said, “Hey, you have much more than you need, while we don’t have enough to survive. Give us part of your wealth. But the fearful hoarders said, “No, no, no, we need to keep this in case of emergencies, in case things go bad for us too, in case our lives are threatened.” Time passed, and then the others said, “We are dying now. Please give us food and materials and knowledge to survive. We can’t wait. We need it now.” And then the fearful hoarders became even more fearful, because they were afraid that the poor and hungry would attack them. So they said to one another, “Let us build walls around our wealth so that no stranger can take it away from us.” And thus they started erecting walls so high that they could not see anymore whether there were enemies outside or not. And as their fear increased they told each other, “Our enemies have become so numerous that they may be able to tear down our walls. Our walls are not strong enough to keep them away. We need to put bombs on top of the walls so that nobody will dare to even come close to us.” But instead of feeling safe and secure behind their armed walls, they found themselves trapped in the prison they had built with their own fear. They even became afraid of their own bombs, wondering if they might harm themselves more than their enemy. And gradually they realised that their fear of death had brought them closer to it. Where has your troubled led you to put your trust in: God or created reality? Your present state will tell you better… if you are struggling to pile up things for the future, that are causing you to build walls… something may be wrong. If you are finding inner peace and security, living well with your neighbours and not being afraid of them… you may probably be on the right track. May the God of peace help you to make a good decision this week and become less troubled by the cares of this life.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 06:23:27 +0000
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