Being The Nice Guy

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all." -  Thumper

This line is from the movie Bambi and practicing it takes a lot of wisdom and discipline. 

For me, learning this lesson involved a lot of burned bridges, regret, and pain. Even though I already covered this quote in a post some time ago, there were still instances when I forgot this quote in the heat of the moment and I paid for it dearly.

Still, I can honestly say there has been progress since then. I don't text angry messages any more, choosing to talk to the person directly before choosing to rage out. I now automatically think about the context why someone did this or that. I withhold reacting until I see the complete picture.

Of course, there are still struggles. I am still judgmental (though the thoughts are now contained in my head). I still harbor unpleasant thoughts and/or feelings like anger, envy, resentments, ridicule, things which I consider as "harassments". Occasionally, something slips but it is always followed by a profuse apology.

Being a nice guy is hard work. But as Thomas Edison would say: "There is no substitute for hard work."

"Peace Be With You"

Back in college, a Theology teacher of mine recounted how he would wince when strangers greet him "Peace" during that portion in the mass. 

For him, the greeting should be predicated by two things. First, that greeter must be in a quarrel with him. Hence, the greeting of peace is taken as an apology or an act of forgiveness on the part of the greeter. Second, that greeter must be known to him. Otherwise, the greeting of peace becomes illusory, a token act by an otherwise disinterested co-participant in the mass.

It took me a while to realize that his premises were wrong. First, we greet each other not because we have a grudge in need of a resolution. We greet because we are modelling Jesus Christ. It is our belief that in acting out as Jesus did eons before, we become channels in bringing His peace to others. 

Interestingly enough, for most people, the greetings of peace become self-fulfilling prophecies. But that's something for another post.

The second prerequisite has more meat though. Often times, through force of habit, we greet each other sans the sincerity of the act. Too often, the greeting becomes mechanical and obligatory. The life is drained away by routine and familiarity. 

I do not have an easy answer for this. But one way I can respond is by becoming more authentic in doing the greeting regardless if the recipient is a stranger, a friend, or a family member.

The Lord's peace be with you.

Faith In The Era Of Doubt

The Gospel today, about Doubting Thomas (John 20: 19-31), prompted me to ask: why did God became man at such a time? Why didn't he choose this age instead to come down to earth?

By living in this century, Jesus would have made it easier for us to believe in Him and His Resurrection: we're talking about hundreds of pictures and videos from smart phones and paparazzi documenting His every move, His every word. With the current technology, we would have been able to amass literally millions of reference material on Him and His teaching instead of the measly four Gospels we have now. In short, it would have been easier to believe in Jesus, fully alive, fully human and divine.

Instead, He was born in a small desert nation ruled then by the Roman empire. He lived in a time full of superstition and crude beliefs, when 'documentation", as we know it now, was virtually non-existent. 

Some historians nowadays question the historicity of Jesus Christ. Some hypothesize that He did not exist at all. Some claim that He was in fact an amalgam of several influential thinkers. In both schools of thought, Jesus Christ is an illusion. As to why has the belief in such a questionable figure of history persisted over the centuries points to nothing else but the intractability of the Jesus myth.

But yet we are here: believing in the Risen Lord with a fervor that defies logic and reason. 

Sir Ivan, a former colleague, shared a story about the Jesuits during one of our sales trips. The conversation was about my mother's comment on the Society of Jesus. She was mesmerized how such men, immensely gifted intellectually, did not see any discord between their faith in God and in science. Sir Ivan promptly replied that, perhaps, this is so because the Jesuits have seen and experienced God Himself; any other proof was rendered moot.

Maybe, it is only fitting that Jesus lived and died in the context that He was in: a forgettable nation in what should be an insignificant era of human history, a time when pictures, videos, or even news have yet to be invented.

It is only in this context that the phrase 'leap of faith' can ever become genuine. Without any 'evidence' of Jesus, our transition from non-belief to belief becomes all the more powerful and life-changing. Without 'evidence', ironically, God becomes more evident in the way He touches us. Like the Jesuits, we believe even more that Jesus is alive because we have seen and experienced Him. We have felt Him move us and change us deep within.

This is perhaps the paradox of His Resurrection today: that in His physical absence, He makes His presence all the more felt.