God is found in slums, behind bars and in poor's pushcarts
The Universe
(January 02, 2005)
JESUS Christ brought into the world a startling new insight, a revelation so simple that so-called learned scholars of his day couldn't accept it.
Their idea of God was an almighty creator ruling the world with punishment and condemnation and only the ritually pure, or those with the highest worldly and religious status would be acceptable to God. Everyone else was a sinner, unclean and unwanted.
If you and I were around in the time of Jesus, we would be treated as outcasts and unacceptable pagans. We would be on the lowest rung of the social and economic ladder, beggars sitting at the gates of Jerusalem or Jericho. There was a chance too that we would have seen Jesus and could have been blessed and greeted by him.
If we were well off like we are today, he would've looked at our fine clothes and wealthy appearance and told us to sell most of it and be his disciples and love others as we would want ourselves to be loved.
We would have been challenged, shocked and desperate to know what decision to make. That decision is still with us today. The challenge has not been taken away, the invitation to be with Him and experience love is still there.
The message of Jesus is so basic, so simple and yet profound. God is love and we have to forget ourselves and our need to be loved and start caring about others who are deprived and dehumanized. That's the wisdom of Jesus, the prophet and teacher who revolutionized the world and upset the religious and political leaders and it still troubles all of us. This is really the meaning of his presence, his birth.
This is a mysterious message of self-denial and service to the poor and all who were on the fringes of society. These so called unclean, unwanted, unacceptable people-the pagans, the sinners, the prisoners, and the lepers-were now the number one in the roll call of Jesus of Nazareth. These were the people through whom God choose to reveal Himself.
This is what had branded him as a trouble maker, a heretic, a scandal to all. He had the audacity, this carpenter from Galilee, to question the entire teaching of Judaism about the nature of God. It is a revelation that has rocked the world ever since. This has been the uncomfortable truth that the pious and the elite want to deny, cover up and reject. In doing that they reject Jesus himself.
For each of us to meet God in these people, there is this cultural, economic, and human barrier we have to cross. That's no easy task especially if you have been fortunate enough to have been born in to a life of material prosperity.
To find the deepest experience of God, that holy grail of human and divine encounter and oneness, there is the need to purify oneself through commitment, self-giving and sharing. You have to pass your humanity to them to make them human again in feeling, mind and heart. They have been robbed of everything that makes one human and a child of God.
Jesus' greatest desire was to lead others to experience the presence of the creator in these so called nobodies. That's a worldly way of looking at people, for God to every one of us is important, precious and of greatest value and dignity.
To cross this barrier and experience God behind bars, in the slums, and the pushcarts of the poor there needs to be preparation, spiritual training where hardship needs to be endured, pain suffered, a plague of despair and doubt perhaps for a while. However, having persevered with unwavering faith, God will then reveal His presence. [End]
