[imc-qc] News - Reflections from PREDA and Fr. Shay Cullen, Philippines # 158

[PREDA Information Office]

God is found in the pushcarts of the poor
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen

Christmas above all else is the celebration of the message of Jesus Christ. 
He brought into the world a startling new and unheard of 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; the highest of 
worldly and religious status would be acceptable to God. Everyone else was 
sinners, 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. He taught 
that if you desire to experience the deepest oneness of fulfillment and 
genuine love, and be loved simply for yourself then forget give up that 
desire. That is a shock. How can we fulfill a desire we eliminate? There 
will be nothing to fulfill. Well that's the secret, God is love and we have 
to forget yourselves 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 into the world.

This 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 born in an animal 
cave-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 and then having persevered with unwavering faith 
God will reveal His presence. [End]

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