Wise Foolishness
One
of Grimm's stories is about a man who had three sons. The youngest
was called Simpleton and was mocked and despised by everyone. When
the father wanted wood from the forest he asked his eldest son, the
brightest one, to go to get it. Before he went his mother gave him
a sweet cake and a bottle of wine. In the forest he met a little gray
haired old man who greeted him and asked him for something to eat.
The eldest son said: "if I give you my food and drink I'll have
little for myself. Go Away!" He left the little man standing
and went on his way. But when he started to knock down a tree he cut
himself and had to return home to have his arm looked after.
After
this the second son went into the forest. His mother also gave him
a cake and a bottle of wine. The little old man asked him for a little
cake and a drink of wine but the second son said: "what I give
you will be taken from myself. Go away." He left the little man
standing there. But when he started to swing his axe against the tree
he struck himself in the leg and he had to be carried home.
Then
Simpleton asked if he could go to get the wood. His father laughed
at him in scorn and said he was too stupid to do anything right. But
Simpleton insisted and his mother gave him a stale cake and a bottle
of sour beer. In the forest he met the little old man who told him
that he was hungry and thirsty. Simpleton answered: "I have only
a stale cake and sour beer; if that pleases you we will sit down and
share it." And so they did. Afterwards the little man said: "since
you have a good heart and are willing to divide what you have, I will
bring you good fortune." And the tale ends with Simpleton inheriting
a Kingdom.
There are two issues, separate but related, in today's Gospel reading.
The first is that the Simpletons, the children, the unwise of this
world sometimes seem to grasp the core of what life is all about better
than the so-called wise and wealthy. Recently, I was celebrating Mass
in a barrio and I divided the people up into small groups to discuss
the Gospel which was about the man who was born blind. While the adults
were discussing I sat down with the children to listen to what they
thought. Cheryl, an eight year old, said, "when people hate one
another they are blind because they see only the bad part in the other
person. When people forgive they see the whole person and they see
that the bad part is only a tiny part of the whole person." The
adults had nothing so profound to report from their discussion!
The
second issue is that of dealing with sufferings and burdens. Again
the Simpletons seem to do better. The message of the Gospel, through
the words and deeds and life of Jesus, is very clear. Suffering is
a part of life. What makes us great is not the avoidance of suffering
but how we cope with it. Jesus does not assure us that he will take
away our sufferings - his own were not taken away - but he says that
he will make our burdens light, but they will still be burdens! People
of power, economically or even spiritually, are ever trying to avoid
suffering, to be an exempt elite, and they are being frustrated on
that account.
In
many years of dealing with the dying, both in the Philippines and
abroad, I have never met a poor person who had a great struggle with
facing death. Denial and anger are much higher amongst those in the
higher income bracket. Probably, if in the course of life a person
has been "very successful" in amassing wealth and in overcoming
all sorts of frustrations and obstacles in doing so, they are going
to feel much more the total frustration of losing control of and losing
the very possession of their own lives. The poor, on the other hand,
have been used to not having and "letting go," so letting
go of life itself is not difficult for them.
There
are, of course, two kinds of poverty: forced poverty and voluntary
poverty. Forced poverty is an evil and we must not romanticize it.
It is the poverty of those who do not have enough to eat, lack proper
clothing, who cannot buy medicine. Voluntary poverty on the other
hand is something good. It is when someone decides to "let go"
or "to give away." This person can let go of or give away
physical possessions, or honors or the desire for power. When this
happens there is an experience of freedom and joy.
Prayer should be helping us to let go, to be open to God, to God's
will, to become voluntarily poor. Unfortunately we are often using
prayer to try to get God to help us in our grasping and controlling
and in our efforts to gain prestige. St. James tells us that our prayers
are not answered because we are asking for the wrong things, we are
only asking for the things that fulfill our selfish desires. In meditation
we let go of all ideas and images, of all attachments and desires,
and become free for true joy as our yoke becomes sweet and our burden
becomes light. In meditation we follow the Gospel call to leave self
behind. For twenty to thirty minutes twice a day we just try to say
the mantra, the prayer word. Usually we find that we cannot do this
simple task and, as we seem to be getting nowhere, we are inclined
to give it up. For the worldly wise it seems to be a ridiculous waste
of time. John Main advises anyone who starts meditation to give it
about three months before making a decision to abandon it. These will
be months of perseverance in a futile effort to do something that
seems foolishly simple - repeating one word subvocally during the
whole time of meditation. The general experience is that after a few
months, while the simple practice of meditation is still frustrating
and apparently idiotic, the rich effects found in one's life are enough
to convince one from within that there is wisdom in this foolishness.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
