What Stories Do to Us
Katty
now knows the day and the place where part of her ceased to live.
It was fifteen years ago when she was five years old. She was in her
bedroom when, in the living room outside, her parents were berating
her older sister Marivic because she got only a passing grade in three
subjects. Why was Marivic not like Tonette, her older sister, who
was their pride always getting the first honor in her class? They
shouted, "Maybe you are not our child at all!" her father
had said. And her mother added, "That's right, maybe you got
switched with someone else's baby in the hospital after you were born!"
Katty could not understand why her parents rejected the loving and
warm Marivic in favor of the studious cold hearted Tonette. In fact,
she felt closer to Marivic, who loved her and hugged her, than she
did to either of her parents who seemed to be always at work or out
of town on business trips. The little five year old Katty became convinced
that if Marivic was a mistake she was the same mistake. If Marivic
was rejected, no good, she too was rejected - no good.
There
is a common assumption that human beings make or create stories. Actually,
the opposite is true; it is stories that create us. It is the story
of the imagined hospital switching of babies and the rejection it
implied that created Katty. More accurately in this case, it desecrated
or dis-created her into a fearful twenty year old who was only half
living because of her inner emptiness.
Stories
can CREATE, DESECRATE OR RE-CREATE us. They do this in the secular
and in the religious world. A leader about whom there is a great story
can inspire a nation. A story that glorifies graft and corruption
can stymie all efforts at reform. In the religious world we are faced
with mystery. Mystery is by definition inexpressible but through story
we can get glimpses of it. Religious myth stories create a world view
which enable people to give meaning to their lives.
Stories
also create silence. The quality of our silence will depend on the
story or myth or tradition out of which we enter the silence. This
is why the late Dom Bede Griffith used to say that it is very dangerous
to meditate without a tradition. When the other Benedictine, Dom John
Main, invites us into the silence of meditation he is doing so out
of the story that says "he who created the universe lives in
our hearts and in silence is loving to all." It is the story
that says each of us are temples wherein the Holy Spirit is ever praying
"Abba, Father." John Main always kept in touch with that
story by being immersed in the scriptures himself and reading, especially
from the writings of St Paul, at the end of each of his talks.
When
the ordinary Filipino goes into silence he or she may find something
that has been made by other stories. They may be religious stories
in which devils and angels predominate. They could also be stories
of capricious spirits, the "not like us," who need to be
courted and placated because they seek vengeance for every petty fault.
To be a Christian is to be created by the story the Bible tells us.
Its myths, the Genesis creation story for example, create in us a
way of seeing the world. In this world everything comes from God,
is made good. It affirms that human beings are the pinnacle of all
and that other things are for their responsible use. In this simple
story we find the basis of ecumenism, human rights, racial and sexual
equality to name but a few of the implied affirmations of human dignity.
But
there are other creating stories. Obviously, the parents of Katty
were made by a story that said that hard work and money were the top
priority. It was a story in which they saw their children, not to
be loved for their own sakes, but as extensions of themselves who
were to be loved only if they brought reflected glory to their parents.
In
today's Gospel we have the allegorical story of the sower who went
out to sow the seed. The seed is the Word, the story of God. Let us
look at this story in terms of the possibilities of what it could
do for Katty's parents.
"Some
seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them
up." In this scenario the God Story is for the birds! The couple
are so hardened into their other story that the Word cannot penetrate
it. Religion is pie in the sky.
"Others
fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up
straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as
the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they
withered away." In this case the couple heard the Word and saw
that it had a value but as they were rooted in their former story
no change was able to take place.
"Others
fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them." In
this scenario the couple appreciate their Christian faith. At first
they fulfill the practices of their Church. They may even join Marriage
Encounter or some other religious activities. But these do not last
as they are crowded out of their schedules by their material concerns
which are the priority story.
"Others
fell on rich soil and produced their crops, some a hundred fold, some
sixty, some thirty." In this case the couple were able to hear
the recreating stories. They were able to hear especially the parables
which subvert our ordinary worldly values and ways of looking at things.
They were able to hear of Jesus rejecting the temptations to possessions,
prestige and power. They were able to read of the father of the prodigal
son whose attitude was always 100% loving no matter how the child
performed. These stories were brought into prayerful reflection. Better
still, they were brought into silence which according to Pastores
Dabo Vobis is "the atmosphere vital for perceiving God's presence
and for allowing one's self to be won over by it." As they become
people re-created by another story they will also become parents of
a different kind.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
