Counter Cultural Prayer
I
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The message of Jesus to
his time was very clear, simple, and direct. But, because his message
was counter cultural, he and the message were rejected by the majority.
Jesus challenged the people of his time to counter cultural behavior.
He critically challenged conventional wisdom and subverted normal
logic. He said: "blessed are the poor, theirs is the kingdom
of God;" "Rejoice when people revile you;" "love
your enemies;" "forgive not seven times but seventy times
seven times;" "do not be anxious about your life."
He proclaimed and showed that life comes through suffering and death.
This kind of talk was too much for the majority of the people to take
and so they rejected his message and got rid of him.
Christian
meditation is a WAY of prayer, a way of being present to God that
is counter cultural and is, I believe, for that very reason redemptive
of the culture and its ways of prayer. But like the message of Jesus
it will not be accepted by the majority.
The pre-Christian spirituality of the Philippines, as of most of Asia,
was animistic (McCoy). Basic to this animism was the belief that there
exists an invisible and powerful spirit-world that impinges upon the
human world. To insure success and protection the spirits must be
courted for their favors, or when offended, appeased by appropriate
sacrifices and ceremonies. The animism of the Tagalog regions was
less fear ridden than that of the Visayas and Mindanao (McCoy).
This
kind of world view is found in most of insular South East Asia and
is believed to have come from India in the sixth century.
Whereas,
in Hindu and Buddhist mainland Asia there was a great sense of harmony
and peace with nature, in insular South East Asia it was different.
If nature, the domain of the spirits was transgressed, the spirits
had to be placated by the "babaylan" who performed a special
ritual. These practices still go on and Catholic sacraments or blessings
are often perceived by the people as being much the same sort of thing
as the animistic rituals. When a priest is called to bless a house
he will often notice that a chicken has been ritually slaughtered
before his arrival.
This
background leads to a great fear of the dark, of trees, mountains,
rivers, all places where malign spirits might be lurking. Out of this
comes a great fear of being alone. It is quite logical, too, that
there should be fear of the inner self which one invariably meets
in silence. Hence, Filipinos prefer a more gregarious type of prayer
to meditation. Prayer is still seen mainly as fulfilling an obligation
to court God's favor or as placation for offenses that we may have
committed even unawares.
Popular
Religiosity or Folk Catholicism was the child born of the wedding
of traditional animism and Spanish Catholicism. While some would consider
Folk Catholicism "a corrupt form of Christianity" (Cortes),
others (McCoy) would claim that "centuries of Christian Missionary
work had little appreciable impact, and animism remains a potent religious
force in the mid-20th century." It is interesting that Muslims
who pre-dated Christianity in the Philippines by two centuries, also
encounter the strong persistence of earlier animistic beliefs. "Many
of the current supposed religious practices of the Maranaws (the Muslims
of Northern Mindanao) which have continued up to the present age are
of pagan origin (Madale)."
Spanish
Catholicism was affected by Arianism, a fourth century heresy that
said that Christ was inferior to the Father. In reaction the Council
of Nicea decreed that Christ was equally God with the Father. This
led to a lumping of the Trinity in Heaven. Out of this the Divinity
of Christ came to be over emphasized and his humanity neglected. Christianity
became too focused on looking up to a God in Heaven. It neglected
the equally important aspect of responding to a God who became incarnate
in Christ and continues in the Church and in the human community around
us today through his Spirit.
Catholicism
also came as part of political colonization. A religion with a transcendent
focus helped the colonizer very much (consciously or unconsciously).
God is the high authority in heaven that must be obeyed. Likewise
all authority must be obeyed. The big sin is to disobey - parents,
or those in authority. God was used as an instrument of coercion (and
still is). The concept of "gaba" (divine punishment) still
teaches people that they will be punished by God if they do not comply
with the wishes of authority.
Popular Religion addresses itself to a God who is outside us, an Old
Testament "Father" God, who must be placated. There is scarcely
any concept of a God who dwells amongst us, and less still of an Indwelling
Spirit. It is a religiosity of processions and devotions, of touching
images, lighting candles, and belief in magical practices without
much attention to their underlying values. The operative image of
Church would be the 'Church as Refuge,' the place you run to when
life's problems are too much to bear.
There
are, of course, positive aspects to Popular Religiosity. It is a genuine
religiosity, a true faith in Christ, and it carries a great sense
of providence, of a caring God who controls all things.
Popular
Religiosity enshrines a reverence for the ecology, and for the earth
that supports life, that modern men and women could well recapture.
Today
we are living in exciting times! Since the Second Vatican Council
the Bible has been given back to the people in their own language.
This is an event of phenomenal importance. This restores to the people
the power to theologize, the power to let the myths of the pre Christian
past and the accretions of history be confronted with the stories
of the Bible and the realities of today, so that they can transform
each other. Ordinary people can now read the Scriptures and read reality
and interpret God anew from the perspective of the Bible stories and
from their own experience.
This
is what is happening in the Bible sharing groups of our Basic Christian
Communities (BEC). The BEC is now accepted as the way of being church
in many parts of the world and was endorsed by the Second Plenary
Council of the Philippines (1991). This is a way of being church,
modeled on the early Christian gatherings, where small local groups
of people come together to break the Word of God and the Bread of
the Eucharist and to work together to solve the problems in the local
and wider community. It is a Church that is very conscious of the
presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of each and energizing
and guiding each one in a very special way. It is a Church that leads
to mysticism, to meditation.
The
rediscovery of the contemplative tradition through Christian meditation
is the second great development of the present time. For decades people
from the West have been going to the Asian religions to learn meditation
from gurus. Through people like the late Fr. John Main and Fr. Laurence
Freeman, at the present time the Christian world is becoming more
aware of the Christian tradition of meditation and of the great New
Testament revelation that the Spirit of Christ is ever crying "Abba
Father" deep in our hearts. As more people learn Christian meditation
they become aware of the great joy of being with the immanent God
within them. They are delivered from the bondage of fear which history
has built up in them. One can not be argued out of fear because it
is an experience in the emotions. But if one keeps on trying to be
silent, to just be present to oneself, and experiences that nothing
fearful, but rather the reverse, happens, then the fear will go by
itself.
Meditation
is a redemptive counter cultural way of prayer. It is also a way of
prayer in which, instead of being placating and imploring a God out
there, we be present in silence to the God within.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
