AGAPE: THE DIVINIZING LOVE

WORSHIP THE FATHER IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH! This is how I read the Genesis account of mankind’s fall: Adam and Eve who lived in the created realm, must have seen God finitely as The Trinity before their fall. God the Father’s command (or Will) was communicated to them by His Holy Spirit who told them that they could feast themselves on all the created blessings, which are symbolised by the fruits of various trees in Paradise. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil placed exclusively in the middle are very different from other trees; they symbolically represent God the Son and Satan respectively. The command not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and warning of imminent death and the consequent loss of access to the tree of life, suggest something similar to the foretold fall of the Israelites in the Promised Land. The Serpent is apparently Satan’s temptation personified, which wrought these perversions: Eve adored God’s power and glory which was perverted into a desire to become like the Holy Spirit and Adam adored the commanding and decisive Father which was perverted into coveting that role for himself. If only they had adored and desired Agape to begin with, temptation would have failed and they would have rather eaten from the tree of life and become ever-living worthy children of God. Had they got it right the first time it would have perhaps been that way every time. It is truly right to give thanks and praise to God always for His amazing power and glory; but the thing to be bowed to, is His Will and that which is to be adored, desired and imitated is His Agape. Others may understand Church teaching as it suits them but this is my understanding: Church DOES NOT exhort us to imitate either the Father or the Holy Spirit but it does unceasingly exhort and teach us to imitate Christ Who is the image of the living God. If you are still confused about it just check if you understand hero-worship, then true worship will also become clear: a youth may praise and thank Michael Jackson for his awesome performance and also admit that he is incomparably the best; but hero-worship lies in imitating Michael Jackson’s style and that’s how his fans show their love and admiration for him. God’s style is Agape and He says: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24b). God chose to be incarnate on earth as the Son and not as the Father or the Holy Spirit and we can discern God’s plan from this ―it is to make us co-heirs with Jesus. His plan for us is realized in our being divinized to become His worthy children or obedient doers of His Will. Agape is really divinizing love that can make us gods and the self-revelation of God in Jesus, is Agape. THEOLOGY OF SUFFERING Why fear in vain of death and pain? Thanks to the oral tradition of my land, I was able to see true meaning in suffering and thought it would be worthwhile sharing this ancient notion from Indian philosophy ―the created universe is a realistic illusion to segregate good and evil. This can be compared to a flight simulator for training, testing and issuing a pilot-license where there is really neither aircraft nor airspace and yet people may learn and also be classified as fit and unfit, to fly an aircraft. Moreover it is the safest way of training and testing as there can be no real injury or damage from accidents. In this life too all creation came from nothing and is bound to simply vanish even as eternity remains beyond full comprehension; yet it is in this life that human beings come to know God, learn to walk in His Way and are segregated as fit and unfit for eternity. This goes to explain the unbearable horrors of life that make us wonder why God allows them. They've got to be illusions, else why would He sit and simply watch? When He allows a horror to happen, He tests how we respond to it. In reality there is no damage done and it is truly NDT i.e., non-destructive testing. The story of Harischandra portrays it most beautifully and so does the book of Job. THE NARROW WAY A strange encounter changed my heart And spurred me on to seek Him oft. Hitherto in darkness dwelling I was gifted understanding. Peace and pain took regular turns Taming volatility that burns. All of that and even more Prepared me for every throe. My yearning every moment grew I felt the change they call ‘renew’. Me never did it ever strike What the narrow way looked like. Last Lent is still indelible When I was found eligible To know about the road ahead, And say YES rather than dread. The journey that I’d embarked on Like a well lit passage shone. The Way to God now became clear; Wonder how I shed my fear. THE DISHONEST STEWARD (Luke 16) After narrating this parable, this is how our Lord opens His teaching: • He appreciates the shrewdness of the ‘children of this world’ in freely spending ill-gotten money on each other. • He takes a mild dig at the honest ‘children of light’ who are seldom known to liberally spend their hard-earned money on friends. His observations shock us and we ponder: “What is this we are hearing? Is it really our Lord who is talking this way?” He then gently takes us to the main point and after He has completed what He really intended to teach, we slowly begin to realise that: • Jesus was beautifully wooing those who are condemned by society – the corrupt and the dishonest whose main weakness is money. • He surprises them by saying that heavenly treasures belong to them and that they will receive that which is their own only if they proved trustworthy and honest with what belongs to others. • He concludes the message by enlightening ‘lovers of money’ to break free from its clutches, when He most effectively exposes the fallacy of trying to love both God and money by drawing a parallel with ‘a servant who serves two masters’. • In the process He acknowledges that even dishonest and corrupt people love God but tells them firmly that only undivided Love is acceptable. Jesus’ target audiences are two groups of people – one that was despised and frowned upon by society and another that enjoyed much honour and respect. Both shared this common love– amassing wealth. The openly corrupt taxmen are referred to as ‘children of this world’; the Pharisees who fanatically kept the Law, believing it to be the ‘Light of Life’, are described as ‘children of light’. The taxmen had no qualms about adopting dishonest means but were known for their liberal spending habits and for using ill-gotten wealth freely to gain favors and friends. The Pharisees amassed wealth through legally right ways but were known to be tightfisted with their hard-earned money. The former are commended for their worldly shrewdness and wooed to give up dishonest ways and receive their own heavenly treasures by proving trustworthy with what belongs to others. The latter are commended for their honesty and advised to freely use money to gain the friendship of saints who would welcome them into ‘eternal dwellings’, when their legalistic righteousness fails to gain them salvation. Both are candidly told to break free from the love of money and seek God with an undivided heart. The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus (Lk 16:14). Though there is no mention of how the taxmen responded, we have reasons to believe that the likes of Matthew (also called Levi) and Zacchaeus, were indeed converted by this teaching.