The Search for God

   You may know that my formal studies began to focus, very early, on the question of the "experience of God," first of all from a biblical, prophetic perspective (How did a prophet like Jeremiah know that God spoke to him^) and then philosophically through the tradition that ranges from Willliam James to Bernard Lonergan. Here the focus is more philosophical. I see it as a philosophical stance that is coherent with what I have come to understand of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

   There seems to be a lot of confusion about “God.”  No surprise: both the concept and the reality easily escape us, particularly in view of the constant noise that our culture creates around and within us. Still, at least for me, the existence of “God” is not at all a question of faith. It is as evident as anything we might want to point to in life. The atheists are quite wrong in this respect. However, at the same time, I need to add, that there is no atheist who, after explaining to me the God they did not believe in, did not find me entirely in agreement.    We need then to ask ourselves what we mean by “God.”

   Let me suggest, for purposes of our argument, that “God” is the driving force that moves us to action in our lives, the central value that is foundational to the meaning we assign to life. This seems to me to be a fairly acceptable definition of the term in most contexts. In this sense then, I begin a discussion of “God” from the meaning we assign to the word and I grant to all the right to declare what they mean by “God” and then either embrace or reject it. It is up to each of us to discover what that might be and what that means for the direction their life is taking. The examples in history are abundant: God is money, fame, power, peace, happiness, security….  But, always, there is some underlying force or value. That grasp of what for us is the driving force is also at the very least a point of departure for some serious questioning. But, we will come to that.  The only point I want to make here is that I simply cannot understand how people can say, “there is no “God” if “God” means the driving force in our lives (or universe).

   It then becomes very clear that, whatever meaning or value we attach to “God,” none of the responses are satisfying or sufficient. Even the most religious person, the most brilliant theologian, the most profound philosopher, would want to say that the answers they have discovered in trying to understand “God” are inadequate.

   And thus, the search is on. We are continually, throughout our whole life, throughout the life of all humanity, trying to discover the dimensions of that ultimate driving force or value that underlies life, the universe, my own history and that of all humanity. And it is here precisely, in that relentless and unending search, that I would like to pause and reflect.

   For, what is it that would provide a sufficient answer to our searching questions? Only the full revelation of “God.”  What is it that has motivated us, driven us, and prodded us on in our search for answers to the question of “God,” if not God? “God” is then both the ultimate origin and destination for our search, our journey because it always begins and ends in “God.”
You will notice that I am consistently putting the word “God” in quotation marks. This is not at all to insist that I am referring simply to a word, a piece of vocabulary. “God” is written in quotation marks here to underline the fact that we can come to a grasp of the reality only by passing through the location of “God” within our consciousness - that part of us that looks for truth, verification and understanding. But, the search is not just for an idea but rather for an understanding that corresponds to a profound reality. Meaning is not something we just invent so that any answer, will do. In our search we demand verification. We are not satisfied with meanings and answers that fall short of explaining reality, that do not help us understand and deal with reality in all its dimensions. Thus, the search for “God” is indeed a search motivated by and satisfied only by a full and complete connection with the reality it signifies.

   Finally, we do not search only with our heads but also with our hearts. This search is also for a “God” who responds to the fundamental driving force that gives origin to our deepest desires and satisfactions and that only rests when it rests in God, as Augustine said.
Of course, some atheists might say that all this is irrelevant. When they say they do not believe in God, they are referring to the God of the major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I grant them that. However, this does not take anything away from the fact that “God” is the driving force that guides us in life, our ultimate value. It also does not take away from the fact that “God” is always eluding us so that our search does not end. It does not take away from the fact, that the search is not just for some novel concept in our heads that will satisfy us even though it is totally disconnected with reality. And thus we are driven back to continue a search that has befuddled and driven all the great leaders of the traditions that derive from the great monotheistic (and pluri-theistic) religions.
 
   It is the search that counts. It rests on the conviction of an experience that validates that “driving presence” without understanding it.  This is the search that begins with the first glimmer of our human awareness and that only ends when it comes into profound union of mind and heart with that reality. We may start off with a search that centres on money, power, fame, profession, family or even the God announced by Abraham, Moses, Jesus or Mohammed. But, the search will only end when we rest in the profound reality that has pushed us forward and that comes to settle in our minds and hearts to give us finally the wholeness we have wished for.

   In my mind, no one is exempt from the density of this search. No one can get off easy by saying that they are “atheist.” Nor can anyone buy themselves out by saying they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim. Being any one of the above (including atheist) may provide us with pointers to what to look for (or what to avoid) but no one can absolve us from the search. It is absolutely central to our identity and our integrity as human beings.

   Fortunately, we do not journey alone. As Boethius said, almost 1500 years ago, we stand on the shoulders of giants. We do well to draw on the wisdom of those many giants to guide us on the journey.

The Banquet of the Kingdom of God

    The other day, the official Gospel reading of the Church dealt with a parable of Jesus about the “kingdom of God.”  Jesus often spoke of that kingdom (often as a banquet!); in fact it is absolutely central to his thinking and the self-perception of his own mission. (Sometimes the phrase used is “kingdom of heaven.”)

   First thing to say is that what we have are stories provided to us by people from the earliest Christian communities of the first century. They purport to provide us with the message of Jesus. It is a message, however, that is already interpreted for the benefit of those communities at a particular time in history when they faced very particular challenges. Obviously they are intended to reflect the sayings of Jesus, his own stories. However, it is much more difficult to trace back from the Gospel text the exact words of Jesus as spoken in a very different context several decades earlier. (We often forget that major distinction.)
    Secondly, we have to get beyond the image of “kingdom.” It too comes from a very particular time in history where the major systems of governance were patriarchal and authoritarian - particularly in the Middle East where Jesus and the first communities lived. By Jesus time, the idea of king had already taken on mythical proportions. However, underlying that word is the notion of a world-order with a “governing principle” that holds it in place. In face of the despotic rulers of the time, Jesus proposed another model, very different.
    Thirdly, we have too often, much too often, transposed the “kingdom of God” into something that we encounter only in the after-life, only once we have “died and gone to heaven.”  This was hardly the case for Jesus. Even though, before Pilate, he said that his reign was not of this world, he did not in any way make that transposition.
    If you read the texts carefully, and if you try to make the stories of the “kingdom” coherent with the entirety of Jesus life and sayings, it becomes clear that the “kingdom of God” (a just world order we might say today -- one with solidarity and compassion at its centre) is present in the here and now. It is in the here and now that we discover this “kingdom of God” dimension of reality and made a fundamental choice for it. Only in the here and now can we encounter it because we live only in the here and now. The here and now is all we have, all we will ever have and it is a banquet, a fullness, an abundance, a magnificent vista.
    Think about it.

Further comments on the True Commission Report (Honduras)

(In the last blog -- see below -- I spoke of a report on human rights violations in Honduras over the last three years. Now I wish to offer some comments on the importance of this document.)

    Following the Honduran coup d’état in 2009, which removed democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from office, there was an unprecedented resistance by the population. The repression was fierce and even three years later still continues. Thousands have been arrested, dozens have been killed, many have been tortured. The government of President Lobo, following elections in 2010, established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into violations of human rights between the coup d’état and the subsequent election. Not content with the mandate of that commission, civil society members established their own “True Commission” to look into all violations of human rights since the coup d’état. The panel was made up largely of well-known international human rights figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina and Elsie Monge from Ecuador. Recently they have published, in Spanish, their final report. It is long, 300 pages backed up by many hundreds of pages of further documentation. An English version of the report is in preparation. However, given the importance of this report and its usefulness to other sectors of the global community, I offer in what follows, a brief summary of some aspects of the report that drew my attention.

1.      The report is important for what it reveals of the extent of the repression and the impact of that repression on Honduran society.

2.      The report is also important for the way in which it is constructed. The methodology followed by the members of the True Commission form an important model for any future investigation into the impact of human rights violations, particularly the use of violence by  the forces of order, in any part of the world.

   The report begins with a presentation of the political and social context in which the coup d’état and the subsequent repression took place. It reviews the many earlier coup d’états and the manner in which Honduras has been governed by powerful interest groups supported by foreign, largely US interests including the US military.

   The panel investigated several thousand cases and divided them into several categories of violation of human rights, for example, violation of physical integrity, violation of freedom of assembly and of expression, sexual violation, racial attacks, etc. In each category they provided detailed information about several cases which they considered typical. It also looks at how the repression fell on various sectors of society: teachers, unions, the gay community, public service functionaries, women, children, peasants, indigenous peoples.

   However, the most significant research provided by the report deals with the impact of the repression on the individual victims, on various sectors of society and on society as a whole. It becomes increasingly clear that the horror of assassination and other repressive action of the police and military was designed to terrorize the population into submission by paralyzing it with fear. While it is clear that torture and brutality have an immediate impact on the well-being of the victims, what is less clear are the ramifications of that brutality and violence over a longer period of time and throughout society. Here the report makes a significant contribution The authors look into some of the immediate impact of acts of brutality (such a rape) on specific individuals. However, they also look into the impact of those actions on the social sectors involved: on the gay community, campesino communities, the unions and others. They also look into the way in which the aggregate of repressive action by the police and military had a significant impact on society as a whole, not just in creating enormous tension but also in seriously affecting the mental health of the entire population.

   The conclusions drawn by the panel, two of whom were Honduran and who had to withdraw from the commission and flee the country, are those we might expect : a call to a much greater responsibility on the part of the government for monitoring and assuring respect for human rights, a larger place for direct participation of the population in society through freedom of assembly and of expression, sanctions for those who violate human rights, etc.

   It is my opinion that the approach taken by the commission has opened a path to a much deeper understanding of the impact of official repression by military and para-military forces that should be of concern and interest for human right organizations around the world.

Honduran True Commission Publishes its Final Report

In 2009 a State coup expelled the democratically elected president of Honduras from the country. For the first time in many years, the people were not passive. They rose in revolt and the repression was horrific. Even now it continues, well below the headlines of world media.
A high level commission was estabished a couple of years ago to investigate human rights abuses during and after the coup. It has just published its report. An English version will eventually be published but for now it is only in Spanish.
It is a long report (over 300 pages) and it is extrremely well done. After a lengthy exposition of the political economic and social history of Honduras in recent decades, it analyses various categories of human rights abuses and, most of all, their impact on the individuals, on certain sectors of society and on society as a whole. It concludes with a number of recommendations for changes and investigations that would provide support to the victims and a framework to assure that the wave of abuse does not continue or repeat itself.  Perhaps later I will be able to provide a more detailed summary. For now, and for those who read Spanish, I offer you a link to the document as a whole: here  Even by Latin American standards this is a horrific story.