Thanks and Yes

What does it mean to love God? One does not love him the way one loves the people one sees and hears and touches, for God is not a person in our sense of the word. He is the Unknown. He is the wholly Other. He is above terms like he and she, person and thing.

When we say an audience fills the hall and a singer's voice fills the hall, we use the same word to refer to two totally distinct realities. When we say we love God with our whole heart and we love our friend with our whole heart, we also use the same words to express two totally distinct realities. The singer's voice does not really fill the hall. And we can not really love God in the usual sense of the word.

To love God with one's whole heart means to say a whole-hearted Yes to life and all that life brings with it. To accept, without reservations, all that God has ordained for one's life. To have the attitude that Jesus had when he said, "Not my will, but yours be done." To love God with one's whole heart is to make one's own the words made famous by Dag Hammarskjold:

For all that has been, Thanks.
To all that shall be, Yes.

This is the kind of thing one can give to God alone. In this he has no rivals. To understand that this is what it means to love God is to see at once that it doesn't come in the way of your loving your friends wholeheartedly, tenderly, passionately.

The singer's voice remains in undisputed possession of the hall, no matter how packed the hall is with people. those people are no rival to it. The only rival is a person or a thing that causes you to weaken your attitude of Yes and Thanks.

Anthony de Mello

The Singer's Voice Fills the Hall

Overheard outside a concert hall:
"What a singer! His voice filled the hall."
"Yes, several of us had to leave the hall to make room for it!"
Overheard in a spiritual counseling session:
"How can I love God as the scriptures tell us to? How can I give him my whole heart?"
"You must first empty your heart of all created things."

Misleading! Don't be afraid to fill your heart with the people and things you love, for the love of God won't occupy space in your heart any more than a singer's voice occupies space in a concert hall.
Love is not like a loaf of bread. If I give a chunk of the loaf to you I have less to offer to others. Love is like eucharistic bread: I receive the whole Christ. You receive the whole Christ too; and so does the next person, and the next.
You can love your mother with your whole heart; and your husband or wife; and each of your children;. The wonder is that giving the whole of it to one person does not force you to give less to another. On the contrary, each one of them now gets more. For if you love only your friend and no one else it is a feeble heart that you offer. Your friend would stand to gain if you also gave it to others.

Anthony de Mello

The Coconut

A monkey on a tree hurled a coconut at the head of a Sufi.
The man picked it up, drank the milk, ate the flesh, and made a bowl from the shell.

Thank you for your criticism of me.

Anthony de Mello

O Happy Fault!

The Jewish mystic Baal Shem had a curious way of praying to God. "Remember, Lord," he would say, "you need me just as much as I need you. If you did not exist, who would I pray to? If I did not exist, who would do the praying?"

It brought me so much joy to think that if I had not sinned God would have no occasion to be forgiving.

Anthony de Mello

Confucius the Sage

Pu Shang once said to Confucius, "What kind of a sage are you that you can say that Yen Hui excels you in straightforwardness? That in clarifying things Tuan-mu Tz'u is superior to you? That Chung Yu is more courageous than you? And that Chuan-sun Shih is more dignified than you?"

In his eagerness to get a reply Pu Shang moved to the edge of the mat and nearly fell off it. "If these things are true," he said, "Then why are these four men your disciples?"

Confucius replied, "Stay right where you are and I shall tell you. Yen Hui knows how to be straightforward, but he does not know how to be flexible. Tuan-mu Tz'u knows how to clarify things, but he does not know how to give a simple Yes or No for an answer. Chung Yu knows how to be courageous, but he does not know how to be cautious. Chuan-sun Shih knows how to be dignified, but he does not know how to be unassuming. This is why these four men are glad to study under me."

The Moslem Jalal ud-Din Rumi says, "A hand that is always open or always closed is a crippled hand. A bird that cannot open and close its wings cannot fly."

Anthony de Mello

The Slave Girl

A Moslem king fell passionately in love with a slave girl and had her transferred from the slave quarters to the palace. He planned to marry her and make her his favorite wife, but, mysteriously, the girl fell seriously ill on the very day she entered the palace.

She grew steadily worse. Every known remedy was given her, but to no avail. The poor girl now hovered between life and death.

In despair the king made an offer of half his kingdom to anyone who would cure her. But who would attempt to cure an illness that had baffled the best physicians of the realm?

Finally a hakim appeared who asked to be allowed to see the girl alone. After he had spoken with her for an hour he appeared before the throne of the king who anxiously awaited his verdict.

"Your Majesty," said the hakim. "I do indeed have an infallible cure for the girl. And so sure am I of its effectiveness that, were it not to succeed, I should willingly offer myself to be beheaded. The medicine I propose however, will prove to be an extremely painful one - not for the girl, but for Your Majesty."

"Mention the medicine," shouted the king, "And it shall be given her, no matter the cost."

The hakim looked at the king with a compassionate eye and said, "The girl is in love with one of your servants. Give her permission to marry him and she will be instantly cured."

Poor king! He wanted the girl too much to let her go. He loved her too much to let her die.

Anthony de Mello

The Perfect Apple

Nasruddin had barely finished his discourse when one of the scoffers in the crowd said to him, "Instead of spinning spiritual theories, why don't you show us something practical?"

Poor Nasruddin was nonplussed. "What kind of practical thing would you want me to show you?" he asked

Pleased that he had mortified the mullah and was making an impression on the crowd, the scoffer said, "For instance, show us an apple from the garden of Paradise."

Nasruddin immediately picked up an apple and handed it to the man. "But this apple is bad on one side, " said the man. "Surely a heavenly apple would be perfect."

"A celestial apple would, indeed, be perfect," said the mullah. "But given your present faculties, this is as near to a heavenly apple as you will ever get."

Can one expect to see a perfect apple with an imperfect eye?
Or detect goodness in others when one's won heart is selfish?


Anthony de Mello

The Lost Sheep

A parable for religious educators:

A sheep found a hole in the fence and crept through it. He wandered far and lost his way back.

Then he realized that he was being followed by a wolf. He ran and ran, but the wolf kept chasing him, until the shepherd came and rescued him and carried him lovingly back to the fold.

In spite of everyone's urging to the contrary, the shepherd refused to nail up the hole in the fence.

Anthony de Mello

Domesticated Rebels

He was a difficult man. He thought differently and acted differently from the rest of us. He questioned everything. Was he a rebel or a prophet or a psychopath or a hero? "Who can tell the difference?" we said. "And who cares, anyway?"

So we socialized him. We taught him to be sensitive to public opinion and to the feelings of others. We got him to conform. He was a comfortable person to live with now. Well adjusted. We had made him manageable and docile.

We congratulated him on having achieved self-conquest. He began to congratulate himself too. He did not see that it was we who had conquered him.

A big guy walked into the crowded room and yelled, "Is there a fellow by the name of Murphy here?" A little fellow stood up and said, "I'm Murphy."
The big guy nearly killed him. He cracked five of his ribs, he broke his nose, he gave him two black eyes, he flung him in a heap on the floor. Then he stomped out.
After had gone we were amazed to see the little fellow chuckling to himself. "I certainly made a good of that guy," he was saying softly to himself. "I'm not Murphy! Ha, ha!

A society that domesticates its rebels has gained its peace. But it has lost its future.

Anthony de Mello

Change the World by Changing Me

The Sufi Bayazid says this about himself:

I was a revolutionary when I was young and all my prayer to God was 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.'

"As I approached middle age and realized that half my life was gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come in contact with me. Just my family and friends, and I shall be satisfied.'

"Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is, 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.' If I had prayed for this right from the start I should not have wasted my life."

Anthony de Mello

Ideology

Here is a newspaper account of torture practiced in modern concentration camps

The victim is bound to a metal chair. Electric shocks are then administered in increasing intensity, until the victim confesses.

The torturer cups his hand and slaps the victim on the ear repeatedly till the eardrum breaks.

A prisoner is strapped to a dentist's chair. The the dentist drills till he strikes a nerve. The drilling goes on till the victim agrees to cooperate.

People are not naturally cruel. They become creel when they are unhappy - or when they succumb to an ideology.
If religious people had always followed the instinct of their heart rather than the logic of their religion we would have been spared the sight of heretics burning at stakes, widows walking into funeral pyres, and million of innocent people slaughtered in wars that are waged in the name of God.

Anthony de Mello

Offensive and Defensive Prayer

The catholic football team was on its way to an important game. A reporter boarded the train and asked for the football coach.

"I understand," said the reporter, "that you carry a chaplain to pray for the success of the team. Would you mind introducing me to him?"

"That would be a pleasure," said the coach. "Which one do you want to meet, the offensive or the defensive chaplain?"

Anthony de Mello

Religious Hatred

A tourist says to his guide, "You have a right to be proud of your town. I was especially impressed with the number of churches in it.
Surely the people here must love the Lord."

"Well," replied the cynical guide, "they may love the Lord, but they sure as hell hate each other."

Like the little girl who, when asked, "Who are pagans?", replied, "Pagans are people who do not quarrel about religion."

Anthony de Mello

Jesus at the Football Match

Jesus Christ said he had never been to a football match. So we took him to one, my friends and I. It was a ferocious battle between the Protestant Punchers and the Catholic Crusaders.

The Crusaders scored first. Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air. Then the Punchers scored. And Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air.

This seemed to puzzle the man behind us. He tapped Jesus on the shoulder and asked, "Which side are you rooting for, my good man?"

"Me?" replied Jesus, visibly excited by the game. "Oh, I'm not rooting for either side. I'm just enjoying the game."

The questioner turned to his neighbor and sneered, "Hmm, an atheist!"

We took him up on this after the game. Was he in the habit of never taking sides? "I side with people rather than religions," said Jesus, "human beings rather than Sabbath."

Anthony de Mello