STANDING ON THE FEET

 A MAN MUST STAND ON HIS FEET

MAY RECOLLECTION

DON. JOSEPH B. NYAMUNGA, SSA

AIM OF EDUCATION

- Helps us to achieve manhood- not nature… By nature we can all call ourselves men…not age as distinct from women, but to achieve self –integration. 

- Harmonious ordering of elements of human makeup

- Keep a perfect balance between the elements of human makeup.

FEW MEN ARE WORTH THE NAME

- Some fail because they are not encouraged

- Others fail because they have not worked at it

- Others fail because of the complex of influences

Such personal inadequacies, corrupting example of others, environmental circumstances.

INTEGRATED MAN

Is one who has brought the spiritual, the emotional and the physical into harmony <Hierarchy>

LIVE STANDING ON YOUR HEAD

Physical upper hand takes shape, it should not be a  blunt emotional-stifle spirituality that is built upon the irresistible urge to eat, drink, so as  to gratify desire-inertia, refusal to get up or do anything when up. A sober mind and well baked.

SOME BARELY CRAWL

Emotion has upper hand which often leads to affection that builds up into passion and this can make one lose one’s head into thinking that truth depends on feelings but to know that everything depends on attitude, e.g. teacher may give up when not appreciated and one may pray when only in form.

STAND ON YOUR FEET

The spiritual holds the veins, complete freedom not contempt of the above elements, but the Spirit is masts plus the Lord. We need God’s help. To transform our inner life is an open soul to God and leads to a strong will in full cooperation to what does God want in me as an individual in search for integral unity.

MAN HAS TWO DIMENSIONS

To be a man one must be on his own feet, he must achieve and work towards self-integration, bringing his make up into balance. The spirit must rule both emotions and the body to create that harmoniousness..

MAN MUST FUNCTION IN TWO DIMENSIONS

Isn’t enough to achieve self-integration, the man on his feet must face reality. Man has two dimensions in facing reality and who really deserves the name “man”.

a) Man’s vertical dimension: is his relationship to God. No man can say indeed I need no one outside myself. We must be open doors of our personality and giving freely to serve without reservation. God was not content with just creating us, he wished to become one with us in our lives. We have to allow him to transform our very lives where we can say with St. Paul:

 “It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me…” This is the first dimension of man what we call the vertical one, i.e. man’s relationship with God. 

 To be worth of the name man one must function within this dimension. But a well-balanced man, the man on his feet ought to face reality that has to build up into another dimension.

b) The horizontal one; His relationship to his fellow men. He must open his heart to them all. As Shakespeare says “Life is a stage and we are all players” For any play to be successful all players must have a feel for it, must cooperate.  Man is a family of actors and no matter where and when he lives he must be one with all men in their problems and concerns, their hopes and aspirations. We are not thrown together as potatoes in the sack. 

We are persons and we must communicate, we are related, we have to contribute to the wellness of those around us. We can’t mature if we do not communicate with fellow men-just like a limb separated from other parts of the body can’t develop. Our development as men have aspects:

i) Self-consciousness: by doing this and that the child develops into an adolescent with the <reward> as a gift and <Shame> as a penalty.

ii) Other consciousness in knowing that I am not alone- my life is not fully human if other people have no place in it.

iii) Egoism- egoism is the opposite of love. A man who retreats into himself and tries to convince himself that he can go it alone, is an egoist. However talented he may be, he will never attain full maturity. Such a man thinks only of his interests, his studies, family, future, his wellbeing- he has no time for anyone else. 

He has nothing to do with them- Such man will never grow up, he will be a spiritual dwarf.

iv) Self-forgetfulness and generosity- Each of us has to be a link in a chain of relationship. Link yourself with those around you. If you fail here, any other link is likely to lack a genuineness, sincerity, but be formed in the spirit of community (seminary family).

 Contribute to its life if there is no room first. How can you welcome others in your life but to do this you must create room. If you are full of yourself and your interests how can how can other men and their interests find room in you? 

It is possible not to know their names, where they come from- or never said a word to them. To out of your way to do well, sometimes at a cost of sacrifice, helping them out.

v) The two dimensions are inseparable- they are complementary- you can’t be sons of the Father if you do not love the brother- you can’t be brothers if you don’t have a common Father. Sacrifice will be called for, self-love has to be nurtured, is this not the greatest commandment.

MAN MUST MAKE CONTACT WITH OTHERS

In order to live our horizontal dimension we must make contact with others. This is our duty because no man is an island to himself. Psychologists speak of “a lonely crowd” how a crowd of so –called one can be quite alone in the midst of a crowd of so-called friends. In the crowd of 150 students it’s possible to be lonely. 

For how can be lonely if he can’t make contacts with others, and unless he is willing to see others as they are and welcome them into his life. There is a common doubt that will always pop up in the life of formation stages. “We do not understand him”. If the formators can’t understand you, do you think the bishop will?

b) To see a person, means to be genuinely getting interested in that person, in his work. Expressions such as “mind your own business or don’t poke your nose into…” are all rights in their circumstances. But if we are people living in a community we should not be so indifferent about the affairs of others.

ii) In your recreation think about a case of a game where a player is needed, are you prepared to sacrifice your own interest and get involved and respond to the need at hand?

iii) In our likes and dislikes- if we want to be sociable and serviceable, we must learn to anticipate to the wishes of others. We must learn to read the likes and dislikes of others and interpret them as they are.

iv)  If we decide to live together there will certainly be difficulties. This will have to build in us a generous and self-forgetting person who studies the difficulties of others, in as much as there lies in power of helping out.

MAKE ROOM FOR OTHERS IN YOUR LIFE

In Europe people who don’t like others to come to their homes put a sign “Beware of the Dogs” in many of them they are no dogs but themselves. These are people whose temperament is so repulsive that no one dares approach them and they don’t like to be bothered. 

Like a student who asked “do you think you will understand me? He was always silent in class, silent at meals, silent and alone in recreation. 

He was an island to and in himself. Sometimes we like  impose our ideas on others, often they are rejected hence we sulk like a praying mantis, If you are always talking to yourself…learn  openness, sincere welcome where people would find warmth, simplicity and affability.

FREEDOM, ITS NATURE AND USE

(Cf. Gal 5:13-16)

The last sentence is back to where we started namely: In order to be men we must stand on our feet. The spirit must control and guide the emotions and the body. 

The middle passage takes us back to the second consideration, namely man’s two dimensions. It stresses the second dimension which is our relationship with our neighbor. You must reject all attitudes of antagonism and opposition to your neighbor. St. Paul speaks in the practical way. 

If you are backbiting and worrying each other then don’t call yourselves Christian, if you go opposing each other and tearing each other into pieces, you had better watchout or you destroy the whole community.

Vivisection is about tearing a person to pieces. There are students who develop habits of grumbling, complaining against fellow students, against that member of the staff and against the whole staff. 

What is interesting about such people is how easily they persuade themselves to believe that they are always right. Of course their listeners will not dare to show them they are wrong, for fear, they may fall victims of their sharp tongue. (Cf. James 3). 

In all our conduct with all people, brotherly love must be the guide. To stand on your feet means a man whose spirit controls his emotions and his body and must be a man who knows what freedom is and who knows how to use it.

II) They are many who think freedom is the ability to do what one wants. You can imagine the situation in which would result in any community. If freedom meant that, this may be freedom wild animals enjoy, but its certainty is not the freedom of man, let alone of a son of God.  

We can describe freedom as: The ability of always choosing the good and of resolutely keeping to your choices. The question here could be what is “good”. The answer is short and simple. God’s will. Quoist sums up this by saying 

“If you follow your instincts exclusively, you know only an animal freedom. If you give into imagination to emotion, to your own will, to pride, to egoism, you will know the freedom of the sinner. 

If you however do the will of God, the freedom of the son of God…your ability to do the will of the Father is the measure of your level of freedom”. 

Real freedom comes to fulfilment in obedience to God whose will is mediated to us through the Church, our legitimate superiors, our daily obligations and the ordinary circumstances of our lives. 

The agent par excellence of this formation is the Holy Spirit who by the gift of new heart configures and conforms us to Jesus Christ, the Good shepherd. 

It’s therefore right that we invoke the Holy Spirit as well as we prepare to get back to the seminary family. That we may be made docile to his inspirations, which He makes us docile to. In mediating human forces which he employs, in molding us. Do not close your hearts to Him but be open for transformation and conversion.

READING TOGETHER THE LETTER OF LAUDATO SÌ

   

READING TOGETHER THE LETTER OF LAUDATO SI

By Don. Joseph Baptist Nyamunga, SSA

Laudato Si’, (English: Praise Be to You) is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. The encyclical has the subtitle “on the care for our common home”. As its name implies a circular letter meant to be spread throughout a community. It gives us the impression that it has not yet reached to all sectors because the environmental crisis seems to escalate. There is no longer praise but lamentation hence taking the negative form from Laudato Si’ to Non Sia Laudato. (English: Don’t be praised). We find ourselves in the same dilemma, crises and challenges of taking care of our common home. Laudato Si’ manifests itself as an act of giving praise to God for His creation and His magnificent presence and manifestation to human beings. But from the lived experience, today it is completely contrary to what Praise Be to You is all about. If we to take seriously our call in this common home, we would not be talking of environmental crisis in the first place.

If decisions were reached, commitments made, and resolutions arrived at in as far as care of the common home is concerned, we would  have no any other option except to live up to our duties and obligations of taking care of our common home. If these decisions to take care of the mother earth are anything to go by, we would be having a change of mentality, new paradigm shift, new leitmotif, and great strands in environmental care and protection. 

Pope Francis is giving us the blue-print, designed road plan with all road signs clearly signalized on this super highway and we are to drive as per for the speed limits prescribed in given by-laws. If the teachings are right, admonitions just, discernment processes fully fine-tuned and the signs of the times interpreted well, then can all say (Praise Be to You). Laudato Si’ is about building up a philosophy, doctrine, a system thinking where all members of this common home become protagonists of desired change. As the Spanish saying states:  “La basura tiene su lugar” (English: Rubbish has got its place… a place for everything and everything in its place).

If we are a Church, we have to read Laudato Si’ so as to refreshingly sink into its experience with Pope Francis in his invitation to start discerning seriously. We know what ought to be done, so we must do it right. The Church has published many documents, encyclicals, books, church liturgical materials in volumes. But little have we engaged ourselves into entering into the heart of the environmental crisis affecting our common home. All the above mentioned materials are by-products of trees, paper!!! Little have we dared to question or fully swung into rescue mode of tree planting campaigns as church agents. Trees are being cut unabated, books and documents are being published but little do we ask where this stationery paper in publishing houses come from?

Change begins when we stop and question our way of doing things in the family, community and Church. Once our conscientious is re-awakened in every member of this common home, then the ripple effects will multiply the strong currents that will cause great impacts in paradigm shifts, leitmotivs and right discernment processes. These multifaceted changes have to be confronted with multi-cultural interpretation of crisis.

In this research we are building on care of creation as our mother earth, a call that goes beyond obligations but delve into sense of responsibility and respect to nature and neighbor. It is sinful if we fail to take care of creation and our common home.

We are called upon to start a new pedagogy of love and care of creation, to re-learn, to re-live, to re-educate our attitudes to know the responsibility that the Lord has entrusted to us. Laudato Si’ is an encyclical that helps us to enter into the heart of the problem, crisis, not looking at the problem at the phase level but to start asking ourselves the fundamental questions that create difference, new lifestyles, mental revolution. Our common home is an open space, a house of God, a home that carries everyone and all who live in this common home should take the sense of belonging seriously. 

As evangelization agents, we are called upon to encourage and promote interdisciplinary attitudes of respect, protection and defense of the common home, through experience of observation, inquiry and experimentation that build us into global systems, grounded on local and universal wisdom and knowledge that generate healthy habits in the family and community. In our research we are going to treat different approaches, paradigms and leitmotivs as far us our mother Earth is concerned and as we get into dealing with the care of our common home. In chapter one, we shall deal with Laudato Si’ The Care of Creation. Then in chapter two we will delve into Building our Common Home (The Kenyan Context) into environmental degradation, then in chapter three we will be grounded into the Culture of Integral Ecological Education.

Wishing you a good reading and lets journey together through the encyclical and create new paradigm shifts in our way of looking at the environment. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

REBUILDING OF OUR NATION THROUGH PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

 Rebuilding Our Nation through Inclusive and Accountable Governance

The teachings of the Gospels have direct consequences for our way of thinking, feeling and living. Our Spirituality should motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world, interior impulse which encourage us, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and community activity (LS#216). These spiritual treasures bestowed by God upon the Church, where the life of the spirit is not disassociated from the body or from nature or from the worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us. For this reason the ecological crisis is also a summon to profound interior conversion, an “ecological conversion.” The effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ becomes evident in our relationship with the world around us. 

Lent is the time for praying in the desert, the deserts of our hearts and lives. We have many deserts out there because inside of us we have wider spiritual deserts (LS#217). Planting trees, almsgiving and prayer is one way of eliminating these deserts. We are called upon to look into our lives that challenges us to improve ourselves. If we wish to change the outer aspects of our lives we must first change the inner attitudes of our minds. Change requires substituting of new habits for old ones. It calls us to command ourselves do what needs to be done. The change of heart to which Lent calls us can be accomplished most of all through the power of prayer.

Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue, it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience. We need to recognize our errors, sins, faults and failures and led our heartfelt repentance and desires to change. We must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s creation through our actions and our failure to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart (L.S#218).

Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds. This task the Pope tells us that, it will make such a tremendous demands of men and women that they will never achieve it by individual initiative or even by united effort of men and women bred in individualistic way. The work of dominating the world calls for a union of skills and unity of achievement that can only grow from quite different attitude. Ecological conversion is needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion. A number of attitudes which together foster a spirit of generous care, full of tenderness. It entails gratitude and gratuitousness, a recognition that the world is God’s loving gift, and that we are called quietly to imitate his generosity in self-sacrifice and good works: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:3-4). This calls for loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion. As believers we don’t look at the world from without but from within, conscious of the bonds which the father has linked us to all beings. By developing our individual, God given capacities, an ecological conversion can inspire us to greater creativity and enthusiasm in resolving the world’s problems and in offering ourselves to God, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable (Rom 12:1). The call for serious responsibility stemming from our faith. Pope Francis calls us to live fully the dimension of our conversion, this can be evident in our relationship to other creatures and to the world around us, in this way it will help to nurture that sublime fraternity with all creation which St. Francis of Assisi so radiantly embodied.

Lent is a great window opportunity to plant a tree as a sign of your commitment to take care of God’s creation. What do we have to do? In a nutshell: turn from power to love, be kind, act justly and walk humbly on earth like a cat. May the Lord help us to let go of the rags of sin, so that he may clothe us in newness of life. 

Each year the trees give a lesson in renewal

First the bud, then the blossom, and finally the shoot

Spring dresses the trees in a new robe,

And makes them young again.

But this is possible only because of autumn, they let go of their old leaves, 

And in between endured a period of nakedness.

Lent is the springtime of the spirit. Let’s ask our Lord to help us not to be afraid to let of old habits, and to face our Spiritual Poverty, in order that he may renew us, and so that at Easter will feel young again in our discipleship to take care of our environment and leaving it better than we found it.

© Don. Joseph Baptist Nyamunga’21