Sunday, April 12, 2015
Running and Prayer Are Not Good For You
Many people don’t
like running. When you ask them “why” they will tell you they tried it and
found it monotonous, unrewarding, an all- around drag. If you then probe deeper
you discover that they have, for some time, attempted to go out once or twice a
week, for a mile or two, and come back exhausted, in pain, without any positive
experience whatsoever. And then you understand…they have run enough to feel out
of shape, but not enough to get into shape and reap the benefits of feeling
good. Any experienced runner will tell you that any less than 3-4 times weekly,
for 30 minutes minimum, and ideally with some workouts that really push you,
will just leave you frustrated, demotivated, and possibly injured. But if you follow
such a regime, pretty soon you will notice a chance in form, your breathing
will become adjusted to running and you will begin to enjoy at least some of
your runs, especially when the weather is nice and you are well rested. Long before
becoming a serious runner you will turn into a recreational runner who, when
he/she skips a workout or two begins missing it.
In other words most people who don’t like running have not
really tried it. Of course, there are those whose physique just is not made for
running or whose mental make-up cannot get used to this solitary form of
exercise. But most people who don’t like
running have not really tried it, and now they are coming up with
excuses to justify their lack of really trying, such as “it’s not good for your
joints” etc.
Recently an Austrian newspaper (http://derstandard.at/2000013871471/Fuer-68-Prozent-hat-die-Kirche-keine-Glaubwuerdigkeit-mehr)
conducted an “Easter survey”, seeking to understand what Austrians believe. One
statement that interviewees had to “agree” or “disagree” with was “Even if
there were a God, human beings would not be able to know him”. 56% agreed, 23 %
disagreed (the rest “was not sure”). In other words almost two thirds deny the
reality of what has traditionally been called “prayer” i.e. the activity of
human beings conversing with God. I have no way of knowing the reasons for such
a position, but one argument for this view which I often encounter is “I have
tried it and it does not work”. When you probe more deeply you find out that
what they mean is that before an exam they cried out to some unknown being for
help, or as their grandmother lay dying they shouted their protest heavenward,
and in neither case they felt that anybody responded. And so now they believe that “prayer does not
work”, that “there is no god above” or even that “prayer is not good for you,
since it deceives you into the notion that somebody cares about you”.
In my view that kind
of prayer is like running two times a week: you know how “out of shape you are”, how little you have cared for
your soul and now that you are trying to formulate a prayer you don’t even
know who to direct it to. But talk to an experienced prayerful person and they
will tell you how much prayer makes a difference in their life: they look
forward to their regular, even daily spiritual workouts and they find
themselves out of sorts if they miss one. Of course there are ultra-runners,
who clock 150 miles a week and seemingly do nothing else: they are not the
norm, and only serve as inspiration, not as role models. Similarly there are “ultra-prayers”,
men and women who do little else but pray, for example monks and nuns. But
those are not our models, nor is their lifestyle what most of us can or would aspire
to. But to enjoy the benefits of prayer
you need to do it regularly, develop a routine and thus build up muscles that
support such practices. Otherwise it can be outright dangerous, especially if
you get older.
So why not consider giving it a serious try, now that we are
in the Easter season: find yourself a coach, carve out 15 minutes 5 days a week
and see what you think in a month. Maybe you will turn out like those who
absolutely cannot run, fine. Then prayer really isn’t for you. But maybe you will
actually develop adrenaline rushes, have spiritual experiences and discover
what millions of people have done over the centuries: not only does God exist,
but it is possible to communicate with him. That is what the traditional Easter
greeting means “Christ is risen”. Happy Easter!
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Jesus faltering under the cross
If you visit the old
part of Jerusalem, you will notice, in certain places, so-called “Stations of
the Cross”: since the Middle Ages a route has been designed which seeks to
retrace the steps of Jesus from his condemnation by Pilate all the way to his
crucifixion and death. How historical all these fourteen stations are is a
matter of debate; but many Christians in the Holy Land and elsewhere have found
them a powerful means of meditation on the mysteries of their faith.
Three of those stations have to do with Jesus stumbling
under the weight of the Cross. No such incident is reported in the Scriptures,
but I have always found representations of this event very striking: Jesus, the
Son of God, faltering and falling, unable to carry the beam placed on his
shoulders. There is of course a very basic explanation for his weakness: he has
spent all night being cross-examined, then was scourged and beaten, has not
eaten for a while, and now is hauling an enormous piece of wood up a hill in
the Middle Eastern sun. That in itself makes him very human, just as the letter
to the Hebrews says “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted
as we are, yet without sin.”
Yet I cannot but think that other things weighed him down,
beyond the physical strains: the betrayal by his closest friends and
associates, his inability to get the Jewish people to believe his claims, the
seeming failure of his mission. In other words this man is also crushed by
mental, emotional and spiritual suffering and in that he joins the whole human
race in its suffering throughout history. So when I see images of Christ
faltering, I also see children recruited into armies or sold into slavery; I
see sick people, lonely and depressed neighbours; I see my friend Vincent in
prison who was abused as a child and has been abusive since; I see priests
unjustly accused of misdemeanours and their careers in ruins; I see the relatives
of the victims of last week’s plane crash, and the relatives of the pilot…the
list goes on and on. Somehow we all have our crosses, individually, as
families, as nations and peoples, and we all falter, stumble, feel crushed by
its weight. And so often it seems to make absolutely no sense.
When we see Jesus stumbling under the cross, what do we see?
Another human being crushed by the weight of existence, suffering senselessly?
Or do we see, in the words of Charles the Foucauld, “Jesus who has gone so low,
so that nobody need to be ashamed in his presence”? The same letter to the
Hebrews puts it as follows: “But we see him who for a little while was made
lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of
the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for
everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in
bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect
through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have
one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers” In other
words, there is a solidarity in Christ sinking this low, so that we could
really call him brother. And if he were only a human being, this would be a
wonderful act of solidarity, but nothing more. The good news is that he was
also the Son of God. So when he “tasted death for everyone” he defeated it. The
Via Dolorosa, as the journey through Jerusalem’s old town is called, does not
really end at the church of the Sepulchre, or to be more precise, all that
there is in that church is an empty tomb. The very one who died on the cross
which he carried, also rose again, proving that none of the things that crushed
him could ultimately kill him, nor that they can kill us.
Ever since that Easter day we can know that no suffering, no
depression, no separation, no injustice lasts forever: there is light at the
end of the tunnel, there is resurrection, there is day after the night. Or to
quote a lesser theologian, John Lennon: “Everything will be okay in the end. If
it's not okay, it's not the end.” Happy Easter!
