Mystery of Wilderness

The mystery of wilderness is something to be unraveled even though it is obnoxious. Wilderness in the Bible becomes an epiphanic space where the depth of the concern of the Divine is revealed. It is a space where the Divine-Human dialectic is so intense that one cannot afford to come out of it without renewing one’s being. Wilderness is a prerequisite in our faith explorative journey. One who has not experienced the pain of the solitude of the wilderness would never be able to cherish the joy of the companionship of the Divine. As the adage goes “Only an ardent wanderer would know the coolness of the river.” Wilderness need not always be a geographical place but could also be attributed to a mental state. A psychological situation born out of sheer loneliness and ostracization. To succinctly put it - wilderness is a domain where humans meet their finiteness vis-à-vis. This is evident from the lamentations of King David from the wilderness of Judah recorded in Psalms 63.

Despite the precarious ordeals there are elements of mystery in wilderness. A mystery that transformed Jesus into Christ. Wilderness also turned out to be revelatory spaces for John the Baptist, Saul, the Israelites, Job and the list goes on. The Egyptian soil in the third century witnessed a group of Christian hermits, ascetics and monks who are collectively known as Desert Fathers whose writings serve as a credible subsistence towards the formulation of a theology of wilderness.

Wilderness enlightens us with different manifestations of the Divine. It shatters the anthropocentric concept of God and appropriates more of a ‘universal hospitality.’ The Orthodox theologian Fr. Dr. K.M. George drawing inspiration from the Fathers, pens, “Monastic history is full of stories of true hospitality which was extended not only to human beings but also to beasts and birds as well. We have living examples of saints in our time who are friendly and hospitable not only to the leper and the lame, to the destitute and the disinherited, to the freeloader and the imposter but also to wandering dogs and stray birds and all that is created by God.”

Today I desire to write about Hagar – the mother of all theologians, to elucidate how wilderness could change the fate and face of one’s life. Phyllis Trible, a feminist biblical scholar in her book ‘Texts of Terror’ remarks “As a symbol of oppressed, Hagar becomes many things to many people. Most especially, all sorts of rejected women find stories in her. She is the faithful maid exploited, the black woman used by the male and abused by the female of the ruling class, the surrogate mother, the resident alien without legal recourse, the other woman, the runaway youth, the religious fleeing from affliction, the pregnant young woman alone, the expelled wife, the divorced mother with the child, the shopping bag lady carrying bread and water, the homeless woman, the indigent relying upon handouts from the power structures, the welfare mother and the self-effacing female whose own identity shrinks in service to other.”

These were the titles attributed to Hagar before she grappled with the mystery of wilderness. After encountering the severities of the wilderness her life changes. Trible further writes, “Hagar is the pivotal figure in biblical theology. She is the first person in scripture whom a Divine messenger visits and the only person who dares to name the deity (El-roi ‘God who sees’). Within the historical memories of Israel she is the first woman to bear a child…the first woman to hear an annunciation, the only one to receive a divine promise of descendants and the first to weep for her dying child.” Thus wilderness was truly an epiphanic space for Hagar.

Lent indubitably brings to our memories the scorching heat of wilderness which we are reluctant to endure. This lent, let us pray for the audacity to bear the heat of wilderness like Jesus, Hagar and many others did so that we transform both in essence and existence. We ourselves should deal with our own wildernesses to remain happy because the only person who desires to see us happy is we ourselves and none others.

I conclude with a folk tale of Kerala ‘Naranath Bhranthan’

Once a man wishing to be the disciple of Naranath Bhranthan decided to follow him. They both started journeying together. Once it so happened that it was scorching heat and Naranath Bhranthan knocked at a hut and asked something to drink. Chilled buttermilk was offered which Naranth Bhranthan and his disciple drank. After sometime they were thirsty again. Another hut offered them fermented toddy which they both drank again. The third time when they were thirsty they were in front of a blacksmith who offered them molten iron. Naranath Bhranthan drank it while his disciple flew.

Most of us search in our gurus the coolness of opportunities and the tipsiness of spirituality but nobody is ready to endure the heat of wilderness. This is the ultimate cost of discipleship. When Jesus said “follow me” he resorted to use the Greek word akoloutheo which not only means ‘to follow’ but also ‘to partake in my destiny’. Hence Christian discipleship is all about partaking in the destiny of Christ Jesus.

Let us Pray

God of challenges, we pray for the nerve to bear the ordeals of our wildernesses so that we could transform ourselves both in essence and existence. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen

Prayers

Dn. Basil Paul