Fear to Write

The great teachers of this world viz. Buddha, Socrates and Jesus never wrote anything because they very well knew the exclusivity and provinciality of written statements. When Jesus went to the extent of revealing God and His kingdom through parables, Buddha was even afraid to speak about the Divine. There is a myth that Buddha celebrated his Enlightenment with Brahma. The first reaction of Buddha to his Enlightenment was an inclination to withdraw into absolute silence and not to communicate his intuition to anyone. Brahma insisted Buddha to reconsider. Reluctance and skepticism augmented Buddha’s bewilderment whether he would find disciples capable of grasping his message. Brahma reassures him; but still the Enlightened One determines to speak only of the way to reach the goal and not the goal itself – the ultimate and most sublime truth i.e. ‘Nirvana’. After all isn’t silence the best medium to express God? Ludwig Wittgenstein an Austrian-British Philosopher remarks,

“Human words are incapable of describing the distinctive aroma of coffee, how could they possibly cope with something as subtle as God”

In a culture of ‘publish or perish’, I find my theological studies to be delusive. I fear to write yet I am coerced as none is bothered to interpret my silence. The copious assignments, theses, reports, reflections, exams and various other literary compositions including my very own blog, insist me to write making me negate my Christ who never wrote. Are seminaries turning out to be anti-Christ?

They force me to write as they fear my silence. They instigate me to enter the realm of provinciality as they envy my realm of rebellion. I vouch my consent to the words of K.M. George, an Eastern Orthodox Theologian,

“Speech and Silence in ordinary theologizing are often determined by the spirit of the age. In our contemporary culture, dominated by the written and spoken word, silence is often misunderstood as the inability of the human mind to express itself. In an academic culture that dictates to teachers of theology ‘publish or perish’ there is no way to relate silence to theology without being misunderstood as ‘mystical’ if not ‘weird’.”

India is going through a disgrace in the contemporary time. The Hindu nationalists spearheaded by the RSS protagonists endeavour to re-write the history of India with an exclusive Hindu bias. They also envision to infuse this biased version of history into the schools. Shashi Tharoor, remarks, “For seven decades after independence, Indianness rested on faith in the country’s pluralism but the rise of Hindu nationalism brought with it a sense of cultural superiority.” India, known as a kaleidoscope of religions and faith is imprudently disputing over the issues of provinciality of writing. What a shame!

Throughout the Gospel we find Jesus writing only once and that too on the ground. It occurred when the crowd brought before him a woman accused of adultery (St. John 8: 1-11) – no wonder because in a patriarchal world only women are caught in adultery while the men are left scot free and as a product of the patriarchal world even scripture avoids the male adulterer. There have been numerous debates over the content of the writing of Jesus on the ground. Few say that he wrote the sins of the people gathered. I do not think that Christ could be so cheap to make public the sins of the people for the sake of his victory. What could have Jesus actually written and why did he choose to write?

The incident is dated to have happened on the eighth day of the feast which was treated as Sabbath. Writing that left an indelible mark was prohibited on Sabbath. But Mishna – which is the interpretation of Jewish laws – allowed one to write with one’s finger in the dust as it leaves no lasting marks. Jesus resorted to bend down and write on the dust before the crowd who wanted to execute the woman on the basis of the law, wanted them to know that he was not only familiar with the law but also its varied nuances and interpretations.  

Now concerning what Jesus wrote, Kenneth Bailey, a pioneering professor in theology and an accomplished linguist remarks “I am convinced that Jesus wrote ‘death’ or ‘kill her’ or ‘stone her’.” He further says

When Jesus says “Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone,” he puts a name and face on everyone in the crowd. He asks each individual to acknowledge responsibility to participate in the act. When the Roman guards step forward to break up the crowd, their first question will be “Who started this?” The second question, “Who ordered it?” wold likely come later. With Jesus says to his opponents, “Gentlemen, you clearly want me to go to jail for the Law of Moses. I am willing to do so. I have ordered that she be killed. But I want to know which one of you is willing to volunteer to accompany me into that cell.”

Thus Jesus acknowledged and overcame the provinciality of the writings of law. The elders understood the trap and thus it is recorded in verse 9 “they went away one by one beginning with the elders.” Now it is only Jesus and the woman but Jesus does not condemn her. William Temple concerning the final words of Jesus to the woman writes,

“It is not a formal acquittal; it is a refusal to judge. He who refuses is the only one who ever was without sin. He alone was entitled to condemn and he did not condemn. But neither did he condone.”

Lent is a time to acknowledge and overcome the issues of provinciality even writing for that matter. Do not allow few biased written words like histories, scriptures etc. obstruct our exploration of faith. Anything that obstructs faith exploration is an idol and that may be the reason why God said never make idols. Elevating any finite concern to the domain of infiniteness is idolatry and a sin.

I conclude with a quote by Pope Francis

“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf … has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

Let us pray

God our ultimate concern, give us the wisdom to not dispute over issues of provinciality. May we never be idolatrous by elevating finite concerns to the realm of ultimacy thereby nullify the excitement of our faith exploration. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen

Prayers

Dn. Basil Paul