Jose Rizal’s “Mi Último Adiós” and Jesus’ Parable of the Pearl

Jesus spoke of the parable of the pearl (Matthew 13:45) to pair it with the parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44). These parables are considered as one set, because both of these liken the Kingdom of Heaven to an object of great value, for which we are willing to do anything, as we seek it first.  For us to appreciate this set of parables on the Kingdom, we must first understand these kerygmatic words of Jesus, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”(Matthew 6:33) from his sermon on the mount.

Perhaps, it is easier to associate the Kingdom to the pearl, compared to the hidden treasure, for an obvious reason.  Though we do not know what kind of treasure the hidden treasure is, we know that pearl is a beautiful treasure.  To illustrate the beauty of the Kingdom, the pearl is a fitting metaphor.

The parables make a point that we are willing to do anything, at any cost, in order to attain the Kingdom – just as the man in the parable of the hidden treasure sold everything in his possession to buy the treasure he found and hid together with the field and just as the merchant sold everything in his possession to purchase the pearl of great value.

As the merchant liquidated everything he had to obtain just the precious pearl, Jesus’ message in the parable of the pearl tells us that we shall pay even the ultimate price for the Kingdom of Heaven, if we really want it. In order to appreciate this parable, can we pay our own life to get the pearl, which is a metaphor of the Kingdom?  If the pearl as the Kingdom is compared to a nation welove enough to sacrifice your life for, we are willing to become martyrs for the pearl.  A great example of this is Jose Rizal of the Philippines.

Shortly before his martyrdom, Rizal hid his poem, known as “Mi Último Adiós”, and told his close family members, who visited him in the prison where the poem can be found. The words of the first stanza of the poem are:

Adiós, Patria adorada, región del sol querida,
Perla del mar de oriente, nuestro perdido Edén!
A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida,
Y fuera más brillante, más fresca, más Florida,
También por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

Sensing his execution imminent, Rizal left his words to his beloved nation, the Philippines. Note that he likened the Philippines to “perla del mar de oriente” (pearl of the Orient sea). Because he was not able to see his beloved “pearl”, the Philippines, to become free from the Spanish oppression in his life time, he also compared to “perdido Edén”(lost Eden), even evoking John Milton’s poignant poem, “Paradise Lost”.

Though his beloved nation, the Philippines, is beautiful as “perla del mar de oriente”,  she is now like “perdido Edén”.  In this, there is a parallel to his own life, as he was about to be executed.  Just as his life is about to be lost to the execution, his beloved “perla del mar de oriente”, the Philippines,  would be like “perdido Edén”, as she was not delivered from the hands of the colonial oppression in his life time. Yet, Rizal put his hope for the Philippines as he was willing to put his own life for this, by these words: A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida, y fuera más brillante, más fresca, más Florida, también por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

Though Rizal willingly paid his own life for the precious “perla del mar de oriente” that Rizal loved more than anything else, the desired effect of this “purchase” did not become reality upon his death. It was until, at least, 1946, when the Philippines started with her own full sovereignty, after the Japanese rule and the American rule, following the Spanish rule.

Had Jesus preached the parable of the pearl after the martyrdom of Rizal, he might have said something like, “Look, Jose Rizal of the Philippines is a good example to put this parable to his heart, if I further compare the Kingdom to the Philippines” – or any nation where there is a heroic martyr, who paid his or her own life for it.

Jose Rizal sure loved his country, the Philippines, and its people. That is why he awakened the slumbered senses of his fellow Filipinos to a fresh sense of nationalism, not in a violent revolutionary way but rather through his pen and poignant words. Without Rizal’s words, neither Andres Bonifacio nor Emilio Aguinaldo would have earned their places in the Philippine history. Both of them were influenced by Rizal in their efforts to gain independence of the Philippines from Spain.  Because of this, Rizal was deemed as a threat to Spanish governance of the Philippines and eventually executed on 30 December, 1896. In this regard, Jose Rizal is a martyr for the Philippines.

Rizal knew the risk to himself in raising the awareness of his fellow Filipinos to the critical needs for dignity and sovereignty. Nevertheless, he carried on his mission to awaken the Filipino mind to what the Philippines deserved.  He risked himself to raise the Filipinos awareness to their need to overcome slave-like docile colonial mentality, which allowed not only the Spanish colonial authority. He also challenged the Catholic Church in the Philippines for its oppressiveness and internal moral corruption.  He wanted his beloved Philippines and its people to be delivered from oppressive hands of the Spanish colonial authority and spiritually poisonous grip of false shepherds of the Church in the Philippines.

A juxtaposition can be drawn between Jose Rizal and Jesus, as Jesus used his kerygmatic words to save the world from sin-inducing grips of Satan. The words of Jesus includes parables to deliver his teaching. Likewise, Rizal masterfully used parabolic words to make his points. For example, through his works, “Noli Me Tángere”, and its sequel, “El Filibusterismo”, Rizal tactfully put his own voice through his alter egos in certain characters in the stories. Just as the words of Jesus awaken us to realize our sinfulness and moral problem in the world and to seek the Kingdom of Heaven, Rizal’s allegorical words through his alter egos prompt the Filipinos to realize the problem of the Philippines and to stand up for justice for the nation.

The words of Jesus cost his own life. Likewise, Rizal also had to pay his own life for his words. Jesus paid his own life to purchase our salvation, which can be the pear to him. Rizal paid his own life to purchase “perla del mar de oriente”.  The salvation that Jesus purchased for us is on its way, and so is “perla del mar de oriente”, as the Philippines is not as free as what Rizal envisioned through his prophetic words in “Noli Me Tángere” and “El Filibusterismo” yet, in spite of its “independence” in 1946. Therefore, we, too, need to purchase the pearl of great value, in light of Jesus’ parable of the pearl, juxtaposing the Kingdom and justice on earth .

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure for Bibliophile Believers

If you are a bibliophile, like me, you probably, have had this kind of experience at a book store, as I have.

In the book store, you found a book you are dying to get. However, you realized that its price was out of reach.  Darn! The book was too good to give up, even you could not afford.  Then, you decided to come back to purchase it when you have enough money. Until then, you wanted to make sure that the book would not be taken by someone else. So, you hid the book behind other books in the bookshelf, hoping that nobody would see it.

While saving money to buy the book you hid, you are anxious if someone with enough money would get it, even he or she may not appreciate the book as you do.  Perhaps, you may have gone back to the book store, even you were still saving money, just to check if it was still in the hidden place.

Finally, you saved up enough money to buy the book, and you know how joyful you would be to purchase the book you have wanted.

You worked very hard to save just enough money to buy the book, while hiding it to make sure that it would not be taken by someone else. In order to save, you have made many sacrifices.  Because you love books and wanted that particular book at any cost, all the sacrifices were well worth.

Perhaps, this is how my fellow book lovers can appreciate Jesus’ parables to liken the Kingdom of Heaven to the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44).  Through this parable, Jesus teaches his disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven can be understood as we appreciate the treasure that we want to purchase even though we may have to sell everything we have.  

The man who found the hidden treasure in the field sold everything he had in order to purchase it. In the mean time, he made sure that the treasure remained hidden.

In fact, hiddenness is a very important concept not only in this short parable but also in the entire Gospel. To understand this, think of how the divine identity of Jesus was revealed. At first, it was veiled in his human appearance. Because of this, those whose hearts were compared to the path, which the seed was not accepted to sprout, in his parable of the sower (Matthew 13:4-9) were not able to recognize him as the Son of God. His divine quality was gradually revealed only to those whose hearts were like the good soil, where the seed grows to its fruition, in the parable of the sower. Those whose hearts were likened to the rocky path, where the seed may sprout but dies soon, and the thorny ground, where the seed’s growth is choked to death, in the parable of the sower, were comparable to those who followed Jesus physically out of curiosity but eventually abandoned him because they were not able to recognize his divinity within.

Those who do not realize the divine quality in Jesus cannot realize the Kingdom of Heaven. The goodness of the Kingdom, as well as the divinity and the messianic quality of Jesus, remains hidden to them. Through the parable of the hidden treasure, Jesus compares the Kingdom to the treasure kept hidden to those who cannot seek and find but revealed only to a person, who appreciate it enough to sell everything he has.

To my fellow bibliophiles throughout the world, the Kingdom of Heaven is also like the precious book you are willing to sell everything you have to get, while hiding it from those who do not appreciate it as much as you do.

Because the man in the parable bought the whole field where he found and hid the treasure, rather than digging it out of the field to buy just it, actually, I would need to buy the entire books on the shelf, where I hid the book of my desire! Or, better yet, buying the entire book store! Boy, it sure would cost me a whole lot more than buying the book.  However, seeking to attain the Kingdom is just like this, and we shall willingly  bear any cost, no matter how far beyond it goes from our original estimate. 

Evangelization and the Parable of the Sower: Ite, Missa Est! Now, Go and Sow the Word in the World!

As baptized and confirmed Christians in the Catholic tradition, we are called to evangelize.  This is our apostolic identity, always reminded at the conclusion of Mass with these words to send us off, “Ite, missa est”, reflecting these kerygmatic words of Jesus: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) and “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”(Matthew 28:19). This means that we are to sow the Word in the world, as a witness to Christ, to all the ends of the earth, as driven and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). To put this apostolic call of ours into the context of Jesus’ parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23//Mark 4:1-20//Luke 8:1-15), we are called to evangelize, catechize and charismatize the world with the Word in the Gospel, by virtue of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, as we sow the Word of God in the world.

We are to serve the Lord as sowers on his behalf, and this diverse world is the field with various types of soils. As there are different types of soils in the parable, the receptivity of the Word in the Gospel varies in the world. We may be sent out to evangelize regions where people are not receptive to the Word, just as the path in the parable does not let the seed to sprout.  In another area of the world, people may accept the Word with joy and excitement at first but soon lose interest in it, just as the seed on the rocky ground with shallow soil may sprout but die quickly as it cannot spread its roots.  On another opportunity, those whom we encounter may accept the Word on the surface but cannot let it grow on their heart because they are too busy to study and reflect, just as the seed on the thorny soil will be chocked to death. Perhaps, only a very small number of us can be sent to evangelize those who are not only receptive but can commit to let the Word grow in their heart, just as the seed grows continuously all the way to its abundant fruition.  Chances are, most of us are sent out to evangelize regions where the Word is not well-received and appreciated. Then, what are we to do?  Because Jesus said, “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet”(Matthew 10:14), should we just forget about these unwelcoming and unreceptive areas? This question reflects a typical challenge in evangelization all the time.

Jesus sure does not want us to keep sowing the Word on those who are not receptive. He wants us to move on to sow the Word on those who are receptive. In fact, Paul did not waste his time and efforts in Athens, realizing that it was not a good place to evangelize, and went to Corinth (Acts 18:1). However, he sure found Corinth to be quite difficult place to evangelize, as he did not feel like returning there (i.e. 2 Corinthians 2:1). Yet, he really cared about the Corinthian community and wanted to make sure that the Word he sowed there would grow, as he wrote two epistles to them. This encourages us to take up the challenge to strategically evangelize those who did not accept the Word and those who did not let the Word grow. Of course, it is important that we take a lesson from our first visit as to why the Word was not accepted and why the Word did not grow. Otherwise, we might keep repeating the same ineffective method of evangelization, while distancing people further away from the Word.  In order to be more strategic and effective in our evangelization, first and foremost, we need to work on building relationships to those whom we want to plant the Word in the Gospel. This ground work for effective evangelization is like working on the soil before sowing seeds. Aren’t all farmers first work on the soils before sowing seeds to maximize the odds of the seeds’ growth?

The quality of our relationship with those whom we want to evangelize the Word and minister to help them grow the Word in their heart is likened to the quality of the soil where the seed is sown. Just as farmers first work on the soil before sowing, we need to work on establishing a good relationship with those whom we want to sow the Word in their heart.

To cultivate a good personal relationship, we spend time to get to know each other.  In this regard, good sales professionals often tell that they do not begin talking about the products to sell to people but rather to listen to them to learn what they need. This way, they are in a better position to make more effective sales by matching the products to potential customers’ needs. Thus, rather than talking about the Word at the beginning, we need to listen to what they need first.  Since listening is essential to developing and maintaining a relationship, getting to know their need by listening facilitates to cultivate a relationship.  Once we have established a good relationship with those whom we want to evangelize, we know what they need. This enables us to introduce the Word to them in a way to meet their need.

To ensure that the Word continues to take its roots and grow to its fruition, as the good soil does so with the sown seed, we need to minister them continuously. As good sales professionals make follow-up contacts with their customers, we also need to do follow-ups with those whom we have sown the Word.  Farmers do not leave the field unattended after working on the soil and sow the seeds. They continue to provide necessary care in attending to the field to ensure that the growth of the seeds is not disrupted. Likewise, we continue to minister to those whom we have sown the Word so that we can witness its growth and enjoy harvesting its abundant fruition together.

Namely, for us to be effective and strategic evangelizers and sowers of the Word to the world, in the spirit of Jesus’ commissioning commands in Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:15, our focus is on establishing and maintaining the rapport with those whom we want to sow the Word – to evangelize with the Word. For this, we first need to get to know them by listening and by continuing to listen so that we can learn what they need.  This is likened to the preparation of the soil to make sure that it is fitting for the seeds to grow, upon sowing.  Then, we can strategically introduce the Word to them, in ways for them to experience that their needs are met as the Word is received and continues to grow in their heart. This is like sowing the seeds on the right spots in the field, not too clustered but scattered just right, covered with enough soil for protection. Then, the Word grows in their heart, and we continue to facilitate its growth, just as farmers continue to attend the field as the seeds grow, watering and removing anything that may stunt the growth.

Just as farming is a hard work, evangelizing is a demanding work, indeed. It is not just about sowing the Word but continuously providing necessary care to ensure the Word grows to bear plentiful fruits. Of course, we do not have to do it all by ourselves. Jesus prefers us to go sowing the Word in the world with another person (i.e. Mark 6:7), and Paul sure had companions and collaborators on his missionary journeys in sowing the Word in various places. We work as a team in sowing the Word and ensuring its growth to abundant fruition. Then, our team grows through the Word. This is how the Church, as Ekklesia, which literally means “being called out of the world”(ek – out of + kaleo – being called), continue to grow as the Word continues to grow in the heart of more people through generations, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We have been called out of the world to be the Ekklesia, as Jesus has already sown the Word on us and empowered us with the Holy Spirit, another Parakletos.  He has called us, also, to help him extend and expand the Ekklesia through our evangelization efforts – by sowing the Word on his behalf and ensuring its growth to great harvests – so that the Ekklesia will continue to be enriched in its growth. 

The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat and the Use of Antibiotics

If you have taken antibiotics that your doctor prescribed and dispensed, you may have experienced diarrhea. It is because the antibiotics not only killed “bad bacteria” but also “good bacteria” in your intestines.  

A lesson from this kind of experience with antibiotics can resonate with what we can learn from Jesus’ parable of the weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30). Though we think that it is not so difficult to distinguish weeds from wheat, the kind of weed in the parable is darnel, which resembles wheat. The Greek word used for its original text is “zizanion”, which means darnel, or spurious wheat. In other words, darnel and wheat look alike to each other, until they grow enough to start showing their ears.

In this parable, Jesus tells that the servants reported to their master about the presence of darnel in his wheat field.  Contrary to what they might have thought, the master told his servants not to pull darnel at this time, when they asked him if they should pull the darnel, growing in the wheat field. Jesus says that the master told them to wait until the harvest time to sort darnel from wheat.  According to Jesus, the master’s rational not to pull darnel at that time was not to inadvertently damage to the wheat, as pulling darnel prematurely may harm the wheat.  Pulling darnel too soon risks collateral damage to important crop, in other words.

Unless you are trained in bacteriology, many kinds of bacteria in the intestine may look alike, just as darnel and wheat are difficult to distinguish until later time in their growth. Killing “good bacteria” as a collateral damage to kill “bad bacteria” by taking antibiotics is like unintentionally hurting wheat in pulling darnel too soon. When antibiotics are used injudiciously, we not only damage “good bacteria” but also weaken our immune system.

In this application of the parable of the weeds among wheat into the context of antibiotics use, the kingdom of God addressed in the parable is compared to our total health. We can better understand what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God through this parable as we reflect on how we maintain our total health in dealing with the fine balance between “good bacteria” and “bad bacteria” in our system.

May the parable of the weeds among the wheat serve as a “good medicine” for today’s medicine to use antibiotics more conservatively for the sake of our total health. 

The Parable of the Sower and the Church

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23//Mark 4:1-20// Luke 8:1-15) can be addressed to the health of the Church. Is the Church today healthy enough to function as the fertile soil?

 
The Church is the koinonia of faithful people. At least, it is what the Church as the Ekklesia, is meant to be.  Bing the koinonia of the faithful to God, the Church is in full communion with God and those who are also Saints, functioning as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). This Christian koinonia is the Ekklesia because these faithful in koinonia have been called (kaleo) by and to serve God out of (ek) this world. Faith (pistis) is what characterizes this ecclesiastic koinonia, the Church. This is based on the origin and growth of the Church as Luke described in the Acts of the Apostles.

Acts 2 describes that the Church was born out of the koinonia pistos (faithful communion) of the original disciples of Jesus, whom he summoned to commission, before his Ascension (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:1-9). Upon being commissioned by Jesus, the disciples (mathetai) witnessed his ascension and waited in Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit as another Parakletos. Then, on Pentecost, they received the Holy Spirit. It was when the Church, the Ekklesia, was born – born out of the disciples and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, how about the Church today? Is she really faith-driven and Holy-Spirit-filled apostolic koinonia?

When I think of this question, I see the Church today is quite different from the original Church, called by Jesus out of the world to serve God, filled and driven by the Holy Spirit. The Church today is rather a highly bureaucratic institution. Politics and “administrative” issues dominate the Church today, while the original charism of the disciples seems lost, as it is difficult to find among those who make up the institution. Perhaps, this “bureaucratization” and possible loss of the charism are attributed to the Roman-imperialization of the Church by Emperor Constantine, c.a. 312-313 A.D.. Ever since that time, the Word of God has not been growing on the Church as it should. To put this ecclesiological condition in the context of Jesus’ parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23//Mark 4:1-20// Luke 8:1-15), the Church is not like the fertile soil. Perhaps, she is more like the thorny ground as secular concerns, such as political and administrative issues, plague the heart of the Church, choking the growth of the Word. The Church under such a condition also does not allow the Holy Spirit to function as the water and light to facilitate the growth of the seed, which is compared to the Word.

This phenomenon is also observed on a parish level. If you observe how those who sit in the pews at Mass are taking the readings during the Liturgy of the World. You can ask those who come out of Mass randomly, what the scripture readings are about and what the homily was about. Chances are, more than what you think reveal that they really do not know. The heart of them are comparable to the rocky shallow soil and thorny ground in the Jesus’ parable of the sower.  The heart of those who no longer attend Mass, because they do not want to, is like the path in the parable of the sower. Given this reality, finding actively practicing Catholics, whose heart is comparable to the fertile soil in the parable of the sower may be just as difficult as finding the original charism of the disciples in the Church today.

The parable of the sower is meant to examine the spiritual health of the Church – globally and locally. Is the heart of our koinonia – the heart of our Ekklesia healthy enough to be comparable to the fertile soil in the parable? Or, is it suffering from the spiritual attention deficit, thus, making it like the rocky and shallow soil, where the seed may sprout fast but it will wither soon? Or, is it plagued with many worldly concerns to choke the growth of the Word in us, like the thorny soil will choke the seed?

The ultimate remedy to this problem is the power of the Holy Spirit.

For the healthy heart, comparable to the fertile soil, the Holy Spirit is like the rain and sunshine to promote the growth of the seed. For the preoccupied heart, comparable to the thorny ground, the Holy Spirit, which is like the cleansing fire (Isaiah 4:4), can burn off things that plague the heart, as thorns on the ground will be cleared out by combustion. For shallow attention-deficit heart, the Holy Spirit will patiently work on removing all the obstacles of your attention, as the Holy Spirit is powerful enough to have raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11), rolling the heavy stone out of his tomb.

Now, for those whose heart is psychospiritually hardened enough to reject the Word – namely, those who no longer consider themselves in the Church, just as rain water softened hard path, the Holy Spirit will softens the hardened heart (Ezekiel 36:26-28).

Both our koinonia and Ekklesia always need the Holy Spirit so that the Word of God grows to bear abundant fruits through our heat, which is also the heart of the Church. As the condition of the heart of the Church improves, the Word of God, like the seed sown to the fertile soil, will grow on us to its abundant fruition, aided by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the fruits of the Holy Spirit will be born out of the Church, as she becomes like the fertile soil.

To redeem the fertility of the Church – for the Word of God to grow on the Church, we must return to the Church at her birth and her nascence, described in the Acts of the Apostles. It was when the Church was totally filled with the Holy Spirit, making the heart of the ecclesiastic koinonia receptive to the Word. Because of that, the Church herself grew and grew, even facing severe persecution.

As Ekklesia, the Church is called (kaleo) to sow the Word in the world (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8).  For this reason, the faithful who make up this ecclesiastic koinonia are apostolic, which means “to be sent” on mission.  As the Word that Christ has sown grows to its abundant fruition, we carry them on our mission so that we, too, can serve God as His sowers.  For us, as the Church, to function this way, we must make sure that our heart is psychospiritually healthy, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to stay healthy enough for the Word to grow on us, as the seed grows on the fertile soil.

The Parable of the Sower: Is Our Heart Spiritually Healthy Enough to Function as a Catalyst for the Living Bread of Life?

The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23//Mark 4:1-20// Luke 8:1-15) gives a multitude of lessons. The lessons shall lead us to appreciate our heart to serve as a catalyst for the Living Bread of Life.

In this parable, the sower is God and the seed He sows is His Word.  This is indicated in Isaiah 55:10-11, in which the Word that comes out of God’s mouth is associated with seed to be sown for abundant harvest.  The Word comes out of God’s mouth, just as rain and snow come from heaven. The rain and snow are to aid seed on earth to grow, thus making the earth fertile and fruitful.  This way, the earth yields more seeds for a sower to harvest for more loaves of bread.

The road on which some seed is fallen only to be snatched by birds is a metaphor for hardened heart, which does not accept the Word of God.  The bird is a metaphor of Satan.  The rocky ground on which some seed is fallen to sprout quickly but die is a metaphor for a heart of spiritual attention deficit. The thorny ground on which some seed is fallen to be choked its growth to death indicates a heart plagued with worries about mundane concerns.  The good soil on which seed grows to a manifold yield represents a heart that receives the Word to bring forth its unfolding effects, as God wills.

Pope Francis calls this parable a “spiritual radiography” of our heart. The parable helps us diagnose the psychospiritual condition of our heart. If your heart is like the path, then, it is almost as good as a dead heart. Before it becomes too late, your heart needs to be unhardened by the healing grace of God. If your heart is like the rocky ground, the rocks need to be removed so that the Word can take its roots deep in your heart. Otherwise, your heart may be as hardened as a paved path. Now, if your heart is like the thorny ground, a good prescription for the cure is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 6:25 to 34. Additionally, Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:6-7 and Peter’s advice in 1 Peter 5:7 make a good supplement to the Jesus’ prescription in Matthew 6:25-34.  If we did not intervene our anxious heart, the thorns will continue to kill all the seed and eventually harden our heart like a paved road.

The Peter’s advice in dealing with thorns in our heart, anxieties and worries, in 1 Peter 5:7, can be better understood in conjunction with Jesus’ invitation to yoke with him (Matthew 11:28-30). This also reflects these words of St. Augustine of Hippo, “Our heart is restless until it rests in you (God)”, as well as the “Sucipe” prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola. To cast our anxieties to God, entrusting His providence, as in 1 Peter 5:7, we must yoke with Jesus to find rest in him. This also means to surrender our egos, which plays critical roles in generating spiritual thorns to kill the Word in our heart.

Jesus has already given not only a good “radiographical” diagnostic tool for our heart but also prescribed good healing “medicine”, further enhanced by Peter and Paul. The parable of the sower needs to be read and reflected periodically for our spiritual health – just as we need to have regular EKG and stress test to maintain our cardiovascular health.

We must be spiritually healthy to receive the Word of God, letting it yields manifold harvest on our heart.  To be fruitful with the Word of God, our heart needs to function like a fertile soil for seed to grow.  In this regard, there is a juxtaposition between the Word and the Holy Spirit, as the words coming out of Jesus’ month are the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63), namely the Holy Spirit. This is where we can link “ῥῆμα”(rhema)(spoken word by Jesus)(John 6:63) to “λόγος”(logos)(word)(Matthew13:19, 20, 21, 22, 23), as well as to “πνεῦμα”(pneuma)(spirit, breath). When logos of Jesus comes out of his mouth as rhema, as pneuma comes with it.  The logos of Jesus become audible to our ears as his rhema because of his pneuma.  By associating the Word to the Spirit here, what the Word yields is juxtaposed to the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Parable of the Sower can be reflected in light of Galatians 5:22-23.

Now, we see that a spiritually healthy heart, on which the Word grow to bring abundant harvest, is also where the Holy Spirit bears its fruits more, because the word comes out of Jesus’ mouth is also his spirit of life.  Putting this in light of Matthew 11:28-30, we need to be yoked with Jesus to keep our spiritually healthy heart, on which his rhema (logos and pneuma) brings manifold fruits.  This way, we can also better appreciate Jesus’ rhema in John 15:1-8. As long as we are with Jesus, as being yoked together with him, or as branches attached to the vine, we can readily prevent our heart from falling to unhealthy conditions, like the “thorny ground”, “rocky ground”, or “hardened path”.  Even in case our heart turned into any of these pathological conditions, God’s grace suffices (2 Corinthians 12:9) to cure this problem. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, a spiritual “CPR” that God performs out of His compassion, always works! To prove this, He sent His begotten Son to this world by the Holy Spirit, incarnating logos, giving us as the Living Bread of Life, to be killed by the world’s evil and to raise him from the dead – just as a grain of wheat falls on the ground to yield abundant harvest (John 12:24) for the unlimited loaves of the Living Bread of Life.

For us not only to be the consumer but the active agent of the Living Bread of Life,  we must ensure of our heart’s spiritual health, for Jesus’ rhema is heard and logos to grow for abundant harvest. 

Let Us Yoke with Jesus for Nirvana in Him

Being a Japanese Catholic, with a Buddhist family background, I strive to find ways to better explain the Gospel of Jesus to make sense also in Buddhist contexts. Here is one of my attempts for my mission to address the Gospel teaching in the Buddhist context in regard to meekness and yoke to relieve ourselves from distress in life for a Buddhist-Catholic dialectic learning.

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Living a life on earth sure comes with the multitudes of challenges. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism begins with a humble acknowledgement of duḥkha-satya (truth of suffering) in life of this world. In response to the reality of suffering in life, Gautama Buddha taught the Eightfold Right Path based on the Four Noble Truths, to help us overcome suffering by attaining anatman (egolessness). About 500 years after Gautama Buddha’s teaching on duḥkha-satya, Jesus, who is the Christ, was sent by the Father in heaven to this world to deliver us from bonds of our sins, including suffering.

In the Abrahamic monotheistic religions, including Christianity, the humans began to suffer upon the fall of Adam and Eve, known as the Original Sin. Tempted by Satan in the serpent in Eden, Adam and Eve defied God. It was because the Satan activated their egos, by making them wanting to taste the forbidden fruit. It means that the flame of raga (passion, greed) was ignited in the human heart, in a way to put a division between God and us. As a result, they became ego-conscious. That is why they became ashamed of their nakedness. Then, they were evicted from Eden, which means paradise in Hebrew, and it was the beginning of still-unfolding human life of suffering. At the same time, it has been a life of human ego, which often gravitates our consciousness to itself, keeping our attention from God. As our attention is centered in our ego, we are more likely to sin, as the flame of raga continues to burn. In response, God has been trying to bring our attention back to Him, while Shakamuni Buddha taught how we can extinguish raga, thus, entering into the state of nirvana, becoming the anatman being.

Outside Eden, we have been lost like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. As he relinquished his ego and journeyed back to his father, whom he had betrayed, we, too, are to return to God the Father, with whom we had been in Eden. However, we cannot return to the Father alone. We need the help of parakletos, the advocate, who is called to be with. First, the parakletos is Christ himself, and second, he is the Holy Spirit that Christ promised to be sent by the Father (John 14:16, 26).

Just as Christianity teaches us our need to have Christ to be saved, because we cannot save ourselves, Buddhism teaches that we cannot save ourselves from the vicious cycle of suffering, called samsara, thus needing the power of Amitabha, which means the being with infinite (immeasurable) light (amitabha) and infinite life (amitayus). That is why the Pure Land School of Buddhism in China and Japan teaches the importance of “Namuamidabutsu”( 南無阿弥陀仏), which means complete submission of ourselves to the providence of the amitabha and amitayus of the Amitabha Buddha, who is known as the “spiritual Buddha”, while Gautama Buddha is known as the historical Buddha.  To Christians, the only way to the salvation is to submit our total selves to the will of God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, as he is our primary parakletos.  Besides being our primary parakletos, Jesus is the way and the truth (John 14:6), and no one can go to the Father except through him (ibid.).

That is why Jesus is inviting us to yoke with him so that we can journey back to the Father together with him, bound by his yoke, which is easy and its weight is light. This invitation to yoke with him – to take his yoke, to attach ourselves to his yoke, is to be with him and to observe his law, as the Greek word used for this context in Matthew 11:29-30 is zygos (ζυγός). In fact, this Greek word for a yoke is no stranger to the term familiar with biology, zygote, the fertilized egg, through the union of sperm and egg, to being the growth of biological life. In Greek, zygote (ζυγωτός) literally means yoking sperm and egg, sperm yoking with egg. Ζυγός (zygos) has the nuance of putting two beings together. In this sense, Jesus was inviting us to be with him to those who were burned with the fire of raga, overburdened with the legalism imposed by the fundamentalistic moralists because of sinfulness, or distressed about sins and their consequences through these words,, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Usually, “yoke” in the above Gospel narrative is understood as a metaphor for “law”. The sinners were made so burdened with the way the Mosaic Law was taught by the Pharisees, when Jesus said these words. Moved by his compassion, Jesus offered a relief from this distress by inviting them to take his law (yoke), which is easy to observe. However, by using the word, “yoke”, which also means conjoitment, as indicated from its Greek word, zygos (ζυγός), used by the Gospel writer, the above words of Jesus in the Gospel gives a deeper meaning, indicative of Jesus’ desire for intimacy with us.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he came to this world not to abolish the Law of Moses but to fulfill or complete the Law. To echo this, Paul explains in Romans 10:4 that Jesus is the telos (τέλος), end-purpose, of the Law. In other words, Jesus himself is the ultimate purpose of the Law. Therefore, he is our yoke (law) to take and to yoke with, so that we may be righteous enough in God’s eyes for salvation.

It is also important to note that Jesus also invites us to learn from him (Matthew 11:29) as we take his yoke, as we yoke with him. So, what are we to learn from him in this context? In order to understand this, we must read some narratives preceding to the above-cited words of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).

In reading Matthew 11:20-24, you notice that Jesus was rather harshly rebuking the unrepentant sinfulness of some Galilean towns, such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. People in these towns are spiritually repugnant in the eyes of Jesus. To put in Buddhist terms, they were living a life of kleshas (spiritual defilements), including raga (greedy narcissistic passion), and mana (pride). Because of this, Jesus said, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Matthew 11:25-27).

Here, Jesus indicates something hidden from those who live a life of kleshas. In other words, Jesus suggests that there are certain important things that those who live a life of sins cannot see. In order to prevent us from falling blind with our sinfulness, we need to be as meek as Jesus is. That is why Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves”(Matthew 11:29). In other words, Jesus invites us to yoke with him so that we may become as meek and humble of heart as Jesus. After all, it is the ultimate way to overcome all the distress associated with the flame of raga, which prompted Adam and Eve to lose Eden, to begin vicious deuteronomic samsara-like cycles.

Perhaps, these words of St. Augustine of Hippo, in his “Confession” (Book I, Ch.1) helps us better appreciate what it means to take upon Jesus’ invitation to yoke with him.

Great are you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and of your wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of your creation, desires to praise you, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that you "resist the proud," — yet man, this part of your creation, desires to praise you. You move us to delight in praising you; for you have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you. Lord, teach me to know and understand which of these should be first, to call on you, or to praise you; and likewise to know you, or to call upon you.

The above words of St. Augustine echoes Jesus’ praise of the Father for keeping the divine salvific wisdom from those who chose not to repent but to continue to defy Him but reveling it only to those who become as obedient as a child in Matthew 11:25. In other words, child-like obedience in Matthew 11:25 is echoed in meekness in Matthew 11:29, as these are about humility. This echoes the Pure Land Buddhists’ humble spirit of submission to amitabha and amitayus of Amitabha Buddha in “Namuamidabutsu”( 南無阿弥陀仏) chanting. As the Pure Land Buddhists strive to overcome suffering of life, attributed to raga, by this “Namuamidabutsu” obedience, humility, and meekness, the Christians turn away from sins and seek Jesus the Christ, who invites us to find “nirvana” in him by yoking with him.

In addition to the above words of St. Augustine, the following words of St. Ignatius of Loyola also echoes what it means to yoke with Jesus with our humility so that we become bound by the same yoke with Jesus for the freedom from distress.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding and my entire will
- all that I have and call my own.
You have given it all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours, do with it as you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.                               

“Suscipe” prayer from the Spiritual Exercises 234

Now that we have gone through metanoia, realizing that we need parakletos, to be saved. This means that we need to let our ego and what puts fire on it, namely raga, go by letting God to take it all. This way, we may be received by God to yoke with Jesus– to be one with Christ, for rest from distress. It is Christ’s desire that we yoke with him through meekness, reflecting these words of his, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).

Do you find yourself in nirvana in Christ upon submitting yourself to his invitation to yoke with him, just as the chanting of “Namuamidabutsu” vows to submit relinquish ego and whatever it causes to the care of amitabha and amitayus of Amitabah Buddha?