WHY DO I SING?

      In this article, popular spiritual writer and pastor, Father Robert Kelly, S.J., takes us through the question of identifying ourselves as God's children and how even in times of difficulty we should not lose that identity.  Instead the sense of being God's children should override any pain and be a reason and source for rejoicing.

Here is a story from the history of 17^th Century Burkina Faso.  It is an historical account from the years when the Mossi ethnic people were a strong political force.  They had conquered and assimilated many neighbours around them.  One of these neighbours was the Kasena people.  Maro Naba, the Mossi emperor, regularly collected tribute from the Kasenas.

One year at collecting time, the emperor made the mistake of sending his son Prince Nabiinga to make the collection.  When the Kasenas saw the heir with only a few guards, they overpowered the guards and took the son hostage.  All his kingly robes were stripped from him.  He was forced to walk around with only a loincloth.  He was given one meal a day and forced to work in the fields with a hoe.

The people mocked him.  The women would come and belittle his manhood, accusing him of not being a virile male.  The children came when he was working and through pebbles at him.  This was a significant act of derision!

THE PRINCE'S REACTION

The reaction of the prince to all this caused great surprise.  He sang cheerfully as he worked and even while he was being mocked.  His hands became badly blistered and he lost weight but he never stopped singing.  The elders of Kasena were troubled by his singing and cheerful manner.  They would meet and ask,  ''How can he sing.  We make him sleep on the ground, give him little food, make him work hard with a rough hoe and our women and children mock him.  Yet he keeps singing!''

After some time they called him before their council.  He stood clothed only in his loincloth, tall and proud.  An elder spokesman then asked, ''Why do you sing?''  He answered them with a kind of joy.  ''It is true you have taken my fine clothes and made me work hard.  You make me sleep on the ground in a common hut.  You have tried to shame me and take away my pride.

"And now you ask me why I sing in spite of everything.  I sing because you cannot take away my title.  I am Moro Naba's first-born son and do not need to react to your shameful behaviour.  I am the son of the Emperor and you cannot take that from me.  And so I sing."

This African prince was proud of his father.  He was proud to be the son of the Emperor.  His identity as son of the Emperor meant more to him than the fine clothes and all other external signs of respect and deference he had been enjoying before his captivity.  The hardship and the humiliation he was enduring were very painful but they could not take away the deeper satisfaction and joy he experienced from his identity as son of the Emperor.

OUR IDENTITY

What about ourselves?  Who is our father?  Are we aware of our deepest identity?  We have been told our true identity by another son, not of any emperor, but of the living God.  This sonship for him was more precious and valuable than any wealth in this world.  And when he was stripped of everything even of the loincloth that covered his nakedness on the cross, he remained sure of his identity.  He always knew he was never alone (John 16:32).  And so in his last breath he handed himself over to his Father's embrace (Luke 23:46).  This son Jesus told us that his Father was also our Father.

This was the good news he brought us and after the resurrection when he was saying goodbye to his followers and us he said, ''I ascend to my Father and to your Father'' (John 20:17).

Are we proud of our Father?  Do we rejoice in the wonder, beauty, love of the living God who is   our  true  father?  Do I really believe in this incredible truth?  Is it precious to me?  Is it the treasury of my life?  Could I lose all goods and possessions, could I be insulted and humiliated and still sing like the young prince for joy in my Father?  Our identity is the deepest source of life and joy within us.  Nobody can take this from us.  We come from God.  To each of us he says, ''I have called you by name.  You are mine.''  (Isaiah 43:1)

GOD'S LOVE FOR ME

Here I believe is the deep meaning of the incarnation.  Jesus Son of God becomes one of us.  He accepts our humanity and shows us what it means to be a true human son or daughter of God.  He does this by revealing what our father is truly like.  He reveals the true God as God of compassion and love.  He invites us to be like this father which is to be a people of compassion.

We cannot see God our Father but we can see Jesus.  He is God's love made visible (Romans 8:39).   When Jesus tells us to be like our Father we might ask, ''How on earth can I be like God?''  Jesus will answer simply, ''Love one another.  Be compassionate.  Help one another.  Forgive one another."  We are called by God and by Jesus not to long prayers or many devotional practices.  We are called to be people of compassion and love.

And Jesus insists this is possible.  Despite all our selfishness and jealousy and anger and fear, we can love one another.  Jesus does not ask the impossible.  When he says '' Be like your Father'', he is really reminding us of who we are, of who is our real father.

Because of who we are we have power to be patient, brave and trusting in the face of suffering.  This is another fruit of our identity and another way we can bring glory to God our Father and reveal our true selves as children of God.  We can be like the young prince in the story who could sing in time of suffering and humiliation because of the wonder and joy of being the emperor's son.

The deep well of my true identity is very deep but Jesus wants to lead as there.  We seldom go there.  We need a guide.  That is why Jesus came.  He is the way.  He will lead us to this truth and this truth will set us free.  When Paul speaks of our ''hidden self'', I believe this is what he is speaking about and I suppose this is what is meant by ''our soul''.  We can agree with Paul that this self is ''hidden''.

It is buried under the many trivialities of life.  It is hidden by our failures and sins.  It is hidden by our constant pretending, the masks we wear, the lies we tell others and even ourselves.  Paul prays for us that we will journey past all the sins and trivialities to that sacred place where we are indestructible and where God dwells.  Prayer is one name we give to the journey into our deepest self to meet God at our centre.

GOD'S POWER IN US

There is a power there, says Paul, which will enable us to do more than we can imagine.  He prays not only that we become more like Christ but that we may enter into the very fullness of God.  (Ephesians 3: 14-20).  If we can share this faith of Paul we should be able to sing no matter what happens in our lives.

Sometimes I find myself saying to God, ''Lord, I am the happiest person in the world''.  And the reason is that God is saying, ''I am God.  I call you by name and you are mine.''  This God loves me with unconditional love.  This is the deepest part of my being, of my reality.  Nothing can change this, nothing can  lessen it

or deprive me of it.  When I say I am the happiest person in the world, this does not suggest comparison with others, because each person in the world has exactly the same reason as I have for this joy.

It has nothing to do with my observance of God's law or my achievements.  My good works don’t make it increase.  My sins don’t make it decrease.  It has nothing to do with this religion or that faith.  It is based on one thing only, God's being, God's unconditional love for me at this moment.  The reality of this love is deeper and greater than my sins and failures.

It is deeper and more powerful than my pride, my anger, my selfishness, my lust.  I cannot earn it.  I can only accept it.  When I joyfully, humbly and honestly accept this love, I can say with total truth ''I am the happiest person in this world.''  I can sing like the young prince.  I even feel close to being able to say even for a moment, ''I am in love with you who are so wonderfully, so strangely in love with me.''

And you dear reader can say the same as I am saying.  I don't care what reasons you might give to prove that this does not apply to you.  I don't care what you might say about yourself and what is going on right now in your life.

I am saying that this truth of God's personal and unconditional love for you right now is more powerful, more healing and creative than anything you can say about yourself or your present situation.  You can say that you are now the happiest person in the world because God is in love with you.  Please don't say I must be crazy to suggest God is in love with you who feel so unloveable and so much a failure, etc.Well, I am not crazy.  Maybe God is crazy!  Lovers often do crazy things.  

Listen to some words from a modern saint.  This is a very wonderful young woman who was familiar with deep suffering but was also totally certain of God's love. She prays to God her lover, ''You are the Divine Eagle whom I love.  You came into this land of exile willing to suffer and die to carry every single soul into the very heart of the Trinity, loves' eternal home.  Forgive me if I tell you that your love reaches even to madness''.  (St. Therese of Liseux).

Robert Kelly, S.J.
St. Ignatius Community
Lusaka

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