CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD /ஆண்டவரின் மலை மேல் ஏறுதல் English

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MOUNTAIN EXPERIENCE OF GOD 

Only a man with clean hands and pure heart

can climb the mountain of the Lord

Rj;jkhd fuq;fisAk; khrw;w ,jaj;JlNdAk; jhd;

Mz;ltupd; kiy Nky; Vw KbAk;.

1.     Reflections while climbing!

I have said this prayer for many years and have walked up the aisles of churches, saying, lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, purify my hands and heart

and then only stood befor the tabernacle of the Lord.
 

In recent times, after completing 80 years of earthly life,

I have expressed my wish as follows –

The Lord has given me longer life, why?

I think for two reasons in my view -

a)     To purify and prepare me during this last phase of my life for God’s eternal reward.

b)    To make use of me, as a humble instrument for peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

I try to live these days, thanks be to God, in closeness to God and Jesus Christ.

I reflect over the past life – the many areas of my interest and life and services.

Hence some reflections while looking back from my climb!

2.     Beyond the limits of my learning and teaching

One interesting discovery for me personally is –

as I get older and look behind, the realization of what I taught in theology,

for so many decades to my students and friends.

I can feel a maturing thirst with age,

a going-beyond the things that I lived with,

beyond the beliefs I had so far, that in academic circles.

I learnt my theology during the 2^nd Vatican Council – a

 rare privilege for me given by God,

and taught what I learnt then from Rome

and from my readings following the Council

and working with other Asian theologians of the FABC(1986-1996).

From 1986 onwards, living amidst a people suffering an unjust war,

I was forced to rethink my theology.

Till then I taught and preached what I learnt from above,

from academics of the Universities and teachers of the hierarchical church.

Remaining faithful to those teachings, I started thinking from below,

amidast the cries of a people suffering ijustice

and thirsting for liberation to the God of justice and liberation!

My first book after being victim and witness for a few years was titled –

Let my People go-  because I felt the call like Moses to lead a People to Liberation.

later writings and speeches were more about witnessing

and politically struggling for truth, justice and peace.

During these last few years in exile in Europe,

although I was not called to teach in a formal way to students,

reflecting on what is happening to the church and its dwindling structures etc,

I was forced to seek more of Jesus Chrisr, the Kingdom he preached

and the God in whom he claimed as his Father.

3.     From  the earth-bound experiences  to a changing reality of the climb

I understand this last phase of my life on this earth

as a climb on the mountain of the Lord,

whereby I will meet Him at the summit of this holy mountain.

Hence my prayer –

since only a man with clean hands and pure heart can climb the mountain of the Lord,

I pray Lord have mercy Christ have mercy.

I feel certain that I am already climbing the mountain,

because I see more and more the things beyond –

the contextual church, liturgy, hierarchy saints ….

the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation,

the pre-incarnarion preparation history of God with His chosen people,

 And then beyond what was taught about Jesus Christ by the church

to seeing Him more beyond his incarnation

and his revelation, beyond the God of Israel….

When I am at the bottom of the mountain, say a road, I see things in front of me and things behind me, right or left. I have to turn my head to see them one by one.

But for the one climbing the mountain, as he goes higher the things below at the bottom fall closer to each other as one.

on theat the top of the mountain, those things in front, behinf ,left or right – a

ll could be seen together.

For God, there is no past, or future – everything is present!

But when I start climbing the mountain and look below

I can see simultaneously, without turning my head many things in one look.

This experience grows as I go up the mountain –

the higher I am, the more I see together.

During the climb, I realize two poles –

one on the ground of this earth the other to which I am yearning.

As I move upwards, my feet sink little by little into the earth,

till finally, God willing, I will sink completely into this earth

at the top of the mountain! From where I will see Him face to face!

Mountain experiences have a divine character

In the bible, we see that God reveals Himself more and more

through mountain experiences

Moses saw the burning bush and walked up to the bush

Jesus took three of his beloved disciples for the Transfiguration

Sermon on the mountain

Exodus 3:1 [ Moses and the Burning Bush ] Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 4:27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them

on the mountain of your inheritance — the place,

Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.

Exodus 19:3 Then Moses went up to God,

and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said,

“This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob

and what you are to tell the people of Israel:

So mountain-experiences of God as the Lord are plentiful in the bible.
Abraham, Moses and others of the OT,
and Jesus in the NT experience God on the mountains.

My climb up to the Mountain of the Lord, is a daily climb,

when I walk in the church towards the Tabernacle of the Lord.

Hence I say with evry step, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy,

Because only a man with clean hands and pure heart

can climb the mountain of the Lord!

Only by unloading our sins can we experience the Divine! 

DAILY EXPERIENCE OF COSMIC SPIRITUALITY English

God-Experience
of Peeping into the microcosmic  
and the macro-cosmic world
 

During the last few months after my 80th Birthday, I was regular in my morning walks and evening cycling. Since I do it alone I always use my MP3 to listen to meditational songs in Tamil. Besides being a bodily exercise that helps me to fight against 30 years of diabetes, I really enjoy these two as enriching my spirit. Neither the walk nor the cycling is done in a hurry. While the feet and body moves, the hearing fed with soothing and meaningful religious music or psalms, my eyes are wide open, not only to look closely into the beauty of the green fields, the tall trees and the smallest of flowers by the wayside, but also the brightly burning sun, majestically on the skies from above.

Two types of intervals I make during the walks or cycling. One is to pause turn around and look at the wondrous beauty of creation. Trees are standing erect and tall with their branches and leaves vibratingly enjoying the soft winds which pass by. The colourful flowers, supported by branches and leaves, are reflecting their beauty in a variety of ways. The smaller birds are hopping from one branch to another, just out of curiosity and pleasure, not vying for the same place but making room for everyone. what a wonderful harmony of nature?

In between I notice an invisible force that moves over the fields and in between the trees. The soft wind pushes the plants of the field to move about as if in a Dance. The stronger wind moves the branches of the taller trees to move without breaking or falling. What a marvel the invisible wind is? what is more marvellous the Spirit in us human beings. We are living because the Spirit incorporated by a Body moves us. Once the Spirit is away and the Body is empty, we are dead!

Another pause I make in the afternoon is to leave the bike, Position myself erect, facing the sun. Human eyes, one of our limited faculties,  can see the sun but not look into it! By blinking fast one may experience a bit more!

(In 1955-58, I was a Student of mathematical astronomy by Prof. Amarasekera at the Colombo University. The first voyage into space was accomplished by the Russian Astronaut. I was thrilled. After that I kept my interest on the subject of space travels. In 2015 Feb. I was holidaying in Houston, Texas, with my nephew Dr.Michael Thambinayagam and his wife Agnes. With their help I spent a day at NASA, the US centre for space travels.)

The Sun, which we so easily see from our earth, is unique in being an Image of God, the unknown yet revealing and closest to each one of us. With limited reason and intellect, scientists have gone both into the macro-cosmic world and into the microcosmic world and continue to explore more. But the boundary-questions between science and philosophy remain as questions. ( I was fortunate with my first degrees in science and in philosophy, called to teach cosmology, in 1973 at the National Seminary in Kandy, where I spoke of these boundary questions regarding space, time, atomic-particles, being etc.)

We stand on our home-planet earth. The moon is 240,000 miles away but man has already landed on it. He may go further with Mars and Mercury. The stars and Meteorites are fast moving But it is the Sun, 92 million miles away,  that stays radiating light and warmth to the whole of creation without any discrimination. Sun being the centre of our Universe, the Milky Way, our universe sometimes referred to as the solar universe. There are many more universes outside ours!

Hence Standing before the Sun, with my outstretched arms, in a posture of adoring God in various stages, I make my Sooriya Namaskarams, about which I have written few pages in English and in Tamil.

The Six phases of my worship are

1. Wondering and Saluting the Unknown, Nameless God
2. Wondering and Saluting the Creator-God of all the Universes, including our solar-universe, the earth with nature, seas and mountains, birds and animals and humanity with cultures etc. etc.

3. Wondering and Saluting the God of Creation as revealed in the Book of Geneses of the Bible 4. Saluting and Thanking the God of Revelation - revealing at all times to all people in diverse ways and giving rise to religions etc.
5. Thanking God for the revelation through Jesus Christ and consequently the churches
6. Thanking God for calling me to follow Jesus Christ in his discipleship and ministry.

I feel that God has led me into a Phase of life, in which I stand wondering at the macro and micro dimensions of this universe, at the enormous wonders of God taking place around me. I have only to look above and look into, and the wondrous nature of this universe encourages me to praise and thank God.

On the Background of such an experience, I see and hear what is going on in the world of humanity. We humans instead of appreciating and enjoying the gift of God, we are inclined by sinful thoughts and greed for power and wealth and we make this earth a hell - of wars and of hunger and of destruction...