How can we reach peace?

Thoughts about the power of faith when we feel that the light has run out…

Submitted by Csermely Péter on

 

1. Our age: the age of unrest. It is not the uncontrolled temper but the extravagance of the soul that represents unrest in today’s ‘developed’ countries. We are unable to calm down. We are unable to appreciate what we have. We are unable to get satisfied. We are unable to get on well together. The spaciousness of a love community’s inner space is endless. Let’s make an attempt to let our isolation and unrest free in these immeasurably spacious inner dimensions! (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Why is uncertainty good and how can it be tolerated? “There is worse than isolation in the weeks of corona virus epidemic.” Many would say. “And this is uncertainty.” Let me remind ourselves that we haven’t known anything until now either but we convinced ourselves to forget about this in the ecstasy of rush. Tolerating uncertainty is a key virtue. Only tolerating uncertainty leads us to real, creative and new solutions. All changes of existing situations generate uncertainty. Uncertainty is a necessary corollary of the reorganization of complexity by a creative change. We imprison ourselves if we do not tolerate uncertainty. If we can establish uncertainty-tolerance in ourselves now, we can prepare for future changes successfully. For we can tolerate uncertainty, we have to believe in something. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. How can we reach peace? The power of faith – when we feel that the light has run out… For we can find peace after unrest, we have to believe in something. For me the essence of faith is the certainty of belonging: to not less than Totality. The certainty that Totality, God accepts and embraces me, not because of my own virtues but due to the sacrifice of Jesus. Years ago I was sure that light and love show the way on the path of faith. Recently, I understood that nothing has been lost even if we cannot see the light and cannot feel the love-avalanche covering us either. Because faith, the certainty of belonging, does remain. Faith gives birth to hope again. Hope creates love. And love creates light. Not from us, not for us, but as the gift of God, of mercy. There is stability in the middle of uncertainty. This stability does not hide from us but offers a helping hand to us. Let us accept it! (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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About the benefits of suffering

Good Friday thoughts about the unavoidable antecedents of a new life

Submitted by Csermely Péter on

 

1. Corona virus: a chance to change. Our welfare society lives in an irreconcilable conflict with suffering. In our time there is no room for suffering. Some years ago the "snowflake behavior" appeared that implies increased vulnerability and a lack of tolerating opposing opinions. As I wrote in my previous essay, we would like to get everything at once: we are unable to bear the ‘suffering’ of even waiting. All these have been "directly hit" by the corona virus epidemic and (I hope with all my heart that) have been sunk by it. It would be very unfortunate to return to where we were after such a global learning process. We could become more trained to tolerate changes than we have been earlier. We may become more cohesive than we have been. We may become more understanding than earlier. Are we doing so? That is The question of this year. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. About the benefits of suffering. Reading this title the Reader may think that I have gone crazy. Isn’t there enough suffering here? Yes, there is. Even so. It is important to see suffering from another point of view than before. Suffering is not a leftover of ancient history surviving today that modern man can exterminate completely. The proper answer is not shaping our environment to meet our demands. The proper answer is reforming ourselves. The corona virus epidemic forces us to recognize this. Change always causes suffering. Suffering is such a state of being, in which complex systems are not in a resource-rich but in a resource-poor status. Resource-poorness educates to select. It teaches to distinguish between valuable and valueless. Only suffering educates to appreciate the good. We become defenseless without suffering. We have to practice how to stay alive – if we want to survive in the future... That is exactly what we are doing now. We are conducting global survival exercises right now. Suffering is a prayer. A prayer that manifests Jesus Christ’s redeeming mercy in the world and with this it contributes to the world’s purification. A suffering man awakens this mercy in the souls around him which are open to good. This is how a sufferer helps these souls get closer to Jesus with his silent service. All of us, let’s feel this call. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

   

3. The necessity of resurrection. When I was kneeling at the Golgotha in November, 2019, and after that when I was embracing the resurrected Jesus’ tomb, I clearly understood that there is no resurrection without crucifixion. Jesus’ resurrection’s world explosion that took place in a split of a second was the consequence of the slow crucifixion full of suffering. It is necessary to get through the narrow gate to see the entire Universe opening up. Our birth, life and death are all these very same analogies. We cannot omit suffering from our lives if we want to receive peace. Our Lord asks us to take up His cross every day (Lucas 9:22-25). So we should not protest – if it is here now. And let’s wait for the Easter Dawn, first with increasing hope, then with certainty emerging from this. Because the dawn of resurrection WILL COME after suffering. Because it has been consummated. Amen. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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What can we learn from our current miseries?

Lenten thoughts about the benefits of slowing down and longsuffering

Submitted by Csermely Péter on

 

1. Why do not we want to (why cannot we) tolerate longsuffering in this century? Not so long ago, there was a large rush all around the world... We have forgotten even that how to prepare for something. The problem with this was that we never arrived where we were. Because we never know where we are. Because we never let ourselves have enough time to realize where we will be... The moment became unimportant. There will be a new, another moment instead. Only the lack of tolerating unchanging things was bigger than the hunger for changes. "It is unbearable if we have to bear anything!"– we thought. Mankind lived in the illusion of omnipotence. This was a blindfolded road to the abyss. Then the crisis came. Corona virus appeared... I think that mankind learns now a very painful, very awful, but for our long-term survival very important lesson today. We should learn from this. We need to find the path to inner growth in these weeks of coerced silence. Please do not return back to rush even when these weeks will be over. This is the way how we can save the Earth, our home. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. Longsuffering as a part of wisdom. Inner peace and wisdom can only be reached with the ability of distancing ourselves from our desires. For that we have to become trained at longsuffering. Now we are gaining the very important skill of longsuffering... Lent of the church calendar became a coerced-Lent... Please do observe that we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. Those local communities which were not ready to follow the new rules of life, had many more infections than those which were able to slow themselves down. This slow-down will be (hopefully) over in a few months. Let us build up during this time ourselves in a different, in a better way! (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. Longsuffering: God’s exceptional mercy. The driving force of longsuffering is love that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1Corinthians 13:7). Let me repeat my previous sentence here: we may only prevent individual tragedies with a community longsuffering. We do see now why love is the driving force of longsuffering, do not we? We may only save those who are the fragile members of our community with the longsuffering of the whole community. We did not receive corona virus as a punishment. However, it is our education which proceeds right now. Let us observe that despite the sad tragedies this education comes with much love. Let’s feel the love flowing on us even amidst our current misery and we will be given the grace of inner peace with it, too. With this love and inner peace let us start re-building our communities. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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Two ways of existence of human life: Martha and Mary

Thoughts about the right way of serving and the relationship with Jesus

Submitted by Csermely Péter on

1. The truth of Martha. A lot of Marthas have always served others. The typical "Martha-behavior" is the idea of the perfectly working family. But this "dream-Martha" sometimes freaks out. "I have done so much right for the people around her but they do not help me at all... Moreover, they do not even notice or appreciate my hard work either. They never say a kind word to me! They let me work myself to death, lying silent, unsympathetically and sluggishly. I wish someone would ever move!" In such a case Martha shouts or maybe cries. There is nothing more legitimate than her anger and sorrow. Isn’t there? (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. The truth of Mary. Why does not Jesus set Martha as a good example for us? What would we do without Marthas? Why is Mary the role model who does not do anything? "This Martha is a self-sacrificing saint!" Is she really a saint? What do we think, does it happen so frequently that our Lord’s only-begotten Son knocks on our door and starts to teach us there? How do we think about Jesus? Like a piece of furniture in our room? No way!!! We do not dictate to Jesus when, how much, what and how He should share with us. The relationship with Jesus is not symmetrical. It is not a relationship on an equal footing. We have only one thing to do in our whole lives: to adapt to Jesus. Completely. This is what Mary did. That is why Mary IS the role model and NOT Martha — who rebuked the Lord. The creature may not rebuke the Creator. A part may not act as it was bigger than the Whole. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. The truth of Jesus. Mary’s truth is the example, who recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, recognizes the peculiarity of the moment, sits down to Jesus’ feet and fully immerses in the strength and miracle of God’s presence. But the story does not end here. Jesus does not invite us to sit down at his feet and stay there for the rest of our lives. Jesus initiates an Action in us. But one thing makes a big difference. The order. If we act first and do not listen to Jesus before, we will do things our own way. If we listen to Jesus first and we start acting afterwards, we will do it exactly when and how He has shown us. With this our lives fall into their proper place. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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When does the right time come?

Thoughts about when there is a gap in time, and when time falls into place

Submitted by Csermely Péter on

 

 

1. What problems do we have with our own times? We are struggling with time intensely. We would do anything to make it pass more quickly – and we would do anything to stop it going so fast. Time has speeded up by our century. There is not enough of it for anything really. From the masters, we have turned to slaves of running minutes. Some of us are living in the past, while others are running after their desired future. There is one thing in our lives missing: "now". We can live even a whole life without experiencing one single moment really. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

2. How can time be controlled? Time is not an enemy but a friend. Of course, we have to change to gain the friendship of time. We have to accept what happens to us. Patiently and attentively. It is how a moment can become eternity, it is how rush can become timelessness, and it is how little can be – enough. When this essay is published, Lent has just begun. What if we vow a time-Lent this year? What if we see what it is like to do less – but to do it more deeply? (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

3. When does time fall into place? Time becomes complete when we can feel what God’s time like. We can be real masters of time if we do not experience it from our own viewpoint but if we ask God for His. What does this mean in our everyday lives? It is not the right time for something when we think we have to do it. It is time for something when the time comes when it has to be done. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)

 

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