The Formula!

I have always been fascinated whenever I read the ‘Formula’ story by Father Anthony DeMello. The mystic was back from the desert. ‘Tell us’ they said, ‘what God is like.’ But how could he ever tell them what he had experienced in his heart? Can God be put into words? He finally gave them a formula – so inaccurate, so inadequate – in the hope that some of them might be tempted to experience it for themselves. They seized upon the formula. They made it a sacred text. They imposed it on others as a holy belief. They went to great pains to spread it in foreign lands. Some even gave their lives for it. The mystic was sad. It might have been better if he had said nothing.

The religious experiences of people were viewed as theological reflections and were handed down to people from the beginning as religious investments. We believe Moses’ spirit is present in all the 5 books of the OT and the rest of the OT is the result of various individuals who reflected God in various circumstances. The Gospels were according to individuals in divine influences. The letters of Paul brings back the spirituality of one man Paul. Thus every influence in the bible is the result of people who wants to hand down their great experience to another as their own treasure. But the amazing part in doing this is the limitations of those experiences that God cannot be contained. He is more than all those scriptural experiences put together.

Abraham’s readiness and sacrifices on the mountain, Moses’ Burning bush experience, Moses receiving the 10 Commandments, the JRS temple and other great experiences that has been handed down to us for our faith and awakening. But the difficult question is making those experience our own in our own way. Jesus’ Journey to the desert was a new experience to show us his humanness and his point of enlightenment. The transfiguration experience is so spectacular which gave us a great lesson that God cannot hold back his love for us. His reveals everything of his godhead to us so much he loves us.

This experience of the Samaritan woman with Jesus opens various doors and windows in Jesus’ ministry that He cannot stop revealing himself to those who love him dearly. God’s love is the foundation of our faith. The rich religious experiences of Jesus taught him there is more… Not just mount Tabor; not just mount Horeb, but there is Mount Calvary: The mount where not many have been; the mount where not many want to go and experience!

Have we stopped or finalized our spirituality by just reading and reflecting the passages from the scriptures? Is the scripture our means and ends of our spiritual life? We need to realize that all scriptures are human experiences with God. If that is the case, every human life can become a scripture in essence. Personalizing our scripture experiences in our family environment, in our own families, in our own situations are the best way to arrive at the depths of our being, the cave of our hearts.

Lent is the great gift from God to personalize all those scripture passages in the light of faith. Let us familiarize those scripture passages by reading and reflecting the scriptures. Children need to hear them and parents have to read them those great treasures of God’s love and those experiences have necessarily be heard and heard again, reflected again as families. Only then we can write and live new experiences and leave behind or pass on our rich God-experiences to the generations to come.