Valson Thampu

A central irony in religions is that their founders were all luminous examples of personal authenticity and individual uniqueness. But their followers have to bear the yoke of conformity and compromise their individuality. Collective identity of every kind is a by-product of conformity. If you have a political identity, you would be like everyone else in your party. If you are a Catholic or Protestant you’d be, in all matters religious and liturgical, identical to all other Protestants or Catholics as the case may be.

Now consider Jesus who is our faith role-model. He was a Jew. But he was crucified for not being a stereotypical Jew. The measure of his religious and racial non-conformity was also the measure of his personal and spiritual authenticity. All the same, he was anything but a religious rebel. His aim was ‘to fulfill, not to abolish’ the Law and the prophets. Rebels, unlike spiritual luminaries, are a flash in the pan. The world has benefited only from those who dared to differ from the status quos in fidelity to a higher vision of life. The logic of this pattern is simple. You can’t help the helpless by being like them. To help the sick, you need to be healthy. To protect the weak, you need to be strong. And so on.

Jesus talked about prophets and false prophets. What is the difference between them? True prophets are visionaries. They are a compelling invitation to ‘get up and walk’; and walk towards perfection. False prophets are the sentinels of the status quo, for whatever benefits may accrue therefrom. Those who conform to the exhortations and prescriptions of false prophets get increasingly alienated from their personal destinies and become mere cogs in the machine; political, religious, cultural.

The world has benefited only from those who dared to differ from the status quos in fidelity to a higher vision of life.

In Greek mythology, we have the myth of the Procrustean bed. Procrustes was a rogue smith who reduced or stretched the legs of the people he caught to fit them to an iron bed of his making. Everyone had to be of the same size! This myth embodies the insight that human nature, as well as society, has a tendency to coerce others to conform to one’s own standards, against which vigilance needs to be maintained. The culture of Athens produced monumental achievements because of this vigilance. When Jesus urged his disciples, to ‘watch and pray’, he implied also the need to be vigilant against religious and social stereotypes that alienate individuals from ‘life in its fullness’. Life rebels against slavish conformity. Yet, we can imagine and relate to God only via conformity. It was as an antidote to this worldly infection that Jesus prescribed the discipline of ‘seeking and finding’.   To him, sound religion must nurture and empower the worth of individual life. Surely, we don’t become ‘the light of the world’ by being creatures of mediocrity.

Human beings are not machines, designed to discharge certain functions, as operated by external hands. A human being is more like a tree which enjoys the God-ordained freedom to grow and function according to the impulsions of its own inward genius and vitality. This doesn’t mean that a mango tree will yield guava fruits. It means that each mango tree grows only according to its inner force, even as it lives in natural harmony with the whole of the created order of life. This twin-fidelity – to one’s inward life-force  and to the Will of God- is even more basic for human beings as bearers of the divine image.

No one will dispute that giving free-play to individuals’ geniuses and energies is beneficial to the society.  At the same time, all societies harbour the secret apprehension that its inevitable outcome will be anarchy. This is to distrust the wisdom of God. Surely, the Creator had a purpose in creating human beings in ‘his image and likeness’, which implies inexhaustible possibilities. Energies become problematic when delinked from purposes. In a crisis-situation, it is daring and energetic individuals who are sought after, sung and celebrated. So, functioning as per one’s full energy and initiative is not a bad thing. It can become so if the individual or the community concerned does not know how to direct that energy and potential to beneficial uses.

If we are faithful to the Way of Jesus, and believe truly that the Church is the body of Christ, we will ensure that church life nourish, rather than suppress what is unique and vital in individual believers, lest we turn them, howsoever unwittingly, into religious bonsais. No society or community does any good to itself by promoting and rewarding mediocrity. The pathos of India proves this. We are great in our potential, but mediocre in our performance. Indians excel overseas. At home, we cripple ourselves with conformity and the mediocrity it breeds. Yet, what was glorious about our distant past was characterized by respect for individual freedom and worth. Only think of swayamvaram -the custom of girls choosing grooms from a clutch of assembled suitors- and no further argument will be needed.

We respect poets and artists. Why? Well, because we value originality! A photocopy of a Rambrand or Picasso looks quite satisfactory, but we attach little value to it because it lacks originality. So, it is originality, not conformity to orthodoxy or stereotypes, that enriches us. Then, how come we deem originality in thought and action as a danger that needs to be eradicated at its earliest indication of emergence?

In the end, what individuals can bank on in the crucial moments of their life is their inner strength. To weaken believers in this respect, by default or by design, is to render them susceptible to the seductions and pressures all around them. If believers, young and old, are inwardly vague and weak, they can’t be blamed for succumbing to the ways of the world, no matter in what form they present themselves. Today we suffer from a deficiency, not an excess, of spiritually empowered personality. The solution to problems arising therefrom does not lie in public protestations, lamentations and political maneuvering. It lies in nurturing and strengthening individual believers not by hard-wiring them in religious stereotypes, but by enabling them to grow towards fulfilling their unique spiritual destinies within the larger purposes of God for the world. Real strength lies not in saying ‘No’ to the world, but in saying ‘Yes’ to God.