BE JOY AND BE KIND—LIKE THE DALI LAMA AND JESUS - Don Hanley’s blog #55

In my home in 2024, I watched a delightful documentary entitled MISSION: JOY. It featured a movie camera and mic following two of my favorite old men, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, spending a week together talking about life. If you know who they are, I don’t need to tell you that they spent decades working for peace, justice, and the well-being of their fellow men and women in South Africa and Asia, respectively. And as they worked, they managed to keep a sense of joy. Real joy comes from love - not from what is happening with you on this day. AND I just watched a 'debate' between JOY and HOPE versus GLOOM and DOOM and feeling, deep in my bones,;  that JOY won. So I'm feeling even more joy.

While contemplating the film, I thought of the many pictures and scripture descriptions of Jesus and couldn’t remember ever seeing or reading about Jesus being joyful. So, the next time I sat with my Nazarene dream friends, I want to talk to Mary and whoever was with her. about Jesus and Joy.

I was there that evening—in Mary’s flower garden in Nazareth. John, Paul, Joshua, Ruth, and Julie were with her. I told them my missing mention of any pictures or stories about Jesus feeling and expressing joy by smiling or laughing. Immediately, Mary threw up her hands and nearly shouted, “Your writers and artists are missing a huge part of who my son was and is. They depict only a fraction of what he is. Wouldn’t you agree, John?”

John looked at me and said, “Don, this story might help you: One time, Jesus and four of us followers walked into a small village, and we saw a very emaciated man and his young son sitting by the side of the road. Jesus stopped and asked the fellow how we might help him. He was almost too weak to answer but whispered, ‘We are so very hungry, and so are my two other children and their mother. Our dwelling burned down, and we lost everything, and all of us have been injured, so…” His voice trailed off, and Jesus said to us. ‘Let us go around the village here and see if we can find food, shelter, and maybe a healing hand for this family.’ So, two of us went one way, and Jesus and the other, newer members of our group, went another to find food and help. We were surprised to find that in this village about the size of Nazareth, no one seemed to know of this poor family. Anyway, my partner and I found an elderly couple who had a shanty in the back of their property that the family could stay in, and they would give them some clothes that their children had left them with. They were quite thin and had no extra food, but their neighbors did. Jesus and his two found food, and more was promised for the future. We all helped the family get to the shanty, and one neighbor was a sort of ‘medicine man’ who left some ointment with them after applying some of it on their most serious burns.”

John continued with a smile, “And as we left, Jesus kidded us about being so glum. He said we must always do our very best to feel the joy we have in our hearts. even when we are worried and a bit sad.”

 Mary said, “Now, John, thank you for that story. I had never heard it, but it was typical of how my son was in the world. Even with the children here in Nazareth, he would check to see if they were hungry or hurt. He would laugh and smile nearly all the time. If you hear any of those so-called Christians of yours talking like Jesus was a gloomy Gus, tell them John’s story – and that will also let them know that to love Jesus is to love those in need. And for pity’s sake, do not sit around and say or sing that they love Jesus. Oh, and say all this with a smile on your face. Don, don't be so serious all the time yourself. Even though you are older than me in your life, I’m beginning to think of you as my stepson.” She laughed and added, “How’s that?”

My twenty-first-century fellow believers need an updated faithfulness and have some new two-thousand-year-old thoughts. And with that thought, I disappeared–so with joy . . . 

Smile and open your eyes and heart, glance at the menus, and joyfully sit at the banquet and sing as you get to work.

I REFUSE TO BE A “GOD-FEARING” MAN – Don Hanley's blog #54

When I was back in my walking-around world, I attended a Christian, non-Catholic funeral of my lifelong friend, a dedicated Methodist. He had been a wonderful, friendly, joyous, and life-giving fellow whom I will miss greatly. The minister was much more conservative than my friend. He called John a ‘God-fearing man.’ That was a term I disliked and never used.

One time, I looked it up, and, historically, it did not mean to be afraid of God, but it did mean being very conforming to all the traditional Christian commandments – and there were hundreds more than ten. I was sure my friend John would not consider being God-fearing a compliment.

When I got home from the funeral, I picked up an inspiring book entitled Anam Cara by John O’Donoghue and read this:

A Blessing for the Senses

“May your body be blessed.

May you realize that your body is a faithful and a beautiful friend of your soul.

And may you be peaceful and joyful and recognize that your senses are sacred thresholds.

May you realize that holiness is mindful, gazing, feeling, and touching.

May your senses gather you and bring you home.

May your senses always enable you to celebrate the universe and the Mystery and possibilities in your presence here

May the Eros of the Earth bless you”.

Now, that would have been a far better thing to say than telling us that John was a ‘God-fearing man!’ I decided to take this to my next meeting with Mary and the others at our next dream meeting.

I didn’t have to wait long. I sat in Mary’s flower garden with John, Luke, Paul, Ruth, Joshua, and Julie that evening. Julie was the first one to speak, “I don’t know what that funeral guy was thinking, but as my grandma Mary would say, ‘He’s full of prunes.’” I don’t know how the translator angel said it, but everyone laughed, and I said, “Julie, you are so smart, and I agree with you.” She grinned, came over to me, and hugged me.

John said, “Jesus, as I’m sure you know by now, never wanted anyone to live in fear. He wanted us to do everything we do out of love and kindness, never out of fear or because we think he or anyone else said he or she should do it. I can’t stress that enough.” Paul asked, “But didn’t he say we must love others to get to heaven and be with God, our Father?”

John responded, “Not in the way you seem to be saying – as we must conform to some commandment, but that we do whatever we do because we are living a life of loving kindness and being one with the spirit or grace of the Father. For those who love, we don’t need to think about it; we must act just like breathing.”

John stopped, took a noisy deep breath, and said, “I just decided to take that noisy breath, but I do not need to do that every time I breathe. If I did, I would not stay alive very long. I breathe, and now, after spending time with Jesus and with Mary, Joshua, Ruth, Julie, and others, I am loving. The big difference between breathing and loving is that in love, we need others to help us keep in touch or connect with others – literally or in our memorial experience.”

Luke, John, and Paul continued to discuss what it means to be a loving person, and I was enjoying it a great deal—darn it, I disappeared.

Now, nurture your heart, breathe, and reflect on your menus. Enjoy the banquet of love, and then do something positive!