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The Prayer of the Frog Called into Question
T.K. Thomas
Censuring the Writings of Fr Anthony de Mello, S.J.
People's Reporter, a fortnightly Christian journal published from Bangalore, carried a letter to the editor in its 1-15 November
1998 issue in which the writer expressed his distress over the ban imposed by the Vatican on the books of Fr An thony de Mello.
The letter was full of praise for the writings of the late Jesuit priest, concluding with the hope that the ban would be lifted and
the books made available again, perhaps "with the insertion of a caution". That, happily, has happened. The boo ks are now
available, and carry a rather ambiguous, though amiable, note of caution:
The books of Father Anthony de Mello were written in a multi-religious
context to help the followers of other religions, agnostics and atheists in
their spiritual search, and they were not intended by the author as manuals
of instruction of the Catholic faithful in Christian doctrine or dogma.
I must confess that I feel grateful for the banning, or the temporary withdrawal, of de Mello's books. I had heard of him, but
never read his writings. Excommunication, somehow, has far more news value than beatification. So also the supp ression of a
book attracts greater publicity than its publication. My own work has been largely confined to editing rather t han reading (and
there is a difference between the two); and the editing was itself confined for the most part to Protestant and so-called
ecumenical writings. It was not surprising that I had not read de Mello. What was surprising is that the studen ts and teachers of
theology I know seemed to share my ignorance of the work of this Roman Catholic writer. It shows how denominati onally
compartmentalized our theological interests and pursuits are, and that is distressing.
The Vatican is not normally interested in the dead, unless of course they are seen to qualify for sainthood, in which case the
process of canonization is initiated, and gone through, with bureaucratic thoroughness. Fr de Mello did not obv iously qualify for
such treatment. He was raised up, more than a decade after he died, only to be put in his place. Not to be dism issed outfight,
only to be warned against.
Thanks to this belated and rather dubious recognition of de Mello by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the F aith, I started
collecting and reading his writings. The collection has fared better than the reading, mainly because, although de Mello has
written only a few books, these are not meant to be read through as books normally are. They are to be taken in small doses,
and "read the way one would read a medical book - wondering whether one has any of the symptoms; and not a psyc hology
book - thinking what typical specimens one's friends are."(1)
"I am not a writer" de Mello once said: "I am a story-teller ... I write stories and meditations, but not essay s and treaties."(2) His
books are for the most part collections of anecdotes, stories and jokes, drawn from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions -
a compendium, in fact, of wisdom, humour and insights from everywhere, especially from Oriental cultures. They are invariably
entertaining as stories, often hilarious, sometimes mischievous and in most cases thought-provoking. Precisely because they
make interesting reading, we are likely to miss the point the writer wants to make and pass on without pausing to ponder and
appropriate the message they are meant to convey or the critique they are supposed to provide.
Anthony de Mello, as the name indicates, was a Goan. He was born in Bombay in 1931. At 30, he was ordained a Je suit priest,
and in 1973 he established the Sadhana Institute of Spirituality and Counselling at Lonavla. He served as direc tor of the
Institute, conducting annual retreats, occasional seminars and regular renewal meetings. He travelled widely, and was in great
demand to give leadership at spiritual retreats in many countries, especially in the USA. He died in 1987, whil e on a visit to New
York.
The writings of de Mello
Nine of Fr de Mello's books have been published in India, six of them posthumously. The first, brought out in 1 978, is entitled
Sadhana: A Way to God; and a note on the cover, attributed to the Catholic Theological Society of America, call s it "perhaps the
best book available in English for Christians on how to pray, meditate and contemplate".
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The Sanskrit word Sadhana means spiritual training. Fr de Mello had spent several years as "a retreat master an d spiritual
director helping people to pray", and Sadhana is a collection of exercises to enable people "to get satisfaction and fulfilment from
prayer". It is legitimate to seek such satisfaction; to secure it, one must pray "less with the head than with the heart".
The exercises are meant to increase awareness, facilitate fantasy and deepen devotion. Awareness is a key concept in de Mello's
understanding and practice of Sadhana, and silence is integral to awareness. The very first exercise is to enab le us to
appropriate the riches of silence and it starts with a saying of Lao-tse: "Silence is the great revelation." The exercises are
designed for contemplation groups, and are in line with the approach of a Hindu guru who advised one of de Mell o's Jesuit
friends to concentrate on his breathing: "The air you breathe is God. You are breathing God in and out. Become aware of that,
and stay with that awareness."
Fantasy is much more than the mere recalling of events. It is reliving events, which helps us to recover the se nse of God's
presence then and there and at the same time to realize God's presence now and here. One of the exercises in th is section
invites you to look at your own body in the coffin laid out in the church for the funeral rites, to look at the people Who have
come to see you off, to listen to the sermon and all the good things the preacher is saying about you, and then to become
aware of your existence and the time at your disposal (Exercise 28). The exercise that comes after your funeral is a Buddhist
"reality meditation", a fantasy on your corpse in which you are asked to "imagine your corpse in the grave as v ividly as you can
and watch it go through the nine stages of decomposition", spending a minute on each stage (Exercise 29).
While the exercises in the section on devotion are a little more traditional and scriptural, these too are draw n from many
sources, including the Hindu practice of reciting the thousand names of God. The book itself is dedicated to "t he Blessed Virgin
Mary, who has always been to me a model of contemplation".
Sadhana was an instant best-seller, surprisingly so considering that it is presented as a way to God through th e demanding
discipline of spiritual exercises and not through ritual shortcuts or the mediation of affable saints. The book has been translated
into 43 European and Asian languages; the Indian edition has had 22 reprints, a number of them after de Mello's death. Clearly
there is a continuing demand for the book - in spite of the fact that towards the end of his life he regretted writing it.(3)
Fr de Mello's second book, The Song of the Bird, was very different from Sadhana. It is made up of stories anci ent and
contemporary, drawing on Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Hasidic, Zen, Sufi, Chinese and Russian sources. Readers a re warned that
these are not just to be read, not even to be read over and over again; they are to be carded around so that th ey may "speak to
your heart, not to your brain ... and make something of a mystic out of you".
Fr de Mello makes clear, however, that he is not a free-lance mystic. He is a priest of the Catholic Church, though the book "has
been written for people of every persuasion, religious and non-religious".
I have wandered freely in mystical traditions that are not Christian and
not religious and I have been profoundly influenced by them. It is to my
Church, however, that I keep returning, for she is my spiritual home; and
while I am acutely, sometimes embarrassingly, conscious of her limitations
and narrowness, I also know that it is she who has formed me and made me
what I am today. So it is to her that I gratefully dedicate this book.(4)
At the end of the brief introduction to the book is a glossary which is worth reproducing:
Theology: The art of telling stories about the Divine. Also the art of
listening to them.
Mysticism: The art of tasting and feeling in your heart the inner meaning
of such stories to the point that they transform you.(5)
It is tempting to quote from the stories and the comments that often conclude them. But readers have been warne d: the stories
are for them and about them; the comments are the author's own, personal and provisional. Readers must make the ir own
comments. Here are two examples, the first on "The Guru's Cat", without comment, and the second on "Religious Hatred", with
a comment.
Each time the gum sat for worship with his students the ashram cat would
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come in to distract them, so he ordered them to tie it when the ashram was
at prayer.
After the guru died, the cat continued to be tied at worship time. And when
the cat expired, another cat was brought into the ashram to make sure that
the guru's order were faithfully observed at worship time.
Centuries passed and learned treatises were written by the guru's scholarly
disciples on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is
performed.(6)
A tourist says to his guide, "You must be proud of your town. I was
especially impressed by the number of churches in it. Surely the people
here must love the Lord."
"Well" says the cynical guide, "they may love the Lord, but they sure as
hell hate each other."
Like the little girl who when asked, "Who are pagans?", replied, "Pagans
are people who do not fight about religion."(7)
Wellsprings, first published in 1984, is "a book of spiritual exercises". It is dedicated to "the Jesuit Order that I feel so proud and
so unworthy to belong to". Nevertheless, the tenth edition (1996) carries the warning that "in spite of frequen t references to
Jesus Christ, whose disciple the author professes himself to be, this book is meant for persons of all spiritua l affiliations -
religious, a-religious, agnostic, atheistic".
The exercises are not meant to be "merely read", but to be done, preferably as groups. This is how de Mello con cludes his
introduction to the book:
This book is meant to lead from mind to sense, from thought to fantasy and
feeling - then, hopefully, through feeling, fantasy and sense to silence.
So use it like a staircase to get up to the terrace. Once there, be sure to
leave the stairs, or you will not see the sky.
When you are brought to Silence this book will be your enemy. Get rid of
it.(8)
At the end of the book is a collection of single sentences - de Mello calls them "seedlings" - which are not to be forced open with
our minds, but sown in our hearts where they may germinate and grow. Again, it is tempting to quote from the ex ercises, but it
is pointless to choose self-contained extracts which will only inform and, by informing, distract. The seedling s may not bring
instant enlightenment, but they are unlikely to encourage backsliding. Here are a few:
-- The Messiah is still around. When did you see him last?
-- Listen to the Good News: God is unjust - he makes his sun to shine on the good and bad alike.
-- Certainty is the sin of bigots, terrorists and Pharisees.
-- Compassion makes us think we may be wrong.
-- The God who deals in terror is a bully, and to bend the knee before him is to be a coward, not a devotee.
-- Repentance reaches fullness when you are brought to gratitude for your sins.
-- I am no great improvement on those who killed the Saviour.
-- If your God comes to your rescue and gets you out of trouble, it is time you started looking for the true Go d.
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-- Doubt is Faith's friend. The enemy of Faith is fear.
-- The market is as good a place for silence as the monastery, for silence is the absence of the ego.
In One Minute Wisdom, first published in 1985, the Master takes over. The Master is no one single individual:
He is a Hindu Guru, a Zen Roshi, a Taoist Sage, a Jewish Rabbi, a Christian
monk, a Sufi Mystic. He is Lao Tzu and Socrates, Buddha and Jesus,
Zarathustra and Mohammed. His teaching is found in the 7th century B.C. and
the 20th century A.D. His wisdom belongs to East and West alike.(9)
The book is a collection of tales, each of which takes only a minute to read. The wisdom is what de Mello calls the "Silent
Teaching". One does not so much read and understand it as chance upon it and be awakened and transformed by it. The
wisdom is not so much imparted as mediated, for wisdom means "to be changed without the slightest effort on you r part, to be
transformed...merely by waking to the reality that is not words, that lies beyond the reach of words".
Here, too, readers are asked to take the tales in tiny doses, one or two at a time. Let us take three, not quit e at random but
because they are briefer than most others.
SPIRITUAL RELIEF
The Master held that no words were bad if they were used in an appropriate
context.
When he was told that one of his disciples was given to swearing, he
remarked, "Profanity has been known to offer spiritual relief denied to
prayer."(10)
IDEOLOGY
A group of political activists were attempting to show the Master how their
ideology would change the world.
The Master listened carefully.
The following day he said, "An ideology is as good or bad as the people who
make use of it. If a million wolves were to organize for justice would they
cease to be a million wolves?.(11)
INVOLVEMENT
The Master, while being gracious to all his disciples, could not conceal
his preference for those who lived in the "world" - the married, the
merchants, the farmers - over those who lived in the monastery.
When he was confronted about this he said. "Spirituality practised in the
state of activity is incomparably superior to that practised in the state
of withdrawal."(12)
One Minute Nonsense, though written soon after de Mello completed One Minute Wisdom, appeared only in 1992, the last of his
posthumous publications. It carries the same introductory note as the earlier book. The Master is the same pers on, and his style
and approach have not changed; only wisdom has become nonsense. And that, perhaps, is explained, however ambiguously, in
the very first entry which appears before the introduction.
"The man talks nonsense", said a visitor hearing the Master speak.
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Said a disciple, "You would talk nonsense too if you were trying to express
the Inexpressible."
When the visitor checked this out with the Master himself, this is the
reply he got: "No one is exempt from talking nonsense. The great misfortune
is to do it solemnly."
That is why the Master says to a religious group which comes to ask for a blessing: "May the peace of God distu rb you
always."(13) And that is why the Master refuses to give an answer to the atheist's question whether there is a God. When his
disciples ask him why he refused to answer the question, he says, "Because his question is unanswerable." But i s the Master
then an atheist?
"Certainly not. The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which
nothing may be said."
After pausing to let that sink in, he added, "And the theist makes the
mistake of affirming it."(14)
The two volumes of The Prayer of the Frog were in a sense de Mello's parting gift. They contain the last pieces he wrote. In an
introductory note he tells us that
the stories come from a variety of countries, cultures and religions. They
belong to the spiritual heritage - and popular humour - of the human race.
All that the author has done is to string them together with a specific aim
in mind. His task has been that of the weaver and the dyer. He takes no
credit at all for the cotton and the thread.(15)
The two volumes together contain nearly 500 "story meditations" around the general themes of prayer, awareness, religion,
grace, the saints, the self, love and truth, education, authority, spirituality, human nature, relationships, s ervice and
enlightenment.
The very first story, apart from being typical, explains the title. Brother Bruno was at prayer one night. Dist urbed by the croaking
of a bullfrog and unable to get on with his prayer, he shouted from his window: "Quiet! I'm at my prayers." Sin ce Brother Bruno
was a saint, his command was instantly obeyed. All living creatures held their voices, and there was total sile nce. But an inner
voice now intrudes: "Can't it be that God is as pleased with the croaking of the frog as with Bruno's prayers?" The Brother is not
convinced. What can possibly please God in the croak of a frog? But the voice persists: Why then did God create the frog and
give it the ability to croak? Bruno gives in, however reluctantly. He leans out and gives the order: "Sing!" Th e bullfrog and all the
frogs in the neighbourhood start croaking. And, to Bruno's surprise, it is no longer jarring. When he stops res isting, the voices
actually enrich the silence of the night. "With that discovery Bruno's heart became harmonious with the univers e and, for the
first time in his life, he understood what it means to pray."(16)
One could reproduce, or at least summarize, more such stories here. And there is God's plenty to choose from, t hough some
may wonder, and not without reason, whether all the stories are indeed God's. Let us content ourselves with jus t one more
"study meditation".
THE SAINTS
"Prisoner at the bar" said the Grand Inquisitor, "you are charged with
encouraging people to break the laws, traditions and customs of our holy
religion. How do you plead?"
"Guilty, your Honour."
"And with frequenting the company of heretics, prostitutes, public sinners,
the extortionist tax-collectors, the colonial conquerors of our nation - in
short, the ex-communicated. How do you plead?"
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"Guilty, your Honour."
"Finally, you are charged with revising, correcting, calling into question
the sacred tenets of our faith. How do you plead?"
"Guilty, your Honour."
"What is your name, prisoner?"
"Jesus Christ, your Honour."
Some people are just as alarmed to see their religion practised as they are
to hear it doubted.(17)
Anthony de Mello was best known as a spiritual director. A collection of reflections he gave at retreats on the mes related to
prayer, penance and the love of Christ was published in 1990 under the title Contact with God: Retreat Conferences. He had
once said in a sermon that only the contemplative will know "how to combine loyalty and obedience with creativi ty and
confrontation".(18) The meditations included here, like much of what he has written, illustrate and emphasize t his basic rationale
for a retreat - not to escape from the world, but to be equipped for life here and now.
Call to Love is yet another collection of meditations Fr de Mello gave at retreats. The presentation describes them as "the
memoirs of a mystic" and points to their autobiographical nature: they "portray the painful route by which Tony was led in the
last years of his life to divest himself of all ideologies, to be alone". Each meditation begins with a biblica l 'text, but the text, as
far as one can make out, is hardly developed or even clarified in relation to the context; it serves only as a starting point. The
claim that the meditations bring out "the deeper personal insights of these texts beyond all exegesis" is not quite convincing.
The meditations often break new ground, as when we are asked to be with people, but reject their formulas. "Then, even
though you are surrounded by people, you are truly and utterly alone ... That solitude, that aloneness, is sile nce. It is only this
silence that you will see. And the moment you see, you will abandon every book and guide and guru."(19) Or as w hen we are
told that "to love persons is to have died to the need for persons and to be utterly alone".(20) All the 31 med itations in the book
contain such insights that challenge and disturb. They are absorbing, but how they emerge out of or derive from the biblical
texts with which the meditations begin is by no means clear.
All these books, including the ones published after de Mello's death, have been well received and repeatedly reprinted. They
must have had and continue to have a large readership, although one suspects that in India this is largely limi ted to Roman
Catholic readers, particularly to those belonging to or familiar with the Jesuit Order. Perhaps that explains why de Mello's lifelong
search for a radically ecumenical spirituality is not better known. That may also explain why he is known more as a spiritual
director, therapist and guru than as a theologian or a writer.(21) It does not however explain the following st atement in a recent
reprint of One Minute Nonsense, at the end of the notes on his writings - which include all the books we have r eviewed above:
"These are the only books that Fr de Mello ever wrote, all other books that are printed with his name as the au thor were not
written by him."
The "magic" of Tony
It may be interesting to take a look at two books that were published in India, one of them soon after de Mello 's death and the
other in 1995. Both deal with what is referred to in one of them as "the magic of Tony". It has a striking rifl e, We Heard the Bird
Sing, and a more descriptive sub-title: "Interacting with Anthony de Mello, S.J.". It is a collection of personal testimonies
presented without rifles and without identifying the writers. Here are a few excerpts:
Tony saw in me the good I myself did not see; the bad I was bothered about
did not bother him.
One who could gauge the strengths and limits of others, who could affirm
and warn in detachment. One who left us free. Daring, not taking anything
on authority. One who knew his power and the possible danger in that power.
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Friend - Philosopher - Guide.
This is the challenge I have gotten from Tony: to grow is to out-grow my
fears and anxieties coming from an unexamined conditioning, to understand
the impact this conditioning has on my present life, to realize how this
conditioning keeps me an adolescent even in my mid-life.
With Tony's guidance I became aware how paralyzed I had been for years -
paralyzed by the belief systems, doctrines, shoulds and oughts, my need to
please others, my fear of what others would think, do, etc. When I "saw"
this I was freed. Life has not been the same for me.(22)
The other book, Unencumbered by Baggage - Tony de Mello, a Prophet for our Times by Carlos G. Valles, S.J., is an
interpretative study of de Mello, a spiritual biography which presents him as guru, therapist and spiritual dir ector. Valles had
known de Mello as a Jesuit student; later he participated in a month-long retreat, a nine-month Sadhana course and three
Sadhana renewals directed by de Mello. Through them he received a "joyful re-assurance" in his way of life and "greater clarity
to see and strength to live"(23) far beyond his expectations. In a note meant for North American readers of the book Carlos
Valles says:
Precisely because of the great faith he had in his Christian convictions he
could go out in sympathy to other doctrines and other experiences and
assimilate all that was good and valid in them into his own Catholic
practice. He could be openly ecumenical because he was unmistakably
Christian.
In his spiritual quest de Mello was complying with the injunction of the Second Vatican Council "to recognize, accept and
propagate the true spiritual values of their religions".(24) And in pursuing his spirituality "he was in tune w ith the best tradition
of Christian mysticism, Muslim Sufism, Hindu Advaita, Zen's Atomism and Tao's emptiness".(25) Carlos Valles tra ces the stages -
development may be a controversial word in this case - in the spiritual journey of de Mello. Sadhana is the way to awareness,
but awareness must take me beyond what me stands for, beyond the I, the ego. During the last years of his life de Mello was
pre-occupied with the need to eliminate the self. At the final renewal retreat he conducted, de Mello said to the participants:
See, I am simply made up of my body and soul, yet I introduce that "I" over
them, and speak of "my body" and "my soul". Who is that "I" to whom my soul
and body belong? As the Irishman asked his parish priest, "When I die, my
body will be in the grave, and my soul in heaven; but ... where will `I'
be?" In reality there is no such "I", but we somehow imagine that there is
little person at the back of our skull who owns our mind and body, feels
responsible for them, controls them and so it becomes an "I" controlling
"me", which is an impossible bind. Think of the expression "I have to save
my soul". Who is this "I" that has to save "his" soul? Someone different
from the soul, isn't it? Otherwise how could "he" save it? So we have put a
Self in charge of the soul. The Self will save its soul. But who now, pray,
will save the Self?. Obviously we have to put another Self in charge of the
first Self ... Unless we get rid of the first Self there is no way out of
the labyrinth.(26)
Words such as self-denial and self-control are meaningless expressions. Self is the final obstacle to love. Once the self is
dropped, all the attachments we have been trying to get rid of will drop off on their own.
The question "what remains?" is hardly raised and remains unanswered, as far as one can make out. Not that this mystical
approach is new; it is in fact an integral part of Hindu metaphysics. But how it can be accommodated within the world-affirming
orientation of the biblical faith is not clear - an affirmation of the here and now which is celebrated in much of de Mello's own
writings.
Both these books testify to the impact de Mello had on people, as friend and mentor. They are not uncritical, b ut they affirm that
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people heard the bird sing, and for them de Mello's role was profoundly corrective and inspiring. The part de Mello played in
making people aware of encumbrances of every kind - credal, scriptural, institutional and so on - cannot be dismissed as
irrelevant or unimportant.
The "Notification" of the Vatican
The official church's more recent assessment of de Mello's work is far more critical.(27) And understandably so .
That assessment is in two parts. The first and shorter one is a "Notification concerning the writings of Fr Ant hony de Mello, S.J.".
It begins on a positive, if cautious, note. Fr de Mello's work contains "some valid elements of Oriental wisdom " which can help
people to achieve self-mastery (a word that de Mello would have dismissed as nonsensical, even "insane"),(28) t o break the
chains that keep them in bondage and to equip them to face the vicissitudes of life. Especially in his earlier writings he had
"remained within the lines of Christian spirituality" though the influence of Buddhist and Taoist thought was d iscernible even
then. In these early writings he dealt with the different kinds of prayer - petition, intercession and praise - and the contemplation
of Christ's life and work. Even in these writings, however, and much more in his later work "one notices a prog ressive distancing
from the essential contents of the Christian faith".
In place of the revelation which has come in the person of Jesus Christ, he
substitutes an intuition of God without form or image, to the point of
speaking of God as a pure void. To see God it is enough look directly at
the world. Nothing can be said about God; the only knowing is unknowing ...
This radical apophaticism leads even to a denial that the Bible contains
valid statements about God. The words of Scripture are indications which
serve only to lead a person to silence ... Religions, including
Christianity, are one of the major obstacles to the discovery of truth ...
"God" is considered as a cosmic reality, vague and omnipresent; the
personal nature of God is ignored and in practice denied.(29)
Fr de Mello claims to be a disciple of Jesus. But Jesus for him is a "master alongside others", though he is fu lly awake and wholly
free unlike other masters. There is no recognition of Jesus as the Son of God. Belief in God or in Christ may i mpede one's search
for truth. The Church, making an idol of the word of God in holy scripture, "has ended up banishing God from th e temple" and,
as a result, lost the authority to teach in the name of Christ.
The Notification, adopted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in June 1998 in order "to protect t he good of the
Christian faithful", declares that such positions are "incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm".
An Explanatory Note, considerably longer than the Notification, covers much the same ground, Fr de Mello ignore s the personal
nature of God and reduces God to "a vague and omnipresent cosmic reality". As a result of such "unilateral and exaggerated
apophaticism, he is sceptical of all God-language". This, in turn, limits the role of the Bible and of all sacr ed scriptures. They can
only serve as "signposts". All religions, in so far as they make monopolistic claims for God's love, do less th an justice to God.
Concepts and beliefs, the creed and the faith, are all part of our conditioning, hindering us rather than helpi ng us in our search
for enlightenment. The Explanatory Note concludes, with logical finesse:
Clearly, there is an internal connection between these different positions:
if one questions the existence of a personal God, it does make sense that
God would address himself to us with his word. Sacred Scripture, therefore,
does not have definitive value. Jesus is a teacher like others; only in the
author's early books does he appear as the Son of God, an affirmation which
would have little meaning in the context of such an understanding of God.
As a consequence one cannot attribute value to the Church's teaching. Our
personal survival after death is problematic if God is not personal. Thus
it becomes clear that such conceptions of God, Christ and man are not
compatible with the Christian faith.
The church has a case, and so, perhaps, has Fr de Mello
Reading the Notification, I was repeatedly reminded of the testimonies in We Heard the Bird Sing. One of them i n particular
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illustrates de Mello's "uncanny ability to help people to drop illusions". A friend tells him of his personal e xperience of God as a
loving Father. After a time de Mello asks him when he is going "to let go of God", his God. "You are using him as a crutch, and
you won't grow. Your life and your world will be of the crutches. Throw him out and see what happens." The frie nd, in shocked
silence, reflects on what it will mean for him.
Throw him out. Fall back on my inner resources. Fall back on the God who is
in me? Do away with the religious practices which I do out of habit? Stop
turning to the Bible and the catechism books for norms of conduct? Listen
to the Spirit speaking within me? Test the memorized doctrines on the anvil
of reason and experience? Trust myself into the hands of the Mystery which
works mightily in the universe?(30)
Explaining what he means, de Mello tells him:
One day you may say, "I found God, I know him, he is so and so, he is there
and there, he is in me, in creation, in the eucharist ..." That is a day of
disaster for you because you will have found your God, your own projection,
so pitiful and small. These gods - these idols - in turn keep us pitiful
and small. We would fight for them ... They can be terrible ... Mystery
does not require defenders. Idols do. Mystery makes us humble.(31)
The friend concludes his testimony with the confession: "I have experienced the anxiety and the dangers and the rewards of
throwing away crutches."
What then, can the church offer? Having discarded doctrines and dogmas, creeds and catechisms, scriptures and sacraments,
where does one go for a glimpse of God? Without the discipline and the practice of faith - the service of God which is "perfect
freedom" - the compliance these demand and the consolation they provide, how does one know of God? "Pity the po or atheist"
de Mello once said, "who feels grateful but has no one to thank." Do the liberated mystics feel grateful and, i f they do, whom do
they thank?
In one of the stories in The Song of the Bird the writer goes to the Truth Shop to buy not partial but the whol e truth, without
deceptions, defences and rationalizations. The salesman warns him that the price is very high, but he is determ ined to get it
whatever the cost. The price is nothing less than his whole security, which is far more than he can afford to p art with. "I came
away with a heavy heart. I still needed the safety of my unquestioned beliefs."(32)
Not that de Mello's beliefs were at any time "unquestioned". Faith, for him, was "not the accumulation of certa inties but the
capacity to doubt".(33) The doubts and questionings were a help and not a hindrance in his sustained search for a truly
ecumenical spirituality that affirmed the world and was not a means of escaping from it.
The testimony of one who was not moved by "the magic of Tony" is far more revealing than the enthusiastic appro bation of de
Mello's friends and disciples. This friend says:
What I have received from him is the challenging example of a Jesuit who
daringly looked into the phony mythologies of religion as it is lived, and
had the courage to say aloud that "the emperor has no clothes" ... I cannot
honestly say that I have been very deeply "influenced" by Tony in my
personal spiritual search and formation. But in the earlier stages of my
quest for a meaningful spirituality and humanity for myself, Tony was an
inspiring example to me to do my own search without fear and without
relying too much on other people to guide me.(34)
No wonder the compilers of the testimonies conclude:
Tony did not, especially in his later years, represent the mainline
Christian thought or piety; but he offered a witness and a programme, and
raised some questions, which even mainline Christians found immensely
challenging and enriching; that was, is, his relevance.(35)
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The church, one must admit, however unwillingly, has a case. But one must also add that perhaps the church cont inues to be
recognizably Christian because of the witness of people like Fr Anthony de Mello who are willing to risk not be ing readily
identified as Christians. De Mello once wrote: "The Bible tells us to love our neighbour and also to love our e nemies, probably
because they are generally the same people."(36) So are, quite often, martyrs and heretics.
Let me close with yet another of Fr de Mello's stories, more to celebrate a legacy than to make a concluding co mment.
A tramp knocked at a farmer's door and asked for some food.
"Are you a Christian?" asked the farmer.
"Of course, "said the tramp. "Can't you tell? Just look at the knees of my
pants. Don't they prove it?"
The farmer and his wife noticed the holes in the knees and promptly gave
the man some food.
As the tramp turned to go, the farmer asked: "By the way, what made those
holes in the seat of your pants?"
"Backsliding", said the tramp.(37)
NOTES
(1) Anthony de Mello, The Prayer of the Frog: A Book of Study Meditations, vol. 1, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahity a Prakash, 1988,
p.xii.
(2) Quoted in Carlos G. Valles, Unencumbered by Baggage: Tony de Mello, a Prophet for Our Time, Anand, India, Gujarat
Sahitya Prakash, 1987, p.8.
(3) According to We Heard the Bird Sing: Interacting with Anthony de Mello, S.J., compiled by Aurel Brys, S.J., and Joseph
Pulickal, S.J., Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1995, pp. 110f.
(4) Anthony de Mello, The Song of the Bird, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1982, p.x.
(5) Ibid., p.xii.
(6) Ibid., p.73.
(7) Ibid., p.170.
(8) Anthony de Mello, Wellsprings: A Book of Spiritual Exercises, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1984, pp.xv-xvi.
(9) Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1985, p.viii.
(10) Ibid., p.27.
(11) Ibid., p.85.
(12) Ibid., p. 120.
(13) Anthony de Mello, One Minute Nonsense, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1992, p.33.
(14) Ibid., p.21.
(15) The Prayer of the Frog, vol. 1, p.xxiii.
(16) Ibid., p.3.
(17) Ibid., p.174.
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(18) Anthony de Mello, Contact with God: Retreat Conferences, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1990, quoted on the
presentation page.
(19) Anthony de Mello, Call to Love: Meditations, Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1991, p.61.
(20) Ibid., p.90.
(21) Cf. Valles, op. cit., p.133.
(22) We Heard the Bird Sing, pp.1,15,67,75.
(23) Op. cit., p.1.
(24) Ibid., p.39
(25) Ibid., p.94.
(26) Ibid., pp.89f.
(27) The brief "Notification" and the longer "Explanatory Note", 8 pages in all, come with the books; I now have six copies of
them.
(28) Valles, op. cit., p.90.
(29) "Notification" p.1. "Apophaticism" - from "apophatic", without images - denotes a single-hearted approach to a life of prayer
and relating to God without any extraneous help, not even words and mental images, Among the advocates of apoph atic
mysticism were the 5th-century Greek theologian Pseudo-Dionysius and the author of the 14th-century manual on c ontemplative
prayer, The Cloud of Unknowing.
(30) We Heard the Bird Sing, pp.77f.
(31) Ibid.
(32) The Song of the Bird, p. 100.
(33) Quoted in Valles, op. cit., p.107.
(34) Ibid.
(35) Introductory note by the compilers to We Heard the Bird Sing.
(36) Quoted in ibid., p.63.
(37) Ibid., p. 106.
T.K. Thomas was formerly Publications editor of the World Council of Churches, and managing editor of The Ecumenical
Review.3
COPYRIGHT 1999 World Council of Churches
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group