I think uh the new humanism of Pope Francis provides a beautiful framework for reflecting and practicing nurturing of Human Resources people in the church that’s why it’s important fundamental I will try to speak as simple as possible but you’ll forgive me if I am a little abstract in certain
Things but we can sort it out in discussion let me start with a Greek myth mythology story it is about it is a prehistoric times when there was no fire on Earth uh people were dying children old people because cold and they were dying and they were eating food not cooked
Therefore fell ill and then died there was a man called promotus promotus he was a very sensitive heart he could not bear the suffering of the humans and he saw lifted his eyes and saw in heaven gods were enjoying the fire in the big Palace gods and goddesses all sitting around the fire
Cooking the food feasting so he said here on Earth people are dying and these gods and goddesses are enjoying I should do something he said so he wanted to steal some fire from the gods so he made a journey to the upper world and he was very clever because
It’s not easy to steal fire from the gods so he wanted to distract gods and goddesses so he got a golden apple and that he wrote this is for the most beautiful goddess and threw it in the courtyard so they got it and big dispute started who is the most beautiful
Goddess they are all distracted so promotes took this chance to the fire and bring to the Earth but he was CAU and the god zus confute everybody he was a criminal he was chained to the Rock and confined to eternal torment that’s the first story of the first humanist mythology you know where
The humans rebelling against God because the gods are not you know concerned about human beings therefore affirm the human being and since then we had many kind of humanisms we have secular humanism we have ethical humanism existential humanism and then you have uh technology all kinds of humanism then the history especially in
The west we have the renissance WHERE Michelangelo all those people you can see all the human body celebrated you can see David you know Michelangelo’s all those figures with anatomy where Michelangelo used to go to Mortor how do you call yes and then find human body
Know how it is the the human was the focus of attention r that and the enlightenment everything so what happened was that the Christianity which is deeply human because celebrates the coming of the opposite moment of promotus going to heaven the god coming to the human so it got distracted Christianity
In a way and entangled with this kind of humanism of Rance and Enlighten and etc etc and began to think that human being is the center of the universe which is not really the true Christian and biblical world and therefore as proog said man is the measure of all things anthropos Metron
Panon man is the measure of everything that has ruled the world for a long time and Christianity forgot its truth that it contributed to demystifying demystifying the nature the Earth etc etc and what Pope Francis does is fundamentally this what do you call Distortion which has happened which influenced also Christianity trying to
Remsy from demystification disenchantment to use the phrase of W de how do you call disenchantment the world is no more you know the the world is beautiful Wonder like child know look at the mountains and trees and rivers you enjoy that’s wonderment you know there’s nothing of that because science and technology has
Demystified so the humanism of Francis starts with remsy see the world and universe together and therefore certain corrective to the Distortion Christianity suffer during the centuries under Rance enlightenment etc etc this is uh so he’s Reawakening so he’s not uh you call in the sense of a revolutionary who has
Break with the past is Reawakening the real deep Christian but forgotten dimension of the Integrity of everything so this is a brief introduction with that I would cover nine short points which you have in the summary in your hands brief first is that the whole shift Francis effector but is not only
One from what is called anthropos Shen to a cosmological anthropology let me explain a little bit uh ual Harari a Jewish historian has two important books homo human being God and uh Homo sapiens wise man and very interestingly this historian you Harari speaks about history of the
Universe and the you know that universe is 13.5 billion years old and in this huge history immense history human beings are only history of 60 or 70,000 th000 a fraction of this huge history of 13.5 billion years old and he says that our present world is conditioned by anthropo Shen technically
Means that the period of the universe where the human beings begin to dominate that’s 50 60 years anthropos Shen and he says at one point an insignificant ape monkey began to dominate the Earth everything so when you connect the whole universe the species human is only a
Small one if theory of evolution is true all of us were once mountains rivers and trees and what are we we are bubbles in the immense stream of the universe there are more stars in the heavens than grains of sand on the shores of our Shores just imagine how
Many grains of Sands are there there are more stars so in that sense the minus schol the human consist so this whole domination has taken place because there has taken place you know a kind of dissociation from the inextricably related to what happens the world natural world and we have in Indian
Tradition I’m sure if Christianity grew up in India instead of the West it would have been very different the nature would have been part of very much part of paba the five elements know we have water Earth fire Akash all the five elements this is my one of the because
We should not make too much of idolatry of the Pope Pope many things is taking up from learns from others is wonderful so one thing see is very good document but unfortunately there is a little reference to the Asian reference to what do you call Hinduism Buddhism how much
It is one with the universe you know the indras net know everything is interconnected and every part the jewel reflects the whole this is part of and we have do you call this Auda Puja where you venerate you know everything and give respect to that and this is something uh
Wonderful human dignity is intertwined uh with the Dignity of creation of God now one thing I would like this is very important this comes which is uh which is a Kind of copernican Revolution or rather turn that for a long time it was said that human beings are end in
Themselves human beings are an end you could never use human beings an instrument categorical imperative behave in such a way canet that you always consider human beings as end in themselves and never as a means all exploitation takes place human traffick speak because people are considered as a means for your own
Enrichment you know all that wealth Etc end in themselves so human beings are considered end in themselves but now the new humanism anthropology integral anthropology pop proposes is that things also end in themselves not only human beings is something very quite revolutionary no but which is deeply embedded in the Asian tradition and
Cultures Pope takes it and we have the whole tradition of uh cosmological aspect in understanding Christ as Alpha and Omega the point towards which you move therefore let me quote John 23rd Pope who said we are here on Earth not to preserve a museum but to care for a
Flourishing Garden Earth as a garden so the intertwining and the entanglement of everything together that’s the first what does that imply for inverted karmas formation or naturing human resources let me spell out a couple of things one that we need to speak today not only of two loves love
Of God and love of neighbor but three loves love of God love of neighbor and love of nature equally human life and actions be judge under the three loves uh which reflects thisness that is very much Franciscan tradition danot franciscanas thisness that means not only something abstract every little thing thisness no
That you respect that thisness of things and the mindfulness of everything knowledge about intertwining of everything yesterday sister unigo spoke about Mystic just want to add a footnote to what she said uh you can be Mystic even without prayer because sometimes mysticism connected with prayer could be alienating already we
Are overfeeding the fores spiritual formation meditation mask reading this overfed therefore they omit because it’s too much so it is not addition you do prayer lot and you Mystic no mysticism can be without prayer in the sense that a realization of the unity of everything that’s a mystical that everything is interconnected
Human Community the Earth Community everything as SC rner said a devote Christian of the future will be a Mystic or uh he’ll be how do you call uh someone uh not anything at all sees to be anything at all so it’s a mysticism of open eyes prayer we close the eyes but we
Want a mysticism of Open Eyes the whole world is a garden of God human beings so a mysticism of open eyes which is certainly will be also prophetic and this is very important so the integration of everything which has got a therapeutic function therapeutic means healing to Healing function the moment you
Integrate everything it automatically heals someone therefore division always is a source of conflict disintegration so therapeutic healing we don’t need too many you call workshops know somebody a sister or a brother has a problem you go to that you know that kind of increasing but this this experience of integration of
Everything is a therapeutic and cultivate this deep love for nature and taste to wonder ATM like St Francis son brother son and moon sister Moon and we need to cultivate nurture in the candidates you know people uh a poetic sense pois in Greek means po to make to create the
Creativity not create boxes of discipline where everybody will fit in but PO is creative I’ll give you an example of how we lack poetry in the church pois there was a great poet kadas tamad the great poet modern poet was uh written lyrics also for film so many
Films and uh he was commissioned to write uh what do you call and this one Epic like and the life of Christ yes kavya I remember he was in TR he was in a hotel he was dictating he was a poet and he was uh writing verses about the Child
Jesus so he’s now telling about you know this la for the Child Jesus Etc then time as very poetically he said Tamil I will say then I will translate palu the Child Jesus sleeps with open eyes which is very poetic because in Hindu tradition only God sleep with open
Eyes so he wanted to indicate so this text of Canadas went to the Bishops Bishops are scandalized because said Jesus is a true human being he must be he cannot open eyes they brought to kadas and told him so magnimous so he said Jesus closed eyes and
SLE how we lack sense of pois poetry creativity we need a lot more so young people are full of creativity Foster nure this creativity which is nuring real sources open avenues for them if she or he is interested in this cultivate that know that we give so much importance to discipline and other
Things let me come to the second Point humanism of a new sociality life is a web of relationships The Wider we cultivate relationship the life flourishes inter subjectivity formation an environment a mil of relationships when we help to for relationships and do not allow isolation to take place when people isolate it
Becomes problems to themselves and others so if a brother or sister or a priest isolate everybody is responsible for that not only he or she everybody because we have not created the environment where that person could integrate and uh lack of relationships connected with lack of rootedness analyzing the
Modernity the how do you call the the father of modern sociology Emil durheim who wrote also about how suicide take place you know modernity connected he used a word anomi the modity is consider anomi means rootlessness rootlessness the modernity says the urban life Etc creates rootlessness and that is so we need to
Create root and create trust trust Society is run by trust Stalin famously said trust is good control is better he’s a dictator no wonder no trust is good control is better probably many times we behave like that in our formation houses trust is good control is better no trust is
Better always even if mistakes take place uh mutuality and solidarity so new sociality is where uh the face of the other becomes where God is reflected on the face of the other the source of morality and actually I think Pope Francis has benefited a lot from Emmanuel livas who spoke about the face
Of the other it’s a challenge to me the face of the other it’s the beginning of morality it’s not a rule bound morality the other is a challenge to my morality so it’s a humanism of new sociality third for the lake of time I will go a little fast humanism of
Fraternity Brotherhood and Sisterhood this is very important because this is a very crucial point and also what comes out is precisely this because we are in a modern world of contractual relationships modern society is social relationships are based on a hypothetical contract now no time to explain what that is but the
Contract commercial relationships around contractual relationships that kills you cannot mother and child do not have contractual relationships is possible not all dimensions of human life can be there are certain areas which can be under contract but the larger life is that everybody is a brother or sister know religious life is a
Fraternity that cultivation frat that means not consider other person as an alien but a brother and sister which means The Binding is very close like a family that’s what the Pope Francis is trying to underline religious life is a fraternity and unfortunately during the history of the church clerical isation
Took place and therefore hierarchy got embedded deeply but if you see St Fran and St Dominic the medican ERS they were considered as brothers even today they will say brother even even they ordained ordination was an in it way anomaly the religious are supposed to be brothers and they started ordaining some
Religious and it became a general practice I think we should go back to that so that the clerical isation stops because you need to also make a structural reforms there very few priests enough Brothers more brothers that’s what is a need and this precisely one way of overc coming deeply entrenched so
The religious life is a fraternity sity Sisterhood so incal inculate as a nurturing Human Resources the capacity for dialogue in the fies and that will be one of the important you know things um and also it’s a form and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good as part of fraternity common
Good common good is Ensemble of conditions which create so that individuals and groups can flourish to the maximum of their capacity sorry I don’t want to go into explanation of that you know the common good common good is a very important uh category also in the social teaching of the
Church the Dignity of the human being and the common good I come to that common good again now fourth point the the element fourth element in the humanism of Po Francis is God is part of the definition of the human that’s it you cannot Exile God from human life yesterday I spoke
About you know the the the visit of the the parish priest in a world where people don’t believe in God not a humanism which excludes God but God is an integral part without if you do not include God you’ll be prepared to do everything to oppress to
Kill anything that’s why dski is the famous russan novelist said if there is no God everything is permitted there’s no God everything is permitted no so God is the guar of the true humanity and that is something he underlined and this very powerful message especially to the west where nihilism is taking hold
Of so this transcendental reference to uh god without God it will be exclusive humanism naturalist humanism the fifth point humanism defined primarily by love not by reason alone Aristotle famously said know Zone um logicon that means human beings have rational animals rational animals but then no reason the what defines
Human beings are reason and precisely also one reason where women were oppressed because they are considered not having enough reason therefore feminist Studies have brought out this is a wrong way of looking the reason defines human being the men are reason women are not reasonable therefore they
Are lesser beings this is it no that’s only one there is the whole love that’s again Franciscan tradition a Franciscan Pope know so you have for example in s bonam very different from SAS who followed Aristotle who is that knowledge is not only through our intellect but through our heart if you
Want to know something you should love it that’s exactly The Franciscan Way if you don’t love you don’t understand think of the consequences in a religious formation house if you’re only task Masters wanting them to follow exactly this habituate them then I think we are in the wrong
Therefore uh the the love as the path to knowledge not simply knowledge is a dominating technocracy Dominion control therefore I want to hear site shusaku Endo the Japanese novelist Catholic novelist was many novels and he beautifully says that I would like to imagine God and Jesus as a
Rather than a father and he says why he does like because he says the father is a disciplinarian expect something many times in our religious formation houses we are more father also sisters houses expect something discipline the mother is unconditional love no expectation you’re accepted and
Therefore he says I would like to think of Jesus as a mother precisely because the UN unconditional character of Love Without expecting anything compassionate mother every for form should become a mother to the for is father or not infrequently everybody should become because as Milan kunda says woman is a
Future of man beautiful the novel in his novel immortality is great novelist woman is is the future of humanity what’s going to win is ultimately love and compassion on which Pope Francis lay so much of emphasis which is redeeming let me come to the sixth Point human existence is not a finished
Product so to the self so we have a very essentialistic conception no man is like that Tre is like that this is what is called foundationalism this is this this paves way to dominating thinking you define everything this is it this is it and you want very clear mathematical certainity about
Everything but human beings are like a river it flows the river yes but not all the same water so many knowledge so many emotions everything pass through that changes the sediments grows no there is a whole uh movement therefore we cannot judge a person simply judgmental take note
Of the factual very often we tend in the church this is very bad to moralizing we have only certain categor good bad know like that no the what you call binary thinking high low left right man woman this must get rid of no rather think of
Things as they are the factual what is it what is it first know it what is it phenomenological we need more phenomenological also in approaching people why instead of coming out the Judgment know how it things therefore help people to self-discovery that lays the best foundation for the fies so that they
Discover the friend they say Su care of the self fashioning of self one you know fashioning ultimately the person should is work of art I fashion myself I can make use of the elements so do we provide the elements so that the for me Fashions herself or himself in such a
Way you know creates Etc seventh a new humanism of common good I said earlier I mentioned common good and there are two aspects to common good one is the ecological aspect which I under line first I don’t want to repeat there’s a social Dimension that means uh in the Christian tradition
There has been disputes about this point of use and Dominion use and Dominion that means we are especially in religious life Etc you use things know that is it common Dominion is possession the power that is very bad possession so we must distinguish between use and Dominion so sometimes I wonder you know
Priests and sometimes also of Bishops I have seen and people have complained they accumulate I don’t know the personal bank accounts formally there was no backrounds for the religious now of course understandable reason know you can that is the reason the poty that means everything is in
Common uh but possess so a priest or bishop or you have provided everything what else do you need you want to accumulate for what use is use Dominion is a power that’s a Temptation you know accumulation of uh therefore of course in the Christian social tradition we have critic of private
Property the earth is made common for the whole humanity and uh interestingly Pope John the 23rd very beautifully said I I’m giving this concrete example instead of elaborating theoretically he said that people are going hungry because there’s not enough food here is a man who has thousand
Acres of land he does not need to cultivate he lives at follow it’s my possession my land is say John 23rd says you have the right to go and occupy because Earth is common to all when they hungry you cannot allow it because it is a common property so the
Primacy of use of everyone precedes the right of property private possession in the modern world corporate world everything runs in the of private property ownership therefore is striking at the very root it not be a means of possession therefore when priests religious etc etc tend to accumulate it
Means they want to control you want to I want tell you one little example experience 30 40 years ago sorry I went to jaffna before the war there was Bishop he asked Bishop Bishop how many priests are there in your dasis looked at me and said
One what this big D how no I’m the only priest all the others are Bishops so I pity sometimes a bishop because they have to manage with so many Bishops know the dasis the power struggle they want the prominent parishes prominent institutions know the power and control use and Dominion the Dominion
Tendency the use use it ask for it that I think is very important know uh yes then let me come to so the for should be how you n in such a way that that use things Detachment from the desire for possession it it kills a person you know
Possession eight a new humanism from the periphery you transform the B and Society by transforming the periphery a clear indicator of development of any society is what happening in the periphery of course today they are priding that we are going to the fifth second largest economy 5
Trillion economy Etc ET is all an illusion you know of General D GDP India is out of 125 countries in the Hunger index 121st place can imagine just four notes above and we are priding we are evoled power etc etc this is all propaganda missionary you know but the actual fact is large
Peripheries city is full of Slam comes that’s another you great issue which church should face the urbanization etc etc so from the periphery here I would like to be more concrete and narrate something and then finish that point 2001 I was invited as Joseph uh Professor for Boston College in
USA uh so I was delivering the lectures that time there was a visitor extraordinary visitor and the visitor was nobody else than uh father Ernest cardal some of you may know those who know about South Africa I mean South American history Latin America from nikaragua at one point there was a whole struggle
Against the dictatorial regime and then you have a new regime uh came to power which was more socialist which is concerned about the people and some of the priests were ministers in this Ernesto Cardinal was minister of Education the literacy was hardly 15 20% he raised almost 90% literacy the
People so I had the great privilege of listening to Father Ernest cardal his brother was also a priest cardal and he was addressing a few thousand students you know the huge Auditorium and he was narrating about his noviciate in Nicaragua the noviciate was in a hill and they used to assign jobs for
Each one and uh certain weeks one novice has to go down because to the bakery and get bread and K was telling he was assigned and he used to carry bread for the noviciate on the way poor people stretch their hands for bread so heed to
Give give when he comes back there’s no bread so the superior ched him the no master then he said either you appoint somebody or you’ll have no breakfast so if you want me to go so that shows you know how sensitively this person been train know he could not suffer the hunger of
Children and others it’s not so much that my Superior asset I must do this Duty that kind of thing let me come to the next point and concluding Point Jesus the new man and model of a new humanism Jesus humanism is not an idea becomes history many of his
Interventions he respects people enters into a conversation not not give directives discovers together with the Samaritan woman what a beautiful conversation zero finan woman there’s a there’s a argumentative Jesus who argues with the people and they also allows others to argue with him let us allow our own forist to argue with
Us and not to be superint no so beautiful which we find in Jesus as a point of reference for his humanism have among yourselves and Paul says the same attitude that is also yours in Christ what is that attitude and that is deep Humanity know you could not suffer Jesus was
Concerned not so much about Sin unfortunately the Distortion of Christianity therefore whole what do you call atonement theory of atonement salvation not so much about Sin as human suffering what touched him was human suffering when it came to sin he said you seven times and 70 times you forgive and then
Your sins are forgiven all that’s quite minor but what is uh most important is human suffering response to human suffering that sensitivity which is very important let me come to the conclusion uh human beings are not objects but subjects this is very important not objects to be treated subjectivity is the Agent of
Change there is autonomy know autonomy means AOS noos in Greek means law law unto oneself move oneself autonomous which is contrast to heteronomy that means somebody comes from outside and puts the rule I had a very humorous cin who used to tell me that all the things I would gladly like
To do God has put under the ten commandments so sometimes we think that by creating more rules that we discipline and form better far from it is a banking system AP Pao ferer you know that no it’s a banking system you give inputs no nobody grows a
Person grows no like a snowball slowly therefore understanding of the Divine Grace working in our phies and in their history every person has a personal history biography this new humanism realizes the incommensurability of the human Spirit please remember this word incommensurability you cannot measure a person that’s precisely mystery of human
Being mystery of God the encounter of the mystery of human beings and mystery of God you cannot measure you are not the judge that’s exactly what pope said who am I to judge in the case of you know the famous statement about the G not judgmental incommensurability respect of mystery God’s mystery taking
Place in the heart of everyone that is very thing not make an idolatry of our found Founders and foundresses all that there are Pious good woman and men who were there in their particular age fine we venerate them respect them but must be here and now in 21st century of India
Here yesterday I spoke about the programs for formation created in Rome and France cannot be applied here we should have our own because the situation is very different here no and the issues we Face are different and we have uh we should not consider that we have a
Blueprint formation and we are as Executives that the for are part of the formation Pro Plan with them a process information I think we have obsession with order we are afraid of chos we should love Kos because we are too rigid too rigid sister Eno spoke about the rigidity too
Rigid we are afraid of Kos insecurity the human life is full of fragility impon durability what happened with That’s the basis of Co experience the fraility of the human being you know uh you cannot plan everything for totality no so like what happened the medieval plages etc etc we realize deeply the
Transitor of everything fragility precarity of everything uh therefore we should not be worried about too much of security too much of how do you call obsession with order think about the uh workplace of artist sculpture think about you know a person like Michelangelo’s workplace so much of probably you know debris everywhere but
Something wonderful is happening but our eyes go only here it is not there there but look at what’s getting formed that’s more important not insist because we have trusted on habit formation let me explain you know that means we think that if we this is called virtue ethics
That if you C ask somebody to do young person repeatedly the same thing again and again it becomes a habit this trick does not work anymore they will come they will attend everything but they have their own ways so don’t rely on simply habit formation as a
Security that the for me is formed well no not at all they break the Frameworks rather cultivate come back to the main theme of our reflection the new humanism of Jesus the Springs of humanity with the phies yesterday I spoke we saw about the workers the 12 workers you know without
Any compens anything the daring so simply so spontaneously naturally there was no persuasion nobody was there to persuade immediately respond to a situation that agility of the spirit and I think that is what is required thank you very much for your kind [Applause] attention
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