C. A. Joachim Pillai - "Missionary Presence Today" (March 5, 1972) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

(choir singing hymn, muffled by organ)

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For our prayer of adoration,

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let us turn to Psalter number 579,

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and we will pray responsively together.

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The one entitled how lovely is thy dwelling-place.

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Let us pray.

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How lovely is thy dwelling place.

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Oh, Lord of host.

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My soul longs, yea faints for the courts of the Lord.

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My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

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Even the sparrow finds a home,

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and to swallow a nest for herself

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where she may lay her young.

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At thy alters oh Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

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Blessed are those who dwell in thy house,

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ever singing thy praise.

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Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee,

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and whose heart or the highways desire.

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Oh, Lord of hosts hear my prayer,

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Oh God.

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Behold our shield, oh God,

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Look upon the face of thine and know it.

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For a day in your courts is better

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than a thousand elsewhere.

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I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

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that dwell in the tents of wickedness.

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For the Lord, God is a sun and shield.

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He bestows favor and honor.

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No good thing does the Lord withhold

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from those who walk up right?

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Oh, Lord of hosts.

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Blessed is the man who trusts in thee.

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As we glimpse a vision of the greatness of God

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and adore him for it.

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We are mindful of our own inadequacy, of our own sin,

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and we need to confess them.

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Therefore, let us bow our heads,

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and lift our hearts in prayer of confession.

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Oh God, our heavenly father, we are in consistent people

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and we need to be straightened out.

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We have complained often that we are too busy

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when others have asked us to do things,

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but we have been impatient when

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others have not given us perfect service.

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We have tried to pretend that issues are complicated,

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which you have said are simple.

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And we have declared impossible things

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that you have said can be done with your grace.

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We have believed that if we would only ignore

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our problems they would go away.

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We are sinful in that we have emphasized the beauty

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of the outside and neglected the beauty of the inside.

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We are sinful in that we have thought

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that we could repeal your ethical laws by our own vote.

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If we could simply get a large enough majority.

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Indeed we have tried to act as though we are God.

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And even when we have offered the precincts of

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our hearts to you,

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we have reserved some of the precincts for ourselves.

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Little pockets of time, little areas of decision,

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and have not made always a whole-hearted surrender.

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Some of us have failed to love the sinner

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in our zeal to eradicate the sin.

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Some of us that failed to hate the sin

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in our emphasis upon loving the sinner.

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Practically all of us, oh,

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God have failed to keep a proper balance between the two.

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Here in an academic institution

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we have been prone to feel that knowledge

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and wisdom consists of holding degrees

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and having great marks on a card.

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We have often behaved like the lepers

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who were cleansed by Christ,

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but who failed to return

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and give thanks once they were cleansed.

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Sometimes we've been like the Pharisees who built the tombs

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of the prophets who were safely dead while planning

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to crucify the living prophets and the Lord of life.

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Oh God, our sins are many.

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We have sometimes been quick to accept,

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and to profit by the fruits of Christian institutions

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in the past while making a very weak,

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and timid half-hearted and uncertain witness today

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in our own time.

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We have attempted to find plausible excuses for not doing

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what we really know is right.

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Forgive us the sins.

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Forgive us the sin of a general attitude

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of not being devoted to Jesus and give us grace

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to make a great improvement

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so that we may not only accept your forgiveness,

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but there may bear witness to the life that is in Christ.

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We ask this in his blessed name.

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Amen.

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It is a very assuring thing for a Christian

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to remember what happened when Jesus Christ hung

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on the cross and beside was another man

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also being crucified.

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And this other man said to Jesus

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that he deserved to be there.

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Whereas he recognized that Jesus did not deserve

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to be there.

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And he simply turned his face to Christ

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and said, "Lord, remember me, when you come

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into your kingdom."

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And the response of our Lord to that man is the response

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which he offers to every penitent and faithful sinner today.

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This day shall thou be with me.

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Amen.

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(upbeat organ music)

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(choir singing hymn, muffled by organ)

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Our lesson today is taken

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from the 28th chapter of the gospel,

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according to St. Matthew verses 16 through 20.

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Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain,

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to which Jesus had directed them.

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And when they saw him, they worshiped him.

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But some doubted and Jesus came and said to them,

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"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

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baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son

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and of the Holy Spirit.

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Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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And lo I am with you always to the close of the age."

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This is the word of the Lord.

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(upbeat organ music)

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(choir singing hymn, muffled by organ)

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The Lord be with you.

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(indistinct)

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Let us pray.

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All mighty God who does give us a new day

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and a new opportunity.

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We come now to offer our thanks for giving us a chance

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to make our lives noble by worshiping you.

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We thank you for all the open doors,

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which you have set before us.

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If our health has been less than perfect,

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we thank you that there are doctors

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and nurses and medicine and hospitals.

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If our spiritual health is at a low ebb,

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we thank you that we have your loving invitation

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whosoever will may come.

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And that you have provided the scriptures,

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the church, teachers, preachers, counselors, and friends,

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Oh, God, if we have failed to establish righteousness

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and order in the world,

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we thank you for a new day and for new resources

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and a new chance to try again.

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We express our gratitude to you for friends who encourage us

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and who recognize our strong points.

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And we are grateful for friends who help us to see

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where we are wrong and need to improve.

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We are thankful that evil is not so strong,

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but that we can rise above it when we surrender our wills

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to you and seek your divine grace.

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Oh, God, we are grateful for pioneers who point the way

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to more Christian relationships in the home,

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in the university, in the office,

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in the marketplace, and in the halls of government.

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We are grateful to you, oh God,

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for a moment of greatness now and and then.

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And for the opportunity to seize that moment when it comes.

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For this moment, when all of us are here together

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in your house and in your presence, we are grateful.

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We pray that we may seize upon this moment

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to advance your kingdom, and to grow in grace.

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Almighty God, we offer our prayers of intercession

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for our fellows and ourselves.

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We pray for those who are unemployed,

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for those who are under employed, who have skills to offer,

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but cannot find opportunity to apply their skills

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to the needs of society.

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We intercede for those who now find themselves overworked.

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For those who have more responsibility

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on their shoulders than they can discharge,

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but who are expected to fulfill

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these responsibilities regardless.

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Give them grace to endure and the strength

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to do the best that they can.

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Heavenly father, we pray for those who are pushed aside

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because they are poor,

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whose ideas are not listened to

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because their financial weight is not impressive.

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Whose personalities are blighted because they are regarded

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as inferior on account of their poverty.

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Indeed, oh, God, We offer our prayers for all sorts

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and conditions of man for all of us need your help

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in many ways, and we pray that we may find it.

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And may we grow in grace by making our own the prayer,

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which your son has taught all of his disciples to pray

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saying, "Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,

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thy kingdom come.

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Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day, our daily bread

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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For thine is the kingdom and the power

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and the glory forever.

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Amen.

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My dear friends this fall I must say I'm very glad

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to be here in your midst.

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I thank Dr. Howard Wilkinson,

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who has invited me to say a few words.

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See as I came in here I had prepared a very nice exposition

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on the scripture that was to be read,

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but having spent a few hours in this place,

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I don't feel like going through my texts.

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I would like just to speak with you, frankly,

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of some thoughts that come to my mind.

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I remember once the Zen master was invited

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to speak at a big gathering.

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Everything was prepared.

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He came in, the people were expectant.

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And while he started to speak,

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there was a small bird on a tree

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which sang its own little song.

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And the master was confused.

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He said, "You have heard it."

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And he walked away.

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See, I too, as I come into this church,

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as I hear these beautiful songs,

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as I see these beautiful stained glass windows,

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as I see this beautiful church,

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and the kind and hospitable faces.

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I too say to myself, "I have heard it."

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There is a word that emerges from this situation,

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and we must be able to listen to it, to hear it.

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We don't need other words, the sound of the music,

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the beauty of heart, and the warmth people who are related

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to each other in frankness and sincerity.

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That is the word that we are trying to experience,

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that we are trying to communicate to others.

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In one of the Oriental religions Taoism.

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It is said that one has to be perfect even

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to be able to hear one single note of music.

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One has to be perfect to hear a single note of music,

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and how many notes do we hear?

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How many sites do we see?

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How many faces we encounter,

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and how is it that we don't see,

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we don't hear, we don't taste?

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And therefore I think real missionary presence

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is our capacity to recognize what is happening in us

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and around us.

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A lot of things are happening.

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I think Jesus the Superstar,

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the song tells me what's happening.

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Yes, a lot of things are happening within us,

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in our bodies, in our minds, in our neighborhoods,

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in our country, in the world.

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Having the capacity to recognize what is happening.

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And I think that is where our eyesight is failing.

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We are not able to recognize what is happening.

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Certainly to be better for me to keep silent at this point.

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But since I have been invited to speak,

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I'll say a few words on the theme I had chosen

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on missionary presence today.

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My dear friends, I have traveled widely in Europe,

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in Asia, in this country, in Canada, and elsewhere.

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And if you ask me what people think about the missionary

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work that the churches have carried out

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through the centuries.

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My general impression is that more and more missionaries

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have a sense of irrelevance.

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They say that they are not relevant

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to the place where they're working.

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You feel a sense of hopelessness.

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There is a crisis in the church.

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There is a general discouragement.

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The feeling that we are not wanted.

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We are not convinced even by the things that we do.

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And it is within that situation of ambiguity

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that the poor missionary has to operate today.

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And we must sympathize with him.

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He has to preach a gospel, which is being doubted,

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even in those Christian countries,

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from where the gospel came, and we preach relevance.

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But more and more we feel that ultimate relevance

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will come out of irrelevance.

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Christ, when he went about in Palestine doing good,

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he was not considered a relevant person.

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He was considered quite irrelevant to the situation.

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And the earlier you dispose of him the better.

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And it is out of this relevance that God has created

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the relevance of our faith.

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Certainly, there is hopelessness,

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but I feel that the deepest hope is nurtured

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in the context of hopelessness.

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Where there is simple hope,

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hope that you can buy it as it were

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you don't build very much.

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But the deepest hope is often natured

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within a situation of hopelessness.

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You speak of crisis, the whole of our Bible,

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salvation history, what is it?

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But an immense crisis, the cross.

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So why should we be afraid of crisis?

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The feeling that we are not wanted.

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If we are discouraged.

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Preaching John, he came into his own,

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and his own received him not.

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And there we experienced who Christ was, but it is to come.

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To go out to others and not be received.

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And if in our own lives,

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we are trying to communicate values,

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communicate the saving presence of God,

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of which we catch glimpses.

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And if people don't receive us

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we are experiencing what Christ experienced.

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He came unto his own and his own received him not,

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but we must continue to go out.

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As it was read in the scripture lesson, go out.

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We must go forth baptizing, teaching, preaching,

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or in other words, caring, curing, comforting,

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or in most simple words, simply being with others,

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being with them in a saving manner, meeting their needs.

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And therefore my dear friends,

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if you ask me to spell out in a few words,

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what is missionary presence today?

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I would say, first of all, our mission is to be

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most of the time we are not.

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Do we really appreciate the fact that we are here

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or rather that we are.

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That we have been born,

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that we are going through life.

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Existence has been a great thrill

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for poets and philosophers.

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It's a thrill offered to us at every moment of our life.

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Just to be, that is the greatest gift.

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Often when we lose sight of these immense values,

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the greatest gift, then we start fighting about property

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and money and color and cost and so on.

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The fact that we are.

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And I think we need people to affirm this.

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The counterculture, the hippie movement,

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the flower children, the dropout have something of this.

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They want to affirm that they are.

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They don't want anything more. They don't want to be rich.

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They don't want to be learned.

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They don't want to know the scripture.

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They want to affirm in the face of people who have created

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an artificial world that they want to be.

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And to be is a gift, is a grace, is a mission.

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It's a challenge that we have to accept to be.

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Mighty friends, you would say, even an animalist,

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a stonist, the mountainist, the beautiful nature around us.

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What is it that qualifies me as a human person?

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Within this mission to be there is for each one of us

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the deep permission to be human.

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We are all called to be human.

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And we're all suffering

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from this deadly sickness of inhumanity.

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Our souls at many points in our life are

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(indistinct)

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because we are inhuman.

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What does it mean to be human?

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We are called to be human.

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We are called to be sensitive

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to what is beautiful in nature and art.

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Often we have no eyes to see the beauties of nature.

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We don't look at the sky, the stars, the flower,

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the puppies, so many things.

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We should give so much joy to us.

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Which would humanize us.

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We are beginning to lose that sensitivity

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because we are running after unreal things.

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This is the fact.

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To be human also means that we become sensitive

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to what is true.

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This has been the pursuit of all philosophers,

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of all scientists.

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What we are doing in our classrooms and our laboratories.

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We are learning to become sensitive to what is true.

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Take the scientists who affirm this missionary presence

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by learning to be with an atom,

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learning to be with an atom,

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the slightest thing in this universe.

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And because he can be with it in a creative manner.

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He's able to release so much energy,

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creative energy for the life of the world.

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And we not only with atoms we live with this whole creation.

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We live with so many person.

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And how is it that this relationship does not become

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creative, but become something destructive.

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Making us, even after our maximum insurance

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to live in insecurity,

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afraid to walk out of our homes after 6 o'clock,

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unable to walk in our own streets.

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Why? Because something has happened to this relationship.

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Something has gone wrong.

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Maybe we are losing our humanity.

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We are not at home where God put us to be at home.

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So mighty friends, missionary presence today is

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first of all, to be, and secondly,

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to be human means to become sensitive

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to all that is beautiful.

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To become sensitive to all that is true

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in science and philosophy,

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but also to become sensitive to what is good.

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But all men of ethics,

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but all great religious founders have told us

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that we must become good.

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This is also an immense field of sensitivity,

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where we become human.

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Sometimes, I feel very sorry

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when I see these big groups of groups sensitivity

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as they call them, which is good.

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But it is at one level,

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we have lost the sense of touch,

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and we are trying to recover our sense of touch,

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but we who have been called to be, to be human,

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to be open to all this immense sphere of what is beautiful.

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What is good? What is true?

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Are still caught up merely at the level of touch.

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And because we have been bumping in the trains,

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and the planes, and the crowded cities,

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we have sometimes even lost the sense of touch.

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A difference that is only a beginning.

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We have to be human, and all the problems in this world are

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because man has lost his humanity,

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man forgets that he's called to be human.

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Is this a theme that can be developed?

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But I pass on.

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But ultimately we as Christian,

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we are not only called to be,

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we are not only called to be human.

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But we are called to consecrate this being

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and this humanity, we are called to make it a new being.

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We are called to be Christian.

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What does it mean to be Christian,

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might friend is first of all, to have the capacity to rest,

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not to be agitated, both corporately and mentally,

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not to run about like a mad dog,

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but rather to discover this capacity to rest.

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And first of all, what you are doing,

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having this capacity to rest in God,

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we have come here together so that we may rest in God.

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We may develop the deepest sensitivity to God.

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Adoring him, becoming sensitive to his glory.

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His presence as manifested in nature, in history,

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in the history of the chosen people,

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in the history of the broken face of Jesus,

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his glory is present to us, and we come together to rest

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in him, to adore him.

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And as we experience this glory of God,

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in our hearts where it glows

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this experience of grace that we have been gratified.

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God has given us grace to be able to thank him.

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Our call to be Christian means, first of all,

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that we have the capacity to rest,

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to rest in God, adoring him, thanking him.

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It is the greatest vocation that we have,

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and which is often forgotten,

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which is left for last moments of our lives.

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But really it is for that, that we have been created.

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Great St. Augustine used to say,

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"Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."

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Mighty friends, if you really rest in God,

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and if you have this Christian mission,

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he must also learn to rest in our neighbor.

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Resting in our neighbor is not such an easy thing simply

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to be with our neighbor.

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There are moments in our lives

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we may not have many words to speak, many things to say,

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but we have to be with this person, my wife, my husband,

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my child, my friend,

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even my enemy who doesn't understand me.

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I have to be with him, not in bitterness and animosity,

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but with a heart full of kindness,

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full of benevolence full of meekness, full of fidelity.

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To be with others, to be with my neighbor,

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to rest in him.

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The great part of our life is to be with others.

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How is this being with others consecrated?

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Is it like two stones lying one against the other?

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Or is it like to persons who have not heard of Christ?

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No, we are people who have heard about Christ.

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That Christ was present in a saving manner.

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We have only to look even at the cross,

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he relates himself and fast to his murderers.

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The people who are killing him.

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He walks with them in a saving manner,

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calling God to forgive them.

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He wants to be with them,

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and then let us look into our heart.

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Do we want to be with these thieves?

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Do we want to be with those who are spoiling our cities?

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Do we want to be with those who are bitter,

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and who are killing us, murdering us?

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Cry with Christ, "Father forgive them

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for they cannot do any better."

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Christian mission is difficult to be with others,

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to be with my neighbor in this neighborhood,

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to be with my fellow students,

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sometimes to be with my professors.

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He's also a neighbor.

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And finally my dear friends, this mission,

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this Christian mission to be with God,

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adoring him and thanking him, to be with my neighbor,

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serving him, being in simple fellowship with him,

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appreciating what he does.

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Has to be rooted in being with myself.

43:40

A religious sage is supposed to have said,

43:45

"Religion is what man does with his solitude."

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Most of the time, most of us are left without selves.

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What are you doing with our solitude?

43:58

Is it degenerating into loneliness?

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Is it degenerating into unmeaningful actions?

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Or is there a Christian way of being with myself,

44:09

learning to accept myself.

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Yes, they is.

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All the religions that I have studied.

44:16

Whether Hinduism or Buddhism or Taoism,

44:18

or as an experience, whatever name it.

44:22

All of them, they say that man can discover himself,

44:25

be with himself only in self-control.

44:32

My dear friend, this is a very unpopular word self-control.

44:36

But without this control, which is built out for us

44:41

by St. Paul, by what he calls the fruits of the spirit,

44:44

which we are called to taste.

44:49

The fruit of modesty, controlling our external members.

44:52

In a certain way our culture,

44:58

this culture is beginning to forget that there is

45:00

a fruit of the holy spirit called modesty,

45:04

which we take when we know how

45:08

to control our external members.

45:10

And deeper than that, there is the fruit of continents,

45:13

which people have forgotten about,

45:16

that they don't want to taste.

45:19

Learning to control our passions which God has given us,

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but it is only by controlling

45:25

that we can creatively express them.

45:26

That these passions would become meaningful in our lives.

45:29

Deeper than that, what God has put in our heart,

45:33

our affections, there's something precious.

45:35

We must know how to give out affections,

45:39

how to relate ourselves to others.

45:42

But when you see some of the things that we hear on radio,

45:44

see on the movie screens, or what we see on TV,

45:48

certainly in our heart, it feels subtle.

45:55

It feel compassionate that something

45:59

which is most pure, most precious, and affection.

46:02

Is sometimes taken and reduced to what is merely physical,

46:06

and in the physical to what is corporate,

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and in the corporate, to what is merely sexual,

46:14

and in the sexual to what is merely genital.

46:17

And even beyond where this beautiful

46:19

fruit of the holy spirit, chastity.

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We forget it.

46:25

We fail to taste it.

46:26

These are the fruits that the spirit wants us to taste

46:28

just as we taste mangoes and apples and peaches and oranges.

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Let us also learn to taste these foods,

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and deeper still the fruit of purity in our thoughts.

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St. Francis de Sales said,

46:45

that our thought are like the mad woman upstairs.

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I don't know whether you ever had the experience of having

46:53

a mad person living upstairs,

46:55

but all us have a mad person, living upstairs in our head.

46:58

These thoughts they to have to be controlled,

47:03

have to be used creatively.

47:07

Not every thought that comes to my mind should I utter it?

47:09

Should I make much of. I must learn to select.

47:14

And thus we will enter into this rest in ourselves.

47:17

Our beings will begin to glow with lucidity.

47:21

Jesus said, "If the eye in you is dark,

47:25

then the whole body is dark, the whole universe is dark.

47:28

But if the eye is light,

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if your eye is lucid rooted in a heart of humility

47:34

willing to taste these fruits of modesty,

47:38

of chastity, of continents, of purity.

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My dear friends,

47:45

then we begin to understand what it is to be,

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what it is to be human.

47:50

What it is to be Christian.

47:52

I can go on along this, but I think I have said enough.

47:56

I would conclude with a small story.

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A jataka tale from Buddhism.

48:03

Which might give you some understanding that this resting

48:06

in God, resting in my neighbor, resting in myself.

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It's not such an easy thing.

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To be Christian is a challenge.

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The story goes somewhat like this.

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There was an otter, a jackal, and a monkey

48:23

going about their usual task.

48:29

This evening they happened to go out for a walk

48:34

and the otter walked by the sea beach.

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He found a string of seven fish.

48:40

He held it out and shouted three times.

48:44

"Do these fish belong to anyone?" Nobody answered.

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The otter quietly directed it to its layer.

48:53

Lay down cross-legged very happy

48:56

that he was going to feast on seven fish.

49:00

But before that he must do his meditation.

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He was meditating on the morality of the act.

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The monkey found a basket of seven peaches, delicious.

49:12

He shouted three times, "Does this belong to anyone?"

49:17

Nobody answered. Of course, he didn't shout too loud.

49:21

Less anybody hear.

49:24

And he took it to his little place,

49:28

and he also was deeply in meditation.

49:31

The jackal found a pot of curd,

49:34

which he carried after shouting three times,

49:37

whether it belong to anyone, went to his hole,

49:43

kept it there, and was eagerly awaiting the hour

49:46

when he could eat it.

49:49

And then God, in this story as a poor beggar.

49:53

Sakka the God as a poor beggar came

50:00

and knocked at the otter's door.

50:03

The otter said, "Yes, I found a string of fish.

50:07

I don't know whether it belongs to me.

50:11

I am meditating on the morality of the act.

50:13

Please don't disturb my meditation.

50:16

Go and find food elsewhere."

50:19

Poor Brahmin went to the jackal.

50:23

The jackal said, "I found this pot of curd.

50:26

I don't know whether it is enough for two,

50:30

besides I'm not sure whether it is moral to eat it.

50:33

I am engaged in a deep meditation

50:37

on the ethics of the situation.

50:39

I am reflecting. Don't disturb my reflection.

50:42

Please go and find food elsewhere."

50:45

And as soon as the Brahmin left the threshold,

50:48

the jackal immediately swallowed the whole thing

50:53

till he had belly ache.

50:56

Less somebody else come and knock at the door.

50:58

Then the monkey, the same way said,

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"I have found this. I am not too sure it belongs to me.

51:05

I am a thoughtful religious minded person.

51:08

And I don't know whether I can make you share in my sin,

51:11

but I'm beginning to find out whether I could be absolved

51:15

from the sin of having taken this."

51:17

When the Brahmin was gone with this absolution,

51:20

with the self-preservation, he gobbled the seven peaches.

51:24

And this poor Brahmin went on knocking.

51:30

Finally, he found a little rabbit.

51:33

It was munching the grass, rolling in it,

51:37

delighting, happy with life, happy to be.

51:40

And he told him, "I am hungry.

51:44

Can you give me something to eat."

51:46

The Brahmin said and father.

51:50

The rabbit said, "Why don't you prepare a fire?"

51:53

So the Brahmin prepared a fire with the twigs that were

51:57

around wandering in his heart,

51:59

pondering what he was going to eat.

52:02

And this rabbit, which was happy to be, happy to exist,

52:07

happy to be alive,

52:12

happy to experience nature in all its beauties

52:14

was trying to relate itself to this poor beggar

52:17

that was asking for food.

52:21

And the Brahmin saw this rabbit,

52:23

walking pensively away from the fire, wondering, pondering,

52:25

asking, think of Abraham, going up the mountain.

52:31

I must sacrifice this boy, this son, this only son,

52:35

take him to the mountain.

52:39

Think of all the other, think of Jesus,

52:41

carrying his cross and going to Calgary.

52:43

This little rabbit went

52:48

to a little distance away from the fire.

52:50

It was seen shaking its coat three times

52:53

so that the insects and the flees may not be caught

52:57

in the Holocaust and shaking its coat three times.

52:59

It jumped with all the fervor of its soul

53:04

into the burning embers and became food for the Brahmin.

53:06

I don't say that the Brahmin ate this food.

53:15

She did not need any other food.

53:18

Here was supreme self-sacrifice.

53:21

Here is what is meant to be Christian.

53:24

This is a Buddhist story,

53:26

but you can see there, my dear friends

53:28

how it is verified to be, to be human,

53:30

to be Christian, to be with God, to be with my neighbor,

53:34

to be with myself.

53:39

How this rabbit became food,

53:41

and just now as the choir was singing,

53:42

I was thinking whether the Brahmin would have tried

53:47

to pour water into this fire to salvage this rabbit.

53:50

For love is strong as death.

53:55

Many waters cannot quench love.

53:59

Neither can the floods drown.

54:02

It is this sacrifice that we are called to make.

54:04

We are not asked for long meditation.

54:08

These long preaching that you listen to.

54:10

We are not asked to justify ourselves.

54:13

Paul shouted out our justification comes from God.

54:15

What are we asked to do?

54:20

We are asked to be present,

54:22

to be simply present, to be present to nature,

54:24

to be present to our neighbor,

54:29

to be present to ourselves.

54:31

And to discover the energy to do all of this

54:34

by being present to God,

54:36

by adoring him, by thanking.

54:38

That is why we are here.

54:41

We want to adore him.

54:43

We want to be with him in silence.

54:44

We want to throw ourselves like this rabbit.

54:47

And this world, this third world of time part,

54:49

which is two thirds of the world, my dear friend.

54:54

Is like the poor Brahmin turning at the door and knocking.

54:56

You know well, that 80% of the revenue of the world

55:02

is being consumed by 20% of the Christian nation.

55:07

This is a fact.

55:11

They're other unrespectable facts,

55:13

which we would not like to repeat, but it is a fact.

55:15

There are people shouting, knocking down the doors.

55:18

And we are there we are meditating

55:24

on the morality of the act.

55:28

We are discussing the ethics of the situation.

55:30

We have our development plan, but the Brahmin is perishing.

55:33

Maybe some little rabbit will come to the rescue.

55:38

And in each one of as you are with God,

55:42

as you pray think of this millions who are waiting.

55:46

Why should this revolution be a bloody,

55:51

hateful, loveless revolution.

55:54

Can't it be as Jesus wanted it to be.

55:57

Just as he threw himself into the fire.

55:59

How he relates himself to the thief on the cross.

56:02

Can't we relate ourselves to those in our neighborhoods,

56:07

to those in our classrooms.

56:10

To those on our campus who need us.

56:12

Can they see in our eyes the eyes of the dying rabbit.

56:15

Oh, God, our father.

56:33

We're glad to be, to be here, to be here together.

56:35

Adoring and thanking thee for all that thou has given us.

56:42

What a great mission each one of us has,

56:48

just to be, the mere thrill of existence.

56:51

We are called to affirm life and existence

56:57

in our meaningful relationship to ourselves,

57:00

to others, and to the whole of creation.

57:03

Oh, God, our father.

57:08

you have shown us that beyond the call to be

57:11

there is the deeper call to be human.

57:15

Oh, God, make us hear this call to be human,

57:18

to be sensitive to what is really beautiful.

57:23

What is really good?

57:27

To what is authentically true?

57:29

Not only in ourselves, but in others, in other cultures.

57:31

Oh, God, make us hear this call to be human,

57:38

to be sensitive to man's freedom, to his dignity,

57:43

to his deeper need for love and fellowship.

57:49

Make us sensitive to true humanity,

57:53

which is trodden under foot by our selfish pursuits.

57:56

Finally, oh, God, our father.

58:03

Make us hear the call to be Christian,

58:06

to be Christian is to fall into a mode of federation,

58:10

and thanks giving to God.

58:12

To be Christian is to fall into a mode of fellowship,

58:16

and service to my neighbor.

58:18

Yes, to be, to be human, to be Christian.

58:21

That is missionary presence today.

58:27

And it is quite a vocation.

58:31

This indeed is our mission.

58:34

The calling to be glad,

58:37

and then aroused by the fact that we are in existence.

58:38

To be glad and then aroused

58:43

by the fact that we become more and more sensitive,

58:44

to what is beautiful in nature and art.

58:49

To what is true in science and philosophy.

58:52

What is good in ethics and religions.

58:56

Finally, missionary presence is our capacity to be glad,

59:01

and then aroused by the fact that we are with others

59:07

caring, curing, comforting as the son of man did.

59:12

Especially the fact that we are with the other,

59:20

with you oh, God, adoring you, and thanking you,

59:24

experiencing your presence as manifested in nature,

59:30

in history, in my own life.

59:34

Experiencing your presence as communicated in word and song,

59:38

in sacrament and grace to be, to be human,

59:45

to be Christian, to be free, to be joyful, peaceful,

59:52

grateful, and especially forgiving.

1:00:00

That is the challenge. That is missionary in Christ.

1:00:04

(upbeat organ music)

1:00:15

(choir singing hymn, muffled by organ)

1:00:55

C. A. Joachim Pillai - "Missionary Presence Today" (March 5, 1972)

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1. C. A. Joachim Pillai - "Missionary Presence Today" (March 5, 1972)

Duke University Archives

C. A. Joachim Pillai - "Missionary Presence Today" (March 5, 1972)

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Duke University Archives