Rediscovering Human by Overcoming Forces of Marketization

Re-Reading Luke 15: 11- 32

‘The ascent of money and the descent of the human’ has been the theme chosen for the annual special issue of ‘Peoples Reporter.’ Indeed there has been an ascendency of capital or market or money and is well captured in a Telugu saying, “Dabbu lekhapothe chhachhinodutho samanam” (A person without money is a dead person). Today unfortunately it is money that determines life, and demonstrates the value of living in our contexts. With a cloud of market surrounding us, life and humanity is devalued and dehumanized. The system of marketization breeds inequality, and widens the gap between the rich and the poor. In this process, human is lost, shattered, broken, blurred, even erased and forgotten in the whole gamut of this systemic and structural violence.

The parable of two sons in Luke 15 is a parable where the younger son becomes a victim of the forces of marketization, for he demands his father to divide his ancestral estate making his spending levels to scale on a high. Consumerism has taken him captive, for he had to spend all that he had, for it was ‘easy money’, his father’s inherited money that he was forced to spend. When the markets crashed, and when economy was in a bad state with austerity and famine, he realizes and rediscovers his humanity which he enjoyed in his father’s house, for he recognizes that he has been captured by the forces of capitalism and money and repents of his consumerist attitudes. Marketization promotes inequality, individualism and complacency, and here is this parable which is read against these forces in trying to rediscover humanity, for the younger son ‘came back to his senses’ (17v), recognizing the worth of life and living. Forces of market has taken the young son captive and made him to lose his human senses. Human is rediscovered by promoting equality, communality and by overcoming complacency.

1.      Equal Bread Builds Equal Society

Occupational discrimination has been still a rampant phenomenon in India, and particularly in the name of caste and gender there has been unequal distribution of wages. Unequal treatment of workers at work, some occupations are being looked down and have been attached to caste-based works and work force has been divided and ruled by the oppressive ruling class in our society. Market and corporations thrive only on profits and are not interested in the lives of people.

The Parable of the Prodigal and his brother, when re-read in out times of hunger and food security, it is surrounded around food politics. The younger son in a distant land, when he was dying of hunger thinks of his father’s house, his memory cannot but think of the plentitude of food the workers enjoyed there (17v). The house of his father was an inclusive community where there was equal food for all at that house. No matter what the identity of a person is, what the work of a person is, if they are at father’s house, whether hired ones, temporary workers, permanent workers, day labourers, his own sons and even himself, all had the privilege of enjoying food, which was served equally and justly. Probably whatever the father and his son ate, so was it for those hired hands in that house. All sufficient food was available for all those working at father’s house. No discrimination, no exclusion, no barriers, no boundaries, no gaps and no individualism, the bread was enough and was even to spare for all those working at that house.

This parable calls us to fight against occupational discrimination in our society today. There should not be any discrimination at work. Like the father’s house in the parable our Churches and homes should be examples where equality and sufficiency is maintained to all at work. When there is equality at work, there is peace and productivity at work. Give us today our daily bread is meaningful, when there is equal bread and sufficient bread to all at work, transcending all barriers. Equal bread builds equal society and human is rediscovered in it.

2.       Feasting Together Builds Inclusive Community

Bishop VS Azariah, in 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in one of his speeches he said that ‘missionaries have always prayed for granting us thrones in heaven but have never given their chairs in their rooms to sit for us.’ This has been so, for most of the Christian mission engagements elsewhere, which is even practiced today. Most of us when people come in hunger, forget to address their hunger and have either prayed for those who are in hunger to be fed, or made hunger as the vulnerable situation for us to evangelize and show mercy and charity, and least of all have forgotten to feed them when they are hungry. By doing so, a hierarchical society is further made, with donor and receiver.

But the father in this parable, on seeing his son coming from a distant country in hunger, first of all addressed his hunger by ordering a grand feast of non-vegetarian dinner (23v). This beef-festival is of great significance in the light of today’s anti-beef campaigns. Even though the son has asked for forgiveness, and expressed his unworthiness to be called as his son, long before he forgave him, he addressed the hunger of his son. By ordering a feast, father builds an inclusive community with the others over there. The father did not order to give his hungry son some leftover food, nor did he give some snacks that were available instantly, nor took him to a restaurant for an individual private dinner. But the father organized a feast, where his hungry son was fed as well as the others in the community were also fed. I assume that every time a hungry person comes to this father, there would have been a feast for the whole of the community. By doing so, probably father was building an inclusive community, where the ethic was if one is hungry in the community, everyone needs to feel for them and when one is fed, and everyone in the community is fed.

Therefore let our Churches and houses become the places where hunger is addressed not by mere prayers, nor by charity but by inclusivity and justice. Let us as individuals feel hungry, when one in our community is hungry, and let us make feasting for when the hungry are fed along with them. Inter-dining has been one of the key efforts Dr. B.R. Ambedkar proposed in overcoming caste discrimination, and it is high time that we organize food festivals inviting people of all ethnicities and tribes to join in, for by this forces of dehumanization are defeated and human is rediscovered.

 3.      Complacency A Threat to Inclusive Community

Complacency has been one of the manifestations of self-righteousness of our times, and has been a dire reality of Christian living. The ethos of globalisation has always taught us to be self-content, self-satisfied and made us more individualistic and selfish, no matter what happens to the others in our own community.

In this parable, the younger son is projected as dying in hunger, the father as giving life out of hunger, and the elder son as depressed in anger. When the elder son saw and heard that there has been a feast at his home, he was depressed in anger for out of his complacent character, he replies his father in anger that he never has given even a young goat to celebrate with his friends (29v). What was more pressing for this elder son was, when the property was divided equally between the two sons, the property where his father was, legally speaking the elder ones portion. Therefore, when his father on the return of his younger one threw a feast, it was from the elder’s portion that he cooked some beef for the community. And probably that did not taste good to the elder one, for the father shared from his portion. Complacency makes us not to share, and therefore frustration is shown. Complacency also made the elder one to further point down the allegations of the younger one, that he being hungry was his own making. Complacency breeds greed, and makes an individual excluded from the community living. Complacency made him to grumble that the father never gave a goat to be cooked for him and his friends.

In today’s context, it is high time that we Christians need to give up complacency in our lives. Our attitudes need to change, for sharing and caring are all part of community and inclusive living. Let us give up our complacent nature, let our churches give up complacent nature and even let our missions give up exclusive and complacent attitudes. For today, complacency is the great threat of inclusivity. Complacency is the new aristocracy, a characteristic promoted by forces of market, which is a threat to inclusivity and thereby to humanity. Resisting, overcoming and defeating complacency helps us to rediscover human in the context of growing ascendency of money.

Raj Bharath Patta,