God Experience And Prophecy

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Karl Rahner once told that "In the days ahead, you will either be a mystic (one who has experienced God for real) or nothing at all." We are living in a world where the fruitfulness of a faithful disciple will be determined according to his/her encounter with the Divine, a sublime God experience. To be a person of God experience and live our life effectively and fruitfully is a challenge of our time. God experience is the source of inspiration and motivation for all those who have fulfilled a prophetic mission in this world. They experienced divine power in their life and this experience brought total transformation in their life. Priesthood today is not unquestioned. Society forced faithful and priests to look for the core of priestly service. In a secularized society priests are called to find a deeper identity. From this viewpoint, the book written by Br. Stephy Gilbert explains the need of God experience in the lives of the faithful especially in the lives of the priests so that we can become real prophetical mystics in this modern world. It beckons one to what we each one could and should eventually become.

This work proposes that the priests need to anchor their priesthood in their relationship with Christ. They need to experience Christ in their life in order to become Christ for People. Hence, the source of their pastoral life is to be rooted in their relationship with Christ (God-Experience). The three years of public ministry of Jesus was rooted in his relationship with the Father. His filial 'Abba Experience was the source of his entire life; this experience only led him to surrender completely to the will of God and to fulfill His mission.

The first part of the book unveils the God-Experience of the great three other religious leaders and their mission to the humanity which has its root in their divine Experience. Muhammad experience God as loving, caring and transcendent. He shared this Experience c God in his ministry by inviting his men to charity and beneficence. Buddha experienced God as Enlightenment, attaining nirvana, are he shared this experience to his disciples and taught them how attain enlightenment. In the life Vivekananda, experienced God transcendent being, 'ekam sat’ and as merciful, as available to human being, he shared this experience to his disciples through his hum service to them.

All used to be interpreted as converting people to become Christians and join the Church. Today, we have a broader idea of prophetically witnessing to the presence and action of God in us and in the world and encouraging others too to become aware of this presence and to respond to it in their own lives. This may not necessarily be a change of religious affiliation, though this is also possible, but a change of life, wherever they are. Mission is therefore, not passing on to others information about God, but sharing of our God-experience.

We are also aware today that it is God who calls us and sends us. Mission is primarily God's mission who sends his Word and the Spirit to share God's life with the humans and through them. We are but humble servants of the divine process. The Document on Mission of the Second Vatican Council and later documents makes this very clear. But the efficiency of our prophetic service depends on how authentic our own experience of God is. There is, therefore, a close link between our experience of God and our success in mission witness. As a matter of fact, if our experience of God is genuine, our life itself will be an effective prophetic witness. Words and specific missionary actions and projects are not necessary.