Schooled by Rumours: Therapeutic Insights from Biblical Stories

By Thomas Ramadhani SJ

Rumours are perhaps as old as humanity itself, because human brain is hardwired for storytelling. With modern allegiance to speed and advance in social media, the need for objective truth is decomposing. Everyone today is at the mercy of taps and clicks on the gadgets. Public shaming and cyber bullying have even led to suicides.

Amid devastating rumours, Father Ramadhani turned to the Bible for solace. The result is these fourteen stories of how God and God’s people deal with rumours. Half is taken from the Old Testament, with the struggles of the Israelites, Moses, Hannah, Naaman, Jonah, Job, Tobit, and Sarah. The other half is from the New Testament, with the experiences of Paul, Zacchaeus, the soldiers, the sinful woman, the prodigal son, the disciples, John the Baptist, and Jesus.

This final sequel in his ‘Trilogy of Redemption’ is a message of hope for those who have become helpless victims of rumours. It is also an invitation to conversion for those who are addicted to spreading rumours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Feb 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543756807

Thomas Ramadhani SJ

THOMAS RAMADHANI, SJ holds a Doctorate from Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, Berkeley, and a Licentiate from Biblical Institute, Rome. He is the author of Sewing God: Inner Paths in the Fashion World, The Talking Puzzles: Conversations with Images, and God’s Seduction Plan: A Homecoming Journey with Hosea.

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Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Ramadhani, SJ.

Library of Congress Control Number:    2020903549

ISBN:                  Hardcover                        978-1-5437-5682-1

                            Softcover                          978-1-5437-5681-4

                            eBook                                978-1-5437-5680-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

For Domus Cordis

With love and gratitude

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1.     That Inconsistent God Has Failed

2.     This New Preacher Was A Bloody Murderer

3.     That Beautiful Land Devours Its Own People

4.     His Body Has Been Stolen From The Tomb

5.     God Has Cursed Her By Closing Her Womb

6.     This Prophet Is Polluted By A Sinful Woman

7.     There Is A Prophet In Israel Who Can Heal

8.     This Young Master Hangs Out With Sinners

9.     This Prophet Preaches A False And Weak God

10.   He Has Been Fooling Around With Prostitutes

11.   This Pious Man Has Some Hidden Sins

12.   This Miracle Worker Is The One

13.   She Has Killed All Her Previous Husbands

14.   This Man Will Lead Us To A Great Revolt

Conclusion

Acknowledgement

PREFACE

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In the shadow of death may we not look back to the

past, but seek in utter darkness the dawn of God.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I had never dreamed that one day, my life would be shaken and my world shattered by rumours. As I was learning to admit all my mistakes and to let go of all my self-defences, all sorts of rumours were spreading like wildfire. I was tempted to make a list of all the rumours that had come to my attention, but it was too much. Just the thought of it was already too painful. I felt cornered, helpless, and abandoned.

One day in, one day out, more rumours about me were circulated. People became suspicious about each other, caught in the guessing and the blaming games. Many were confused by all kinds of story about me. Some responded to what they believed as a ‘sacred call’ to help spread any version of story they had heard without knowing the real story in full. With the aggressiveness and fierceness of modern social media, roaming like wild beasts in the air, I was under the mercy of simple clicks and taps on the gadgets in people’s hands. It was like seeing smokes going in all directions, blown without mercy by the wind, offering an open stage free for all to make all kinds of possible analysis about the unseen or even non-existent fire.

I went through depressing days of tears, mourning all my losses, many times even with passive suicidal thoughts. Whenever I tried to close my eyes, I saw the faces of those people whose heart had been torn apart by all kinds of news about me. I knew that I was on the edge of a slippery cliff, and for me to survive, I needed to find meaning and to continue to hope for God’s mercy and healing for all.

As I was wrestling with all this, without knowing what God had in store for me, I was drawn to the place where I could still feel most at home: the Bible. Trusting those inner stirrings, I began to jot down stories or incidents in the Bible that might have different aspects of rumours.

I was writing like crazy, knowing that it was the only way to protect myself from becoming crazy. Parallel to this, I was also drawn to write a spiritual monograph based on the book of Hosea, the result of which is my previous book, God’s Seduction Plan: A Homecoming Journey with Hosea.

Almost everything that can be found in the book you are holding now was written during those heightened tensions in the gloomy January of 2013, in my search for meaning, along with incessant prayers for God’s grace that would heal the wounds in me and in many people’s hearts. My room on the fifth floor at the Jesuit Community at East Asian Pastoral Institute, Quezon City, Metro Manila, was the silent witness of that lost soul grappling for a strong foothold.

Walking this long and slow journey, I have learned that getting trapped in rumours is part of being human. The reason is simple: we humans are hardwired to love stories. I am no exception. I love stories, and for that matter, like it or not, I tend to love rumours too. Nevertheless, being the object of attention of so many people at the same time through various shapes of rumours was an ugly story from a different league.

I hope that you can feel on these pages my search for meaning amid devastating rumours, as I was trying to protect the flickering flame of hope for restoration, reconciliation, and rehabilitation. The pages that follow is an evidence of God’s grace, echoing a conscious choice I made. I decided not to let the dark power of rumours kill my spirit. I wanted to find meaning not only for me but also for anyone in a similar situation. I did not want to make it just another random story of someone in a shadowed corner on this planet. I wanted to see it as God’s story. With God’s grace through all the imaginable lonely pains, I have seen that behind the stories offered here, there is a big story of how the dark power of rumours has been transformed into a channel for a new source of light.

Now, walk with me to listen to the hidden lessons in these biblical stories, the stories about humanity and God, the stories of all and each one of us, the stories that were therapeutic to keep me sane amid all the convincing reasons to become insane. Have your Bible handy. As I have experienced, I invite you to let yourself be ‘schooled’ by these rumours. Let yourself be marvelled by the divine acts in these rumours, which can penetrate through your belief based on what you have heard. Let yourself question your own hearing and speaking. May the result of my many lonely hours, days, weeks, months, and years bring you deeper to the Bible, to that Eternal Word from God, whose love never fails despite our continuous failures.

Thomas Aquino Deshi Ramadhani, SJ

Quezon City 2013, Toronto 2014, Jakarta 2015–2019

INTRODUCTION

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The spoken word is like the spent arrow; it cannot be recalled

in its flight but its responsibilities endure forever.

—Fulton J. Sheen¹

Many years ago, I read The Gift of Peace by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.² It was such a moving account from a man with that high position as the archbishop of Chicago, three years prior to his passing. Among many things, he recounted those painful days and weeks following a false accusation of sexual misconduct. I was impressed by how he had managed to go through those difficult times. Reading that book, I somehow hoped that I would never have to go through similar experience, since I would not have the stamina to endure like he did.

As I am typing this, I realize that I was wrong. I was wrong because I have been going through similar experience. The difference, however, is more than obvious. He was not guilty and the accusation was false, while I have had my own share of mistakes that have added fuel to the rumours. I was also wrong, because painful as it was, for reasons I still cannot understand besides God’s grace, I still have the stamina to endure this.

Hold Your Tongue

I believe that broadly speaking, rumours can be divided into two basic categories. First, rumour that has some element of truth at its inception but, in the process, develops into all sorts of stories that are just at the opposite pole from the initial truth. Just take the ‘He hangs out with sinners’ rumour about Jesus. Yes, there was a lot of truth. Jesus did hang out with sinners. In the process of an ever longer chain of storytelling, however, the rumour became ‘He is a sinner’.

Second, rumour that is false from the very beginning. All those wise pieces of advice regarding ‘holding one’s tongue’ serve as constant reminders about this. The commandment ‘You shall not give false witness’ underlines further the seriousness to avoid this trap. From the historical point of view, one of the well-known rumours says that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Indeed, this rumour has become cause célèbre that has rendered her a kind of celebrity of all time, even almost as famous as Jesus himself.

Before we embark on the stories of rumours in the Bible, some preliminary observations will help us to set up the stage. We need to see a little bit more about how ‘speaking’ and ‘hearing’ play a significant role in the Bible.

Let us start with Psalm 15. After a short ‘title’ that indicates the psalm as ‘a psalm of David’, it opens with a direct question to the Lord, ‘Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?’ (Ps. 15:1b).³ The answer that follows is presented in some sort of a teaching:

Whoever walks without blame,

doing what is right,

speaking truth from the heart;

Who does not slander with his tongue,

does no harm to a friend,

never defames a neighbor;

Who disdains the wicked,

but honors those who fear the Lord;

Who keeps an oath despite the cost,

lends no money at interest,

accepts no bribe against the innocent.

Whoever acts like this

shall never be shaken. (Ps. 15:2–5)

In these verses, scholars have found an evidence of a Decalogue-like list that in ancient Israel must have been developed for practical purposes. Since the question that opens this psalm has something to do with being at the house of the Lord, scholars have suggested that this psalm was part of an ancient ritual of purification before a religious activity at the Jerusalem Temple. One may say that it was used as ‘a liturgical scrutiny’ that had to take place somewhere at the entrance to the temple court. It was a helpful list for the worshippers to do some sort of examen of conscience (or better, examen of consciousness).

The list, however, can also be understood as the insight that the psalmist has received from the Lord. If this was the case, we may read the list as the fruit of his (or her?) private prayer or meditation.

Some scholars have attempted to reconstruct an actual act of purification ritual in which a worshipper asked a temple official (probably a Levite) to help him or her check whether he or she was appropriate to enter. If this was the case, the list may be read as the response given orally by that religious official who offered some guidance to the worshipper.

For our purpose, the precise reconstruction of liturgical setting at the temple does not really matter. What matters here is that we have an evidence of a specific ‘list of conducts’ that were considered crucial in one’s life. We may put the contents from the psalm onto this list of ‘ten commandments’:

1. Walk without blame.

2. Do what is right.

3. Speak truth from the heart.

4. Do not slander with your tongue.

5. Do no harm to a friend.

6. Never defame a neighbour.

7. Disdain the wicked and honour those who fear the Lord.

8. Keep an oath despite the cost.

9. Lend no money at interest.

10. Accept no bribe against the innocent.

It is obvious in this kind of list that one’s responsibility towards his or her neighbours was very important. At a closer look, it seems that special attention was given to anything related to his or her ‘speaking’ ability. So we see here ‘speaking the truth’ (no. 3), ‘slandering’ (no. 4), ‘defaming’ (no. 6), and ‘keeping an oath’ (no. 8). Furthermore, one could also do harm or do something evil to a friend by what he or she said (no. 5). We have a good reason to understand that these five commands related to one’s ‘speaking’ ability were in fact further explanations of the first two commands, which were too general (‘walk without blame’ and ‘do what is right’). In any case, we can see that paying attention to what one said was a big thing.

Something similar can be found in the book of Isaiah. Those in Zion who were living in sin were shocked, asking, ‘Who of us can live with consuming fire? Who of us can live with everlasting flames?’ (Isa. 33:14b). The answer is this:

Whoever walks righteously and speaks honestly,

who spurns what is gained by oppression,

who waves off contact with a bribe,

who stops his ears so as not to hear of bloodshed,

who closes his eyes so as not to look on evil. (Isa.

33:15)

We have enough reason to understand here that when one had to mention only some basic things, ‘speaking honestly’ would be on the top priority. Furthermore, it is paired with a general observation about ‘walking righteously’. Hence, the first big thing that came to mind when someone began to examine his or her life was that question whether he or she ‘had spoken honestly’.

The importance of ‘holding one’s tongue’ is sprinkled amid the vast array of wisdom sayings in the book of Proverbs. In the twelfth chapter alone, for example, we read the following:

The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush,

but the speech of the upright saves them. (Prov. 12:6)

By the sin of their lips the wicked are ensnared,

but the just escape from a tight spot.

From the fruit of their mouths people have their fill of good,

and the works of their hands come back upon

them. (Prov. 12:13–14)

Whoever speaks honestly testifies truly,

but the deceitful make lying witnesses.

The babble of some people is like sword thrusts,

but the tongue of the wise is healing.

Truthful lips endure forever,

the lying tongue, for only a moment.

Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil,

but those who counsel peace have joy. (Prov.

12:17–20)

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,

but those who are truthful, his delight. (Prov.

12:22)

Based on this and many other evidences, scholars have asserted that ‘holding one’s tongue’ is one of the major themes in the wisdom teaching in the book of Proverbs. Even more, ‘holding one’s tongue’ was considered as something so important that could define social structure and basic interrelationship among the ancient Israelites. Failure to hold the tongue, either intentionally or unintentionally, would disrupt the stability in society, and its impact could be long lasting.

False Report

With this awareness of the importance of ‘holding one’s tongue’, and for the sake of protecting those who were weaker in society, Exodus 20:16 asserts a general prohibition: ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.’ An extended application of this prohibition is this:

You shall not repeat a false report. Do not join your hand with the wicked to be a witness supporting violence. You shall not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When testifying in a lawsuit, you shall not follow the crowd in perverting justice. You shall not favor the poor in a lawsuit. (Exod. 23:1–3)

The idealism was obvious. One should never take sides in a context of a lawsuit. In the courtroom, taking sides was itself a crime. One had to be right at the centre of a balance. In case they missed it, the law added that one should never take sides even in favour of the poor.

In the context of perverting justice by making a false report, we can recall here for a moment the story of Joseph. He was seduced by the wife of Potiphar, his Egyptian master. Being a man of integrity, Joseph refused the seduction, left his cloak behind, and ran away. Driven by anger, that seductive wife called the guards and told them,

Look! My husband has brought us a Hebrew man to mock us! He came in here to lie with me, but I cried out loudly. When he heard me scream, he left his cloak beside me and escaped and ran outside. (Gen. 39:14–15)

That was not the end yet. She repeated the same made-up story in her report to her husband:

The Hebrew slave whom you brought us came to me to amuse himself at my expense. But when I screamed, he left his cloak beside me and escaped outside. (Gen. 39:17–18)

Notice how she was able to put different wordings in her false reports. Instead of speaking again in a neutral way about the ‘Hebrew man’, she spoke with contemptuous tone about the ‘Hebrew slave’. She even described in a dramatic way that this Hebrew slave had come to her to amuse himself at her expense. Wow! Imagine if she had been given another chance to make a report about the incidence. It will not be surprising that she would have become even more dramatic.

You know the rest of the story. Joseph was imprisoned without being given a chance to defend himself. False report was accepted as the only truth. No crosscheck was deemed necessary. After all, Joseph was powerless before his master. In prison, however, Joseph gained a certain level of fame as a dream interpreter. He waited and waited without any due process, until one day, things began to change. He interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, and he climbed up the ladder to become the second person after Pharaoh himself. It was a real story of ‘going from rags to riches’.

It remains intriguing, however, that until the end of the book of Genesis, there is no evidence that there was an official statement clearing Joseph’s name from the false report and accusation of Potiphar’s wife. The