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Most religious leaders I've met are diplomats and bureaucrats. It's refreshing to see an exception.
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican spokesman is suggesting that Benedict XVI's willingness to baptize a high-profile convert from Islam may have aimed to affirm the freedom of religious choice, deriving from the dignity of the person.
[ read more... ]
In mid 2007, the Vatican released a document called Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church.
The document described Christian Orthodox churches as true churches, but suffering from a “wound” since they do not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The text also refered to “ecclesial communities originating from the Reformation”, a term used to refer to Protestants and Anglicans, stating that in these denominations the wound is even "more profound”. It states:
Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress ... it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of "Church" could possibly be attributed to them.
Is the Vatican therefore now withdrawing from its endeavours to seek unity with the rest of the Christian world? How should this document and the statements contained therein be construed by those who seek fellowship with the Catholic Church?
Topic:
Blessings Amidst Blunders... Catholic-Protestant Relations
Resident Instructor:
Revd Dr Jojo Fung
Invited Speaker:
Sherman Kuek
Venue:
Sacred Heart Cathedral,
Taman Sri Tebrau,
Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Date/Time:
01 April (Tuesday) @ 8 pm
So it's now post-Easter. We celebrate the triumph of the resurrected Christ, because the passion and the pain are over, right?
WRONG.
Who says the resurrected Christ never got persecuted again after that? He did, again and again. His friends still failed him. People who claimed to love him still abandoned him. And it's still happening.
It is probably untrue that most people in this world - most Christians, even - have strong convictions about their values and beliefs. It is also probably untrue that they have strong convictions about issues of faith and friendship. They just don’t feel so strongly about such things.
So when someone like that fails to stand up for faith or friendship, perhaps the only excuse attributable to that failure to protect the faith or friendship is “He’s just like that. He doesn’t feel strongly about things.” After all, some people just aren’t the sort who’d act on a conviction, or even have a conviction.
But might it not be also true that these very people who’re “just like that” are also the ones who’d quickly dismiss Christ’s demands towards those who claim to be His friends? Inasmuch as I try to imagine Jesus saying, “Don’t mind him, he’s just like that. He doesn’t have very much of a conviction”, I can’t. Because He seems very clear that friendship with Him involves very high stakes, and that one must be willing to suffer - even die - for that friendship. How would one be willing to work out such a friendship without feeling strongly about it?
The Early Church had a name for people like that - “traditors”. These were people who gave up the sacred writings of the Church to be burned by the anti-Christian authorities. They were Christians, and they loved Jesus, but probably never felt very strongly about the wrongs and the rights of life (as long as these wrongs or rights didn’t affect them personally).
Traditors are the ones who’d say “You’ve got to understand the situation. It was really tough. It wouldn’t have been wise to have gone against those authorities. After all, these are just sacred writings of the Church; there’s more where that came from. So why should I lose my life over such a thing?”
Traditors are number one excuse-mongers. They excuse and quickly absolve themselves for compromising faith and friendship. But for them, it doesn’t matter, because they just don’t feel strongly about these things. So long as they don’t have to suffer.
Happy post-Easter.
With Christ...
Raised to life...
Received home...
Where I should have been years ago.
Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed.
It is a dark day. It is a day when some Christian communities have their altars stripped bare. Some others cover the altars with dark cloth. (Of course, some other Christian communities simply do nothing and just enjoy a good day off, but that's besides the point.)
There's nothing very good about Good Friday, if we come to think about it. It's a day of darkness, mourning, and grief... and extreme guilt. Liturgies that are well-done properly place us in the position of those who betrayed Jesus, abandoned Him, and even demanded his assassination. It stings. It hurts.
But also, as I commemorate this day, one sentence that shines through this darkness and which keeps reverberating in my heart throughout the day is this:
SEE, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW.
Holy Week sounds deeply spiritual, doesn’t it? It sounds like a week characterised by tranquility, reflection, depth, ascetism and piety. For many religious Christians throughout the world, perhaps; but it wasn’t so for Jesus.
The Passion of Jesus was really the culmination of a season of crisis. It wasn’t merely a trivial crisis that he went through. It was a life crisis that put him and his friends to the test. Two of the main things that were tested throughout this crisis were friendship and loyalty.
Crisis truly has a way of testing us and bringing to light the deepest motivations of our hearts. The deepest forms of selfishness emerge in the face of a crisis. The strongest anger lashes out in the face of a crisis. The most lethal vengeance is executed in the face of a crisis. Crisis mercilessly leaves us with no way to hide the secrets of our hearts. If on a normal day we are able to camouflage ourselves with props which exhibit deep devotion towards God, loyalty towards friends, and selflessness towards humanity, the true state of our hearts comes to light when crisis hits.
And so it was with those people who called themselves friends of Jesus.
When crisis befell them, very quickly, betrayal and abandonment took over. They started scattering themselves away from him and denying that they ever knew him. Understandably, they needed to survive in a world where reputation and security mattered. And perhaps, if this Messiah wasn’t strong enough to come up against the diabolical powers ruling the land, if he was going to suffer a disgraceful fate, then they would be justified for moving on with life and acknowledging that they had placed their bets on the wrong horse.
So, yes… after the deeply moving episode of the washing of feet, the vows to remain faithful to him even unto death, and the partaking of his body and his blood, they conveniently failed him and themselves when a crisis hit soon after. So much for all the claims to friendship and undivided loyalty.
Holy Week is a week of crisis. It challenges us to confront ourselves with the deepest motivations of our hearts. If all throughout the year, we’ve been professing religious claims of loyalty, piety, service and sacrifice, Holy Week confronts us with what we are actually capable of doing to God, to one another, and to ourselves when a crisis hits.
May we not be too quick to submerge ourselves into the resurrection joy of Easter. Before any of us actually thinks we’re already Christian enough in God’s eyes, let the reality of the Holy Week confront us and linger a little longer - so that we may see the true state of our hearts.
And if there, we see and acknowledge the capacity for bitterness, for abandonment, for betrayal, and for self-motivation that lies within us, this may just be a definitive moment of conversion for some of us.
To friendship...
For some, the the study of the Church Fathers is simply a dispassionate field of study which they call the Patristics. It's a science, a method upon which much historical criticism must be applied. It's a fascinating field of study, but nothing more. Even if something was to be got from the study of the Church Fathers, it is to be done with utmost selectivity.
For some others, the Church Fathers are not even worth paying attention to. In fact, the Christian era prior to the sixteenth century constituted religious corruption at its apex. Nothing is worth remembering about it. Everything prior to the sixteenth century constituted abominable corruption, abhorring abuse, crusading zealousness and everything else other than true Christianity. The age of the Church Fathers was just not as enlightened as it should have been... until the sixteenth century came.
This is where I beg to differ and have chosen an entirely different direction. I believe that no Christian can study theology with adequate honesty whilst choosing to study Scriptures and yet disregarding the Church Fathers as people who were the earliest passers down of paradosis (tradition). It is unfortunate that they should have been regarded as those who were merely trying to figure out what the Christian faith was all about and were gravely mistaken about much of the faith (unlike us, who know better).
I believe we are the ones who are lost in our search upon conceding to the folly of truncating Christian theology into something that begins in purity only from the sixteenth century. In thinking that searching the Scriptures for ourselves would help us derive infallible interpretations for our readings, we have discarded the readings of the Fathers of the Church who lived learning to interpret Scriptures the way Jesus had taught the Apostles.
No theologian who has studied the Church Fathers with utter seriousness can disregard that the Christian way of life for many today is much, much less than what it should be. People have come to assimilate into their life systems the bits and pieces of the Christian way of life that fascinate them, whilst disregarding the others. And their interpretations of the Scriptures do not rebuke or correct them anymore because the Church Fathers have been silenced; so hermeneutics in all shapes, sizes, and theological inclinations is free for the taking.
Without paying due regard to the Church Fathers, there cannot be a concrete embodiment of tradition. And without a concrete embodiment of tradition, they cannot point to anything except some concepts and texts whose interpretation is anybody's guess. But they'd just go ahead and think that their right to private interpretation is infallible anyway.
A faith claiming to have infallible Scriptures but not possessing infallible interpretations for those infallible Scriptures: that's the faith by which many live today. To each his own.
I was born in the 1970s. That was really quite long ago. And one would've thought that I'd be a fan of songs written in the 1980s or the 1990s - retro. But that's hardly so.
I'm a fan of the 1970s.. but that's another story all together. Just wanted to highlight this piece of CD I've been savouring. If you love purity - just plain wood and steel, minus all the distortions and the bing-bang-boom of contemporary music - James Taylor's One Man Band is something you don't want to miss.
And if you've always loved James Taylor's fingerpicking, his voice and his songs, then this is definitely one piece of art you don't want to wait for another few days to get.
The Church puts both palms and thorns together this Sunday, in commemoration of both Christ's triumphal entry on a donkey into Jerusalem and the suffering He had to endure a week later. It is both a Sunday of the Palm and a Sunday of the Passion.
It is one of those occasions in the Church when life makes less sense than it should. Many years ago, in the old liturgy of the Church, the Gospel reading on the Passion Sunday was greeted with profound silence. There would be no homily following the reading. In fact, even the acclamation after the reading ("The Gospel of the Lord") was omitted.
Because it is difficult to justify how life comes through death, deliverance through suffering, triumph through tragedy. Perhaps this paradox is best proclaimed through imagery than through eloquent speech.
So let us just place the palms and the thorns together, and in silence, contemplate the paschal mystery into which we are called.
Here's a confession I've just made to a friend who claims himself to be anti-conflict:
I tend to be anti people who're anti-conflict. My relationship with anti-conflict people tend to eventually go sour.
When asked why, this was my reply:
Because I see them as people who're self-absorbed, who're more concerned for personal stability than for the common good.
Something worth recording down for more personal reflection.
By the way, the opposite of being anti-conflict isn't being pro-conflict. It's simply being open to conflict when necessary and not avoiding it at all cost. But of course, for the anti-conflict people, all conflict is never necessary.
Jesus betrayed his disciples.
We often spend much of our time reflecting on how his disciples betrayed and abandoned him, and how someone like Peter made lofty promises which he failed to keep. But the truth is, just as they had betrayed Jesus, perhaps they too felt that Jesus had betrayed them.
If we really think about it, perhaps he really did. He betrayed them by failing to have met the expectations they had of him. They were simple people who had trusted him with their lives. They had entrusted their futures into his hands. And for all that they had given up just to be his companions in the final part of his earthly journey, they had a right to have expected better things from him.
But he failed to deliver. He had to get crucified, suffer humiliation unto death, and consequently abandoned those who had been faithful to him.
Don't be too quick to judge the disciples. Imagine how painfully lost they must have felt throughout that brief season following Jesus' death and burial. Try to internalise how abandoned and cheated - how foolish - they must have felt.
Part of the paschal mystery is that for as long as we are called to live in community and have expectations on relationships we build in community, we are bound to fail and betray one another. So yes, just as his disciples had betrayed him, Jesus had betrayed them too.
This thought must be disturbing for some of us who have a perfect image of Jesus. I know. It disturbs me too. But it also challenges me to think through again how I have spent much of my life trying to avoid betrayals. Maybe it's just a necessary part of the paschal mystery that needs to be realised in community.
Perhaps the paschal mystery is such that only in betrayal and abandonment can we find the resurrected Christ awaiting in the light of the dawn.
The following is a brief analysis from Fr Jojo M. Fung, SJ:
The political tsunami has hit and hit hard, with Kedah, Kelantan, Perak, Selangor and Penang delivered to the oppositions by Malaysians who believe in a multiparty democracy where there is check and balance, leaving the incumbents defeated and dazed. All deserved what they sowed or not sowed. Malaysians have come of age in being more political astute and critical. The struggle for a pro-people democracy is worth it, and the struggle for greater democratic space and a violent-free society for ALL who live in Malaysia, migrants, refugees and citizens must continue in the next four years.
May all who love this nation be inspired by the words of the Asian Bishops: Instrumentum Laboris, no. 51 (Working Document before the 1999 Special Synod of Asia Bishops in Rome). The Asian bishops exhort:
The Church’s contribution to human promotion includes vocally denouncing injustices, supporting victims in their just causes, caring for the marginalized and suffering, joining together with all persons of good will who seek to build a more just and humane society, engaging in the analysis of the given situation in order to arrive at the root causes of poverty and injustice, and faith reflection on pastoral action...
In Asian countries, the Church has been active in pro-democracy movements aimed at establishing participatory democracies and humane government, in monitoring elections, in working for legislation against graft and corruption, in efforts at reconciliation after communal clashes, and in establishing peace in regions torn by civil war.
While the Church in Asia strives to oppose forces which threaten the unity and well-being of the individual, she also works to encourage people to form a better society.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's ruling coalition on Saturday suffered its biggest electoral upset ever, losing control of four state governments and failing to win the crucial two-thirds majority in parliament.
It is Barisan Nasional (BN)'s worst performance in a general election since independence in 1957.
Click here to read more.
Anil Netto prays:
Almighty God/Allah, thank you for an amazing night. You are a God of Justice, Truth and Compassion. You love especially the poor, the meek, the marginalised and the overburdened. You want your people to be ruled with Justice and Peace. Thank you for taking us a major step further in this direction. Thank you for making all of us more aware of the importance of the struggle for Justice and Truth. Let your Justice flow like a mighty river in our land. Thank you, Lord. Amen/Amin.
Likewise, as a Christian, I can say "Amen" to that prayer.
Here's something of crucial consideration for the upcoming elections.
The Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) has released three Policy Factsheets with relevant statistics and facts pertaining to various vital issues in aid of the rakyat's decision-making endeavour for the coming elections.
If you're a registered voter and desire to exercise a responsible say as to whom should be governing your nation, please have a look at the documents found here.
Major shifts will be taking place in my life in the weeks and months to come.
It's not that life hasn't already been utterly dynamic for me or that there haven't been any sort of drastic changes taking place before. It's just that this time I'm not talking normal major. I'm talking major major.
In the face of changes, what should one do? Change presents the impending danger of being sucked into the torrent of dynamism and being overwhelmed by the possibilities it presents.
To avoid that, sustained and extended contemplation is required.
I'll be spending the next few days within the confines of a monastery, away from the familiar kind of civilisation that can be quite abusive to the soul. For contemplation, absolute silence, and solitude.
Since I will be living the eremetic life for a while, all lines will be down. I cannot be contacted.
