Fr. Mardini on the Cross

Yes. Fr. Paul Mardini was at Jesus the King Melkite Catholic Church in Toronto today.The popular spiritual master, whose talks are published on Lebanon's Télélumière, gave a homily on the cross at the noon Mass.
Fr. Mardini spoke first about the preaching of the Church. He gave the example of the Apostle Philip as reported in the Acts of the Apostles: [So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless some one guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him..... And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?" Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. .] (Acts 8: 30-35).  It is indeed the mission of the Church to speak the "Word of God". A great example that comes to mind is St. Thérèse of Lisieux proclaimed patron of missions although she never left her convent in her short life.

The Cross: Fr. Mardini reminds his audience by Jesus words that once he is on the cross offering himself as a sacrifice for humanity, he will draw all to him. His blood purifies the earth that drank Abel's blood and sanctifies those who respond to his call...["And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”] (John 12: 32). However, Mardini said, he knows of the wife that complains "My husband is my cross"; the children that complain "Our parents are our cross"; or the father who interrogates his daughter and calls her "his cross". But the cross for Christians is the instrument that the Lord used to crush death and darkness. Jesus brought the resurrection and joy by his death.What kind of joy? Scripture gives the key "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." (John 13:1). "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13).

The example he gives is the love of every mother for her children. The shining example is the Blessed Virgin Mary whom Jesus blessed  [...a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"]. Yes. Mary heard the word of God. She delivered the Word of God to the world. We, therefore, proclaim with Elizabeth "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." (Luke 1: 42-45).

Having learned the joy of the resurrection of Christ, we too should carry our crosses with joy until we meet our beloved Lord in the everlasting life that he prepared for us. [And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."] (Revelation 21: 5)

Let us close with this wonderful hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9eCUqz_x5A

No Loss No Gain

[Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.] (Luke 9: 28-36).
In the Sunday Mass of February 21 at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Professor Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB gave a scholarly homily as he delved in the depth of oral tradition of the Church. Luke was not there with Christ when Christ was transfigured and his clothing became dazzling white. Peter was. After the Resurrection of Christ, Peter and the other Apostles understood the meaning from the Master. Peter told it to Mark who accompanied him as a faithful  disciple. The story f the Transfiguration is found in Mark too (Mark 9: 1-8). Luke depended on Mark but Luke was more detailed since he was a physician and knew the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. When Peter was martyred in Rome, and the rest of the Apostles were also martyred or died, the early Church asked the remaining disciples to write down the Gospel. The literature of the Gospels retells the past events. Much of the wonders of Christ were not written (see John 21: 25). The oral tradition was also defended as early as the turn of the 2nd century by Papias who maintained that it gives direct testimony to Christ and his teachings to the Apostles. It is in history of the ancients that we find Homer's Iliad memorized by his students for many generations. For thousands of years societies related their stories of the past to their existential state mainly through oral tradition. Oral tradition was the reliable source of stories and copying of manuscripts until the invention of the printer by Gutenberg in the 15th century. Today's technology is replacing memory with machine. Students do not need to memorize what they learn because the computer network offers ready answers. It is never gain only but for every material gain there is a loss in human direct relationship. 
Notes: with the fast pace at which computer systems are published, the human brain cannot keep catching up (Cf. Dr. Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California). The Internet has been used to advance marketing and selling of products throughout the Globe and in obtaining Big Data (unstructured and structured) from millions of users to customize the web pages for each potential buyer. Google alone has made fortunes from sponsored ads on a number of its free offerings such as YouTube while Google engineers develop better search engines using artificial intelligence. Research on quantum computers is on going at Google in collaboration with NASA for possibly releasing the first quantum computer this year. The race to manufacture the first quantum computer is joined by giants such as IBM and Microsoft Corporations that spend much money on mega projects. See Professor Leo Kouwenhoven at Delft University in Amsterdam explain the concepts in quantum computers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUuaWVHhx-U. This was a talk in November 2015.
Not only is rivalry becoming global but also the globalization of everything raises concerns in the moral realm - If NASA is involved in Big Data, quantum computers and artificial intelligence, it could signal the use of such technology in space and future space wars. If advanced technology falls in the wrong hands, terrorism could become widespread too. Professor Fr. Daniel Callam, CSB explained it: For every material gain there is a loss in human relationship. 

Let us turn to an inspiring lecture on the transfiguration of Christ:
The Gospel reading recalls to mind not only the transfiguration of Christ but also two great persons who appeared with him on the mountain: Moses and Elijah. In a talk at Jesus the King Church in 2008, Fr. Georges Farah, who earned his doctorate in philosophy from France and taught philosophy in Lebanon, expressed the deep meaning of the transfiguration. Let us contrast the two characters, he said. Moses was the Law maker – He experienced God’s presence at Mount Horeb in a burning bush that never extinguished its light. Moses delivered his people out of Egypt's slavery by mighty signs and gave them the Ten Commandments. Elijah, on the contrary, was the challenger of the Law. Elijah heard the Lord God and delivered his people out of another slavery: that of the false god: Baal. For this, he had to face the tyrant Ahab the king and his queen and their priests. While the Baal’s priests offered offerings to the Baal and prayed all day with no result, Elijah’s word opened heaven and fire descended at once and consumed his offering. He was the greatest prophet of Israel. Both Moses and Elijah transformed the lives of the people of God. Why did they appear and talk with Christ? Here is the question. If we go back to the event, we will find the key: Christ goes beyond the Law maker and the Prophet. The Law maker shows us the past- the Prophet shows the future. Christ is beyond both: He is the eternal one. To him, past and future are present. Eternity is beyond time. And Christ the Divine needs no time. The Law restricts (or regulates) our freedom (You shall not kill…You shall not desire your neighbour’s wife…etc.). Christ’s law goes beyond the Law- The law of Christ is perfect freedom! Christ’s law goes beyond good and evil. There are no categories for people: No one is inherently evil. Recall the healing of the man born blind. For the Jews he was born blind because of his sins or his parents’ sins. For Christ, the reason is utterly different: to make God’s wonders present in him. i.e. to show God’s love to him. Civilizations are tired with the old question of good and evil. Christ’s answer is simple: No human is evil. The more Christian values for human dignity are embedded in human laws, the closer we are to Christ’s law. In the developed world today, capital punishment has been eliminated – Why? Because people started to understand that a murderer is to be treated as a sick man not as a criminal. The Transfiguration offers us a glimpse of divinity’s light. The great light is that in spite of his impending suffering and death, Christ, the Eternal One, lives a life beyond the Law- a life of self-emptying love and joy. He teaches Israel his new law: love to the end. Do you want to start to be like Christ? Love and accept each one you encounter as he is. Treat your intimate husband or wife as you would treat a stranger with respect and dignity. Treat your children as they are with respect. They are not your slaves. They are God’s gift to you. We have nothing here that is not given to us. And receive that joy of life that the Spirit of God gives. Do this and you will experience the Transfiguration. * Based on a lecture by Fr. Georges Farah on Friday August 8, 2008 at Jesus the King Church, Toronto

Baptism of a Naked God

[As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."] (Luke 3:15-22).

In contemporary Biblical scholarship, Luke presents here his theme of the universality of salvation. John the Baptist urges the crowds to reform their social conduct in anticipation of the public ministry of the Messiah. Note also how Luke finds Jesus praying at every major key moment in his mission. Jesus prays here at his own baptism. He also prays before feeding the crowds; before the temptations; at the Last Supper with the Apostles; in the Garden of the Mount of Olives before being betrayed; and while crucified on the cross for those who crucified him and his "enemies."

The Holy Spirit is the life that gives life and the fire that gives light. This is why he descended as tongues of fire on the early church. In the ancient tradition the dove was considered the creature that flies up to the highest sky to bring down peace from heaven. The Holy Spirit descended upon Christ in bodily form as a dove because he brings heaven to earth. And the Father's voice reminds the readers of the "beloved Son" in Psalms (Psalms 2: 7) and in the Father's testimony to Christ in Christ's own transfiguration (Luke 9: 35).

For Origen (Origenus), the famed Biblical scholar of the 3rd century, the baptism of John the Baptist belonged with the Old Testament symbols as a shadow; baptism in the church is the image; and the eschatological baptism of fire and the final conforming to the resurrection of Christ are mystery (Cf. Jean Daniélou, La Table Ronde, 1948). The above themes are related to the providential unfolding of God's will in history to save humanity. Baptism is the crossing from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of God's people - a people enslaved to the tyranny of sin. St. Paul relates baptism to the faithful's  journey into the resurrection as he writes to the Colossians "and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2: 12).

But an astonishing interpretation of the eschatological meaning of Christ's baptism is found in Henri Boulad, S.J. A couple of weeks ago, in his homily on Christ's baptism, Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. commented on the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire (homily in French here). He said that Jesus was born naked, was baptized naked, and was crucified naked. In all the key moments of his mission, Christ is naked (nude).

Is this our God, a naked God? It is written by St. John the Evangelist that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). St. Augustine explores this revolutionary concept of God in a rational thought. According to him, as explained by Henri Boulad, if God is love then he must love another from eternity. The Father empties himself of his divinity - his all - and gives it to the Son. The Son receives it with gratitude but like his Father does not keep it to himself - everything is given back to his Father. The Holy Spirit is the unlimited force or energy of love that binds the Father and the Son in the One God (see here). Emptied of oneself, God is nude...God is naked..God the Son submits himself in love to God the Father. Emptied of oneself is the character of God and the attribute of true love.

A couple who are truly experiencing joy in their love for one another feel "lost in love". When a married couple are each nude in their bed, they are telling each other: I am all yours -Take me as I am. This is the same movement by which God accepts each of us as she is and purifies her from within. The sexual intimacy of a married couple expresses the desire of each of them to be distinctive yet together-in-one. This is a reflection of the deep Trinitarian reality that encompasses the entire expanding universe (see Quantum Synthesis here). A little smile of a child turns his mother, however initially upset, to carry him, because love connects members of families and people and connects them with God whose Spirit moves them to repent and return to him.

In the prevailing fear in the world today, we need understanding and communication. We really need solidarity especially that we are praying these days for Christian unity. We are made to be relational. This is why the God of Christians cannot be shelved.  It is constant prayer that initiates in us a dialogue with God.  Our baptism is only the beginning as his baptism was only the beginning of his public and missionary life!

The Good News of the New Year

We thought the new year 2016 will have a better start than last year's massive crimes against humanity. Yet, the world witnessed an escalation of attacks by Islamic extremists in Europe and America and the "politically-correct" response of political leaders and authorities (see for example these news here, here, and here). With so much fear and discussions continuing to depress us further about radical Islam,  and the persecution of Christians everywhere in the world especially in countries in the Arab world, Europe, China, and Africa, I wish to share two great stories sent by close friends.

The first story is about Padina, an Iranian Muslim woman, and her mother who both converted to Christianity after a miracle healed the mother.They pleaded Christians to pray for them as they continue to live in the Islamic Republic of Iran where "apostasy" from Islam is punished by death (see news and video here). The second story comes from the pen of Abbé Alain Arbez about the life of Saint Vincent de Paul who liberated many people from slavery under the tyranny of the Islamic Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries (in French here). Saint Vincent de Paul was one of the great saints that Fr. Henri Boulad spoke about in his great lecture at Jesus the King Church in July 2015 (Henri Boulad, S.J.: Lord, give me a heart of compassion here). His Congregation of the Mission (known also as Lazarists) continues to serve the disadvantaged and needy in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia to this day. Their work has since extended to the rest of the world. 

Since love is the essence of life, we are not exhausted to hear about saints and martyrs who loved God in what they did and in every person they met. Such holy men and women as the Virgin Mary, Catherine of Alexandria, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, John of Damascus, Dominic,  Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Gertrude the Great, Rita of Cascia, Teresa of Avila, Jean Vianney Curé d'Ars, Charbel Makhlouf, and Thérèse of the Child Jesus lead the ones whose lives changed the world. The great historian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, who spent two years preparing for his priesthood under the spiritual direction of St. Vincent de Paul, wrote that the establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world (read The Catholic Encyclopedia about Bossuet here).

On the Last Day of 2015: Happy New Year

On this last day of 2015, I wish my readers a happy and blessed new year 2016 full of peace and good health; physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

I thank God that we have been granted life in spite of global terrorism and today's temptations that remind us of Apocalyptic messages particularly in the Book of Revelation attributed to John the Apostle.

In this Year of Mercy, it is my prayer to God that in his unlimited mercy He may accord global humanity eternal joy for which He created us and for which He offered us salvation through Jesus Christ. This is also the prayer of Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, made cardinal by Saint Pope John Paul II, whose literature on the mystical beauty of God has been read by many followers (see "Love Alone is Believable"), Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. mentioned von Balthasar's prayer in one of his talks on eschatology in 2015 and the late Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things, referred to him in his article "Will All be Saved?"

I learned, however, that the scholar René Girard, retired professor of civilization and French at Stanford University, passed away to God at the age of 91 on November 4, 2015. His influence on the development of mimesis in shaping culture and religion has been immense. His significant contribution to many fields of knowledge can be seen here in a post by Bishop Robert Barron:

https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/ren-girard-church-father/4982/ and  Imitatio website where Mark Anspach wrote on René Girard's legacy here. I first learned about Girard when I was reading comments and reactions to the lecture of Pope Benedict XVI  at the University of Regensburg in 2006. One of the commentators was a Muslim writer who mentioned Girard's work on the centrality of the cross in Christianity and the response to violence. At that time I also learned of the writings of Prof. Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. related to the situation of Christians with radical Islam.  In fact, Girard's work became more relevant after the violent attack of Islamic extremists on 9/11, 2001 when planes were hijacked and crashed in the Twin Towers of New York killing some 3,000 U.S. citizens. Girard wrote frequently in First Things ("Are the Gospels Mythical" here and "On War and Apocalypse" here).

I lectured about Girard's thought a few times in 2007 and 2009 (see here). Fr. Georges Farah, whose credentials include a doctorate in philosophy and another in theology from The Sorbonne in Paris, commented too on Girard's mimetic theory and the scapegoat mechanism that Girard found in his anthropology of religion.

Let's hope a new year will usher the peace of Christ through Christian action and prayer in the global social and political changes of today and tomorrow.