The new year 2014 is almost here. All kinds of predictions have already been made. But who can guarantee anything?
1. The negatives: No one predicted an ice-storm that has affected many businesses and homes in Canada at Christmas and beyond. Yet I chose not to write about it because we always have hope in a better day. I found out how little is my care about others when I am in a difficult situation. We scrambled to get out of the house when electricity was no longer available and digital communication was cut-off as a result. In spite of the blessings we have and the relatively more comfortable lives we lead, my own survival here matters more to me than anything else. Of course I thought of the millions stranded in tents under snow in Syria and Lebanon because of the wars and conflicts. Of course, I remembered the thousands massacred in many parts of the Middle East and elsewhere and can write pages about solidarity with suffering victims but does anyone here care? On the contrary, most likely the ones suffering will greatly want to escape their suffering. And recently there were more explosions in Russia following those in Lebanon, and more gun fire in Syria and Egypt. At our every-day level, I know people who had tragedies of separation, harsh sickness or death in the family this past year in a number of countries. Healing needs more than a strong will because we have memories. Who is able to end suffering or enmity? Funny how we exchange greetings of good wishes at Christmas and the New Year, yet we are hardly able to take the place of the ones who need them most. I deeply feel that I do not deserve to be called Christian or to be a follower of Christ because in spite of my knowledge about him and the miracles I receive every day from him, I hardly know him or acknowledge his continuing love. Having read a few chapters written by the great 13th century mystic St. Gertrude, I wrote to Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. that in my weakness I understand why atheism is so attractive.
2. The Positives: I received consolation when I watched a recent lively homily by Fr. Henri Boulad on Holy Family Sunday December 29, 2013. It is on YouTube in French here. Fr. Boulad shows real examples "At the end of the scholar year, young students looked for their parents to pick them up...Samir finds his mother among hundreds of mothers and his smile suddenly is large! His mom finds him and for her there is only one Samir in the world - 'He is my son'. Only one mother matters to Samir. Parents and children matter to each other. Everyone in the family is unique. Everyone has a role for the others." In a study in the U.S., babies were put in beds and nursed by professional nurses, yet in 6 months half of them had died, said Fr. Boulad. "The problem was that none of these babies felt the unique love of the parent. This is how God treats us...He calls each of us by his name. In Holy Communion, you receive God as a unique child of God. In the Melkite Church, the priest says your name when he gives you the blessed sacrament. God is not only there. He is present like your mom is present. God too is a family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally in love. This is the origin of the family. When God created man and woman he gave each a role for the cultivation of the family and the continuation of humanity. Woman is the heart of the family and man is its head. Man and woman are equal in dignity but have different roles in the family based on love and respect. Before you love each other, respect each other. Respect the space of each other. It is not easy to have a family because a family must be patiently constructed. If you want to destroy a nation, destroy the family. This is the Devilish plan of certain ideologies in the West. The family that reflects the Trinity is the fundamental structure in the universe because God too is a family."
Based on readings from the revelations of Christ to St. Gertrude, it became clear that I need humility, patience, and much prayer. We all need, to attain a fraction of her inner peace and holy life, to dedicate time for deeper contemplation in the Christian mysteries and messages found in Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church.
I found much solace in a spiritual lecture given by the late Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Shenouda III on the spiritual exercises in 1991. Pronounced in Arabic with subtitles in English, it can be found on YouTube here. I had written two blogspots on the contribution of this charismatic patriarch when he passed away here and here.
Last night, I had a correspondence with Most Reverend Archbishop J. Jules Zerey in Jerusalem on the NeoCatechumenal Way, which numbers some 1 million lay members and families all dedicated to evangelization of Christians in services to parishes but they are also sent to Africa and Asia for founding missions.
Today, Jesus the King Council of the Knights of Columbus published our 2013 Christmas and New Year Bulletin. You will find many charitable activities mentioned including the Jerusalem Students initiative providing sponsor assistance to Students at the Patriarchal College near Jerusalem, which earned the International Youth Award in August 2013, the Food for Syria initiative which sponsors food, medicine and shelter for needy people in Syria due to the sectarian war, "Biblia Competition for Teenagers" a bi-weekly Jeopardy-like game which allows teens to participate in parish-based Biblical Q&A with prizes for winners, and a supplement about Pope Francis.
3. Research: For friends interested in scientific and Biblical research, see The Quantum Synthesis, The Development of the Idea of God in the Bible, Game Theory, and the following selected TED Talks: Mat Ridley: When ideas have sex, Robert Wright: Progress is not a zero-sum game According to Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. these two talks contain much of the ideas developed by Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
Other online resources that I researched recently:
Pontifical Academy of Science; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; Uncommon Knowledge (Hoover Institute, Stanford University); Coursera; AAAS
The new year 2014 is almost here. We hope it will be a year of peace for everyone.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
The Coming of Christ
I have been terrified recently by the massacres of innocent people in the raging sectarian war in Syria as I received videos of these violent events by human beings against human beings who share with them the same land. Many other terrible things took place in the Philippines, Mali, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. And I add Canada too in the scandals of the blame game between the Mayor of Toronto and his Council members. My reaction was to turn to the good news of those few men who, having won the lottery in Canada, decided to share the gains with many persons in need. Although they did not wish to steal the camera light on TV, their good news were given top coverage. They include Tom Crist who donated the $40 million he won in Lotto 649. In the news too, there was a good story of a woman saved from the attack of a bear in Western Canada by a neighbour. She was rushed to hospital and had an emergency surgery, Erin Greene survived. See the story here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/woman-recounts-harrowing-attack-by-churchill-polar-bear-1.2469766
The only way to keep your sanity is to receive, adopt, and communicate good news. We must stop the blame game which Adam pronounced against God "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it." (Genesis 3: 12).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/woman-recounts-harrowing-attack-by-churchill-polar-bear-1.2469766
The only way to keep your sanity is to receive, adopt, and communicate good news. We must stop the blame game which Adam pronounced against God "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it." (Genesis 3: 12).
When I was 14, our teacher of Arabic talked proudly about a certain Arab who went to study in Paris a century ago. According to the teacher's story this Arab man explained to his European counter colleagues in a restaurant how to eat. "Rather than using spoons and forks, my spoon is my own hand and my fork is my fingers..." after which, according to this Arabic teacher, coming from a primitive society, his European colleagues dropped their spoons and forks and used their hands instead. This could have been a little joke had not the teacher meant it with utter seriousness in the time of the Pan-Arab leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
But Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, gives a much different view in his best-selling book "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." His book was published in 2012. I bought it and was reading it then when my eyes pointed one of his findings. Professor Pinker gives a reason why the knives we use at table are not sharp-edged but rounded. He says that centuries ago the European societies adopted such edge-rounded knives. The reason is simply to reduce violence that often erupted at restaurants when hot-blooded men got into a match of fight at petty things and ended up using their knives against each other which harmed the other person and caused more violence because of the death in such incidents.
Professor Pinker claims in his book that all the 20th century conflicts put together (including two World Wars) caused less damage than any previous century. He backs his claims with formidable data collected from historical sources.
Why I believe in collaboration with people of good-will is grounded in such historical development. It does not matter whether they believe in Christ or otherwise are Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Skeptics, or declared Atheists. If Christians truly live up to the calling of Christ, there will be many less anti-Christian attitudes by moderate people. In a debate with George Cardinal Pell of Sydney in 2012, Richard Dawkins, Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford, well-known evolutionary biologist and an avowed New Atheist, admitted he does not support the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest. For Dawkins, human moral values are more valuable for the advance of global society than blindly endorsing survival of the fittest. The entire debate is on YouTube and can be viewed here:
America, Canada and the European Union have entered into talks of Free-Trade agreements that may see the light in one-two years. It is not because Americans like Europeans but because economists and governments in both continents see the usefulness of better trades that should bring a more collaborative exchange of better ideas and their implementation for their people. Likewise Canada is on a trade deal with China. The rest of the world must join collaborative efforts to better human lives with justice where possible.
Slowly but surely, humanity should be advancing in the development that the Jesuit priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin predicted in the 1940s and 1950s. In spite of our own failures, the advent of Christ in the so-called Omega Point is slowly taking place. Let us contribute to the development of the civilization of love and life from here into eternity. The joy of Christmas is more than bells ringing in churches or gifts wrapped under a tree in our homes. The Church is alive in all continents but needs all Christians and people of good will to advance her mission by the grace of God. God works in those who following the dictates of their conscience and the teachings of the Gospel, transform their world.
Friday, December 13, 2013
It's a Game!
When I was young, I used to play soccer with my brothers and friends. Every time we won a game I felt victorious! But games are not only in sports. You will find a game in every action a human can take. A man who dates a woman is taking a risk and so is she. Both ask the question: Is the other person fit for me? The same kind of probabilities is encountered by a student when he participates in exams to graduate. In spite of all the advances made by medical sciences, we do not guarantee our lives to last in this world. Can you?
Most of us spend their lives in playing a game or more. However, since we, like animals, are aggressive, we will not let go...I want this money and you too want it. Let's play!
The ancients figured out the destruction that results from excessive gaming, when the selfish gets out of control, and developed laws to protect their societies.
Game Theory is a title of many studies undertaken by strategists in economics, business, military and space agencies whose objective is to find the optimum action for the party of interest. These complex plans are mathematically-based, but since they involve decisions by minds against opponents or at least to survive an adverse condition, they are probabilistic in their nature and outcome and involve a degree of risk.
A typical game is the so-called "Prisoner's Dilemma". The story is told in "Schelling's Game Theory - How to Make Decisions" by Robert Dodge published by Oxford University Press in 2012.
"Two men are arrested and put in prison because the police are sure they have committed a crime together, which they have, in fact, done. The two are placed in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with each other. The police are aware they do not have enough evidence to convict the two of the crime for which they were arrested. They can, however, successfully prosecute both on some lesser charge, such as illegal possession of firearms, which carries a one year sentence. The only way to convict them of the more serious crime is for the men to testify against each other, so each prisoner is individually offered a deal: If he cooperates with the police and his partner fails to cooperate (defects), he will go free and his partner will get three years in prison. Each is told that the same deal is being offered to both, and if they both testify against each other, they both will be sentenced to two-year terms. Each prisoner is concerned only with his own welfare, which is minimizing his time in jail."
But if each prisoner acts only out of self-interest, he risks vengeance by the other prisoner in the longer-term.
A simplified explanation of Game Theory can be found here and a more in-depth study can be viewed in lectures by Professor Ben Polak at Yale University here.
The psychology of Game Theory is evident in the decision made by Nelson Mandela. During his imprisonment over 27 years, Mandela faced the reality of human misery. The more pressure exercised from international political forces against apartheid, the more it was likely against all odds that he will be granted his freedom. But freedom for him meant more than only his own freedom. He thought of his options if released. One option was to call on Black South Africans to retaliate against White minority with boycotting of their institutions and violence against them and their properties. His other option, the hard one, was to forgive those who imprisoned him and call on his Black people to collaborate with him and the government for a peaceful transition to a state that recognizes the equal status of all races. He could no longer think of Black Africans alone. Nelson Mandela became free when he chose to forgive all who persecuted him and his collaborators. Mandela chose to take the risk of collaboration with his enemies because he knew that a better independent South Africa depended on a collective conscience that allows for both Black people and White people to live and grow old together in the same land and that also, out of self-interest, the long-term prospects for South Africans lie in their cooperation with all. His love of his people, practiced in the worst nights in prison - probably similar to the dark night of the soul as expressed by St. John of the Cross in the struggle of the soul that seeks union with God - opened the road to take the risk of love towards others. It is in this darkness that God was sought. Nothing was/is certain. Only hope endures...Or let's look at the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15, 11-32). The younger son knows that he is hungry and has very little chance to survive. Yet out of his self-interest or his love of himself he decides to take the route back to his father's house. He is not certain but he takes a calculated risk as he intends to work as a servant in his father's house in return for getting food and shelter. The good surprise in the Parable - probably uncommon - is that his father not only accepts him but celebrates his return. An important aspect of the psychology of Game Theory is to put yourself in other people's shoes. Only when you are in other people's shoes will you appreciate their dilemma and collaborate to solve them.
In a talk last Friday with Dr. Brian Baker, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, he indicated the recent findings in neuroscience that point to the importance of collaboration. We are related even if we are not consciously aware of this. See also Quantum Synthesis.
The solution to many problems is a matter of relating to others, collaborating with them where possible, forgiving the past and building lives together. But the greatest solution is the hardest since it has to do with experience of solidarity in both suffering and joy. In love, I always start with myself and move out to the other(s) i.e. to God implicitly if I am not a believer and explicitly if I am a believer. This is the beautiful insight of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on the Four Loves (Read it here).
If our lives here are full of calculated risks and games and if we suffer greatly without justice, what is it that we need to be assured of joy? Probably the answer is not in a game of risk but in trust that Christ in his eternal love generously outpoured and continues to outpour on every one if we can only see! This God is able because his life is love. It is his birth which Christians now await!!!
Most of us spend their lives in playing a game or more. However, since we, like animals, are aggressive, we will not let go...I want this money and you too want it. Let's play!
The ancients figured out the destruction that results from excessive gaming, when the selfish gets out of control, and developed laws to protect their societies.
Game Theory is a title of many studies undertaken by strategists in economics, business, military and space agencies whose objective is to find the optimum action for the party of interest. These complex plans are mathematically-based, but since they involve decisions by minds against opponents or at least to survive an adverse condition, they are probabilistic in their nature and outcome and involve a degree of risk.
A typical game is the so-called "Prisoner's Dilemma". The story is told in "Schelling's Game Theory - How to Make Decisions" by Robert Dodge published by Oxford University Press in 2012.
"Two men are arrested and put in prison because the police are sure they have committed a crime together, which they have, in fact, done. The two are placed in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with each other. The police are aware they do not have enough evidence to convict the two of the crime for which they were arrested. They can, however, successfully prosecute both on some lesser charge, such as illegal possession of firearms, which carries a one year sentence. The only way to convict them of the more serious crime is for the men to testify against each other, so each prisoner is individually offered a deal: If he cooperates with the police and his partner fails to cooperate (defects), he will go free and his partner will get three years in prison. Each is told that the same deal is being offered to both, and if they both testify against each other, they both will be sentenced to two-year terms. Each prisoner is concerned only with his own welfare, which is minimizing his time in jail."
But if each prisoner acts only out of self-interest, he risks vengeance by the other prisoner in the longer-term.
A simplified explanation of Game Theory can be found here and a more in-depth study can be viewed in lectures by Professor Ben Polak at Yale University here.
The psychology of Game Theory is evident in the decision made by Nelson Mandela. During his imprisonment over 27 years, Mandela faced the reality of human misery. The more pressure exercised from international political forces against apartheid, the more it was likely against all odds that he will be granted his freedom. But freedom for him meant more than only his own freedom. He thought of his options if released. One option was to call on Black South Africans to retaliate against White minority with boycotting of their institutions and violence against them and their properties. His other option, the hard one, was to forgive those who imprisoned him and call on his Black people to collaborate with him and the government for a peaceful transition to a state that recognizes the equal status of all races. He could no longer think of Black Africans alone. Nelson Mandela became free when he chose to forgive all who persecuted him and his collaborators. Mandela chose to take the risk of collaboration with his enemies because he knew that a better independent South Africa depended on a collective conscience that allows for both Black people and White people to live and grow old together in the same land and that also, out of self-interest, the long-term prospects for South Africans lie in their cooperation with all. His love of his people, practiced in the worst nights in prison - probably similar to the dark night of the soul as expressed by St. John of the Cross in the struggle of the soul that seeks union with God - opened the road to take the risk of love towards others. It is in this darkness that God was sought. Nothing was/is certain. Only hope endures...Or let's look at the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15, 11-32). The younger son knows that he is hungry and has very little chance to survive. Yet out of his self-interest or his love of himself he decides to take the route back to his father's house. He is not certain but he takes a calculated risk as he intends to work as a servant in his father's house in return for getting food and shelter. The good surprise in the Parable - probably uncommon - is that his father not only accepts him but celebrates his return. An important aspect of the psychology of Game Theory is to put yourself in other people's shoes. Only when you are in other people's shoes will you appreciate their dilemma and collaborate to solve them.
In a talk last Friday with Dr. Brian Baker, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, he indicated the recent findings in neuroscience that point to the importance of collaboration. We are related even if we are not consciously aware of this. See also Quantum Synthesis.
The solution to many problems is a matter of relating to others, collaborating with them where possible, forgiving the past and building lives together. But the greatest solution is the hardest since it has to do with experience of solidarity in both suffering and joy. In love, I always start with myself and move out to the other(s) i.e. to God implicitly if I am not a believer and explicitly if I am a believer. This is the beautiful insight of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on the Four Loves (Read it here).
If our lives here are full of calculated risks and games and if we suffer greatly without justice, what is it that we need to be assured of joy? Probably the answer is not in a game of risk but in trust that Christ in his eternal love generously outpoured and continues to outpour on every one if we can only see! This God is able because his life is love. It is his birth which Christians now await!!!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Beautiful Minds
Recently I learned that Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J. has just celebrated 50 years of priesthood. What a magnificent contribution has he made in communicating and writing in quite a number of fields of knowledge and, above all, in reaching out in his missionary work to those strangers to faith, to us of little faith, and to the little ones and forgotten. His powerful sermons and retreats remind us of such passionate preachers as St. John Chrysostom and Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire.
The giants in thought and deed have been with us since time immemorial. A rough sketch of some great contributors to the development of knowledge would definitely include Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Solomon the author of Biblical "Wisdom", St. Paul, Origen, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Maximus Confessor, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, St. Albert the Great, Pascal, Descartes, Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, John Henri Newman, Charles Darwin, Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, Pope John Paul II, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Edward Witten, Peter Higgs, Manfred Eigen, Stephen Hawking, Carl Jung, Jean Piaget, Antonio Damasio, Steven Pinker, Jaroslav Pelikan, Mircea Eliade, René Girard, Andrew McAfee, Samuel Huntington and many more.
However the rough list could not be complete without mentioning the "Angelic Doctor" Saint Thomas Aquinas. First, the volumes of thought he wrote and taught in Europe's 13th century universities are such an immense undertaking that squarely places him as an encyclopedia over his learned contemporaries. Second, Thomas was responsible for inaugurating the scientific exploration of nature based on his synthesis of Aristotle's thought with Christian thought. In his eloquent book "The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View" Richard Tarnas recalls St. Thomas significant contribution to the development of civilizations. Third, among the great thinkers, St. Thomas is a formidable mystic too. Shortly before his death, he was praying after Mass and dared to enter his head into the tabernacle out of such abiding love for Jesus. There Thomas had a sudden vision and said afterwards that all what he wrote was a "straw" compared to what was revealed to him in the tabernacle. He stopped dictating any more work and died a humble holy person on his way to the Council of Lyons.
Beautiful minds are not only those of great philosophers or scientists, but also those imaginative minds of inspired artists, writers and musicians because they communicate the beauty of the work of God to fellow creatures. But above all, beautiful minds are those of ordinary people that in their everyday struggles they never lose hope of love...Beautiful are those that care about their families, friends, colleagues, citizens and enemies too as did Nelson Mandela in South Africa in imitation of Christ.
The giants in thought and deed have been with us since time immemorial. A rough sketch of some great contributors to the development of knowledge would definitely include Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Solomon the author of Biblical "Wisdom", St. Paul, Origen, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Maximus Confessor, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, St. Albert the Great, Pascal, Descartes, Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, John Henri Newman, Charles Darwin, Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, Pope John Paul II, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Edward Witten, Peter Higgs, Manfred Eigen, Stephen Hawking, Carl Jung, Jean Piaget, Antonio Damasio, Steven Pinker, Jaroslav Pelikan, Mircea Eliade, René Girard, Andrew McAfee, Samuel Huntington and many more.
However the rough list could not be complete without mentioning the "Angelic Doctor" Saint Thomas Aquinas. First, the volumes of thought he wrote and taught in Europe's 13th century universities are such an immense undertaking that squarely places him as an encyclopedia over his learned contemporaries. Second, Thomas was responsible for inaugurating the scientific exploration of nature based on his synthesis of Aristotle's thought with Christian thought. In his eloquent book "The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View" Richard Tarnas recalls St. Thomas significant contribution to the development of civilizations. Third, among the great thinkers, St. Thomas is a formidable mystic too. Shortly before his death, he was praying after Mass and dared to enter his head into the tabernacle out of such abiding love for Jesus. There Thomas had a sudden vision and said afterwards that all what he wrote was a "straw" compared to what was revealed to him in the tabernacle. He stopped dictating any more work and died a humble holy person on his way to the Council of Lyons.
Beautiful minds are not only those of great philosophers or scientists, but also those imaginative minds of inspired artists, writers and musicians because they communicate the beauty of the work of God to fellow creatures. But above all, beautiful minds are those of ordinary people that in their everyday struggles they never lose hope of love...Beautiful are those that care about their families, friends, colleagues, citizens and enemies too as did Nelson Mandela in South Africa in imitation of Christ.
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