A New Year We Hope Will Not Be The Last!

This society has been bombarded by much calamities, but nothing compared to what is happening today. This is not gloom and doom prophecy. What we are watching today is the result of decades, truly of centuries, of decay! On thinking minds today, there are many unanswerable questions: 1. Why do we have such an enormous economic crisis? Or is it, as politicians say, only a mild recession? 2. Why is this society declining into the abyss of immorality and promiscuity, even in shows on TV and videos on the internet? How far have we damaged our society by insisting on temporal pleasure? 3. How far have our technological advances really served the human race? It seems that they have served the interests of the elite, big corporations, and the armies. 4. How come we are advocating the value of life for every creature including animals except for the value of the life of pre-born humans - the babies in the wombs of mothers? How far have we gone away from our civilization of the sanctity of the human person? 5. Why are we supporting violence and wars? Why are we trampling the ordinary individuals in war-torn societies and helping the agressors in their battles? 6. Why, rather than educating ourselves and non-Christians about the value of true freedom, are we forcing Muslims in the Arab world to hate us? 7. Have we learned the lessons of decades of atheism that enslaved us? Or on the contrary we have given in to the twisted minds of the likes of Dawkins and Dennett? 8. And last, why is our society shrinking in population? Will there be a next generation to beget children and carry this civilization into the future? Each of these questions deserves attention but my guess is that we are still sleeping after celebrating the new year. All these questions, in fact, may be answered intellectually. Our miserable situation - of greed, self-sufficiency, self-eternalization , excessive sexual appetite, aggression, and destruction - is rooted in Original Sin. What does Original Sin of our first parents tell us? I have been thinking lately of the main faults that could dehumanize any person in the world. I came up with 3 categories. Ironically they are the constitutive elements for self-realization: 1. Too Much Eating and Ultimately Excessive Eating 2. Undeterred Sexual Desire and Ultimately Sexual Intercourse 3. Pride and Ultimately Megalomania Eating by definition is necessary for any child to grow. Sexual intercourse is necessary for self-reproduction. And pride is the one element that leads to greed which allows man to conquer and swallow the weaker creature. Let's go a bit more in the deep, yet keep it as simple as possible. Why did all the great civilizations of the world vanish? What happened to the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian empires? What was the fate of the Greek empire, or more recently the great Roman empire? Where is the British empire that was called "the Sun will never set on it."? While we are at it, it is worth considering what happened to the Soviet empire a couple of decades ago and, lest we forget, the current dismal fading away of the American empire. Take two contemporary thinkers: Joseph Ratzinger thinks that in the face of death there are two ways in which the ancient human civilizations attempted to perpetuate the existence of the self: 1. Self-reproduction through sexual intercourse. This is why infertile men and women were thought to be cursed by God (or the gods). This is also why polygamy was quite widespread in almost all ancient civilizations. 2. Self-eternalization through statues and temples. If I cannot be self-eternalized through my offspring, then I may be self-eternalized through memory of me. This is evident in what governers, kings, and pharoes built throughout all the ages. Actually we still do it today in different ways. We build sky-scrapers, universities and internet blogs even though the stated intentions may be quite different. René Girard, Stanford professor of civilization, now a member of the Academie Francaise, takes an anthropological view. In his view, every act of violence and aggression is nothing but mimetic rivalry. His theory, now advanced by research institutions in psychology, claims that rivalry potentially exists between young children when they look out for the toys of each other. This rivlary grows and intensifies with rivalry between tribes, cultures, and, eventually, nations. Mimetic rivlary is very clear in early civilizations. In the Bible, Girard says, the story of Solomon’s judgment in the third chapter of 1 Kings is a good example. Two prostitutes bring a baby. They are doubles engaging in a rivalry over what is apparently a surviving child. When Solomon offers to split the child, the one woman says “yes,” because she wishes to triumph over her rival. The other woman then says, “No, she may have the child,” because she seeks only its life. On the basis of this love, the king declares that “she is the mother.” Note that it does not matter who is the biological mother. The one who was willing to sacrifice herself for the child’s life is in fact the mother. The first woman is willing to sacrifice a child to the needs of rivalry. Sacrifice is the solution to mimetic rivalry and the foundation of it. The second woman is willing to sacrifice everything she wants for the sake of the child’s life. This is sacrifice in the sense of the gospel. It is in this sense that Christ is a sacrifice since he gave himself “for the life of the world.” Girard's conclusion is that as much as mimetic rivalry is the cause of our misery, true love actualized by Christ's sacrifice is the only remedy. We can touch on his thought in another lecture. What matters here is how close we are today, in our thinking, to our own misery. We seem to have lost our way from a Christian perspective into self-centredness that what matters is only me. Much prayers are needed, for only the love of God can save us from ourselves... May the good Lord preserve us and all the human race from self-destruction. Happy New Year!

A Prayer of an unworthy servant to the Infant in the Manger

My good Lord, the One who, eternally the image of his Father in heaven, was born by the power of the Holy Spirit of the ever-Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, who suffered and died for our sins, who rose from the dead to eternal life, who rules in glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God, I pray to you in this difficult time when everything seems lost. I pray to you to sustain me body and soul, and to help me love myself in the true sense of realizing my humanity: Help me fight my self-pride; Empower me to overcome my tendency of fulfilling myself with passing physical beauty; Give me wisdom that illuminates my soul and mind, a wisdom that responds to my needs-not a wisdom of amassing knowledge for the sake of knowledge but to serve you, O God, above everything. My good Lord, I pray to you in this difficult time when everything seems lost. I pray for my family that we remain one in you; that we endure our personal difficulties with love for each other; that you help each one of us promote and sustain the others, however different their aspirations and interests may be. Help each one of us to enshrine the human dignity that every human in your image is endowed with. Help us, as a family, to serve you O God, above everything. My good Lord, I pray for my brothers and their families and my in-laws and their families. I pray for our friends and their families. I pray for the departed ones especially mothers and fathers of our families. I pray for the Church our mother and for all her children that they may grow in wisdom. I pray you especially for the Melkite Catholic parish in Toronto that carries your name as her patron, for her pastor, and assistant pastor, for her parishioners young and old, for the young adult group, each one of them by name and their families. Help them, O Lord, to grow in your rich love and to abide by your teaching. Help me, O God, to continue to serve you in them, a servant of servants, above everything. My good Lord, I pray for the entire Catholic Church, for its growth in the world preaching your word, and restoring particularly the fallen faith in Europe and North America. I pray particularly for Benedict our pope, Gregory our Melkite patriarch, and Ibrahim, the Melkite bishop of Canada, together with Archbishop Thomas of Toronto and the entire Catholic episcopate in the world. I pray for all Christians to restore their full unity and communion with your Catholic Church. I pray particularly for our Orthodox brethren that they come into full communion with the successor of Peter. My good Lord, I beg you to stretch your mighty hand, and restore our society to its Christian values and roots in all its facets of life. Restore its recognition of the pre-born and true marriage in the legal system of the land. Remember, O Good Lord, remember, O Good Lord, the people of Metropolitan Toronto, and all the people of Canada, their anxieties in the current recession, and their helplessness in a fallen free market. Remember, O Good Lord, everyone in the world who is suffering because of the global financial crisis. My good Lord, I beg you to stretch your mighty hand for the elders, the sick, and particularly the dying ones, that your mercy and love gives them healing and comfort according to your will. I beg you, O Lord, particularly for the sick people that I know. Strengthen them, heal them, and give them and me courage to carry their suffering as participants in your redemptive suffering for all. My good Lord, I ask you also for the many people suffering in the underdeveloped countries who in the current world food crisis are not able to be nourished. I ask you for them and for those who are suffering because of war and Islamic fundamentalist aggression particularly in the Middle East, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Egypt and in Sudan. My good Lord, remember also all people of good will in all continents regardless of their religion or ideology including Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists. Remember people who, through ignorance, do not recognize you. Remember scientists and philosophers who do not recognize your work in their work. My good Lord, I hope against all hope, that in your birthday, we will have peace, internal and external, throughout all humanity, the race for which you became one of us and dwelt among us. Thank you for always loving us. Thank you for always forgiving us. Thank you for the Scriptures, your word to us. Thank you for the magisterium or teacher Church who teaches us. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do, "knocking on the door" of our hearts. Thank you for the saints whom you "attracted" to you when you were "raised" on the cross. Thank you for the multitudes of graces you give us and for the sacraments in your Church that we enter in you through them. May your name be glorified and loved together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen Your servant of servants George Farahat

Mystics

As you read this, kneel in your heart before the awesome greatness of God. Why? Because these people were not only great people but also experienced God as much as a person can in this life! St. Anthony the Great - See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01553d.htm

St. Basil the Great - See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02330b.htm

St. Bernard of Clairvaux - See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02498d.htm and http://todayquestions.blogspot.com/search?q=Bernard

St. Francis of Assisi- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm

St. Thomas Aquinas – See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm

St. Catherine of Siena – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Siena

St. Gertrude – See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06534a.htm

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque – See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09653a.htm and http://www.stmargaretmarys.ca/stmm.html

St. Teresa of Avila – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_Avila

St. John of the Cross – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_the_Cross

St. Francis de Sales – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_de_Sales

St. Catherine Labouré - http://www.marys-touch.com/Saints/medal/medal.htm

St. Teresa of Avila – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_Avila

St. Thérèse of Lisieux – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_de_Lisieux and http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/storm-of-glory-therese-from-18 and http://todayquestions.blogspot.com/search?q=Therese+of+Lisieux

Even though the above websites do not mirror their lives, they may give a glimpse and a foretaste of their experience of union with God!

The Third Teresa - A Woman for All Seasons

Two great saints in the modern history of Christendom are known by the name Teresa (or Thérèse in French) - The first is Teresa of Avila, reformer of the Carmelites in the 16th century, known also as Teresa of Jesus; and the second is Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite in the 19th century, known also as Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Both of them have been proclaimed teachers or "doctors" of the Church. In the 20th century, Providence sent a third Teresa. Born in 1910 in Albania, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu sensed her Catholic religious vocation as early as the age of 12. At the age of 18, she joined the sisters of Loreto as a missionary in India and became known as Mother Teresa. Like the first Teresa, she was a woman of steel. She managed to use her energy and force in the service of the Lord whom she encountered in the faces of the dying in the streets of Calcutta. Like the second Teresa (or Thérèse) she radiated joy and humility. Like Thérèse, she experienced the seemingly absence of God in her prayer. But this did not deter her from following her unique vocation that she experienced as a "call within the call." On the contrary she trusted in the outpouring love of God, not only to the chosen but to every single human. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity with the Church's approval in 1950. The mission in her own words was "to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." This was her principal teaching: the total dependence on God even when He seemed to be absent. For this, she had to beg at the beginning in the streets of Calcutta. And by helping the "poorest of the poor" as she put it, she won over thousands of destitute. In 1952, Mother Teresa, with support from the Indian government, opened the first home for the dying. It was a Hindu temple that she converted into a hospice for the poor where dying people not only received medical treatment but were also allowed to die with dignity, each according to his faith. Hindus received water from the Gange; Muslims were read the Qur'an, and Catholics were given the last rites. Many orphanages and leper houses followed in the 1960s that she expanded her missionary work to many under-developed countries. In 1979 she won the Nobel Prize for her humanitarian efforts. And soon she trodded the Globe attracting more than 4000 girls to be missionary nuns like her. I recall attending her speech some 30 years ago at the Jesuit College in Cairo. Bent because of age, she was nevertheless very active advocating for the missionaries of charity which she founded. As she was leaving the place, I happened to be at the centre of her path. She simply shook my hand, an honour that I still carry to this day. In 1983, she suffered a heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II and another one in 1989. But her health condition did not stop her from continuing her active missionary life. By 1996, she had 500 missions in 100 countries. However her active life did not stop her from the inner prayer life. She is said to have spent 3 hours every day contemplating the Blessed Sacrament. She departed her earthly life on September 5, 1997 after suffering heart failure. In her acts of charity, Mother Teresa saw Christ in every human suffering. She thought that many Western materialistic people are poorer than India's poor and this is why they are hungry for a spiritual renewal. She equally condemned abortion and fought for the the right to life for every fetus. But her most significant teachings were her recognition of human dignity as a universal gift from God regardless of religion or race, and her warm attitude towards other religions - a teaching echoed in the 1965 Vatican II Declaration Nostra Aetate on the possibility of salvation - always through Christ - of non-Christians of good will. In Karl Rahner's famous theological opinion, they are called "anonymous Christians." In Pope John Paul the Great, her teachings were further actualized in his outgoing intefaith collaboration with world religions notably Judaism and Islam, and in his tireless defense of the poor South based on the dignity of the human person which he derives from being created in the image of God. No wonder that Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, another great soul. Who knows - one day she may also be declared a doctor of the Church. Then we will have three Teresas doctors to teach us! George Farahat

Experience of the Heart

A couple of years ago, Robert Wright interviewed Lorenzo Albacete about his book "God in the Ritz." Albacete bases the deepest encounter with "ultimate reality" (or God) on religious experience. His own experience, which led him to leave his career as a space physicist, was not a spectacular event but rather a weak voice that slowly preoccupied him. For him, finding beauty and truth is a continuous search which will never be exhausted in this life. We always find someone or something beautiful but it still does not satisfy our longing for beauty. All our experiences including sexual experience, love, and the search for beauty are at a deeper level a kind of religious experience. Of course, mere lust is not part of this experience as it objectifies the other person. Darwinians think that the purpose of sex is to get genes into the next generation, but they are missing out on the experience. Obviously, Darwinism does account for everything within its sphere, but only in the scientific explanation or mechanism. "The problem isn't Darwinism or Neo- or Neo-neo-Darwinism as a proposal for the scientific explanation of life. The problem is Darwinism or any -ism -- Creationism for that matter -- as an ideology, that is to say, as a scientific method that accounts for all human experiences." He says. Wright proposes "Darwinism can in some sense account for everything but it's not the final account." Robert Pollack, a biologist who teaches at Columbia university admits "...at a certain point I realize that my scientific convictions do not explain all of my life." Albacete continues "My question is: Does this account, does it fulfill, does it correspond to my experience of life? That's what I want to deal with. I don't want to compare it directly to something somebody tells me about God. I want to compare it to myself... The moment it stops accounting for my experiences I will leave it. Why not? It would be absurd... you stop believing..embrace that which accounts for the experience of your heart but do that in a reasonable way. That's all I advise." Religious experience of God, it seems, is larger than our conceptual framing of knowledge. According to Albacete, even Catholic doctrines and dogmas are signposts, but not the reality that one is after. As Daniel Callam says, the entire Christian faith is based on a historical religious experience of the Resurrection of Christ by his disciples. Or, according to Peter Kreeft, in the Eucharist we think God enters us , but in fact we enter him. Kreeft continues: Divine truth is the deepest longing of our hearts. What is the heart? The heart is the abyss that is at the centre of our being: the self or the spirit. The spirit can think, choose and judge. But there is always something that escapes every possible picture of yourself, and that is the one who is making the picture. In a movie theatre, you can project everything on the screen except the projector. The one who is looking is not the one who is looked at. If you knew every single fact about yourself, you could not because every act of understanding every fact is itself a new fact, and that new fact could only be understood by another new fact. This is why we need memory. Since we live in time we can never grasp all knowledge about ourselves. Only God who is in eternity can fully know us. The heart is the term that Scripture gives to the self or the 'I'. It does not denote mere emotions, feelings or sentiments but the 'I', when you say my body, my thoughts, my choices. It is the fountain of all our waters. Jesus said to the disciples that you can't be defiled by what goes out of you. Out of the heart flows virtue and sin, but also the deepest love, not mere philanthropy, nor friendship but the "fundamental option" i,e. internalizing it in your heart, It is your freedom, a mysterious attitude of accepting or not accepting God's love. Since God designed our hearts, and made us to be happy like himself, it is impossible not to love God. "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you" said St. Augustine. It is psychologically impossible for one to refuse happiness. Even a suicider loves happiness but his life makes him miserable and hopeless so he wants to get rid of it. We cannot not seek our full happiness. Our hearts' deepest love, longing and happiness is God himself but God is not definable. He is beyond our definitions and comprehension. St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of minds in the history of theology, admitted that he could not finish his Summa Theologica because he came to believe that all what he wrote was straw. When asked by Christ on the crucifix what he wants as a reward for his work, Thomas said "Only You Lord." That was his last wish. All authentic mystics, even non-Christians, know that God cannot be defined in human language. The mystical experience is the closest to peace, light and Truth. When Jesus spoke about God, he spoke in parables, because God is beyond human language. Theologians can explain what is not God but not God. God is not an abstract principle. Our hearts call out for the Deep who is pure light. The mysterious longing of our hearts calls out to this mystery who is our creator. We can have clear knowledge about things abstract such as mathematics. We can have adequate knowledge about things that are real but not living such as rocks. But as we rise in importance, we sink in adequacy. We can have all the initiative for getting the knowledge of non-living things and they will not try to escape us. If we want to know animals we have to tame them. They can hide and escape, especially the primates. They have almost freedom like humans. But when it comes to human beings, the probability of guaranteeing response is 50-50. With God, the whole initiative must come from God. This divine truth that we long to must come from God. The claim that Christianity is superior to other religions is the fact that it is not man’s search for God but God’s search for man. Here you go - Two great speakers: a scientist-theologian in Lorenzo Albacete, and a philosopher in Peter Kreeft. See and listen to the full words here: Lorenzo Albacete: http://meaningoflife.tv/video.php?speaker=albacete&topic=complete Peter Kreeft: http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/02_divine-truth.htm They are examples of contemporary Catholic mind treating some of today's questions. Do you agree? You can comment anytime. George Farahat