Fear of God

Part of my life as a child is fear. I want to always be secure lest some powerful animal or person devours me. You see this exact picture in crying children hiding behind their parents when some stranger visits the home for the first time. Psychologically, although humans are distinct from other creatures in their complex mind, they share with them the innate need for survival. Religion in general responds to this fear by promising an eternal life of happiness. In an atheistic world, religion will still survive if only because of this. The crusading atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins recognized that religion continues to be a major force. And so did the atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett. Daniel Dennett in an interview with Robert Wright acknowledged that he cannot prove that God does not exist. The renowned 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in his Thoughts that it is better to live a virtuous life in this world since if God exists you will be rewarded in the next, and if He does not exist, you lose nothing. But if he exists and you lived a life of sin, you will find yourself in hell. This is an extraordinary insight that brings us to the discussion about God. According to some anthropologists, the very early tribes of humans in some native Indian cultures believed in the "Sky god." In ancient civilizations, Egyptian as well as Mesopotamian and Greek, people believed in God or gods according to their needs. There, based on archeological work, we find polytheist religions in multiple cultures. The basis of worship is fear and security - Fear of natural disasters and protection. Prayers are found directed to the Sun god to provide for agriculture and life. In the Aztic cultute, prayers were directed to Tlaloc the god for rain and fertility. Hindus in India developed their pantheist religions which, taken literally, mean that the universe is God. There were gods and higher gods, each with his or her role. The entire religious systems were ultimately based on survival of the tribe/culture. Better illustrated in the ancient Egyptian cults the pharoes, kings of Egypt, were buried in mummies with food and water in order to feed them in the next life. Sacrifice developed as an act of thanksgiving but also to avoid the vengeance of the gods. Abraham, the father of monotheism, is depicted in the Old Testament to have had a message from God. He lived in Ur (today in Iraq) but God revealed to him that he should go to Canaan and settle there. The detailed story of the father of Jews and Arabs alike shows that he was obedient and full of faith. God blessed him and promised him that his offspring will be of great number. In the Biblical tradition there is a development in the belief in one God (Yahweh). As much as the Bible is considered inspired by Christians, it is not dictated. The tradition of Israel developed over 2000 years. The books of the Old Testament were written over a period of some 1000 years. Contemporary Biblical scholars think that some of the stories were edited to reflect the understanding of the Hebrews that there is one God. The Old Covenant between God and Israel represented a special relationship in which God would protect and save Israel while Israel would worship God alone and abide by His commandments revealed to Moses. Many of these commandments are prhobitions for the survival of the community. Again, the key is survival. In Judaism, the image of God slowly but surely develops from an all-powerful One to a compassionate One. This is evident in the Psalms and Isaiah and more so in Hosea where God is said to speak as the faithful husband of Israel while Israel is His unfaithful bride. At last God is seen as a father of his people and not only as their majestic lord. The sense of security developed from fear to trust. The eventual coming of Christ was the epitome of God's self revelation. As Christians, we know we have seen God in Christ, not only the majestic divine, but also the suffering God whose love to his creatures made him dwell among us, suffer with us and die for us. In Christ, God made a new Covenant - a covenant of love. Fear is still there but now we can call God the Father our father as Christ taught us. Now we know that God's essense is love: The eternal love of the Father and the Son whose binding power is the Holy Spirit. The need for survival is now the need to be with Christ our saviour and God. St. Athanasius said "God became man so that man may become divine." I am not sure I learned it yet but the Church will teach me!

Christmas Wish?

I watched them twice in two days and since then they never left my memory. I am speaking about a little known band of the "Christmas Wish" missionaries that performed at Jesus the King Church. They are young adults in their 20s. Their mission, as I understand it, is to play and sing Christmas carols to people in homeless shelter houses, orphanages, senior homes, churches, public places, and every other corner of the city. They are not particularly professional but they impressed almost everyone who watched them in the Church with their joy radiating from their little faces. Their leader claims to have received a mission from God. Michael is from Australia. He toured many countries performing his mission! His team that I saw is made up of adult girls and boys that live here yet they belong to the world from Japan to Brazil. I wondered how they survive unless they do it as a hobby on the side, but my wonder grew to admiration of those dancers/singers who can attract so many people only because they smile in spite of hardship. Which brings me to the claim that the world is falling away into sin. Yes, there is ample sin in the world. I particularly experience hardship these days at work and with it a cross I hope I will endure. And who lacks a cross? Many of my relatives and friends are experiencing hardship in many ways - some have lost their jobs, others their spouses through divorce, others are seeking to marry but unable to find their future spouses, families are suffering, others are lonely and yet others are sick mentally or bodily. Today I was told that a young girl in grade 10 has been diagnosed with leukemia. And in the dilemma of experiencing evil, it is pervasive in the entire world - My pride is one of them...The dilemma is multiplied by the fact that almost every man and woman born in this world have a wounded nature and selfish tendency. I see structures of hypocricy, political correctness, manners without value, society without dignity, and corporate slavery to the boss who is a god to his enslaved employees or subjects. This is why I experience our need of God's mercy. It is not on earth although it can start here if man risks his pride and "falls in love." It is all about fear for the self. We must hope for the blessed life in heaven for all those who open their hearts to God and repent. Against all thoughts that promote the idea of a just God, I believe that God is all merciful; his justice is only a reflection of his love, and has no sense of revenge as we do. When the Lord in the Bible says "Revenge is (reserved) to me," he, as a father, disciplines his children to grow and mature but never does he revenge. The revenge intended in the Bible is a disciplinary act and not a destructive act of a vengeful God. I also experience the need for each other, to pray for each other and think of each other in the Holy Spirit, the love which the Church calls the communion of saints. The communion of saints, as far as I understand it, includes the love expressed in prayers of saints in heaven, those of souls in purgatory, and prayers of the Church on earth. This continues till the end of the world. The Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the angels and saints are praying God in heaven, and to their prayers are added those of souls in purgatory, and those on earth especially the Eucharistic prayer in every Mass in which calvary is re-presented through the offering of Christ himself. That is why Paul the great apostle was able to say that he completes what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. The result if truly lived is the joy experienced in this "Christmas Wish" missionary band. The incarnation of God in Christ was nothing short of a new world - a new song of joy. In spite of being born silently in a manger, Christ was sought by Herod for fear that he will be overthrown. The king was fearful and in his vengeance he killed those children as we kill the unborn today. Yet Christ did not overthrow Herod. He escaped from the tyrant to give him a chance. And the chance is still available to us. The entire story of Christmas is here again. The invitation is open. God is with us. But would we risk our habits of indulging into every party and spending to remember the angelic hymn? Let's forget ourselves for a few days, listen to God's voice and shout: Joy to the world!

Does Hell Exist?

In the past couple of weeks a few people following the news of CERN's Large Hadron Collider being recharged and running have been asking the question whether the earth will be absorbed by a huge black hole. Scientists were fast to reassure them and us that there is no worry of such catastrophe happening. What people and scientists could not figure out is the question: what would happen to us if the catastrophe eventually happened? Would dead people have a life? And if yes, what kind of life? Hell or Heaven, or neither? There is no other question on people's mind, if not consciously then subconsciously, that requires an assurance: Does hell exist? And if it exists who will be saved from damnation? The question is eschatological and beyond the reach of science. According to theologian Roch Kereszty, O. Cist "Hell in the sense of damnation or definitive spiritual dying is taught unequivocally only in Christianity." In this view "the possibility of final damnation in its frightening reality has appeared only where God's love has been most clearly and most unambiguously revealed, namely inthe cross of Christ." In his book, "Jesus of Nazareth" published in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI comments in detail about the Lord's Prayer. There, the Roman Pontiff who is not only a well-known theologian but also a Biblical scholar commenting on "Lead us not into temptation," writes these words: We are helped a further step along when we recall the words of the Gospel 'Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil' (Mt 4:1) Temptation comes from the devil, but part of Jesus messianic task is to withstand the great temptations that have lead man away from God and continue to do so. As we have seen, Jesus must suffer through these temptations to the point of dying on the Cross, which is how he opens the way of redemption for us. This is not only after his death but already by his death and during his whole life that Jesus "descends into hell," as it were into the domain of our temptations and defeats, in order to take us by the hand and carry us upward...A brief look at the Book of Job, which in many respects prefigures the mystery of Christ, can help us clarify things further. Satan derides man in order to deride God: God's creature, whom he has formed in his own image, is a pitiful creature. Everything that seems good about him is actually just a facade. The reality is that the only thing man - each man - ever cares about is his own well-being. This is the judgment of Satan, whom the Book of Revelation calls "the accuser of our brethren...who accuses them day and night before our God" (Rev 12: 10). There is more to Benedict's exegesis - I only cited his words above where he speaks of Christ's descent into hell. You see how Benedict applies it, not only to his physical death, but to his entire life. Benedict pictures clearly the reality of man: the only thing that each man ever cares about is his own well-being. Christ himself in his human nature was tempted to care for his own well-being in the night of his arrest. He made an existential decision to align his human will with his divine will and accepted it to the point of shedding his blood for the salvation of all. Hell is not a place but a state of the self. Its fire is more than only physical torment, although it includes it. The fire referred to by Christ as "Gehenna" is most likely a figure that references the valley of Hennom outside Jerusalem where idolatrous Jews and pagans sacrificed their children as an offering to their god Molech and by the time of Christ was a huge burning place of garbage. This is a figurative way of describing hell. However modern Biblical and psychological research reveals that hell according to the definition given by Pope John Paul the Great "is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises set by people in this life." C. S. Lewis, in his masterpiece "Mere Christianity," thinks that there are certain sins that have a sense of hell - these include hatred, envy, and, above all, betrayal. This leads me to think that the fire of hell reflects the inner hatred of the selfish person who cared about no one in his life but himself. He accumulated fortunes and benefited nothing because he cared only for himself (Luke 12: 16-21). In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we ask what was the rich man's mortal sin? His negligence of his fellow people and mostly the needy around him was probably nothing serious compared to the individualism we live today. Yet because he lived the "good rich life" his attention was limited to his immediate brothers (Luke 16: 19-31). He was the only one who could judge how much he loved. This was only a parable - there was not likely any real Lazarus who suffered at the rich man's door, but the parable has a message for all generations. Here in this life, we make our own existential choice with regard to the relationship with the Other (God and fellow humans). Hell is directly related to salvation in the Christian Tradition. The Church has never infallibly declared anyone is in hell, yet she has canonized many saints. However, hell remains a reality that we cannot avoid its possibility. Richard John Neuhaus, in the footsteps of the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote that as Christians we must hope that all humans may be saved from eternal damnation in hell. Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. who was the greatest contemporary American theologian, wrote in 2008 on the development of the doctrine of salvation. In it Cardinal Dulles carefully traces the question of salvation in the history of the Catholic Church. Anyone versed in understanding the development of doctrine is strongly encouraged to read this eloquent masterpiece in the global age we live in. There are endless questions that each one's conscience asks. We live in a materialistic society, with relativistic moral laws, and atheistic post-modern mentality. What is morally unacceptable in the Christian Tradition has become legalized as if it is normally acceptable - We now make our own truth which Pilate asked Christ. Take for example abortion, same-sex union, premarital sex, and divorce. Today, pre-nuptial agreements are used to guarantee engaged men and women their share in distributive assets should their marriage end in divorce. That is how low the marital commitment has come to be judged and seen by a falling civilization. There is, however, ample opportunity in this generation for living a Christian life of love. In spite of the increasingly hard and fast-paced life, many people - young and old - continue to help others. I see it at work, in the street, and in Church. More young people are seeing the light of God in prayer and spiritual nourishment. More too are engaged in Christian movements regardless of how orthodox it is. The internet used by many to publish selfish stuff, is also used by many to encourage others and help them. Doctors without frontiers is just one example of organizations that help life. Knights of Columbus is another, and Birth Right, here in Toronto, supports unwed pregnant mothers to have their babies. This, I think, is what Pope John XXIII meant when he said that this generation is not lacking in saints. Even when the reality of hell exists, the power of Christ is much more powerful. Our prayer is that, in spite of hell, Christ will win many many many souls. The Book of Revelation itself gives us this hope with its emphasis that multitudes will be in heaven (Rev. 19: 1). God will wipe the tears of many (Rev. 21:4). It is not us who work but the Spirit of God who works in us and helps us in all ways to repent. It is astonishing that where sin increased, grace multiplied (Rom. 5: 20). It is astonishing that a thief stole heaven before anyone else went in, only because he asked the Lord in the last moment of his life (Luke 23: 42). To the Apostles Jesus said "Rejoice for your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10: 21). Rejoice for our God's name is Love. He who cost himself to descend into hell would not let any person perish in hell unless that person insists with full knowledge and consent that he wishes to be in hell. "God runs after you to find even a tear in your eyes to save you" said St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church and the greatest preacher of Christianity.
References
1) Pope Benedict XVI. (2007). "Jesus of Nazareth," pp. 161, 162, Doubleday.
2) Kereszty, Roch. (2006). "Christianity Among Other Religions: Apologetics in a Contemporary Context," p. 127, Society of St. Paul/Alba House.
3) Pope John Paul II. (1999). Papal Audience on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, L'Osservatore Romano http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JPHEAVN.HTM#Note
4) Neuhaus, Richard John. (2001). "Will All be Saved?," First Things http://www.firsthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2216
5) Dulles, Avery. (2008). "Who Can be Saved?," First Things http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6126
6) Lewis, C.S. (1960). Mere Christianity, HarperOne

The Devil's Plans?

An anecdote that I read years ago in the Catholic Register goes like this: Satan was making a grand plan to deceive humanity so he gathered all his troops and asked them: What lie shall we tell the world to fall into our traps. One of the little devils came to him and said: Tell them there is no God! Satan thought and answered him: This is not hard - Every thoughtful person knows that there is God. Another devil came to him and said: Tell them there is no right or wrong! Satan thought a little and answered him: But everyone who goes back to his conscience knows that there is indeed right and wrong - It depends on what you make of it. A third devil jumped up and down and said: I found it - Tell them there is time! There is ample time to do as you please. And Satan praised this devil for he found the lie that people would fall for... This lie is particularly widespread in our world today. Let me count a few examples: 1. Advances in medicine have made it possible for humans to live longer than they lived 50 years ago. The average life expectancy is between 80 and 85 years, when 50 years ago it was 60! 2. Today's technology has allowed us to have fun all the time when we can have fun. If not TV, then internet. If not internet, then iphones. If not iphones then facebook. We do not need to bother with visiting friends if we can "text" them our messages or email them. In fact, our kids are more used now to playing electronic games individually rather than playing soccer in teams. Individualism is the rule of a digital society. In fact so pervasive digital technology is today that Alan Kirby of Oxford considers postmodernism to be already dead (Digimodernism, 2009). Digimodernism requires a lecture by itself to analyze the trend in "global" culture. 3. We have no time for each other, although the lie says that we have time! Parents know that it is very hard for them to be together more than one hour everyday, and probably not everyday. Both work and come home late. When parents come home they come to their chores whether cooking, doing laundry, or home-repairs. Meanwhile their children, if there is any, are left since the morning with strangers and are left at home with computers that run violent games. Everyone is busy. And funtime is being choked - If it exists, it is mainly using technological gadgets. 4. Our youth are the most vulnerable and confused. Running between school/university and a new job that has no permanent status, they are divided. In many cases they are suffering loneliness from divorced/estranged parents or carrying too much debt from loans. They hardly find time to have fun. And when they want to have it they end up in night clubs. Some are on drugs or in intimate premarital sex only to find that they wasted their youth. Some get married if they have been blessed and the rest stay unmarried until they eventually wither. In this drama it is important to realize that with no or little offspring, there will hardly be any future generation particularly in Europe and North America. It is called the fertility dilemma! This is our life - our lie! We live a lie that we have time. However life can be extended it will still come to an end! In spite of the goodness we carry, we live a lie that we can make our own life the way we want it, and we still do not understand that life is more than pleasure and more than survival. We live a lie that the most important person in my life is an individual, me. We live a lie that our children can be educated on their own through the new technology - the least calculation is done today by the calculator, handy on computer, rather than through human memory. With the availability of so many things today, we have come to be a bit lazy or probably too tired! Why cook if we can order food? Why sew if we can buy cloth? Why go to work if we can work from home? The digital technology has allowed us much material comfort. Yet we are psychologically too stressed. Although we have time, we are so busy that we feel we have no time. There is hardly time for the family together. There is hardly time for prayer. There is hardly time for God! On the subway, people are either talking on the cell, playing games by themselves, reading a newspaper, or asleep. The little time we have for ourselves is misused. Has Satan succeeded in seducing us, or some of us? Do we really have time? What kind of time? This is a phenomenon about how matter influences the mind and spirit. Eight centuries ago Thomas Aquinas wrote that the proper hierarchy follows from the spirit leading the mind and the mind leading the body senses. He did not know much medicine but his ideas opened the horizon for man to explore natural sciences, and discover the universe in his body and outside of his body. This Angelic Doctor of the Church developed the synthesis between nature and man. If man is to live, he needs to give priority to the spirit without abandoning the needs of the body. Time is not lost if we live it the way it should be lived - the way of true love in the spirit which is the Spirit of Christ. Long ago, our ancestors were wiser for they knew that life is meant to be eternal, and for it to be eternal they listened and clinged to the Master who said "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14: 6). The question to this generation is what John the Baptist put to the Jews of his time "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance" (Matthew 3: 7, 8). Will we heed the call?

Be moderate in everything except in love

I always think of St. Augustine's words "Be moderate in everything except in love." Being moderate has its consequences of not being too liberal nor too conservative - This is the middle road. I attempt to join in my thought the conservative outlook of Ratzinger and the liberal outlook of Rahner, so that in the end I can retrieve from both the truth in as much as it conforms to the Christian tradition as I see it. In the same way, I attempt to join the zeal of conservative Eastern Orthodox Churches (which are real Churches) and Evangelical Communions (who belong to Christ in their unflinching faith) with the more liberal approach of inculturation, openness to the human needs, and Biblical criticism recognized by the Catholic Church done without compromizing the essence of the Creed. This is partly only why I believe in the Catholic Church who alone enjoys the fullness of truth, and still recognizes the goodness found anywhere and in any tradition. Her openness is so great that it encompasses the universe of humanity. God is the source of everything. Since God is Love, the essence of everything is love. Even when I believe that the essence of everything is love, it does not blow me into a radical non-Christian belief because I believe too that non-Christian religions have a share in the ray that its fullness exists in Christ alone. The good elements in these religions belong to Christ and so every good there is in the end oriented towards Christ who alone saves - He is the mediator between God and man (every man). This flows in Christ through the Sanctifier agent - the Holy Spirit who sanctifies all in as much as they receive His urges and grace. As the Creed states, Christ is God from God. He is perfect in his divinity and in his humanity which remain united in his person. The sacrament of Christ on earth is manifested in the Catholic Church who, by God's grace, develops in the fullness of truth and grace (Development of doctrine as expounded by John Henry Newman). Development itself is part and parcel of how Christians perceive the truth - It is not corruption of dogma since it does not alter the organic unity of the sacred deposit of faith, only how it is perceived. This is also in accord with development in all branches of knowledge (natural, psychological, spiritual, philosophical and otherwise) both objective and subjective. In a way, we know more today than our ancestors. It also points to the fact that unity of knowledge has its source in the one God we worship. Knowledge includes experience - Knowledge in the ancient traditions meant subjective experience of the other. In this sense, it is written that Joseph did not know Mary since he did not know her in her inner depth which man and woman naturally communicate through intercourse. In this sense too we never encompass or comprehend God in his essence. The apophatic theology in the Eastern Christian tradition tells us that God is unknowable in his essence. Our knowlegde is limited to what we sense transmitted to us through the mind - which uses the brain as its physical channel. You see from the above the important movement - Rather than focusing on what divides, the focus is on what unites which is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. I think that prayer is that form of dialogue with God and his saints - never exhausted, through the Spirit. As God is a communion of three persons, so we too are created and exist as a communion. The Church, Catholic and one, embraces all people of good will. She is the guiding star par excellence who is always in need of renewal (Vatican II). In the end, the Alpha and Omega, Christ, will unite to his Father all who are saved in Him so God will be all in all (Revelation).