Eternal Life

Last Tuesday, a two-year old toddler "Chase Martens" went missing from his family's farm in Manitoba, Canada. When the parents could not find him they asked for help. Immediately, hundreds of Canadians went on the search for the little one. RCMP and search-and-rescue crews combed a four-kilometer radius in the fields around the family's home near Austin including air and land search.  On Easter Saturday, the body of the toddler was found dead in a creek half-a-kilometer from home. We hope Chase is with God, but why have so many Canadians spent their efforts for a single toddler?  How important was his life for Canadians?

Life is important...It is important because society itself cannot survive without respect for every life and cooperation which could ultimately lead to love. The clear message is found in the development of civilization rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ. Before Christ, only kings and governors mattered, but with the humanism initiated by him, emperors and kings gave way to the culture of life for every human person. The early Church developed among peasants and soldiers in the base before the proclamation arrived to the palaces. Christian faith defends the vulnerable, the poor, the weak, and yes the Church prays for those who commit suicide. God always works through his Spirit in every soul on earth to help the seekers of goodness and truth repent and find God in Christ. "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock" says Christ (Revelation 3: 20). He wants to give life - eternal life and joy!

This is also why the Church does not agree with any measures or laws that are anti-life such as abortion of children in the wombs of their mothers, and assisted suicide.  Not only life here, but joy in eternal life that humanity seeks.

In scripture "Love is strong as death". What is stronger than death? Love of God that emerges from God. It is the other that can carry me not as a shadow but in reality when I die. This is only a small excerpt from Joseph Ratzinger's thought on the truth of the Resurrection of Christ here:
Joseph Ratzinger: The Truth of the Resurrection
http://todayquestions.blogspot.ca/2012/04/joseph-ratzinger-truth-of-resurrection.html

O Sacred Head Surrounded

In this Holy Week, victims fell to terrorism in Belgium and many more fell in the Middle East too. European and North American politicians were quick to condemn the terrorist attack in Brussels. On the same night of the Brussels incident, the commentator Amr Adeeb in Cairo Egypt reflected on the image of Islam in the world after so many terrorist attacks by the so-called Islamic State. He said that the world today is different from the world before the Arab Spring which may very well turn against Arabs.
We can probably link this week's sufferings and death to Christ's passion and death. He was a victim and they too are victims. The difference is his acceptance to suffer and die according to the will of his Father.
[Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again, and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him" The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God." When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid; he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin." Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar."When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gab'batha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol'gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, "Do not write, `The King of the Jews,' but, `This man said, I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom; so they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." This was to fulfil the scripture, "They parted my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots."So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." And again another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced." After this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body.  Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight.  They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.] (John 19).

The gospel read on Good Friday in St. Basil's Roman Catholic Church reminds us of a homily by Fr. Georges Farah at Jesus the King Church years ago...It shows the forces that stood against Christ on his way to save them: the high priests, the Jewish people, and Pilate. The crowds were singing to Jesus a week earlier and now they turned against him. The high priests thought they were not doing anything wrong. Their duty was to keep the Law and to make sure that no revolution will take place when they are occupied by a staunch enemy: the Roman empire. They thought it is better for one man to die than the whole nation to perish. Pilate was a foreign governor who had no interest in religious Jewish quarrels. His dialogue with Christ before ordering his crucifixion sheds light on us today as much as it did then. He questioned Christ at length, prompted by his wife’s request to release him. But Christ remained silent! He then asked him “So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, sarcastically, "What is truth?" as if saying to him: You have nothing. You are going to be killed for saying things. Be wise. Forget about truth-Just worry about your life and survival here.  I can release you and you can go to Rome. Live your life there as a free man…Pilate could have said that to any other person but the answer of Christ is the same. The Truth is a big thing in Christ’s way of thought and life. He must defend the Truth to the end. He is not politically correct. And he cares for everyone even when everyone is against him.

“Behold the Man” Pilate tells the Jews when he is surrendering Christ to them. Christ is said to have been  crucified on the place called Golgotha i.e. The Skull, the skull of Adam- the skull of humanity. His blood went into the skull of humanity and he went to Hades so that he could save by his death the dead humanity. Christ’s Cross is tied to his Resurrection. No life without death.

Now look at Pilate and think of us: Do what you want – Just be silent in matters of truth. Is not this how we think today? Do not we crucify Christ everyday? Here Fr. Georges Farah ended his reflection. 

But the same question can be asked again in view of the surrender of Christ to his Father's will - He loved his Father from eternity but here he joined his human nature to that eternal love and cried out "It is finished" when he tasted to the full the darkness and spoke about  his imminent death; a death of God that embodies not only the self-emptiness of the Son but also the suffering of the Father with the Son on the cross according to Jurgen Moltmann in his book "The Crucified God". Who is king? Who is God? In the same gospel, let us view the  saints that accompanied Christ to his death and witnessed to his resurrection, notably the immaculate Virgin Mary Mother of Jesus, John the Apostle, Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus. 

Let us sing "O Sacred Head Surrounded":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XppXi_jZKWk

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!