IT’S a concept that, in my view, we need to know well. It corresponds to a reality that is necessary for us to recognize and to live as fully as possible. It requires effort, but, heck, it’s worth all the hassle it entails.
Christian witnessing is not a private affair of individuals, confined to religious moments or to Church circles. Hello! We need to debunk this awfully antediluvian prejudice, typical of the dark ages.
Christian witnessing is a concern for all, especially for those who consider themselves Christians. And it involves all aspects of our life, including our earthly affairs—business, politics, sports and entertainment, art and culture, etc.
It has to be lived always, and not just on some special occasions like on Sundays or other so-called pious moments we have. It has to be lived in all circumstances and events of our life. It should not be suspended at any time.
It’s precisely when we ignore this concept and reality that we enter into situations that are actually anomalous and harmful to us and to others, where all forms of inconsistency in our life can arise.
I would say that much of our problem today is due to our failure to live Christian witnessing. Thus, we have discrepancies between our words and our actions, between our personal, private life and our social, public life, etc.
Remember what our Lord said one time: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. So practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” (Mt 23,2-3)
Many people extol the value of integrity, for example. But how can integrity prosper, how can it develop and spawn other virtues, especially the civic ones, if this Christian witnessing is not understood and lived well?
That we are supposed to be a Christian country and yet one entrenched in corruption and other social diseases like injustice, poverty, etc., is one such anomaly that arises when Christian witnessing is not authentically lived.
Christian witnessing is, of course, a much richer concept than the usual meaning that comes to mind when we hear the word “witness,” especially in its legal sense.
The latter concept refers to someone who saw something or who took part of an event. It is a very passive concept, not demanding anything from the person concerned other than perhaps to give a testimony of what he saw.
This human or legal concept of witness is applicable only to some persons who were at a certain place on a certain time. In this understanding of witness, obviously not everyone can be a witness.
Not so with a Christian witness. Here witnessing is not a matter of being in a certain place, seeing a certain event. It is more a matter of having a living faith, of uniting oneself in a living way with Christ through grace.
Thus, despite the distance in time and space, and the infinite discrepancy between God and our human condition, we become contemporaries with Christ. We get to talk to him always and to live in his presence.
We get to follow God, know His will, obey His commandments. We become aware of who God is and of who we are. We enrich our “I”, our identity to
include the presence of God in us and the tremendous riches that our intimate relationship with him would bring about.
Christian witnessing, therefore, is never a passive affair. By definition, it involves a vital and constant dealing between God and us. As long as we do our part, this relationship is enhanced and would yield us great benefits.
Thus, when we learn how to pray and talk to God always, when we study and assimilate his teachings, develop virtues, receive the sacraments, etc., we will soon experience the divine gifts and fruits—joy, peace, justice, wisdom, understanding, patience, chastity, etc., etc.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Mercy limits evil
THAT’S an expression, intriguing and dramatic, coined by Pope John Paul II. The insight came to him in the course of some personal reflections he gathered in a book entitled, “Memory and Identity.”
There he traced the historical validity of this insight as he considered the defeat of the ideological evils of communism and Nazism that raged in his native Poland. Those evils were systematically vicious, their malice carried out in scientific fashion.
He seemed to tell us of the universal applicability of this truth to all forms of moral evil besetting our world today. I think it is worthwhile to pay attention to the suggestion. We tend to take this for granted. And yet it is a crucial ingredient in our life.
Thus, it’s good that Pope Benedict XVI himself echoes the same idea a number of times already. Fact is we need to be reminded of this basic truth that, of course, needs to be blended with the requirements of justice and prudence.
We have to realize that even without considering the effects of moral evil, our human weakness and limitations alone can easily give rise to conflicts and problems among ourselves.
Given that human condition alone, common sense will immediately tell us that we have to be ready to forgive and reconcile, no matter what it takes, otherwise we can all head towards mutual destruction.
Mercy can do a lot of wonders to us. First of all, it is a divine command, lived first of all by Christ himself. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” we pray in the “Our Father.”
When Peter asked our Lord how many times we should forgive, Christ was clear about forgiving not only seven times, but seventy times seven—meaning always.
When the woman caught in adultery was dragged before him, our Lord did not condemn her. He saved her from being stoned and later admonished her to sin no more.
And from the cross, that ultimate appeal for divine mercy was made—“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Our Lord just forgave and
forgave, and continues up to now to forgive, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation.
Why? Because we are so precious to him--we are all children of God—that regardless of our mistakes, our Lord is willing to forgive us and to reconcile us with him. He has given us all the means to attain that goal, because our reconciliation cannot also take place without our cooperation.
We can say that mercy disarms evil. It may not prevent evil, but it surely can take away much if not all of the sting of evil and malice. It halts the vicious cycle of evil, and can start the process of healing.
Mercy purifies our hearts, removing traces of resentment and anguish. It bestows on us peace and serenity. It restores joy. It facilitates friendships. As we enter into more complicated webs of relationships, we should neither forget the growing relevance of mercy in our life.
Mercy can teach us how to expand our perspectives, from being purely human to being supernatural as well. It helps us to be more mature, to be more mindful of the over-all picture than to get entangled with childish details.
With mercy, we will more easily understand that evil does not deserve to be given a lasting concern. Parasitical in nature, opportunistic in character, it cannot survive when we overflow with goodness and holiness.
We have to learn the ways of mercy. First of all, we have to realize that it is an effect of grace, of our living union with Christ, following his commandments and receiving him especially through the sacraments.
We have to learn to forgive, and also to ask for forgiveness. We have to give due attention to this task. The dramatic transformation we all want to happen in our personal as well as social lives can only take place if we live the spirit of mercy, which is the spirit of Christ.
There he traced the historical validity of this insight as he considered the defeat of the ideological evils of communism and Nazism that raged in his native Poland. Those evils were systematically vicious, their malice carried out in scientific fashion.
He seemed to tell us of the universal applicability of this truth to all forms of moral evil besetting our world today. I think it is worthwhile to pay attention to the suggestion. We tend to take this for granted. And yet it is a crucial ingredient in our life.
Thus, it’s good that Pope Benedict XVI himself echoes the same idea a number of times already. Fact is we need to be reminded of this basic truth that, of course, needs to be blended with the requirements of justice and prudence.
We have to realize that even without considering the effects of moral evil, our human weakness and limitations alone can easily give rise to conflicts and problems among ourselves.
Given that human condition alone, common sense will immediately tell us that we have to be ready to forgive and reconcile, no matter what it takes, otherwise we can all head towards mutual destruction.
Mercy can do a lot of wonders to us. First of all, it is a divine command, lived first of all by Christ himself. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” we pray in the “Our Father.”
When Peter asked our Lord how many times we should forgive, Christ was clear about forgiving not only seven times, but seventy times seven—meaning always.
When the woman caught in adultery was dragged before him, our Lord did not condemn her. He saved her from being stoned and later admonished her to sin no more.
And from the cross, that ultimate appeal for divine mercy was made—“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Our Lord just forgave and
forgave, and continues up to now to forgive, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation.
Why? Because we are so precious to him--we are all children of God—that regardless of our mistakes, our Lord is willing to forgive us and to reconcile us with him. He has given us all the means to attain that goal, because our reconciliation cannot also take place without our cooperation.
We can say that mercy disarms evil. It may not prevent evil, but it surely can take away much if not all of the sting of evil and malice. It halts the vicious cycle of evil, and can start the process of healing.
Mercy purifies our hearts, removing traces of resentment and anguish. It bestows on us peace and serenity. It restores joy. It facilitates friendships. As we enter into more complicated webs of relationships, we should neither forget the growing relevance of mercy in our life.
Mercy can teach us how to expand our perspectives, from being purely human to being supernatural as well. It helps us to be more mature, to be more mindful of the over-all picture than to get entangled with childish details.
With mercy, we will more easily understand that evil does not deserve to be given a lasting concern. Parasitical in nature, opportunistic in character, it cannot survive when we overflow with goodness and holiness.
We have to learn the ways of mercy. First of all, we have to realize that it is an effect of grace, of our living union with Christ, following his commandments and receiving him especially through the sacraments.
We have to learn to forgive, and also to ask for forgiveness. We have to give due attention to this task. The dramatic transformation we all want to happen in our personal as well as social lives can only take place if we live the spirit of mercy, which is the spirit of Christ.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Chill out, dude!
ONE basic attitude and habit to develop is to refer ourselves to the Pope whenever we want to be clarified about matters of faith and morals.
This is not some kind of special duty reserved only for certain people. This is actually a duty for all of us. It comes with our being a member of the Church. We cannot be casual about this duty.
Of course, we don’t go to him to learn about physics and politics. But when
these fields of knowledge touch on questions of faith and morals, as they sometimes and ultimately do, then we have to listen to the Pope.
This is because as successor of Peter, the Pope is our supreme teacher entrusted by Christ himself with the duty to teach and perpetuate the living and eternal word of God.
For this, in a mysterious but effective way, he is endowed with infallibility. “Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven.” (M 16,19) What the Pope says, in effect, is what our Lord is telling us now.
This truth of faith is most relevant especially in the world of media. This is because while immersed in the world of opinions, the media cannot help but touch also on matters of faith and morals.
In Pope Benedict’s last message for the World Communications Day, given sometime ago, there was one idea, one truth worth highlighting because in spite of its objective importance, it continues to be widely ignored.
This was when he focused on the idea of “communion”—we are supposed to be in communion with God and among ourselves, always and everywhere—and
then said:
“The call to be true to the self-communication of God in Christ is in fact a call to recognize his dynamic force within us, which then seeks to spread outwards to others, so that his love can truly become the prevalent measure of the world.”
In my understanding, he reminds us that God’s revelation to us, made full
and definitive in Christ, continues up to now through us. It’s never just a frozen historical fact which we try to preserve. It goes on now, alive, and involving us in a vital way, not just in a formal way.
More than that, it is a living and continuing self-communication of God to us that draws all our processes of communication, in whatever form and circumstance, into this source and ultimate reason for whatever communication we do in this life.
This is the basic reality, a truth of faith, which we on the whole are still ignorant about. We think our communications are just our own thing. They have nothing to do with God’s self-communication to us and our response to him.
This is unfortunate, because with this kind of mentality we become most prone to the wild tendencies of our weaknesses and the malice of the evil spirits. Instead of promoting love, truth, justice, etc., we get into all sorts of ugly situations especially when we have differences and conflicts of views.
Thus, it is common nowadays for us to get sprayed by the slime of lies, half-truths, intrigues, shallow, even inane and reckless reporting, and heavily slanted fallacies. Just read the papers, just listen to talk shows, this garbage is rampant.
There also is the foul odor of self-righteousness, arrogance, bitterness, hatred, prejudice, skepticism, bickering, fault-finding, etc. Indeed, a real mess, a poisoned atmosphere!
Refinement, civility, prudence, discretion, etc. seem prohibited to exist. We seem to be losing our capacity to discuss and argue with reason enlightened by faith and driven by charity.
Chill out, dude! Don’t take things too personally or too seriously. We have to find a way to treat each other as children of God, worthy of being loved all the way, in spite of our differences and even the mistakes we commit.
We have to realize what we really matters in this life, what really will endure to eternity. Our opinions on temporal matters will come and go. What remains is that we love each other, for love of God, a love shown and lived and died for by Christ himself.
This is not some kind of special duty reserved only for certain people. This is actually a duty for all of us. It comes with our being a member of the Church. We cannot be casual about this duty.
Of course, we don’t go to him to learn about physics and politics. But when
these fields of knowledge touch on questions of faith and morals, as they sometimes and ultimately do, then we have to listen to the Pope.
This is because as successor of Peter, the Pope is our supreme teacher entrusted by Christ himself with the duty to teach and perpetuate the living and eternal word of God.
For this, in a mysterious but effective way, he is endowed with infallibility. “Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven.” (M 16,19) What the Pope says, in effect, is what our Lord is telling us now.
This truth of faith is most relevant especially in the world of media. This is because while immersed in the world of opinions, the media cannot help but touch also on matters of faith and morals.
In Pope Benedict’s last message for the World Communications Day, given sometime ago, there was one idea, one truth worth highlighting because in spite of its objective importance, it continues to be widely ignored.
This was when he focused on the idea of “communion”—we are supposed to be in communion with God and among ourselves, always and everywhere—and
then said:
“The call to be true to the self-communication of God in Christ is in fact a call to recognize his dynamic force within us, which then seeks to spread outwards to others, so that his love can truly become the prevalent measure of the world.”
In my understanding, he reminds us that God’s revelation to us, made full
and definitive in Christ, continues up to now through us. It’s never just a frozen historical fact which we try to preserve. It goes on now, alive, and involving us in a vital way, not just in a formal way.
More than that, it is a living and continuing self-communication of God to us that draws all our processes of communication, in whatever form and circumstance, into this source and ultimate reason for whatever communication we do in this life.
This is the basic reality, a truth of faith, which we on the whole are still ignorant about. We think our communications are just our own thing. They have nothing to do with God’s self-communication to us and our response to him.
This is unfortunate, because with this kind of mentality we become most prone to the wild tendencies of our weaknesses and the malice of the evil spirits. Instead of promoting love, truth, justice, etc., we get into all sorts of ugly situations especially when we have differences and conflicts of views.
Thus, it is common nowadays for us to get sprayed by the slime of lies, half-truths, intrigues, shallow, even inane and reckless reporting, and heavily slanted fallacies. Just read the papers, just listen to talk shows, this garbage is rampant.
There also is the foul odor of self-righteousness, arrogance, bitterness, hatred, prejudice, skepticism, bickering, fault-finding, etc. Indeed, a real mess, a poisoned atmosphere!
Refinement, civility, prudence, discretion, etc. seem prohibited to exist. We seem to be losing our capacity to discuss and argue with reason enlightened by faith and driven by charity.
Chill out, dude! Don’t take things too personally or too seriously. We have to find a way to treat each other as children of God, worthy of being loved all the way, in spite of our differences and even the mistakes we commit.
We have to realize what we really matters in this life, what really will endure to eternity. Our opinions on temporal matters will come and go. What remains is that we love each other, for love of God, a love shown and lived and died for by Christ himself.
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