Food for the Mind

Whoever wishes to know of the power of evil and the way it operates need only read the Gospel and carefully examine the events of Holy Week. One will find a friend’s betrayal, the lure of money, the misuse of political power, an unjust, corrupt judicial system – both religous and state, and a lot of pain and suffering. Holy Week reminds us that Christ meets us in our struggles, disappointments, and pains in order to truly be one with us. He does this by subjecting Himself to the power and corruptive ways of evil. In the Olive Garden He accepts this cup, the symbol of suffering and on the cross painfully experiences the power of death. He can be likened therefore to a doctor who, in order to save millions from a dangerous new disease, allows himself to be injected with the disease in order to show how it develops and debilitates. The consequences of Christ’s decision, especially in the area of human suffering, are enormous.

The mystery of human suffering imposes a sense of separation. One who suffers feels alone and has difficulty maintaining contact with others. Christ, by accepting suffering and death Himself, reaches out to every suffering and dying person. No longer can anyone say, “God does not understand me,” or “He really does not know what I am going through.” He not only understands, He is there.

By His actions, Christ sanctified human suffering. So, from now on, something that is pure evil, something that does not make any sense, becomes an instrument of salvation. This is why the counless martyrs find in the crosss of Christ the meaning of their own suffering and death. This is why suffering does not lead them to despair or hopelessness but rather makes them stronger and mature.

Those who patiently suffer are united with Christ our Savior in a unique and privileged way. Saint Paul was well aware of this: “It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that still needs to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His body, the Church” (Col. 1:24). Deeply united with Christ, the suffering are always regarded by other members of Christ’s body as special ministers of evangelization.

To all those who are betrayed, who are in pain or suffer, Holy Week brings light, hope, and salvation. Let us participate in the events of Holy Week, the Paschal Mystery of Christ,and thus allow the enormous power of God’s love to comfort us in all our suffering, once again. Happy Easter!

Among the many petitions contained in the Lord’s Prayer one can find: “deliver us from evil.” This plea is clearly a cry for help expressing a need for God’s special intervention and can be interpreted as the ultimate SOS call. As we begin the season of Lent, let us examine the crucial urgency in this petition and discovery why we should never cease to invoke it.

Although evil can be analyzed from many different perspectives, it would seem that it appears basically in three forms. Human weaknesses are the first form because such weaknesses have the potential to overtake the human spirit and consume it to such a degree that one can be trapped and enslaved by them. The numerous and various addictions are examples of this manifestation of evil. And those who find themselves ensnared in them often view their cry for God’s help as their only hope. Misguided ideologies leading to corruption and inhumane conditions within political, economic and other social structures represent another form of evil. This second form of evil is continuously perpetuated through human tragedies such as war, acts of terror, ethnic cleansing, starvation, euthanasia, etc., which have reached a critical level today and make people feel increasingly more helpless. Many people today, acknowledging the insufficient human abilities to deal with such injustice, believe that any attempt at solving these problems definitely require God’s full intervention. Finally, there is the source of evil and the reason for all evil in the world, evil itself – the Evil One. Christians and others know the Evil One is an intelligent spirit who hates God and is jealous of the closeness that humans share with God. In the Gospel, the Evil One – Satan, is depicted as one who uses all kinds of methods to separate humans from God and when unsuccessful, continues to besiege people in efforts to enslave them or even destroy them. As we enter this time of meditation upon the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest Man who ever lived and who himself was besieged and tortured, we should not be surprised that we too are attacked by evil. At the beginning of Lent therefore, the petition: “Father, protect us from evil” is not only something we recite but something we should take very seriously and use all means offered by the Church such as the sacrament of reconciliation and special devotions that He may hear our plea. May this prayer be filled with hope and conviction that just as the case of Jesus, we too will not be overcome by evil or perish.

Our God is a God who not only saves but also the One who blesses. Through blessing, God is directly and concretely involved in the existence of every creature. It is God’s blessing that provides elements of growth from generation to generation. It is God’s blessing that allows a child to grow into a man or woman. It is God’s blessing that makes what seems to be impossible, possible.

Through the Holy Book of Numbers, God asks priests to bless His people with the following words: “May the Lord bless you and guard you; may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look kindly on you and give you peace” (Nm 6:22-26 REV). These holy words assure us of three gifts that are continually offered to us. The first is the gift of God’s constant presence. To meet God face to face means to be aware of the truth that He is always with us. His face is turned towards us and as Moses, and so many others after him, we too can experience His presence and be transformed by it. The second gift is that God wants to make His face shine on us. This means, He wants to look at us with kindness, gentleness, goodness, and love that is full of forgiveness. He looks in this way at every man and woman not only for a moment or day but always and through all eternity. No life experience can compare to the gift of God’s face shining on us. It allows us to see clearly our place in the world and the role we play in God’s plan. It is the greatest experience we can have here on earth. In this experience a third gift is given to us, namely, a peace that penetrates and takes over our entire life.

Blessing is God’s gift and as such it must be received. As created in the image of God, in the image of someone with a face, we too have or own distinguished face. What makes us special creatures in the universe is our ability to meet with God face to face, that is, to receive and embrace His overwhelming goodness and love. As sinners, however, we are afraid to look straight at the loving face of God. To help us overcome our fear, God became man so that forevermore we should be able to see His face by looking at the faces of others. There is an exact correlation between our kindness towards others and a deeper understanding of God’s kindness towards us. The wider we are able to open our hearts in order to look kindly on others, the clearer we are able to see the smiling, and shining face of God filled with love for us. The more enthusiastically (Gk. enthousiasmos – inspired by God) we look on others, the more evidence we provide that we are in God’s presence and are the instruments of His love.

In the spirit of this special blessing, my wish is that you will never turn your back on God; that you may have the courage to look straight into God’s eyes and receive His love. I wish that you and I would help God to bring His peace and love to others by looking kindly on the with a smiling face every day of this year, year of 2012, and in every year to follow.

The Season of Advent and Christmas reminds us once again that God loves us and the God is in charge. In these uncertain times, such a reminder can be a real blessing because it offers reassurance that everything will be okay. Advent and Christmas present also a challenge because the love of God is simply an invitation to particpate in God’s life. We accept this invitation by allowing God to be born in us, by becoming a new creation, and we participate in His life by allowing God Him to continue His work through us.

Through incarnation, by accepting human nature Jesus, the Son of God, made it clear once and for all that in Him all people are renewed and that all are brothers and sisters. He therefore is not ashamed to call them His brothers (Heb. 2:11). His love for His brothers took him to the cross. Stretched on the cross, He embraces everyone without exception and renews the brotherhood among all people. He will go so far as to say, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it for me” (Matt. 25:40). This is why Saint Paul will call him, ” the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29) and a monk from the Mount of Atos, Sylwan, will say, “Our Brother is our life”.

To protect this special brotherhood, Jesus formed a new commandment, “As I have loved you, so you also should love on another” (John 13:34). W. Solowiew sees in this commandment not only love for an individual person but love for an entire nation as well. He will say, “love all the other nations as your own; it is better to resign your patriotism than to ignore your conscience.” The revolutionary character of Jesus’ commandment is truly evident when He forgives His enemies. From the cross He prays, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Reminding His followers of His unconditional love, He instructs them to go so far in their brotherly love as to love their enemies. Trusting them He says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (Matt. 5:44). He asks for this because He wants to instill in them the knowledge that only this kind of love is truly life-giving.

Humans are definitely a unique species. They are unique because they are the only species that have to be taught what it means to be human and how to be human. No other species has to go through this process. For many humans, Jesus of Nazareth, the One born in Bethlehem and who died in Jerusalem, is the the Teacher. If you consider Him your Teacher, His universal brotherhood and teachings about love should be put into practice in your everyday life. Jesus is not telling us that to be human is easy, but He is definitely telling us that to be human means to love. Celebrating Christmas, let us remember that He is hidden in others.

For us Christians, God came, is constantly coming, and will come again. Through faith we acknowledge His coming and recognize His presence in our life.

Our faith experience is one of mixed feelings – certainty and uncertainty, closeness and distance, longing and fear fill our hearts when we think about God. We want God to come into our life yet at the same time we do not want Him to come right away. Such feelings occur because when God is truly in us, our life has to change and we are reluctant to let our old life to pass. We feel comfortable with our weaknesses and hesitate to leave the life that we are so accustomed to.

The main reason for this struggle lies in the fact that to “believe in God” does not necessarily mean to “believe God.” To believe in God is relatively easy, even many pagans never question His existence. To belive God however, is not only to accept His existence but also to acknowledge that He came and is constantly coming to us. Most importantly, to believe God means to know that He loves us and He is always right.

It is not so difficult to agree with God when our personal life is not at stake. To welcome Him as a personal friend however, or to invite Him into our life when we do not nessarily agree with Him, is a real challenge. We truly take God seriously only when we surrender to Him, when we trust Him more than ourselves, and when we invite Him into our hearts and permit Him to clean our mess. To surrender to God, to believe Him, means to receive everything He brings to us and accept it as a gift, even if the gift is in the form of the commandments.

Each year, especially in the season of Advent and Christmas, our Mother Church helps us to recognize God’s presence and encourages us not to be scandalized or surprised by the way He is coming to us. The Church presents Him as a little brother born in Bethlehem, as a best friend who is ready to die for us, and as the One who, in the form of bread, wants to bring forgiveness and peace into our hearts and to the world. Should we not welcome Him and give Him a chance?

Yes, faith is a struggle, but we know that with faith everything is possible. So, in the spirit of Christmas, let us ask our God to strengthen our faith by saying, “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Every year in November, the Catholic Church remembers the saints. For some non-
Catholics and even some Roman Catholics, the mention of saints is often met with
skepticism if not outright scorn. So I wish to share some thoughts on this topic.

When one visits a park or a forest, one is easily amazed at the richness of God’s
creation and mesmerized by the way all of creation glorifies the Creator. The singing of a
nightingale for example, is enough to leave one breathless. Such a small bird with no
education, no knowledge of notes, and yet such a great virtuoso! There is no opera
singer who can compete with this bird. There is no opera singer who can compete with
this bird. To experience this kind of music may lead one to conclude that through the
simple chirping of a songbird, the greatness of God is revealed. Christians therefore do
not hesitate to say that in nature, every flower,every tree, every butterfly, every fish, and
every animal speaks of God and glorifies God.

The God who can be detected in nature is the same God who revealed himself in history,
and “spoke to us through a son,” (Heb. 1:1) known to Christians as Jesus Christ.
According to Scripture, God continues to make himsellf present to the world through
those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are the imitators of Christ. The saints are
never without limitation or weakness but rather those who, by utilizing God’s power,
overcome weakness thus drawing closer to God. Saints are not without fault or free of
mistakes but rather they admit mistakes, repent and thus glorify God and become more
effective conduits of His power and love. Sometimes above the head of a portrait of such
a person an artist will paint a halo. According to Christian tradition, this is done, first, to
convey that God’s energy permeates through the person, second, to acknowledge the
heights achieved by an ordinary person cooperating with God and, finally, to introduce
one who does not cease to intercede with the Father for us.

The world today is filled with many difficult and complicated problems. It seems that
there is no one who can offer a solution or resolve the problems. Scientists cannot
provide any nor can soldiers, doctors or lawyers, much less politicians. Christians will
say that this is so because the One who not only knows the problems but also knows
the solutions to them, namely God, is not given due consideration. The Church therefore
will always stress the idea of sainthood, of becoming a truly fruitful member of the
Church and thus being a real hope for the world. Let me close with the appeal of the late
Pope John Paul II: “Do not be afraid to become a saint.”
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Among the many qualities of the powerful and creative human mind, is the strong desire to achieve, which is called ambition. According to the Christian understanding of human life, this special quality is a gift from God and as such should be highly valued, always treasured, and constantly followed. A tragedy may occur however, and Holy Scripture as well as human history gives evidence to this, when ambition, a positive force, becomes infected or overtaken by the negative influence of pride. The problem of pride lies in the fact that pride can never accept defeat; that pride can never lose; that pride is always right and never gives up on its own position; and that pride knows only one side of life and that is success. Human life however is filled with small and big defeats and the end of human life, death, is nothing but one big failure. Defeat therefore becomes a real dilemma for humans and the ability to deal with it opens a whole new realm of understanding of human existence. For Christians, the solution to the problem lies in Jesus Christ himself who willingly accepted death on the cross and by doing so showed humans how to deal with defeat and how to be victorious even in defeat.

The example and teaching of Jesus Christ therefore leads Christians to the conviction that only prayer and sacrifice but also the willing acceptance of humiliation leads to victory. This is so because as the Christian experience suggests, it is also the humiliation, in defeat, that eyes are opened to God and it is in humiliation where humans come to the realization that God understands them. The willing acceptance of humiliation empowers Christians because it unites them with the humiliated Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who “humbled himself becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross” (Phil 2:8). This special solidarity with the humiliated Son of God gives a humble person a special dignity and greatness. The dignity can be compared to a diamond, which cannot be destroyed even by a mountain of dirt. Consequently, Christians believe that if one cannot accept defeat, more, cannot accept humiliation, then such a person will never be able to truly win life.

Pride always devalues a person. Those who are overtaken by pride, those who persist in the belief that they are always right, who find justification for everything they do, who will fight even God to be right, are without substance and quality, are like dough ready to be decimated. Because of their inability to deal with real pressure and their inability to withstand defeat, proud people are in constant fear. Through deceits and lies as well as senseless violence they will use fear to convince others they are right. People therefore should never trust those who are filled with pride because in reality such people have nothing to offer besides fear. They will always in the end also fail them. Only a humble person deserves the trust of others because such a person is able to achieve victory even in the fearful hour of defeat. Being one with the humbled and humiliated Jesus, humbled people participate in the victory of Jesus and are winning like God who ultimately is the only true winner.

*For further reflection please take the time to pray The Litany of Humility composed by Cardinal Merry del Val.
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Jesus, in the Gospel of St. Mathew, tells us: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3). He said this in response to the Apostles’ question regarding the hierarchy of importance in His Kingdom. Those who asked were adults with political ambitions. It is difficult to accept that Jesus suggested or encouraged, approved or commanded childish or infantile behavior, therefore we want to examine what it means to be a child in the eyes of God.

Experience with children leads us to the realization that a child is someone who does not like confusion; instead, it likes clarity, simplicity, and straight forwardness. This is so because a child is someone who lives in the truth. It loves the truth and honestly expresses it. It is adults that introduce a child to lying and thus destroy its world. A child is painfully wounded anytime it is exposed to a lie. The pain is the child. If being in the truth and love of simplicity characterizes a child, according to the Gospel we are required to imitate a child in this regard. Yes, those who are around children are responsible for making them aware of the existence of the world of lies, but, they should do this in such a way that the child will never respond to a lie with a lie.

The other defining characteristic of a child is its availability. A child does not lead its life according to a program or a plan but rather makes itself available. A child believes in the goodness of other and thus unconditionally trusts everyone. Parents and others, especially people in authority, are the ones who are exposing children to certain values and stimulating in them certain needs and desires. All the exposure determines the direction and the choices children will make in their life. Today’s child psychology and pedagogy makes us aware that the availability of a child is characterized by certain plasticity. Those who have any access to children have the ability to mold them according to their own programs or agendas. To avoid destruction and to help children reach their full potential, adults should be in the Truth and make themselves completely and unconditionally available to the Truth.

The Gospel presents Jesus Christ to us as the Truth. He is the Son of God who is always available to His Father. His presence in our lives can definitely help us in becoming like children, that is, to live in the Truth and always make ourselves available to others.
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Many today assert that faith is a private matter – something that should be confined to one’s heart and never allowed to come out or be revealed. Some will also say that their faith does not always direct the way they live their lives and therefore sometimes state, “I do believe but I do not practice my faith.” From a Christian standpoint, this thinking, even though very common, is not only unacceptable but represents an indirect confession of a lack of true Christian faith.

Christians believe that those who come into contact with Jesus Christ through an act of faith go through a life-changing experience. They believe that the experience fills them with such joy and happiness and is so powerful and overwhelming that the only adequate and just reaction to it is to share its fruits with thers. The need to share the experience with others and the desire to show others the way to true happiness is so strong that it is often recognized as an outward sign of authentic faith.

Among the many who have been blessed with such an experience is Saint Augustine. In The Confessions, he talks about the experience. Prior to his conversion, he describes himself as being in darkness, deaf and dead. After receiving the light of faith, after meeting Christ, The Light, he is continually moved to share this light with those who are still in darkness and constantly yearns to share his joy with those who are deaf and dead (Confessions IX, 4).

Millions of others who have received the same gift of faith are filled with the same desire as Saint Augustine and those before him, and regularly share their faith with others. They do this simply by leaving their homes on Sunday and going to church, by participating in communal prayer and partaking in the breaking of the bread, and by rejoicing in the Lord and sharing with others all the riches they believe they have received from the Lord. This weekly practice also forms them and prepares them for everyday life so that they may express their joy everywhere they go, recognize the face of God in everyone they meet, and pour out the happiness that overflows their heart upon the larger environment.

Those who maintain that faith is a private matter and still believe that they are Christians should reflect more deeply on Christ’s words, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13)…”You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). Hopefully this will lead them to the conviction that the gift of faith is not given to an individual simply to warm their heart but is given so that they will become a true light to the world by making a difference in the lives of others. Those who are enlightened by Christ should always focus on others in the world around them. This is so because Christ himself is always for others and the world around Him has always been of great concern and relevant to Him.
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