Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119.105)
In a letter dated February 8, 2008, the Reverend Dennis C. Dickerson, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Bible Society confirmed ―via His Excellency Nikola Eterović, Archbishop of Sisak and General Secretary of the Bishops’ Synod— the offer previously made to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, to prepare and publish a special edition of the Polyglot Bible – Biblia Polyglotta.The Context
This special edition of the multilingual Bible is intended as a gift from the American Bible Society to the Pope and to all the participants in the XII General Assembly of the Synod of Catholic Bishops, which will take place on October 5 to 26, 2008 in Vatican City. The Synod’s theme is The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church. As agreed upon by the American Bible Society and the Vatican, this Polyglot Bible will feature the Old Testament in five languages: Hebrew/Aramaic, Greek, Latin, English, and Spanish; and the New Testament in four languages: Greek, Latin, English, and Spanish.
The Text
The Text
In order to accomplish this illustrious undertaking, it was necessary for the American Bible Society to acquire the publishing rights, for the various Bible versions in the languages mentioned, from the following publishing houses:
- Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, Edited by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph / 1977 and 1997 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
- The Septuagint, Edited by Alfred Rahlfs / 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
- The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1965, 1966 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
- La Biblia de Jerusalén / 1998 / Editorial Desclée De Brouwer, S.A.
- La Nova Vulgata / 1998 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
- The Greek New Testament / 1993 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
This edition of the Bible is being published by Grafica da Biblia, the printing arm of the Bible Society of Brazil. It is one of the largest Bible printing plants in the world, which currently stands at eight million units annually. Since 1995, 75.4 million Bibles and Testaments. Grafica da Biblia was built with a significant investment of the American Bible Society in 1995.
The Polyglot Bible, commemorating the Bishops’ Synod, was conceived—not as an edition for mass distribution—
but as an edition with texts that could be used in liturgical assemblies, and that would have academic and exegetical merit. It will be a 3,200-page deluxe, leather-bound edition of the Bible, embellished with gold and silver titles, and dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI. The final design and production of this Polyglot Bible will be approved and endorsed by the American Bible Society and the Editrice Vaticana (the publishing house of the Vatican). It will also be an edition which Pope Benedict XVI may present as a gift to heads of state and other dignitaries who visit the Vatican.
The American Bible Society
The Polyglot Bible Project complements the mission of the American Bible Society whose purpose is to make the Bible available in the most diverse parts of the world and to the greatest number of people possible. This is done in various languages and formats so that all people may experience its life-changing message.
Founded 192 years ago, the American Bible Society is the oldest and most prestigious, non-denominational organization in the United States. It is not a church, nor is it affiliated with any denomination. However, because of the Protestant origins of our country, it is understandable that through the years, the American Bible Society has been perceived as an organization which has, to a large extent, served mostly non-Catholic churches.
The American Bible Society does not engage in doctrinal discussions, and thus is free to carry out its biblical mandate ecumenically, as it seeks to share God’s Word to all believers in Christ.
Evangelization: a common task, an ecumenical commitment
According to Monsignor Eterović, while the publication of the Polyglot Bible is designed to help us “rediscover the riches of God’s Word manifested in the person of Jesus Christ—the Eternal Word Incarnate—and its perennial importance in the life of the church, in the life of the ecclesiastic communities, in the life of society in general, and in the life of the believer,” it has now become an ecumenical edition, since its texts (all having the imprimatur and the nihil obstat of the Catholic Church) originate —as is the case with the English text—from the Protestant Council of Churches. Therefore, the symbolic value and contribution that this initiative of the American Bible Society represents for ecumenism and the work of all believers in Christ: namely, to spread the Gospel throughout the world, are enormous.
The Polyglot Bible allows us to transcend our historical foundation and reach beyond our traditions and differences both in the doctrinal and liturgical realms, as well as our diverse religious expressions. It also undergirds the common bond in ecumenism between Christians and Pope Benedict XVI’s Pontificate: the centrality that the Word of God will have in our personal, ecclesial, and social histories.
As Christians, we rejoice in the production of this biblical initiative which contributes, in a significant way, to the fulfillment of our Lord’s desire: “That all . . . may be one.”
(Production details of the Polyglot Bible: http://groups.google.com/group/mr-marios-reflections/web/biblia-polyglotta?hl=en)
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Fountain of Christian Spirituality
A Reading of the “Lord’s Prayer”
In an encounter such as this, where I have been asked to share with you a reflection on the fountain of Christian spirituality, it is of utmost importance, in the first place, to define the main terms in the title. In other words, it is important to define what we understand as ”spirituality” and what is specifically “Christian”, in the life of a believer in Christ.
The term “spirituality” refers –in every state, situation, life style or belief-- to a reflexive “taking of consciousness” about the most intimate and typical area of the human being who does it, of the deepest and most profound personal identity, and of the reason for its existence in the world. In such an exercise –done using various methods, through the history of humanity, and especially in the great religions of the world—human beings, in their introspection, end up opening themselves up to the world around, to others, and to the divine. They receive answers that respond to great questions about their origin, mission and the final destiny of their own being and existence, and that of others. Therefore, let’s say for now, that from this series of personal and/or communitarian understanding are born and fed all the philosophical and theological systems.
In the case of the Christian religion, this journey to the deepest part of man and his circumstances is done through, what we call, “prayer.” And prayer, understood as a realization of consciousness by the human being who --open to the world and to the “Transcendent”-- ends up realizing and recognizing himself as a creature, a finite being, dependent from/of a loving and all-invading creative presence we call “God,” who embraces everything, and fills everything. This understanding generates, (within whoever realizes it) a particular “life style.” In other words, this conscious realization of Christian prayer that would seem, at first look, something simply known and intellectual, becomes later –after prayer— a daily practice in life, with its own and defined characteristic. It is validated or invalidated by the results.
If we say that, in the Christian life, coming to consciousness or “spirituality” is done through prayer, then the teaching to his disciples of “The Lord’s Prayer” by Jesus himself, a fact well known by all and present in the Gospels of Matthew (6.9-13) and Luke (11.2-4), is evidently what helps the most when we mean to reflect and answer the matter of identity, needed and due to the specifically “Christian” in the life of men and women believers in Christ.
For now it is enough to notice that The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew appears in the middle of a Gospel discourse known as the “Sermon on the Mount.” The biblical exegetes and hermeneutist say that it gathers and contains the highest degree of the “exact words of the Lord,” just as they were pronounced by Jesus in the precise moment. Therefore, it is the section of the Gospels less “contaminated” by the still present veterotestamentary mentality of the Gospel writers (newly converted Jews), or by the “theological intentionality”, the plan of the Gospel writer or by the Christian community who transmitted to us the biblical text.
The Lord’s Prayer in Luke, on the other hand, answers the request that one of his disciples makes of Jesus, when he saw Jesus pray (as so many other times): “Lord, teach us to pray. . . “. The request can also be understood as: “Lord, show us your secret, the secret of your intimacy, of your ‘spirituality’; which is the most intimate formula of your life and relationship with God, with the world and with other people . . . Lord, teach us to become deeply aware, and from that awareness will come the understanding of your relationship with the God, the experience of everyday life, your works and your words . . .”. Following this interpretation “The Lord’s Prayer” is then, a condensed synthesis of Jesus true being, of his interior essence, of his “spirituality”, of all the Gospel, of the gospels, of the complete New Testament and, because of it “The Lord’s Prayer” becomes the norm of spirituality for those who know they are disciples of Christ.
Therefore, I mean here to speak about the spirituality of Christians from the perspective of Jesus’ spirituality. I aim to speak about “Christian spirituality” by reflecting on the spirituality of Jesus of Nazareth, which is implicit and made into an elemental synthesis, but fundamental, in “The Lord’s Prayer.” If we accept that like all human texts, “The Lord’s Prayer” is susceptible to different ways of looking at it, and different ways of focusing on it (depending on the context from which the reading is done), I would like here, --as a special contribution and emphasis in this Pauline Year, (recently called for by Pope Benedict XVI)-- to refer to the reading, that of Jesus and of his Gospel, was assumed, lived, suffered, reflected, preached and systemized by the Apostle of Tarsus and that today can be sensed, imagined, and savored in his “Theology,” which is clearly shown in his writings.
Father…
Never before in history, had any man referred to God in this manner, or related in this fashion with the Creator. “Abba” (Padre) is a Hebrew term that implies full confidence, full dependency and complete tenderness. Besides, to call God “Father” was a profanity in the biblical mentality of that moment, starting a new image of God; but especially, a new type of relationship, tie and “religion” with God. It meant to treat, live, reveal and announce an image of God, with features and treatment of “Father,” different and --in some cases-- contradicting the image of God as described in the Old Testament. This was the greatest gift of Jesus to the world; his best and greatest “Good News” to the world. The God of the Old Testament revealed in Jesus is “Father”; and all that is new means a break with the past.
Some years after the historical experience of Jesus of Nazareth, which his disciples and many others who personally knew him, saw him and listened to him testified about, Paul of Tarsus said that the life of Christians was characterized by “being able to call God, as Jesus did, Abba Father”: “Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. You are no longer his slaves. You are God’s children…! (Ga 4.6ff)
Life as Children!
Therefore, we are “children of God”! To the treatment and revelation of having God as our “Father” belongs the recognition of our “divine” affiliation. Jesus calls God “Father” because he recognizes himself as his “Son;” and he is accepted, throughout the New Testament, as “the Son”: “This is my own dear Son…” (Mt 3.17), “The only one who truly knows the Father is the Son.” (Mt 11.27)
Jesus teaches us to relate to God as “Father,” and with this relationship goes a daily life-style of “children,” similar to the life-style of “the Son”: “He has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son” (Ro 8.29). A life of “children” characterized by humble obedience, unconditional trust in the power and compassion of the Father, gratitude towards the Father and the joyful hope in the power and the love of the “kind heavenly Father”: “I am going to the one who is my Father…, as well as your Father” (Jn 20.17), “Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these.” (Mt 6.32), “Even the hairs on your head are counted” (Mt 10.30).
Moreover, we could say here, that “the Beatitudes” describe the profile and program of the life of one who has “poor spirit”: a son, a disciple, one that has recognized in his life God as the Father; and –being gentle, merciful, clean of heart and hungry and thirsty for justice,-- becomes someone persecuted, working for peace, following the example of Jesus himself.
All this means that Jesus, at the same time that he reveals God as “Father”, reveals and elevates man to the dignity and life condition of “son” of God.
Paul –as Jesus himself—understands the new condition and life as a son. And according to Paul, the “son” --the “new man”, the resurrected man, the man in Christ –differs greatly from the previous life as “slave.” Before Christ: “Servants don’t know what their master is doing, and so I don’t speak to you as my servants.” (Jn 15.15) “. . . and would share in the glorious freedom of his children.” (Ro 8.21), “My friends, we are children of the free woman and not of the slave.” (Ga 5.31) “Then their own people don’t have to pay.” (Mt 17.26) “The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death.” (Ro.8.2)
Christian spirituality, therefore, defines and accompanies in man a specific lifestyle: the lifestyle of the “children of God.” This is the same lifestyle taught and lived by the Son (with caps): Jesus of Nazareth.
Christian spirituality is, as stated up to this point, an itinerary, a following, a discipleship that makes us children –similar to the Son—so that by Him, with Him, and in Him we reach the Father who forms us “in his image” (Gen 1.26), “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (Jn 14.9) “Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.” (Ef 5.1) “You will be acting like your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5.45)
It is this process, of making us similar to the Son, which Theology calls the process of “Christification” (sons in the Son) until it is possible to say as Paul said: “I have died, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2.20).
When we make possible this life in the “there but not quite” of our daily, personal and community history —at the same time— the process of ”Trinitization” occurs. All of humanity goes, enters, and reaches the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit and all the Cosmos, “all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth” (Ro 8.22); and this will happen, until “God means everything to everyone” (1 Co 15.28).
Christian spirituality, described in the most direct way, is an itinerary, a lifestyle that consists of making us similar to the Father: compassionate and merciful as He, who “makes de sun rise on both good and bad people. And sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong” (Mt 5.45) making us similar to the Son. This is our first vocation, our first calling, our most important historical aim: “to be the children of God” (Jn 1.12).
Our…
And if those of us who say “The Lord’s Prayer” say “Our”, it means that we are all children of the same Father, and, therefore “brothers and sisters.” To the recognition of God as “Father” corresponds the recognition of us as his “children” and, therefore, “brothers and sisters” among ourselves.
Christian spirituality, therefore, asks and preaches a fraternal relationship with all . . . Moreover, in the relation/religion with others we find the “Christian” measure of the relation/religion with God: “So if you are about to place your gift on the altar and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. Make peace with that person, then come back and offer your gift to God.” (Mt 5.23, 24) Therefore, “have pity on others, just as your Father has pity on you.” (Lk 6.36) Because, “the way you treat others will be the way you will be treated.” (Mk 4.24)
An not only that: but Christians should understand that the authenticity of their spirituality, of their discipleship, and of all their lives consists in having as a permanent program in life and in everything, to do the Father’s will, which revealed in his Son consists in loving each other. “But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” (Jn 13.34, 35) Because “our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death.” (1 Jn 3.14) “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.” (1 Jn 4.8)
The “love” commandment is lived through works and special dedication to those who need the help most: the weak, the dispossessed, the sinners, the poor and the made poor; the marginalized and rejected of the world, the excluded by society and blocked out from their opportunities: “My Father, . . . I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people” (Mt 11.25), “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me” (Mt 25.40), because, “God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame. What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important” (1 Co 1.27 ff), “God drags strong rulers from their thrones and puts humble people in places of power.” (Lk 1.51).
“Son and Brother of all”: this was Jesus; and is what any man or woman who calls himself/herself “a Christian” has to be and do every day and in every state and circumstance in life. This is a new vision of God, of man and of the world. Because when man thinks he can make God disappear from the historical scene, or live with his back towards God –when he cannot recognize himself as a “child” of God—he becomes arrogant, capable of the greatest atrocities, and lives in competence and enmity with all.
Christian spirituality, therefore, allows for human cohabitation through the “fraternity” manifested in forgiveness, truth, freedom, solidarity, justice, peace, and abundant life.
Therefore, in the words “Our Father” --the first two words of the “Lord’s Prayer”-- all hate, violence, vengeance, division, all kinds of evil, and death (in thousands of manifestations) are overcome; and life, “life in all its fullness” (Jn 10.10) prevails because God “isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mt 22.32).
Christian spirituality is, therefore, a practice of God’s children who testify when, with works, they love all other brothers. James, possessing the same conscience of the first Christians (among whom Paul stands out), says it in a clear manner: “If you know someone who doesn’t have any clothes or food, you shouldn’t just say, ‘I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat.’ What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!” (Jas 2.15-17)
The balance of the “Lord’s Prayer” is a beautiful rosary of phrases which repeat the first two words. In other words, they put emphasis in the fundamental teachings confirmed in the life and Good News of Jesus for all men and women that come to this world: God is the good “Father.” We are his “children” and, therefore, “brothers” among ourselves; called to live in the “love” manifested in “works, especially with the “little ones”, as God himself loves”. Yes, this is the synthesis of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, of his Gospel, and of all his ministry, his words and his works: Jesus lived as “Son” of God and “Brother” of all.
Since then, the spirituality and the life of his disciples can be lived in a family-like relationship with God and a fraternal relationship with people.
Who Art in Heaven…
Christian life consists in bringing closer the “beyond” to the “here and now” in everyday life. It consists in constructing the eternal life in the “beyond” through the “here and now” of our present story. It consists in constructing “a new heaven and a new earth” (Is 66.22). And God is in heaven. In other words, in the place where his will and his sovereignty is formed: where humans love each other as bothers and sisters while recognizing that all are sons and daughters of the same Father God.
And if heaven is the cause of our greatest anxiety and search while we are on this Earth, then Christians – the same as Paul-- understand that their greatest wish and eternal happiness coincides with the salvation offered by Jesus Christ to all people of goodwill. Saint Agustin said: ”God created us for himself, and our hearts are unsettled until we rest in Him.”
Salvation/Happiness consists in the act of living as children of God and in his love with our brothers and sisters. This is heaven on earth. This life saves us, is eternal life, is the full and happy life which begins now and is open to the eternal beyond in God. That is why Paul can say: “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ . . .” (Phil 3.8)
Therefore, Christian spirituality consists in being happy while living a life that follows Christ, the Son of God and brother of all. Christian spirituality defies us to live on earth as we will in heaven. Therefore. . . “Why are you . . . standing here looking up into the sky? (Ac 1.11)
Hallowed Be Thy Name…
And we honor “thy name” when we live as children of God, brothers and sisters of each other. We honor it when we begin to construct heaven on earth. Only in that manner can the holiness of the only “Holy One,” who is God of Love, ask that our holiness be lived in love: love for God and his children –our brothers and sisters.
Christian spirituality is a path of sanctification: we sanctify the name of God when we do the same for our world of relationships.
Thy Kingdom Come…
May you be the Sovereign of our personal and community histories! May we be constructing the world in accordance to your wisdom, and according to the criteria and values of the Gospel of your Son Jesus Christ. And God reigns and is Sovereign in the world when we are capable of loving each other, and recognizing that we are siblings, children of the same Father.
When we understand the fact that we are created beings, and when that fact places us in relationship with the Creator God, who has the face of a good and merciful Father --as revealed by Jesus of Nazareth-- then we understand our Christian spirituality. This consciousness allows us to develop our divinity, the good and true of our humanity, “an image of God.”
Our Christian spirituality is conscious of our existence --open to the divine, to the Transcendent-- in need of the compassionate love of the Father; and at the same time, of the need God has of man, of each one of us, in the construction of His Kingdom in History.
Thy Will Be Done…
May we do what you want and not our whim and interests, which usually are egotistical and petty. God’s will is that we love each other. For all disciples, throughout history, the Gospel asks us to “do” more than what we “say;” to live in accordance with what we believe; and to practice what we preach. Therefore, the Kingdom of God is built by the execution of his will, manifested in works and results. “Not everyone who calls me their Lord . . . Only the ones who obey my father” (Mt 7.21), “Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others” (Mt 9.13), because “Anyone who obeys my Father in heaven is my brother or sister or mother” (Mt 12.50) and “You can tell what they are by what they do.” (Mt 7.16).
We can say with all certainty that the life program of Jesus consisted in always “doing” God’s will –from his infancy until the supreme moment of his passion and death on the cross: “Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house (doing my Father’s work)?” (Lk 2.49) “Father . . . do what you want and not what I want.” (Mt 26.39). In the same way, the disciple who listens to the Good News and does the Father’s will, putting God’s will in the first place, he builds upon the rock. ( Cf Lk 6.48)
Christian spirituality lies in building God’s sovereignty in our personal and social world, and doing God’s will as revealed in Jesus Christ: “that we love one another.”
Give Us “Our” Bread . . .
As we get to this point, it is fitting to note that the “Lord’s Prayer” is written in plural, because as already established, the Christian life is authentic when it is lived in relation with others; and in the same way that we don’t say “My Father”, we don’t say “my bread.”
We use a plural form to ask God to give us, so we can split his gift, we can share it, we can apportion it . . . If we can give the bread, and even our own lives --because there are those who have more and can do more, and those have less and can receive— there is the possibility of constructing fraternity, to do the Father’s will, sanctify his name, and construct his kingdom.
We try to deceive God when we ask for bread (and everything that feels like bread: a roof, a family, an education; health, family relationships; all kinds of opportunities for humanization in society) all in the plural and then, once we receive it, we handle it in singular, selfishly keeping it to ourselves, creating inequity, injustice, violence and death.
But Jesus’ commandment for his disciples of every age continues in force: “You give them something to eat . . . picked up twelve large baskets leftover” (Mk 6.37 ff), Your received without paying, now give without being paid” (Mt 10.8). Therefore, as long as one man goes hungry or suffers any type of need, the Gospel continues to challenge us. This is how Paul understood it, as did the first Christians: (Ref. the testimony of the first Christian communities in Acts 2.42ff; 4.32ff; and 1 Co 11.17 ff).
Christian spirituality is to be lived “in the plural” because it demands of us the building of a fraternal world. And so, Christians live with the certainty that more than bread, what is lacking is love.
Daily…
So that every day we remember, confidently, that we have a Father who loves us; and that we are his children. Because when we store and monopolize—and in doing it, distort the will of God and his saving plan—we run the risk of forgetting God as Father and the rest as brothers. (Cf Lk 12.20)
As We Forgive …
We are children of God and Brothers/Sisters to each other --but different and diverse. God’s creation work is not boring nor monotonous, but multi-color, with a diversity that does not threaten but makes possible mutual enrichment. Because of that, in being “Christian,” forgiveness is a possibility and a unique condition of human co-existence. Forgiveness is the clearest manifestation of evangelical love and peace; peace that grows out of forgiveness; “peace” understood as a state of “abundant life” -- product of a thousand blessings of God to man: “I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn’t like the peace that this world can give.” (Jn 14.27, also Jn 20.22) “Don’t you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?” (Mt 18.33)
Again, in “Christian”, the measure of our relation/religion with God is done according to our relationship with others. And so, God’s forgiveness of us (man) is directly related with our own capacity to forgive others, and to coexist with each other as brothers/sisters: “Forgive others, and God will forgive you.” (Lk 6.37) “If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Mt. 6.14, 15)
Christian spirituality is a path of forgiveness that facilitate all points in “Lord’s Prayer”; because it is only through forgiveness that we sanctify the name of God, that we do his will, that we construct his kingdom, and that we are capable of sharing the daily bread.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…
Christian spirituality does not ignore the experience of evil. Instead, it recognizes it, accepts it, “embodies” it, and assumes it to be able to save it, redeem it, transform it, illuminate it, and sanctify it. Because the light has meaning, gives all its service, shining in the middle of darkness (Cf. Mt 5.14 ff).
Christians live their spirituality in the middle of temptation and evil, and understand that there is no greater experience of evil in the world than the temptation of not recognizing God as the Father and, therefore, not recognizing ourselves as his children. As a consequence, neither do we recognize our brothers and sisters around us. This moral conflict was described masterfully by Paul when, from his own experience, exclaims: “In fact, I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.” (Ro 7.15)
But “in everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us” (Ro 8.37) first. Therefore, “we are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up. In times of trouble, God is with us, and when we are knocked down, we get up again.”(2 Co 4.7-9)
Christian spirituality as the life of God’s children, --as an everyday experience of the “Lord’s Prayer,”-- consists in conquering temptation and conquering the evil in the world with the love that comes out of recognizing that God loves us as a good Father and asks that his love be lived and manifested in a brotherhood experience: “Defeat evil with good” (Ro12.21) with your confidence always placed in Christ, who tells us “While you are in the world, you will have to suffer. But cheer up! I have defeated the world.” (Jn 16.33)
Finally, let us say that the fountain of Christian spirituality, while we peregrinate through this world, is the life of Christ himself, made life also in us. This, until we can say as Paul of Tarsus said: “Where sin was powerful, God’s kindness was even more powerful” (Ro 5.20); and that is why the Apostle himself exclaims: “I have died, but Christ lives in me.” (Ga 2.20).
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This dissertation was inspired by Mizael A. Roa Cardenas: JESÚS Y SU ESPIRITUALIDAD EN EL SERMÓN DEL MONTE (Jesus and His Spirituality in the “Sermon on the Mount”). Notes for the Monograph and Dissertation for his Theology Degree. / PUJ /Bogotá, Colombia, 1986. 112 pages.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the “Good News Bible” in the Today’s English Version, Copyright © American Bible Society, 1995.
The term “spirituality” refers –in every state, situation, life style or belief-- to a reflexive “taking of consciousness” about the most intimate and typical area of the human being who does it, of the deepest and most profound personal identity, and of the reason for its existence in the world. In such an exercise –done using various methods, through the history of humanity, and especially in the great religions of the world—human beings, in their introspection, end up opening themselves up to the world around, to others, and to the divine. They receive answers that respond to great questions about their origin, mission and the final destiny of their own being and existence, and that of others. Therefore, let’s say for now, that from this series of personal and/or communitarian understanding are born and fed all the philosophical and theological systems.
In the case of the Christian religion, this journey to the deepest part of man and his circumstances is done through, what we call, “prayer.” And prayer, understood as a realization of consciousness by the human being who --open to the world and to the “Transcendent”-- ends up realizing and recognizing himself as a creature, a finite being, dependent from/of a loving and all-invading creative presence we call “God,” who embraces everything, and fills everything. This understanding generates, (within whoever realizes it) a particular “life style.” In other words, this conscious realization of Christian prayer that would seem, at first look, something simply known and intellectual, becomes later –after prayer— a daily practice in life, with its own and defined characteristic. It is validated or invalidated by the results.
If we say that, in the Christian life, coming to consciousness or “spirituality” is done through prayer, then the teaching to his disciples of “The Lord’s Prayer” by Jesus himself, a fact well known by all and present in the Gospels of Matthew (6.9-13) and Luke (11.2-4), is evidently what helps the most when we mean to reflect and answer the matter of identity, needed and due to the specifically “Christian” in the life of men and women believers in Christ.
For now it is enough to notice that The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew appears in the middle of a Gospel discourse known as the “Sermon on the Mount.” The biblical exegetes and hermeneutist say that it gathers and contains the highest degree of the “exact words of the Lord,” just as they were pronounced by Jesus in the precise moment. Therefore, it is the section of the Gospels less “contaminated” by the still present veterotestamentary mentality of the Gospel writers (newly converted Jews), or by the “theological intentionality”, the plan of the Gospel writer or by the Christian community who transmitted to us the biblical text.
The Lord’s Prayer in Luke, on the other hand, answers the request that one of his disciples makes of Jesus, when he saw Jesus pray (as so many other times): “Lord, teach us to pray. . . “. The request can also be understood as: “Lord, show us your secret, the secret of your intimacy, of your ‘spirituality’; which is the most intimate formula of your life and relationship with God, with the world and with other people . . . Lord, teach us to become deeply aware, and from that awareness will come the understanding of your relationship with the God, the experience of everyday life, your works and your words . . .”. Following this interpretation “The Lord’s Prayer” is then, a condensed synthesis of Jesus true being, of his interior essence, of his “spirituality”, of all the Gospel, of the gospels, of the complete New Testament and, because of it “The Lord’s Prayer” becomes the norm of spirituality for those who know they are disciples of Christ.
Therefore, I mean here to speak about the spirituality of Christians from the perspective of Jesus’ spirituality. I aim to speak about “Christian spirituality” by reflecting on the spirituality of Jesus of Nazareth, which is implicit and made into an elemental synthesis, but fundamental, in “The Lord’s Prayer.” If we accept that like all human texts, “The Lord’s Prayer” is susceptible to different ways of looking at it, and different ways of focusing on it (depending on the context from which the reading is done), I would like here, --as a special contribution and emphasis in this Pauline Year, (recently called for by Pope Benedict XVI)-- to refer to the reading, that of Jesus and of his Gospel, was assumed, lived, suffered, reflected, preached and systemized by the Apostle of Tarsus and that today can be sensed, imagined, and savored in his “Theology,” which is clearly shown in his writings.
Father…
Never before in history, had any man referred to God in this manner, or related in this fashion with the Creator. “Abba” (Padre) is a Hebrew term that implies full confidence, full dependency and complete tenderness. Besides, to call God “Father” was a profanity in the biblical mentality of that moment, starting a new image of God; but especially, a new type of relationship, tie and “religion” with God. It meant to treat, live, reveal and announce an image of God, with features and treatment of “Father,” different and --in some cases-- contradicting the image of God as described in the Old Testament. This was the greatest gift of Jesus to the world; his best and greatest “Good News” to the world. The God of the Old Testament revealed in Jesus is “Father”; and all that is new means a break with the past.
Some years after the historical experience of Jesus of Nazareth, which his disciples and many others who personally knew him, saw him and listened to him testified about, Paul of Tarsus said that the life of Christians was characterized by “being able to call God, as Jesus did, Abba Father”: “Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. You are no longer his slaves. You are God’s children…! (Ga 4.6ff)
Life as Children!
Therefore, we are “children of God”! To the treatment and revelation of having God as our “Father” belongs the recognition of our “divine” affiliation. Jesus calls God “Father” because he recognizes himself as his “Son;” and he is accepted, throughout the New Testament, as “the Son”: “This is my own dear Son…” (Mt 3.17), “The only one who truly knows the Father is the Son.” (Mt 11.27)
Jesus teaches us to relate to God as “Father,” and with this relationship goes a daily life-style of “children,” similar to the life-style of “the Son”: “He has always known who his chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like his own Son” (Ro 8.29). A life of “children” characterized by humble obedience, unconditional trust in the power and compassion of the Father, gratitude towards the Father and the joyful hope in the power and the love of the “kind heavenly Father”: “I am going to the one who is my Father…, as well as your Father” (Jn 20.17), “Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these.” (Mt 6.32), “Even the hairs on your head are counted” (Mt 10.30).
Moreover, we could say here, that “the Beatitudes” describe the profile and program of the life of one who has “poor spirit”: a son, a disciple, one that has recognized in his life God as the Father; and –being gentle, merciful, clean of heart and hungry and thirsty for justice,-- becomes someone persecuted, working for peace, following the example of Jesus himself.
All this means that Jesus, at the same time that he reveals God as “Father”, reveals and elevates man to the dignity and life condition of “son” of God.
Paul –as Jesus himself—understands the new condition and life as a son. And according to Paul, the “son” --the “new man”, the resurrected man, the man in Christ –differs greatly from the previous life as “slave.” Before Christ: “Servants don’t know what their master is doing, and so I don’t speak to you as my servants.” (Jn 15.15) “. . . and would share in the glorious freedom of his children.” (Ro 8.21), “My friends, we are children of the free woman and not of the slave.” (Ga 5.31) “Then their own people don’t have to pay.” (Mt 17.26) “The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death.” (Ro.8.2)
Christian spirituality, therefore, defines and accompanies in man a specific lifestyle: the lifestyle of the “children of God.” This is the same lifestyle taught and lived by the Son (with caps): Jesus of Nazareth.
Christian spirituality is, as stated up to this point, an itinerary, a following, a discipleship that makes us children –similar to the Son—so that by Him, with Him, and in Him we reach the Father who forms us “in his image” (Gen 1.26), “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (Jn 14.9) “Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.” (Ef 5.1) “You will be acting like your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5.45)
It is this process, of making us similar to the Son, which Theology calls the process of “Christification” (sons in the Son) until it is possible to say as Paul said: “I have died, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2.20).
When we make possible this life in the “there but not quite” of our daily, personal and community history —at the same time— the process of ”Trinitization” occurs. All of humanity goes, enters, and reaches the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit and all the Cosmos, “all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth” (Ro 8.22); and this will happen, until “God means everything to everyone” (1 Co 15.28).
Christian spirituality, described in the most direct way, is an itinerary, a lifestyle that consists of making us similar to the Father: compassionate and merciful as He, who “makes de sun rise on both good and bad people. And sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong” (Mt 5.45) making us similar to the Son. This is our first vocation, our first calling, our most important historical aim: “to be the children of God” (Jn 1.12).
Our…
And if those of us who say “The Lord’s Prayer” say “Our”, it means that we are all children of the same Father, and, therefore “brothers and sisters.” To the recognition of God as “Father” corresponds the recognition of us as his “children” and, therefore, “brothers and sisters” among ourselves.
Christian spirituality, therefore, asks and preaches a fraternal relationship with all . . . Moreover, in the relation/religion with others we find the “Christian” measure of the relation/religion with God: “So if you are about to place your gift on the altar and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. Make peace with that person, then come back and offer your gift to God.” (Mt 5.23, 24) Therefore, “have pity on others, just as your Father has pity on you.” (Lk 6.36) Because, “the way you treat others will be the way you will be treated.” (Mk 4.24)
An not only that: but Christians should understand that the authenticity of their spirituality, of their discipleship, and of all their lives consists in having as a permanent program in life and in everything, to do the Father’s will, which revealed in his Son consists in loving each other. “But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” (Jn 13.34, 35) Because “our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death.” (1 Jn 3.14) “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.” (1 Jn 4.8)
The “love” commandment is lived through works and special dedication to those who need the help most: the weak, the dispossessed, the sinners, the poor and the made poor; the marginalized and rejected of the world, the excluded by society and blocked out from their opportunities: “My Father, . . . I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people” (Mt 11.25), “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me” (Mt 25.40), because, “God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame. What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important” (1 Co 1.27 ff), “God drags strong rulers from their thrones and puts humble people in places of power.” (Lk 1.51).
“Son and Brother of all”: this was Jesus; and is what any man or woman who calls himself/herself “a Christian” has to be and do every day and in every state and circumstance in life. This is a new vision of God, of man and of the world. Because when man thinks he can make God disappear from the historical scene, or live with his back towards God –when he cannot recognize himself as a “child” of God—he becomes arrogant, capable of the greatest atrocities, and lives in competence and enmity with all.
Christian spirituality, therefore, allows for human cohabitation through the “fraternity” manifested in forgiveness, truth, freedom, solidarity, justice, peace, and abundant life.
Therefore, in the words “Our Father” --the first two words of the “Lord’s Prayer”-- all hate, violence, vengeance, division, all kinds of evil, and death (in thousands of manifestations) are overcome; and life, “life in all its fullness” (Jn 10.10) prevails because God “isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mt 22.32).
Christian spirituality is, therefore, a practice of God’s children who testify when, with works, they love all other brothers. James, possessing the same conscience of the first Christians (among whom Paul stands out), says it in a clear manner: “If you know someone who doesn’t have any clothes or food, you shouldn’t just say, ‘I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat.’ What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!” (Jas 2.15-17)
The balance of the “Lord’s Prayer” is a beautiful rosary of phrases which repeat the first two words. In other words, they put emphasis in the fundamental teachings confirmed in the life and Good News of Jesus for all men and women that come to this world: God is the good “Father.” We are his “children” and, therefore, “brothers” among ourselves; called to live in the “love” manifested in “works, especially with the “little ones”, as God himself loves”. Yes, this is the synthesis of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, of his Gospel, and of all his ministry, his words and his works: Jesus lived as “Son” of God and “Brother” of all.
Since then, the spirituality and the life of his disciples can be lived in a family-like relationship with God and a fraternal relationship with people.
Who Art in Heaven…
Christian life consists in bringing closer the “beyond” to the “here and now” in everyday life. It consists in constructing the eternal life in the “beyond” through the “here and now” of our present story. It consists in constructing “a new heaven and a new earth” (Is 66.22). And God is in heaven. In other words, in the place where his will and his sovereignty is formed: where humans love each other as bothers and sisters while recognizing that all are sons and daughters of the same Father God.
And if heaven is the cause of our greatest anxiety and search while we are on this Earth, then Christians – the same as Paul-- understand that their greatest wish and eternal happiness coincides with the salvation offered by Jesus Christ to all people of goodwill. Saint Agustin said: ”God created us for himself, and our hearts are unsettled until we rest in Him.”
Salvation/Happiness consists in the act of living as children of God and in his love with our brothers and sisters. This is heaven on earth. This life saves us, is eternal life, is the full and happy life which begins now and is open to the eternal beyond in God. That is why Paul can say: “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ . . .” (Phil 3.8)
Therefore, Christian spirituality consists in being happy while living a life that follows Christ, the Son of God and brother of all. Christian spirituality defies us to live on earth as we will in heaven. Therefore. . . “Why are you . . . standing here looking up into the sky? (Ac 1.11)
Hallowed Be Thy Name…
And we honor “thy name” when we live as children of God, brothers and sisters of each other. We honor it when we begin to construct heaven on earth. Only in that manner can the holiness of the only “Holy One,” who is God of Love, ask that our holiness be lived in love: love for God and his children –our brothers and sisters.
Christian spirituality is a path of sanctification: we sanctify the name of God when we do the same for our world of relationships.
Thy Kingdom Come…
May you be the Sovereign of our personal and community histories! May we be constructing the world in accordance to your wisdom, and according to the criteria and values of the Gospel of your Son Jesus Christ. And God reigns and is Sovereign in the world when we are capable of loving each other, and recognizing that we are siblings, children of the same Father.
When we understand the fact that we are created beings, and when that fact places us in relationship with the Creator God, who has the face of a good and merciful Father --as revealed by Jesus of Nazareth-- then we understand our Christian spirituality. This consciousness allows us to develop our divinity, the good and true of our humanity, “an image of God.”
Our Christian spirituality is conscious of our existence --open to the divine, to the Transcendent-- in need of the compassionate love of the Father; and at the same time, of the need God has of man, of each one of us, in the construction of His Kingdom in History.
Thy Will Be Done…
May we do what you want and not our whim and interests, which usually are egotistical and petty. God’s will is that we love each other. For all disciples, throughout history, the Gospel asks us to “do” more than what we “say;” to live in accordance with what we believe; and to practice what we preach. Therefore, the Kingdom of God is built by the execution of his will, manifested in works and results. “Not everyone who calls me their Lord . . . Only the ones who obey my father” (Mt 7.21), “Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others” (Mt 9.13), because “Anyone who obeys my Father in heaven is my brother or sister or mother” (Mt 12.50) and “You can tell what they are by what they do.” (Mt 7.16).
We can say with all certainty that the life program of Jesus consisted in always “doing” God’s will –from his infancy until the supreme moment of his passion and death on the cross: “Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house (doing my Father’s work)?” (Lk 2.49) “Father . . . do what you want and not what I want.” (Mt 26.39). In the same way, the disciple who listens to the Good News and does the Father’s will, putting God’s will in the first place, he builds upon the rock. ( Cf Lk 6.48)
Christian spirituality lies in building God’s sovereignty in our personal and social world, and doing God’s will as revealed in Jesus Christ: “that we love one another.”
Give Us “Our” Bread . . .
As we get to this point, it is fitting to note that the “Lord’s Prayer” is written in plural, because as already established, the Christian life is authentic when it is lived in relation with others; and in the same way that we don’t say “My Father”, we don’t say “my bread.”
We use a plural form to ask God to give us, so we can split his gift, we can share it, we can apportion it . . . If we can give the bread, and even our own lives --because there are those who have more and can do more, and those have less and can receive— there is the possibility of constructing fraternity, to do the Father’s will, sanctify his name, and construct his kingdom.
We try to deceive God when we ask for bread (and everything that feels like bread: a roof, a family, an education; health, family relationships; all kinds of opportunities for humanization in society) all in the plural and then, once we receive it, we handle it in singular, selfishly keeping it to ourselves, creating inequity, injustice, violence and death.
But Jesus’ commandment for his disciples of every age continues in force: “You give them something to eat . . . picked up twelve large baskets leftover” (Mk 6.37 ff), Your received without paying, now give without being paid” (Mt 10.8). Therefore, as long as one man goes hungry or suffers any type of need, the Gospel continues to challenge us. This is how Paul understood it, as did the first Christians: (Ref. the testimony of the first Christian communities in Acts 2.42ff; 4.32ff; and 1 Co 11.17 ff).
Christian spirituality is to be lived “in the plural” because it demands of us the building of a fraternal world. And so, Christians live with the certainty that more than bread, what is lacking is love.
Daily…
So that every day we remember, confidently, that we have a Father who loves us; and that we are his children. Because when we store and monopolize—and in doing it, distort the will of God and his saving plan—we run the risk of forgetting God as Father and the rest as brothers. (Cf Lk 12.20)
As We Forgive …
We are children of God and Brothers/Sisters to each other --but different and diverse. God’s creation work is not boring nor monotonous, but multi-color, with a diversity that does not threaten but makes possible mutual enrichment. Because of that, in being “Christian,” forgiveness is a possibility and a unique condition of human co-existence. Forgiveness is the clearest manifestation of evangelical love and peace; peace that grows out of forgiveness; “peace” understood as a state of “abundant life” -- product of a thousand blessings of God to man: “I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn’t like the peace that this world can give.” (Jn 14.27, also Jn 20.22) “Don’t you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?” (Mt 18.33)
Again, in “Christian”, the measure of our relation/religion with God is done according to our relationship with others. And so, God’s forgiveness of us (man) is directly related with our own capacity to forgive others, and to coexist with each other as brothers/sisters: “Forgive others, and God will forgive you.” (Lk 6.37) “If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Mt. 6.14, 15)
Christian spirituality is a path of forgiveness that facilitate all points in “Lord’s Prayer”; because it is only through forgiveness that we sanctify the name of God, that we do his will, that we construct his kingdom, and that we are capable of sharing the daily bread.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…
Christian spirituality does not ignore the experience of evil. Instead, it recognizes it, accepts it, “embodies” it, and assumes it to be able to save it, redeem it, transform it, illuminate it, and sanctify it. Because the light has meaning, gives all its service, shining in the middle of darkness (Cf. Mt 5.14 ff).
Christians live their spirituality in the middle of temptation and evil, and understand that there is no greater experience of evil in the world than the temptation of not recognizing God as the Father and, therefore, not recognizing ourselves as his children. As a consequence, neither do we recognize our brothers and sisters around us. This moral conflict was described masterfully by Paul when, from his own experience, exclaims: “In fact, I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.” (Ro 7.15)
But “in everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us” (Ro 8.37) first. Therefore, “we are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up. In times of trouble, God is with us, and when we are knocked down, we get up again.”(2 Co 4.7-9)
Christian spirituality as the life of God’s children, --as an everyday experience of the “Lord’s Prayer,”-- consists in conquering temptation and conquering the evil in the world with the love that comes out of recognizing that God loves us as a good Father and asks that his love be lived and manifested in a brotherhood experience: “Defeat evil with good” (Ro12.21) with your confidence always placed in Christ, who tells us “While you are in the world, you will have to suffer. But cheer up! I have defeated the world.” (Jn 16.33)
Finally, let us say that the fountain of Christian spirituality, while we peregrinate through this world, is the life of Christ himself, made life also in us. This, until we can say as Paul of Tarsus said: “Where sin was powerful, God’s kindness was even more powerful” (Ro 5.20); and that is why the Apostle himself exclaims: “I have died, but Christ lives in me.” (Ga 2.20).
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This dissertation was inspired by Mizael A. Roa Cardenas: JESÚS Y SU ESPIRITUALIDAD EN EL SERMÓN DEL MONTE (Jesus and His Spirituality in the “Sermon on the Mount”). Notes for the Monograph and Dissertation for his Theology Degree. / PUJ /Bogotá, Colombia, 1986. 112 pages.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the “Good News Bible” in the Today’s English Version, Copyright © American Bible Society, 1995.
Monday, September 15, 2008
HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
Questions That Challenge Us
The Ephemerides (Recount)
Starting forty years ago, since 1968, and by Presidential Decree, the annual celebration of one month dedicated to the exaltation and recognition of the Hispanic Heritage in the United States of America was established. The beginning of the festivity coincides with the celebration of Independence in Mexico and other Central American nations, in mid September; and ends with the celebration of the meeting of the two worlds in mid-October.
Quantity or Quality?
According to official reports from July 2007 the Hispanic population in the USA has increased by 1.4 million. This means, that at present time there are 45.5 million Hispanics (or people of Hispanic origin) residing in this nation. We are dealing with a spiraling demographic increase which has placed us as the largest ethnic minority living in the United States. Elementary logic would allow us to suppose that if we are the majority, then our influence in this society should be a lot greater. The statistics may help, but they can also serve to distract us. The truth is that in spite of the evidence and number of Hispanics in this nation, the nucleus that governs the political and economic power, which makes the legal decisions remains in control of the destiny of the United States, as they had for the last Century.
What should we say about this celebration of the Hispanic heritage at a time in history where immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, have been made into the excuse to hide the real cause of the moral, political, economic and social crisis we are going through? What should we say during this Month of the Hispanic Heritage in a nation that, on one side draws itself as the defender of individual liberties in the world, and as the “Patria de Libertad” (“Land of Liberty”), which welcomes everyone; while hypocritically building walls, exploiting, disparaging, mistreating and pursuing those who have always raised and made possible –with their sweat, hard work, renunciation and sacrifice-- the greatness and strength of this nation?
All this indicates that we, Hispanics, cannot be satisfied nor boast of the millions present in the United States: the numbers and statistics are not enough. We need to overcome the syndrome of quantity with the effectiveness of a Hispanic presence which wins, simultaneously, in quality.
Some questions, some challenges . . .
In the political arena . . .
In January 2007, NALEO had 5,129 Hispanics elected for positions in representation and government. This number is very low if we take into account that many of these positions are simple popular and community representation in such entities as School Boards, etc. . . . But the true number of Hispanics present in the United States Congress is only 28, and Hispanic Senators only 3; the number of State Governors is only 2, and City Majors, 12.
This is an election year! What can we say now, when Hispanics have the weight to tilt the scale of political power in the United States? Politicians will have to understand that, with the needs and aspirations of the Hispanic Community present in this nation, and in the shadow of our earned progress and participation, it will take more than greetings and flirting in Spanish to earn our backing.
For decades the north American politicians have used and abused the Hispanic electorate using their strength in numbers to jump to the parliamentary arena without making much effort so that our presence may have some significance and relevance in this nation. On our side, the lack of solidarity, formation, unification, organization and of leaders to defend the most valuable aspects of our Hispanic heritage have allowed that the community be mocked and disregarded.
The month of the Hispanic Heritage is a unique opportunity to create conscience of our present political importance and of our urgent need to actively participate in the electoral struggle, where the future of the nation –and our future within it-- is decided.
In the Religious and Moral Aspects . . .
The full Hispanic Community comes from people whose origin, history and identity as nations are permeated and marked by the Iberian Catholicism, and through it by the Christian vision of the world and of man. In this vision, human beings, the individual, the person has the dignity of a Child of God, and this dignity puts him/her over any structure or circumstance.
From this Hispanic identity, permeated by the Catholic and the Christian ideals, come the best of our heritage and of our values: the joy of giving, the value of family, of human relations, of “fiesta”, of music, of an open table, of service to the stranger. And these values, our very own and therefore very different from other people, should not distance or separate us. In fact, they should allow us to unite so they can enrich and construct a common future, propitious to all.
The “Catholic” Church in the United States should become “Madre y Maestra” (Mother and Teacher) among and for all its children: those who are scattered throughout the world and those who come to this nation. As in no other nation, in the United States, the Church has the opportunity and the historic responsibility to show –in many ways and expressions-- its “catholicity,” that is its “universality,” welcoming all, promoting all, comforting all, open to all so it can always unfailingly be the Church of Jesus Christ, where all are recognized as brothers, children of the same Father.
But what can be said in the celebration of the Hispanic Heritage when the Hispanics, who are mostly Catholics, live their faith as a socio/cultural fact, almost as folklore or an anecdote; where the principles of the Gospel do not affect the criteria and values by which they forge their personal histories and community behavior?
“Commercial” versus “Human”
From a wide Christian vision of the world and of life our attention is attracted by the easiness with which accords and international treaties for free commerce are signed for goods and services of all kinds. These international treaties allow free traffic and access to the agreed products. At the same time, walls are built and treaties are reaffirmed to impose migration impediments which stop access to better living conditions for people. We ask ourselves: Are things more important than people? Are consumer goods more important than human beings?
Our First Priority: To Instruct, To Educate, To Prepare Ourselves . . .
The above questions challenge us toward a better future: more prosperous, just, solitary, humane and Christian.
A dialog in North American society with the dominant culture, and in conditions of equality, urges Hispanics to go back to the understanding of our historic past, to the study and appreciation of our origins as a people and as Hispano-American nations. For example, our history of heroic deeds for liberty and independence were under the leadership of great men accompanied by great values.
The needed changes that will bring to fruition and reality our greatest aspirations will come true only through family formation and education, and by academic instruction which in all fields of knowledge we develop in the present.
In conclusion
Beyond this, it is of utmost importance to improve (not to transplant here) the individuality of our origins, since our aim here should be, first, to build “hispanicity,” while preserving –for example and as understood-- the “mexicanidad” or the “colombianidad.”
The complexity of the present historical moment, the social difficulties at an international level, the national crisis, and the crisis in which our own people and countries and nations of origin are immersed, defy us. The Hispanic community present in this nation, with its rich historical, social, cultural and religious inheritance has to answer the demands of this historical juncture with the needed wisdom and greatness.
Not to answer adequately the questions and challenges here exposed, will delay and impede the new and always renewed presence of the Hispanic Community in the United States, with implications at continental and worldwide levels.
Starting forty years ago, since 1968, and by Presidential Decree, the annual celebration of one month dedicated to the exaltation and recognition of the Hispanic Heritage in the United States of America was established. The beginning of the festivity coincides with the celebration of Independence in Mexico and other Central American nations, in mid September; and ends with the celebration of the meeting of the two worlds in mid-October.
Quantity or Quality?
According to official reports from July 2007 the Hispanic population in the USA has increased by 1.4 million. This means, that at present time there are 45.5 million Hispanics (or people of Hispanic origin) residing in this nation. We are dealing with a spiraling demographic increase which has placed us as the largest ethnic minority living in the United States. Elementary logic would allow us to suppose that if we are the majority, then our influence in this society should be a lot greater. The statistics may help, but they can also serve to distract us. The truth is that in spite of the evidence and number of Hispanics in this nation, the nucleus that governs the political and economic power, which makes the legal decisions remains in control of the destiny of the United States, as they had for the last Century.
What should we say about this celebration of the Hispanic heritage at a time in history where immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, have been made into the excuse to hide the real cause of the moral, political, economic and social crisis we are going through? What should we say during this Month of the Hispanic Heritage in a nation that, on one side draws itself as the defender of individual liberties in the world, and as the “Patria de Libertad” (“Land of Liberty”), which welcomes everyone; while hypocritically building walls, exploiting, disparaging, mistreating and pursuing those who have always raised and made possible –with their sweat, hard work, renunciation and sacrifice-- the greatness and strength of this nation?
All this indicates that we, Hispanics, cannot be satisfied nor boast of the millions present in the United States: the numbers and statistics are not enough. We need to overcome the syndrome of quantity with the effectiveness of a Hispanic presence which wins, simultaneously, in quality.
Some questions, some challenges . . .
In the political arena . . .
In January 2007, NALEO had 5,129 Hispanics elected for positions in representation and government. This number is very low if we take into account that many of these positions are simple popular and community representation in such entities as School Boards, etc. . . . But the true number of Hispanics present in the United States Congress is only 28, and Hispanic Senators only 3; the number of State Governors is only 2, and City Majors, 12.
This is an election year! What can we say now, when Hispanics have the weight to tilt the scale of political power in the United States? Politicians will have to understand that, with the needs and aspirations of the Hispanic Community present in this nation, and in the shadow of our earned progress and participation, it will take more than greetings and flirting in Spanish to earn our backing.
For decades the north American politicians have used and abused the Hispanic electorate using their strength in numbers to jump to the parliamentary arena without making much effort so that our presence may have some significance and relevance in this nation. On our side, the lack of solidarity, formation, unification, organization and of leaders to defend the most valuable aspects of our Hispanic heritage have allowed that the community be mocked and disregarded.
The month of the Hispanic Heritage is a unique opportunity to create conscience of our present political importance and of our urgent need to actively participate in the electoral struggle, where the future of the nation –and our future within it-- is decided.
In the Religious and Moral Aspects . . .
The full Hispanic Community comes from people whose origin, history and identity as nations are permeated and marked by the Iberian Catholicism, and through it by the Christian vision of the world and of man. In this vision, human beings, the individual, the person has the dignity of a Child of God, and this dignity puts him/her over any structure or circumstance.
From this Hispanic identity, permeated by the Catholic and the Christian ideals, come the best of our heritage and of our values: the joy of giving, the value of family, of human relations, of “fiesta”, of music, of an open table, of service to the stranger. And these values, our very own and therefore very different from other people, should not distance or separate us. In fact, they should allow us to unite so they can enrich and construct a common future, propitious to all.
The “Catholic” Church in the United States should become “Madre y Maestra” (Mother and Teacher) among and for all its children: those who are scattered throughout the world and those who come to this nation. As in no other nation, in the United States, the Church has the opportunity and the historic responsibility to show –in many ways and expressions-- its “catholicity,” that is its “universality,” welcoming all, promoting all, comforting all, open to all so it can always unfailingly be the Church of Jesus Christ, where all are recognized as brothers, children of the same Father.
But what can be said in the celebration of the Hispanic Heritage when the Hispanics, who are mostly Catholics, live their faith as a socio/cultural fact, almost as folklore or an anecdote; where the principles of the Gospel do not affect the criteria and values by which they forge their personal histories and community behavior?
“Commercial” versus “Human”
From a wide Christian vision of the world and of life our attention is attracted by the easiness with which accords and international treaties for free commerce are signed for goods and services of all kinds. These international treaties allow free traffic and access to the agreed products. At the same time, walls are built and treaties are reaffirmed to impose migration impediments which stop access to better living conditions for people. We ask ourselves: Are things more important than people? Are consumer goods more important than human beings?
Our First Priority: To Instruct, To Educate, To Prepare Ourselves . . .
The above questions challenge us toward a better future: more prosperous, just, solitary, humane and Christian.
A dialog in North American society with the dominant culture, and in conditions of equality, urges Hispanics to go back to the understanding of our historic past, to the study and appreciation of our origins as a people and as Hispano-American nations. For example, our history of heroic deeds for liberty and independence were under the leadership of great men accompanied by great values.
The needed changes that will bring to fruition and reality our greatest aspirations will come true only through family formation and education, and by academic instruction which in all fields of knowledge we develop in the present.
In conclusion
Beyond this, it is of utmost importance to improve (not to transplant here) the individuality of our origins, since our aim here should be, first, to build “hispanicity,” while preserving –for example and as understood-- the “mexicanidad” or the “colombianidad.”
The complexity of the present historical moment, the social difficulties at an international level, the national crisis, and the crisis in which our own people and countries and nations of origin are immersed, defy us. The Hispanic community present in this nation, with its rich historical, social, cultural and religious inheritance has to answer the demands of this historical juncture with the needed wisdom and greatness.
Not to answer adequately the questions and challenges here exposed, will delay and impede the new and always renewed presence of the Hispanic Community in the United States, with implications at continental and worldwide levels.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Year of St. Paul - “But Christ Liveth in Me”
In keeping with the solemnity of the liturgy of the Church, which every June 29 honors the Apostles Peter and Paul, on the eve of that celebration and from the balcony of St. Paul's Basilica in Rome, the Pope will this year inaugurate "The Year of St. Paul": a year in which Benedict XVI is calling on all Catholics around the world to remember, learn about and reflect upon the figure and the work of the Apostle Paul. He is especially calling on the worldwide Roman Catholic congregation to revive and adapt Paul’s theological and missionary legacy to the circumstances in which the Church and the world find themselves today.
But who was this man, Paul, to merit, after two thousand years, that we Catholics be urged to place our hearts and minds in him as the model for our path in Christian life? I shall try to respond to this question – which deserves an extensive answer, given the abundant and rich life and work of this Apostle – despite the brevity imposed by available space for this type of article.
Some Biographical Background
Thanks to the literature of the New Testament, to Paul’s own writings and especially to the Apostles’ Book of Acts, we today have some chronological data on the life of Paul and, in more abundant form, on his work as a missionary, writer and theologian. Saul Paul was born in 8 A.D. in the city of Tarsus, in the region or province of Cilicia (an area of what is today south central Turkey and where, in those days, people born there had the privilege of being granted Roman citizenship) into a family of Pharisee traditions and observances. As a member of the tribe of Benjamin, he was given – as was the tradition of those days – the name Saul (Saulo), common in that tribe in honor of the memory of the first king of the Jews. As a Roman citizen, meanwhile, he received the Latin name Paul (Paulo). It was only natural that upon initiation of his apostolate among the gentiles, Paul would use his Roman name.
Saul learned the tent-maker’s trade, or, as is also believed, that of the weaver of canvas for tents. Very young, he was sent to Jerusalem to receive a good education in the Gamaliel School. As of that point, it is difficult to trace his path until he took part in the martyrdom of St. Steven, a time at which he was referred to as “young”, but this term might well have been applied to anyone between 20 and 40 years of age.
“In the world ye shall have tribulation…”
The Book of Acts contains three stories regarding Paul’s conversion to Christianity (9:1-19; 22:3-21; 26:9-23), which, although they contain slight differences, are not difficult to harmonize and in no way take away from the unique experience: that of Paul’s “encounter” with Christ, in one of the most singular experiences to mark his life – what now was to be his life of faith – forever.
Following his conversion – undoubtedly influenced to a great extent by testimonies of faith to the Gospel of Jesus Christ from those who he himself persecuted - baptism and miraculous cure, Paul began to preach to the Jews. Later, he withdrew to Arabia, probably the region south of Damascus (in what today might be called a “religious retreat”). On his return to Damascus, the intrigues of the Jews forced him to flee by night. He went to Jerusalem to see Peter, but remained only fifteen days, for the snares of the Greeks threatened his life. He then left for Tarsus and is lost to sight for five or six years. Barnabas went in search of him and brought him to Antioch, where for a year they worked together and their apostolate was most fruitful. Together also they were sent to Jerusalem to carry alms to the brethren on the occasion of a famine. They do not seem to have found the Apostles there, since these had been scattered by the persecution of Herod.
“Go forth into the world…”
The richest and most fruitful period in the life of the Apostle Paul was from 45 to 57 A.D. During those years, he traveled on his three great journeys or missions (in keeping with how they have been traditionally organized and in accordance with his own written testimonials), setting off from the City of Antioch and ending up in Jerusalem. These were journeys ever steeped in sacrifice (shipwrecks, inconveniences and dangers of all kinds...) and marked by major conversions to the Christian faith (the heads of synagogues, public authorities and the wealthy of the cities he visited), as well as by persecution and imprisonment (especially at the hands of the Jews) because of the Gospel that he indefatigably preached. The First Mission is related in Acts 23:1-24:27. The Second Mission is narrated in Acts 25:36-28:22. And the Third Mission is described in Acts 28:23-31:26.
It is important to recall, that one of Paul’s top priorities on this missionary journeys was to visit churches and encourage them in their faith. But thanks to his practicing of this task, as he passed through giving his testimony and preaching the word, new Christian communities also started taking shape – new communities that he would visit and encourage in their faith when he returned on later trips.
Paul was a man of his times, a man whose times and the world he lived in could enter his mindset: the Roman world (because of the city in which he was born), the Jewish and Semitic world (passed down from his family), the Greek world (due to prevalence of the Greek culture and language in his corner of the world and his era). This cosmopolitan profile of the man, together with his obsession with making known the salvation (and joy) that comes of knowing the Gospel of Christ, explains why it was Paul – with his journeys, his hard-headedness, his valiant, open, universal (catholic), missionary spirit – who, not without harsh confrontations with his opponents, made it possible for the person of Jesus and his Word to expand beyond the reduced limits of the Israel of those days and spread to every corner of the known world of those times.
“But Christ liveth in me…”
It was in seeking to encourage Christian communities in their faith and in urging them to adhere to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the Apostle Paul's writings were born, works in the form of epistles or letters that were preserved and were handed down to us in the present day: the Letter to the Romans, to the Corinthians (1 and 2), to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians (1 and 2), to Timothy (1 and 2), to Titus and to Philemon.
It is in his writings that we can discover Paul’s profound human as well as Christian experience. His writings – as well as his entire life as a believer in Christ – are driven by a burning desire for everyone to know the saving grace of Christ, or in other words, the possibility to find complete happiness in discovering the one who saved Paul himself: Jesus Christ, the Son of the God of their fathers: the God of the Old Testament.
And so, the doctrine spoken and written by Paul is, first and foremost, a life experience, the experience of a man in search of honest salvation, of happiness, of abounding life, of life eternal: first in the Pharisee world and now, finally, encountered and realized to the fullest in his authentic following of Jesus Christ.
For this same reason, his theology is anthropology (a vision of Man from the viewpoint of faith in Christ) and his anthropology is soteriology (a theological reflection for the salvation of Man in Christ).
Furthermore, his life as well as his work (after his encounter with Christ) is Christ-centric: centered on the “event of Christ” (whom Paul refers to as “the Gospel”: the good news for him and for every person who cares to listen to it, heed it, live it and spread the message to others).
Paul divides the history of Mankind and of every human being into two great chapters: before and after the encounter with Christ. Paul has a whole series of interpretations for this “encounter” with Christ, bearing in mind the richness of that event and the diversity of the audience to which he directs his message: mystery, redemption, resurrection, justification, expiation, liberation, salvation, baptism, faith, etc.
- The life of Man before his encounter with Christ is the life of the ancient Man, devout in the law (the law of the Old Testament and, in general, in all law), which leads him to sin and, through sin, to death. The ancient Man, then, lives according to the knowledge of the world and produces certain of its fruits: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like…” (Gal 5:19).
- The life of Man in Christ is, on the contrary, the life of the “new” Man. Life according to the knowledge of God, which is the knowledge of the cross, another logic, other criteria. It is a life of love by which Man remains in a state of grace and finds abounding life, joy, salvation and begins to produce new and good fruits, fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Gal 5:22).
Seen from this understanding of the history of Mankind, the history of every man and woman, and the history of Paul himself, the viewpoint from which he reflects, lives, writes and gives testimony, it is possible to comprehend the wealth of his writing, with which the Apostle accompanies the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church right up to the modern day, challenging us, if we want to be happy, to embrace a more authentic and ever-renewed discipleship of Jesus Christ.
“I have fought the good fight…”
One of the last trips that Paul made, the final destination of which was Rome, was known as the journey of “captivity”, and it is set down – including five famed sermons that the Apostle gave – in Acts 21:27-28:31. After countless sufferings and sacrifices, Paul arrived in Rome, “And he remained two whole years in his own hired lodging (under house arrest) …preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, without prohibition.” The Book of Acts ends with these words. It is unanimously accepted that the “captivity letters” were sent from Rome.
Since we have no documentation regarding the latter years of the life of the Apostle, “the itinerary becomes highly uncertain, although the events that followed appear to be indicated in the pastoral letters…”
Regarding Paul’s death, “an old tradition makes it possible to establish the following points:
- Paul suffered martyrdom near Rome at a place called Aquae Salviae (now Tre Fontane), somewhat east of the Ostian Way, about two miles from the splendid Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura which marks his burial place.
- The martyrdom took place towards the end of the reign of Nero…
- According to the most common opinion, Paul suffered in the same year and on the same day as Peter …
- From time immemorial the solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul has been celebrated on 29 June, which is the anniversary either of their death or of the translation of their relics.”
“The feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (25 January) is of comparatively recent origin. There is reason for believing that the day was first observed to mark the translation of the relics of St. Paul at Rome...”
Learning from Paul…
How timely and beneficial, this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI in urging us to live a “Year of St. Paul”! There is so much we need to re-learn about Paul's life, about his fervor, his efforts, his mystique, about the generous and unconditional sacrifice of his life in service to the Gospel and, especially, about the universal character of his authentic Christian experience.
“Catholic” means universal. Today we are nostalgic for Paul, faced with the need of many who, like him, employ their best efforts in the building of a world and a Church, not as a scattering of islands tossed on the sea, each different, distant, distinct and xenophobic, but as a sole and single (though diverse) community of the children of God, with neither walls nor boundaries (be they racial, religious, cultural or economic), where everyone has a place, because we are all brothers and sisters in the same faith, in the same love, in the same hope, and in the same search for salvation and joy.
All of this runs counter to the convenience of a Christianity that is kept locked up in church vestries and that forgets the prime mission of the Church and the urgent need for the missionary task, for preaching the Gospel, no longer in far-flung, uncharted lands, but here and now, in the midst of a family, a city, a society and a culture that we attempt to build on the shoulders of God, of the Gospel of Christ and thus of Mankind itself.
Paul understood and lived in this way the “novelty” of his experience in Christ and in the ecclesial community for which he strove, even applying a new and distinct terminology to the “novelty” with respect to the Old Testament, speaking no longer of high priests and Levites, but of “ministers” and “deacons”, and so on. This attitude of Paul’s remains ever necessary: this daring to renew, of attempting new forms of evangelization, of always returning to and drinking from the sources of the New Testament and of the very first Christian communities, but carrying out the task of evangelization always bearing in mind the new and ever-changing circumstances of the world in which we are destined to live our faith in Christ (quote from Paul’s Sermon in Areopagus Acts 17:23)
Let us hope that in every experience and circumstance, everyday until the end of our lives and in our own personal and community experience in Christ, we can say as Paul of Tarsus did: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." And let us hope too that this papal call for us to live a “Paulian Year” may help us and strengthen us toward this purpose.
Literal English-language quotes in italic: www.newadvent.org, and the Holy Bible (New International Version)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A Great Light Shineth…On The Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States
The Roman Catholics of this area of the United States and, represented by us, all of the Catholics of the Americas, are making ready to welcome the visit of Pope Benedict XVI during April.
In the person of the Pope, we Catholics are not simply receiving a Chief of State, and much less still, simply a great writer or famous personality. We Roman Catholics receive the Pope with enormous gratitude and are joyful at his visit and physical presence among us, because he is, above all, the successor of Peter, the first of the Apostles in the Church and the one who is for us the confirmation of truth and unity. In other words, we Catholics see the Pope’s visit to our particular churches as an event that should strengthen our faith and encourage our hope.
A large part of today’s Catholic world knew Pope John Paul II, thanks to his long time at the head of the Church. We knew him in the early days and latter years of his mission, as well as during his times of strength and frailty. John Paul II was seen and heard, followed and loved, but he was not always obeyed. Benedict XVI is another man altogether and – according to an old adage – “the style is the man”. The current Pope, the one that will be visiting us, is a German priest, an intellectual, a recognized thinker of our times and circumstances from the viewpoint of Christian theology, in his role as a great academic, professor and prolific writer.
And Benedict XVI comes to us in a space and time conditioned and characterized by difficult circumstances, not only in terms of what is happening in the United States, but also in the history of the entire American Continent and the world as a whole.
In effect, and at an internal level in this Nation, we are going through a worrisome and evident time of economic “recession” or of “deceleration” (the terminology or technicalities are immaterial, in the end, when the pocketbooks and needs of the poor are at stake), with all that this signifies: fewer job opportunities and, with this, less access to personal and social welfare – e.g., to more highly qualified training, better housing, better health care, and so on. It is a difficult time, above all, because it gravely and scandalously reveals the huge gaps and inequalities that are prevalent in North American society, where a handful of people have a super abundance of wealth, while millions survive a situation of injustice for anyone living in the world’s most powerful Nation, and a situation too that is unworthy and inhuman for any among the children of God.
We find ourselves currently immersed in an electoral battle for the presidency of this Nation. In a Nation in which, from a social and governmental standpoint, the stakes surround issues that are indeed major and pressing, topics of the delicacy and controversial nature of war and peace, the rights of the unborn, U.S. foreign policy, public sexual morals, immigration reform and with it, the rights of those who have magnified this country’s economic greatness with their work, sweat, abnegation and sacrifice, only to then be abused, exploited, mistreated and persecuted. And this is a treatment of immigrants that is clearly at odds with the image of the United States in the eyes of the world as the safe harbor and oasis of freedom, of democracy and of respect for civil rights and the dignity of the human race.
And as if all of this were not enough, we also find ourselves immersed in warfare being waged in different parts of the world, and especially in Iraq. This is a war that comes with great losses of human life, with unjust and unjustifiable spending on arms, with the destruction of what was once the land of the Old Testament and that signifies a huge step backward in age-old progress and development in the humanization and civilization of Mankind.
The climate in the heart of the Catholic Church in this Nation is hardly alien to the social crisis. We carry with us the still fresh wounds of recent scandals involving sexual abuse, and in which ordained ministers of the Church have been implicated. Worrisome too is the ever-lower number of those confessing a vocation for life as priests or nuns and the constant challenge of building the Church in the midst of such diversity between that which is “national” and “immigrant”, “Catholic” and “ecumenical”. The fact is that universal unity is enriching, precisely because of its ethnic, social and cultural diversity. And this diversity has identifiable faces: namely, the more than 45 million Spanish-speaking men and women who inhabit this Nation (the immense majority of them Catholic in terms of their roots and identity), not counting growing waves of immigration from Europe, Asia and Africa. All of this signifies that, currently, over a quarter of the entire population of the United States of America is made up of immigrants.
These and other changing circumstances and concerns form the political, economic, social, cultural and ecclesiastical context of our times. And they constitute our current challenge, as well as our historical responsibility.
Within the framework of this reality, Benedict XVI faces a challenge of his own, since we men and women of good faith, Catholics or not, who inhabit the length and breadth of this Nation, conditioned by these and other circumstances, eagerly await his message, the light of the Gospel, the coming true of the prophecy of Isaiah: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” And in this way, the religious and Christian experience, as lived in the bossom of the Roman Catholic Church, stands to become an ever more possible, amiable, credible, hopeful and saving life experience.
In the person of the Pope, we Catholics are not simply receiving a Chief of State, and much less still, simply a great writer or famous personality. We Roman Catholics receive the Pope with enormous gratitude and are joyful at his visit and physical presence among us, because he is, above all, the successor of Peter, the first of the Apostles in the Church and the one who is for us the confirmation of truth and unity. In other words, we Catholics see the Pope’s visit to our particular churches as an event that should strengthen our faith and encourage our hope.
A large part of today’s Catholic world knew Pope John Paul II, thanks to his long time at the head of the Church. We knew him in the early days and latter years of his mission, as well as during his times of strength and frailty. John Paul II was seen and heard, followed and loved, but he was not always obeyed. Benedict XVI is another man altogether and – according to an old adage – “the style is the man”. The current Pope, the one that will be visiting us, is a German priest, an intellectual, a recognized thinker of our times and circumstances from the viewpoint of Christian theology, in his role as a great academic, professor and prolific writer.
And Benedict XVI comes to us in a space and time conditioned and characterized by difficult circumstances, not only in terms of what is happening in the United States, but also in the history of the entire American Continent and the world as a whole.
In effect, and at an internal level in this Nation, we are going through a worrisome and evident time of economic “recession” or of “deceleration” (the terminology or technicalities are immaterial, in the end, when the pocketbooks and needs of the poor are at stake), with all that this signifies: fewer job opportunities and, with this, less access to personal and social welfare – e.g., to more highly qualified training, better housing, better health care, and so on. It is a difficult time, above all, because it gravely and scandalously reveals the huge gaps and inequalities that are prevalent in North American society, where a handful of people have a super abundance of wealth, while millions survive a situation of injustice for anyone living in the world’s most powerful Nation, and a situation too that is unworthy and inhuman for any among the children of God.
We find ourselves currently immersed in an electoral battle for the presidency of this Nation. In a Nation in which, from a social and governmental standpoint, the stakes surround issues that are indeed major and pressing, topics of the delicacy and controversial nature of war and peace, the rights of the unborn, U.S. foreign policy, public sexual morals, immigration reform and with it, the rights of those who have magnified this country’s economic greatness with their work, sweat, abnegation and sacrifice, only to then be abused, exploited, mistreated and persecuted. And this is a treatment of immigrants that is clearly at odds with the image of the United States in the eyes of the world as the safe harbor and oasis of freedom, of democracy and of respect for civil rights and the dignity of the human race.
And as if all of this were not enough, we also find ourselves immersed in warfare being waged in different parts of the world, and especially in Iraq. This is a war that comes with great losses of human life, with unjust and unjustifiable spending on arms, with the destruction of what was once the land of the Old Testament and that signifies a huge step backward in age-old progress and development in the humanization and civilization of Mankind.
The climate in the heart of the Catholic Church in this Nation is hardly alien to the social crisis. We carry with us the still fresh wounds of recent scandals involving sexual abuse, and in which ordained ministers of the Church have been implicated. Worrisome too is the ever-lower number of those confessing a vocation for life as priests or nuns and the constant challenge of building the Church in the midst of such diversity between that which is “national” and “immigrant”, “Catholic” and “ecumenical”. The fact is that universal unity is enriching, precisely because of its ethnic, social and cultural diversity. And this diversity has identifiable faces: namely, the more than 45 million Spanish-speaking men and women who inhabit this Nation (the immense majority of them Catholic in terms of their roots and identity), not counting growing waves of immigration from Europe, Asia and Africa. All of this signifies that, currently, over a quarter of the entire population of the United States of America is made up of immigrants.
These and other changing circumstances and concerns form the political, economic, social, cultural and ecclesiastical context of our times. And they constitute our current challenge, as well as our historical responsibility.
Within the framework of this reality, Benedict XVI faces a challenge of his own, since we men and women of good faith, Catholics or not, who inhabit the length and breadth of this Nation, conditioned by these and other circumstances, eagerly await his message, the light of the Gospel, the coming true of the prophecy of Isaiah: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” And in this way, the religious and Christian experience, as lived in the bossom of the Roman Catholic Church, stands to become an ever more possible, amiable, credible, hopeful and saving life experience.
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