WHAT'S IN A WORD - DEATH?

 

What’s in a Word? – Death

When I was fourteen years old, I went with some family friends to slaughter chickens. It was my first time partaking of any farm practices, and as a girl who grew up watching Emergency Vets while eating scrambled eggs, the gore factor didn’t bother me much. But there was a different kind of solemnity to the experience: the closeness of death.

Death is such a controversial topic in the world, but I think it’s safe to say that most people become desensitized to it, to some degree, over the course of their lives. This can come through excessive exposure—like in a trauma ward or battle situation—or minimalized exposure, like your average first-world person today. For those who eat meat, the butchering is largely separate from the consumption. Back at that farm at fourteen was the first time I looked at an animal before it was killed for my consumption; the first time my heart connected that there was death on the other side of that live-giving sustenance.

Honestly, I don’t think God ever intended us to be quite as separate from death as we are today. The fact is, death is a part of life now, thanks to the Fall of Adam and Eve; it is a part of man’s reality and I don’t think God ever wants us to forget those consequences. If we do, how can we truly learn? If you look back at the course of history, all the way to Israel, one of the rules for certain sacrifices was to lay hands on the animal that was killed for atonement. There is an element in that of bringing the wages of sin (death) near; one comes face to face in that moment with the price of a life laid down for theirs, their hands on the innocent (the sacrifice) given for the guilty (the one laying on hands).

During the time of Coronavirus pandemic, I was greeted with a reality I hadn’t really experienced before: just how wide-ranging people’s reactions to the threat of death are. And yes, death is a terrible thing; but by and large, what I’ve seen across the scope of mankind in relation to the threat of Coronavirus are extremes of fear and dismissal all stemming from the same root cause: we have lost our perspective on life and death to such an extreme that we tend toward extremes of avoidance or invitation.

To be clear, I don’t think death is something we should hide from or seek out. What comes to mind for me more than anything is simply the realization that we have become so divorced from death in our daily lives that we leave ourselves exposed to be taken advantage of by the evil of this world, pushed to one side or the other to fulfil agendas in the spirit realm.

We need to have a heavenly perspective on life and death. We need a godly perspective, so that we hold a balance rather than causing a problem—for ourselves or others—when it comes to the subject of death.

What is Death?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines death as “a permanent cessation of all vital functions; the end of life.”

There is little more that needs to be said about what death is; most of us have been touched by it at least somewhere in our lives. Yet it’s something our very spirit seems to know we weren’t created for and wars valiantly against even in the gravest circumstances. This is why the story of a man seeking immortality is so universal, why you see it popping up endlessly in various forms of entertainment and why so many have actually wasted their lives trying to attain or discover the secret behind it. Shangri-La, the Fountain of Youth, immortal warriors and thousand-year loves…these themes all manifest the loathing of death within us.

No matter your belief in what comes after, death is undeniably the conclusion of something; the end of one’s time to make an impact on this world and a separation from loved ones until we are all united in the presence of Jesus.

In short, death is an enemy. And one day, Jesus will conquer it.

What Does the Bible Say About Death?

Ecclesiastes 9:5 – For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

1 Corinthians 15:26 – The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 – But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

How Should I Relate to Death?

As terrible as death is, there are two things to bear in mind: obsessing over it will not add a day to our lives, and dying is not the end of the born-again believer’s story. When death comes for us, as it will for all but those who are alive to see Christ’s return, the very next thing we’ll know is our Lord’s face.

So how should we relate to death? By ultimately accepting it is not about us. Instead, take the steps necessary to make sure those who would be most affected by your passing are taken care of, in case the unthinkable should happen; make sure you have a will or plan in place, not for morbidity’s sake, but for preparedness.

And then get busy living.

Life is simply much too precious to waste dwelling on death. Accept that death will come, should the Lord tarry; accept that it’s not the end, pray for peace and protection, and turn your thoughts to things that are honourable, righteous, pure, lovely, admirable, full of virtue and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8). If thoughts of death or dying plague you, pray against them in the name of Jesus—you don’t have to live in that mind-set! Death doesn’t have to be a shadow stalking you night and day.

God wants us to live fruitful, abundant lives, and being haunted by the thought of death empowers no one. Cast off that shackle by accepting the gift of life in the age to come by the sacrifice of Jesus, and let your focus be on doing good in this life and your hope in the day when our Saviour will at last destroy the enemy, Death, and we will live forever with him!

Take Action!

If you find yourself dwelling on thoughts of death, particularly during this time of global health-crisis, avoid any sources that feed these thoughts and invest your time instead on those that inspire you regarding the Hope, everlasting life, and the promises of God!

 

MOTHER TERESA AND MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE

 

 The journalist who introduced Mother Teresa to the world

Malcolm Muggeridge lived a life of change. The greatest of those changes happened when he met the “saint of the gutters.”

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is one of the best-known saints today. Even before she was canonized in 2016, in life she was sometimes referred to as the “saint of the gutters,” because of her work among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.

But relatively few people know the person who made Mother Teresa so well-known.

In 1971, British writer Malcolm Muggeridge published Something Beautiful for God, a book about Mother Teresa and the work of the Missionaries of Charity. Muggeridge had been an atheist earlier in life but eventually became Christian. He was so impressed by Mother Teresa’s witness that he became Catholic in 1982, at age 79.

Born in Croydon, a suburb of London, in 1903, Muggeridge was educated at Cambridge and began his career as a teacher in Egypt in the late 1920s. Shifting into journalism, he worked for newspapers around the world. Marrying Katherine Dobbs in 1927, he had an idealistic view of communism, and when the couple moved to Moscow in 1932, they felt that they would live out the rest of their life there.

But Muggeridge became disillusioned with communism. He and Gareth Jones, the Welsh journalist, were the only two to report on Stalin’s forced famine in Ukraine in 1932. Muggeridge’s reports, however, were heavily censored by the Manchester Guardian, his employer.

He would continue working for newspapers for the next decade, including some time in India, but during World War II, he served in British intelligence, posted to Africa and Paris.

Back in journalism after the war, he spent some time as Washington correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. Beginning in the 1950s he was a popular interviewer, panellist, and documentarian on British television. In 1957, he ruffled a lot of royal feathers when he published an essay in the Saturday Evening Post, “Does England Really Need a Queen?” In the 1960s, he became a sharp critic of liberalism and the new sexual laxity and use of drugs.

Muggeridge also wrote and appeared in several religion-oriented television documentaries, such as an American Public Broadcasting Service six-part series on the lives and teachings of “six characters in search of God” — St. Augustine, Blaise Pascal, William Blake, Soren Kierkegaard, Tolstoy and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Something Beautiful for God was based on a film Muggeridge had made for the BBC about Mother Teresa’s work in India. He related how during filming, one scene was taken in a “dark, cavernous building where the Sisters bring the dying from the streets outside.” The scene was “expected to be unusable because of the poor light,” he wrote.

“Actually, to the astonishment of all concerned, it came out bathed in an exquisite luminosity,” Muggeridge said. “Some of Mother Teresa’s light had got into it.”

Toward the end of his life, Muggeridge reflected on meeting Mother Teresa. In his 1988 book Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim, he wrote

When I first set eyes on her, I at once realized that I was in the presence of someone of unique quality. This was not due to … her shrewdness and quick understanding, though these are very marked; nor even to her manifest piety and true humility and ready laughter. There is a phrase in one of the psalms that always, for me, evokes her presence: “the beauty of holiness” — that special beauty, amounting to a kind of pervasive luminosity generated by a life dedicated wholly to loving God and His creation. This, I imagine, is what the halos in medieval paintings of saints were intended to convey.

 

 

UNITY

 

What’s in a Word? – Unity

As a kid, I was obsessed with Aesop’s Fables. I probably read our book cover to cover a hundred times! Among my favorites was The Bundle of Sticks, in which a father, fed up with his sons all quarreling, decides to teach them a lesson. He has them try to break a bundle of sticks, which of course they fail at; then he hands them each a separate stick, which they snap easily.

The lesson? In unity is strength.

It’s no surprise God has always known this, and does not keep that truth from us. Way back in Genesis 11, He said of even the evilest of people who were building a tower to Heaven, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from [be impossible for] them that they intend to do.” 

This, about the terrible acts the wicked sought to do! All because they were of one language and as one people!

Think about that same principle with the followers of Jesus. If we are all united as a Body, speaking one heavenly language, do you know what will be impossible? NOTHING. When we are unified in mission and in voice, we become an unstoppable force sweeping across the world for the good of the Great One who created us.

In his teachings during his time on earth and since, through the inspired writings of many, Jesus made it known the sheer power of unity among his Body—it is what defines us, empowers us, sets us apart and makes us strong. We are known as his not by what we know, but how we behave in relationship with one another.

Are we putting as much emphasis on the power of unity as God does? Have we highly esteemed the sheer force of being one people, with one heavenly language, working good together for the One who created us?

Do we truly fathom the utter importance of being unified in the holy spirit and having peace? 

What is Unity?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines unity as “the quality or state of not being multiple; oneness. A condition of harmony.”

What a definition! Nothing could be more true of what Jesus wants for his Body and what we are to have with one another; one and harmonious, not being multiple. Though our “core beliefs”, “practices”, and understanding of Scripture may be different, we are meant to treat one another with love and respect, and to be one in such a way that people see God and Jesus reflected through us.

This, by the way, is in no way elective. Unity of the spirit is not based on how we feel about our fellow Christians who are different from us; it’s a command from our Lord Jesus about how we conduct ourselves as his representatives and as separate members of his Body. We are to be one and harmonious in a way that moves the Body forward, every part in synchrony, to carry the Gospel to the world.

What Does the Bible Say About Unity?

1 Peter 3:8 – Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Ephesians 4:1-3 – I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

John 17:23 – I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

How Can I Become A Force for Unity? 

There are many facets to unity, including unity in doctrine, unity in practice, unity in mind, and more, but the one we are specifically told to keep is the “unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” – which means to acknowledge the same holy spirit in every Christian and use that as a foundation to have peace in the Body of Christ.

Here are three vital ways to become a force for unity!

1. Focus on What Unites Us, Not What Divides

Truth is important. But understand that every Christian you meet—even the ones you contend with—all believe they’ve got it figured out. Instead of looking for places where  you see differently from your brothers and sisters in Christ, seek the places where you’re of one mind and find ways to spread the Gospel from that position of unity.

2. Devote Your Attention to What’s Important
   We can certainly spend all our time on this earth debating who among us as Christians has the greater scope of truth, but in the end, will that bring anyone else to Christ? While there’s nothing wrong with a healthy conversation about differing viewpoints, what unifies us as a family is the places where we have respect and love—and those places need to be where we devote the majority of our focus!
   
3. Lead with Love
   Remember, Jesus said the world would know we were his disciples not by how much we know, but by how we love one another. Operating from the place of unity in the spirit—recognizing we all serve the same Lord and Master and thus are all infilled with the same gift of holy spirit—allows us to approach one another with love, the greatest unifier  and the nature of our Father God.

Take Action!

Is there a place in your life where you’ve chosen division over unity? How can you be a catalyst for unification with others?

KOLKATA WILL SURVIVE

 

KOLKATA WILL SURVIVE     

Life in cities may be harsh and precarious, but as social organisms they are robust. This paradox surfaced, for instance, in the aftermath of the New York twin tower attack on 11 September 2001, another day that would “go down in infamy” but also in honour since Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima.  Another such urban theatre of World War II was London that was all but razed to the ground by the Blitz, yet proved to be the archetype of a city’s indomitable spirit under stress. “No time for regrets”, “stiff upper lip, Jeeves”, “business as usual” characterised the ethos of the Londoners during those horrific months, a natural source of inspiration that helped rally the New Yorkers, in their turn, after the collapse of the twin towers. Malta, Antwerp and many of the German cities, like Dresden, fared worse than London. Nagasaki and Hiroshima suffered the ultimate and unspeakable horror that “never again” shall happen.

  

And yet, seventy-five years on, all these cities stand proud and tall, proving once again that a city is not its buildings but its citizens. It is not defeated by external assault but by internal decay. When the Romans, glutted on blood and lust, handed themselves over to their slaves, the empire collapsed from within. Babylon, symbol of enslavement to corruption, could not last. Jerusalem, turned towards the Lord and blessed with peace and justice, will turn out resilient. This is true “survival of the fittest”, where fitness is endowed with moral fibre and spiritual muscle. However, despite the understanding that Jerusalem builds up and Babylon self-destructs, no city can pretend to be purely Jerusalem, since Babylon still circulates in the bowels of power and commerce, until purged by the forces of divine love and neighbourly concern, assured by the presence of the Risen Christ.

  

          Kolkata will survive because it has the spirit that cannot be crushed. Such a spirit is kept alive by the networks of charity and dialogue, of small Christian Communities, of the clubs and associations comprising generous workers and professionals, of families and students at the service of the needy. The dwellers of posh high rises and industry’s captains (who park their consciences with their cars before entering their board rooms) may just about notice the poor tenements and slums from a clinical distance, but they do not know from within the informal structures of helpful human relationships among the interactive poor. “It’s the poor what ‘elps the poor” was the by-line of an old cockney one act play. Indeed, well below Kolkata’s rising glass-concrete and underlying its fabulous festivals there are pockets of power of another sort that provide the endurance in Coronavirus and disasters, that gives the city its peculiar charm.

  There have been two great Teresa’s in the long history of the Church: Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux.   In the mid 40’s, the people of Kolkata awoke to the phenomenon of a new apostle in their midst; someone who took them by surprise and with whom every encounter was a refreshment of soul and body. Frail-looking on the exterior, but, robust with rectitude and mobile with the Spirit, she led her legions from the vibrant heart of Kolkata to the wider world of the “poorest of the poor”, as no armies of Alexander or legions of Rome had ever done, and with no more intent of conquest than that of giving them God in the form of a healed and healthy humanity. This woman was inserted into the grand narrative of the God of salvation. There is no nook or cranny left on this earth that has not received the comforting benediction of this apostle. This is the one who illumines the streets and shops, the slums and high rises, the parks and stadiums, the schools and theatres with the transfiguring light of the saints, for the world has awoken to  SAINT TERESA OF KOLKATA!

 

FROM PRAYING TO CONTEMPLATION

 FROM PRAYING TO CONTEMPLATION

True Lectio Divina

Lectio means learning to read in a new way and learning to listen as we have never really listened before. We are so bombarded with reading materials from all sides that we have had to acquire a habit of reading at a breathtaking pace. Every day there are the newspapers to be read, mountains of junk mail to sift through, memoranda to be absorbed and letters and bills to be dealt with. Our only concern is to glean the relevant facts as quickly as we can and to move on to something else. If we apply the same techniques to the way we read the Scriptures, they will not enable us to get to know Christ more deeply. They should be read as we would read good poetry, endlessly going over them to plunder their contents. This is the beginning of true Lectio Divina.

Having read and re-read the sacred texts it is time to reflect – Meditatio. Pore over them again and again, ruminate on them, as St. Augustine would say; allow the inner meaning of every word to seep deep down into the very marrow of your being so that their dynamic impact can register with effect. To facilitate the use of this profound meditation, some people find it helpful to recreate the scene in which the sacred words were first spoken in their imaginations. Let us suppose that you have chosen to meditate on those profound words of Jesus at the Last Supper. Begin by setting the scene in your imagination. Picture the Apostles preparing the tables, see Christ coming into the room, watch the way he moves, look into his face when he speaks, then mull over his every word and try to penetrate the inner meaning.

The same sort of scene-setting could be used to build up the atmosphere before meditating on other Gospel texts. The Passion of Christ, for instance, would lend itself to this method of praying. Do not just think of what Christ went through in your mind, but go back in your imagination and place yourself in the event. You are among the soldiers at the scourging, one of the crowd during the carrying of the cross, an onlooker at the actual Crucifixion. You see everything as it happens, you open your ears and hear what is said and then you open your mouth and begin to pray. The more we penetrate the inner meaning of the sacred text, the more we feel moved to react prayerfully with our hearts to what we have assimilated – Oratio. Real prayer begins now as we start to try to raise our hearts and minds to God, as we respond to the inspired words upon which we have been reflecting.

The State of Mental Paralysis

To start with, the truths of the faith are too big, too enormous, almost too incredible for us to take in effectively. When I first heard that the stars in the nearest galaxy Andromeda were two and a half million light-years away, I simply could not take it in. The distances were too enormous for my mind to cope with. It is exactly the same with the truths of our faith, at least to begin with. They are too much for us to cope with, too great for us to take in. It is as if our minds are paralyzed by their transcendent enormity. We simply cannot penetrate or comprehend their meaning. 

However, in time, this state of mental paralysis gradually begins to lift thanks to the Holy Spirit. The slow meditation on the sacred texts suddenly begins to bear fruit; the spiritual understanding begins to stir and the emotions are touched and begin to react. What began as rather dry academic knowledge about God changes and begins to strike with an ever-deepening impact. Knowledge begins to turn into love, as the love that God has for us begins to register with effect. Nobody can remain the same when they realize that another loves them. We respond automatically, the emotions are released and we begin to express our love and thanks in return. This is the beginning of real prayer that will grow with depth and intensity as the truth of God’s love is brought home time and time again in so many different ways through slowly poring over, digesting and assimilating the sacred texts. As the impact of the Gospel message begins to explode with maximum effect, the believer finds that even the most extravagant words do not sufficiently voice the depth of feeling they experience welling up from within. In the end, the words of thanks, praise, adoration, and love give way to silence that says far more than the most potent man-made means of expression. 

The Simple Loving Gaze Upon God – Contemplation. 

The slow meditative penetration of the texts now opens out and envelops the whole person as the believer is ever more deeply absorbed into a silent contemplative gaze upon God. The most powerful and poignant expressions of the new relationship with God seem to be emptied of their meaning in face of the reality. All one wants to do is to remain silent and still in the simple loving gaze upon God that has traditionally been called Contemplation. It is the fruit of this profound prayer that is, in the eyes of St Thomas Aquinas,  the perfect preparation for sharing the faith with others. He could have said that we should first meditate and then share the fruits of our meditation with others, or pray and share the fruits of prayer with others–but something even more profound is required. We must persevere for long enough in prayer to experience for ourselves something of the love that we are called to share with others in sublime mystical contemplation or we will have little to give.

In this contemplation in which the whole person, heart and mind, body and soul is more united than ever before, a subtle change begins to take place. Initially, it was through meditating on God’s love, as embodied in the human body of Jesus that led the believer to contemplation, but now a change gradually begins to take place. Meditating on God’s love as it was embodied in the historical Christ gives way to contemplating his love as it is now, pouring out of the risen Christ, whether the believer realizes this or not at the time. The first was generated with God’s grace and human endeavor, the second is a pure gift of God. However, before the gift of contemplation can lead to the full union for which the believer now craves, a purification begins to take place so that the selfish seeker can receive the Selfless Giver without any let or hindrance. This is the only way to the full union with God that is our deepest desire. The purification is the work of the Holy Spirit–all we have to do is to faithfully persevere in prayer.  He will do the rest.

                       

 

UNDERSTANDING HOME

 

                   UNDERSTANDING HOME

                                    Fr. Mervyn Carapiet

Home. It is a magical word that resonates with all of us. Even those from broken homes, or homes that no longer exist, there is still something in the idea that is sought after. Home is that place where we are meant to be safe, nurtured, known for who we are, to freely live and love.

Home’s universal appeal populates culture. Take Me Home, Country Road, Home on the Range and I’ll Be Home for Christmas are a few songs that invoke the theme. Movies and literature end happily with protagonists, like Odysseus, finally going home. The entire goal of the American pass-time of baseball is to be safe at home. YouTube videos of joyful homecomings fill up our social media feeds and we spend a lot of money constructing and decorating our own houses, turning them into Home Sweet Home.

Our homes are the great theatre where the drama of our lives unfolds, as G.K. Chesterton eloquently said:

“The place where babies are born, where men die, where the drama of mortal life is acted, is not an office or a shop or a bureau. It is something much smaller in size and much larger in scope. And while nobody would be such a fool as to pretend that it is the only place where people should work, or even the only place where women should work, it has a character of unity and universality that is not found in any of the fragmentary experiences of the division of labour.”

Home, by its nature, foreshadows heaven. Pope Saint John Paul II’s final words in this life were “Let me go to the house of the Father.” He wanted to go home – to the home that all of us are willed by God to go to, even if he allows our own will to lead us somewhere else. The home is sometimes described as a “domestic church”, which, to be cautious, does not excuse home birds from attending Sunday Mass in church!

 

Feminism hasn’t led women to happiness, just to more searching, grasping, transitioning, with the next best thing around the corner. What they don’t know is that no career, string of lovers, exotic trips to Bali, or Louis Vuitton handbags will fill this gap.

What happens, then, when you have generations of people that have wilfully killed their own children through abortion? The Medievals were against abortion because it takes an innocent life, but also because they knew it was mortally damaging to the human soul. It isn’t just a child that dies in an abortion, but something in the mother and the father dies as well.

As St. Thomas Aquinas said, bonum est diffusivum sui, “the good spreads itself out”. The opposite is also true: evil spreads itself out. This grave evil has reached into every area of familial life.

This doesn’t absolve them of their crimes, but at least helps us to understand how those entrusted with the care of so many souls could respond with gross malfeasance. When some women can view the destruction of their children as a social rite of passage to join the “sisterhood,” it isn’t too far of a leap to see that bishops could abandon their spiritual children to join the “brotherhood.”

“There are two ways of getting home,” Chesterton explained, “One of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place.”

We are a culture that needs to reclaim the home, having looked the world over for happiness. Radical feminists, although they have looked high and low, still have “that ache that cannot be defined.” Their restless hearts are a God ache, which will remain until they make their way back Home again.

 

 

LONGING FOR HOME

LONGING FOR HOME

2 Peter 3:13-14

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

Everybody who travels away from home and loved ones experiences a recurrent thought, ‘I am so looking forward to going home!’  And that should be every Christian's longing too.  This world is not our real home (1 Peter 1:1).  Here, we are travellers on the move, but one day we will go ‘home’ (heaven) to be with our Father.  Those who are true believers cannot have their eyes glued to this world with its shabby values and widespread corruption, when the glories of a brand-new heaven and earth make everything else pale into insignificance. One of the wonderful 'things' about our eternal home is that it is also the home of righteousness.  It is a place in which everything that is right and true and lovely has no competition from the shameful deceits of the world, flesh and devil.  It will be an environment where God’s reign is uncontested sees that everything is good, just like His original creation (Genesis 1:31). But what a contrast from this world. The challenge is how to get ready for a perfect lifestyle, and do we really want it? If that is our desire, then we need to start living as we intend to continue for all eternity. The words, 'spotless', 'blameless' and 'at peace with God' are huge absolutes.  Until we get to heaven we will not attain perfection; but if that is what motivates the longing of our hearts, then we will put every effort into living that way (Colossians 1:10).  This is no place for the half-hearted, the casual, or the careless; such attitudes are not worthy of the Lord at all, nor do they show much evidence of any eagerness to meet the Lord. So Peter says, "make every effort" ... and he means just that.  If we have eternal life then we must put every bit of our will, effort, skill and resources into being the sort of people that God has called us to be (Mark 12:30). The failures can be confessed and forgiven, but what will He say to those who are not even bothered to try (Matthew 25:28-30)?

Perfect God. Help me to understand the importance of putting holy living right at the top of my personal agenda and apply my heart and mind and soul and strength to pleasing You. Please forgive me for many failures to do that. May I see the value of learning to live the life of heaven, even though I fail and need Your help to recover. May I never treat my eternal destiny with such casualness that I do not bother to try to live like Jesus. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

STEWARDS OF THE NATURAL WORLD

“My little son is going to grow up in this world, and that means I’d better take care of it” said one parent. Right around five years ago, Pope Francis released his first encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, and it rocked everybody’s world.

The encyclical ended up being a real gift to us all. It has been our guiding star, especially about certain ideas I want our children to learn about their place in the world. Here are some of the points that really stand out:

The natural world will show you the face of God: In mankind’s effort to leave behind the pantheism of the pagan world, we tend to go to the other extreme. We think of God as existing beyond the world, when in fact, He is to be found right here in the heart of the world. We don’t worship the Earth anymore, but we shouldn’t forget that nature is still sacred, because, as Pope Francis writes “The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.” (233) There’s a reason that Jesus used so many metaphors from nature for his parables. God uses nature to show himself to us. The sunrise is beautiful because God is beautiful.

We are stewards of the natural world, not masters of it: Pope Francis writes, “We must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts … tell us to ’till and keep’ the garden of the world.” (67) Yes, the world was created to be our home, and yes, even one human life is more valuable than the whole created universe. But though we are greater than the rest of creation, we still have a true responsibility toward our common home. We didn’t create the world, so we do not have absolute rights over it. We want to know not just what nature can do for us, but also, how to take care of it.

On that note, we have to remember that the created world is valuable in itself, not valuable because of its usefulness to us. Pope Francis reminds us that “It is not enough … to think of different species merely as potential ‘resources’ to be exploited, while overlooking the fact that they have value in themselves.” (33) The creatures of the world “give glory to God by their very existence.”

The way you treat creation has real effect on your soul: “We have only one heart,” Pope Francis says, “and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity.” (92). It’s not just for the animal’s sake–a person who engages in habitually cruel and unnecessary treatment of animals is acting contrary to his own human dignity.

The changes we have made in our life, spurred on by Laudato Si’, have been fairly small, but Pope Francis has been there to remind that small changes still count: “Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness.” (230)

Let’s all try to remember that every little act of love counts, whether that love is directed towards God, our fellow man, or the Earth itself.

POPE FRANCIS' "SILENCE" ON CHINA

POPE FRANCIS' "SILENCE"

by Christopher Lamb

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Pope Francis’ celebrated “silences” have come under scrutiny again in recent days, this time over China’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s freedoms and Turkey’s decision to convert Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque.

For some, the pressure he faces to speak out shows just how much Francis has bolstered the moral authority of the papacy. His geopolitical interventions carry real impact; every word he speaks is carefully parsed, and every silence pored over. Francis must navigate between two poles: his desire to open up new pathways for dialogue, honouring his title as a bridge builder – a pontifex – not bridge burner, and his desire to speak out fearlessly and prophetically in the face of injustice.

On 12 July, after praying the Sunday Angelus, the Pope said he was “very saddened” by the decision of the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The Greece-based Orthodox Times website criticised his “sad silence” on the matter. The Pope’s intervention came some days after the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, and the World Council of Churches had spoken out. He chose his words carefully. Speaking slowly and with emotion, Francis used the word addolorato, which can also be translated as “pained”, or “distressed”. The emphasis was not on condemnation but on expressing his feelings of sadness.

The Pope does not want to add fuel to the potential clash of civilisations between a Christian West and a Muslim East which the reconversion is likely to stoke. Francis has made the building of stronger relations with Muslim leaders a priority. The human fraternity document he and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar jointly signed in 2019 is the most important text on Christian-Muslim relations since the Second Vatican Council. Francis is also juggling a delicate relationship between President Erdogan and the embattled Catholic Church in Turkey, which has no legal status (significantly, the Turkish bishops did not take a public position over Hagia Sophia).

In 2015, the Pope knew he would upset Ankara when he used the word “genocide” to describe the killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces a century earlier. Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to the Holy See. Three years later, however, Erdogan and Francis met in the Vatican, the first meeting between a Pope and a Turkish president in nearly 60 years. At the end of the 50-minute discussion, Francis gave the Turkish leader a bronze medallion showing an angel embracing the world while battling a dragon. “This is the angel of peace who strangles the demon of war,” he told him. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Francis eventually broke his silence on Hagia Sophia, but decided not to say anything about a new security law passed in Beijing that threatens the survival of democracy and free speech in Hong Kong. As has been widely reported, on 5 July, as he spoke to the crowd in St Peter’s Square after the Sunday Angelus, he skipped a passage about Hong Kong in the pre-prepared remarks that had been distributed to journalists.

It wasn’t entirely surprising to experienced Vatican-watchers. From the start of his pontificate, Francis has made establishing a relationship with China a key priority, and he has been careful not to publicly criticise Beijing. His obvious affection for China and the Chinese people has seen him face repeated criticism, particularly from those who fear the geopolitical consequences of China’s growing economic power and are alarmed by its increasingly authoritarian communist leadership.

The persecution of Uighur Muslims and the tightening restrictions on Christian worship have increased the pressure on the Pope to speak out. Inside the Vatican, some officials are ready to be more critical of China; the inclusion of a passage on Hong Kong and Francis’ decision to pass over it in silence might reflect that internal tension.

For the Holy See, Beijing’s clampdown on religious freedoms makes maintaining some sort of dialogue with China more urgent. Explaining the provisional 2018 agreement between Beijing and Rome on the appointment of bishops – which expires in September and is currently under discussion – Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, said it would help “to advance religious freedom in the sense of finding [some] normalisation for the Catholic community”. Last week, Paul Ma Cunguo, 49, underground bishop of Shuozhou diocese in the northern Shanxi province since 2004, was recognised by the Chinese state.

It would be easy to make speeches condemning the Chinese government. The Pope prefers to face down criticism from the commentariat and expend some of his moral capital, if he can help the forgotten Catholic Church of China start to grow.

Mario Draghi declared in 2012 that he would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. Now the former head of the European Central Bank has been invited by the Pope to join the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences. Bringing in the 72-year-old is a sign that Francis will do “whatever it takes” to influence a serious rethink of the global financial system in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.