Still Looking for Jesus

Via Crucis or Way of the Cross is one of the practices highlighted in Christian communities every Friday during the Season of Lent. This is a way of participating more closely in the mystery of our Lord’s passion and death which is recalled every Good Friday of the Holy Week.
In the forthcoming celebration of the World Youth Day (WYD) in Sydney, this coming July, the Via Crucis will also be a major event, as it was in World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002. The reenactment will be telecast live to the world, hopefully with around a billion people watching.
As I read today's news from Zenit.org, an interesting article caught my attention in this regard. The Director of the Via Crucis, Father Franco Cavarra and Fr. Peter Williams, the WYD liturgical director, shared their impressions while conducting the personal interviews with the persons who auditioned for the roles in the Via Crucis. (Names have been concealed at the request of those auditioning).
I quote some excerpts here.
Fr. Cavarra recounts, "Australia is a multicultural land, World Youth Day is universal and so is Jesus' message. […] What I am searching for are individuals who possess a particular bearing about them that reflects the spirit of these outstanding characters."
"I've been pleasantly surprised by the talent so far," the priest added.
Fr Peter Williams narrates: A 25-year-old man of Japanese origins felt he would "just be honored to carry Jesus' cross for him in the role of Simon."
Jovina, 23, considering herself "incapable of living up to the part of Mary, the Mother of God," but believed that "as a woman who tries to follow the path of God everyday," she could represent one of the women who follows Christ on his path to Calvary.
Anthony, 30, has been acting in the "Life Theatre" group for the last decade in plays such as "A Man for All Seasons." He considered the chance to contribute his acting skills and faith to this exercise in any way as "an act of worship, an offering to God […] almost like being involved in a liturgy."

Father Cavarra truly sees the great potential of the event as a way of transmitting the Gospel message. But he also admits feeling a little overwhelmed by the task at hand: "It's not only a very exciting time, but it's a time of apprehension too, because you become very conscious of how big the thing is going to be and what lies ahead […] a bit like Jesus before the event itself. "
Perhaps the task is quite daunting because the event will not just present the Passion of Our Lord. It also aims to present the host city of Sydney in all its glory.
Father Cavarra explained: "Our aim, when we selected the locations, was to consider how best to show off what wonderful natural scenes we've got here. Obviously in staging the different settings and different points of the journey we had to find a truth about them -- so when we stage the 'Condemnation of Jesus' we went for the facade of the Art Gallery of New South Wales because it's very imposing and dramatic. (...) Similarly when we decided to use the steps of the Opera House for another station, it was to represent the power of Rome and then travel under the Harbor Bridge, only to end at Darling Harbor and Cockle Bay Wharf as the light is fading."

He adds, "But there's still a little way to go before production time... We've been able to cast some very good people as Roman soldiers. We've got all of the people that we need as the 12 Apostles. We've got some very good Judases and some excellent good thieves and bad thieves (…) but I have to say, we're still looking for Jesus."

Anybody out there who wants to try out...?

Romans 12:1-2

At the beginning of a new week, I'm taking this re-paraphrased words from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans (12:1-2) as guide. Let me offer it to you too as an inspiration.

"So here’s what I want you to do: take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (by Eugene Paterson, The Message: the Bible in Contemporary Language)

Mercy - supplement of love

Our priest celebrant today provided me with an insight regarding the celebrated Parable of the Prodigal Son (see Lk 15:11-32), which according to him is also present in Hindi literature.
In real life, our understanding of love is limited to “merited love”: we love those who merit our love. The parable challenges us to go beyond that and ask for the “supplement” of love which is called “mercy” – the love of the father for the erring younger son.
Mercy is gratuitous love, love given even if the person does not deserve it. Mercy is maternal or paternal love. It is unconditional love – a real challenge, especially for those of us who has only one way of interpreting the justice of God!

Bello!

Bello is the italian word for beautiful.
In last Sunday’s Gospel on the Transfiguration (cf Mt 17:1-9) we heard St. Peter saying “Kyrie, kalon estin hymas ode einai” (original Greek). The Italian translation rightly puts it - “Signore, è bello per noi stare qui!” (Lord, it is beautiful for us to be here!).
What was he referring to? I imagine that it was to the unique and moving experience of seeing our Lord Jesus fully immersed in the love of the Father to the point of being transfigured in appearance; also, to the singular experience of hearing the Father himself declared Jesus as “my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.” A peak experience indeed for Peter, James and John, but perhaps first and foremost, for Jesus, before he moved on to face the last chapter of his life.
I had the chance to participate in this “beauty of God’s love” very tangibly last Sunday, when sisters, brothers and friends of my religious family – the Pauline family -- came together to organize my Silver Jubilee of Religious Profession. I was overwhelmed by all the shower of graces, starting from the Eucharistic celebration held in the Chapel where our Founder’s remains rest. Everything was well synchronized and planned, including the simple but festive “potluck” meal shared by all. The celebration left me with a conviction that I am very much loved and richly blessed, giving me renewed strength to continue spending my life lavishly for God and his people, to continue to be a blessing, a sign and a living proclamation that God’s love is indeed everlasting!
Want to see the photos? Click here…

Almsgiving

My Father was not a religious man in the conventional sense of the word. He went to church only on two feastdays: his birthday and the feast of the patron saint - St. Thomas de Villanueva. I guess that was why he organized all baptism and confirmation of his children around the second date. Nonetheless, he was a religious man in the biblical sense of never refusing to give something to the poor. He had an “ironic” expression which always comes to mind when I meet someone asking me explicitly for alms – “give something…and thank God, you are not in his/her position.” I had a glimpse of the number of people he has helped when during his funeral many years ago, so many people unknown to me came and shared our grief. Some of them admitted that they regularly received something from my father as aid for their living.

Almsgiving is the theme of the Pope’s Lenten Message this year. This message is then deepened by Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong in his Pastoral Letter this Lent.

Let me share with you an excerpt from this Letter wherein he spoke of how almsgiving played a very important role in his personal life.
“(...) Of course our faith guarantees a higher reward: God’s own praise “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me”. (Mt 25:40) But the Pope said we are not to boast of this before God. Doing Good is a duty. It is in accord with justice. As Jesus said, “When you have done what is due you should say I am an unworthy servant”. Especially when we feel that we are indebted in many things to God, almsgiving is the best way of reparation. “Love covers a multitude of sins”. (I Pet 4:8) We should not worry about our lack of financial means. We can be at peace if we do what we can. Jesus praised the widow openly for giving two tiny coins. (…)
In concluding this pastoral letter I invite you, my brother and sisters to pay special attention on the emphasis the Pope made on the passage of St. Matthew’s Gospel: In doing good you should not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
I would like to share with you an experience of my childhood. It was when Shanghai was invaded. My father had a stroke and was ill. We were seven members in the family to be fed and five of them children of school age. One cold winter, it was snowing outside; we were all in bed to keep warm. We were hungry and could only think: “Shall we have rice to eat today?” My father looked at the clock and called me to get up. (When he was well he used to take my hand in his big hand and put it in his pocket and both of us ran to the Church for Mass.) Mother said, “It is snowing. The sole of your plastic shoes are broken. If you get wet you will catch cold. Stay at home and pray.” Father said, “You go to Mass everyday. Do not miss it today. May God give us our daily bread.”

Of course father won the day. I bit my teeth and raced to the Church and served Mass as usual. When I was ready to race back home an elderly man came running after me. It was Mr. Zhou Chi Yao whom everybody knew. “My little friend, are you not the son of Zen En Giou?” “Yes.” “Thank God I see you. How is your father? He has not been to Church for a long time.” The two of them attended Mass daily. Though they greeted each other briefly by a nod of the head they became good brothers in the Lord. I told him about our family situation. Mr. Zhou dressed simply but he was a very rich man. He took me to his home and took out a stack of money, counted them, wrapped them up and gave me. “Take good care and bring this to your father.” We had enough money to feed us for several months. Mr. Zhou’s left hand did not know what his right hand has done. May God reward him and may we follow his example.

Lent 2008

Yesterday, we Roman Catholic Christians started our 40-day Lenten journey in preparation for Easter (March 23 this year). It’s a call to follow Jesus our Lord in a deeper and more intimate way as he confronts the forces of evil culminating in his own death on the cross and the triumph of his self-sacrificing love in the resurrection. The Lenten period begins with the rite of imposition of ashes, making us remember that “we are dust and to dust we will return” and that in remembering this truth, we need to be in touch with the constant need of conversion—to “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
While looking at Zenit.org this morning, I read a very candid sharing of Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Cardinal-priest of the Basilica of Santa Sabina. Cardinal Tomko has been the prelate who administers ashes to the Pope for the last 12 years. He receives this task because he was assigned the cardinal titular church where the Pontiff traditionally celebrates Mass for the beginning of Lent. Zenit reports: like all Catholics, the Holy Father receives the ashes while the one administering them proclaims one of the two traditional exhortations: "Repent and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."
Cardinal Tomko shares, referring to the first formula: the Holy Father "would have every right to say this to me and to everyone else. How can I remind the Pope of this?” And then, remembering the Great Pope JP II, he admits, “it was particularly difficult to say the second as John Paul II got older [...] It was like reminding him again what he not only knew, but felt in his body." He continues: "the choice has always been difficult. At times I have used one formula, at times the other. It is a very personal aspect, but also very significant because in whatever case, I must opt for a formula that is neither from the Pope nor from me: They are the words of God before which we should all bow our heads."
And here is a reminder which summarizes the meaning of "ashes" and also the Word of God that is read every Ash Wednesday: “Ashes, like dust, are a very eloquent sign of weakness, of sin and of the mortality of man, and to receive them one recognizes his limitation. Wealth, knowledge, glory, power, titles and dignities, do nothing for us…The time of Lent is directed toward the resurrection, and toward our hope, which is not limited to this life, nor detained by our limits, but rather a hope based on eternal life that is assured for us by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. And it is Jesus who asks three things of us in this intense time of the liturgical year: almsgiving - an expression of a more attentive generosity [...] of our love and respect for the needs of our neighbor and those who suffer; prayer - which flows from the heart more than from the lips; and fasting - sometimes renouncing the needs of the body, although today it can imply many modern forms of renunciation.”
A holy Lenten journey to all!

What is love?

I am re-reading a book from which I had my first “theology lessons” as an adolescent ages ago. It’s called Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn. Since its first publication in 1974, it has been re-printed several times and it still sells. The edition I have now, thanks to a Friend who sent it to me as a Christmas gift, carries 3 extra pages which are new to me. These pages reveal a bit of the historical context of this true story and the motive that brought about the beautiful friendship between the Author and Anna. Fynn relates: It was beauty that really drew Anna and me together…this pursuit of pure beauty made us companions in our explorations…
It is beautifully written indeed. Try this description of love:
“Fynn, I love you.” When Anna said that, every word was shattered by the fullness of meaning she packed into it. Her I was totality. Whatever this I was for Anna was packed tight with being. .. it was pure and all of one piece. Her use of the word love was not sentimental or mushy; it was impelling and full of courage and encouragement. For Anna, love meant the recognition of perfectibility in another. Anna saw a person in every part. Anna saw a you. Now that is something to experience, to be seen as a you, clearly and definitely, with no parts hidden. Wonderful and frightening. I’d always understood that it was Mister God who saw you so clearly and in your entirety, but then all Anna’s efforts were directed to being like Mister God, so perhaps the trick is catching if only you try hard enough.