On Faith and Palm Sunday

Last Friday I attended a recollection which was delivered by a priest. In the course of his talk about the essence of Faith, he related this story - in my own words as I recall it.
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Once there was a fire at this village. One house was engulfed in flames and an 8 year-old boy was trapped inside. The boy climbed up to the roof to escape the flames. Once up on the roof, he could hear the voice of his father shouting: JUMP! Jump son and I am here down below to catch you! The boy circled the edges of the roof trying to find out the exact spot where his father was, but all he could see was smoke and flames all around him. The boy ran and ran all around the roof but couldn't see his father, who all the while was shouting: Jump! Jump! Meanwhile the flames are about to topple the entire house at any time, with the boy on the roof with it. The boy hesitated. Little did the boy know that even though he can not see what was down below, he can jump at any time. The father - who can see his son on the roof anywhere from the street - was following his movements and was there to catch him anytime he jumped. The boy doesn't have to see his father. The important thing to do was to jump.
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In his recent book Jesus of Nazareth II, Pope Benedict XVI begins by reflecting on Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Here are some excerpts that provide points for pondering on the occasion of the blessed commemoration of Palm Sunday.

...So Jesus rides on a borrowed donkey into the city. [...] Jesus claims the right of kings, known throughout antiquity, to requisition modes of transport. The use of an animal on which no one has yet sat is a further pointer to the right of kings. Most strikingly though, are the Old Testament allusions that give a deeper meaning to the whole episode. [...] He is a king who destroys all the weapons of war, a king of peace and a king of simplicity, a king of the poor. [...] None of these can be seen at the time, but in retrospect those things that could be indicated only from afar, hidden in the prophetic vision, are revealed.[...] His claim is based on obedience to the mission received from his Father.His path is a path into the heart of God's word.[...] His power is of another kind: it is in God's poverty, God's peace, that he identifies the only power that can redeem.

The First Temptation and being pro-RH Bill

I was rereading the book "Jesus of Nazareth" and I got to a post last year which quotes the Pope partially, as he writes about the first temptation of Jesus.

"At the heart of all temptations is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundations, refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion - that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms. Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil, no - that would be far too blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. What is real is what is right there in front of us: power and bread. By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs."

I will devote the rest of this post to a comment (insightful as usual) by TE. It seems a fitting follow-up to the previous post. Pro-RH bill Catholycs would do well to read it.

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The Pope's absolutely right. That's exactly what's happening. It's time we all open our eyes and see what really is at stake here.

The pro-condom crowd is trying to sell their side by painting it all in rosy optimistic colors. They have tons of statistics and are brazen enough to promise great benefits including families becoming financially better off. But what are they really selling? Uncertainty. All the rosy promises are just that - possibilities. They cannot really prove that all of their rosy predictions will come to pass. They are asking people to take a gamble. Of course they won't say it that way - they'll call it taking an intelligent stand based on irrefutable medical statistics.

As the Pope said, "it pretends to show us a better way,..."

The contras try hard to disprove the pro's arguments and refute their statistics by presenting their own set of counter statistics. Those passionate enough will paint a tough pessimistic picture to counter the rosy ones. They have fallen into the same trap as the pros - they are arguing for another set of uncertainties and are asking people to bet on another horse.

The contras have to open their eyes. The Church has already ruled on these issues so why engage in debate over it? To a Catholic the issue is closed. The Church's stand is clear and you might even say it's become part of the repository of truth. The Church's position is guided by the Holy Spirit. There is no uncertainty in this. The Holy Spirit is not an ambigious thing susceptible to statistical measures. The Holy Spirit is sure and its guidance is truth.

As Catholics, why should we opt for betting on uncertainties when we are already gifted with something certain? Why exchange something sure for something that isn't?

From a certain perspective Monsod's article is perhaps even more dangerous. It reads logical, balanced and fair. But it also re-opens the issue. This we have to guard against. If you take it seriously you would find yourself weighing the pros and cons of the issue. When that happens you would have opened again what the Church had closed. And that position raises a bunch of uncomfortable secondary questions like "Would I still be a good Catholic if I don't readily accept the Church's position and engage in debate over this?" Let us not be faithless - not just in the sense of not being true to our commitment to Christ but also in the sense of being lacking in faith.

As the Pope said, "the act of pushing God aside...we perceive Him as secondary."

The battlefield is not condoms and contraceptives. It's the Truth we hold, our values and beliefs. That is what is at stake. The real issue is not what the debaters are spouting about. They would have you bark up the wrong tree while secretly attacking what you truly hold dear. Let's not be deceived.

It's not about the optimists half-full glass nor the pessimist's half-empty one. The glass is actually full, it's just of a different size. Don't empty it by trading a sure thing for uncertain ones.
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To add to that, an excerpt from Humanae Vitae:

No member of the faithful could possibly deny that the Church is competent in her magisterium to interpret the natural moral law. It is in fact indisputable, as Our predecessors have many times declared, (l) that Jesus Christ, when He communicated His divine power to Peter and the other Apostles and sent them to teach all nations His commandments, (2) constituted them as the authentic guardians and interpreters of the whole moral law, not only, that is, of the law of the Gospel but also of the natural law. For the natural law, too, declares the will of God, and its faithful observance is necessary for men's eternal salvation.

On the other son

Question: What causes sibling rivalry?
Answer: Having more than one child.
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Of course it is not recommended to have just one child, especially if the married couple has been blessed with the capacity and resources to have more children. I have been blessed with four children, all boys with ages ranging from 5 to 21 years old. There is no sibling rivalry, simply because our scrappy 5-year old happens to dominate all of us.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most famous parables taught by Jesus. There are many enlightening interpretations and reflections on this beautiful parable, mostly focused on the prodigal son and the loving, forgiving father. There is however, a third personality in the parable that deserves more attention than he gets - the other son. In Pope Benedict's book "Jesus of Nazareth", he accords a beautiful reflection on the other son and I want to share this.

...The older brother now makes his appearance. He comes home from working in the fields, hears feasting at home, finds out why, and becomes angry. He finds it simply unfair that this good-for-nothing, who has squandered his entire fortune - the father's property - with prostitutes, should now be given a splendid feast straightaway without any period of probation, without any time for penance. That contradicts his sense of justice... Bitterness arises in him: "lo, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed any of your commands," he says to his father, "yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends" (Lk 15:29).

The father goes out to meet the older brother too, and now he speaks kindly to his son. The older brother knows nothing of the inner transformations and wanderings experienced by the younger brother. of his journey into distant parts, of his fall and his new self-discovery. He sees only injustice. And this betrays the fact that he too had secretly dreamed of a freedom without limits, that his obedience has made him inwardly bitter, and that he has no awareness of the grace of being at home, of the true freedom he enjoys as a son. "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours" (Lk 15:31).

The parable breaks off here; it tells nothing of the older brother's reaction. Nor can it, for at this point the parable immediately passes over into reality. Jesus is using these words of the father to speak to the heart of the murmuring Pharisees and scribes who have grown indignant at his goodness to sinners...

The Holy Father makes an inspiring reflection of how Jesus woos the heart of the misguided. This reflection is timeless, and its reality is here and now.

Here is a video clip of a sibling rivalry in another species, yet it amusingly reminds us of a human reality.

Odds and Ends 3/19/10

Quiboloy wishes presidency for Madrigal

SACRED MOUNTAIN, Davao City – Senator Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal was on Cloud Nine after Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, head of the religious sect "Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name" said he wished she would win the presidential elections and cited her for her "crusade" against corruption.

No, he ain't kidding. Expect the loaves, rather the votes for Jamby, multiply. Only problem is, when you multiply zero by 5000, it will still be zero.

Meanwhile, Aquino and Villar seem to have gone into confession.
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Singing fishermen land a whopper of a record deal

The Fisherman's Friends have signed with Universal Music -- whose roster includes Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and Take That -- for an estimated one million pounds (1.12 million euros, 1.53 million dollars), news reports said.

"We don't really know what to expect, to be honest -- we're just making it up as we go along," said fisherman Baritone Brown, one of the group's members who are mostly in their 50s.

Watch out, mate. Listen to the Mexican fishermen first.
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French mother sentenced to 15 years for killing six babies

COUTANCES-A court on Thursday sentenced a French mother to 15 years in jail for smothering or strangling to death six of her newborn babies...

How horrifying and how sad. But how come in France, you can get away with smothering 12-week-old babies to death?
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Nuns Backstab Bishops on Health Care, Demand Bill's Passage

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The health care reform controversy appears to have brought serious disagreements within the U.S. Catholic Church out into the open. Just days after the Catholic Health Association endorsed the Senate health-care bill, the Catholic Leadership Conference of Women Religious has also now publicly broken ranks with the US Catholic Bishops, demanding that the House of Representatives pass the abortion-promoting legislation.

In the book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI talks about the first temptation: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread". Apparently, these nuns see bread where there is only stone.
Perhaps Prof. Monsod and Sec. Cabral see stones in their statistics too.

Here is an abbreviated excerpt regarding the first temptation:

"At the heart of all temptations is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundations, refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion - that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms. Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil, no - that would be far too blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. What is real is what is right there in front of us: power and bread. By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs."
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A Holiday for eternity

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

...He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
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Imagine worldly liberation being declared right then and there.
It is an astounding message, even as it promptly makes its hearers skeptical of the bearer: "Isn't he the son of Joseph?".

In the third chapter of "Jesus of Nazareth", Pope Benedict XVI writes:

The core content of the Gospel [the evangelium] is this: The Kingdom of God is at hand. A milestone is set up in the flow of time; something new takes place.
And an answer to this gift is demanded of man: conversion and faith. The center of this announcement is the message that God's Kingdom is at hand. This announcement is the actual core of Jesus' words and works.

Conversion and Faith. No wonder the message of the Gospel is very difficult to internalize then and now. The thing is, I am always amazed for example, by the very rich people who continue amass unnecessary power and wealth by unscrupulous, violent means. As the law is written in the heart of every man, why then is there unbridled selfishness and greed that trample upon universally understood norms, even as nothing really compels? Where is the motivation?

C.S. Lewis has an idea in the "Weight of Glory":

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

And may I add, the holiday package is free, and the ticket is good now and forever.
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Jesus of Nazareth (3)

Part 1
Part 2


Chapter 2 of the book deals with the temptations of Jesus. (Mat 4:1-11)

The three synoptic Gospels tells us that after Jesus' baptism, he was led by the Spirit into the desert "to be tempted by the devil" (Mt 4:1). In relation, CCC 540 states: "Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is the Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes". Pope Benedict also observes that it is a "descent into the perils besettling mankind" - for there is no other way to lift up fallen humanity. "Jesus has to enter into the drama of human existence...to bear it on his shoulders".

This leads into the Pope's very incisive reflections on how these temptations address what truly matters in human life.

"At the heart of all these temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives..."

"Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil -- no, that would be far too blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our 'illusions' and throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world into a better place...".

Such is the true yet sad commentary for our times. Many people in the modern world - including some professed Christians - fall prey to the beguiling wiles of the devil, all the while thinking there is a better way than what divine revelation really tells us. Worse, many are lured into false "moral posturing", as we take note that the devil in the temptations took it upon himself to even essay and twist Scriptures according to his evil intent. Thus today around the world, we see many activist, "humanitarian" efforts in "making the world into a better place". The liberalization of abortion under the guise of protecting freedom of choice. Public funding of abortions and biased medical rationing under the guise of affordable, universal health care. Promotion of abortifacient contraceptives under the guise of managing population and helping the poor families. Redefining marriage to protect equal rights and "natural tendencies". Destruction of human embryos under the guise of medical research to save lives. Promotion of euthanasia, even child euthanasia, under the guise of compassionate, humane treatment. All of these and more succumb to panem et circenses - the false lure of earthly bread, power, and artificial spectacle that evil tantalizingly offers.

The account of Jesus' temptations ends with Jesus refuting the devil: "Scripture says: worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone", whereupon the devil left him.

Worldly activists might ask: but what did Jesus actually bring if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world?
The answer is very simple: Jesus has brought God.

Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. "Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and lasting power."

The only thing that truly endures and saves.
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Jesus of Nazareth (2)

A recent question posed in Catholic Forums goes:

"...I, like many other Catholics, have had many questions about our faith of things we don't understand; for instance why was our Lord baptized when He was without sin?..."


Having just read the first chapter of Pope Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth", the opportune explanation presents itself (as excerpted)


/ "...Descending into the water, those baptized recognized their own sins and sought to free themselves from the weight of being oppressed by sin. What did Jesus do? Luke, who throughout his gospel pays particular attention to the prayer of Jesus, and constantly presents Him as the One who prays - in dialogue with the Father - tells us that Jesus was at prayer after being baptized. Because of the cross and resurrection it becomes clear to Christians what had occurred: Jesus took on his shoulders the weight of the sin of all humanity; he took it with him into the Jordan. From the beginning of his activity he takes the place of sinners. There begins the anticipation of the cross. He is, so to say, the true Jonah who said to the sailors: take me and throw me into the sea. (Jonah 1:12) The full meaning of the baptism of Jesus, his fulfillment of “all righteousness” (cf Matt 3:15) reviews itself only in the cross: the baptism is the acceptance of death for the sins of humanity, and the voice from heaven "This is my beloved Son” is the anticipated reference to the resurrection. Thus one understands the reason why in his own discourses Jesus uses the word baptism to refer to his own death. (Matt 10:38; Luke 12:50) [p 38]..." /

PART 1

Jesus of Nazareth (1)

Note: More than two years ago when this first book of Pope Benedict XVI in his papacy first became available in one of the Catholic bookstores I frequent, the price of the hardbound edition was around P2,500. Much as I wanted to get my hands on the book, the price was too stiff for me and I decided to wait for a cheaper edition. I was finally able to get a copy a couple of months ago at National bookstore - a bantam hardbound copy at P995. It was still pricey for me, but I decided to take it anyway. The typeface was a little too hard on my eyes, but my cheap reading glasses comes to the rescue.

The book contains 10 chapters, and to date I have only managed to read the foreword, but I guess the foreword by itself is well worth the price of the book. To a non-theologian layman like me, the foreword's essay on the historical-critical method - its importance as well as its limitations in addressing Christology - is thoroughly illuminating. Here are a few excerpts of that 14-page foreword. My emphases in bold, and my [comments bracketed in red].
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The historical-critical method...is an indispensable tool, given the structure of the Christian faith...This method is a fundamental dimension of exegesis, but it does not exhaust the interpretative task for someone who sees the biblical writings as a single corpus of Holy Scripture inspired by God.
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For someone who considers himself directly addressed by the Bible today [although many interpret it in their own way], the method's first limit is that by its very nature it has to leave the biblical word in the past [otherwise, it would be violating the method's discipline]. It is a historical method, and that means that it investigates the then current context of events in which the texts originated. It attempts to justify and to understand the past - as it was in itself - with the greatest possible precision, in order then to find out what the author could have said and intended to say in the context of the mentality and events of the time. [talk about exclusively literal interpretations]. To the extent that it remains true to itself, the historical method not only has to investigate the biblical word as a thing of the past, but also has to let it remain in the past. It can glimpse points of contact with the present and it can try to apply the biblical word to the present; the only thing it cannot do is make it something present today - that would be overstepping its bounds. Its very precision in interpreting the reality of the past is both its strength and its limit. [excellent]
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At this point we get a glimmer, even on a historical level, of what inspiration means: The author does not speak as private, self-contained subject. He speaks in a living community, that is to say, in a living historical movement not created by him, nor even by the collective, but which is led forward by a greater power that is at work. [the Holy Spirit] There are four dimensions of the word that the old doctrine of the fourfold sense of Scripture [CCC 115] pinpointed with remarkable accuracy. The four senses of Scripture are not individual meanings arrayed side by side, but dimensions of the one word that reaches beyond the moment.
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Unless there had been something extraordinary in what happened, unless the person and the words of Jesus radically surpassed the hopes and expectations of the time, there is no way to explain why he was crucified or why he made such an impact. [Non-believers, listen]. As early as twenty or so years after Jesus' death, the great Christ-hymn of the Letter to the Philippians (cf. Phil 2:6-11) offers us a fully developed Christology stating that Jesus was equal to God, but emptied himself, became man, and humbled himself to die on the Cross, and that to him now belongs the worship of all creation, the adoration that God, through the prophet Isaiah, said was due him alone (cf. Is 45:23).

Critical scholarship rightly asks the question: What happened during those twenty years after Jesus' Crucifixion? [may I add - would the believers sacrifice their very lives for a grand farce?] Where did this Christology come from? To say that it is the fruit of anonymous collective formulations, whose authorship we seek to discover, does not actually explain everything. How could these groups be so creative? [and very bold to the point of death]. How were they so persuasive and how did they manage to prevail? [those lowly fishermen?]. Isn't it more logical, even historically speaking, to assume that the greatness came at the beginning, and that the figure of Jesus really did explode all existing categories and could only be understood in the light of the mystery of God? [very, very good questions]. Admittedly, to believe that, as man, he truly was God, and he communicated his divinity veiled in parables, yet with increasing clarity, exceeds the scope of the historical method. Yet if instead we take this conviction of faith as our starting point for reading the texts with the help of historical methodology and its intrinsic openness to something greater, they are opened up and they reveal a way and a figure that are worthy of belief...

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It goes without saying that this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium [a remarkable disclaimer], but is solely an expression of my personal search "for the face of the Lord" (cf. Ps 27:8). Everyone is free then, to contradict me [anyone care to try?]. I would only ask my readers for that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding...
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And I ask the good Pope to write more books, and for the publisher to make them more affordable. The Pope hopes to write a Part 2, "to include the chapter on the infancy narratives, which I have postponed for now, because it struck me as the most urgent priority to present the figure and the message of Jesus in his public ministry...". I am in no hurry, since I still have to read and digest the 10 chapters of this first part - certainly with large doses of goodwill after reading that excellent foreword.

The Pope says: "I would only ask my readers for that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding..."

Indeed, initial goodwill and subsequent openness can only be present to a true seeker of truth.

As the Psalmist so prays ---

"Come," says my heart, "seek God's face"; your face, LORD, do I seek! (Ps 27:8)