Tragedy and Heroism in the Sichuan Earthquake

(Received this in pps format in the mail, which tells me that the innate heroism and compassion in man transcends race, color and creed. That in today's world marked by man's inhumanity to man, there is a white ray of hope amidst all tragedy and odds...)

Dedicated to the brave people in Sichuan Earthquake, 2008

An earthquake, magnitude 8.0, struck Sichuan province of China at 2:28PM, May 12, 2008. The epicenter of the earthquake, Wenchuan, is about 90 miles from Chengdu. The earthquake released more energy than 500 atomic bombs, 30 times more than the Kobe earthquake in Japan, 1995. By May 19, there are more than 32,000 confirmed dead, more than 20,000 still missing, and more than 4.7 million houses collapsed or heavily damaged. Cities close to the epicenter are flattened; whole mountains collapsed.

Millions of people lost their beloved ones, their homes, their belongings. Yet there is no looting, no complaints, just people helping each other.

Within hours, people rushed to rescue. Blood donation lines run for 100 yards, and people waited hours to donate blood; within 24 hours, all major blood banks ran out storage space. The highway to the earthquake struck city Dujianyang (20 mile from Chengdu) was almost jammed one hour after the earthquake, not by people fleeing the aftershocks, but by volunteers, led by over 1,000 taxi drivers, came from Chengdu to rescue.

Chen Guangbiao(陈光标), owner of a big construction company 1,500 miles from the disaster area, just 2 hour 30 minutes after the earthquake, started transporting 60 construction machineries and led 120 volunteers to rescue. They arrived at the disaster area 24 hours later, almost the same time as Army Engineering Corp.

Medical workers provided care under extreme conditions; they even delivered many new born babies on the parking lot.

Wen Jiabao(温家宝), 66, Chinese Prime Minister, boarded on a plane 30 minutes after the earthquake, and arrived in disaster area in 2 hours. He has been the chief of the rescue operation since then, working almost around clock at the frontline with rescue workers.

1000 paratroopers started boarding airplanes 2 hours after earthquake. Despite heavy rain, high wind and thick cloud, they jumped from over 20,000 foot high to remote mountain areas where they did not even know if there would be a place for them to land. The first jumped off plane was Senior Colonel Li Zhenbo(李振波), 51.

With roads buried by landslide and bad weather hammering airborne operations, a group of 600 soldiers and medical teams, let by Major General Xia Guofu(夏国富), 57, Commander in Chief of Sichuan Military District, walked 21 hours straight on foot in mountain area, carrying heavy relief supplies, risking landslide and falling rocks. They became the first group to arrive at the epicenter of the earthquake.

Soldiers and rescue workers working around clock to rescue people still buried. Unable to transport heavy machineries to the remote areas since roads are buried by landslides, they often have to use hands to move tons of concrete.

Song Xinying (宋馨懿), 3, pulled out from rubble after being buried for 2 days. She was in critical condition and lost a leg, but survived. Her parents hold each other’s hands and shoulders face to face to make an arch to shield her from the falling building. Her parents did not make it out.

A 5 year old boy was rescued after being buried under rubbles for 24 hours. His left hand was broken, but he smiled and saluted to his rescuers. His smile made everybody cry

Zhang Jiwang(张吉万), 11, carrying his sister Zhang Han(张韩), 3，walked 12 hours straight to flee the disaster center.

Yuan Wentin(袁文婷), 26, first grade teacher. When the earthquake struck, she rushed to carry her stunned students from classroom on the 3rd floor to the ground. She managed to pull out most of her students, but the building collapsed when she was trying to pull out the last few. At the last moment of her life, she was trying to use her body to shield the students from falling concrete. Many teachers did the same thing. They are 谭千秋、张米亚、苟晓超、吴忠洪、杜正香......

This high school student was rescued from the collapsed building. She lost both legs, and her both hands are broken. The rescue workers were all in tears when they saw this. She smiled to them: “Be Brave!”

This baby, after being buried over 24 hours, miraculously, was rescued unscratched. He is about 3-4 months old, and his mother kneeled down, pinned her head and hands on the ground to shielded him from the falling concrete, and milked him. His mother did not make it out. A rescue worker found his mom’s cell phone in his wrapper. It had a text message left by his mother: “Dear child, if you survive, please remember, Mom loves you forever…”
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Praying for our Enemies

Most prayers are normally directed in the form of supplications, to petition God for relief of pain, sickness, financial difficulties, all sorts of problems and worries for self, for family, relatives, and close friends. Most prayers are also directed to praising and thanking God for all the blessings that are given to us, especially those prayers made in gratitude to “answered prayers”. A little extraordinary probably would be praying for the “enemy”, praying for one who has seriously wronged you, hurt you, maligned you and most probably even continues to do so. In the order of priorities, I guess one prays for his enemies last, if ever. If one ever prays for the enemy as in: “Lord make him suffer for this…” – that is not true praying, and is actually an offense to God. Now if the prayer goes like: ”Lord, please touch him and make him change his ways…” well, I guess that is passable enough and would be closer to the proper intention, but not yet quite, as we take a look at Luke 6:27-28; 32-36.

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Jesus certainly epitomized this mercy, even as he suffers severely on the cross, he prayed : “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing”.

Praying for the enemy is a tough act. This explains why some saints say it is the main criterion of holiness. People who make our lives miserable and cause us so much pain are least likely to receive a place in our hearts. It is the most difficult prayer of all because it is contrary to our impulses, and because you cannot really lift a person up to the Lord and at the same time continue to hate him. Before praying for our enemies, the first step then would be to remove the anger in our hearts, to substitute charity and compassion instead. As we then pray, it becomes a profound moment of reconciliation and solidarity with humanity, that in the eyes of God, we are no more and no less worthy of our enemies praying for us.

The British Parliament in the Island of Dr. Moreau

British Parliament has now approved one of the horrors that has always been rejected by ethics, says the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Members of Parliament approved 336-176 on Monday evening the creation of hybrid embryos, made by introducing human DNA into animal ova. The measure aims to compensate for a "shortage" of human embryos used for embryonic stem cell research.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia told Vatican Radio that the law is particularly grave from the ethical point of view since "it constitutes an offense against the dignity of man. It is an attempt of fertilization between species that until how has been prohibited by all the laws on artificial fertilization."

"Human-animal union, even if it is not sexual, represents one of the horrors that has always brought rejection in ethics," he said.

The prelate emphasized that "every time the wall between man and animal has been broken, very grave consequences, even involuntary ones, have arisen."

“Each preserved the quality of its particular species: the human mark distorted but did not hide the leopard, the ox, or the sow, or other animal or animals, from which the creature had been moulded”.

Now that last quote is not from the prelate, but a quote from the book “Island of Dr. Moreau”. It is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, addressing ideas of society and community, human nature and identity, playing God and Darwinism. Today, the British Parliament appears to be playing God, and the “Island of Dr. Moreau” do not appear as fiction anymore.

Is China ready for the Olympics?

From the looks of its expansive, swanky airport, is seems that indeed, China is ready.

However…



There’s still a bit of some minor adjustments they have to do with those toilet signs.

POPE BENEDICT XVI on New Evangelization and Charisms in Ecclesial Movements

Back in December 2000, then Cardinal Ratzinger, in his address to Catechists and Religion Teachers
expounds on the need for “New Evangelization”:

“…This is why we are searching for, along with permanent and uninterrupted and never to be interrupted evangelization, a new evangelization, capable of being heard by that world that does not find access to ‘classic’ evangelization. Everyone needs the Gospel; the Gospel is destined to all and not only to a specific circle and this is why we are obliged to look for new ways of bringing the Gospel to all.”

Eight years forward to this month, at the conclusion of the seminar of the Pontifical Council for the Laity on ecclesial movements last May 17, Pope Benedict XVI exhorts the 150 bishop participants:

.. “Go out to meet with much love the movements and new communities; let us make an effort to know their reality adequately, without superficial impressions or reductive judgments.”..

.."It also helps us to understand that the ecclesial movements and new communities are not a problem or an extra risk that further weighs on our grave duties.”..

..“No! They are a gift of the Lord, a precious resource to enrich our whole Christian community with their charisms. Thus, a confident welcome that gives space to and values their contributions in the life of the local Churches must not be lacking.”..

..“Those who are called to the service of discernment and leadership, should not lord it over the charisms, but should rather beware of the danger of suffocating them, resisting the temptation to make uniform that which the Spirit willed to be multiform to concur in the building up and the enlargement of the one Body of Christ, that the same Spirit makes firm in unity.”..

One cannot help but be moved everytime Pope Benedict XVI speaks.
One simply realizes he is the Vicar of Christ right now for purposeful reasons just when the Church needs him most.
Talk about heaven sent.

On Doxology and Dancing at Mass

There are two odd things which I noticed when I attended Sunday mass today at a prominent church in Quezon City. The first was when the officiating priest encouraged the congregation to join him in reciting: “through Him, in Him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit…” (Doxology) which I believe is reserved for the priest alone, in conformance to the GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal). The second was towards the end of the mass, before the final blessings, when a group of young people presented a song and dance number before the whole congregation. It turns out they were part of the recent graduates of PREX (Parish Renewal Experience) who were asked to make a presentation at the mass. After the presentation, there was clapping all around. Certainly, I would encourage these young people to express their new found enthusiasm in the faith, but asking them to express this enthusiasm by performing a dance number at mass is a tad overboard. These kinds of presentations are best appreciated outside of the liturgy of the mass, as it simply takes away the solemnity and draws away the attention from God who should be the sole focus of the mass. It’s certainly a challenge how to call the attention of the parish priest on these matters, but it should be done.

The Development of Doctrine and Humanae Vitae

"When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come" (John 16:13)

"Development of Doctine" is defined by Catholics as the increase in understanding - by means of the Holy Spirit, prayer, theological study, and the reflection of the Body of Christ as a whole - of
Christian doctrines that originated from the Lord Jesus himself and which have been passed down through the Apostles, the Fathers, the councils, and the Catholic Church in general (Catechism # 94, 158). Catholics call it the "Deposit of Faith". The meaning of doctrines unfolds over time, but the essence or substance of any particular doctrine remains unchanged. Our extent of knowledge or subjective grasp of any given dogma is what changes. The bible is not "absolutely clear", and requires the interpretative wisdom of the Church.

The Church's teaching against contraception provides a case in point. Throughout the whole history of the Church, it has been been clear and constant in its position on contraception. In fact, all Christian churches were united in their opposition to contraception until as recently as the early decades of the 20th century. It was not until 1930 that the Anglican Church went on record as saying that contraception was permissible, for grave reasons, within marriage. The first clamoring for change appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the widespread availability of the birth control pill. Some Catholic theologians began to think that the pill might be a legitimate form of birth control for Catholics because, unlike other kinds of birth control, it did not break the integrity of the sexual act. Amidst such controversy, the landmark encyclical "Humane Vitae" was released by Pope Paul VI in 1968. It clearly defined the intrinsic evil of contraception and even provided prophetic views that has since materialized. Subsequently, Pope John Paul II affirms Humane Vitae with his "Theology of the Body". On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae this month, Pope Benedict XVI states: "The truth expressed in Humanae Vitae does not change. Quite the contrary, in the light of new scientific discoveries, its teaching becomes more relevant and stimulates reflection on the intrinsic values it possesses."

And going back to development of doctrine, it is noteworthy to cite St. Thomas Aquinas:

"Regarding its substance then, Faith does not grow with the passage of time, for whatever has been believed since was contained from the start in the Faith of the ancient fathers. With regards to its explication however, the number of articles has increased, for we moderns explicitly believe what they believed implicitly."