catholic
What Benedict wants you to know
I’ve met a good number of people who adore the previous Pope, John Paul II (who doesnt?), but who couldnt make up their mind over Benedict XVI. Most of them think of the former head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the Vatican German Shepherd, more intent on punishing wayward Catholics and theologians, rather than bringing them back to the fold like the kind, old Father of the prodigal son. I’ve done a little research and it’s safe to conclude that Benedict is exactly the opposite of what the media tries to portray. Of course, he is an intellectual giant no less than John Paul II. But unlike John Paul, he is not media-savvy, and extremely shy. Whereas John Paul was an actor, Benedict was a university teacher and theologian. The fact that Karl Wojtyla was a virtually unknown cardinal in a country locked up by communism helped deepen the world’s affection for him. Joseph Ratzinger, meanwhile, was waging intellectual wars in universities in Germany. And, of course, before he became Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was the Head of the Congregation that censured several theologians over their incorrect (and even dangerous) doctrinal conclusions. That position and funtion alone was abundant fodder for the media who’d rather side with the underdog, not minding if the underdog is a rabid pitbull or a loyal sheepdog.
Anyway, enough of introducing the Benedict. He has written fantastic books which everyone, Catholic or not, should read. I found this little pamphlet by John Allen (CNN Vatican Correspondent). Dont be repulsed by its size! It packs a ton of wisdom from Benedict XVI. Here are tidbits from that booklet.
10 Things Pope Benedict Wants You To Know
1. God Is Love: Against any abstract or purely philosophical concept of God, Deus Caritas Est (Benedict’s first encyclical) reminds us that the Christian God is not just a force or a concept, but a lover. God’s passionate love for humanity is reflected in eros,or human sexual love. Yet eros, is not an end in itself. Rather it calls out of ourselves, toward something higher. Eros must be transformed towards agape, the complete gift of oneself for another.
2. Jesus Is Lord: Placing Christ at the Center is Benedict’s Modus Operandi. He wrote “Jesus of Nazareth”, his first book, because a number of Bible scholars and theologians ‘reinterpreted’ Jesus to make him more ‘relevant’: Jesus as a preacher of liberal morality, as a social revolutionary, as an inspired prophet on the level of other founders of religious movements. Out of impatience to achieve desired social outcomes, revisionist images of Jesus subvert the only basis for real humanism: belief in God and in an objective truth that comes from God and stands above the human will to power.
3. truth and Freedom are Two Sides of the same coin: Many people unconsciously endorse this “dictatorship of relativism” because they dont want to live on the basis of someone else’s truths. Such as desire reflects a flawed understanding of what freedom entails. Freedom is not the absence of restraint on our behavior, but the capacity to become the kind of person God calls us to be.
4. Faith and reason need one another: Faith and Reason desperately need one another. Christianity presupposes the rationality of God, and on the basis of that conviction, Christianity itself must be reasonable. Much dysfunction in contemporary culture can be explained by attempts to separate reason and faith. Reason without faith becomes skepticism, cynicism, ultimately nihilism, leading to dispair. Faith without reason becomes fundamentalism, extremism, and violence.
The next six next week.
Seek Entertainment, Seek the Truth?
On May 18 millions of people all over the world will finally find the truth.
No, they will not troop to the tiny island of Patmos, where St John the
Apostle is believed to have seen the end of days. They will not go to the
great public libraries either, or congest the websites of universities. They
will go instead to the most unlikely source of revelation: the cinemas.
At least that’s what Dan Brown and Sony Pictures International want us to
do. It’s easy to do research nowadays and get ‘enlightened’: you can seek
the truth for P80 – P120 in cinemas or if you dont want to join the masses,
you can buy a bootlegged DVD for P40 and have your own private revelation,
right in the comfort of your home. I’m reminded of a scene in the film
“Fatima”. As the pilgrims were going up the hill, an enterprising man was
selling them bushes and leaves, shouting “Here’s a branch from the original
bush. No need to go up. You can have your own private apparition.”
Perhaps the Da Vinci Code will go down in 21st century popular history as
one of the books that generated so much controversy in faith and religion.
It ignited debates and let loose books and documentary films both supporting
and refuting its claims. It sparked business ventures, from Da Vinci Code
tours in Rome and the rest of Europe to bigger sales of cilices and other
physical mortification instruments (still to be verified). It rocked the
faith of countless Christians, who now believe that the Catholic Church is
behind a cover up of immense proportions, that Jesus Christ married Mary
Magdalene and had a family that continues to this day, and that Catholic
group Opus Dei goes around committing cold-blooded murder. Well, the
response of Christendom isnt wanting although a bit delayed. In my limited
years of existence, I’ve never witnessed a more united Christianity in
offering antidotes and counsel to their faithful. Can this be the armageddon
the Bible speaks of?
We have to credit Dan Brown for exposing the biggest cover up of all times:
that, in this era of vast and super accessible knowledge and information,
there is a growing ignorance (and indifference) of many Christians,
Catholics included. And even then his expose is nothing new, but now we see
how we can be so gullible that we often mix up entertainment and truth. We
have come to believe in “FACTION”: fiction disguised as fact and invited to
dinner several times. Popular entertainment has become a dominant force in
our lives. Online games, reality shows, talk shows, manga comics, etc. We
talk about who got evicted from Bahay ni Kuya, or the latest showbiz
revelation according to the prophet Boy Abunda. We imitate stars. We wear
NBA jerseys and Wrestling t-shirts. Call center guys postpone going home to
play video games. If it’s not entertaining, it’s not the truth. I dread the
future when we will hear the priest say, “A reading from the holy gospel
according to Dan Brown”. Thanks to the Da Vinci Code, people now see Mona
Lisa and the Last Supper in a different light. That’s also a problem, I’m
afraid. With the success of Da Vinci Code, other artists will also have
their share of coded books in the future: the Michaelangelo Mystery, the
Raphael Riddle, Deciphering Degas, the Matisse Message, and our very own the
Amorsolo Anagram or Dolphy Decoded.
The Da Vinci Code is a popular novel with outrageous claims to serious
academic historical research and sold under fiction in bookstores. People
grab it for entertainment, yet they end up believing it, and worse, they
abandon their Christian faith.How come Lewis Carrol’s History of
Christianity didnt become a bestseller? Because the volumes are a bore? No
assasins, no mysterious deaths, no cryptic meanings, no love scenes? Why
don’t people go to libraries? It seems that truth, for it to be true, has to
titillate us, to shock our senses, to amuse us. Truth bores us to death.
Truth disgusts us. Entertainment and reality are one and the same thing.
Unfortunately that’s the case here in the Philippines, where we believe
amulets work both in the movies and in economic policymaking. That’s why I
expect Kris Aquino will run for president 2022. And she will have Manny
Pacquiao as her running mate. A perfect one-two combination.
What surprises me more is that, perhaps a good number of Brown’s fans who’ve
read the book and/or who will watch the film, have also seen the Passion of
the Christ. And wept. Gibson’s film was also controversial. It ‘shocked’ its
viewers who saw the brutality of the Romans and extreme pain that Jesus
suffered in his last 12 hours. I’m not saying that Gibson’s rendition was
accurate, but it made sense. The film went on to become a huge blockbuster
and even inspired many conversions to Christianity or just to ‘be good’. It
seems that we who were moved to tears in 2003 have suddenly questioned the
divinity of Christ and 2000 years of Christianity. Well, two thousand years
ago, the same people who sang Hosannas to Jesus when he entered Jerusalem
clamored for his crucifixion several days later. So here’s my two cents’.
You’re free to watch the Da Vinci Code, but decide honestly. Watch it to be
entertained, not to seek the truth. Or here’s something even better. Instead
of watching it, buy books about faith and morals (a good starting book is
the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, about P300— three
movie tickets!), the good ones, read them yourself or donate them to your
parish catechists. Just the same I encourage every Christian to strengthen
his/her faith, to learn to distinguish what is scholarly from fantastic, to
seek the truth from the right sources, and not to seek conspiracies where
there are none. And please vote for Kris Aquino in the future. That
is…correct.
Paul's Alarm 