THE WHISPERING WIND

São Guido

2011-10-08T04:39:00.004+02:00

Saint Guido Conforti: A Bishop Who Loved the Whole World from Xaverian Missionaries on Vimeo.

festa de Santana

2011-09-29T22:19:00.001+02:00

FESTA DE SANTANA

2011-09-29T21:39:00.002+02:00

17º GRITO DOS/AS EXCLUÍDOS/AS EM ACARÁ. Obrigado às escolas Felipe Patroni, Deuzalina e Lidia lima e às outras entidades que participaram. PELA VIDA GRITA A TERRA...POR DIREITOS TODOS NÓS!

2011-09-23T04:19:00.000+02:00

"The Call of Christ in Africa": ADDRESS TO THE FADICA CONFERENCE, 8 June 2007

2008-10-29T18:22:00.005+02:00

Bishop Kevin Dowling C.Ss.R.
FADICA Board Meeting, Washington

"Making this world more just means, among other things, making it a world where children are not left without nourishment, without education, without instruction; where young people can enjoy adequate training; where rural-dwellers are not landless, but rather live and develop in dignity; where workers are not ill-treated or deprived of their rights; where there are no systems justifying the exploitation of people by other people or by the state; where there is no corruption; where there is no yawning gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, the latter, for no fault of their own; where the family is not deformed, broken, crippled, or insufficiently cared for; where no one is defenseless against the law and where the law defends all equally; where force does not prevail over truth and right, rather truth and right reign; a world, finally, where economics and politics never gain the upper hand over all that is human." (italics mine)
Pope John Paul II spoke these words in El Salvador. His words accurately describe the "withouts" which millions of people in Africa actually experience. For example, because of a lack of infrastructure and resources, the Church has provided and still is providing some services in African countries which should be the domain of Governments – even up to 40% of health care services, schooling, and other social services. To maintain these and other pastoral programs is a massive challenge when doctors, teachers, nurses and other skilled workers leave Africa for more well-paid positions in the developed world. As a faith-based community, we have to discern the response required.
The Scriptural Foundation
The theme of this presentation is: "The Call of Christ in Africa". I take inspiration from the foundational text in Luke 4 when Jesus went into the synagogue and unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed his mission: "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor…" (v. 18 and 19). As the people of God sent by the Lord, the Church community in its pastoral mission is called by God to find all the ways to create news that is hope-filled - "good news to the poor"; how to set free and liberate people from all the ways they are held bound and unable to live in dignity; how to open the eyes of all who are blind to their inner goodness and to all they can become; how to enable those who are downtrodden to find new beginnings and to live in truth the promise of Jesus….."I have come that they may life, and life in abundance" (John 10:10).
When one goes back to the text from Isaiah 42, I sense deep meaning and challenge in the verses which describe the ministry of "the servant" and the "chosen one" of Yahweh: "I have appointed you as covenant of the people……..to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon….." (Isaiah 42: 6 and 7). But it is the way this is to be done which has always struck me, the way of non-violence and sensitivity to the fragile human being. Earlier in verses 1-4, one reads: "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have endowed him with my spirit that he may bring true justice to the nations. He does not cry out or shout aloud, or make his voice heard in the streets. He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame…."
The "crushed reed" and the "wavering flame" – what poetic descriptions of the broken ones of our world and Africa to whom the Church is called in ministry in a special way! With that spiritual vision and inspiration, the mission of the Church is to respond to the actual reality of the poor and broken ones – a reality that includes the social, political, cultural, economic and spiritual dimensions of life. Our focus is on the Call of Christ in Africa, and it is that reality which is my central concern in all I hope to share with you.
There is a whole range of pastoral responses open to the Church in the prevailing conditions in Africa, and so many opportunities for solidarity and support from our sisters and brothers in the Church here in the USA and elsewhere – if everyone can be inspired by the possibilities we have of developing meaningful partnerships in pursuit of a common vision and spirit of sharing which can inspire and motivate us.
Very high quality leadership is gathered here at FADICA. In terms of our reflection concerning the ongoing mission and pastoral response of the Church in Africa – a Church trying to respond to situations of conflict and dehumanizing poverty on a huge scale, underdevelopment and the HIV/Aids pandemic - in terms of strategies and directions for which we might find consensus at this conference, we are challenged by the Jesus of the poor and alienated never to lose sight of the face, of the person of Jesus, in all those "little ones". As Doctor Muliyil from India reflected: "How can I understand a figure or a statistic unless I have held the hand that it represents? The people we are talking about are the same as us. By the way we treat them, we know just how much like Jesus we have become". (Dr. J P Muliyil, in "Women in the Time of AIDS", Gillian Patterson, 1996)
Perceptions and Impressions
The new generation of African leaders decry the impression emanating from the developed world that Africa is basically a "basket case" – they try to counter this by stating that they are trying to find "African solutions to African problems" and attempt to highlight facts about how the continent is being turned around by following the principles and values of the African Union Charter.
However, the problem is not so much with the facts but with perceptions – as a South African, Chris Moerdyk, put it…."What exacerbates the problem is that perception is undeniably more convincing than fact. So one of the golden rules of damage control is to understand clearly that it is often pointless dealing only with the facts of the matter, and to be very aware of the persuasive and pervasive power of perception." (The Southern Cross, South Africa, 2006)
Some of the perceptions about Africa are the following: so many countries engulfed in war and conflict; millions of refugees and internally displaced people; extreme and pervasive poverty; widespread corruption in Governments; sickness and disease on a massive scale, especially with just on 30 million people living and dying of Aids related diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to millions dying of malaria; and a sense of hopelessness that anything can be better because the problems are just so complex and huge.
True - there are still several areas of conflict, although some have been resolved. While the attention is on Darfur at present, it is forgotten that more than 3 million civilians have already been killed in the Eastern Congo in the past years by armed militia groups, and the slaughter continues.
A perception in Africa is that the developed world in general, and some major powers in particular, will only focus on some areas of conflict in Africa because it is in their strategic interest to do so, e.g. in Sudan. The perhaps cynical perception? Because of large oil reserves in Sudan.
The first issue I would like to deal with concerns the pastoral role of the Church in conflict areas of Africa. I will deal with "conflict patterns", and then "peace opportunities", and follow this with reflections on reconciliation and spirituality, poverty and HIV/Aids, and a spirituality for Church personnel and workers in Africa. In addition to the "normal" pastoral work of the Church, all the above issues are pastoral opportunities which need sustainable funding, relevant programs, and human resources and skills.
Conflict Patterns
Modern day conflict patterns reveal particular characteristics which distinguish them from those of previous eras. The key factor in this change can be described as the appalling consequences of war and conflict on the "ordinary people" of societies, on civilians. The progression is quite startling: from an estimate of some 5% of all those killed in World War I being civilians, the number rose to 50% in World War II, and 80% in the Vietnamese war. In wars and conflicts in our present era, the estimate of civilians in relation to the total number of people killed is between 85% and 95%. In other words, the vast majority of those killed and injured in wars today are innocent civilians.
As if the enormous number of ordinary people succumbing to war and conflict is not enough, we have the huge numbers of modern day refugees and internally displaced people to consider as well. Today it is estimated that there are more than 20 million refugees who are found mainly in developing countries, and some 25 million people who are displaced inside their own countries. The awful statistics relating to children are even more shocking, viz. 2 million children being killed in wars between 1986 and 1996 alone, more than 4 million wounded, 1 million orphaned and 12 million made homeless, and significant numbers forced into becoming child soldiers.
Figures like these can never describe the tragedy of the human and personal dimension of all this suffering and death, and the destruction of value systems and cultural and other support structures in societies. The effects of all these factors can cause damage which could take generations to turn around. The Church is undoubtedly called by God to be at the heart of the response required.
In Africa there are also particular elements relating to ethnic, cultural, religious and language differences which make conflicts much more complex, and that much more difficult to analyse and deal with.
Analysis of Conflicts
In addition to recognising the complexity of the patterns of conflict today, we need a careful analysis of underlying or contributory causes of conflict if we are to establish the foundations for prevention of violence and peace opportunities by the Church, as well as areas of pastoral involvement by the Churches in post-conflict, healing and reconciliation programs.
Factors to bear in mind, especially in terms of advocacy by the Church and its organisations, are the effect that structural adjustment programmes and global economic policies have on the level of poverty and impoverishment of peoples and countries in Africa; the question of multilateral debt in countries which increasingly inhibits their capacity to provide basic services to their people; and the potential all this may have for creating conditions for conflict either within a country or in regions. Advocacy by Church leadership, its Justice and Peace Commissions, and partners of the Church must be directed towards transformation in view of building a more just global economic system, fair trade rules at the World Trade Organization, focused development aid in fulfillment of the Millennium Development goals etc.
Peace Opportunities
What I would like to highlight or emphasise here, especially in view of the involvement of a faith-cased community like the Church in conflict resolution and peace-building, is what could be termed the empowerment of people and communities on the ground in view of attaining these objectives.
It has to be recognised that our situation in Africa touches sensitive socio-cultural dynamics which must not only be respected, but which must be actively incorporated into overall objectives and planning. Here, the Church and its networking with a variety of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) with particular skills and experience in an environment, could and should play a vital role in the search for peace, socio-economic transformation and sustainable development. And the Church should add its voice to those who might be challenging stereotyped approaches to ending conflicts and achieving peace, and instead are attempting to find realistic, holistic and creative solutions with the people on the ground.
The approach which focuses on mediation from the outside, e.g. by UN diplomats aimed at securing a cease fire, a peace agreement, deployment of peace-keeping forces to pave the way for democratic elections (important as all this is),……doing all this, without taking sufficient care to address all the underlying socio-cultural issues, as well as the fundamental change of heart and attitudes in the groups concerned, could open the way for the breaking down of what has been achieved at some time in the future. There are signs that this is occurring already in the Sudan.
So, what I am suggesting here is that the international community, the agencies and donor organizations, should accept the vital importance of capacitating and strengthening the local groups and indigenous organizations, many of them being organized or supported by the Church, so that they can develop their skills and experience in view of conflict resolution, peace making, healing of people and communities, socio-economic upliftment and simple but sustainable development programs which can enhance peace. Great potential exists here for partnerships with the Church in the affected communities.
For example, our Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) sent two delegations of bishops to Rwanda in 1997. We also sent delegations to the Sudan in 1997 and the following years, and this was followed by delegations from the Sudan being hosted by the SACBC Justice and Peace Department in South Africa – all financed by our partner organizations. One of the objectives achieved through these efforts was to set up a Sudan Justice and Peace Commission.
The Justice and Peace Department of the SACBC also hosted a Sudan Focal Point Africa Desk to engage in high level advocacy over the peace process and to advocate for the termination of human rights abuses, e.g. the infamous Antonov bombing of villages where the Sudanese regime used Antonov transport planes to fly over villages in the south, rolled out barrels of explosive and shrapnel which hit the villages causing numerous deaths and injuries. I visited a simple shrine in the village of Kauda in the Nuba Mountains where an Antonov dropped such a barrel of explosives right next to a tree where a teacher was holding a class with 14 pupils – all were killed. We meticulously gathered data of such atrocities from the Church communities all over southern Sudan, verified reports, and then sent them to the EU Governments and the USA which in turn brought pressure to bear on the Sudan Government to stop the bombing campaign. Another objective we advocated for in the peace talks was to give the people of Southern Sudan the right to self-determination and to vote for separation from the north – this was finally written into the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
At the moment I am involved with our SACBC’s Denis Hurley Peace Institute and Justice and Peace Commission in exposing atrocities and human rights violations in Zimbabwe, and in conducting a range of workshops for priests, religious and other Church workers on how to sustain the Church’s effort in a situation of violent oppression as obtains in Zimbabwe at the moment. Archbishop Monsengwo of the DRC and I serve on the Executive of Pax Christi International which co-operates in peace initiatives and post conflict programs with a range of partners – and always struggles to find the finance for such efforts. This building up and strengthening of the networks between local churches and conferences in Africa, and between people’s organizations and networks in countries, is an important African Church initiative which needs ongoing support.
What is the goal or aim of such efforts? We are trying to involve and promote all the human and cultural resources of people, organizations, and communities on the ground in conflict areas. In the end, all such programs must have the aim of empowering those who have suffered, rather than creating dependency in them. It is by engaging with them that we are able to view a conflict and potential opportunities for peace and rebuilding of societies through the eyes, the ears, the spirit and experience of the people involved, and then build on the opportunities, gifts, skills and resources of the people themselves. This, it would seem, has more potential for success by promoting longer term strategies which are developed in real partnerships with the local people.
Reconciliation and Spirituality
The ultimate goal and objective in all such efforts at conflict resolution and peace building is a change of heart and attitudes in order to promote reconciliation between all the people and groups which have been affected in any way by conflict. People, groups, and whole societies have been broken and brutalised by war and conflict or, for example, by an evil system such as apartheid. Their spirit and way of life needs healing; they need to recover their cultural and organisational riches; they need to find themselves as people again, and renew their strengths and abilities to redevelop their nation and country.
These healing and rebuilding processes take time and effort, and they also require particular skills. Again, our international partners could play a sustaining role with the African Church and local Church partners, NGOs, and CBOs, in this long term journey to address and respond to a very painful story and experience, and to embrace the future with a renewed sense of hope and optimism – precisely by journeying with, staying with the people affected in their pilgrimage to new life and new beginnings.
Poverty and HIV/Aids
As with the other issues, this could be the subject of more than one lecture. Sustaining the basic health care infrastructure in many African countries in the face of crippling skills and financial shortages is already a huge task – without the effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic. The question has to be asked: why does Aids so unerringly target situations of poverty and misery as the fertile ground for its incredible escalation - such that we call it a pandemic?
Poverty creates an environment for a range of social, cultural, political and economic factors to influence the spread of the pandemic – the basic reasons for Church advocacy to which I referred earlier. I will tell you the story of someone very special to me - Selina - to illustrate the interplay between these factors. Selina was brought up in an impoverished region of South Africa called the Eastern Cape – a predominantly rural area mired in poverty, very high unemployment, and lack of hope. She married and had a son with her husband – but he died very early in their marriage relationship. She was left alone, bereft of any means to support 5
herself or her child, so she did what many hundreds of thousands in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa do – she migrated to an urban area in a desperate search for a way out of her poverty.
She ended up in what is called an "informal settlement" – a squatter camp of 5000 shacks (just one among many in the area) constructed of rusted zinc sheets and wood, just a few miles from where I live. Next to this camp were 2 platinum mine shafts and two mine hostels which housed mineworkers from other parts of South Africa and indeed neighboring countries. Selina’s perception and hope? Around the mines there must surely be the possibility of finding money or a job. Selina soon found she was in a hopeless poverty trap. These illegal camps are not provided with services by the Government – because the theory is that one day the people will be moved to low-cost housing schemes. However, this camp has existed since 1986 and there is no sign of any change yet.
Selina found she had no money and there were – and indeed are – no jobs. So, like thousands and thousands of other single women and single mothers, she was forced into what we term "survival sex". This is not prostitution in the sense of a woman "choosing" this way of life among other possible options as a means to earn money. Selina, like all the others, had no options at all. She could only put a bit of food on the table for 24 – 48 hours by finding a "boyfriend" as we term it, forced to provide sex to find a bit of money to "survive". She had to do this over and over again – a profound injustice and so destructive of her human dignity.
I met her when she had already contracted HIV and Aids, and her little daughter born to her was also HIV positive. Because of poverty, misery, malnourishment, appalling lack of sanitation (raw sewage everywhere), no clean water, Selina soon picked up opportunistic infections which further weakened her immune system, and repeated sexual encounters increased her viral load. She was dying when we managed to bring her to our hospice in-patient unit next to where I live in November 2004, just after it opened. There we fought for her life, and managed to stabilize her condition so that she could begin an ART regimen. Fortunately, our Aids program was designated as one of 20 Church "sites" to receive ART funding through the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) consortium and PEPFAR of the US Government.
With holistic psycho-social support, prayer and spirituality programs, food and micro-nutrients, careful monitoring by our ART team, Selina began to improve. She found new beginnings, opened a small sweet shop for the kids, engaged in counseling of other patients in the squatter camp, and eventually through skills training at our Church centre she has now found a job in a town to the north of the camp. Karabo, her little daughter, is also on ARVs and is doing well so far. Their future is in God’s hands and ours – but a positive story of what a Church program can achieve through partnerships.
Women are especially vulnerable to the economic, social and cultural forces obtaining in Africa – they suffer the worst discrimination, alienation, and rejection in the Aids pandemic. Here is a major field for Church intervention through practical programs aimed at transforming the causes of gender inequality, sexual and physical violence against women and girl-children, and programs to enable men to change their attitudes to women and to enhance their roles as men in the home and in the society.
In this regard, our Catholic Institute of Education has produced and implemented several important holistic pastoral care programs and HIV/Aids initiatives in schools, and could do so much more with additional financial resources. The aim is to empower the whole school community to become a caring community and to bring together its resources to address issues of violence, HIV/AIDS, emotional and spiritual development etc. The Government is using some of these programs in state schools.
Prevention programs are and will be crucial in eventually turning round the pandemic. In addition to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programs, so vitally important, there are a few African home-grown peer ministry programs like "Education for Life", "Youth Alive", and the tertiary level ABCD program in South Africa aimed at behavior-modification in young people. These have been designed and are implemented by trained youth and young adults who engage in peer ministry with others in working towards the objective of choosing life, committing themselves to responsibility in the way they relate to others, and in the way they view and use their gift of sexuality.
Our caring programs in the Aids pandemic have some special characteristics that we share with others like Hospice Associations, e.g. in the development of holistic palliative care, that is, treating the whole person with a holistic regimen of pain control, psycho-social support and counseling, and spiritual programs designed to respond to the need holistic healing, including inner spiritual healing, so that a person can learn to live positively with the disease and, if they are indeed in the terminal phase of life, that they are helped to die in peace and with dignity surrounded by holistic and professional care and compassion.
A Spirituality for Church personnel and workers in Africa
If Church personnel are to find the inner strength to engage in what are truly demanding ministries, then the need for a spirituality to nourish pastoral care programs, conflict resolution and peace building is very important. In addition, the people with whom we live and minister in the HIV/Aids pandemic, in situations of extreme and chronic poverty, and in conflict situations – all these people are spiritual beings, with particular spiritual needs. The word we share with them, the way we – in Church communities - facilitate and accompany them in the search for spiritual meaning and well-being, and for a relationship with their God, are important aspects of the Church’s ministry.
Those involved in ministry in the Aids pandemic, or engaged in advocacy for a just global economic order, those working for peace, reconciliation and a culture of human rights, with all the complementary pastoral responses….all these Church personnel and those with whom they collaborate may experience serious stress at times and even burnout. They also need a sustaining and nourishing spirituality, counseling and workshops which can enable them to integrate within themselves a spirit of positive living and ministry. Our Church communities need to be formed to be this "leaven" of hope in such societies through catechesis, lay ministry training and pastoral care.
This spirituality is all about deepening a living relationship with God in the real context of life and people. A significant and integrating Scripture text for me is the verse from Micah 6:8: "This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God."
"Acting justly" is all about encountering the God of justice in the living context, and so identifying and transforming unjust structures. It will mean committing ourselves to all the social justice issues in the situation so that the quality of life of people, especially the poor and alienated, can be improved. But to do all this with that spiritual motive which comes from a living relationship with our God in the situation, a relationship which moves us to thirst for justice and social transformation because that thirst comes out of a relationship with God, nourished by prayer, the Scriptures and the principles/values of Catholic Social Teaching, in the ongoing situation. And then – to do so not in order to break or destroy, but to heal and to build and plant (cf. the call of Jeremiah 1: 4 – 10).
"Loving tenderly" concerns our inter-relationships, the way we relate to each with sensitivity and understanding because we are conscious of the God-given dignity of the human person. This moves us to a spirit and practice of non-violence, to empower others, to the building of community with others, and to discerning and deciding together with our sisters and brothers about all the pastoral responses required of the Church in Africa.
"Walking humbly with your God": this helps us focus on taking responsibility for ourselves and what we are and do; it concerns whether we are growing as a humble and wholesome human being with our God in relationship with our people, and whether part of this growth as a human being keeps before us the issue of our own need for healing and life, as well as the quality of life of our people, especially as regards anything which may diminish or alienate the human person.
If we live and work and minister to others in Africa out of this spirituality, we can become more truly peace-filled people, people at peace and in harmony with others, with God and with all of creation, and thus enabled to promote a spirit of peace, healing and growth in others. Living out of this spirit, the Church in Africa can then try to prioritize its responses in an ongoing and reflective way.
The Call of Christ in Africa is many faceted and is essentially an invitation to journey with our people and the Church of Africa to discern and implement sustainable community-centered and community-driven responses which can make a difference….. a difference to the whole person, the family, the community and the society at large. The potential for positive, inspirational partnerships between organizations like FADICA, its associates, and the Church in Africa is, I believe, very substantial. It will require faith, and a commitment of time and energy to build up relational partnerships characterized by trust and mutual accountability, partnerships which open the way to an ongoing journey towards a deeper quality of life for Africa’s people. On behalf of the Church in Africa, I thank you deeply for participating in this journey with us.

courtesy of Africa Faith and Justice Network (http://www.afjn.org/)

APRES 12 ANS LE MEME SCENARIO DE GUERRE

2008-10-29T18:09:00.004+02:00

12e anniversaire de l’assasinat de MGR Christophe Munzihirwa Mwene Ngabo 1996 – 29 octobre – 2008

Jour aprés jour nous voila donc arrivés à celebrer le 12e anniversaire de l’assasinat de l’Archeveque de Bukavu, Monseigneur Christophe Munzihirwa survenu dans la soirée du 29 octobre 1966 et perpetré par un groupe de militaires rwandais, qui en provénance de la frontiére de Cyangugu avait occupé la ville.

Un vile et ignoble assassinat, qui reste jusqu’aujourd’hui impuni et dont aucun dossier à étè deposé à un quelconque tribunal de la RDC. Par plusieurs voies Monseigneur Christophe Munzihirwa avait cherché d’entrer en dialogue avec tous les acteurs de crise de la Région des Grands Lacs pour trouver ensemble le chemin de la solution pacifique. Il avait denoncé, écrit, crie. Mais ce qui avait grave c’était que ces gens prèsupposés connaisseurs de la situation, et pas interessés à la verité, il voulaient seulement trouver un pretexte valide pour éliminer ce nouveau prophéte, qui derangeait leur hypocrisie e qui mettait en crise leur credibilité et leur autorité. « À l’époque et même beaucoup plus tard, aucun des dirigeants congolais ne s’est indigné de cet odieux assassinat ». (DIA. 01.11.2000).

12 ans sont passés et la RDC est encore en guerre et encore les memes personnes et les memes problemes sociaux qui s’en suivent. Rien est changé, meme les troux qu’on trouve partout sur les routes des villes comme des campagnes son encore là. Ils ne sont que la photo d’une nation immense et grande comme la RDC qui est condamnée par un fatus étrange à vivre dans les creux de la misére, du viol, des pillages.

Après 12 ans le message de cet homme très courageux, mais aussi très humble, demeure actuel plus que jamais. Ses idéaux de paix, de justice et de tolerance réciproque nous reviennent en ce jours plus vivants que jamais, au moment meme où le gènèral rebelle Laurent Nkunda est en train semer terreur et mort au Nord Kivu et dans l’Ituri et les autorités congolaises ne font que crier, montrant ainsi de leur incapacité à mettre fin à une situation qui devienne de plus en plus inflammable.

Dans ses prédications et messages écrits, il dénonçait le manque d’amour, la haine tribule ; il déploierait la déstabilisation socio-économique du Kivu ainsi que la destruction de son environnement. Ses prises de positions étaient très courageuses.
Dans son souci de faire respecter la justice et les droits, il ne supportait jamais qu’on maltraite un homme, crée à l’image de Dieu. Dans ses nombreuses prises de position courageuses, il interpellait les gouvernants, les institutions internationales, les États et même le peuple. Il n’épargnait pas l’ONU et les organisations humanitaires devant leur démission dans la cause des réfugiés.

Pendant deux ans, de 1994 à 1996, par des nombreuses, Mgr munzihirwa a proposé un chémin de paix pour la région des Grands lacs et attiré l’attention du monde sur les conséquences désastreuses de la présence massive des réfugiés dans son diocèse, déjà surpeuplé. Il condamna le projet de retour forcé des réfugiés chez eux et proclamait le droit de tous à une solution juste et non-violente.
Il dénoncait les arrestations arbitraires, les disparitions des personnes influentes, les conditions de vie scandaleuse dans « les prisons, les climats de terreur etc. defendeur des droits de sans voix, il fut victime de la haine et il a payé le prix de son engagement pour la paix et la justice.

Monseigneur Christophe Munzihirwa, reconnu par tous comme un sage (Mzee) et porte-parole de la résistance à l'occupant, assassiné le 29 octobre 1996 par des miliciens rwandais, est notre martyr : martyr le paix, martyr la de la vérité, martyr de l’unité. De son vivant, Mgr. Munzihirwa avait choisi de se faire appeler "Mzee", l' ancien, un vieux authentique en fait, signait aussi par " Muhudumu", le serviteur. Plusieurs témoignages qualifient Mzee Munzihirwa de " martyr".. Ce mot grec signifie " témoin".
En celebrant sa mémoire nous voudrions bien souligner ces trois aspects de ses idéaux qui à notre modeste avis nous semblent très importantes pour faire front à l’heure actuelle de peur et de panique que nous vivons.

1. Martyr de la paix. La paix n’est pas une simple idée, mais une conviction qui pousse l’individu à pouvoir convivre honnetement et fraternellement ensemble sans convoites, jalousies, complexes d’inferiorité ou de superiorité.

2. Martyr de la verité : Verité pour la justice et verité pour la transparence. « Se taire sur le mal est deveni complice de ce meme mal » Il a été assassiné parce qu’il avait parlait haut et fort, et il ne voulait pas taire les injustices et les violations des droits de l’homme.

3. Martyr de l’unité. La tolérance à tout prix était son refrain . Il avait dit aux chrétiens de Bukavu : « mes chers frères de Bukavu, je vous invite à ne pas vous venger sur les innocents Tutsis qui sont parmi nous. Car Dieu protège toute vie et tout peuple, et ne voudrait pas qu’on tue les innocents, surtout pour les intérêts matériels ». Mais tolérance zero pour les frontiéres et l’unitè du pays.
Il est temps de faire un bilan serieux et equitable autour de cette personnalité qui dans la Région des Grand Lacs reste un point incontournable de referance. Le mystère de cet assassinat n’a jamais été élucidé. Il est temps donc que l’état congolais, qui n’a rien fait jusqu’à maintenant, puisse se constituer partie civile et rendre justice à ce valeureux patriote.
Il est temps aussi que l’eglise Catholique de Bukavu, revienne à ses engagements et, elle aussi, fasse de la mémoire de Mgr Christophe Munzihirwa la referance principale de la recherhe de la paix dans la Région. Au Synode et dans la celebration du centenaire du Diocése de Bukavu on avait instamment écouté des voix qui demandaient de pouvoir entamer le procés canonique de béatification. C’est l’Eglise, dans ses pasteurs actuels, qui doit croire à ses martirs, d’en faire des héros, et les montrer comme modèles et exemples à suivre

Voici en guise d’exemples, quelques-uns de ses appels en faveur de la paix et de son engagement pour la justice.
« Nous demandons aux organismes d’aider aux réfugiés d’assumer leur responsabilité en mettant tout en œuvre même les moyens extraordinaires pour combattre une catastrophe qui menace aussi bien les réfugiés rwandais appauvris et sans abri que la population congolaise qui y perd la Paix »
« Nous en appelons à la responsabilité des nations et des états épris de justice des droits de l’homme et des peuples, pour qu’ils oeuvrent pour la paix et la stabilité dans cette région en épargnant ses habitants du désastre qui les menace. Que ceux qui aiment cette région oeuvrent pour y restaurer la paix et construites de justice, de réconciliation et paix »
«Mes chers frères de Bukavu, je vous invite à ne pas vous venger sur les innocents Tutsis qui sont parmi nous. Car Dieu protège toute vie et tout peuple, et ne voudrait pas qu’on tue les innocents, surtout pour les intérêts matériels »
« Nous demandons aux militaires qui ont fuit le front et viennent maintenant agresser les habitants au lieu de les défendre, que nous sommes leur frères et ce qu’ils font en nous pillant, en nous frappant, cela ne leur apportera pas bonheur »
« Bien chers frères. Défendons nous avec courage contre les pillards. Ce sont des voleurs. Mais toujours, souvenons-nous que nous sommes chrétiens, et qu’à chaque moment de notre histoire, nous sommes chrétiens. Conservons notre dignité de chrétiens. N’encourageons jamais toute discrimination tribale ou raciale. Et celui qui touche à notre être humain, parce qu’il touche à Dieu lui-même. Courage, défendez votre dignité »

Le pasteur a mené ce combat jusqu’au sacrifice de sa vie. Dans une lettre adressee a l'ambassadeur des Etats-Unis a Kinshasa, Mgr Christophe Munzihirwa, archeveque de Bukavu, avait denoncé la situation au Rwanda: « les arrestations arbitraires, …les disparitions -- suivant programmation -- de personnes influentes… les conditions de vie dans les prisons "scandaleuses" et "rien n'est fait pour juger les prisonniers";… les militaires qui tiennent la population dans la peur et sous haute surveillance dans ce pays "devenu un Etat policier", ce qui ne manque pas d'inquieter les refugies qui voudraient rentrer. Il avait accusé les grandes puissances d'enteriner une situation de fait: « qui appuient la minorite au pouvoir au Rwanda,… qui desirent voir les refugies s'integrer au Zaire ». Il avait avertit que « les incursions des uns et des autres,… étaient le prelude d'une guerre dans les Grands Lacs ». Et enfin avait posé une question: "Qui donc vend ou procure des armes aux uns et aux autres?" Eternelle question, valable encore aujourd’hui car autour du marché des armes il y a une complicité enorme de forces internes au Congo et des forces exterieures.
© kakaluigi 2008 www.kakaluigi.unblog.fr
Merci A kaka Luigi LoStocco, SX pour cetter reflexion sur la RDC.

Lumiere de Ma Vie

2008-10-28T19:06:00.000+02:00

C'est Toi l'éclair
Venu éclairer
Ma vie vieille
Que je veille

C'est Toi la lueur
Qui soulage ma langueur
Fixant mon cœur
Elle veut mon bonheur

Jadis malheureux
Je renais heureux
En Lui Miséricordieux
Pour le Royaume des Cieux

En Lui Nazaréen
Lumière du monde
Pour que la grâce inonde
Mon âme galiléenne

Luit mon étoile
Ma nuit toilée
vive ma clarté
Ravive ma pureté.

2008-10-28T19:00:00.000+02:00

Hello friends.
As you know, english is only my second foreign language. the first is french. I just discovered in my archives some of my earlier writings, thoughts that I put down during my early years of religious life. they are in french, of course. So, bear with me. I think, in this final stretch of my formation, I need to revisit those foundational years so as to really embrace the future that God is bringing in the horizon.

VIVRE OU VIVOTER

2008-05-21T00:23:00.002+02:00

there is no internship in life. all i have is one shot. one shot only. and that is. no second chance. no karma, no reincarnation. this is the timeto live. but isn't that the question really? am i actually living or am i just like a sleepwalker who wakes up only to realize that he has lost the opportunity to make an impact? yes, God is gracious and loves us and wants the best for us and from us. yes, God has created everything for us, for our enjoyment and fulfillment as human persons. and, yes, God wants us to take ownership of our lives. in life there is no time for having fun, then getting serious. i cannot have it all. i need to make choices, sometimes hard and painful, but mature and responsible because i know where the treasure of my greatest joy lies. i cannot try to live. i can only live and recount the deeds the Lord has accomplished through me. i have discovered that the secret to full joy is not in some egomaniac narcissistic excuse drawing the people to feel pity for you and get cheap graces. the secret to full joy is in offering my life for others, for the people i love, for the people who are suffering.

and i think a certain kind of education has got some good in it, but is wrong in building the individual up as if the person is on a crusade to make some statement about his divine right to fun. only, to relaize at some age later that the person has lived an empty life. individualism leads to emptiness and dispair.

Another crash!

2008-04-21T05:16:00.000+02:00

Yeah, this week another plane crashed in Congo. this time it was in Goma. around 40 people died and more than 100 seriously injured. others lost their homes and businesses that were burned. this is disgusting. sometimes i wonder why we have governments if all they do is just enjoy their offices. for this is yet another sign that they don't care about the people. i was in kin and bkv last summer. i saw with my eyes the conditions of these planes. they should not be authorized to fly. But, hewa bora is the company of Kabila! the investigation promised by the government is just a trick to distract the people.
Truly, it is time that the congolese people rise start demanding answers from kabila and his team.
Meanwhile, we pray for the victims that they find rest in God. we pray also for solidarity with those injured. This is just what Goma did not need, considering its struggles with the volcano eruption some years ago, and the threat of Nkunda's militias in its surroundings. ultimately we pray that God sends the Spirit into congolese people, Spirit of courage, perseverance, and boldness.

WHY FOLLOW?

2008-04-21T04:37:00.000+02:00

Lately, I have been meditating on my motivations to continue following Jesus, the motivations that got me into religious life, in the first place. I am really conviced that Jesus never discourage anyone from following him. Never. He wants more followers. So if we talk about Jesus purifying our motivations, that means, I believe, that Jesus, when he calls me, he bids me to open my heart to God's dream for humanity. Jesus actually expands, extends, enlarges my heart, my vision, my ambition to God's dimensions. By saying "yes" to Jesus I let he open my heart to embrace the world and beyond. As a good vine grower, he prunes the vine so that it may expands, flourish and bear greater fruit. because one who believes in Jesus will do greater works than those Jesus did. Thus, a grain needs to die so as to give life to a bigger tree and more fruits. I have come to believe that the cross is a necessary passage from "me for me" to "me for others." Jesus does not take nothing from me when he calls me, rather he gives me the world according to God's dimensions and God's vision. My eyes cannot see far enough. Jesus gives me the Spirit, God's binoculars, through which I can see the world the way God sees it. Jesus tells me that the sea is ready for the catch, an abundant catch of fish, if only I would follow and be faithful. I think the fear of people today about following Jesus or giving their lives for Jesus is due to the fact that Jesus demands all as he gives all. we are afraid because we think we not worthy of the greatness and abundance that God reveals to us. Jesus calls us because he knows what is in store us. Jesus calls for the highest glory possible, God's glory: AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM. Jesus demands all because he gives all, namely the Spirit of God. In Jesus we are given God, whose love has been outpoured into our hearts by the Spirit of courage and hope. It came to my mind that this is why I keep on following, because I want God and share in God's glory, spread God's glory in the world. Thus, I think, this life is for those who are ambitious, driven, those who will not settle for what their ego asks of them. God is the limit. Life broken and shared, is wellspring of hope. This is the everlasting life, the miracle that God operates in our life. So with Peter, we can exclaim, MASTER, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. WE HAVE COME TO BELIEVE AND ARE CONVINCED THAT YOU ARE THE HOLY ONE OF GOD (John 6:68-69).

Burning from within

2008-04-07T06:55:00.000+02:00

hello all.
It's been a long time since i posted anything on this blog. today i feel like sharing something. I hope i can keep it up.
i mediated today on the story of the two disciples to Emmaus. what really struck me in this account, is how the two disciples, after experiencing jesus in their midst, left Jerusalem, filled with sadness, looking downcast. they were sad because of lost hopes, shattered dreams. they thought jesus would be the One. they were still mourning over things lost in the fire. they were so sad that they could not notice the presence of the pilgrim beside them. But what the risen jesus was really amazing. he made them remember their story anew from a different perspective. he instilled fire in their hearts. he made them realize that like him, his disciples' lives MUST be taken, blessed, broken and given for all.
this year has been very different for me. since early in my vocation, i encountered sad disciples, missionaries, religious, priests, lay, you name it. people who grew sad and breathed sadness. they have grown bitter, because of lost hopes and shattered dreams. people who stayed because that was the only life they knew. don't be mistaken, i have also met a lot of people who were truly happy in their vocations. but since then, i vowed i would a different missionary. i decided not to breath in such sadness and bitterness, which are contegious. i decided i would be who i am, a paschal person, one filled with easter joy. well, lately, some of the happenings of this year have been taking a toll on me. i started filling that emmaus bitterness and sadness. i started remembering some the lost dreams and shattered hopes. and for lent, i chose as my lenten guiding theme, "ARISE FROM MY ASHES." when what i got from the emmaus story is that, i am not meant to be sad. i am made for joy. i realized that what i did consider lost dreams and shattered hopes were actually purified dreams and transformed hopes. i realized that my true and inner-outer joy was to offer my life to be taken, blessed, broken and shared. it is this ideal and experience of christ in my life that enkindled the fire in my heart. with these recent happenings, i realized that cold was invading my heart and bones. jesus is the fire shut up in my bones; jesus is the burning inside my heart. i need to keep my eyes fixed on him, and him alone. in jesus, actually, my deepest dreams and my profound hopes are fullfilled because they are blessed, broken and shared. this is now the source of joy for me, the paschal joy. to know that the love of christ in burning inside of me. i feel now like a furnace. ohohoh, is it just me, or it's really hot in here!

2007-09-05T05:48:00.000+02:00

i just heard from my family, back in Bukavu, that they are again living in fear of a war that can break out any time soon. the kind of war that has been ravaging the eastern congo's countryside. the kind of war that is happening in rutshuru right now. i feel outraged. i just came from Bukavu where i spent almost three months in my family. the same terror was present when i arrived, but then faded away. i can't believe that when i just left, the same situation begins again. it is hard for me to feel here, while knowing that my family, my people, my country, my church is living in such deep terror. these are the people who share my vocation. these are the people who pray for me day and night. these are the people who sent me here. these are the people i love the most. God, how can you allow this to happen again?

the wisphering wind

2006-11-04T22:34:00.000+02:00

the wisphering wind

lately

2005-07-03T01:57:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone.
As you have probably noticed, I haven't post anything these past days. I am away from Chicago. I am in NY, in the Bronx, helping out for a children summer camp. This summer camp is organized by the sisters missionaries of charity of mother Teresa of Calcutta, for children of age 5 thru 14 from the large Latino neighborhood surrounding saint Rita's catholic church. It lasts until August 11th. The sisters have called on many volunteers US, France and Spain. Most of us are young adults inn their twenties, though the majority is in college age. Though the activities start next Tuesday, last Friday’s opening retreat set the tone and the agenda of this ministry: being an instrument of God's love according to Corinthians 13.
This is really a great opportunity, a moment of grace. More than a time for fun and relaxation, it is an occasion for evangelization since some of these kids are not Christians and live in an area where human and Christian values are not observed. They are constantly at risk of falling into drugs, violence, etc. also, the summer camp is an opportunity for a pastoral care for the kids who come from broken or inexistent families. Thus, as volunteers, we will have to give account of our being catholic and lead them to discover human and Christian values that they can live by. This will be done through catechesis, carpentry, and daily example.
Also, this summer camp is a way for the volunteers to live up their Christian missionary vocation. Many of us are living the experience of Abraham. Leaving everything behind, we are proclaiming God's promise realized in Jesus: the land of the living is ours if we become disciples and apprentices of Jesus. Abraham was in search of a land and an offspring, symbolizing shalom and eternity that he eventually found in God alone. Likewise, many of the volunteers as young adults, are searching for their destiny, their orientation, the sense and the meaning of their lives. Many of them are here to discern God's voice: God what do you see in me? Who am I? What are the deepest desires of my heart? And only God can help find an answer to such questions.
As you can see, volunteerism is a way of doing a personal discernment, and of being valuable to society and to the church. A Christian volunteer participate in the evangelizing mission of the church. What about you? What do you plan to do this summer for the church, society, and family...? What do you thirst for? What are the desires of your heart? Maybe it is time to stop being blown by the surrounding culture and its individualistic calls, and turn toward higher values. The world needs new Abraham, new visionaries driven by the deepest and most sacred and pure desires of the heart and following God's promise of eternal shalom.
Visit my website.

Stay tuned for more on the summer camp.

walk the talk- June 21, 2005

2005-06-21T16:26:00.000+02:00

“Human beings need two things: something to believe in and something to belong to. To be successful, a parish [or a community, a marriage, a friendship, a team, a nation, any human organization] must be a place where both needs are met.”
Timothy E. O’Connell, Making Disciples

This is a tribute to Jaime Cardinal Sin, the late archbishop of Manila (Philippines) who just passed away. Cardinal Sin was an example of a true disciple committed to the kingdom of God as the mission of the church, and to the common good as the purpose of any political institutions. His commitment to end dictatorship in the Philippines and to bring about freedom, solidarity, especially with the poor, and democracy will never be forgotten. The way of conversion had become his way of living. May the Most High grant him the eternal reward. May the Lord grant us to be courageous disciples and genuine prophets, like cardinal Sin. The legacy of cardinal Sin is a call to live and give account of our faith in the public arenas where the dignity of the human person is at stake. our faith in the Trinity, our hope for the Kingdom of God, and our charity are what the world of today longs for and what God is offering to creation though us. Through cardinal Sin's legacy, Christ is reminding us that there is no genuine human growth and happiness if we don't believe in the the values of the Kingdom of God that he came to realize and if we don't build a genuine human solidarity that he came to inspire.

THE CONTEXT OF THE 8th CENTURY B.C.E. PROPHECY: THE PROPHET AMOS.

2005-06-21T15:32:00.000+02:00

Introduction

Who is a prophet? The word 'prophet' today evokes for some people names such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, John Paul II, and etc. A prophet, like those mentioned above, is understood as a charismatic personage who critiques and judges his/her society. Driven by a religious experience, the prophet -nābi’- speaks in the name of God by interpreting the signs of times to his/her contemporaries. Since revelation is not restricted to a particular moment in history but happens within the course of history, prophecy cannot be held as finished with the death of John the Baptist. God continues to reveal Godself in the total historical process through events or signs of times and peoples who incarnate and speak God’s word.
Prophets therefore do not foretell the future; but as they interpret events and present situations, they present the future as consequence of an action or another. While prophecy is evaluated through its interpretation of the signs of times, these signs of times and the audience differentiate a prophet from another. A prophet interprets events or sign of times in a particular time history, in a particular place in the world, and addresses a particular people. This is true especially if we look at the history of prophecy in ancient Israel. From Moses to Malachi, everyone of the prophets differs from the other according to the moment of history where they appear and to the situations that they address. The 8th century BCE prophecy is typical as it laid the foundations of the classical period of prophecy that started with Amos.
In this paper, hence, we intend to look first at the socio-economic, religious and political context of 8th century BCE prophecy. We will, secondly, discuss the book of Amos within that context. This analysis will lead us to understand the importance of prophecy today and particularly the significance of the book of Amos in our contemporary world.

The Eighth Century B.C.E Prophecy

The 8th century BCE is a foundational time for understanding the history of Israel and the changes in the prophetic tradition within that history. It is characterized by the revival of the imperial desires of Assyria in the Fertile Crescent. Assyrian Empire existed between the tenth and the seventh centuries (900 - 600 BCE). This period may be comprised, in Assyria, from few decades before Tiglath-pileser III to the death of Sennacherib. In Israel, this period extends from the last kings of the dynasty of Jehu in the northern kingdom to the religious reforms of Josiah in the southern kingdom. And concerning prophecy, this period marked the passage from the primitive prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, to the first classical or writing prophets, namely Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah.
In fact, the latter are called classical because their prophecies had been written and conserved under their names by themselves or by their disciples. Instead, from the former prophets, we only have stories about their deeds, about them. Various socioeconomic, religious and political aspects contributed to this change. These events, not only affected the Israelites, but also, constituted the concerns of the prophets. What, then, may be those situations?

The Political Context of 8th Century BCE.
Since the 9th century BCE, Assyria had changed its policy about the treaties with vassal or conquered nations. Instead of dealing only with the king, the treaties were signed with the whole nation. The people were responsible for keeping the treaties. Therefore, a rebellion brought punishment on the king and the nation; a punishment that consisted of mass deportation. The prophetic oracles were no longer addressed to the king alone, but to the whole people. Later on, Tiglath-pileser introduced the “policy of two-way relocation”[1](Hershel Shanks, Ancient Israel. p.174). The deported nation was replaced by another from a different place. This is what was applied to Samaria in 722 BCE. (2 kings 17:6.24)
Also, while the domination of Damascus over the Aramean states – Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, Judah, and Philistia- was declining, Assyria rose and inaugurated the era of powerful empires. First, Adad-nirari III (811-783 BCE) opened the way to the Assyrian imperialistic domination through his two western military campaigns (805-802 BCE). These campaigns not only ended Damascus’ claims over the other Aramean states, but they gave Adad-nirari III a tribute of gratitude from these states that viewed him as savior (2 kings 13:5).

This situation offered Israel and Judah to stand against Damascus. Joash (801-786 BCE) of Israel had the opportunity of defeating Ben-Hadad of Damascus three times (2 kings 13:25). In the Judah, Amaziah (800-783 BCE) was trying to control the trade route in the Edomite territory (2 kings 14:7). It was, however, in this period that Joash attacked Amaziah. After breaking the northern wall of Jerusalem, looting the temple and the royal court, Joash brought some hostages in Samaria; Judah became a vassal of Israel (2 kings 14:8-14).

Thereafter, Judah under Uzziah (783-742 BCE) and Israel under Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE) enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity, since Damascus had been weakened and Assyria was busy trying to control the Urartu (a region around lake Van, north of Assyria). It is during this time that Amos, Hosea and Micah prophesied.
The second rise of Assyrian empire and its apogee came with the accession of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE). He cultivated military power and administrative skills. He bound vassal states with treaties; and he used mass deportations and resettlement to punish rebellions. During his first western military campaign (743-738 BCE), he conquered Arpad in Syria (740 BCE), while the nations from Damascus to Arabia paid him tribute. In Israel, the moral decline under Jeroboam would result in Zechariah, his son, being assassinated and ending the Jehu dynasty. Menahem (747-738 BCE) thus king would continue with Jehu policy toward Assyria, namely of paying tribute. It was during this period that Isaiah started his ministry in Judah, followed by Micah.
Also, during this period, assassinations would continue in Israel and they resulted in the accession of Pekah (737-732 BCE) who would team up with Razin of Damascus to attack Ahaz (735-715 BCE) of Judah in order to convince him to join their anti-Assyrian coalition. Against Isaiah’s advice, Ahaz would call upon Assyria and introduced Judah under Assyrian vassalage. Called upon for help, Tiglath-pileser would undertake his second western military campaign (734-732 BCE). Damascus fell in 732 BCE; the other Syro-Palestinian states, including Judah and Israel paid tribute to Assyria which extends it borders until the Wadi-el-‘Arish. A part of Israel’s population would be deported; and the king, Hoshea (732-724 BCE) became an Assyrian vassal.
However, supported by Egypt, Hoshea gave in to anti-Assyrian sentiments around him. Angered, the Assyrian king Shalmanaser V (727-722 BCE) would undertake a military campaign that ended in the vassalage of Egypt, and the destruction of Samaria in summer of 722 BCE by Sargon II (722-705 BCE). Israel’s populations were deported (Isaiah 7:8b) and resettled in Halath (northeast of Nineveh), on the Harbor (the Khabour River), and in the highlands of Medes (northwest Iran). The kingdom was divided into various provinces like Dor, Megiddo, Gilead, and Samaria was repopulated and rebuilt as capital province.
In Judah meanwhile, Hezekiah (727-697 BCE) resisted to join the Ashdod revolt that Sargon II defeated in 712 BCE (Isaiah 19-20). With the Egyptian backing, Hezekiah rebelled against Sennacherib (705-681 BCE) who, weakened by his victory over Egypt and Judean cities could not sustain the siege of Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-37). Though the city was miraculously spared, Judah paid a heavy tribute to Assyria until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE.

The Socioeconomic Context.
The Syro-Palestinian states were among various trade routes from Egypt to the Persian Gulf through Damascus and Nineveh and further east. Most of the trade was about luxury goods such as precious metals, ivory, exotic woods and animals. This market controlled by Damascus might have been the cause of the expansion of Assyria, which since Tiglath-pileser III controlled the Syrian trade routes, the costal highway, including the Via Maris. Also, the vassal nations, after being looted, were bound through treaties to pay tribute to Assyria. These tributes were used to finance military campaigns and to sustain the Assyrian administrative structures.
Besides, the Assyrian policy of mass deportation in order to punish rebellions emptied various territories of their populations and then repopulated by other exiles. This practice discouraged any ideas of returning to one’s original land. In 722 BCE, Samaria was filled with a new exile population that was mixed with the Israelite remnants that constituted the ancestors of the Samaritans; this case would stir controversy upon the return from Babylon and until Jesus’ time about the land and the ancestry. The mass deportation of 722 BCE was not only a social problem, but also a theological challenge.
The first half of the 8th century was a peaceful and prosperous time for both Israel and Judah. Both Jeroboam II and Uzziah enjoyed prosperous and long reign, even though Uzziah got leper and left the regency of Judah to his son Jotham. Both kingdoms were at peace with each other and extended their respective kingdoms.
During this period, the stratification of society started by Solomon attained its summit. The upper class was a minority made of the king, the royal family and the aristocratic nobility –governors and maintainers of royal estates; and the lower class was made of artisans, laborers, herdsmen such as the prophet Amos who formed the majority. While the upper class was accumulating the wealth, the lower class was starving and extorted. The family-based farming was transformed into a production for export that benefited only to the upper class. The culture of olive oil was prominent at this time, and exchanged for luxury goods. Those who could not pay their loans were reduced to slavery. The local justice like the property rights done by the king and his officers was not without abuses (Micah 2:2). Also, the international trade was a source of substantial wealth and of competition between Israel and Phoenicia, on one hand, and Judah and Philistia, on the other, against Damascus. The western costal trade routes and the southeastern trade routes (kings’ highway) were controlled by Jeroboam II. As production increased, consumerism, individualism, greed and overconfidence grew as well. It was this situation, not different from ours today, that Amos (and Micah in Judah) criticized and denounced its moral and religious downfall that would lead to the chaos of 745-722 BCE. Also, the deuteronomistic historian, from the perspective of the fall of Samaria and deportation gives a very negative assessment of Jeroboam II (2 kings 14:23-29).

The Religious Context
Under Jeroboam II and Uzziah, the temple of Jerusalem in Judah and the sanctuary of Bethel in Israel were prominent religious centers, places for sacrifices and other offerings. Some of the wealth accumulated, such as gold and ivory, furnished these sanctuaries. For the prophets, nevertheless, justice was more important than cultic sacrifices.
Under Assyrian vassalage, the Assyrian policy toward local religious cults was ambiguous (Joseph Blenkinsopp, A History of Prophecy in Israel. p. 83). Sometimes, the Assyrian cult was imposed and supported by vassal annual tribute. Local cults were destroyed and/or restored, like in 2 kings 17:24-28. And the Assyrian military campaigns were conducted in the name of Ashur –Assyrian god; and the treaties of vassalage, called “yoke of Ashur”, were signed in the name of Ashur, the “lord of all lands”.
For Israel, however, the fall of Samaria was not only a human disaster, but also a theological challenge. Since war between human nations involved war between their respective deities, could Yahweh be defeated by Ashur? Also, the loss of the land questioned the relevance of the covenant with Yahweh. For the prophets Amos and Hosea, the fall of Samaria was a logical consequence of the religious and social discrepancies of under Jeroboam II. Hosea, particularly, denounced the religious syncretism that the international trades brought in Israel, advocating for the purity of faith. This syncretism was also observed after 722 BCE as new people were brought in Samaria and mixed with the Israelite remnants. In Jesus’ time, the Jews reproached the Samaritans for the syncretistic religion.
In Judah, the fall of Samaria was not without religious and theological impacts. We should not forget that king Hezekiah initiated series of religious reforms that Josiah would finish after discovering the Book of the Law from the northern kingdom. He fortified the walls of Jerusalem, secured the water supply by building the tunnel of Siloam, and conducted the purification of the Temple (Isaiah 22:9-11). These reforms not only enhanced the importance of the temple, but also became the reason of the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the siege of Sennacherib (2 kings 19:35-37). This confidence on the temple and the city would be challenged by the Babylonian invasion in 597 and 586 BCE.

The Prophet Amos and his Book

The Prophet
Amos is among the twelve Minor Prophets, but the first of the Classical or Writing Prophets. He was a herdsman or a shepherd from Tekoa, in Judah. He ministered at Bethel, in Israel, during the flourishing and long reign of Jeroboam II (1:1; 7:10-17) around 760s BCE. For being a Judean and not from the company of prophets, he exercised his ministry not without opposition and persecution. The priest Amaziah of Bethel accused him of conspiracy and creating an upheaval in the community. Eventually, Amos was expelled from Bethel but not before predicting the death of Amaziah, his family and the whole nation (7:10-17). Nevertheless, Amos spoke in the name of God who he encountered through a religious experience (7:15). For him, a prophet is called and sent by Yahweh (2:11). That Amos predicted the fall of Samaria when the Assyrian threat was not obvious questions about the exact dating of his ministry (John J. Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible with CD Rom. p.287). However, there are aspects that may confirm Amos’ ministry. First, the portrait that Amos gives of Israel corresponds to the prosperous reign of Jeroboam. Secondly, Amos may have foreseen the chaos that followed the death of Jeroboam and culminated in the fall of Samaria (745-722 BCE).
Moreover, Amos has been called the prophet of social justice. He witnessed the injustices against the poor and weak and warned his generation against the destructive consequences of the moral outrage –injustice, consumerism, individualism, idolatry, overconfidence, and indifference- that the socioeconomic and political prosperity was leading to (3:1-2; 4:1; 9:7-8). The ruling class was enriching itself by exploiting the poor. He witnessed, as shepherd, the first hand experience of the simple people in Israel. For him, the just and egalitarian social order in the traditional villages was the way of living the covenant. For Amos, justice means sharing equally the resources; justice means taking care of the weak and treating with compassion the poor. “A society that neglects justice –mishpat- and righteousness –sedeqah- does not deserve to survive.” (Blenkinsopp, p.96).
Finally, Amos sees the silence of God or absence of the Word as one of the worst punishments (8:11-12). Also, Amos understands events as the milieu for encountering the Lord. The signs of times signal the coming of Yahweh, "the day of the Lord", who brings with him not only judgment, but mostly salvation (4:12-13).

The Book of Amos
According to Ceresko (Anthony R. Ceresko, Introduction to the Old Testament, p.198-199), the book of Amos might have been edited in three stages. The main part was collected by Amos or his disciples from Amos' preaching in Israel around 760s BCE. After 722 BCE, a rework expanded the book to meet the context of mid-7th century BCE Judah (2:4-5). The credibility of the prophet was justified by the fall of Samaria. At this stage, we may identify some deutoronomic elements (2:4c). A final editor in the 6th century BCE, late exilic or postexilic, revised the book in order to address the Exiles or the newly returned from exile and introduced a messianic perspective (9:8c-15).
Moreover, the book of Amos may be divided into three parts. After the prologue (1:1), Amos begins by proclaiming the sins and the consequent judgments of each of the Syro-Palestinian nations (1:2-2:16). The second part contains woes against Israel (3:1-6:14). And the third part of the book reports of visions about Israel (7:1-9:8b) and an autobiographic note at the confrontation with the priest Amaziah (7:10-17). The book ends with a messianic epilogue (9:8c-15).
To the gentile nations, Amos reproaches their numerous crimes –“for three crimes of …, and for four”- against humanity. The justice of God is universal, and not limited to Israel only. Concerning Israel, the crimes are not only humanistic, but also touch the covenant with Yahweh that requires justice and righteousness. But scholars discuss if the covenant was already codified like the actual book of Deuteronomy or was still kept as a collection of traditions (Collins, p.290).
Also, Amos criticized the religious cult of Bethel and the way exodus was understood in Israel. For him, the celebration of the experience of exodus should call forth responsibility instead of overconfidence and indifference to justice. Amos does question the real significance of the election of Israel. Yahweh is the savior of Israel as well as of all nations. In that sense, Amos continues in denouncing the social injustice, and particularly the luxury and extravagant consumerism of the ruling class (4:1-3; 6:4-7). To disregard the covenant can bring only disaster, a punishment from God who is the master of history and acts in history. Therefore, according to Collins, Amos may be a “strict monotheist” who cannot resist prophesying when Yahweh speaks (Collins, p.291)
Concerning the religious cult in Bethel, Amos has nothing to say. For Amos the true religion consists in practicing justice. Religion is not about a sophisticated liturgy, nor about expensive offerings. Amos rejects liturgical music as well as animal sacrifices. “The service of God is about justice.” (Collins, p.293) Amos, hence, does not ask for a liturgical renewal, but a moral renewal. The commitment to God has to be practiced not in the sanctuary, but rather in the marketplace, where the rich cheat and exploit the poor.
Therefore, Amos sees the advent of the Lord as a day of judgment. His visions culminate in the total destruction of Israel (9:1-8b). The kingdom will be destroyed, along with its population. While, the visions are pronounced against the rich, the poor also will perish as well. Even the sanctuary of Bethel cannot not stand, since its cult is not worthy. For the postexilic editor, however, the last word of God is hope for his people. Observing the return from the Babylonian exile, the prophet projects a messianic ending and the restoration of Davidic kingship.

Concluding Remarks

The aim of this paper was to look at the context 8th century BCE prophecy and to discuss the book of Amos within that context. The 8th century BCE was characterized by the rise and apogee of the Assyrian imperialistic power over the Syro-Palestinian nations, including Israel and Judah. This led, along with internal chaos, to the fall of Samaria and the deportation of Israel’s population in 722 BCE. Also, by the end of the century, the surviving kingdom of Judah was reduced to vassalage. Economically, the first half of the century profited to Israel under Jeroboam II and Judah under Uzziah, as both kingdoms prosper from international trades. And religiously, the cult in both Bethel in Israel and Jerusalem in Judah continued, but not without the risk of syncretism from Assyrian religion, and the critiques of prophets. The fall of Samaria was a theological challenge viewed, however, as the realization of prophetic oracles.
It is in this context that prophets like Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, and especially Amos ministered. Amos, after his encounter with God, prophesied in Israel against the ruling and oppressing upper class during the reign of Jeroboam. He criticized religious cultic, luxury, injustice and overconfidence of Israel. For Amos, social justice is the real cult that pleases God. Amos preached the destruction of Israel and neighboring nations as judgment of God. But his book ends on a note of messianic hope added by later editors.
The book of Amos is still relevant today. Consumerism, individualism, injustices, and indifference to the poor are behaviors observed even today. In a globalized world, wealth is in the hands of a few while the majority starve to death. The rich become richer and richer, while the poor become poorer and poorer. Amos reminds us that social justice and the equitable distribution of world’s resources are what we are called to do. The legacy of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, and John Paul II, in the footsteps of Amos reminds us that religion without justice and righteousness is empty. The message of Amos is a call to praxis, in the sense of liberation theology.

Bibliography

The Catholic Study Bible- New American Bible, 1990
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. A History of Prophecy in Israel: From the Settlement in the Land to the Hellenistic Period. (Philadelphia, PA. The Westminster Press, 1983. pp 80-137)
Ceresko, Anthony R. Introduction to the Old Testament. A Liberation Perspective. Revised and updated. (New York. Orbis Books, 2002. pp 181-208)
Collins, John J. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible with CD-ROM. (Minneapolis. Fortress Press, 2004. pp. 283-324)
Shanks, Hershel. Ed. Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple. revised and expanded. (Washington, DC. The Biblical Archeology Society, 1999. pp.155-188.)

Notes

[1] Shanks, p.174

Case Study: What Model of Development?

2005-06-19T23:59:00.000+02:00

Authors: Pascalis, Ky & Matt.
The following paper was presented at the end of the course Living the Moral Life
The first part of the paper deals with our christian moral perspective (plus normativity and conscience) in which we tried to solve the case study; and that is the second part.
Send your comments; don't be shy.

Introduction

No one begins from zero. Whatever one knows, they know from experience whether individual, through others’, or communities’ or culture. Our conceptual knowledge comes from a reflection on data from experience. Thus philosophical or theological ethics are no exception. The good is universally accepted as the goal of morality but its understanding and its means are differently formulated from a culture to another or from an individual to another. Take polygamy for example, while it is good in Muslim and traditional loops of Nigeria, it is regarded as bad by westerners and Christians. Just as there is a Muslim ethics, a Buddhist ethics, likewise there is a Christian ethics with its specific sources, its understanding of the Good and its means. These Christian sources, which include faith and reason –or Revelation, Magisterium, human experience and critical thinking, try to answer to the following question: what kind of actions do I have to perform as a follower of Jesus Christ? In our analysis, we will explore three aspects to moral decision-making, followed with a description, and analysis, of possible resolutions to the many dimensions to the case. First, we will define Moral Vision including the Christian understanding of the Good, the human person as the criterion of any morality, and the means to achieve the Good or the formation of the character. Second we will look at Normativity and its relationship with the various ethical methods. Finally we will look at Conscience and its relationship to this case.

Moral Vision

What is Christian ethics? What are its majors concerns? How does Christian faith influences the understanding of morality? These are some of the questions that this section on a general analysis of Christian moral vision attempts to explore. This analysis will give first the Christian understanding of the Good as the goal of moral life. Secondly, the Christian understanding of the human person as the criterion and agent of morality will be described. Finally, this section will look at the formation of the character as the means of achieving the Good.

God: the Ultimate Good
“So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”[1]
According to Aristotle, the is good happiness; for the hedonists, the good is whatever is pleasant; for the stoics, being good is being courageous, etc. but for Christians, God is the good. God is the font of all goodness, said Saint Bonaventure. All creatures, visible or invisible, are reflection of the absolute goodness, perfection and holiness of God, or they all participate to God’s goodness. God is the only center of value. It is Jesus encountered through the Scriptures who reveals God’s goodness and perfection. It is through faith in Jesus that one claims to believe that God is the only and ultimate reason for being moral. “The Christian is moral because God is good, and because the goodness of God, always and everywhere present to us, enables and requires us to be responsible for the goodness of the world.”[2] The moral life has to do with who God is for us, and how we have to respond to his call. The moral life integrated into faith, becomes a response to God. The Christian is the one responding to questions such as: what does God desire from me? Who does God call me to be and what is he allowing me to do and be? We, Christians and through Jesus, experience God as primarily love, as our Father who loves us, and whose living presence or grace is given to us and allows us, His children, to be like Him. Thus, the moral life is a love discerning God’s grace in the world and responding to it. Accordingly, sin is more about hurting God’s love for us than breaking a law, or a command. Therefore, faith in God is for me the scope that defines the value of all creatures, the scale through which the wrongness or rightness of an act is evaluated. Consequently, Christian moral life appears as a critical thinking informed by faith in the God of Jesus.
Also, we know God by observing God acting. Human morality has to be governed by what we may know about God’s goodness in action. Among many attributes of God, we know Him as the Creator and the end of all creation. God is the alpha and the omega of all being; all creatures are part of Him and dependent on Him. As God’s stewards, we are co-responsible of the well being of the whole creation. All creatures are good, but none should be made absolute at the detriment of God. Besides, God gives direction to our lives since our ultimate purpose is to love Him and enjoy fully His goodness. Consequently, my conscience becomes the internalized voice of the One to whom I have vowed my loyalty and freedom.
Moreover, God is beneficent, “self-diffusive” goodness. He cares for His creatures and freely gives them His love and grace. In return, the moral life becomes a thanksgiving to all God’s gifts that He endowed us. Just like God is concerned for the well being of the whole creation, so should we be.
All in all, for Christian ethics, the God experience through faith in Jesus Christ is the Good, the unique center of value. We cannot do and pursue the good, unless we are intimately related to God. He enables and requires from the human beings love and gratitude, as the basics virtues of moral life. Since the human beings are the moral agent, it is time to look at the Christian understanding of humanity.

The Human Person Adequately Considered
“Let us make [hu]man in our image, after our likeness… God created [hu]man in his image; in the divine image he created him [them]; male and female he created.”[3]

Morality starts with the human person. Respecting the human person is respecting the Creator incarnated in the humanity of Jesus. According to Gula[4], the understanding the moral agent has shifted from the human nature to the human person. An action was right when it respected the natural purpose of each human faculty, according to the structure and function of the body. The new morality from Vatican II, instead, is concerned about the person him/her self. It establishes that the human person, image of God, adequately and integrally considered is the criterion of the morality of an act.[5] What does this mean? First, the human person is image of God. It is the relationship with God that defines the humanity. Divine faithfulness and love sustain human dignity, not human achievements. “The biblical truth about human person is that being image of God is irreversible.”[6] Through free choice or decision, one can lose divine likeness; but no one, under any circumstances and for any reasons, can lose his/her dignity as image of God. All human beings share in the common human condition or the orientation towards the ultimate goal, God. Also, the Christian faith into God as Trinity makes a big difference in the understanding of the human person. For Gula, Trinity “means that God is eternally the giver or lover (Father), the receiver or beloved (Son) and the gift or love which binds them together (Spirit). When God expresses divine love outside of the Trinity, nature comes into being, with the human person being the point at which nature reaches self-consciousness.”[7]
Therefore, the human person is where nature responds to God by offering itself. God-Trinity can creates only a relational, and communitarian being, like Him. The human person is one redeemed by Jesus.
Second, then, the human person is a relational being, communal at its core, essentially and existentially directed towards others. Into interdependent, human persons are mutually responsible of each other. True freedom is the one that leads one to give him/her self up to/for others, just like God does. The more one is involved into the well-being of the human community, the more the humanity of each person is enhanced, and vice-versa. Also, the human person lives into social groups made of political, economical, cultural…structures that guarantee human dignity and the common good. Therefore, issues such as global solidarity and development, promotion of peace and disarmament, stewardship of God's creation, economic justice, role of government and subsidiary, rights and duties of citizens, option for the poor and many others that concerned common good and human dignity are strongly addressed by the Christian social ethics.
Third, the human person is an embodied subject. The human person makes use of autonomy, self-determination, conscience, freedom and knowledge for a moral discernment. The human person is not an object of exploitation. Human body is essential to being integrated person, image of God, to being human and living human life. The body expresses our interiority. We are called to respect it according to the laws of biology, to develop our potentials and to accept our limitations.
Fourth, the human person is an historical subject, located in time and space. The cultural context in which one lives provides an understanding of values. Human beings integrate their past into the present in order to anticipate the future. And everyone is called to progress and develop.
Finally, “the human person adequately considered” is fundamentally equal but uniquely though equal in our human condition and human nature, each human being is unique and original in their genetic endowment, unconscious motives, social-cultural context, beliefs, worldview, dispositions and affections, intentions, and imagination.
Thus, Christian morality is personalistic as it considers “the human person adequately considered” as the criterion of morality. The human person needs to be informed and educated so that one may grasp this understanding of the human person in his/her quest of the good. This is the aim of the point that follows.

Formation of the Character
For Christian ethics, the moral agent is primary on the behavior. The first concern of Christian ethics is the human person who engages her/himself in free choices and moral actions. The emphasis is not primary on decisions and actions. Christian ethics tries to move from the question ‘what ought I to do?’ to the question ‘what ought I to be?’ Morality is thus a response to God, the ultimate good, according to what God makes possible and calls for in me. The Christian asks then the following question: who do you want me to be, Father? This reflection leads then to the formation of moral character, as what one ought to be before the Lord. The formation of the moral character includes also aspects such as fundamental option, sin and virtue, and conscience. While the latter will be developed in another chapter, let us look at the other three aspects.
A human person is not just acted upon, agent, able of self-agency and self-determination. As Gula says, “If someone dumps a load of lemons on your porch, don’t complain. Make lemonade”[8]. One is what she/he chooses to be. Self-transcendence is a human characteristic. When one chooses to direct his/her life by certain beliefs and values, all his/her action will be conform to the at previous choice. These choices have to be free and responsible. This freedom of choice is part of the basic freedom that requires the involvement of our whole being. Basic freedom is deciding about our identity and who we want to be; namely, basic freedom is about the fundamental direction or stance of our lives in accordance with our personal identity.
Through baptism, one applies her/his basic freedom in professing faith in God and commitment in the promotion of love and life. One accepts therefore her/his identity of child of God. The fundamental stance that flows then is the discipleship. The identity of the Christian as child of God and his/her fundamental stance as disciple of Jesus are the context in which his/her actions will be evaluated. They are highlighted “through committing oneself to a way of life that is stable enough to sustain a perduring quality of life...”[9] the fundamental option becomes then a free choice rooted in our identity as children of God and manifests our basic freedom of self-agency to decide how one wants to live his/her fundamental stance. Understood in this context, then, sin is any attempt to break the fundamental stance in which all human beings are called to be children of God. Sin is more about breaking a relationship with God and others than about breaking a law. While venial sin touches simple everyday choices, mortal sin hurts our coral identity, our fundamental orientation towards God. Social sins are all those structures that prevent human persons to be fully human and to live free.
As a result, Christian morality conceives freedom as engaged not much in selecting between two objects, but rather in who a person wants to be, in our being disciples. This freedom needs, therefore, to be supported by certain knowledge. It is not sufficient to know by head what morality requires; one needs to know in the heart. Moral knowledge should push one to decide and act in a genuine way that articulates his/her moral freedom. Freedom and knowledge help us choose and acquire virtues or the habitus of the disciples. Virtues are basic values that have become part of our being, values that have become our routine, our inclination. A virtuous person is one acting naturally through values acquired by everyday training, by a lifelong metanoia. Christian morality aims to form a Christian character, namely a disciple of Christ. The real disciple is the saint. In other words, the goal of Christian morality is holiness, which is fully found in God alone.

Application to the Case
Applying this Christian moral vision on our case, we discover that many values defended by Christianity are threatened. First, justice is questioned here in the issue around the distribution of wages from agricultural production. People are not guaranteed to benefit fully from the fruits of their labor. Especially, women won’t be paid fairly. Eventually, the lack of justice creates poverty and overpopulation. Population, besides being an ecological issue, becomes a social issue when human beings are unwilling to share the richness of creation. This results from the dependence of the Nigerian economy on western capitalism that does not care for local population. Justice is at the center of Christian social teaching. Every human person should benefit from the fruits of his/her labor and be paid wages that help one have a decent and human existence.
Second, in dictatorship, one cannot guarantee human freedom. Such a government cannot impose anything for the sake of common good. Also, imposing contraception, AIDS testing for women, and sterilization is dehumanizing. Human beings are not considered as adults and able to make responsible choices. Besides, the church still consider contraception and sterilization as anti nature, and against life. The issue of women rights in a polygamist society is raised here. Moreover, the clash between western culture and Yoruba traditional culture is manifested in the opposition between personal freedom and communal welfare. The Christian position on this issue is that the quest for the common good should protect also individual rights. Also, there is an understanding of the human person that needs to be criticized and integrated within the community.

Normativity

There are three methods that can apply to this case, and each has a different outcome, and focus. For my initial look into the case the method that made the most sense was the teleological method. Since the government is imposing regulations on the community, and those regulations are in part the cause for the problem in this case, the deontological method would not be the best choice, if we wish to reach a solution that both parties can benefit from. Instead of focusing on the law, and what the government says, so we give our initial thought to teleology. We need to look at the goals of the government and the goals of the community to see if there is a viable solution to achieve these goals.

Teleological Method
The first step is to posit various goal oriented solutions and their possible outcomes. The disadvantage of this method is that we can never predict the future, and that is what we are focusing on so whether or not we actually attain our goal will not be known until time passes. The other downside is that this method causes us to almost ignore the present situation and only judge the correct path to follow based on its possible future outcome.[10] So what outcomes do we hope to achieve? Ultimately we may want a peaceful cooperation between the government and the people they govern. In relation to the situation that the people find themselves in it seems that the goal would be that of pleasing both the government, and the people. That is a general goal; as per the specifics the government wants a 10% increase in production, and population control. It can be deduced from the situation that the government would rank these goals in the order given. If the people were to produce the 10% more while continuing with their traditional familial practices the government would overlook the large population. The people seem to have the biggest problem with the limiting of the number of children a woman can have. The fact that each group involved has separate goals causes trouble for this method. If we focus on one set of goals we inadvertently ignore or overlook the goals of the others. This is when a look into the norms will give us more understanding in the case.

Moral Norms
Moral norms are the criteria for judging the sorts of persons we ought to be and the sorts of actions we ought to perform in a faithful response to Gods call to love. They are expressions of moral truth and not always translated into laws within a community. They provide stability and consistency and identify to the community what is expected of the individual members. [11] The norms that are held by a community give us insight to what they hold dear, and believe to be important. There are various types of norms that we will need to pay attention to in this case. Formal norms pertain to the sorts of persons we ought to be. The types of moral absolutes one finds within formal norms relate to that which is permanent and reflects what is universal to humankind such as security and the golden rule. Synthetic terms also reflect formal norms held within certain communities or cultures. These terms bear a moral qualification as part of their meaning. An example of this would be the word ‘lie’ within the word one gets a sense of its wrongness as opposed to ‘falsehood’ which carries no moral qualification. Material norms pertain to the types of actions we ought to perform but do not take into account all aspects of the action.[12] The moral absolutes found in material norms indicate to us what actions are always required or forbidden, and that no one can claim total knowledge of any specific action. Virtually exceptionless norms are those that replace the thought of absolute norms. Since one cannot demonstrate an absolute norm, one sees it as a virtually exceptionless norm that highlights values that in almost every case should be preferred. For Christians one has to take into account the norms related to Jesus, they realize that the call of the reign of God requires a response. The moral imagination also plays a role in normativity, it allows us to make appropriate connections between moral experiences and abstract ideas related to them, helps us appreciate the limitations of moral norms, and helps us apply moral norms.[13]

Community Norms
The norms that are present in this community revolve around familial relationships. The existence of polygamy is a cultural norm within this community, not everyone practices it, but it seems to be an accepted practice. The role that children play in the life of the people is also an important norm to attend to. They are seen as gifts from God, and that you will have as many children as God wills thus they do not believe in contraception. The children are also expected to work the crops of their father. This is a patriarchal society so the norms that revolve around the men and women in the community greatly affect our case. The man is the head of the household and is the sole beneficiary of the work that the women and children do in the crops. Each wife has a separate budget to work with to feed herself and her children. If the man has multiple wives then there are multiple budgets, not a single-family budget. The women earn their own living through trading which supports them and their children. When a child is born the husband follows a 3-year period of abstinence with that wife as a period of time for mother-child bonding. There is a sense that this is a very strongly held norm as in the text it states that if this is not observed the husband will be publicly censured. In this society the larger the family the more prosperous they are, it also carries status within the community.

Norms and the Methods
The way that norms work in relationship with these models depends greatly on the method chosen. Within the teleological method the importance or relevance of the norms is measured by the consequences of upholding these norms. An example of this in relation to our case would be setting the goal that of producing the requested 15 percent increase in production. There are several norms that come into conflict when seeking this goal that of the men do not work the crops, and the norm that the women provide the income through trading in their extra time to care for their children. If we uphold the norm that women and children work the crops the women will have less time to trade thus having less money to care for their children. If we insist that women will not work more, thus allowing them the time to trade and earn an income, then the norm that men do not work the crops must be conceded. The teleological method assesses the value of the norms involved and chooses the option, which produces the greatest possible value in its consequences. The hub of moral reality method, which is a relational responsible method, uses norms in a much different way. In this method one chooses what to do by determining what action is most proportionate to the meaning of the whole relational context. Using the previous example this method would look into the relationship the norms have with the people involved, and the relationships of the people involved.

Conscience

Making a judgment about the Case Study also requires us to consider the role of moral conscience. In order to do this task, we should first understand what moral conscience is and how it works when we make judgments. First, we notice that moral conscience is usually misunderstood with psychological superego. On one hand, superego means that moral development and maturity is subjected to the external control of laws and authority due to the fear of punishment and the yearning for being lovable (Gula 125). Superego makes people submitted to laws and authority without much questioning why they have to do that; it usually makes people to have blind obedience. In terms of superego, people try to follow “should” and “have to,” that is, they try to precisely follow the regulations, orders, commands of laws and authority and focus on individual action apart from total context. Superego makes people rely on external guidance (Gula 126). On the other hand, moral conscience is more internal and self-directing. It is the development of morality for oneself as one’s character, and it leads to personally moral maturity. People of moral conscience will not blindly follow authority; rather, they learn and develop their commitment to love of values (Gula 127). Thus, they committed to the values in freedom and focus on larger context of person’s life. In short, moral conscience is an expression of the whole person in making moral decisions in three dimensions: 1) conscience/1 (synderesis) is the general sense of morality; 2) conscience/2 (moral science) is to search objective moral values such as moral teachings and norms; and 3) conscience/3 (conscience) is to judge and act based on perception and reasoning (Gula 131-133).
Moral conscience is formed by to follow natural law that helps us to build up moral characters and to do reasonable acts. For a Christian, it also is a dialogue with sources of moral wisdom such as human experiences, Christian values, and Catholic teachings that helps us to act in our Christian characters formed by Jesus’ words (Gula 137). The formation of conscience helps us to see, interpret, and value issues morally. It helps us to see the reality, not what we want to see. In making moral decisions, we must include the teachings of magisterium because: 1) it is the teachings of the church authority guided by the Holy Spirit; 2) it provides a structure to confused issues and helps us understanding the Gospel’s teachings; 3) it fosters, protects, and improves human values. Including authority teaching in making moral decision does not mean blindly obedience nor to ignore it. A good Catholic wants to obey the teachings of authorities, but if they cannot due to their own situations, they have to resolve the issue as best as they can (Gula 160). The Church values conscience, which is defined as the sanctuary of a person in solitude with God whose voice guides him/her inwardly (John Paul II, # 55). However, moral conscience may have the possibility of error because of human invincible ignorance. Thus, “the conscience must be ‘confirmed by the Holy Spirit’ (cf. Rom 9:1); it must be ‘clear’ (2 Tim 1:3); it must not ‘practise cunning and tamper with God's word’, but ‘openly state the truth’ (cf. 2 Cor 4:2)” (John Paul, #62). Jesus has warned us, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be" (Mt 6:22-23).

Application of Conscience to Case Study
In the case study, the role of moral conscience affects us to make the judgment in various ways. The main issue is how to achieve the goal of increasing agricultural products while keeping the birth rate low. Conscience requires us to respect both the tradition and culture of the Yuroba society and human freedom. We should consider both the traditional practice of polygamy and the quest for freedom, especially the freedom of women, in making choice for family plan. Also, we examine the problem of overpopulation and global competition as well as the quest for better life and social justice. Nigeria is “the most populous nation in Africa” (Gudorf 199), and it has to endure the pressure of controlling the birth rate from “developed nations” (Gudorf 202). In the quest for global competition and improvement of people’s life, the plan of the government is reasonable, but how to achieve it should be considered because it conflicts with the tradition of polygamy and big-sized family. Also, conscience requires us to be sensitive to the possibility of conflict between religions where the plan of the government from the North of Muslim Hausa culture with the South Yoruba villages where many Christian live (Gudorf 199). Moreover, conscience also helps us see the issue in the light of social change possibility for life improvement and equality for women. We should consider the issue both in common morality and in the light of Christian morality, that is, how to deal the issue with the best possibility in terms human dignity as well as the Gospel’s teaching.

Relational Responsibility Method
The wheel hub method to moral reality is the method that will achieve the most accurate gathering and measuring of the information that is needed to come to a conclusion with this case. It allows one to view the various influences that are pertinent to the case. This method allows these influences to be in dialogue with the facts of the case, both allowing a deeper view of the facts, and in turn allowing the facts to give keys to the importance of the various influences.

Authority and Principles
There are multiple layers of authority present within this Yoruban society. Starting with the country government on down to the individual people within the community. The principles that drive these authorities, and the authority they actually hold with the people are important. Each spoke on the wheel is related to the next. Authority is related to right reason, principles, affectivity, and individual and group experience. Right reason tests the authorities involved instead of taking what they say without qualification. Principles are related to authorities in that they carry authority of their own within the community that holds to these principles. Affectivity influences the way we look at authority in that it can balance attitudes held toward the experts’ knowledge by being placed in perspective through questioning and use of common sense. Individual and group experience also gives us insight into the role that authority plays in the community. When one looks at individual and group experience, one can discern where they place authority in their lives.

Peer and Expert Authority
The colonel who presented the plan to the district officials emerged from a military culture, which eliminates any need to consult with subordinates, and also from a Muslim Hausa culture that dictates less independence and fewer economic roles for women. Keke Omuji, the district official for a small state in southwestern Nigeria fears that army authoritarianism and Hausa attitudes could be real problems. He is the one who has to tell his district what needs to be done. He gathers together the village chiefs and elders, the president of the market association, the officers of the Trader Clubs, and the doctor and nurses who ran the health clinics. The fact that these groups show up when he calls them together is important in showing us his power and importance within the district. This meeting also shows us what other groups have authority in the district for he would not have invited them if they did not. Within these groups there are individuals that show leadership and authority by speaking up when they feel they have something important to say. Christine Ciroma is the first one of such people to speak. She was trained as a nurse practitioner in the United States, having a western education may influence the types of objections she raises. She is also one of the health workers and a member of a prominent local family; both tell us that she must carry some authority. One fact that we do not want to overlook is that Keke responds to Christine, and that the district official would find it important enough to respond to her lets us know that she definitely has authority. The next person to speak is Edward Oyeluso, an elder. Being an elder gives him authority, as well as the fact that this is a patriarchal society, since he is a man he has a certain authority, valid or not it is there. Chief Simi follows Edward and also for the same reasons carries authority, although probably in a different way since he is a chief. The only hint at a lack of authority is that neither of the men are given a response by anyone, much less the district official Keke. Betty Olysanye is the next to speak, and the authority she carries is evident in that immediately Keke attempts to respond to her objection. One thing that must be noted about peer authority in the Yoruban culture is that one of the ever-present norms is that the needs of the community come before the needs of the individual, so much more authority is given to community, or the group, than an individual.[14]

Authority in Tradition
The Yoruban tradition carries much more authority than any of the individual people in this district. There are several points of reference within the text. The first indication of it is within the fear Keke has about the success of the plan. This fear comes from knowing the society and their traditions and the authority that they hold with the people. Other instances that show the strength of tradition revolve around the relationships between men and women. Christine is the first to express concern about the women’s role. The language she uses shows us that there is something in the tradition that she fears will never change, things that are unchangeable have a certain power to them. There are many such instances that show the power of tradition over women, men and children alike.

Religious Authority
The religious authority within the community is not very visible. The Magisterial authority is influential specifically in our group finding a resolution to the case. Since our group comes from the Roman Catholic Church there is a magisterial authority over moral issues of contraception, marriage, and justice. We must recognize such authority and the role it plays in such a situation. Since the community is not a distinctly Christian community it cannot have absolute authority in any way shape or form, however we, as Catholics, must consult our faith to give us guidance on the issues relevant to this case.

Group Experience
The case describes issues within a Yoruba village. Two cultures coexist and seemed in opposition. There is a western worldview that is taking roots and a traditional worldview that struggles to survive. The village is multi-religiously constituted: Christians, Muslims and Yoruban. Polygamy, overpopulation and agriculture seem shared experiences, along with injustice against women. Most of the people are opposed to the decisions of the government. These decisions, namely the imposition of contraception and sterilization with the increase of production, are in opposition with traditional values family solidarity, children and communal ownership of the land.
Individual Experience
Ø Keke: is the government agent. He calls the meeting just to inform the population about the government’s decisions. He is not concerned by what would be right. Instead of speaking on behalf of the people, he is concerned about pleasing his superiors.
Ø Christine, a nurse trained in USA, married to a catholic, she is against polygamy. She expresses health concerns over Keke’s propositions. She worries about privacy and medical deontology. She challenges the authority and proposes traditional solutions to issues of contraception and sterilization.
Ø Siti, a nurse and Muslim, made her husband write a contract stating that he won’t marry a second wife. She is against polygamy. She argues inn the sense of Christine, showing that contraception threatens traditional abstinence.
Ø Alice, a nurse as well, seems to defend her brother’s job. She argues in the sense of western worldview against polygamy and women rights, challenging her colleagues. For her, it is time to throw away traditional culture and open up to western culture.
Ø Betty Olusanye questions Keke’s plan, regarding women’s health, family size, fair wages, production and poverty. She does identify the government as the responsible for such plans.
Ø Chief Simi expresses the traditional understanding of children and the reasons of polygamy. He fears that contraception and sterilization may spoil the future of the family. For him, family size depends on the ability of a woman to have many children, and for economic reasons, at best two wives may be “affordable”.
Ø Edward Oyeluso raises also the reason behind the practice of polygamy and the issue over the status of women in the traditional and patriarchal society. As an elder, he symbolizes the cultural tradition and heritage.

Reason/Analysis
We think that the case study present a complicated issue. On one hand, we consider the reality that Nigeria, as the most populous country in Africa, has to cope with. On the other hand, we consider the problem that the Yoruba people, especially the women, are facing. We recognize that in today’s relationship between countries, the effect of globalization should be considered. In the reality of globalization, others affect Nigeria. It has to face with the problem of overpopulation; and its government has to consider it seriously. Nigeria expects to receive funds from the United Nations for health improvement, and it expectation to improve people health and reduce child birth death should be encouraged in the sense that it respects human lives and tries to improve living condition. But receiving fund for health care goes along with birth control as a condition since a better health care means more survive children that make the problem of overpopulation worse. The plan to increase field production is good since more crop products means more food for people and also contribute to the national prosperity. The 10 percent more products will be contributed haft for local market and haft for export (Gudorf 200). Having more products for export also helps economic growth nationally, and the government’s plan is good in that sense because in general, a country without economical growth will be left behind; it will face more disadvantages in international relations, possibly more foreign controls. Thus, the government’s goals of increasing crop products and lowering birth rate are generally good; they sound morally since they respect human life and seek to improve people’s life condition.
But the ways that the government applies to achieve such goals should be reconsidered since they are not morally good. First, the government’s plan of increasing field crops violates the fairness and social justice between men and women.. It forces them to work more, and it controls their body. Though Keke insists that increasing field crops will not be a problem since women either can be paid for their extra work or the extra crops can be used for family expense, but the men object such ideas since paying women for their extra work will “take all their profit from the extra production” (Gudorf 200). This objection reflects the selfishness of men. They want to have extra crops without paying extra wages. In common sense, if they do not do extra work, they should not claim the extra profit. Paul said, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2Thes 3:10). The extra profit should be paid for the women since they will work more. The majority of women will not do more work unless they and their children will be better off (Gudorf 202), and they are morally right in such decision. Their argument reflects the fairness and equality. Thus, to call people to participate in the plan, the government should address more on the men’s cooperative attitude.
Second, the other side of the plan, to lower the birth rate, by requiring the women to visit a clinic annually violates the tradition of large-sized family and the freedom of women. Especially, it is unjust when it aims to punish only women if they fail to do so. The objections of Edward Oyeluso and Chief Simi indicate that men like to have more children since larger household size means better status and power in Yoruba society (Gudorf 200-201). The women concern more about how the government forces them to control birth rate. Betty Olusanye feels that the plan will not bring benefit to women but control them more (Gudorf 201). Also, the nurses fear that they have to do immoral works such as to monitor, report, and force women to use contraceptives (Gudorf 202). This plan obviously affects the life of women; and the way it carries out is unjust for women. In terms of Christian morality, this way to achieve birth control is immoral since it forces women to do something against their conscience; neither is it in accordance with the teaching of the church. Though we will not encourage women to do such contraception in the way that the government wants, but if a woman does so, we do not think that she is morally responsible for that action since she is forced to do so.

Resolution

Within this case there are many issues that we felt needed to be addressed. Each of these could benefit from more information, from the government, the community, and the individuals involved in the case. With several of the problems we can only posit educated guesses because there is a large enough gap between the information we need and the information that we have. The issues that we address are abuse of power, polygamy, woman’s rights, contraception and overpopulation, and individual versus communal rights.

Abuse of Power
Several key players fit into this problem. The most evident in the government, instead of holding councils with the chiefs, which is the way to get things done in the Yoruban society[15], they send in district officials to tell the people what they are going to have to do, under penalty of military involvement. Not only does it seem that from a western view this as an abuse of power, however the reaction that the people have is much the same as ours, and it is evident that it is not accepted even among them. The government here is not the only one abusing the power, or authority, that is given them. Keke could have made this transition much easier, and more widely accepted had he followed and recognized the leadership already present in the communities. We believe that to curb this abuse this is exactly what is needed to be done, recognize the leadership within these communities and follow the long standing, traditional, channels of communication.

Polygamy
When our group decided to look into polygamy as a moral issue within this case we knew we would have to look at it from a distinctively Christian point of view. Not just marriage itself, but the relationships that exist within the communities. Marriage is exactly what links these communities together, in one way or another most of the people in these villages are related to one another. We cannot just walk into this sort of situation and declare that monogamy is the rule, and that all other than the first spouse were illegitimate, that would create chaos within the community as well as cause a great injustice to those women, as widows, with no family, or financial support. They would more than likely be lead to prostitution or starvation. As Christians we are to care for the dignity of the human person and this course of action would not accomplish this goal. If we are to suggest a distinctly Christian solution to this problem the best option would be to recognize the existing structure, not negating any of the prior commitments, but stress the importance of monogamy, just short of insisting that it be the norm.

Women’s Rights
Another issue that this case raises is about women rights. Being a woman seems a curse in this patriarchal and sexist society. How can one guarantee the dignity of woman in society where she is looked upon as a machine for procreation and a force of production? The government is unjust towards them in proposing them lesser wages than they deserve. Moreover, the government does not respect their freedom and responsibility when it imposes a sterilization and contraceptive plan. Some changes need to be made in this Yoruban society. Men and women are created equal. Women are image of God and deserve their human dignity. Although in a patriarchal society a male child is the bearer of family name, girls need to be given the same chance and the same opportunities, especially regarding education and respect in their homes. The dignity of a mother of a wife does not depend on the number of kids she can have, or on how much she contributes to the economy of the family. Also, for Christian tradition, children are not the primary goal of marriage. Children flow from mutual love that God infuses in a man and a woman, and that brings them together. It is hard to maintain such an understanding of marriage and of the dignity of women in a polygamist society. Polygamy needs to be banned from human society. It is one of the factors in the spread of AIDS, due to infidelity, and one of the causes of overpopulation. A ban over polygamy would be a step against overpopulation before contraception.
In addition, the role of women in a society is very vital. As human persons, their freedom and responsibility have to be respected. The government should not impose anything prior to a public consultation. The understanding of the traditional abstinence needs to be retrieved and updated in order to give a chance to women to convince their husband. Also a consensus should be achieved between the government, women and their husbands about the extra work and proportionate wages. The increase of production should not be fostered to the detriment of justice. This justice includes also the preferential option for the poor. The women need wages that allow them to a decent and human life.

Contraception and Overpopulation
Many wrongs are committed in the proposed population control of the government to various groups of people. Not only is contraception is an issue mainly for Catholic Christians, but it violates the bodies and freedom of women, which was discussed in the previous section. The encyclical Humanae Vitae reemphasized the Catholic Church’s teaching that it is intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence. The problem here is that we are facing a serious problem with overpopulation. Overpopulation is a serious concern for it is estimated that by the year 2030 if the trend continues the population of this region will increase from 520,000,000 in 1990 to near 1,200,000,000[16]. If we ignore the teaching of the church and support the enforcement of contraception we may, in the long run, have an effect on Overpopulation. If we follow the teaching of the church then we risk overpopulation. The question here is whether or not is realistic to attempt a natural method like natural family planning. This is where we must gather more information about the local people, and assess their attitudes to such a method. However that only gets us past the method of population control, not the underlying issue, which is the norms that are present within the community that surround the family life and children as have been previously stated. A solution to this latter dilemma

Individual versus Communal Rights
Finally, individual rights seem in conflict with communal ownership and rights. For the Christian morality, individualism and communal tyranny are both sinful. The goal of communal structures is the common good, which guarantees individual welfare. As a military regime, the government has lost its credibility and legitimacy; therefore, it cannot pretend to be an agent of the common good. Personal interests will always motivate whatever decision such a government can take. On the other hand, women and men of this village should acknowledge that overpopulation endangers world welfare. Also, they need to think about poor village that would benefit from the increase of production. Therefore, in order to restore confidence into the government, the military regime needs to be removed and replaced by a government issued from the people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we acknowledge that there are many pieces of this case that are missing and that could lead to a better understanding and solution of the problem. But still, we believe that the resolution of this case should happen at two levels. First, at the local level, a dialogue needs to start between the different cultures and religions in presence. It can be a dialogue between modernity that is invading the village and traditional culture that strives to preserve itself. Also, Christians – and merely Catholics-, Muslims and Yoruban need to dialogue about the understanding of traditional values and on how to address public issues such as poverty and overpopulation. In particular, the Catholic Church has the task of inculturation with her vision of marriage within this polygamist society. Finally, this case requires a national and international solution. At the national level, the government should be changed and replaced by one elected by the people. National structures can guarantee the common good if they have the people’s approval. And at the international level, consideration should be given to the capacity of the Nigerian people to be responsible and self-governing. International structures should not impose on people foreign decisions without examining the context.

Bibliography

Gula, Richard M. Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality. New York: Paulist Press, 1989.
John Paul II. Veritatis Splendor. 6 August 1993. Encyclicals. 8 December 2004 http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0222/__P6.HTM.
The New American Bible. Catholic World Press. 1991.
Wolfe, Gudorf, Ethics and World Religions: Cross-Cultural Case Studies, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999.

Notes:
[1] Mt.5: 48
[2] Richard M. Gula, S.S., Reason Informed by Faith. Foundations of Catholic Morality, p.44
[3] Gen. 1, 26-27
[4] Gula, p.63
[5] Gula, p. 63-74
[6] Gula, p.64
[7] Gula, p.65
[8] Gula, p. 77
[9] Gula, p.79
[10] Gula, P301-305
[11] Gula, p.283
[12] Gula, p.286-297
[13] P.290-297
[14] Wolfe & Gudorf. Ethics and World Religions: Cross-Cultural Case Studies. p. 202-205
[15] Wolfe & Gudorf, P. 202-205
[16] Wolfe & Gudorf, P. 212

walk the talk- June 19, 2005

2005-06-19T23:35:00.000+02:00

“[A person] always looks for a model or example to follow. What determines one’s being is the image one adopts.” Abraham Heschel.

happy father's day to my dad, my uncles, and to all the fathers out there. May God our heavenly father bless you. Thanks for caring and protecting us.
" Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Mt 10:29-31)

walk the talk- June 18, 2005

2005-06-19T06:00:00.000+02:00

“Time is on the side of those who love.”
from unknown source.

EVANGELIZING MISSION IN ASIA TODAY: A DIALOGUE OF LIFE

2005-06-18T18:55:00.000+02:00

INTRODUCTION
“Just as in the first millennium the cross was planted on the soil of Europe and in the second on the that of America and Africa, we can pray that in the third Christian millennium a great harvest of faith [my italics] will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [Asia].”[1] This sentence of the pope has stirred some controversy and critique. Many interpreted the “great harvest of faith” as meaning conversion and proselytism in a continent where Christians are accused of coercing conversions from other religions. However, we may understand the pope as urging for an effective evangelization in the pluralistic society of Asia. This “great harvest of faith” points also to a new understanding of the evangelizing mission of the church, which includes not only the proclamation of the Gospel, but also the commitment for the kingdom of God through human promotion, liberation and dialogue. Dialogue seems to sum what evangelization is about. Indeed, dialogue the spirit of evangelization. Dialogue is at the core of evangelization, because the whole history of salvation of is an endless dialogue of salvation between God and creation[2]. The Lineamenta notes it even more clearly:
God’s offer of salvation to humankind is always a question of dialogue…The entire mission of Jesus was constant dialogue with humanity… The whole mission of the church is, therefore, one of dialogue.[3]

Thus, evangelization has to be a dialogue of life, namely a holistic, inclusive, and soteriological dialogue that engages in the quest for fullness of life and dignity of all creatures.
This is particularly the aim of the Church in Asia: “that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[4] For the FABC, evangelization is not a dialogue with concrete human beings shaped by their cultural heritage, their religious traditions, and their socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus in Asia, evangelization is a “Triple Dialogue” of life with these three dimensions of human life[5]. Accordingly, by examining the three components of this Triple Dialogue, this paper aims to show how evangelization in today’s Asia has to be a dialogue of life. Each component, i.e. religions, cultures, and people will be preceded by a view of the realities and challenges in its regards. This paper is based on some documents from and on the Asian Synod of 1998 and other readings from the FABC and various Asian theologians.

INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE.
Since Nostra Aetate, the Church has recognized that other world’s religions have elements of truth or semina verbi that have to be respected, collected and used in building the Kingdom of God. This has been a reality in Asia where the church is blessed and challenged to grow in such a religious pluralism.
Asia is the birthplace of great world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Sikhism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, traditional religions, and indeed Christianity. It is in this pluralism that Asia tries to maintain harmony and balance. It is in this religious richness that Asia is looking to quench its thirst for fullness of life. The sacredness of the human being, social justice, the essential unity of humanity, and hope in a world where love and justice reign are among the values that these religions foster. They all believe in self-sacrifice, solidarity and forgiveness as sources of peace. They all believe also in a compassionate God who incarnated in Buddha, Siva, Krishna, Jesus, or in the sayings of Muhammad has shown that God cares for the weak[6].
Therefore, interreligious dialogue in Asia has to be a life-giving process, a liberative action, as stated by the pope: “Built in the hearts of people, it is a church that faithfully and lovingly witnesses to the risen Lord Jesus and reaches out to people of other faiths and persuasions in a dialogue of life toward the integral liberation of all”.[7] Evangelization as dialogue carries better the mission of Christ of gathering all peoples in communion, within the Trinity. Interreligious dialogue should take prophetic stances against social sins that alienate the weak; religious anthropocentrism that justifies the tyranny of humans over the nature; and all dehumanizing practices or beliefs. Asian Interreligious dialogue should address religious differences that bring about violence and develop communitarian ethics in which everyone watches over his/her brother and /or sister. This dialogue includes also the sharing of religious experiences as shown in people like Anthony de Mello, Henri Le Saux, and others. Interreligious dialogue as mission is a spiritual experience, because only a mystical approach can let God be God, the Holy One over all religions. A theological-philosophical approach has to support this liberative action and contemplative act, as it has been done by Raimon Panikkar and others who have developed a theology of religions.
Consequently, interreligious dialogue calls the church to liberation, a deep metanoia. The church itself must be a place of dialogue and communion. The new evangelizers should be people who know very well their faith, imbued by the simplicity and humility of Christ, liberated from the western conquistadors mentality; and respectful of and opened to other faiths. Interreligious dialogue challenges the Church’s Christology and practice of conversion and proselytism. How to proclaim Jesus as only savior and life giver without betraying the other partners in dialogue? Despite these doctrinal challenges in the Asian church, interreligious dialogue is essential to evangelization in Asia, and bring new and holistic energy to this liberative mission. It is a dialogue of life that, in addressing religious concerns, it aims to penetrate, improve and learn from cultural contexts that bear those religions. Dialogue with cultures is the next step.

B. INCULTURATION AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE
Asia is a continent of diverse cultures and ethnic groups intrinsically influenced by their religious beliefs and practices. Each ethnic group has its own local languages that carry their worldview and thought pattern. Asian people are very religious and firm believers in transcendental realities. Their worldview is organic, holistic, dynamic and pluralistic, contrary to western architectonic and mechanistic worldview. The Yin-Yang and Tao Te Ching express that balanced, and harmonious Asian mindset. Also, Asian cultures carry a sense of togetherness, unity, community and solidarity. They emphasize family life over individualism, and oneness of the whole cosmos over divisions; despite on going ethnic conflicts in some regions.
Therefore, the evangelizing mission of the church in Asia for the Kingdom needs to penetrate and be penetrated by these cultural realities in order to fully express the Asian face of Jesus. Evangelization in Asia has to be a dialogue of life between Christian faith and Asian cultures. In other words, evangelization has to be humble incarnation or inculturation of Christianity into the Asian context. The Christian faith, though it transcends any culture, is always carried by and lived in a particular cultural context. Inculturation supposes attending to the context and developing culturally contextual or local theologies. To evangelize does not mean to import western theology and cultures, but rather the dialogue of life within the local community between people’s experience and cultures and the Gospel, in order to build up a meaningful faith for the local people.
Moreover, inculturation is not only a liturgical priority or a method of evangelization. Inculturation needs to be spirituality. It is about the whole human life, namely theology, philosophy, psychology, thought pattern, etc. As dialogue of life, inculturation is intrinsically directed toward action, toward social transformation. By inculturating Jesus liberator, inculturation becomes a liberating process itself. Christianity borrows mythologies, stories, values, proverbs, celebrations –like the ancestors’ cults and the lunar year- etc from Asian cultures. Meanwhile, it denounces all dehumanizing cultural oppressions. Through inculturation, women, and the outcastes –Dalit in India and Burakumin in Japan- recover their human dignity; the question of ethnic conflicts like the Tribals in Sri Lanka is tackled. Inculturation needs to address contemporary phenomena such as globalization, individualism, secularism, materialism, consumerism and sex tourism, which are poisoning Asian cultures that promote solidarity and love.
Thus considered, evangelization as inculturation and contextualization calls for autonomy of local churches from western paternalism. Inculturation needs to penetrate theological settings and seminaries, formation of missionaries, and religious life. Local churches should, however, address the question of syncretism and the “purity of faith”. Instead of worrying about how far should inculturation be carried, evangelizers should ask themselves whether Asian people have believed in Jesus as “the Teacher of Wisdom, the Healer, the Liberator, the Spiritual Guide, the Enlightened One, the Compassionate Friend of the Poor, the Good Samaritan, the Good Shepherd, the Obedient One…the Incarnate Wisdom of God”.[8] Only Jesus thus presented can bring hope to Asian people crushed under poverty and suffering, and longing for full and liberated humanity.

C. HUMAN PROMOTION AS DIALOGUE OF LIFE
Asia has a long history of oppression and suffering through western colonization, martial law, militarism, dictatorships, communism and capitalism. As a third world continent, Asia is going through socioeconomic problems, such as the increasing demography, foreign debt, prostitution and sex tourism due to poverty, migration, corruption and injustices, etc. What Asia needs today is an evangelization that brings hope and social change. Evangelization has to be a liberating praxis for human promotion, a prophetic proclamation of the Kingdom and its values of justice and peace for all. Indeed, Jesus came to save the whole human being, with a preferential option for the weak, the marginalized, the sick, the oppressed, and the poor.
Thus as human promotion, evangelization will rise from the Asian people’s experience; as dialogue of life, it will address Asian people’s pain and suffering and generate a genuinely Asian liberation. This liberation is a hic et nunc salvation, since the glory of God is that the human being lives fully and humanly (Ireneous). This liberation is for the young people without future, for women –especially young girls- illiterate and abused, for the many indigenous in search of self-determination, for the minjung in search of justice and human rights. In other words, liberation breaks down margins and all structures of sin that keep Asia poor, and builds up a community founded on reconciliation, peace and justice.
Evangelization in Asia has to develop a new form of compassion, solidarity and charity. Instead of a paternalistic charity, Asia needs an empowering charity that challenges the powerful. Therefore, the evangelizing church must become the refuge of the weak and powerless[9]. Only a disciple church, one that follows Jesus up to the Calvary, can proclaim Jesus the way to the Kingdom. Only prophetic church can foretell about the coming of the Kingdom.

CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper was to show how evangelization in today’s Asia has to be a dialogue of life. Evangelization has to be a dialogue because the whole history of redemption is a dialogue between God and the universe. This dialogue reached its summit in Jesus, the incarnate word of God, fully human and fully divine. It is a dialogue of life, because the totality of life is what Christ offers to the world. Particularly in Asia, evangelization deals with human beings wrestling with concrete religious, cultural and socioeconomic issues. Thus, evangelizing mission in Asia is a Triple Dialogue.
First, evangelizing Asia is engaging in interreligious dialogue as dialogue of life with Asian pluralistic religions. This interreligious dialogue is a forum where all religions share their liberating potentials and spirituality in order to protect human dignity. It creates a communion typical of the kingdom of God. Second, evangelizing Asia is inculturation the Christian faith into Asian cultural heritage. By borrowing symbols, theologies, philosophies, mythologies, worldviews and languages from Asian cultures, the Christian community will let a genuine Asian face of Christ shine and liberate Asian cultures from their dehumanizing structures, beliefs, and practices, by bringing in the values of the Kingdom. Finally, evangelizing Asia is to bring life to all those who are denied human dignity and who live at the margins. Evangelization is a liberating force against political, economic and social structures that, in oppressing Asian minjung they keep Asia under poverty. Evangelization brings hope in Asian women and young people so often neglected. Thus, whether with religions, cultures or poverty, evangelization is a dialogue of life, a holistic liberation for the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is founded on the belief that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

[1] John Paul II, “Ecclesia in Asia”. In Origins, vol.29, No.23, p.359
[2] Jacques Dupuis, “A Theological Commentary: Dialogue and Proclamation”. In Redemption and Dialogue ed., William R. Burrows, New York, Orbis Books, 1993, p.125
[3] Kroeger H. J., MM, “Milestones in Interreligious Dialogue”, in Review for religious, vol.56, May-June 1997 p.274
[4]New American Bible, John 10:10
[5] Veliath D. SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.336
[6]Therukattil G., MCBS, “The Liberative Potential of Asian Religions”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.350
[7] Veliath D., SDB, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”. In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.335
[8]D’Sa, F. X., S.J., “Inculturation in Asia.” In Church in the Service of Asia’s Peoples, ed. Jacob Kavunkal, SVD, alii, Pune, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, 2003, p.315
[9] Bishop Julio X. Labayen, OCD., “Mission in Asia Today: Some Paradigm Shifts”. In Religious life in Asia. Re-imaging Religious Life in Asian Societies, vol.1, No.1 (August 1998), p. 82-83

CRITICAL CONVERSATION: The theological method of David Tracy

2005-06-18T18:47:00.000+02:00

Any science, any scientific discipline needs and uses a method. A method is a tool used to obtain effectively theoretical and practical results. One needs to test his/her method, whether it guarantees coherence and consistency with one knowledge and thoughts. Theology like any other human activities uses a method. Before Vatican II, theological method was taken for granted since scholastic theology had provided all the answers. Today, theology needs an effective and appropriate method in responding to the many social, political, economical, intellectual, cultural changes that have occurred in our contemporary world. Doing theology today means primarily formulate an adequate theological method that brings life and faith into mutual conversation, gives the Scriptures their place within the theological endeavor, and builds theology as contextual praxis. Thus, among the theological methods that Mueller presents, the empirical method of David Tracy would be preferred by a postmodern African that I am and living in a pluralistic world. The lines that follow will expose the reasons that motivated our preference.
Due to its prolific results and to diverse interpretations from different scholars, Tracy’s theological methodology has received many labels. Considering its American empirical backgrounds and its emphasis on experience, Mueller calls it empirical method. Tracy does not stop at the experience; rather he is concerned about the relationship between the common human experience and the Christian classics – Christian tradition or core of Christian heritage. This relationship can be called a retrieval (“revisionist” theology), a critical correlation (“correlational theology”, an approach that originated from Paul Tillich), or a “conversation”. For Tracy, theological reflection aims to establish the meaningfulness of the experience hic et nunc. Human experience is where God revealed his mystery to humanity, and faith is part of that experience. Unlike Rahner, Tracy acknowledges that human experience is a source of theology and the goal of theological reflection. In order to be understood, human experience is communicated and expressed through a specific language made of symbols, images, conventions, texts, stories, and etc. thus, within human experience faith has to be interpreted and understood through a specific language born in the Christian community from the mutual and critical conversation between experience and language and Christian tradition, especially the Scriptures. For Tracy, theology is ongoing interpretation; therefore his method is explicitly hermeneutical. This may be the first advantage of this method.
Secondly, Tracy methodology is clearly contextual. He is proposing a methodology of doing theology in a pluralistic context. Tracy experiences pluralism within the Christian classic, the church, theology, culture, and the whole world. Pluralism is really a postmodern concern; and no one can do theology in this postmodern era without taking into account the experience of the other as “other”. Pluralism is a Christian and charismatic phenomenon. The Christian classic contains diverse witnesses to Christ in the Scriptures and the theologies of the early Fathers. Pluralism is also the experience of the church in the diversity of its members as it is moving towards an intercontinental religion; and in the diversity of theological schools that have elaborated. Finally the whole world is made of different religions and cultures that are part of our experience. This pluralistic dimension is important for it is intrinsically human. It is the setting for creativity of interpretation in the search for religious truth. It can be used today in evangelization as ecumenism, interreligious dialogue or inculturation. Whether with other Christian denominations, with non-Christian religions, or in its encounter with cultures, the Church has to go into dialogue in mutual respect.
Thirdly, Tracy conceives theological method as a dialogue, a conversation. Unlike theology of liberation, this method is reaction against a situation for a period of time, but a genuine attitude of theological enterprise within a pluralistic framework. In a pluralistic context, conversation is the relationship between the different partners. It is the conversation between Christian and non-Christian sources, between common human experience –my life experience, culture, data from human sciences- and language and retrieved Christian Tradition. As pluralism is not relativism, conversation is not compromise. This conversation is a mutual critical and self-critical correlation. In this mutuality, no one owns the conversation; the tension is toward the meaningfulness of my religious experience and the search for religious truth. Partners in conversation have to be open, ready to be challenged and transformed by the truth discovered. They are not bound to agree on every issue, they can discuss or resist; but at the end, truth has to be freely followed. Ambiguity will be discovered, errors will be criticized and corrected, and distortions will be unmasked. Referring to his contact with Buddhism –and what should be, in our opinion, the result of any efforts in ecumenism, interreligious dialogue or inculturation-, Tracy says that this conversation culminates into a genuine “liberating transformation”.
Fourthly, Tracy's method is against religious particularism and exclusivism. There is no definitive theology. Theology is an ongoing interpretation, a radically hermeneutical project. Therefore, the Christian classic, especially the Scriptures, as well as human experience, through human experience and imagination, should go through interpretation; interpretation itself being a critical conversation. Unlike Lonergan, Tracy stresses that experience and understanding are intrinsically hermeneutical because radically linguistic –language here includes silence, verbal, analogical and figurative languages. Interpretation and hermeneutics are key process in Tracy’s project. In ministry, interpretation is more than translation; it is the search for meaningfulness from the inner meaning of experience and Christian Tradition.
Fifthly, Tracy builds his method on a strong foundation, what he calls “Christian classics”. These classics have five characteristics: (1) they are excellent for they have meaning in themselves, alive, but still they can speak to us hic et nunc, and therefore they have to be interpreted, retrieved, and not manipulated; (2) they are universalizable for they hold higher human values that are universal; (3) they have a shock value for they challenge and call for a transcendental vision; (4) they are source of hope for they call for transformation, change toward a better situation; finally (5) they are fecund for they generate active commitment and creativity for further interpretation. For Tracy any culture or any religion has its own classics. Classics avoid subjectivity and relativism in dealing with the other. And it is at the level of classics that interpretation and mutual and critical conversation takes place.
Finally Tracy’s method is a praxis that ends into practical theology, especially developed by the Whiteheads. Interpretation is a critique, a “hermeneutics of suspicion” that should attack interpretations used to justify racism, sexism, elitism, individualism, anti-Semitism, and other injustices, as Lennan points out (Introduction to Catholic Theology). Theology is committed to changes and transformations within the church and the world, by addressing issues of liberation, women, , etc. therefore theology is a praxis, for issues raised by practical theology are addressed by other theological branches in order to inspire new and further actions. The whiteheads have produced a threefold model of reflection that is a conversation between life experience, culture – both called experience by Tracy- and Christian tradition; and a three-stage method made of attending, assertion and active response. This see-judge-act like method is a conversation in each stage of the three components of the model.
In conclusion, Tracy formulates a method that appears the most appropriate for our time and the mission of evangelization. Whether through ecumenism, interreligious dialogue or inculturation, the new evangelization has to be a serious, mutual, respectful and critical conversation oriented toward change and promotion of human welfare.

Sources:

Mueller, J.J., SJ. What Are They Saying About Theological Method? (Ramsey. Paulist Press, 1984)
Lennan, Richard. ed. An Introduction to Catholic Theology. (Mahwah, NJ. Paulist Press, 1998).
Whitehead, James & Whitehead, Evelyn. Method in Ministry: Theological Reflection and Christian Ministry. Revised edition.(Lanham: Sheed&Ward, 1995)

Practical Theology: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.

2005-06-18T02:06:00.000+02:00

Reflection on Session Two.

This section of the course looks at humanity or human person as a key concern of practical theology. How can one understand the Shoa or the genocide? How should human beings relate to each other? What and who defines a human being a person? What does God has to say about who we are and how we have to live? The text denounces the fact that some human persons are considered as “non-persons”, a nobody. Our relationships have become those of the master and slave, subject and object. There is no respect of the human being.
And it seems, like the text states, that the “Valladolid Controversy” is still playing out today. This trial is still playing out as the G8 gather to decide whether the poor and the immigrants are human persons with full right to decent life or not. It was playing out when the Supreme Court was deciding whether Terri Schiavo should live or not, whether she was a vegetable or a human being. It is still playing out when someone somewhere is condemned to death penalty; when a fetus is being aborted. This trial is still playing today as we are debating whether homosexuals deserve a human existence or not. Thus, this “dehumanization” (Gabriel Marcel) is “a kind of degradation [and] a pulverization of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person [that call us to consider] a metaphysical [and biblical] ‘recapitulation’ of the inviolable mystery of the [human] person”. (John Paul II). This seems the path that text follows to give an answer from contemporary philosophy and biblical sources.
Philosophically, the human person is unique, precious, new, and unrepeatable; the human person is free and conscious. Even twins who look very much alike are two different persons. A person is one who interrupts me; whose revelation and irruption in my existence call forth respect, contemplation, transcendence, and love. A human person is one whose existence and uniqueness reveal me as a human person as well. As Buber states, human existence is not a monologue –which is selfishness and manipulation- but rather a dialogue. Dialogue is an interpersonal encounter we mutually and reciprocally respect and affirm each other’s personhood. In dialogue, the divine presence in each human person and in the world is nurtured and actualized (Richard P. McBrien). Since God is the one who sends, he sends the other in my existence as other to remind me of his divine otherness. Thus, “divinitas can never be separated from humanitas”.
As Saint John says, the love of God can never be separated from the love of the neighbor. For the biblical perspective, human person is created in the image and likeness of God to live in communion with other creatures and with God. Thus a human person is a mystery and God is the source of human dignity. God is the I am Who Am, the one that cannot not be given; he is total mystery. And the human person, who participates in the mystery of God, cannot be named by any fellow humans. Only God can give a name to a human person, imago Dei. Everyone is equal in the presence of God, but he has a personal relationship with each one of us. Especially, God cares for the “non-persons”, the poor, the oppressed, the widow and the orphan. God’s vision for humanity is completed in Christ, who became human so that we may become divine. In his person, Christ showed that humanitas and divinitas are intrinsically related. Thus, patristic theology defined the Trinity as the communio personarum signaling the uniqueness of each of the divine persons. Therefore, we, as church, have the mission of defending and protecting human personhood against all kinds of evils and of promoting it as our unconditional way to God. The glory of God says Irenaeus, is the living human person.
This text seems to argue against racism, discriminations, sexism, and any other forms of dehumanization. The text calls to respect and promote the dignity and uniqueness of the human person as way to God. Genocide, holocaust, oppression, etc are against God’s vision for humanity. Pastorally, the text gives the foundations of human inviolable rights, such as the right to decent life; freedom of conscience, development, and etc. whatever is genuinely human is not alien to the Kingdom of God. Promoting the values of the Kingdom means being at the service of human person’s deepest desires. Our communities should be places where people find meaning to life; they can grow and develop themselves. Also, the church, sacrament of the Holy Trinity, should take a prophetic stance in today’s world in denouncing social and cultural sins that oppress the human person; in distancing itself from colonization, and imperialism; and in proclaiming –and witnessing to- the Gospel that says the Sabbath is for man/woman, not man/woman for the Sabbath.
However, the text does not answer the pressing questions of our postmodern world: when does personhood begin? Is a fetus a full human person like an adult? Or does a human person have the right to take his/her life or another human person’s life –even for a greater good? Such questions about human life call forth a reflection on abortion, contraception, stem cell research, euthanasia, death penalty, just war and legitimate defense…
In conclusion, the dignity of the human person as unique image of God is the agenda of the ministry of the church, and one of the two core features of the Kingdom of God –the other one being the transcendence of God. The Kingdom of God is about communion with God and the neighbor; especially those dehumanized who need to recover their humanity in Christ. It is in solidarity with those suffering human oppression that we follow Christ and realize God vision for us.

Practical Theology: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.

2005-06-18T02:01:00.000+02:00

Dear readers,
the following articles are a serie of reflections that I submitted for the course this course was taught by professor Terry Veiling at CTU during the first summer session 2005 (June 06-10). What I refer to in the articles as "the text" is the part of the readings assigned for the day, from Monday to Friday. Please, send your comments and critiques; i would appreciate that.

Reflection on session one
Practical theological reflection resembles to lectio divina, or better, lectio divina is a form of practical theological reflection. Lectio divina is a holistic and sacred reading of and commentary on the scriptures. It seems to ask, what do these scriptures have to tell me today? As reading, it is really an effort to understanding, to interpreting these Christian classics. Likewise, practical theology is an interpretative, hermeneutical endeavor. It results from the correlation of the interpretation of human experience –the world as it is- and the interpretation of Christian heritage –the world as it should be. But then, what is primary and normative in this task of interpretation? What is the starting point and my perspective? How do experience and Tradition relates to each other so as to bring forth a genuine discipleship? These seem the questions that this first section is asking.
This problematic appears even in the former catechetical pedagogy that provided answers where questions had not been asked at all, or questions that had not been asked. If I profess that Jesus is the answer, I should be able to say to which question. Also, I should not transform theology into an ideology or fall into fundamentalism. This will be a manipulation and abuse of the Tradition. This has led to provide support to slavery and institutionalized racism, Nazism, anti-Semitism, sexism, etc.
And until now, we are dealing with the questions of sexual ethics, gay marriage and other puzzling questions that provoke an electric shock between Tradition and experience.
This first chapter asserts that human experiences, concerns, questions, desires and aspirations, read as signs of times are the starting point of practical theological reflection. Human life is a vocation (p.2); human living is also a locus theologicus. Thus reality is also a way for God to talk to us and guide us. God is our deepest desire. By recognizing world events as signs of the times, we may be eager to see and perceive God’s presence in our time. Today is the Kairos, the appointed time.
But, it is the Tradition that helps us recognize this Kairos, to understand it and attend to it. Thus the practical theologian is a watchman, the shepherd who never sleeps, always alert, vigilant. Tradition is living and embodied memory that has shaped me and has become my criterion in reading the signs of times, in evaluating the present moment and inventing the future. Tradition is a gift to be received and honored, a vocation to be followed, and a question to be answered.
This Tradition, as classic (Tracy), has a revelatory power. It reveals itself to me and tells me how it should be read. It is timeless since it has power to affect people’s lives from all ages, when read according to the context and questions of the particular time and place, and people. Tradition is source of hope since it provides new understanding, new inspiration, and courage to change and be changed.
Thus, the signs of times have to be read in the perspective of faith, in the light of the Christian Tradition. God knows what is best for us. And Tradition reveals to us that our deepest concerns are the concerns and questions of God for us. Thus, true human fulfillment can be achieved only when we engage into the coming of the Kingdom of God, God’s plan for us. As missionaries, we have to be reminders of God’s plan for humanity.
I agree with this view since my being a believer calls me to be the sacrament of God involvement into human life. This is not only for ministers or just for Christians. All living creatures are called and sent by God. Creation is both a vocation and a commission.
Also, it is important to give a perspective of faith to world events and experiences. Without faith, we remain just with human sciences that cannot give hope for life everlasting. When, one looks at issues in Darfur (Sudan), at the war in Iraq, at terrorism, hunger and HIV in Africa, etc without the eyes of faith, it seems that life is not worthy to be lived. But these situations remind us that God has seen our suffering and has sent each one of us as his herald and agent of liberation. Every human being, particularly the Christian has a prophetic vocation and a disciple imperative to follow. Life does not belong to us. We are steward of life, this treasure that we hold in earthly vessels (Paul).
However, according to my limited theological knowledge, it seems that the text is evaluating theology for its usefulness. And God is reduced to one at our service. This tendency seems to perpetuate a dualism within God. I personally understand the concern of God in terms of relationship. Since God is total love, he is reaching out to us so that we too may be part of this divine love. Thus the definition of people in relationship helps understand the nature and purpose of that relationship.
Also, this chapter gave little room to the ecclesial community; and made wonder who is to do the interpretation. Not only the ecclesial community as a whole interprets the signs of the times, this same community has to interpret the Tradition according to context, culture, time, place and other issues of the community.
All in all, practical theology has to be a correlation of experience and Tradition. But experience has to read in the light of Tradition so as it can be understood for what it truly is a vocation and a commission. This is in fact the purpose of the practice of lectio divina, the reading of God’s ways and plan in and for humanity.

walk the talk- June 17, 2005

2005-06-18T00:18:00.000+02:00

“To live, you must choose;
To love, you must encounter;
To grow, you must suffer.” Viktor Frankl

Practical Theology: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.

2005-06-18T00:10:00.000+02:00

this is the last reflection of the serie.
Reflection on Session Five.

This last section tries to understand the implications of the following sentence from the book of exodus: “we will do and we will obey.” How can doing, practice, action, or commitment precedes hearing, theory, reflection, or discernment? This question is very relevant in today’s culture that reflection before action. Many people place understanding before believing. Thus doubt not only acquires a positive meaning toward full understanding, but also it becomes a state of life of people afraid to take a definitive decision, a risk, a long-term commitment –such as marriage and religious vowed life. Such commitments so engage the whole life that would change one’s whole life. People today are afraid of mistakes, afraid of the unknown. Also, the postmodern opposition to any absolute truth contributes to this situation. Since people only have opinions, feel that they do not possess all the truth. Consequently, any commitment made out of an opinion is really hazardous. Therefore, how can we understand “we will do and we will obey” in this context? This question is really at the core of what practical theology has to offer to ministerial setting where pastoral theology (action) was viewed as the application of the findings of systematic theology (theory).
Through talmudic interpretation of the scriptures, the text proposes an understanding of this verse. Look Abraham for example. He trusted in the word of God with all the risks that such a move presupposes, left his family and went to an unknown place. It was in this journey of faith that he came to full faith and knowledge of God. His security was not a full knowledge of where he was going, but rather the promise of God. Also, Mary seems a very naïve young girl who pronounced her fiat to the angel without really understanding what such a commitment required. It is afterward that she could understand and meditate or ruminate what she heard in her heart. Look at a baby. Before reflecting on his life, he finds himself living first. It is later on that he will be required to give a meaning to his life.
All these examples show that we need to take the risk of acting in order to achieve full knowledge. This is the idea of saint Anselm’s definition of theology as “faith seeking understanding”. He goes on to pray, “For I do not seek to understand in order to believe but to believe in order to understand. For I believe even this: that I shall not understand unless I believe.” This resembles to the prayer of the father of a possessed son who, when rebuked by Jesus cried out: “I do believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24). This was also the goal of the gospels. They were written for Christian communities that were living already the legacy of Jesus. They were written in order to strengthen and support the faith of the disciples (Lk1:1-4). As Gustavo Gutierrez suggests, spiritual experience is the terrain of theological reflection. Theology is meant to support those in the process of imitatio sequella Christi (“We Drink from our Own Well”, p.35-36). This is what liberation theology calls orthopraxis; theology is praxis-reflection-praxis. The right reflection is one that comes from and supports the right action.
“we will do and we will hear” is an invitation to give account of our faith. Those who see us living out will come to know and to believe. Show me sterile faith without actions, says saint James, and I will show you the faith that underlies my actions. Our lives are missions from God. We are accountable to him. Our attitude should one of stewardship, not of ownership. We are called to rely on the one who called and sent us. Our lives are to be always a “yes” to God and his vision for humanity. His grace is bestowed upon us so that whenever it happens that we fall short, he will raise us and strengthen us. Our mission thus is to bring all in this covenant with the Lord.
Practical theology in all this is not about making theology practical, useful, or pragmatic; but rather practical theological reflection helps the disciples to discover a certain spiritual and ethical wisdom by reflecting on the ways God is calling and challenging them through the “signs of the times” and the scriptures. Practical theology is a reflection on current praxis, rather than the application of theory. Practical theological reflection looks at the theological themes and values underlying current practices of both religious/faith and secular communities in order to discover and construct the normative character of these practices, and their ethical requirements.
Thus the Christian minister is not only Martha, nor is he only Mary. Rather, the Christian minister has to be both Martha and Mary, namely he has to be both burdened by the service for the Kingdom and totally immersed in the understanding of the faith that sustains his ministry. Also, this is a call to all doubtful and undecided youth to open wide the doors of their hearts to Christ, the Sophia of God. As John Paul II said, Christ is a secure foundation who quenches the deepest desires of our hearts; Christ is faithful and supportive of his disciples. It is in sealing a covenant with God that we come to understand his heart full of compassion, mercy and forgiveness, and our call to be forgiving. Those in marriage or religious commitment would testify here. It is the confidence in forgiveness that sustains a promise or vow. Moreover, “we will do” calls us to respect the dignity of human activity and work. Through work, as John Paul II said again, the human person responds to his vocation of co-creator and fulfills his personhood. Thus unemployment and laziness are dehumanizing states.
All in all, “we will do and we will obey” should be the model of our Christian lives, of our discipleship. Just like it is in following Christ that we know Christ, it is in engaging in God’s vision that we come to understand what this vision really means and we are able to correlate it with “the signs of times”. Come and see, Jesus is telling us today. We have to take the attitude of the first disciples, to follow him in order to force him look back and to hear Jesus’ calling question/questioning call, “ what are you looking for?” Practical theology helps us formulate our responding question/questioning response, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Or again, practical theological reflection seems to ask: what time is it in your life? Is it “four in the afternoon”? Go and see (Jn 37-39); do and hear.

Practical Theology: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.

2005-06-18T00:09:00.000+02:00

Reflection on Session Four.

In the previous sessions, we acknowledged that practical theology is, among other aspects, about the reading of “the signs of times”. The practical theologian is one who stays awake, alert to new movements, new ideas, situations, concerns or progress that may characterize this time or the here and now as kairos. And the context of “the signs of times” is society and culture. What are the issues of society and culture that interest the practical theologian? Text seems to point specifically to two rediscovered concerns of our postmodern time, namely the need for contextual theologies and social justice.
These two issues are very intertwined, especially in recent documents of the Magisterium. When pope Paul IV talked about “evangelization of cultures”, he did mean that evangelization is a wholistic endeavor directed toward the roots of our being on in the world. “Evangelization of cultures” means a transformative encounter between the Gospel and the worldview –cosmology, anthropology, philosophy, theology, and etc- of a people. This is the same approach that john Paul II expressed when speaking of “new evangelization”. It is the same approach of the catholic bishops of Asia who speak of “triple dialogue” as agenda of evangelization in Asia, namely dialogue with cultures, religions, and the poor. Even in Africa, evangelization cannot ignore slavery and colonization and their outcomes –dictatorship, poverty, new imperialism, and etc- that have shaped the present African cultures. Jesus came to give the fullness of life (Jn 10:10). This life is always culturally expressed. How does practical theology engage in this project?
Concerning culture, the text recognizes that every human person has, belongs to and is shaped by his/her particular culture. The diversity of cultures testifies to the uniqueness and sacredness of every human person. No culture is superior to another. Culture is an inseparable part of the human identity and living. Culture gives meaning to life and proposes a shared worldview. Culture is a sine qua non condition for human growth and development. Thus, the respect for human dignity requires the respect, protection and promotion of every human culture. Also, practical theology has no choice but operates within a culture. Every theology has to be contextual -meaning rooted in particular social, cultural and historical contexts-, but not reduced merely to its context. How does God speak to me Aborigine of New Zealand, black Christian African, African-American, European-American, etc. contextual practical theological reflection will help such people discover and follow God’s vision in their concrete lives.
I would add that along contextualization, inculturation is another obligation of evangelization of cultures. Inculturation is about a mutually transformative encounter between God’s vision and local culture. The salvation and liberation that Jesus brought us has to be expressed in categories and language understandable by the recipient. Evangelization has to be a liberating inculturation of the Gospel, or the proclamation of an uncultured liberation of Jesus.
Some questions however remain: how can we do practical theology in a multicultural context, like the church in the USA? What may be the connection and how can we connect local or contextual theologies with the universal beliefs of the church? Issues such as syncretism, need to be addressed in order to ensure a genuinely Christian practical theological reflection. Also, apart from ethnic, gender issues, social class and location are other components of a human society that practical theology should include in its reflection.
Concerning social justice, the text seems to argue that, justice left to itself is dangerous and without soul. Justice should be accompanied by mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. Justice means giving to the other what we owe him/her according to the rights of his/her human dignity. In economy, it is the obligation to withdraw from the market what is needed by others. Social institutions are put in place to guarantee the common good, the communion of the whole human family and the promotion of every human person. The human person should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the community, nor should the individual impose his/her desires over the whole community. The goods of the earth are meant to be shared by all human beings, and not only by a handful of elites or powerful. But justice left to itself is pure legalism. Since injustice is a sin, mercy or forgiveness should accompany the rendering of justice. And the works of mercy are not meant to replace justice, but rather to accompany it until a full recovery of one’s human rights.
I acknowledge that love has to permeate justice as well as mercy. Justice without love is legalism, just like mercy without love is self-abasement. Love is the measure of all human relationships. It is obvious that when human life is at stake –like death penalty, mercy needs to intervene and restore human dignity. Revenge is not part of Christian understanding of justice. Mercy should accompany the application of human laws. However, how can we picture mercy when dealing with social justice –poverty, unemployment, education, health care, homelessness, etc? We may rather talk here about the “preferential option for the poor” than about mercy. This justice is rather the result of reconciliation and truth and compassion. When social justice is rendered, peace flows, and shalom reigns.
Also, in our postmodern era, education as access to social power has emerged as a major human right. The ministry of education, especially the education of the poor about their human, political and social rights, is very important. As liberation theology calls it, conscientization is an empowering process through which the poor recover the sense of their human dignity. Moreover, we need to teach solidarity and gratitude to this generation of consumerism, insatiability and individualism; and challenge globalization.
All in all, practical theology has to be contextual in order to be relevant. This means, including cultural issues in its reflection, method and expressions. Consequently, issues of justice and mercy, truth and reconciliation should not be foreign to its reading of “the signs of times” and its “evangelization of cultures”.

Practical Theology: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.

2005-06-18T00:08:00.000+02:00

Reflection on Session Three.

In the previous sessions, we discovered God as the one who calls and sends. Being is being-sent, being-for-the-other. Just like God is totally for us –pro nobis-, so we too have to be totally for others. We are called to be gracious presence in other people’s lives, signs of God’s grace for them. If existence is totally graced, how should witness to this grace or to this vocation of mine in the presence of the other? What are the values, attitudes and behaviors that witness my being-for-the-other? This is the concern of Levinas. For him, philosophy is first and foremost an ethical endeavor. The other is the reason and the purpose of my being; and the ethics of the other is my way of being.
It is really fascinating to see how Levinas, after surviving the Shoah, made this jump of faith and came to understand his life as vocation, a call to be for others. I wish all survivors of human and natural tragedies would come to such a faith. And this is the purpose of practical theology. The practical theologian is one who helps others to realize that their lives are not per se; but rather, they are theological, meaning they are channels through which God is reaching out to others. Also, questions of suffering, death and human condition are among the recurrent questions in ministry. How to give hope in such situations? Moreover, the question of being-for-the-other is at the core of what Christian ministry is all about and the challenge of the Gospel that says the first has to be the least; or the son of man came to serve, not to be served.
For being victim of Nazism, Levinas is arguing against totalitarian systems and the philosophies of immanence. Such attitudes tend to focus on the “I” as the center of the universe. A person, a country, a nation, a culture, an institution, or a church does not exist per se. Such understanding may lead to tragedies like the holocaust. Rather, Levinas is leading us toward the rediscovery of transcendence. A voice outside of me is calling me, and awaiting my response. This transcendental turn is not a mere mystical attitude, but rather an ethical demand: the transcendent is revealed in the face of the other, the one I am for. Thus, being-for-the-other is being responsive and responsible of the other. Responsibility and hospitality are some of the core values of Levinas’ ethics. The other appears in my life both transcendent and vulnerable, handed over to my responsibility. In welcoming the other and being for him/her, I set myself vulnerable to him/her and give him/her priority. I abandon myself to him/her as servant or slave. I am called to be the diakonos of the other, the host and hostage of the other. Only in this way am I a mystic, when I am able to discover and obey to the call of the Holy One in the begging and supplicant eyes of the other. The presence of the other is like a fire in my guts urging me to intervene, to protect his/her life because s/he has no one else to count on. Indifference is one of the greatest sins of our time. Like the Lord said, whatever is done to the little ones is done unto Him.
It seems to me that Levinas is arguing in favor of the intrinsic unity of spirituality and ethics. While my Christian spirituality and faith are the reasons of my hope, Christian ethics is the expression of that hope. The love of God and the love of the neighbor are the two facets of one commandment: love. This love means responsibility, hospitality, and service. Contrary to Cain, I am my brother/sister’s keeper, guardian and responsible. As Christian, I should be able to answer to the question: “where is your brother [sister]?” (Gen 4:8-9). This requires a prophetic attitude toward totalitarian, exclusivist and indifferent systems. Also, in terms of hospitality, we are called to welcoming, generous, compassionate, and non-judgmental people. Like Jesus, the disciple has to go to the margins and invite the cripples, the lame, the lepers, and the blind to the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven. The church is a fellowship, a communio, where everyone is welcomed, promoted and loved. Finally, service is the core meaning of the word ministry. The church, as disciple of Christ is at the service of the Kingdom of God, at the service of humanity. We are called to take the attitude of the insignificant servant. Thus being a minister in the church means being totally committed at the service of others, to sacrifice one’s life for the others. We should not wait for or expect reciprocity in order to serve others. Therefore, responsibility for, hospitality and service toward humanity are the way the church gives hope to people and lives it vocation.
However, the conviction of being-for-the-other is the fruit of an experience of someone being-for-me. As Christian, I am ready to die for the others because someone higher, Jesus, has died for me. This experience of total loving gratuity impels me to love others. As he has done for me or in memory of him. The motivation and the model of my love for others is the love of God for me. Levinas seems to miss that sometimes we “the other” to others, in need or beneficiary of others’ love. Otherwise, we may fall in misconception of thinking that we have to bring freedom to other country, democracy to the barbarians who kill each other, civilization to those primitive cultures, or development to those poor people of Third World countries who die from hunger and diseases. Or as missionary, I am not the savior of people to whom I am sent, but rather I have to live as brother among brothers and bear together in faith the burden of life. Therefore being-for-the-other is only the way toward being-with-the-other. God is for us because he wants to be with us. In Jesus, he reveals himself as Emmanuel, God-with-us, one who showed us solidarity. Service is directed toward communion. And this is the meaning of Trinity.
Moreover, the terminology that Levinas uses does not propose a shalom vision, where violence, persecution, suffering. Talking about a host hostage seems to perpetuate the cycle of oppression. We are called to be partners, brothers and sisters serving each other. Thus, though not expected, reciprocity has to be the fruit this brotherly service. Love one another as I have loved you, says the Lord.
All in all, Levinas is a great witness to a faith that, purified in suffering, comes out big, deep and more convincing. Being-for-the-other calls forth an ethic of responsibility, hospitality, and service. When facing the other, we are not only facing the other, but also the Totally Other.

et voila !

2005-04-12T04:43:00.000+02:00

salut a tous, dans le christ. et beinvenus a mon blogger.