Who wants a King?

Since Enlightenment, the idea of freedom gains popularity. The popularity reached the climax when Charles I of England was tried and executed in 1649 and when the French people chopped off the head of Louis XVI with the guillotine in 1793. In 1869, J.S. Mill wrote a treatise On Liberty to defend personal liberty from the encroachment of the governments and tyrants. Indeed, most of the kings were disliked by the people because they were perceived as tyrants and levied heavy taxes for their enjoyment. Their words were laws but these were no more than their whims. Civil wars and revolutions usually meant the dethronement of tyrants.
Nowadays, there are still kings in this world despite the baptism of the two World Wars. In Europe, the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, performs a symbolic, yet very influential role in British as well as global politics. In Asia, the Japanese and Thai emperors do likewise. These royal dignitaries are loved by their subjects who are proud to have a king/queen ruling over them. They provide a sense of glorious tradition for their peoples. They went through hardship and economic prosperity with their peoples and earned their respect. Therefore, these peoples are willing to "feed" their royalties from the taxes they pay the government.

Do modern Christians want a king?
Seeing the lack of respect for Jesus from modern men, in 1925, Pope Piux XI issued an encyclical to encourage the whole Church to celebrate the Feast of Christ the King to mark the end of the whole liturgical year. There is nothing better to express this deep-seated need of Jesus as our King than the video of Psalm 42, "As the Deer". Let it be my closing prayer as well.
Enjoy.

The End of the World

Chinese do not subscribe to a linear conception of history. Very few of them would be bothered by the worries of the end of the world which is the hallmark of a linear history. In such a view, the universe has a beginning and an end. If my understanding is not wrong, Chinese believe in a spiral view of history. A circular conception of history believes that what happened in the past would happen again in the future. A spiral conception is a little bit different in that what happens again will not be identical to that happened in the past. Advocates of spiral conception optimistically believe that it will advance one step forward to a brighter future.

Is history linear, circular or spiral? This is a rather philosophical question and everybody is entitled to subscribe to whichever one that fancies him. Christians subscribe to the linear view. They believe that God created our universe some time in the past. They also believe that the world as we know it will come to an end when Christ comes the second time to judge the living and the dead. This is the famous Judgment Day which is a logical necessity because there have been so many miscarriages of justice and corruption. Our justice system is not airtight. Many political heavyweights attempt to bend the law in their favour. There have been tyrants whose whims were laws. Therefore, Christians welcome the idea of the end of the world when Christ would vindicate the injustice they suffer.

On my shelf there is one book which I will definitely not throw away. It is a hardcover book which means its sale was not good. Otherwise I would only have bought a paperback. This book predicted that the world would come to an end in 2009! I keep this book to show the stupidity of people trying to predict the end of the world.
In the gospel reading today (Mark 13:24-32), two embarrassing verses about the end of the world need clarification. Jesus was talking about the terrible things which would happen before the end of the world. The sun would be darkened, the moon would have no light to reflect to earth, stars (perhaps meteors) would fall from heaven and the powers in the heavens would be shaken (Mark 13:24-25). Then we hear the following verse.
Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place (Mark 13:30).
A generation is roughly thirty years. Suppose Jesus died at 33 and scholars estimate that the gospel of Mark was written in around 55 A.D. So, has Mark reported a stupid prediction by Jesus?
This verse actually reflects the belief of early Christians. They believed that Jesus would return soon. Money would be of no more use. Therefore, they handed over their property to the Apostles to share among all believers. But Mark could not put words into Jesus' mouth and Jesus would not say such stupid thing. Therefore, Jesus must be talking about something else. The only possibility would be the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 A.D. Indeed, Jesus was talking about just this at the beginning of the chapter (Mark 13:1-3).

The next embarrassing verse is one of my favourites. My students have been troubled by members of some doomsday cults. So, I teach my students to defend themselves by quoting the following.
But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mark 13:32).
So, when those doomsday cults members scare my students with the end of the world, my students should be able to counter-attack that those people are more powerful than Jesus Christ! They must be the Father!
This verse definitely would defend and save my students from falling into the snare of those doomsday cults. However, it backfires when we come to the theology of the Trinity which deals with the tension between the unity and distinction among the three Persons of God.
The three Persons are in unity. They have the same divinity, the same essence and are equal in glory etc. That is why they are one. Now, here is the difficulty. If the Son and the Father are one, how is it possible for the Son not to know about the end of the world, only the Father knows?
The Three Persons are also distinct. The Father did not die on the cross to redeem mankind. It was the Son. The Son did not enter the womb of Mary directly to become Jesus. It was the work of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, it is the Holy Spirit who turns bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. Christ does not do this during Mass. In short, the three Persons have their own independent wills. Therefore, it is possible for the Son not to know the day or the hour of the end of the world because the Son and the Father have different and independent wills.They are different persons.

Dear Lord, keep us alert to expect Your second coming. Amen.

Generosity of the poor widow

In times of plenty and security, we rely more on our ability to fend for ourselves. We tend to forget that our existence is totally dependent on God. Only in desperate times do we realize our limitations and our complete reliance on God's providence.

Elijah and Elisha were legendary prophets of the Old Testament. Unlike the 4 Major Prophets and 12 Minor Prophets, Elijah and Elisha did not leave us any writings. However, in the books of Kings, there are collections of their legends which Biblical scholars called "Elijah cycle" and "Elisha cycle" respectively. These legends tell us the greatness of God through the acts of these 2 prophets. However, the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8-16), like the rest, is not meant to entertain modern ears. Besides the incredibility of the endless supply of flour and oil, the behaviour of the widow was unreasonable. How could a widow mother follow the instruction of a total stranger at the expense of her own life and that of her only son? Perhaps the story could attract ancient audience, but not modern people who may find some of the stories, such as 2 Kings 2:23-24, offensive.

There were many widows in the early Church. Perhaps one of them was the main character in the story of the poor widow in the gospel of Mark. This story cannot be treated as a legend because every detail of the story was very authentic, except one and this exceptional detail was praised by Jesus.
And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.
For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living." (Mark 12:43-44)
Once more, modern people find the story hard to accept. Did the widow have children? Did the widow not care about her own livelihood? How could a sensible person hand over everything she had, her whole living? If she wanted to gamble with God, she would definitely lose!
Depending on which purpose the treasury collection served, the act of donation demonstrated both the love of God and the love of the needy. If the treasury collection helped maintain the Temple and feed the priests, donation was a love of God. If the treasury collection was meant to support the poor, donation was a love of neighbour. Jesus praised the poor widow because by donating all, she was able to love God with all her heart, and with all her soul, and with all her mind and with all her strength. If the treasury collection was meant to support the poor, the widow demonstrated a unreserved love of her neighbour as herself. Without reservation for her own, the poor widow was able to put the two greatest commandments into practice. How did she do it? Perhaps we will never understand because it is rather impossible for us to put ourselves in her position, to see what she saw and to experience what she experienced.

To be sure, her life was harsh. There was no CSSA. If her deceased husband had no brothers, there would be nobody to support her. Perhaps she was receiving relief from the very treasury she contributed. In her difficult life, she understood very well the plights of similar people like her. Other than God, to whom could she turn? So, if we think that it is unreasonable, irrational of her to contribute all, it is because we have not learned to be generous. We don't understand how important generosity is for us! God has always been faithfully generous to us. Without His providence, we are not. Without the incarnation, passion and resurrection of Jesus, our existence is pitiful. Therefore, our generosity is microscopic in front of God.

Dear Lord, generosity is Your blessing. May we make good use of our generosity to serve the needy. Amen.

Love men in order to love God

Historians and social scientists would see Christianity as an outgrowth of Judaism. To a certain extent, they are correct. Christians and Jews share half of the Bible and they keep the same Ten Commandments. What is more, the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, was himself a Jew, even a respectable Rabbi though Jesus was by trade a carpenter.
Jesus knew the Hebrew Scripture, in particular the book of Deuteronomy, very well. When he was tempted by the Devil during his fasting in the wilderness, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy to answer the Tempter. Today, we read of the story of a Jewish Rabbi who challenged him to name which is the first commandment of all "Ποία ἐστὶν ἐντολὴ πρώτη πάντων; ", Jesus answered again from the Deuteronomy, the famous "Shema Israel".
Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one;
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength'" (Mark 12:29-30, Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
Today, I will not talk about the extra "with all your mind" Jesus inserted into Shema Israel. In fact, the Rabbi challenger was closer to the Deuteronomy original in Mark 12:33. Interested readers might also compare the Matthean and Lucan versions of the same story and try to explain why the Evangelists reported different sayings from the same Jesus! It will be a good Synoptic Gospel assignment ... etc.

No. Today, I want to focus on this total love of God --- "to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength". Naturally, one shall wonder if there is any room and any time to love anybody else. We all live in a web of relationships, some of which may be instrumental. However, there must be some relationships in which genuine love is nurtured, for example parents and children, husband and wife, brothers and sisters, friends and comrades etc. If we follow this commandment literally, we will become very selfish to those who love us because we love God so completely that we have no room to reciprocate. In real life, other than monks, nuns and religious fanatics, who can love God so totally? Therefore, the Shema Israel is an impossible commandment for ordinary people.
Here, Jesus provides us with an escape clause. He continues to teach the second commandment.
The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:31, Leviticus 19:18b)
The significance of the second commandment is first revealed in the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10:30-37 and in the Last Judgment story in Matthew 25:31-46. The needy are our neighbour. When we help the needy, we are serving the Jesus Christ present in them. Now that Christ has come to us, it is possible to follow the Shema Israel literally because when we love the needy, we are loving Christ who is God. Blessed Mother Teresa and her nuns are doing just this. God would not command us to do things beyond our capability to do. The Son of God incarnated to put on our humanity to become a lowly needy man. He taught us to love the needy and our enemies. Commandments and laws are not able to uplift us. The Age of Law is over. Christ has come to inaugurate a new age, the Age of Grace in which He gives us grace to seek God's will, to partake in God's eternal life. Now, we may love men in order to love God.

It is a bit unsatisfying to bark about love. No. we should not just talk about love. Instead, we should do it. Action speaks louder than words. So, just do it.

Dear Lord, I thank You for making God's commandments practicable. May I be generous enough to answer Your call. Amen.