How does Christianity compare with other religions?

To a certain extent, the supremacy of Christianity over other pagan cults in Europe is the fact that Christianity leaves us a Bible while the other cults do not leave us any traces. If we think of religions as living organisms, Christianity has been a predator rather than a prey. It survived Roman persecutions and then became the state religion. With the backing of the Empire, it christianitzed many indigenous customs and even wiped out some. When its missionaries came to the New World, Red Indians were wiped out. But when it came to the Far East, it encountered very deep-rooted cultures which refused to be christianized. One of the reasons was that the Empire's influence has reached its end in the Far East. To these days, Christianity has to co-exist with other Asian cultures. But most of the time, it is sidelined and fails to become the mainstream religion.
As a monotheistic religion, Christianity fails to replace her root --- Judaism. She also fails to defeat a late-comer to the scene --- Islam. Therefore, it is difficult for Christians to hold on to their creed --- I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. She fails to win the Jews or Muslims over. But can she declare that these other religions are false religions, leading their believers nowhere, or even astray? No. It is not diplomatic and nowadays, the Church has to accept the fact that the society in which her believers live is pluralistic. Christians need to live together with people of other religions and we have to respect them, co-exist peacefully with them in order to maintain a peaceful world.

Christianity is a revelation religion. Its truth is revealed from above. Eastern religions are mostly wisdom religions. Its truth is attained from insight, from enlightenment. Christianity believes in a Creator of the universe who is a personal God. He commands exclusive worship of Him. Eastern religions are polytheistic but most of their deities are men who have attained enlightenment and transcendence. They are not creators but they are able to exercise mighty powers to relieve ordinary people of their sufferings. Naturally, they do not command exclusive worship of them. Believers are free to worship whoever they feel need to and the deities are not jealous. But Yahweh will not be tolerant.

In the second chapter of Colossians, we read of Paul's attack on other contemporary religions which were most likely some mystical Judaism. They observed Sabbaths and other festivals. They worshipped angels. To them, Paul has made the following warnings.
See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8).
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath (Colossians 2:16).
Paul argued for the supremacy of Jesus over all those elemental spirits of the universe.
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him (Colossians 1:16).
For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9).
This is a one sided declaration of his experience, of his faith. There was no proof.
He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:15).
The principalities, powers, authorities, thrones and dominions are higher order angels than the archangels. On top of them are the Cherubim and Seraphim. Below them are angels and archangels. They form a hierarchy of 9 orders of angels. This is a traditional Catholic belief.
Here, St. Paul warned the Colossian Christians not to follow their philosophy and worship these angels because God created these angels through Jesus and for Jesus. Sorry, Paul, people in the Far East have a different hierarchy of deities. They don't know anything about these 9 orders of angels and naturally, people in the Far East will query about the reality of these Jewish angels and their correspondence with Eastern deities. Sorry to say, these 9 orders of angels are not universally known in all cultures.
Searching the gospels, there is no record of Jesus disarming these angels and making a public example of them. Probably, Paul based his claims on some extra-biblical sources which we now do not have access to. We cannot judge the validity of Paul's claim, not to mention finding corresponding incidents in Eastern scriptures.
Dealing with mystical Judaism might be easier for Paul. But dealing with religions in the Far East is a totally different order of challenge. To repeat Fr. Simon Wong's remark, "the ends of the earth" is not romantic at all.

Dear Lord, Vatican II teaches us to respect and show tolerance towards other religions. Grant us a big enough love to embrace them, to engage in meaningful dialogues with them. In the meantime, let us not lose faith in Your unreserved love. Amen.

Twenty Third Ordinary Sunday (Year B)

The Gospel of Mark portrayed Jesus as a powerful Son of God who performed a lot of miracles to bring forth the Kingdom of God. Most of the time, Jesus simply commanded and the miracle was performed. For example, driving out demons, healing the paralyzed, calming the storm etc. Therefore, when we read of the healing of a deaf-mute in Decapoli (Mark 7:31-37), we feel a little puzzled about Jesus' actions.
Was it necessary for Jesus to put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue (Mark 7:33b)?

We may argue that since the person was deaf. He could not hear Jesus' command. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to take some extra actions to perform this miracle. However, if this reason stands, how do we explain another exorcism occasion in which Jesus commanded a dumb and deaf spirit to leave a boy (Mark 9:25). The spirit was deaf and was not supposed to hear, right?
Wrong! This dumb and deaf spirit might not be dumb and deaf itself. It caused dumbness and deafness in others. Therefore, it could hear Jesus' command. But was it necessary for a person to hear Jesus' command in order to be healed?
Hearing the command did not seem to be a necessary condition because earlier on, Jesus droved out from a distance the demon which possessed the daughter of a Greek woman. The demon was not in the proximity of Jesus. Moreover, we do not expect waves and storm to hear, do we? Therefore, hearing Jesus' command was not a necessary condition for a miracle to happen. Jesus' action on the deaf-mute was not essential for the healing. It was meant for something else. And what was this something else?

Putting fingers into the ears of a deaf man and touching the tongue of a mute were visible and symbolic actions. For us, even for a physician, such actions do not heal. At most, they are gestures of compassion. But Jesus is God. His actions heal. Therefore, these actions are sacramental. They are visible signs to convey God's grace/power to the recipients. Since they are sacramental, they go beyond the physical and bring forth the supernatural, the transcendental. The deaf-mute did not simply recover his hearing and speaking capacity, he could hear God's call and speak God's message to the others. I think this is the lesson of the whole story.

Everyone of us is, to a certain extent, deaf. Arrogance, inattention, mood, preconception, prejudice, preoccupation, stubbornness etc. prevent us from properly hearing what others are trying to tell us. Everyone of us is, to a certain extent, mute. Cowardice, diffidence, fear, greed, ignorance etc. prevent us from speaking the truth. Each one of us needs the grace of God to overcome such illnesses so that we may hear the truth clearly and speak the truth boldly.

Dear Lord, grant us the grace of humility to hear Your words and the courage to preach Your good news to our neighbours. Amen.

How do you tell people they are sinners?

The Religious Studies courses in the Holy Spirit Seminary College began on Thursday evening. There are twelve meetings in each course. The first course I attended was "Moral Theology" taught by Fr. Robert Ng, S.J. Today, I attended the "Introduction to Theology" course taught by Fr. Simon Wong, S.J. Theology is new to me. The courses are very interesting and thought provoking.

Fr. Wong told us emphatically that his philosophy of education was one of chaperon. He would accompany us, give us the key to open the door of knowledge. Once we were able to get in, we would be able to take whatever we desired. Fr. Wong did not speak fast. At times, he could be humourous.
Fr. Wong made it clear that philosophy was essential in the study of theology. Once, he mentioned that a priest said that theology did not help much in doing pastoral work. He asked us to comment on this statement. There are 22 Year One students. We came from various backgrounds. Unexpectedly, the question elicited very enthusiastic responses from us. Some classmates thought that theology was an academic pursuit. It was not some kind of applied ethics. Therefore, the statement was correct. Some others blamed the priest for failing to apply what he had learned to concrete needs. Yet others suggested the possibility that the priest had not understood theology thoroughly enough such that he was not able to apply theology in his pastoral works. All our discussions centred around the application of theology.
Fr. Wong affirmed the importance of theological reflections. The Lord had commissioned his disciples to preach the good news to all the nations (Matthew 28:19, Luke 24:47), all the world (Mark 16:15), and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Fr. Wong said that "the end of the earth" was romantic. Yet, in real life, when you reach "the end of the earth", you will find that it is not romantic at all. You will be confronted by various concrete thorny problems: language, customs and culture etc. That is the reason why we need to study theology. We need to conduct a systematic reflection of the problems. We are doing theology.

St. Paul continued his contemplation on incarnation and redemption. Naturally, he made the following statement.
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him (Colossians 1:21-22)
I found verse 21 difficult to convince Chinese. How do we tell them, convince them that we are all sinners?
If we are not sinners, we do not need redemption/salvation. Jesus and his gospel will have nothing to do with us.
Chinese have their deep culture. They see highly of themselves. They do not see what sins they have committed against God. I wonder how Matteo Ricci was able to convert some government officials. How did Matteo Ricci tell them that they were sinners, doing evil deeds?  Here we have a problem. Here is "the end of the earth". It is a concrete thorny problem. We need to think our way out.

Dear Lord, I am a novice in theology. I pray that I may finish this 4-year course and serve You better. Amen.

The divinity of Jesus

The first Christians were Jews. Therefore, there is some Jewishness in Christianity. The Jews believe in one God who was the Creator of heavens and earth. So do Christians. However, Christians are not Jews because they also believe that Jesus is God. The Jews could never be able to accept this. For them, Jesus was at most a Galilean rabbi. Therefore, Christians have to develop an elaborate system of theology to harmonize these conflicting claims. In the reading of the epistle to the Colossians today, we read of Paul's contemplation of the divinity of Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation (Colossians 1:15).
Men cannot see God. Even Moses could only see the back of God (Exodus 33:21-23). Therefore, God forbade the Israelites to make images of God, lest the Israelites would transfer their faith in God to the idols (Exodus 20:4-5). When Paul made the statement above, the Jews would be very much offended. But Christians have developed a concept of "Sacrament" to handle the situation. A sacrament is a visible sign through which God give the recipient grace. For example, baptism makes use of water (a visible sign) to remove the sins of the recipients. This removal of sins is equivalent to receiving grace.
Equipped with this concept of Sacrament, we can extend it to include a lot of people and things. Jesus is visible and gives us grace. Jesus is a sacrament. The Church is visible and she brings God's grace to men. Therefore, the Church is also a sacrament. Like Abraham whom God had chosen to bring blessings to all peoples, Christians are visible and they bring God's grace to men. Therefore, Christians are also sacraments.
Of course, when St. Paul wrote this, he did not intend to describe Jesus in a sacramental way. He simply confessed what he experienced of Jesus. According to the gospels, Jesus appeared to the apostles after resurrection. They were astounded and confessed that Jesus was God (John 20:28). St. Paul had never met Jesus in person. He only encountered Jesus in visions. Paul had no doubt that this Jesus could only be God. That was why Paul believed that Jesus was the image of the invisible God.

Paul was expressing the idea of pre-existence of Jesus. This concept predated the gospel of John for some 40 years.
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).
Christians resolved the conflict between monotheism and the divinity of Jesus by developing the theology of the Son of God and His incarnation. Things were getting more complicated then. Some people began to contemplate the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Different theories were suggested but many had become heresies. For the time being, I am not capable enough to write on these theological controversies. I hope by the time I finish my theological studies, I will be competent enough to talk about it.

Dear Jesus, You are our God and our Saviour. You are divine. Otherwise, we have not been saved. May we continue to walk in Your light and be able to discern more. Amen.

Feast of Gregory the Great

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St Gregory the Great (540-604). He was the 64^th Pope of the Catholic Church during a time when Rome was invaded by the Lombards and Franks. Few Catholics know of his life and contributions unless they are interested in Church History. Several things are known. Gregory was the first monk to become Pope. He saw the value of monastic system in the church and spared no effort to promote it. He reformed the Liturgy and Office. He sent missionaries to England and Gregorian chants were attributed to him. Readers interested in church history should not miss him.

Actions must be informed with knowledge. Without knowledge, actions are impulsive and most of the time, they will only lead to disasters. Though we call people who do not practise what they preach hypocrites, we should strike a balance between impulsive actions and inactions. True, action speaks louder than words and it is tempting to use this aphorism to justify actions which we would later regret. Therefore, it is essential to guide our actions with proper knowledge.

Secular ethicists treat knowledge as a means to reduce uncertainty. Knowledge helps people make informed rational decisions. Most of the time, such decisions are considered ethical. However, Christians take a different stance. They are more selective in the kind of knowledge that guide their actions.
And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:9-10).
Seeking God's will is the Christian directive and God's will is to forgive our sins, to save us from evil. Therefore, we act so as to obtain forgiveness from God. The aim of our decisions is to obtain redemption which has been attained for us through Jesus Christ.
He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

Dear Lord, may my passion in Biblical studies continue to burn and bring me closer to You. Amen.

The Theological Virtues

The Epistle to the Colossians was written in around 63 A.D. Paul was approaching the end of his life and the end of his writing career. His theology was more mature at this stage.
The church of Colossae was not established or overseen by Paul. It was the efforts of Epaphras whom Paul described as a faithful minister of Christ on their behalf.
as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf
and has made known to us your love in the Spirit (Colossians 1:7-8).
We will learn more about the problems confronting the church of Colossians later. Today, we focus on the opening section of the letter.

Paul wrote epistles to churches and individuals. Sometimes, he wrote in his name alone. In other epistles, he wrote them in the name of a team of people. For example, in the two epistles to the Thessalonians, besides the name of Paul, Silvanus (Silas?) and Timothy were mentioned. In the latter epistles, Timothy was mentioned in the opening of four more occasions: Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Sosthenes, the synagogue ruler, was mentioned in the opening of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Therefore, other names were mentioned in these letters when they were co-workers of Paul in that particular church.

Faith, hope and love, the three theological virtues were mentioned since he began writing these epistles. Paul usually praised the recipients for their performance in these three virtues. For example,
We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).
Near the end of his writing career, he continued doing the same thing.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints,
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven (Colossians 1:3-5a).
Therefore, these three virtues are essential in defining Christianity. We are more familiar with the virtues of faith and love. The virtue of hope has not received the respect that due her. To have hope is to have confidence of the future, in the end of the world. In the early church, the virtue of hope had supported martyrs and the persecuted Christians. Nowadays, our lack of hope is in fact an indicator that the church is not suffering physical tortures or Christians have lost sight of the end of the world, of heaven. Therefore, our lack of hope is an indicator of our spiritual illness.

Dear Lord, we are losing sight of our future. We are losing our hope in paradise. Lord, besides granting us Your strength to go through modern challenges, ignite Lord, our hope in You. Amen.

Some characteristics of the Thessalonian Epistle

Today, we will finish reading the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. This was an early, or even the first epistle written by St. Paul and I would like to look at two characteristics not shared by the other epistles.

Firstly, in this epistle, St. Paul did not quote from the Hebrew Scripture or the Septuagint. In his latter epistles, St. Paul habitually quoted from the Hebrew Scripture to decorate his points. Sometimes, I doubt if his readers were familiar enough with these Hebrew materials and the Hebrew logic. Yet, St. Paul quoted the Hebrew Scripture and argued like a Pharisee. But these epistles were supposed to be written for the Gentile readers like us. Other than showing off his Pharisaic background, I do not see why St. Paul quoted Hebrew scriptures in his epistles written for the Gentiles. For those of us who are not quite familiar with the Jewish logic, it is difficult to see how quoting some rather "irrelevant" passages helped develop his arguments. We find not a single quotation in theFirst Epistle to the Thessalonians.

Secondly, some of the ideas expressed in this Epistle would be more fully developed later. Check any bible with cross-reference, for example the online Chinese Bible 「網上【思高版】聖經」. We will find that nearly every verse in this epistle finds its echo in other Pauline epistles.
For example, in advising the Thessalonians to be sober, Paul employed a military image which he developed more fully some twelve years later in his epistle to the Ephesians.
But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
Therefore take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace;
besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:13-17).
Paul employed the image of a thief to describe the sudden end of the world. This idea also appeared in the Second Epistle of Peter and the Revelation. But the most telling of all is that found in the gospel of Luke. Luke was a partner of St. Paul. It is no wonder that Paul's ideas have crept imperceptibly into the world ofLuke.
For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2).
But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.
You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour (Luke 12:39-40, Matthew 24:43-44).
Of course, St. Paul does not have the exclusive right so that other New Testament authors might not use this image. I am afraid this image was quite popular.

In this epistle, we find many pieces of good advice. In the dealing with people, St. Paul advised the Thessalonians the following.
And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all (1 Thessalonians 5:14-15).
I find his advice appropriate even for my dealing with students. In particular, I must try to be patient with them all because this year, I am the class teacher of a class of weaker students. As for attitude, St. Paul gave the following advice.
Rejoice always,
pray constantly,
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
We should be grateful in all circumstances. Grateful when things follow our ideas and grateful even when we are frustrated. Bear in mind that though life is smooth or frustrating, it is the will of God to prepare ourselves to enjoy eternal life.

Dear Lord, school has begun. I pray for my students. May they grow up and grow close to You day by day. I pray for my colleagues. May they find satisfaction in their job. Amen.