Human efforts without grace

My boss cares very much about how people look at his achievement. He is very proud of the effort he has put into his career, how he works his way up to the present position. After HKCEE, he did not receive any support from his family and he worked part-time to support his post-secondary studies. Nowadays, he calls himself an administrative expert. Bring him your problems and he will solve them for you. He is our Administrator Almighty. However, he probably is not aware that he himself is the root of many of our problems. He creates a problem situation for us and comes to "save" us.
I have no intention to belittle his efforts. His present achievement is admirable. However, he does not listen, does not put himself in our position. He wants things done in his ways and grabs all the honours. He enjoys highlighting the faults of his subordinates. If things go wrong, he will blame you and doesn't take up his share of responsibilities. Would you serve him like serving the Lord? (Colossians 3:23-24)

That probably illustrates why Paul emphasized so much about grace. As a Pharisee, Paul knew the mentality of most Pharisees who believed that their efforts to keep the laws down to the minutest details would guarantee salvation. Such a worldview was shattered on the road to Damascus. Throughout his life, Saul had been observing the laws. Yet, such piety did not bring him any closer to God.
In his eyes, Christians were dangerous heretics because they believed a carpenter to be God. Just as he was sincerely persecuting these fellow Jews, hoping to bring them back to their right mind, Jesus revealed himself to him.
Saul came to the understanding that it was grace, the free gift from God that brought him salvation. All his previous efforts in piety did not.
I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 1:13b-14).
Grace and mercy come from God. The theological virtues of faith and love also come from God who enables us to believe in Him and to love Him. Therefore, is there anything we can be proud of? Can our piety and hard work be our pride? Rather, we should be humble and grateful for the opportunities God offers us to serve Him. Yes, I serve God and my boss is not my God. At most, he is only His agent. But am I not His agent as well? So, bosses. Don't boss around.
St. Paul did not see himself Paul Almighty. Rather, he saw himself only an instrument of God for the benefits of the others. He was setting his example for a budding bishop.
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners;
but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
Of course, it is enjoyable for oneself to be honoured. But isn't it a higher-order enjoyment to empower your subordinates to achieve honour? Then, as the mentor of your subordinates, his honour will definitely and finally go to you. Paul was doing this. I would like to follow his footstep. Hey boss, would you?

Dear Lord, may honour and glory go to You, not to me. I am only an unworthy servant. I pray for my boss, hoping that he will one day see the truth. I pray for myself that I can steadily follow the footstep of St. Paul. Amen.

The Making of a Bishop

Timothy was a disciple of St. Paul. He was baptized together with Eunice, his mother and Lois, grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5) when Paul was visiting Lystra in his first missionary journey. When Paul visited the city again in his second missionary journey in around 50 A.D., he took Timothy along as an assistant in his preaching. Timothy was a half-Jew. His father was Greek and Eunice Jewish. In order to avoid unnecessary troubles from Jewish attackers, Paul took the precaution to circumcise Timothy before taking him along (Acts 16:1-3). Some fifteen years later, Paul consecrated Timothy a bishop to oversee the church in Ephesus. The church has collected two epistles written to Timothy, giving him advice to work as a bishop to oversee a church. Probably Timothy was still relatively young. Paul felt that he needed some pastoral advice. That is why the Church calls these epistles "Pastoral Epistles".

From the epistle, we know that in Ephesus, Timothy had to deal with heresies. Some people taught a different faith. Others spent their time doing curious, yet useless, tasks.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith (1 Timothy 1:3-4)
The first and foremost responsibility of a bishop was to oversee a church. A church is a community of redeemed believers. Therefore, keeping this community together has been the primary duty of a bishop.
Heresies break up a community. When people believe in different things, or even contradictory things, schism would happen. In our daily dealing with people, we should be tolerant towards dissidents because it is morally bad to impose belief on others. Why is it bad to make people believe in the truth? It is all because of free will. A person must choose for himself, out of his free will, what to believe. Therefore, an imposed faith is worthless.
Here is a contradiction. On one hand, a bishop has to respect the free will, the conscience of a man. On the other, the bishop has to maintain the communion of the church, thus attempts to stamp out heresies. How does a bishop balance the two different demands?
A bishop should nip a heresy in the bud. Therefore, his job becomes a preventive one. Prevent the budding of heresies is better than subsequent inquisitions. That was why Paul advised Timothy to stamp out myths, genealogies and speculations.

Scholars generally believe that Paul wrote this epistle in his old age. His view on laws has become more mature. He no longer advocated faith to the exclusion of performing the law. That was the position in the Romans and Galatians. But now, Paul said something about the advantages of obeying the laws. He was still a Pharisee.
Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully,
understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers (1 Timothy 1:8-9).
Good men do not need laws imposed on them. They do good because it is good, it is right to do so. Average men need laws to remind them not to do bad things. Bad men need the laws to scare them into doing good. Laws are useful for average men and below. As a bishop, Timothy needed to set up a correct understanding and attitude towards law.

Dear Lord, Timothy went through trainings under St. Paul to become a good and competent shepherd. I wish I may be able to serve Your fold competently in the future. Amen.

Christocentric Ethics

Historically speaking, Christianity is an outgrowth of Judaism. Therefore, Christian Moral Theology has a tradition that can be traced back to the Exodus experience. The first half of the Christian Bible is the Old Testament which covers the Hebrew Scripture. Therefore, the Israelite experience provides some guidelines for Christian living.
The Israelites received the Ten Commandments as a sign of their covenant with a God who delivered them from the bondage in Egypt. They were proud of their laws and precepts because those laws and precepts were given by God.
For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?
And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:7-8)
The Torah were instructions for the Israelites to lead a holy life. Observing them is a guarantee of the Sinai covenant. Therefore, Israelite ethics was theocentric and based on a covenant.

In the New Testament, Christ came to show us the way to return to God. After his ascension, his disciples began to preach his good news to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. St. Paul and St. John taught about a Christocentric way of living. "Abide in him" is a cliché which appears five times in the First Epistle of St. John. Paul was even more explicit. It was no longer I who lived, but Christ who lived in him.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
In the Epistle to the Colossians, we will inevitable find some exhortations to lead a Christocentric moral life. But before he dealt with various relationships, Paul laid down the general Christocentric principle first.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:15-17).
The whole person is saturated with the peace and words of Christ. Then whatever one does, he does and speaks in the name of Christ.
After laying down the principle, Paul dealt with the most significant relations one by one. The relations Paul dealt with were all power relations --- husband and wife, father and children, master and slaves.
In these exhortations, Paul seemed to be siding with the powerful to oppress the weaker ones. He told wives to be subject to husbands, children to obey parents while slaves their masters. Each time, Paul mentioned the approval of the Lord of such subordinations.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord (Colossians 3:18).
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3:20).
Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord (Colossians 3:22).
Paul never mentioned the Lord to "manhandle" husbands and fathers, except for masters whom Paul mildly protested to the Lord.
Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven (Colossians 4:1).
Of course, such an interpretation is not doing justice to Paul because we cut up his epistle and quote him out of context. Paul did not develop his opinions on the relationship between husbands and wives like he did in the first epistle to the Corinthians and the epistle to the Ephesians. He simply wrote two lines because earlier on, he had already told the men (husbands and fathers) to live with Christ in their hearts, to do and speak in the name of Christ. So, when Paul told the husbands to love their wives, he expected them to love their wives with Christ's love for the Church.
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them (Colossians 3:19).
When Paul told the patriarchs not to provoke their children, he expected them to patiently teach their children with Christ's patience towards the disciples.
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (Colossians 3:21).
Such an interpretation would be consistent with what Paul wrote in other epistles such as the Ephesians.
In short, a Christian life is a Christocentric life.

Dear Lord, come into my heart and be its Master. Steer my life towards the service of the needy. Amen.

True Conversions

In explaining Lonergan's "Method in Theology", Fr. Robert Ng touches on the topic of conversion. Fr. Lonergan was discussing the eight functional specialties in theology. He mentioned that conversion provides theology with its foundations.
Theology cannot be pure speculation. There must be some empirical basis. The experience may come from above, like the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. This experience gave rise to Pauline theology, especially that of the mystical body of Christ. The experience may also come from below, like the exploitations farmers in South America suffered. This experience gave rise to the Liberation Theology.

Each one of us has taken a long time to build up our own values and modes of thoughts. When such values and modes of thoughts are challenged by some new experiences which we cannot deny or ignore, we need to incorporate and harmonize them with our system. Then, conversion comes about. Fr. Lonergan says that there are three kinds of conversion: intellectual, moral and religious.
In explaining these conversions, Fr. Robert Ng made a very bold claim that without religious conversion, one will not do well in theology. Some people thought that studying theology might help them remove their doubts and uncertainties in their faith. But Fr. Ng warned that religious conversion is essential in the study of theology. Conversion comes first, not last. You do not become a good Christian after studying theology. Theology cannot cure your doubt in God. Rather, you must start with a good Christian intention before you study theology. Fr. Ng even claimed that a Buddhist monk's achievement in Christian theology can only be superficial and vice versa.

St. Paul gave us some guidelines to lead a converted life.
Firstly, it is our attitude.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).
After conversion, our minds should seek things above. The ascension of Jesus, the assumption of the BVM have all demonstrated our destiny. Our destiny lies above at the right hand of God. This is where we should be aiming at. All our efforts should be directed at that direction. Such an attitude has helped thousands of martyrs go through tortures and death. It will also help us through our difficulties in the present situation.
This attitude also has an underside. It is that we have already died. Conversion amounts to death. At death, all the debts of a person are wiped out. Our new life has already been united with Christ who has reached God in heaven and is sitting at the most honoured throne.
However, death without a new life would make Christianity a joke. So, Paul made the following remark to remind the Colossian Christians.
seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature (Colossians 3:9b-10a)
Secondly, it is our behaviour which must be compatible with our call.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another (Colossians 3:8-9a).
Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all (Colossians 3:12).
These are very pragmatic pieces of advice on behaviour. Coupled with the correct attitude, eternal life is unstoppable. Paul is a concrete living example of what religious conversion should be like. His was a religious conversion from above.

Dear Lord, I long for Your house. Allow me to serve You among the needy brothers and sing praises to You in Your house. Amen.

Feast of Nativity of BVM (Year B)

Fr. Robert Ng S.J. teaches us Moral Theology. In the first two lessons, he talked about methodology. Naturally, "Method in Theology" by Bernard Lonergan S.J. would be the main focus.

Fr. Lonergan attempted to establish a Transcendental Method which would be applicable to all disciplines: natural sciences, social sciences, philosophy and theology. His earlier researches produced a masterpiece, INSIGHT, which analyzes the structure of human understanding. From this foundation, he took a step further to set up a valid methodology for theology. Fr. Lonergan explains that there are four levels of consciousness and four concomitant attitudes. On the empirical level of consciousness, we should be attentive. On the intellectual level, we should be intelligent. On the rational level, we should be reasonable and on the responsibility level, we should be responsible. Fr. Ng spent quite some time on being reasonable. This attitude differentiates Catholics from many denominations of Protestants.

Many Protestants believe that sins have corrupted our rational faculty. Since rationality is faulty, it is no longer reliable. Therefore, our only source of truth can only come from the Bible --- sola scriptura!
This line of argument is self-defeating. If our rationality is so faulty that it is unreliable, sola scriptura is also a faulty conclusion derived from a faulty rationality. Therefore, if we do not trust our faulty and corrupted rationality, we cannot trust the conclusion drawn from such faulty rationality. Sola Scriptura does not stand the test of logic.

Catholics also believe that sins have corrupted our rational faculty. This is a fact of life. But Catholics believe that our rationality is still functioning well enough. Therefore, we are able to study the Bible rationally and reasonably. Being reasonable enables us to enter into dialogue with other people. If we insist on sola scriptura, people who don't read the Bible will be cut off from us. Either they go to hell, or there is no hell. This kind of encounter would not be fruitful for anybody. So, let our faulty rationality try its best to work out reasonable theological opinions. Let us debate these opinions rationally. Then we may be able to build up a theology enterprise, to gain a better understanding of our faith.

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Greek Orthodox started this devotion but the Roman Church had been slow to follow suit because this devotion was based on apocrypha sources. Protestants would never accept such practices because it was not based on the Bible.
OK. Let us reason. It is reasonable to celebrate our own birthday. Then, do we celebrate the birthday of our mother? If we celebrate the birthday of Christ, is it improper or superstitious to celebrate the birthday of the Mother of Christ, the BVM? Of course, this kind of analogy is flawed. The human institutions are only an approximation of the divine. When we describe God as a jealous God who would repent, such an analogy is only an approximation so that our faulty rationality can also follow the logic. God would not change. Otherwise He is no God. Therefore, those talks of jealousy and repentance on the part of God should be understood symbolically.
When we come to the devotion to the BVM, perhaps logical reasoning is of no use in this occasion. Rather, it is love that we should appreciate, that we should enjoy.

Dear Lord, the BVM clothed You in flesh. We thank You for leaving us Your mother who generously takes upon herself the role of a universal mother. May we follow her model and embrace the needs of all mankind. Amen.

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.