Believing in Seeing

Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year B

Today, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and on the occasion of this special Feast day, we would like to remember the man responsible for dedicating the Second Sunday of Easter to the Divine Mercy – St. Pope John Paul II. This Pope epitomizes the theme of this Sunday’s gospel – Believing is Seeing. The association of St. Pope John Paul II and this Feast Day is more than just one of coincidence; he and St Faustina, the seer who first wrote about the Divine Mercy, are both Polish. In the year Great Jubilee Year of 2000, St . Pope John Paul II established this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday. On the same date, he canonized the Polish nun, St Faustina.

St. John Paul lived through the horrors of World War II where humanity descended to its worst possible expression. On a scale never before seen, millions died, not just on the battle fields but in those horrid concentration camps that made systematic murder of men, women and children more effective, along the lines of mass production assembly lines. St. Pope John Paul II studied in the seminary under these horrible circumstances and witnessed fellow seminarians, lecturers, priests being taken away and summarily executed. For all purposes, one would not be able to see reason or even the presence of a compassionate God in all of these experiences. These horrors beg the question: “Where is God in all this?” As Pope Benedict observed, people saw “the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history, as an irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God.”

But against this impossible tide of skepticism and disbelief, St. John Paul was not merely able to hold the torch of faith throughout this period, but because of his firm believe in the merciful providence of God, continued to see the power of mercy at work in the midst of persons who have even begun to doubt their own humanity. With the end of the Second World War, the cruel face of Facism was replaced by the atheist regime of Communist totalitarianism. The anti-religion regime tried to crush the Church and its members under the weight of oppressive laws. But, St. Pope John Paul II continued to place his hope and faith in the mercy of God, in the belief that God will never abandon his people, and finally, it would be mercy that would have the final victory. Against a materialistic philosophy that viewed human in terms of economics, St. Pope John Paul II presented a different vision. It is a vision that recognized humanity as deeply flawed, sinful in fact. But his vision also draws us to this truth, a truth that cannot be proven just merely by empirical means, but one which is clear to those who have faith, it is the truth that we are not abandoned. God offers us something infinitely greater than our human cruelty. God offers us his mercy.

Many historians who have studied the fall of the communist bloc, will not be able to discount the role of the Polish Pope who continued to inspire his people and the world throughout the era of the subjugation of Eastern Europe and Russia under the yoke of communism. This Sunday, we see the Pope’s greatest weapon against this massive nuclear superpower. It was not condemnation; it was not political power, nor was it economic power and surely not through the show of nuclear armaments. The pope’s greatest weapon was the Divine Mercy.

Fifty years ago, no one living under the shadow of the sickle and hammer would have believed that there could be day they could taste the very air of freedom. They would scoff at your suggestion and perhaps add, “Seeing is believing.” But seeing what has taken place in these last few years, should be able to shake the confidence of skeptics in the impregnability of their skepticism and pessimism. But one man refused to stop believing even when others saw no reason to believe. And today, it is this man who can attest to the Truth of his beliefs rather than the skeptics who held otherwise. 

There are times and perhaps we are living in such times where we are weighed down by what we perceive with our senses. We see a no-win situation in our political climate and many have lost hope in the ability of our country’s leaders to remedy its ills (especially the recent implementation of GST). There are those who find that it is no longer possible to live with their spouses given the history of troubles, fights, infidelities and abuse. Some who have been hurt by the gossip, rumour mongering, slander and selfishness of others, may see no other way but to isolate themselves from the source of pain. But it the midst of all these troubles, the Risen Christ appears behind the closed doors, presenting us an answer. Peace comes not with the absence of trouble or conflict but with the possibility of forgiveness. Peace comes with the ability to believe. Peace comes when we choose to see through the eyes of faith. St. John Paul II believed in the Divine Mercy of his God, and he saw beyond the rubble, the chaos, the destruction, the hopelessness of his times, the cruelty and brokenness of humanity – He believed beyond seeing, and for that, he saw the sun rising long before the end of the long dark night of doubt.

Happy Fault? Necessary Sin?

Easter Vigil

O truly necessary sin of Adam,

Destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault that earned so great,

So glorious a Redeemer

Tonight, if you are attending the Easter Vigil service, you will notice that the priest will proclaim the Exsúltet (the Easter Proclamation) which I have stated above. Perhaps, most people would have missed it unless you caught the oxymoronic contradiction found in two expressions therein: “necessary sin” and “happy fault”.  The joy of these words is surprising, since we’re accustomed to think of Adam and Eve’s sin as a great tragedy, as a curse which was inflicted on humanity, hardly a matter for rejoicing. Some even feel that this phrase is dangerously ambivalent and may risk being taken out of context,  and used as a masterful piece of rationalisation that justifies sinning. So, if we consider sin as abhorrent to God and something which separates us from Him, what ‘sin’ could be considered ‘necessary’? How could any ‘fault’ or mistake be considered happy?  Why, then, does the Church through her liturgy dare to speak of the Fall as a “happy fault” or a “necessary sin?”

The Latin expression felix culpa (happy fault) is derived from the writings of St Augustine, whose personal life was testimony to the truth of this maxim. In order for St Augustine to have been one of the greatest converts to Christianity, one of its greatest theologians and pastor, he had to start off being a great sinner. This was obviously the case: here was a man who had been schooled by his own father to frequent brothels since adolescence. As an adult, he would keep a woman in concubinage, what we would describe as a ‘sex slave’ in modern terms. He then got caught up with a whole lot of pseudo religious philosophies and ideologies that mitigated or even negated the effects of sin, thus presenting him with an ideological justification for his depraved libertine lifestyle. St Augustine was truly great sinner. But then grace touched him, moved him and finally transformed him into one of the Church’s greatest saints.  In speaking about the source of original sin, Augustine writes, “For God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.” 

What St Augustine meant here was that the Fall of Adam was from one point of view fortunate, since without it humankind could not have experienced the unsurpassable joy of the redemption. The reason is that through the redemption of Jesus Christ we have been restored to the supernatural state in a way far surpassing in glory what we could have known had there been no Fall. From Adam’s sin came the glory of Jesus Christ. If Adam and Eve never fell, Christ would never have needed to come. And so God allowed the loss of perfect human bliss through the original sin of Adam and Eve in order to bring about a greater, divine bliss for humanity (cf. 2 Peter 1:4)! The remedy dished out by God goes far beyond restoring us to that Edenic state! God never goes backwards. He's not taking us back to Eden.

If you are not convinced of the veracity of this doctrine, the whole of scripture stands as irrefutable evidence. By eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve are now prohibited from tasting the fruit of the Tree of Life which would have guaranteed them immortality. But here comes the ‘felix culpa’ bit – If man had not been denied immortality at this stage, he would still have to suffer an eternity of sin, an eternity of the effects of sin – alienation, suffering, pain, etc. But death would at least provide him with the temporary relief. We would still need to wait for the coming of Christ to complete the cure.

Let’s take a little fast forward ride through the rest of the Old Testament. If humanity had not sin by attempting to build the Tower of Babel, we would not be blessed with the myriad of cultures, civilisations, languages that have emerged throughout our human history. If Joseph had not been betrayed by his brothers and sold off to slavery, he would not have been their saviour, when the land was struck by famine. If Moses had not run away from Egypt as an act of cowardice, he would not have been chosen by God to lead his people to freedom. If David had not committed a transgression and adultery with Uriah’s wife, Solomon would not have been born. If the Temple had not been destroyed, the Church, the Body of Christ, who is the New and Perfect Temple, would have remained a dream. If Judas had not betrayed Jesus, Christ would not have been able to redeem the world through his sacrifice on the Cross.  

But this scenario also begs the question, Why did God not prevent Adam and Eve from sinning? I believe the difficulty in answering this question lies in a misunderstanding of Christ's redemption of our sins. That misunderstanding lies in the fact that they think that the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus constituted God's "Plan B" for creation. In other words, people often assume that the original, perfect state of Adam and Eve before the Fall was "Plan A" and then when Adam and Eve sinned and were booted from Eden, God had to come up with a "Plan B" to undo the damage. When the exsultet calls Adam's sin "necessary", it intends to completely undercut this mistaken notion. There's a huge mystery here: that ponderous mystery of God's preknowledge and how it ties in to our free will. While God never actively wills sin and disobedience, He made the option possible in order that we could freely choose to love Him instead. Yet Adam and Eve's decision was never unknown to God, nor was the outcome. From all eternity God knew that His rational creatures would choose to rebel against Him, and His divine plan incorporated Adam's sin from the very foundations of the world. The Incarnation was not Plan B. God becoming Man so that we could participate in the divine life of God through grace was the idea all along! 

Through, Baptism we are inserted into this great paradox, this great mystery of redemption. God is doing a new thing; the same New Thing He has been unfolding from all eternity; the same New Thing that unfolded at the Cross and was confirmed in the Resurrection, and which is consummated in us through his graces to us, especially our rebirth in Baptism and our sustenance of Himself in the Eucharist! We are no longer mere children of Adam; through baptism we have been made adopted children of God. We are no longer just promised an eternity in Eden; through baptism, we are heirs of eternal life in heaven. By our Baptism, the Son of God has made us integral members of His Mystical Body. As members of Christ’s Mystical Body, we will be drawn with Him into the Blessed Trinity itself! Then will be fulfilled that astonishing promise of sacred Scripture: we will “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). This vastly exceeds what God would have done for unfallen man.

All too often we run from our mistakes, reject them or simply live in denial of them. The failed work is quickly set aside.  And worse, all too often initial mistakes, initial failures discourage us and prevent us from moving forward. The Paschal Mystery, the Mystery which Good Friday and Easter reveals, demands that we learn to recognise that hidden within every mistake, every human error, every shortcoming, every failure and even in the greatest of falls is the seed of the resurrection – where even sin can be transformed by a single moment of grace. Indeed, rather than cast aside his fallen creation, God reaches into the failure and tragedy of human sinfulness to redeem us. This is the Mystery which claims us in Christ and the power of this same Mystery is what heals us in the sacraments. 

Where was God in the midst of tragedy?

Good Friday

In 2014, the whole world was shocked with the disappearance of MH 370. A double whammy came four months later when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine. These two tragedies had claimed many lives. Apart from that, the persecution of Christian in the Middle East has caused many Christian to flee from their homes. Men, women and children are being persecuted because of their faith, because of their love for Christ. Perhaps, the immediate question that rose in many people’s mind was this: “Where was God when this happened?” The second question is related to the first: “If there is a God who hates evil and human suffering, why did God allow this tragedy to happen?”

These are difficult questions. If we try to find quick answers for these questions, we may be lead to two conclusions. Firstly, we may try to give simplistic solutions by putting the blame on someone – whether it be the sinfulness of those who died, or the Devil, or destiny, or even God. The second conclusion may be that we are not able to find any satisfactory answers and so we begin to doubt the existence of God. We are led to despair and self-pity.

But for us Christians, there is a third option. We can choose to believe and recognize that God was present there and continues to be present in all human suffering and pain. When children became orphans, God became orphaned. When mothers and fathers lost their children, it was God who lost his children.

Suffering is a reality. We can never pretend that it doesn’t exist. But suffering and death has now taken on a new meaning. God himself became man – Jesus Christ. And Jesus has undergone the worst kind of suffering and pain imaginable. God died on the cross. Because of what happened on the first Good Friday, man can no longer accuse God of being distant from us and of not being able to understand our suffering.

Every time we see human suffering, our faith makes us recognize that God suffers along with His people. Every time each of us experiences rejection, loneliness, pain, sickness or suffering, God also experiences that rejection, loneliness, pain, sickness and suffering just like us.

This of course does not make pain and suffering disappear from our midst in the here and now. But knowing that God suffers along with us makes us aware that our suffering and pain are part of a greater suffering and pain experienced by the whole of humanity. It is this pain and suffering, which Jesus takes upon himself on the cross. When we become aware of this, we no longer become witnesses of the devil who continues to blame God, other people and circumstances for whatever befalls us. When we become aware of the power of the cross, we become witnesses of Jesus. We become sensitive to the needs of others. We become more compassionate and understanding of the suffering of others. We become witnesses of the redeeming cross because we too have experienced suffering and pain.

Jesus, while suffering on the cross, did not forget about others. He did not ask others to pity him. But during those last agonizing hours, Jesus reached out in love to the people around him. For his enemies, he asked for forgiveness. For his mother, he found a new home. For his disciples, he made sure that they would continue to support each other as a community and as Church.

Let us then ask God to transform our suffering and pain by the power of the cross. May he take away our anger, self-pity and bitterness, so that we may give ourselves in love and selflessness to others. 

Allowing ourselves to be loved by God

Maundy Thursday 

Today, we celebrate Holy Thursday, where the double focus of our celebrations is the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist. But traditionally, this day was also known as Maundy Thursday, which has nothing to do with the name of England’s most famous comedic troupe, Monty Python. The word ‘Maundy’ is derived from a Latin word, ‘Mandatum’ which could either be translated as commandment as well as mandate. Thus, infused into the meaning of the word ‘maundy’ is both the idea of power as well as responsibility. The ‘mandatum’ that is being alluded here is the New Commandment that is found in John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you.”

What is significantly ‘new’ about this commandment as compared to the Great Commandment which can be found in Matthew 22:36 (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and love your neighbour as yourself”) is the standard by which love is measured. In the Great Commandment of the synoptic gospels, the point of reference is ourselves – how much are we capable of loving? 50%? 80% or 100%? Self-honesty will tell us that we will never be able to give our entire self to God and to neighbour as long as sin remains a reality in our lives. But the New Commandment starts from an entirely different angle. It presents a standard of measure that is not just super-human but supra-human – it is that of Christ himself. Our love must now be measured according to the love which Christ had shown to us, in other words, the love that allowed him to sacrifice his life on the cross and a love which is represented in the sacrifice of the holy mass whenever we gather to celebrate the Eucharist.

The new commandment or mandate of love is not just about loving others as Jesus had loved us but also a commandment to allow ourselves be loved by Jesus. We have receive a commandment and mandate to be loved by Christ himself. The starting point is not our capacity to love, but Christ’s love for us. We can only begin to love when we come to acknowledge the depth of Christ’s love for us. We can only love when we allow ourselves to be loved. This begs the question: Do you prefer to love or be loved? Although we acknowledge that everyone does desire love, the fact of the matter is that it is much easier to love than to be loved. 

Why it is more difficult for us to allow ourselves to be loved? The answer is simple – a lot of us are control freaks. When I serve others, when I love others, I’m still in control. We are reluctant to give up the reins to anyone or anything including love. Allowing ourselves to be loved means allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. Allowing ourselves to be loved means exposing ourselves to the risk of rejection. Allowing ourselves to be loved means admitting to our neediness, our insufficiency, our incompleteness. Peter was ever eager to prove his love to Christ but he would ultimately fail in the end – he would end up denying Jesus in face of threat of danger. Peter would have been most willing to volunteer washing the feet of his Master or even that of his fellow companions, but to allow his feet to be washed by the Master was unthinkable. In the face of Christ’s love for him as demonstrated in the washing of feet, he felt the overwhelming urge to pull back instead of allowing himself to let the love of Christ to flow through him like rain. In Peter we see our true reason for not allowing ourselves to be loved – we are afraid, we are cowards, we do not wish to be beholden to others, we do not wish to turn our lives entirely over to God because that would be risking everything, even having to give up all our securities.

Robert Frost wrote, “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” There is some truth in that. We all want to be loved but just do not how to do it. However, to truly allow someone to love you all barriers have to be dropped. Walls must be broken down. You must allow yourself to be vulnerable. I detest my vulnerability. Again, I am a coward. I don’t like to let people in. I don’t want them to know that I am worn out; I am tired; I am jaded. I have been hurt one too many times. I have misjudged what love really is one too many times. Ultimately, my inability to let those who would love me into the deepest core of my being is based on my fear that this will result in my loss. But, today as the Church commemorates the institution of these two foundational sacraments, the sacrament of Holy Orders and the sacrament of the Eucharist, I’m reminded that I must ever take the risk to be loved. Allowing myself to be loved by Christ has nothing to do with the merits or demerits of my abilities, but on the singular privilege of God’s love. Allowing myself to be loved reassures me that I don’t have to be the Saviour, the Redeemer, the one who has it all together, Christ has already come and will continue to save the world in spite of my limitations. Allowing myself to be loved reminds me that I too am in need of redemption and salvation, and that unless I too allow my feet to be washed by Jesus, I will have no part of his life.

As we celebrate Maundy Thursday, the day we remember the mandate and commandment of Jesus to love each other as he has loved us, we are also called to let down our guard and allow Christ to love us, to wash our feet, to give his life on the Cross for our redemption. We often stand on the sidewalk begging for love in the streets and alleys of life. Weighed down by countless responsibilities and demands of others to be loved, we find ourselves exhausted and empty of love. We fail to recognise that Christ who loves us stands by watching in pain. He watches patiently. Perhaps, when we do have the courage to turn around and look over our shoulders, we will indeed catch a glimpse of Jesus, and it is a glimpse of love. You will find him whispering in your ear, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”