Series: Church's Challenges

The Commandment Of Love

Unlike his predecessors John Paul II, who labored to be the global shepherd and Benedict XVI, the theologian and the guardian of the Magisterium, Pope Francis, the mystic, wants to inject anew a Christ-like dynamism into the ministry. It is apparent to the Pope that the crisis of the Church today stems from its failure to use its imagination to be culturally visible, proactive and participative in the performance of the most fundamental, most powerful and the greatest commandment, that of Love. The Pope said: “The Church has appeared prisoner of her rigid languages. Perhaps the world seems to have made the Church like a shipwreck of the past, insufficient to face the questions of the present: maybe the Church had answers for humanity in its infancy but not for its adult age.” To this disillusioned humanity, the Pope wants us to respond bridging the many gaps that separate us, going to meet the poor who are everywhere on the increase lest they lose patience and do not wait for the announcement of the Gospel. Some thought Pope Francis had taken the world by storm in the interview by his Jesuit confrere Antonio Spadaro, editor of Civiltà Cattolica, when he said: “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage, and the use of contraceptive methods.” Yet, it was not a new statement. In the plane, on his way back from Rio de Janeiro, the journalist Patricia Zordan had asked the Pope: “In Brazil, a law has been approved which extends the right of abortion and has allowed matrimony between people of the same gender. Why didn’t you speak about this?” The Pope answered: “It was necessary to speak about positive things that open the way to youngsters… The Church has already expressed herself perfectly about what you said. Moreover, young people know very well what the position of the Church is.” The journalist insisted: “What is the position of Your Holiness, can you tell us?” “That of the Church. I’m a child of the Church” said Pope Francis. The surprise of the media is sign of a certain amnesia of what Benedict XVI himself had said, speaking to the bishops of Switzerland on November 9, 2006: “I remember when I used to go to Germany in the 80’s and in the 90’s, that I was asked to give interviews and I always knew the questions in advance. They concerned the ordination of women, contraception, abortion and other such constantly recurring problems. If we let ourselves be stuck in those questions, we give the impression that we are moralists with a few somehow antiquated convictions, and not even a hint of the true greatness appears. I, therefore, consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith which is a commitment from which we must not allow such situations to divert us.” Pope Francis explained that his re-evangelization praxis is not a game-changing scheme, but more of an attitude shift. To discard doctrines will be self-defeating. Pope

Pope Francis’ Pearls

They are so many, the hints and stimuli to reflection and conversion that come to us from Pope Francis, that it is almost impossible to keep up with the pace. Sometimes they are just gestures, more eloquent than an entire document. Sometimes they are half sentences thrown there as if en passant in the middle of a speech: but, as soon as you hear them, you understand that you cannot overlook them. Pope Francis often relies on homespun language to make his points. Once, for instance, he compared overly grim Christians to “pickled peppers.” On another occasion, he said that gossip in the Church is like eating honey: it tastes sweet at first, but too much gives you a “stomachache.” Indeed, he even told a worldwide assembly of women Religious: “A theoretical poverty is no use to us.” Pope Francis became visibly moved, speaking to a packed audience in St. Peter’s Square, saying that wasting food is like “stealing from the poor.” And to convince his priests to go to the people, he has repeatedly said that a “shepherd must carry on himself the smell of the sheep.” The following are some of the pearls of this extraordinary teacher. Inhabiting the frontiers – “We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we do it slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father. I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there” (homily of May 22). – “Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry. You can’t speak of poverty in the abstract: that doesn’t exist. Poverty is the flesh of the poor Jesus, in that child who is hungry, in the one who is sick, in those unjust social structures. Go forward; look there upon the flesh of Jesus. But don’t let wellbeing rob you of hope, that spirit of wellbeing that, in the end, leads you to becoming a nothing in life. Young people should bet on their high ideals, that’s my advice. But where do I find hope? In the flesh of Jesus who suffers and in true poverty. There is a connection between the two (To the pupils of Jesuit Schools, June 7). – “Your proper place is the frontiers. This is the place of the Jesuits. Wherever in the Church, even in the

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Carpenters And Fishermen Were Quite Well-Off

We are bound to understand messages within our realm of experience. This may seem a difficult claim, but it is quite straightforward. When I hear news of an event which happened in a distant place, a place I do not know firsthand, I will imagine it starting from my experience of life. I do not have any other parameter. When we visit a place with historical significance, our comprehension of the events which happened there also changes. This is also true of the Bible. We read it at a personal level; we listen to it during our liturgies. How much do we understand or miss simply because we never had the chance to go and see the places where those events took place? But also, how much of our understanding of Jesus and His message do we misinterpret because we have only a scant knowledge of the social and political environment of Palestine at that time? The European Church has had the greater impact on the new communities of the South because of the missionary effort. Because of that, the understanding of the Gospel that matured in Europe was passed along to the Churches of the South. Certain features of our catechism are never doubted, but are they right? A simple example: in most European countries, the fox is an animal that symbolizes intelligence, or cunningness. This was applied to the Bible. When Jesus speaks of Herod as “that fox,” people commented: “Jesus recognized how intelligent Herod was.” In reality, in Jewish culture, two millennia ago, the fox was the image of a silly person. Jesus never compared Herod to a smart person, but to a silly one! Let us have a look at the social reality at the time of Jesus; most probably, this will help us to understand His word better. A small country Jesus was born in Palestine at a time when the Jews had lost political control of their country. The kingdom of Israel was started by Saul, enlarged by David and reached the peak of its glory under Solomon. At Solomon’s death, the kingdom split into the kingdom of Israel, comprising Samaria and Galilee, and the kingdom of Judah, comprising Judea and adjacent areas. The kingdom of Israel soon fell under the control of the Assyrian kings. Judah lasted a little longer, but it also succumbed to the Assyrians first, and the Persians afterwards. The land we now call Israel was divided by different powers until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. He conquered a large empire of which Palestine was an insignificant region. After his death, the empire was divided up by four of his generals, and Greek became the language of the whole western world. The Holy Land fell under the control of either Syria or Egypt, the balance of power shifted often. Many Jews went to live in Alexandria in Egypt, where the Bible was translated into Greek; it is known as the Bible of the LXX, or

Fr. Joseph Caramazza | Comboni Missionary

The Complex World Of Jewish Sects

When the Jews returned from the Exile in Babylon, the religious situation in Israel was very fragmented. Some people had forgotten about God; others paid only lip service to religion. As usual, when there is lack of faith, there is also the emergence of fundamentalist or radical groups; this happened even in the case of Israel. The most important of these groups were called Hasidim, which means the pious ones. They participated in the war of the Maccabees against Syrian/Greek occupiers, but later detached themselves from the upheaval and became known as the Pharisees (separatists). If we base our knowledge of the Pharisees on the Gospel, we would build up a wrong image of these people. Pharisees were pious people who sincerely wanted to love God by obeying His Law. It goes without saying that in a large movement there were radical people, or people with narrow views. In reality, most of them were people who dedicated their lives to God. In the Pharisees’ literature, we can read stronger self-criticism than what we find in the Gospel. Certainly, many Pharisees accepted Jesus as the Messiah and followed Him. Others did not join Jesus, but remained friendly with Him. The Sadducees were a small group of families linked by belonging to the non-Levitical priesthood. At the time of Jesus, they were very few. This closely-knit group was rich – most of them had extensive land holdings in the whole of Israel, and they controlled all businesses in and around Jerusalem – and claimed to be descendants of Zadok, the High Priest appointed by Solomon (1 Kings 2: 25). They were of liberal views, did not accept the Scriptures – with the exception of the Law of Moses – and shunned later belief in the angels, the resurrection, and even the afterlife. The Sadducees cooperated with the various foreign occupiers of Israel and many adopted a Hellenistic way of life. At the time of Jesus, their indisputable chief was Annas who had been High Priest and later controlled business through his sons, all of whom became High Priests after him. One day, Jesus told His disciples to enter Jerusalem and follow one man carrying water. That must have been a very strange order. Men did not carry water, it was women’s work! There was an exception, though. The Essenes were a group of monks who lived in Qumran, in the desert of Judah, a few km east of Jerusalem, but also in smaller communities throughout Palestine. They did not admit women in their midst, even as servants, and they used to carry water themselves. The Essenes developed a theology very similar to that which we find in the Gospel of John. They spoke of light and darkness, of water of life, and they expected the Messiah right at the time when Jesus started His ministry. The community dispersed during the Jewish revolt that would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Before the end of their life together, they hid many

Fr. Joseph Caramazza | Comboni Missionary

Will The Poor Be Always With Us?

The poor you will always have with you” is perhaps the most enigmatic line in the four Gospels. Too often, it is used as an excuse not to intervene in behalf of those who do not share equitably in the gifts of God’s creation. It is a fatalistic response if taken boldly. The main issue for all of humanity is found in the Kingdom prayer – “Give us this day our daily bread.” This enigmatic comment appears shortly before Jesus’ execution when He is a guest at the house of Simon, the leper, where Jesus’ feet are anointed by Mary (the fact that He is with a leper, a marginalized person in society, means that Jesus Himself is tainted by association). This account is told in three of the four Gospels, which underscores certain significance. Strangely, it is not mentioned in Luke’s, often referred as the Gospel of the Poor because of the centrality Luke gives to them. The thinking of Jesus’ time was that the rich were blessed or favored by God while the poor were viewed as responsible for their own dire straits. This is a view that has been threaded through history and embraced by many today. Yet Jesus upends this worldview when he said: “How hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” The disciples were astonished at this. “Who then can be saved?” Popular thought held the rich were saved, the favorite of God. Luke demonstrates the change brought by Jesus when he is quoted as saying: “Blessed are you, poor,” and “Woe to you, rich!” If “the poor you will always have with you,” is perhaps the most enigmatic line in the Gospel, the most cynical is Luke’s judgment of the rich as having such hardness of heart that even if someone were to rise from the dead, the rich would not be convinced to change their ways. Of the three Gospels, only John mentions the motivation behind why the price of the ointment was not given to the poor. “This he (Judas) said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and, as he had the money box, he used to take what was put into it.” The episode mirrors the fact that, often, the poor are used by those who are the bank for the needy but mainly serve themselves first. A critic of government aid programs, Graham Hancock, lambasted the bureaucrats managing them as the primary beneficiary of public monies, and called them ‘lords of poverty.’ He argued that governmental aid programs should be largely eliminated as they failed to put the poor first. To understand “the poor you will always have with you,” one needs to look at a larger context. An observant Jew would have understood this quote as a reference to Deuteronomy 15: 7-10. It admonishes the faithful to act in behalf of those in need, with an open-handed, not a hardhearted or tightfisted, attitude. The teaching emphasizes lending freely whatever

Fr. Emmett Coyne | Contributor

A Problem Of Governance

Over the past thirty years, the Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) has worked with many partner organizations (e.g., the Institute for Policy Studies, Action Aid, Jubilee U.S.A., and Catholic affiliated NGOs) in the Washington metropolitan area to influence the policies of the U.S. government that affect Africa. After analyzing a policy, AFJN and its partners bring elements of the policy that are seen to have negative consequences for Africa to the attention of the United States Congress and/or the State Department. But the problems faced by Africa are not all dependent on Washington. After a review and a careful analysis of the issues that AFJN has addressed over the years, the AFJN staff concluded that, although many issues are economic and developmental, the major perennial problem confronting Africa is the problem of faulty governance. The issues addressed were the negative consequences of the extractive industries, unfair trade practices, land grabs, capital flight, corporate tax evasions, and the endemic conflicts that plague African communities. In one way or another, all of these relate to and interact with the consequences of a lack of good governance. Africa so rich, so poor. The continent of Africa is perhaps the richest piece of land on earth, given its natural resources – rich fertile land, minerals and bio-diversity. One then wonders why do the people living in the world’s richest continent continue to be the poorest? A close examination reveals that problems relating to failure to serve the common good, to achieve equitable resource distribution, to foster citizens’ participation in the political process, to act with transparency and accountability and to create a basic level of economic justice – all have to do mainly with governance. To address the economic and social problems in Africa, first you must tackle the systemic problems inherent in governance. In effect, the economic challenges or the problems related to poverty and underdevelopment in Africa are symptomatic of something outside the strictly economic sphere. Getting poorer. A narrow focus on the economy misses the causes of poverty and underdevelopment. Over the years, many programs, such as the structural adjustment programs (SAP), privatization, and trade liberalization that have the economy as their primary focus, have not only failed to alleviate the problems but have worsened the fortunes of many African countries, making most Africans poorer today than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Good governance. An essential element of good governance is upholding the common good. In formulating and implementing laws and policies, political leaders must seek the good of all their citizens. Laws, policies and procedures for implementation must all be transparent, and leaders must be accountable to their people by enabling robust civil society participation in the governing process, as well as having free and fair elections in “democracies.” Citizens must participate. Leaders must also uphold the principles of subsidiarity, that is, they must not arrogate to themselves the functions of a lower body. It is said that “all politics are local”

Fr. Aniedi Okure, Op* | Contributor

An Announcement For All

God always acts in history, also here and now. Many times His initiative doesn’t start from the Church, but from those whom the Church excludes. As a matter of fact, God sends His angel not to Peter but to a pagan with the order to fish the fisher of man in his fishing. In the announcement to Mary, the Word became flesh in Jesus. In the announcement to the pagan Cornelius, the Word wants to become flesh in every man “so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). This is the Father’s desire who created the world looking at the Son. Jesus has abolished the separation between heaven and earth: on the Cross, He even became sin and a curse so that every atom of creation may become fullness of glory. The Gospel continues its run from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and beyond, up to Damascus. With Cornelius, it reaches its end which is to open horizons without end. Every division among human beings is obliterated: Abraham’s blessing extends also to the “pagans.” Humanity becomes one family. In the Son, we are all free, children of God and brothers and sisters among ourselves, although in diversity. It is the eternal mystery of God and humanity now disclosed. To everybody’s salvation, even God’s. We are not dealing with a kind of homologation under only one power, but “globalization” under the sign of love. Our cultural and religious differences remain, but not as place of fight, instead as communion. Diversities are no longer barriers but mutual openings. Our finitudes become encounter with other finitudes, contact with the others, sacrament of the One who is infinitely Other. Love is, first of all, freedom from our egoism and respect for the journey of the others, even if mistaken or incomplete (1 Corinthians 7,1ff). In fact, there is “only one God,” who is Father of all and “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6). All cultural and religious taboos come to an end. Things are all good. Evil is not in them: it is in the intention and action of people who use them in order to demolish instead of building up mutual communion. Love makes Paul free to make himself Jew with the Jews and lawless with the pagans. Since he is now within Christ’s law, he can make himself “everything to all” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Because Christ’s law is to bear one another’s burden (Galatians 6:2). This is the true freedom of God’s children: through love, to be servants of one another (Galatians 5:13). Simple principles that demand clever solutions. For example: how to live and eat together, paying respect to cultural differences? The first “Council” of Jerusalem (Acts 15:1ff) will give practical guidelines that will help Jews and pagans to live as brethren among themselves. The following Councils instead will go astray uttering excommunications against those who don’t think as we do. But

Fr. Silvano Fausti, S.j. | Biblist & Writer

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