Causing Scandal

Saint Martin of Tours was born in the fourth century to pagan parents in Sabaria, comprising parts of modern day Yugoslavia and Hungary. His father was an officer in the Roman army. His family moved to Pavia in Italy when he was still a child. And there the boy first learned of Christianity, felt drawn to it, and became a catechumen. Afraid of the reaction from his parents and also of the largely pagan community, Martin kept his love of Christ hidden. Following his dad's footsteps, young Martin joined the Roman army at the age of fifteen. He was stationed in Gaul during a winter season. One day while riding into the city, he noticed a beggar near the city gates. The poor man was shivering with cold and had turned almost blue. Martin had no money to give him, but had a very heavy woolen cloak to keep himself warm. So he divided the cloak in two pieces, gave one half to the beggar, and barely wrapped himself with the other half. This kind act by the young man immediately caused a big scandal among his peers and the town folks. They realized Martin was a Christian.

When There is No More Love Left to Give

For the past year or so, I have been writing a lot about love - God's love to be more specific. When God is love, then you can never say enough about His love. One of the things I also tried over the past year is to try to put what I write into practice. While analyzing God's love, it is hard to ignore the reason God is revealing His love to us, His fallen creation. God wants us to learn from Him, from His love. Then He wants us to practice it by loving Him and loving those around us. So the ultimate purpose of our life is to love. Unfortunately though, this is where I fail miserably. No matter how much I try, I always find myself more on the receiving end of love than on the giving end. Why so, I wonder, why is it so hard to love?

Is God's Love Truly Unconditional?

Christianity is founded on the love of God for His fallen creation. The Catholic Church teaches its followers that God's love is unconditional - there is nothing that we could do to stop God from loving us! But is it all true? And if it is, then why do catholics, and Christians in General, have to obey so many Commandments, and observe Penance and other obligatory devotions? Don't we do all those things to get God to love us?

I don't wanna get off the tree!

Ever wondered about having a real life encounter with Jesus? You could be at work, at school, on the way to the doctor, perhaps doing shopping. And somebody told you that Jesus is passing by. Would you run over to see Him? I think I would. I might even get on that Sycamore tree like Zachaeus did to get a good look at Him. I am not good at climbing trees, and I am scared of heights. I am sure I will make a fool out of myself my clinging onto that tree, doing everything not to fall. But now I am worried, not about making a fool out of myself or falling, but what if Jesus sees me? I know what He is going to tell me. He would say: "Come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house" (Luke 19:5). You might be wondering why I am worried about Jesus inviting Himself to my house. I am worried because at some point during his stay at my house, I would have to get up to say, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over" (Luke 19:8). Now you see, that's a lot of moolah my friends!

The Church is limiting my growth!!!

With over 2000 years of history behind it's back, Catholicism in particular and Christianity in general can easily be mistaken as faith of the old. With its doctrines and moral guidelines, it seems to enslave its members, determining what they must believe and how they need to practice their faith. Many Christian denominations realized this and moved significantly away from the doctrines of early Church, with tailor made belief systems for the communities they target. But Catholicism resisted any significant changes in its belief system over the course of time. This has caused people of other faith, even other Christian denominations, to label Catholics as culturally narrow by refusing to have an open mind to different lifestyles, practices, and perspectives. Catholics are being bombarded with questions everyday from peers regarding the reasons behind many of the teachings of the Church - homosexuality, divorce, pro-choice and treatment of women are among some of today's hot topics. The following is a common question from many youngsters who grew up as  Catholics, but now think that it is not right for any religion to claim that they are the "true religion". 

I was brought up as a Catholic. Now that I am old enough to think for myself, it seems like Catholicism doesn't allow me the freedom to think for myself. By being a Catholic, I am allowing somebody to limit my personal growth and thinking because it constraints my freedom to choose or formulate my own beliefs and practices.

Many of young Catholics, even some older ones, believe it is important for Catholicism to expand its view on how it sees the world, and better adapt to todays lifestyle rather than asking people to conform to the lifestyle and teachings that are thousands of years old. In today's world, people like to trust in their own power to think and make decisions based on it, rather than blindly following authority and tradition. The standards of freedom are set so high, many even believe that if you cannot make your own decisions, then you are not a free human being. 

The problem with freedom is that it is often defined in a negative term; freedom is the absence of constraints, rather than the liberty to do whatever one wishes. We don't think ourselves as free unless somebody or something put some limitations over what we do. What we often tend to overlook is how humans have always used constraints and boundaries as means of being free. Throughout the history of humanity, we have always lived in groups or communities. Rules and regulations in the form of laws are deemed an essential part of any community. These laws, evolved from the needs of that community itself, are often constraining in nature. They restrict its members from doing certain things, thus enabling the whole community to enjoy the benefits being members of that group. These constraints allows the members to explore and experiment with their abilities to grow and accomplish things - a school or a physical training facility can be examples for such communities. What we often realize is that the laws of that community has helped us in our accomplishments by keeping ourselves focussed. The restrictions also prevents us from any unnecessary risk taken that would jeopardize integrity of the community as a whole. So if we can use judicious restrictions to grow - to free ourselves from restraints -  in our physical and intellectual fields, why couldn't we use constraints to grow in spirituality? Instead of insisting on freedom to determine our own own spirituality and morality, shouldn't we be looking to seek and discover the spirituality that was handed down to us from our families, and learn ways to discipline ourselves to live according to it? We don't leave school every time when we are faced with difficulty to adjust to certain limitations, rather we look for ways to work with it and find ways to assimilate it into our life. So why do we tend to walk away from our faith because of disagreement over certain constraints?

Another thing people often forget about is the basis of morality itself. For everybody, good moral values includes living a descent life by being good to oneself and also to others. This makes LOVE the center of morality, and love is always restrictive. In the real world, any form of love requires that we give up some of our independence - to enjoy the many fruits of love, we will have to sacrifice some of our freedom. You cannot expect to become a morally sound person by making unilateral decisions all the time, for love demands freedom from personal autonomy. 

Also, for a love relationship to work, the loss must be mutual, both parties must be willing to sacrifice. At first sight, Catholicism seems inherently demanding - without any willingness to negotiate or compensate. To understand, what seems like, the stubbornness of the Church, it is important to understand what the Church is. The Church is the Body of Christ, any changes made to the Church is changes made to Christ Himself. So what's the big deal about changing Christ's body? Changing Christ's body is making changes to a God who love us so much so that He took the human form, "it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured" (Isaiah 53:4). Changing the teachings of the Catholic Church to fit to our needs means changing a God who nullified Himself for the sake of Love, a God who not only said but also practiced, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). God has already adjusted to us in the most radical way - by becoming a limited human being, by suffering and dying on a cross - because He loves us. Have we amended our ways enough in return for His love? Why do we keep insisting that Him and the Catholic Church, His body, be changed again and again? What is it that we want it to be changed to - a God who refuses to die for our sins, a God whose love has reservations?

Love is not limiting and constraining when it is true love - love that is willing to sacrifice everything without expecting anything in return. The Catholic Church teaches that message of love to its followers through the Doctrines of the Church. The Church cannot change the love of Christ because there is no better love out there that it can replace it with. If the love of Christ seems too much and too constraining, and if you want to walk away from it, then I can't help but wonder about the  basis of your thought process and sense of morality. Could your love be selfish? Could your actions be self-serving? Could your moral values be self-centered?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."       

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Can you feel the love

The God of the Old Testament is a mighty God,  the One who saved His chosen people from the powerful Pharaoh and led them through a hostile territory to the promised land. He went to war to save Israelites from enemies and abundantly blessed them with everything they needed. For the Jewish people, a Savior meant someone braver than David, someone who would lead them on a military expedition against their oppressors, a mighty king who would establish a kingdom that stretches from one end of the world to the other. Jesus, for obvious reasons, didn't fit the profile of that savior. They refused to believe Him even after the Resurrection, they wanted a savior who would conform into their expectations. 

Since its creation, humans misunderstood God's  feelings towards us and misinterpreted his promises; we have always looked at our relationship to God as an obligatory one, like the one involving a king and his subjects, like a master and his servants. God created humans in His own image with a free will. If given an opportunity to create, no king or master will create subjects or servants who are free to think, free to choose, let alone in their own likeness. God's love is the reason behind our creation, and that is the reason for creating us with a will to choose - to be with Him or not to be. Love is the reason He chose Abraham to father a great nation and love is the reason He fought wars on their behalf. The same love that made leather garments for Adam and Eve after the first sin (Exodus 3:21), provided the food and shelter for the Israelites even when they were disobedient and dishonest. But they failed to see the love behind God's actions, they took God as a privilege, concentrated only on His mighty deeds, used God to make themselves feel special. They made everybody's life miserable by misinterpreting the Commandments, by giving too much attention to the law and no attention to the love behind those commandments.

God's love, "...is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Jesus is the personification of God's love, a love that yearn to be with us all the time. It is this love that compelled Him to be born in a manger and not in a castle, it is this love that made Him relieve people of their afflictions regardless of its causes, it is this love that "he empties himself, taking the form of a slave..., he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7,8). It is this love that we have no time for; we want things from God, not as fruits of His love, but as a right for being one of His subjects. Jesus summarized  hundreds of thousands of Jewish laws into two commandments - love God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). As images of God, He expects us to love like He does. 

Is my love patient?

Is my love kind?

Is my love not jealous?

Is my love self-centered?

Is my love exaggerated?

Is my love rude?

Is my love purpose oriented?

Is my love comforting?

Is my love hurtful?

Is my love makes me turn a blind eye to wrongdoings?

Does my love allow me to bear all things?

Does my love allow me to be a believer?

Does my love allow me to be hopeful?

Does my love allow me to be enduring?

When we have faith in God, we are trusting in His love. God's graces and mercy are all outbursts of His love. Can we see God's love when we look at Jesus, can we hear His love in the Scriptures, can we experience His love in the Eucharist, can we feel His love in us, among us, all around us?

"No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us." (1 John 4:12)

The window with a view

God is Love, a phrase we see everywhere, it is on bumper stickers, t-shirts and coffee mugs. But where does it come from, is it in the Bible? The Bible is full of depictions of God's Love for us, and love was prime subject of Jesus' teachings. Yet nobody dared to say "God is Love" until 1 John 4:8, one of the last Books in the Bible. We too, like all those who wrote before John, fail to acknowledge that true love is God Himself and the ability to love is God's greatest gift to us. We fail in our love because we are selfish, we fail because true love demands sacrifice. 

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. He was in a lot of pain and always complained about all the miseries he had to endure throughout his life. He kept saying that he was done with his horrible life and kept hoping that he would die soon. After a while  the men began talking to each other and eventually they talked to each other for hours. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. 

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. Eventually he stopped complaining, his mind began to get filled with many beautiful memories he had in his lifetime; from the other man’s narration of the world outside, he realized that there is still so much he hasn’t seen. He was able to convince  himself that he was going to walk out of that hospital room soon to experience a bit more of that world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. To his amazement, the window faced a blank wall, there was no view of the park or the lake, nothing except a blank brick wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.