The Disguised

(...) And in that golden parlour
Of noble and serious ambience
To hear sing the fado
There is always a disguised
Mysterious character

But one night there was someone
Who said to him, by way of talk,
"Disguised, note well
That today there will be no one
Disguised in this room!"

And before the admiration of all
Discovered that the disguised
Was the King of Portugal
There was regal hand kissing
And then he sang the fado.

(lyrics by Joao Ferreira Rosa)

Life inside a golden cage
The curious story which this classic fado alludes to may never have happened in Portugal, but there is nothing stopping it from happening, and happening again, in any time or place. This is because it highlights an inescapable truth; it is said that the powerful in general -- kings, emperors, presidents or popes -- are the best-informed people, and in a way, this is true, but the opposite can also happen.

The information that reaches them is neither first-hand, second-hand nor third-hand; often the news has passed through several people and as "who tells a tale adds a detail", by the time it reaches the recipient, it is overly filtered and/or laden with connotations and interpretations that place it further and further from the truth and reality. Sometimes the information may not even reach the recipient because it was withheld by someone who, according to his criteria, deemed it irrelevant.

Often the concentric circles of people that surround a ruler, or someone important, are veritable walls that prevent him from having a clear and objective view of the world around him, and the problems he is called to solve. As an anecdote: someone used to define pontifical secrecy as what everyone knows except the pope.  

Frequently those who are considered powerful live inside a golden cage and have less freedom than the rest of us... One of those who traditionally lives inside a Golden Cage, with very limited freedom of movement, is the Pope. Contrary to this fact and in line with the Disguised, the Swiss Guard, in charge of Pope Francis’ security, confirms that he has "already ventured out at night, dressed like a regular priest, to meet with the homeless of Rome".

Mediators
God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

For a long time, "isolated" in heaven, God also had his circle of intermediators and messengers, who clouded God's messages to his people, with their own personality, prejudices and ideas. "Omnis traductor traditor" says a Latin proverb; a translator or interpreter is always a traitor, that's why God was unable to communicate fully with humanity.

At Christmas the invisible was made visible
The Bible tells us that God is spirit. Spirit is immaterial and therefore invisible and incommensurable to our senses. We are spatial-temporal beings, God lives in eternity, a Kingdom completely different from ours. We cannot see radio, television or cellphone waves, and we need suitable devices to capture them. Since God is spirit, only our spirit is prepared to capture him.

"Though he was in the form of God (...) emptied himself, (...) being found in human form" (Philippians 2:6-7). At a certain point in human history, God decided to strip off his divinity and dress up, or disguise himself, as a human being. "Tired" of sending messages, he decided to visit and live among us. From within our humanity, which he fully assumed, he showed us by his word, his behaviour and his deeds how man is and should live.

"He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him" (John 1:11). Jesus, God made man, was born in a manger in Bethlehem, grew up and was educated humbly in a village on the outskirt called Nazareth. He was trained as a carpenter, and was endowed with a nondescript physical appearance. According to our natural expectation, God should have come in glory and full of power, with thousands of angels flanking him on both sides. His voice should have sounded like a thunder. His face should have been brilliant like the sun.

This is why it was difficult for the people of that time to recognize him as God; they did not understand that God had to come in a humble way, to be our friend and our brother, to speak to us from within our human nature and condition. As we would naturally expect, one day he will come for the second time, in full glory as the King of kings, to judge and close the human history of which he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Advent a time of Hope

The word that Isaiah son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the Mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths;' (...). 

He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" (Isaiah 2:1-5)

For us Christians, the year begins with Advent. In this new year that we are beginning to travel by meditating on the mystery of Christ, the only way, the truth and the life, optimism and hope are our best travel companions.

The motivator, guru, teacher and guide for this time is the prophet Isaiah, consecrated as the ex libris of Advent. He makes us dream of a better world, where instruments of war are transformed into instruments of peace; where natural enemies, like the wolf and the lamb, become friends.

Mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains – Is God the highest mountain in your life? What are your priorities? Do you love God with all your heart and all your mind? Do you love God more than everyone and everything else: family, friends, power, fame, honour, wealth, pleasure? If any of these realities is a priority in your life, then you will always be in conflict and rivalry with those who also have this reality as a priority. An example of this is the envy that King Saul had of David’s growing fame.

Those who have power, wealth, fame and pleasure as their main objective in life are unwilling to share any of these goods, because they live with the belief that they never have enough. Those who worship these goods isolate themselves and see others as potential enemies and rivals. They are like many dogs with one bone; the one who lacks power, fame, and wealth envies the one who has them and will do anything to get them; the one who has power, fame and wealth looks at others as a constant threat.

If instead of these idols you choose the primacy of God, who is Father and Creator of everything and everyone, you will discover that others are not rivals, but brothers and sisters, with whom you can share everything. In fact, things were made to be used, people to be loved. Those who use people and love things live contrary to the natural order.

When everyone loves God above all things, enmity and rivalry between people are extinguished because there is enough God for everyone. Why doesn’t anyone envy a saint? Because everyone can be a saint; holiness is available to everyone; the holiness of one does not deny or rival the holiness of another.

All the nations shall stream to it – Do all run to Jerusalem? Do you love God with your whole being or are you a divided person because some parts of your personality and character do not submit to you? Are you free and in control of yourself, or do you depend on people, habits and substances that exert power and control over you

Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord – The Temple Mount dominates the entire city of Jerusalem. Going to Jerusalem today is equivalent to going to Church to receive the sacraments. The sacraments instituted by Christ, and their practice by the faithful, have already proven over the length and breadth of 2000 years that they are indispensable for Christian life. If you have stopped going to church, where are you going now? To the football game? To the shopping centres?

That he may teach us his ways – If you do not read or listen to the Bible anymore, or do not make community with other Christians, or heed the counsels of the Church, who then is your teacher or guru? Where do you find guidance and help to live your life meaningfully? From the television, which presents the most ignoble programs during prime time? The hunger of the spirit is much more painful than the hunger of the body.

That we may walk in his paths – How can you walk in his ways if you do not know what they are? If you have no contact with God, nor with the Christian community, nor with the Word of God, how can you walk in his paths? "Whoever does not remember God lacks every good thing", says the people.

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks – Homo homini lupus, we are violent beings by nature, but we can transform our weapons of war -- swords, and spears -- into weapons of peace, ploughshares and pruning hooks. Lester Pearson, the first prime minister of Canada, used to say: "We prepare for war like precocious giants, and for peace like retarded pygmies”.  In fact, we seem more motivated and creative when preparing for war than when preparing for peace.

Microwaves, GPS and atomic energy are some of the many inventions and artifacts that were created for war and only much later found their peaceful application. If anyone can help us redirect our basic personality, it is St. Paul, who proclaimed Christ and his gospel everywhere, with the same vehemence and conviction with which he once denounced and persecuted the followers of Christ and his gospel.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Mission to the end of Time

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, (...) And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Mathew 28:19-20

"(...) When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:8

Christ’s missionary mandate took place when, before ascending to heaven, he fulfilled his mission as the one sent by the Father. Thus began the mission Ad Gentes, or the mission of space, as Christ sent his disciples all over the world.

But as spatial-temporal beings that we are, mission also has a historical and temporal dimension, Intra Gentes, which consists of passing on the gospel from generation to generation to the ends of time. In short, mission Ad Gentes to the ends of the earth and mission Intra Gentes to the ends of time.

Recap of what was said before
The witness of authentic Christians arouses the faith of those who witness it; those who dare to make the choice of faith will come, through their experience of God, to the full conviction that they have not believed in vain; this experience, that is, the personal encounter with Christ and the establishment of a loving and intimate relationship with him, leads to salvation, in other words, to health of body and soul, to conversion, to a change of life.

Finally, this new Christian in turn begins to bear witness to the salvation that God has worked in his life, and he too can awaken faith in those who come into contact with him. It is in this sense that we missionaries always insist that every authentic Christian must be a missionary or he is not a Christian. We began with testimony, and we return to testimony as the beginning of the process that leads: to the choice of faith - to the experience of God - to a change of life, and - to the mission, which is nothing other than singing, like Mary, our personal Magnificat, that is, bearing witness to the wonders that the Lord has worked in us.

Mission Intra Gentes
As the disciples began to put into practice the mandate they had received from the Lord in Jerusalem, converts were springing up everywhere. These new Christians were invited to gather into small communities. St. Paul was the founder of many of them, those in Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica etc.

While St. Paul and the other apostles continued their toil as "fishers of men", a name that the Lord himself had given to his apostles, someone had to look after these small, newly formed communities. Thus, came about the first shepherds to look after the sheep of the Lord's flock. Titus, Timothy, and Philemon were some of these collaborators to whom the Apostle entrusted the communities he had set up.

Therefore, already in apostolic times, as a logical consequence of the mission Ad Gentes – that of taking the gospel to the whole world – the mission Intra Gentes was born, that is, the mission that takes place within the bosom of a people and consists of passing on the gospel from generation to generation to the ends of time. We can therefore conclude that the mission Ad Gentes is the mission of fishermen, while the mission Intra Gentes is the mission of shepherds.

The mission Intra Gentes, like every welfare state, is based on the ethical value of solidarity between generations: those who work now contribute a percentage of their salary so that their parents, the previous generation, can enjoy a pension. In social state, solidarity is with the previous generation; in mission Intra Gentes, it is with the next generation. Like all education, Christian education is also aerial: when parents live their Christianity authentically, they awaken faith and the same experience in their children.

With all that it has done for the spiritual and material progress of peoples, the mission Ad Gentes has been called by some "the washed face of the Church". Plagued by scandals and dropouts, the mission Intra Gentes appears to have a less presentable face. The gospel seems to be progressing at the forefront and regressing at the rear.

In the Western world, during the Ancient and Middle Ages, passing on the gospel from generation to generation was a relatively easy task; since the Renaissance, the flock has been losing sheep. The attempt of the Second Vatican Council to adapt the Church to the modern world has not reversed this trend; today the problem is alarming. Proof of this is the constant concern of the popes, from Paul VI who declared the first Year of Faith, then John Paul II launched the New Evangelization, and later, Benedict XVI declared the Year of Faith the second time in the Church.

"Faith either holds fast or fades away"
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word" (John 17:20). In his priestly prayer, Christ thought of all those who, from generation to generation, would receive the Good News. Our faith in Christ is apostolic because since the apostles it has been passed down from generation to generation, like the baton in a relay race is passed from athlete to athlete.

I am with you always, to the end of the age. We can take it for granted that Christ will always be with us, but will we always be with him?

When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth? It is an enigma and a possibility; parents, catechists, teachers, pastors, and educators in general are failing to pass on the faith to future generations, who are becoming increasingly unbelieving. A faith that is weakened from generation to generation could end up disappearing from human history altogether; it is possible that when Christ comes the second time, to judge the living and the dead, he will find no faith on earth.

When a radio or television signal arrives weakly at a place, it is necessary to erect an antenna tower to strengthen the signal. As someone once said, "Faith either holds fast or fades away". The passing on of Christ from generation to generation is the equivalent of Christ’s resurrection for that generation and for the generations that follow: not passing on is the equivalent of his death for both the present and the future generations.

Christ is being resurrected from one generation to the next, or is dying from one generation to the next. If the current trend continues, one day the historical death of Christ could become the death of Christ in history. In order not to be part of the problem, let us be part of the solution; that is, in this relay race or chain of transmission of the faith, let us not be the weakest link. We are always in a time of mission because it only ends when Christ is all in all (1Corinthians 15:28).

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Mission to the end of the Earth

"Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation." Mark 16:15

Christ did not come into the world to save only those who lived in his country during the 33 years of his earthly life. He was aware of being, in his person, the salvation of humanity, both for those who lived during his existence in the world, and for those who lived before him, as well as for those who will live after him.

Just as a stone thrown into the middle of a lake causes waves in the shape of concentric circles, which from the center extend outwards to the ends of the lake, so Christ appearing in the middle of human history extends his salvific action to the ends of the earth and time.

The Church is Christ here and now
Since we are spatial-temporal beings, that is, we occupy a space for a time, Christ founded the Church to continue his Mission for all times and places. The Church, as the mystical body of Christ, represents Christ in all the here and now of human history.

Every Christian is a missionary, just as every seed has the vocation to be fruit, just as every man has the vocation to be a father and every woman to be a mother. A glass only proves that it is full when it spills out some of the liquid it holds: "The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart", a Christian as a whole cannot fail to proclaim by words and deeds what animates him. The neighbour who felt cured by this tea or that remedy does not stop urging her friends to try it too.

Everything in life, including life itself, is a gift.  You only have gifts when you give them, and they are lost when they are not shared and exercised. Just like the gift of singing, painting, writing, playing football etc., which increase when they are exercised and shared, the gift of faith does the same. Those who do not exercise their gifts, as the parable of the talents suggests, lose what little they have.

Through the Mission Ad Gentes, the Church is called to go out of herself, to leave the comfort zone of passively shepherding the 99, and set out, like a fisherman or a hunter, in search of the lost sheep, facing the dangers and risks of going like a lamb into a world full of wolves.

What motivates and inspires missionaries of all times is the zeal for the gospel like that of the great apostle Paul, whose goal was to take the gospel to the ends of the world of his time, to Spain, and that of St. Francis of Xavier who took the gospel till his last breath to the gates of China, where he died.

Asia, the Mission's new frontier
Two thousand years have passed since Christ sent us out into the whole world to proclaim the gospel to every creature; and although we have evangelized Africa and the Americas well, most of the people in Asia, the largest continent on this planet, have still not been exposed to the light of Christ. We are far from being able to say that our mission is accomplished, so let’s get to work, we can't sit back.

"To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (...). To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (...) so that I might win those outside the law. (...)I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…". (1Corinthians 9:20-23)

In Asia, especially in Japan and China, but also in India, the Church has not been able to emulate the great apostle Paul, who managed to purge Christianity of Judaism by making it more credible to the Gentiles of his time.

The Jesuit Mateo Ricci was a true follower of St. Paul in his effort to purge the gospel of western culture in order to bring it to Chinese culture. But just like before, in the days of St. Paul when the fundamentalists of the Jerusalem community tried to obstruct his effort to inculturate the gospel into Greco-Roman culture, but were unsuccessful, those in Rome during Mateo Ricci’s time did the same and unfortunately, were successful.

And here is our Achilles heel. The Mission in America was easy, because in the face of a primitive culture, the gospel was imposed rather than proposed, a little by the sword and a little by the cross. In Africa, the Mission triumphed because it went hand in hand with material progress: schools, hospitals, the fight against hunger etc... during the Ethiopian famine, the Orthodox Coptic Church even accused us of buying proselytes with flour.

In Asia, we were up against a different culture, in no way inferior to our own, and we had neither the courage of St. Paul to inculturate Christianity into the pagan world of his time, nor the wisdom of the Church Fathers to inculturate Christianity into the superior Greco-Roman culture that reigned in Europe at that time.

We still have time to make the Church more universal, in terms of diversity of cultures, and not wait for the world to become more and more westernized.

As the greatest theologian of the last century, Karl Rahner, used to say, God in His infinite mercy will save all those who, through no fault of their own, did not have the opportunity to know Christ and his gospel; but will we be saved, those who had a duty to proclaim Him but did not?
 
Conclusion - Just as a stone thrown into the middle of a lake causes waves in the form of concentric circles, which from the centre widen towards the periphery to the ends of the lake, so Christ, emerging amid human history, extends his saving action to the ends of the earth and to the ends of time.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

The Bypass of Faith

Our grandfather who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...

There are small Christian communities where a missionary can only visit from time to time. On one such visit, a missionary priest met a catechist who was teaching the children an unusual version of the Lord’s Prayer. God was not invoked as Father but as Grandfather...

That catechist was simply doing what all good catechists should do: starting from the existential reality of each person so as to be able to proclaim the Word of God, in a way that is understood and suited to his or her reality. The concept of Father was not understandable by children who were being raised by their grandparents because their parents had died of AIDS.

The AIDS crisis is very serious in Africa; of the 35 million people infected with the HIV virus in the world, 25 million live in Africa. "Al perro flaco todo son pulgas" or "It never rains it pours" says a Castilian proverb. It was the last straw for Africa, already decimated by so many other diseases due to the level of underdevelopment in which it still finds itself.

The witness we receive from our parents is not being passed on to our children because the faith of the present generation of parents seems to be affected by the equivalent of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Parents transmit life to their children, but they do not pass on the faith, without which life has no meaning.

Faith is to life what the operating system is to a computer; without it, nothing in the computer works because it is the basis on which all programs function. It is sad to live without knowing why we exist and what we are existing for; studying in order to have a profession, to work, to eat and to enjoy ourselves are very poor reasons; human life is more than this and this is not why we are so radically different from other species of living beings.

The natural thing would be, as in other times, for parents to pass on the faith they have received to their children; that after mommy and daddy, Jesus would be the third word the little ones would learn; and that the lap should be the first pew in the Church and where the first catechesis takes place. But this is not the case, today's parents if they baptize their children is out of tradition or superstition; if they send their children to catechism, it is so that they can make their First Communion, which is also out of tradition and the equivalent of rites of passage in other cultures.

All this indoctrination is seen as a bore by parents and children alike; neither of them ever has a personal relationship with Christ, so both look at religion with ignorance and prejudice; from their simplistic minds, they conclude that religion is of no use in everyday life.

Where parents fail, the grandparents can be quite successful. When an artery is blocked and the normal flow of blood is impeded, a bypass is performed. The same thing can happen when it comes to passing on the faith from generation to generation; when parents abandon the faith they received from their parents and do not pass it on to their children, grandparents can take on this task and reach out to their grandchildren. Many are already doing precisely this in the hours they spend with their grandchildren, because they know that faith is as vital to a child as the blood coursing through their veins.

The child has only two parents but four grandparents; it would be sad if none of the four took on this commitment of bypassing the faith to their grandchildren.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Failures in the transmission of the Faith

The transmission of the Christian faith, from generation to generation since the Apostles, has been weakening; Christ’s flock has diminished drastically; today there are more lost sheep than those that remain in the fold. What is happening? The causes could be numerous, and I am listing just a few, and maybe the readers of this blog can discover others...

A doctrine is passed on, not a personal relationship with Christ – Christianity is not a doctrine, an ideology or even a philosophy of life. Christianity is above all a personal, intimate and loving relationship with Christ. Few educators of the faith (clergy, parents, catechists and teachers) have this type of relationship with Jesus; and since no one can give what he or she does not have, what these educators of the faith pass on to the next generations is a doctrine and precepts that Western culture has largely assimilated over the centuries.

For this reason, there are too many Christians who are Christians from a sociological, cultural or cosmovision point of view, and not enough Christians who put their faith into practice, striving to be like Christ in their daily lives; not enough Christians who celebrate their faith in community; not enough ethical Christians who are good people and who fight for a better world, sometimes at the risk of their lives.

Lack of pedagogy – Post-modern man, especially the young, has made himself the measure of all things. There are no objective, universal and eternal truths; only what he discovers for himself is true, has value and is normative, not what is imposed on him from outside by whoever it may be.

Faced with this reality, we present not a "new evangelization” as proposed by St. John Paul II, but rather an "evangelization anew" as proposed by Cardinal Martini. The solution is not to evangelize again, but to evangelize in a different way.

It is true that Christ continues to be the only way, the truth and the life, and there is no equally valid and viable alternative for living human life to the fullest and with meaning.  But now, in order for this truth to be operative, post-modern man has to discover it himself, within his own being.

Something similar happens in psychotherapy. The discoveries that the psychotherapist makes and declares to the patient as a diagnosis not only have no value for the patient, they can even be counterproductive. What truly has therapeutic value, and can be the beginning of an inner transformation, is what the patient discovers about himself and for himself with the help of the psychotherapist.

It is on the basis of this principle that two major currents of psychotherapy operate, the non-directive of Carl Rogers and the Gestalt therapy of Fritz Perls, as well as the theories of social intervention of Paulo Freire.

What these authors do is adapt Socrates’ old maieutics -- the art of helping to give birth. The truth is either already inside of us or we have the ability to discover it.  Jesus of Nazareth used this very method in his way of evangelizing.  He dialogued with his interlocutors and by way of parables, he revealed the truth of everyday life that they knew, he questioned them, exhorted them and helped them discover eternal truths that they did not know:

• "Simon, what do you think? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?" (Matthew 17:25)
• Which one of these three, do you think, was neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? (Luke 10:36)
• "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" (Luke 7:41-42)
• The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard see, yeast, treasure hidden in a field, trader of pearls, a net cast into the sea, an owner who went out early in the morning, the ten virgins... (Matthew 13:31-32)

Lack of icons or points of reference – Icons are images or people that remind us of the truths of our faith; when we look at them and contemplate them, we are magically transported from the immediate present to the eternal of God; in a generic sense, an icon is anything that evokes in us something beyond itself; icons are thus points of reference of our faith, reminders and continuous invitations to incarnate our faith in the here and now of our personal story.  In short, they are the salt of the earth and light to the world, without them we would all be more lost and people of little faith would find no help. Let us look at some examples:

• Some priests, religious men and women, without any external sign to identify them, opt to walk around camouflaged;
• Crucifixes and images have been removed from public places and from the walls of our homes;
• Celebrities, politicians, scientists, arts and sports celebrities declare themselves agnostics, as if this were now in fashion, and if they happen to be religious, they understand that faith belongs in the private domain;
• Instead of swearing their oath of office on the constitution, many US presidents swear it on the Bible and do not start or end a speech without invoking God’s name; European politicians, when they are religious, are embarrassed or afraid to admit that they are Christians, for fear of losing the votes of the agnostics perhaps.
• The first pew in the Church was the parents' lap and Jesus was the third word that a baby would learn after papa and mama...

Science and technology as the new religion – A growing number of people have replaced faith in God’s omnipotence with faith in the pseudo-omnipotence of science and technology. Science and technology are indeed important, because they solve countless problems and make our lives more comfortable; science and technology tell us or answer us the "how", but they will never tell us the "why" or the "what for".

The agnostic will say that nobody cares to know the "why" or "what for"; it is true, as the atheists say, that man is the moment when nature became aware of itself. It is precisely from this moment that human beings seek meaning in their lives.  Every individual, the moment he becomes aware that he exists, which is around the age of 6 or 7, asks himself where he came from, where he is going and what meaning life has; in contrast, animals do not do this because they are not aware that they exist.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From life to Mission

"...what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, (...) we declare to you...". 1John 1:1-3

Faith leads to the experience of Christ; the experience of the risen Christ leads to a new life because it reconfigures, inspires, guides and gives meaning to our life. This new way of living in Christ is already evangelizing per se.

Mission, therefore, is not fundamentally about preaching the Word of God and being charitable towards our neighbours, especially the most disadvantaged, this comes after; mission is primarily about bearing witness to the intimate, personal and loving relationship we have with Christ, who brought health to our body and soul, and gave meaning to our lives.

Finding Christ in our lives is like the one "who having encountered a pearl of great value, sold everything that he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:44). It is like "a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44).
    
A "missionary" is that neighbour who tasted this or that tea, herb or medicine, and who on seeing herself cured, never tires of announcing to the four winds the miracle that the medicine in question has worked on her.  Those who listen to her, moved by her testimony, believe and their own faith compels them to try it for themselves; if this experience is favourable, with the resulting transformation of life, the process starts all over again.

My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour. For he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me. (Luke 1:46-55)

To be a missionary is, like Mary, to sing the Magnificat of the wonders that the Lord has done in our lives, of how he has reprogrammed it, redirected it and gave it purpose. Mary's Magnificat, like that of anyone who has experienced the presence of God acting in his or her life, is an explosion of joy; it is a "non plus ultra", the realization that God fills us to the brim; that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

The missionary, therefore, is not primarily the one who proclaims the gospel, the one who catechizes, the one who speaks "objectively" about Jesus, about his story, his life and miracles; this would be proselytizing, not mission. The missionary does not speak "objectively" about Christ but subjectively, because it is from his own encounter and experience of Christ that he proclaims the "Kerygma", that is, the gospel.

Speak the gospel at all times and if it is necessary, use words. Living life as authentic Christians is already a mission, which is why Jesus called the apostles the light and the salt of the world; salt and light do not speak, they operate in silence. Works replace words, but words do not replace works, and are hollow and powerless to convince unless they are reinforced by works. Jesus spoke with authority because there was a complete correspondence between what he said, who he was and what he did.

By way of conclusion, we could say that the missionary proclamation is done in three stages:

1. It begins with the silent witness of our lives; our "modus vivendi"; how we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; our way of being in the world, our daily behaviour, our works and our social commitments, especially to the most disadvantaged.
2. It continues in the chanting of our magnificat, about the wonders the Lord has worked in our lives: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.' The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. "(Psalm 126:1-3);
3. And it leads to evangelization, that is, the systematic proclamation of the life and work of Jesus and the gospel of the Kingdom.

The encounter with Jesus at Jacob's well transformed and saved the Samaritan woman’s life (John 4:5-42). Even though she had not been sent, she felt the irresistible desire to share her experience of Christ with the people in her village. Moved by the Samaritan woman’s enthusiasm, they believed and went to meet Jesus themselves.

The word of wisdom, which comes from intellect and scholarship, may or may not generate life; but the word of witness, which springs from lived experience, always generates life.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From Expereince to Life

-    I heard that you have become a Christian, so you must know a lot about Christ; in which country was he born?
-    I don't know.
-    How old was he when he died?
-    I also don’t know.
-    You must know at least how many sermons he preached?
-    Hum...this also I don’t know.
-    You seem to know very little for someone who claims to be a convert to Christ.
-    That's true, and I’m ashamed that I know so little. But what I do know is that before I was addicted to alcohol; I was up to my neck in debt; my family was torn apart; my wife and children dreaded the hour when I would come home late at night; there was no money for notebooks or furniture. After knowing Christ I stopped drinking, got out of debt, and now my home is a happy one.
-    Hum... and you really believe that he turned water into wine?
-    I don't know, I wasn't there, but what I do know is that in my house he turned wine into furniture and notebooks, and misery into happiness.

Dogs or cats without owners are in danger for their lives, and they wander around, approaching people, begging someone to save them. If someone is moved by them, and gives them a pat on the head or some food, they will follow that person wherever he goes. The same thing happens among humans, despite the millions of years of evolution that separate us from these animals. The blind man in Jericho, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, are examples of people lost in life, without bread, without health and without love; when they met Jesus, they found salvation and, leaving behind their old life, they followed him and became his disciples.

It has always amazed me that most of the saints of the Catholic Church were people who had everything that the world can offer and what most people seek so much: youth, wealth, nobility, beauty, fame and power. If they left all this behind upon meeting Christ, it must not have been because they were stupid, but because they found something better and greater in Christ.

In life we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes; however, since life is short and there isn’t enough time to make all the mistakes and learn from them, why not learn from the mistakes of others? In this way, why not accept the testimony of so many saints, and stop searching for what they had and judged to be rubbish, in order to cling to Christ, the only way, the truth and the life?

Bartimaeus - The encounter with Jesus cured him of his blindness; it opened his eyes and he began to see life in a different way, in one leap he left behind the former life (symbolized by the cloak) and followed Jesus. (Mark 10:46-52)

Samaritan Woman – Having found in Jesus the true water, she abandoned her pitcher at the well, symbol of a life of wandering, in search of water that can never satisfy.

Paul of Tarsus - His encounter with Christ reversed the course of his life; the same energy he used to fight Christ was later used to spread the good news of the Master throughout the entire ancient world.

Francis of Assisi - Young and the only son of a rich bourgeois family who could afford his every whim; he met Christ and abandoned material wealth to embrace spiritual wealth.

Nuno Alvares Pereira - Young, noble, famous hero of the battle of Aljubarrota, he owned half of Portugal and deserved, more than the Master of Aviz, to be the king of Portugal; he abandoned all for a greater treasure, Christ.

Francis of Borgia – A nobleman from the great Borgia family, he served with dedication the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, he married the beautiful Isabel of Portugal, eldest daughter of Dom Manuel I. When he saw the young and beautiful empress on her deathbed, he said: "Never again, never again serve a master who may die on me."

Beatrice da Silva - The queen’s jealousy caused the beautiful young Beatrice to be imprisoned in a cell; there she encountered Christ, and when she managed to free herself, she said goodbye to the court life and followed her master.

In all these lives, there was one before meeting Christ and another after meeting him. Anyone who says he or she has met Christ and has an intimate and personal relationship with him, but has not changed, walks deceived and deluded.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Experience - Salus - Metanoia

"When Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him." Matthew 8:14-15

The qualified witness of authentic Christians brings us face to face with the choice of faith.  It is only when we choose to believe that we are ready to have an experience of Christ, which will give us the certainty that our faith is not in vain (1Corinthians 15:17) and that He is alive and active in our lives.

Personal experience of Christ
It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world. (John 4:42)

It has never ceased to amaze me that Paul, the greatest herald of faith in Christ in apostolic times, was not technically an apostle because he was not one of the twelve; he could not even have replaced Judas in the apostolic college, like Mathias could, because he did not meet the set requirements: he was not one of those who accompanied Jesus from John’s baptism to Christ’s ascension (Acts 1:21-22).

Although he was a contemporary of Jesus, he did not know him personally, therefore he could not technically say, like the other apostles, "what we have seen and heard and touched with our hands we testify this to you... "(1John 1:1-3). However, Paul speaks of his experience of Christ with a realism that is in no way inferior to those who have seen, heard and touched Christ (Galatians 1:11-19).

He is just the first of countless others who, over the course of 2000 years, on every continent, in countless languages and in the context of the most varied cultures, had a personal experience of Christ that it drastically changed their lives to the point where they were willing to give their lives for Him. This is proven by the thousands of martyrs who bore witness with their blood to their personal and intimate relationship with Christ. This fact alone would be proof enough that Jesus of Nazareth was and is a reality, he lived, died, rose again and is alive. But if this is not true, then never have so many been fooled.

Salus
We have known since Sunday school that Christ came into the world to save us, and that he died and rose again for our salvation. If you ask most Christians what salvation means or what it consists of, they will tell you that it means not going to hell but going to heaven. "Salvation" is a word that is so overused that people hear it without saying much.

In Latin, salvation is salus, and salus does not primarily mean salvation but rather health, and also security and well-being in general. Christ is not only salvation for the second stage of our life, "heaven can wait", he is also our health, that of the body and soul, here and now; our security, the only true security in a constantly changing world; he is also our well-being, our joy and happiness.

Jesus was not just concerned with the salvation of the soul, but with health in general; that is why he not only cured the blind, the lame and the deaf and dumb, but also forgave sins and fed the crowds with bread and fish; and since wine in the Bible often means joy, he also transformed people’s lives from watery and sad to intoxicating joy.

In the gospel, all those who met Christ, all those who had a relationship with him felt saved, healed, fed, their sins forgiven, and they found security, joy and well-being.

Metanoia
Peter's mother-in-law, the lame, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the lepers and the demoniacs, they all found physical and mental health; the sinner who shed tears at the feet of Jesus, the woman caught in adultery waiting to be punished, Zacchaeus, and the prodigal son found moral and spiritual health; the Samaritan woman was freed from her obsessive and addictive coming and going to the well, and found the freedom and autonomy of a water that springs from within; the 5000 found satiety in the multiplication of loaves; and the wedding guests at Cana rejoiced, in good wine and conviviality; the good thief at the hour of death found eternal salvation. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, no one meets Christ without experiencing a radical change in his or her life.

The Greek word metanoia means a change of mind, to change one’s way of thinking, or simply to change your mind, as we would say colloquially. Since it is the ideas and ideologies that inspire our day-to-day behaviour, changing our minds means changing our lives.

There is a psychological therapy that is based on this intuition: REBT (rational emotive behaviour therapy). According to this theory, almost all emotions and behaviours are the results of what people think, believe and assume to be true concerning themselves, others or the world in general; if these beliefs are irrational, the feelings and behaviours will be inadequate. The therapist’s job is to confront these beliefs with the reason to destroy them.

By confronting our way of thinking with the gospel, we acquire Jesus’ way of thinking and over time, we begin to act, embody, and incorporate the gospel, with the view of one day being able to say like St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From Faith to Experience

In search for his identity, a salt doll traveled thousands of kilometres until he came across the sea. Fascinated by the sight of something he has never seen before, he asked:
- Who are you?
- I am the sea, it replied.
- I don't understand, how can I know you?
- Come closer and touch me.
And as soon as the salt doll put one foot in the water, it was gone.
-What have you done, you cut off my foot!
-To get to know me, you have to involve yourself, give something of yourself. And the more you give, the more you know me and the more you know yourself.
The salt doll drifted into the sea until a wave swallowed him up and he just had enough time to say, “The sea is me…”

(...) what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it (...) we declare to you that we have seen and heard, (1John 1:1-3). The testimony may be more or less plausible or credible, but it is always a testimony and not a scientific proof; the recipients, i.e. those who witness it, will never be fully convinced, so accepting, believing, having faith will always be a choice.

It is then, and only then, after you have taken a step into the dark that you see the light, open the door and begin to see, touch and feel, to experience. It is therefore not "seeing is believing" as it is often said, but rather "believing is seeing". Those who see no longer need to believe; but those who believe, those who take the risk of having faith, then somehow experience the confirmation that it was all worth it, that it was not a hoax.

"Fides quaerens intellectum" (faith seeking understanding) St. Anselm used to say or "Credo ut intelligam" (I believe so I may understand). Faith precedes, motivates and seeks knowledge and not the contrary. I believe in order to understand; faith is the gateway to new understanding and a new way of knowing; those who not take this step by choice are barred from knowledge. "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants". (Luke 10:21)

With things, we get to know them and then decide whether or not we like them; with people and with God, it is the opposite, love precedes knowledge: first we love and only after we get to know them, because to love is to be involved with the other; the more love, the more understanding and vice-versa. Anyone who wants to know without making himself known is ill-intentioned. It is against this that the popular song says: Let no one disclose his heart, no matter how great the pain, because whoever discloses his heart is a traitor to himself...

When I was little, after enjoying the liturgies of Holy week, especially with Easter triduum, I became annoyed with the resurrected Jesus; I thought that he should have shown himself alive to Annas and Caiaphas, to Pilate and Herod and to all those who had shouted, “crucify him”, so to expose their error. It was only later that I realized that Jesus only appeared, only revealed himself, to those who loved him, starting with those who loved him most, Mary Magdalene and his disciples.

Faith is the door, the pathway, the process that leads to having an experience of God and also to having an experience with other people; once we have had experience, we no longer need it. Faith is the rocket that overcomes the powerful force of gravity, that is, the reason, and puts us in God’s orbit; once in orbit, it is His gravitational force that moves us and we no longer need the rocket.

That day the master simply said: I do nothing but sit on the bank of the river and sell you water; you buy it because you do not see the river, but the day you see it, you will no longer need to buy it.

The missionary’s preaching awakens faith.  Faith puts us on the train that naturally, if we don't derail, takes us to a knowledge of God, in the person of Christ, and to an intimate relationship of love with him. Once here, preaching and faith remain. It is of this experience of having seen and lived with the dead and risen Christ that the apostles proclaim, not about their faith (1 John 1:1-4).

For his part, Karl Rahner says that the Christian of the future is either a mystic or not a Christian. One is not a Christian by having heard the word of Christ or even by practicing his doctrine; one is a Christian when one lives in intimate symbiotic union with Christ to the point of being able to say like St. Paul: "It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me." (Gal. 2:20)

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Faith and Reason

If Reason is the capacity to see, to understand and to accept the true visible material, that is physically observable which many times can be expressed or quantified mathematically, then Faith is the capacity to see, to understand and to accept truths that are not substantiated, but not any less evident, beyond being physically observable, and is not mathematically expressible or quantifiable.

Faith and reason are not two opposite and irreconcilable concepts, like the yes and the no, the white and the black, the lie and the truth.  English philosopher, Anthony Kenny, defines reason as the means between skepticism and credulity, i.e., the optimal balance between inappropriate belief and inappropriate doubt.

Like faith, for it to be humanly it needs to escape from irrationality and be reasonable; reason needs to escape from pretension of being "one size fits all", i.e., to be the only way to knowledge.  To paraphrase Pascal, faith has reasons that reasons does not know. If faith, without reason, is blind, reason, without faith, is not any less blind; both are important for knowledge.

Historically over time, reason was formed and established in science, which is the process of determining the behaviour of substance or of the universe using observation, experimentation, and reason. Historically faith was formed and established in religion, which is an organized system of beliefs, ideas or answers about cause, nature and the finality of the universe which are not, nor can they ever be the object of science.

Atheism is also a belief and les scientific
Religion contains faith that the eternal God created the matter (the universe) -- a supernatural belief, not based on direct observation, which preceded the Big Bang. Atheism contains the faith that the matter (the universe) is eternal and uncreated; a supernatural belief that, of the same form, cannot be based on direct observation because the observer, man, did not exist at that time.

Science cannot prove wrong the belief that God preceded the Big Bang and is the origin of the Universe. On the contrary the atheistic belief that the universe always existed and created itself, violate Einstein's law of the conservation of Mass/Energy (E=MC2), the first law of thermodynamic, according to which mass can be converted into energy and vice-versa, but not mass nor energy can create themselves. The atheistic belief that the universe is eternal and will always exists violates the second law of thermodynamics, called the law of degradation, according to which transformation of mass into energy is not possible without deterioration or irreversible wasting away of the first; from which we can conclude, scientifically, that the universe will end when it has spent all its energy.

Putting aside the fact that one day we will not need faith because we will see God face to face; still in this world, the scientific knowledge can increase and be one step from proving in an irrefutable way the existence of God. Whereas the atheistic faith, in a universe not created and eternal, will always remain a belief because we will never obtain the scientific knowledge of the origin of an uncreated eternal universe, since no one existed or could have been there to observe the beginning of a universe without beginning.

Faith and reason in day-to-day
Not only in religion lives the faith, not only in science lives the reason. Faith and reason belong together, and we need both in our day-to-day life. Practically all actions contain a bit of reason and a bit of faith. In our life, reason analyses, and faith decides; without reason we would decide prematurely and make more mistakes than we already do; without faith we would never arrive at a decision, take chance on a solution to our problems, because we would always think that something could have escaped our analysis and thus fall into immobility.

When I accept a cheque for a service rendered, I believe that it is fair to say that it would be indelicate, and I could lose a friend if I refused it. When I get into a plane, I believe that the police have done a good job in preventing someone from putting a bomb in the baggage and I believe that the pilots are well trained and well intentioned.

When I feel like eating, in a restaurant, I trust that the food is in good condition, and I would not insist that it is analyzed in a laboratory before I eat it; it is the lack of faith and the fear of poisoning that make the cooks in Ethiopia to always taste the food in front of guests before serving.

When I join a woman in marriage, I believe that it is going to work out, that it will be for rest of our life. When I ask for a bank loan that is more than the bank determined after analyzing my financial situation, if eventually they concede in giving me the loan it is because they have faith that one day, they will get it back with interest.

The credit card is, at the end of the day, a card of faith, and operates based on that; one speaks of faith in the markets as one speaks of faith in God. In summary, faith is not only the spare change between God and us but, it is also, the spare change between others and ourselves.

As Man is not an object of science, in the day-to-day life there are no certainties only probabilities. Like reason, faith is essential in human relations for understanding among people. It is based on trust, which people have with one another, that the promises and commitments are made and accepted.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Faith as an Option

"...choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" Joshua. 24:15.

"God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved though him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" John 3:17-19

Gift versus choice
Two years ago in Loriga, Portugal, after a pilgrimage to the cemetery on November 1st and while still in the cemetery, I was chatting with a fellow countryman who said: "...you who believe feel comforted by faith, we non-believers do not have such comfort...". Later another friend also said to me:"...no matter what you do I just do not believe...".

We often refer to faith as a gift from God.  St. Paul said, it is the Spirit inside of us who cries "Abba! Father!" (Rom. 8:15) Jesus said that it was He who chose us and not us Him (Jn. 15:16). If faith is a gift from God, why some have, and others do not? Is God unfair, who to some He gives while others He does not? Then is faith a gift or a choice, or is it both?

All that is from God, the initiative is his and hence faith is a gift; but a gift has no effect without our response, without our consent, therefore faith is also a choice. We are saved freely by the grace of God, by the means of faith. Faith is our response to the salvific grace of God.

In this sense faith is a roundtrip ticket; it is like a letter that God sends us, registered and with notification of receipt, which requires that I accept the letter and sign the document that accompanies it.  Faith is like a blank cheque that God signs and sends to me; for this cheque to be of value, or serves me for something, I need to write on it a certain sum of money.

Salvation is a gift from God, the faith in this salvation is a free choice of man. Someone said that God feeds the birds in the air, but will not put the food in the nest, they must go out to get it.

On Sunday morning, the two saw the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, and the apostle John; the first saw and thought that someone had stolen the body of the Lord, the second saw and believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Jesus rebuked and accused the people of his generation for their lack of faith (Matt. 17:17, Mk. 6:6, Lk. 24:25) as well as that of his disciples (Mk. 16:14). If faith were not a choice, and was just a gift from God, there would not have been any reason for such accusation from Jesus.

Jesus embittered because the Pharisees did not want to believe, not in John the Baptist, not in himself, weeps over Jerusalem and condemns the cities where many miracles were performed and yet did not believe; ultimately, he praises the little ones and the humble because unlike the wise, they believe and accept his message. (Matt. 11:16,27)

Faith is a reasonable giving in...
Reasonable not rational. If God exists, then He is the Creator of all things and of all; as created beings it is not logical that our mind can comprehend the mind of God; that the part can understand the whole. God can never be the subject of science, as matter of fact not even Man can be. On the other hand, the mystery does not only apply to God and to man, but it is also common to all areas of knowledge.

No science or area of knowledge can boast of having discovered everything there is to know in its field; the more it is known the more can be known; for this reason, the truly wise considers himself ignorant; Nicholas of Cusa called it the learned ignorance: facing the immensity of what there is to be known, I only know that I know nothing.

As is defined by the First Vatican Council, faith is a reasonable obligation; reasonable because, while the life of other living beings who inhabit this planet with us is governed by instinct, we, the descendants of Homo Sapiens govern our lives by reason; today despite, or precisely because, of the advances in science it is more logical, more plausible, more humanly believable the existence of God than his non-existence.

In addition of being reasonable faith is also an obligation because it can never be proven, can never be a scientific finding, will always be a step in the dark and in emptiness, a decision.  After barely satisfying the criteria of reason, faith is a choice; some take the step beyond that which can be known; others do not risk, excessively cautious, waiting that reason fills them with measures and answers all their questions of what never happens nor will ever happen.

(...) The rich man insisted: 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment'. Abraham replied: 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them'. He said, 'No, Father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead'. (Lk. 16:27-31)

No one can blame God for not having given him the gift of faith. Only do not believe who is proud and idolize reason; only do not believe who do not want to take a step into the unknown outside reason; only those who do not venture who do not gain; only do not believe who doesn't want to.

"Peter answered him, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.' He said, 'Come.' So, Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!'  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'" Matt. 14:28-31

Peter believed and risked and achieved...

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From Witness to Faith: You are the light of the world

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

Light is for seeing – Light reveals the truth of things because it shows them as they really are -- their true colour, texture and form. Without light, in the darkness, nothing can be seen, nothing has colour, nothing has form.  The Christian who follows his Master, who is the way, the truth and the life, also becomes the walking truth, way and life. The Christian who is truly a Christian, lives with meaning, is a point of reference and model to emulate, a finger pointing to the truth because he embodies and lives it.

Light is for being seen – A blind man was invited to a friend’s house for dinner; after dinner, as it was already dark, the friend gave him a lamp to help him on his way home, the blind man said mockingly, “Can't you see that I am blind, what good is a lamp to me?” “Take it,” his friend insisted.  And so he did. When he was still a long way from his house, someone bumped into him and he, now understanding the reason for the lamp, shouted, “Did you not see my lamp?” “No, I didn't see you, that's why I bumped into you, but now I see that in fact you are carrying a lamp, but it has gone out.”

When visibility is poor, because of rain or because it is the beginning or end of the day, many drivers do not turn on their headlights, because they say they can still see; thus, forgetting that the lights are also for being seen by others.  

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father (Matthew 5: 15-16).

When, claiming to be Christians, we do not embody the word of God, we are a dimmed light that not only does not show the way, but is also a "stumbling block", which is the meaning of the word scandal in Greek.

Light exposes evil – (...) the Light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). In this sense, light has the same denouncing and anti-corruption capacity as salt. It is in the dark, in the dead of night, in secret that the worst deeds of evil of this world are done. Exposing these injustices is the Christian’s task, even if it is difficult and risky; if no one does it, darkness infests the entire society and transforms it into a mob; "where the sun doesn’t enter, enters the doctor", says the people.

Light must shine – In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, she asks Jesus where she should worship God, in the temple of Jerusalem or on the mountain of Samaria.  Jesus answers that God is worshipped everywhere, and because he is Spirit, he must be worshipped in spirit and truth. Without leaving the Synagogue and the Temple, most of his ministry took place in the street, in life.  The same happened in the first five centuries of the Church; the Word was preached in public squares or transmitted from person to person by his or her witness; the Eucharist was celebrated in people's homes. Worship was in life and life was in worship.

With the building of temples, after Emperor Constantine, worship and life were separated. Today we have life without worship, those who call themselves non-practicing Catholics, and worship without life, those who practice religion but only in Church, when outside they are equal to or worse than the others. Today the only light that shines is the lamp in the Blessed Sacrament, only in Church of course.

Let your light shine before men... We are called to be the light of the world, not the light of the temple; not a light that is put under a bushel, but a light that is at the top of the hill where we can see more of the world.  Like someone once said: "Faith either spreads or fades"; faith is either given or is lost; we only have faith when we give it away.

Christ is the Sun, we are the Moon – All light comes from the Sun.  Christ is the sun of our lives, the one who guides us, enlightens us and warms us.  We as disciples, or planets, revolve around him, capturing his light which we then, like the moon, reflect to illuminate the world that walks in darkness.  Christians are in fact like the moon in its different phases:

First Quarter – Those who gradually abandon prayer and the practices of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and see their light losing intensity and risk going out completely.

New – Those who have already set aside prayer, reading and listening to the Word of God, and practicing the sacraments, they are no longer enlightened by Christ or no longer shine themselves; they are a black hole, or the so-called non-practicing Catholics. Without the guidance of God’s Word, Catholics are easily led astray by the philosophies of this world.

Last Quarter – Those who strive to embody the Word of God and are in communion with other Christians, being part of the mystical body of Christ; they grow as people of faith and in human maturity.

Full – Those who despite still having dark areas in their lives (in reference to the large craters on the moon) fundamentally live for Christ, and as St. Paul said of himself, "it is no longer I who live but is Christ who lives in me". Their lives are a beacon for others; they are a living Christ.

"Love is like the moon, when it doesn't increase it decreases". Faith is exactly the same, it either increases or decreases, it never stays static because in this world nothing is static.  It has always been said that “what is not used, atrophies”. Faith grows when it is applied in life, when it is the driving force behind our lives; it decreases to the point of atrophy when it is not used in everyday life, when it doesn't inspire and motivate actions, and generate attitudes.

When we live out our faith in this way, we truly bear witness to Christ, we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and in this way, we carry out a silent evangelization, because it brings to faith many of those who see us and live with us.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From witness to faith - You are the salt of the earth

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot." Matthew 5:13

We belong to a Church that suffers from verbiage when its founder was an incarnate Word. It is symptomatic that Jesus had compared his disciples to salt and light, whose action takes place in silence. Francis of Assisi understood this when he said, "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words”.

The incarnated gospel does a better job of evangelizing than the proclaimed gospel, because works replace words; in contrast, not only do words not replace works, but they are worthless in the absence of works, or by works contrary to words; works may not need words, but words always need works.

We could unload tons of bibles in the middle of a well populated continent, and not a single person would convert to Christianity because of them. We could also preach the Word of God to the four winds and achieve little else, because "words are carried away by the wind". The Word of God itself, after being spoken by so many prophets, had to become incarnate in order to be credible.

Christianity spreads through human contact, through the witness of life. "See how they love one another", said the Romans in observing the individual and social aptitudes of the early Christians. It is said that the education of children is aerial; what is educational is not so much the advice or even the works the parents do for the children, but their daily behaviour and the environment they create at home; the way they react to situations. The same is true of evangelization, what awakens faith is the silent witness of our daily lives, which is why Jesus exhorted his disciples to be salt and light.

Salt melts snow – In cities where snow is a constant during winter, it is salt that allows the roads to remain open to traffic. The Christian who is salt helps to re-establish communication between people whose relationships have been severed; he is the peacemaker in conflicts. Let us recall the Titanic’s collision with an iceberg, the snow avalanches that buried people alive; that is to say, water in its solid state is more at the service of evil and death than of life. 

Only in its liquid state is water a source of life, because only in this state can it be absorbed by living beings and form an integral part of them. Salt melts ice that causes people to slip, and keeps water in a liquid state; the Christian, who is salt, undoes the traps, the snares, the intrigues, and the plans that the evildoers weave to bring down their fellow human beings.

Salt fixes water in the body – Water and salt go together; the sea is the great reservoir of both. Without salt our bodies would quickly become dehydrated; in fact, little sachets of rehydration salts were the first thing we gave in Africa to people who were easily dehydrated by the high fevers that malaria causes. Just as water is the principle of physical life, the water of Baptism is the principle of Christian life; a Christian who is salt stays faithful to the baptismal promises. In the ancient baptismal rite salt was used; with baptism, we become part of the redeemed, those who possess the water that gushes forth to eternal life.  Without salt, this water escapes us.

Salt conserves and preserves – Salt preserves meat and fish; in the days when there was no refrigeration, this was the way to avoid corruption. Christians, who are salt, prevent corruption in the social fabric of families, institutions, companies, organizations, governments, clubs etc. In institutions where there are authentic Christians, there are no degradation or corruption.

In biology, when a wound opens, the body can be invaded by viruses, germs and bacteria that are harmful to health; salt has the power to kill many of these harmful agents. Similarly, in the fabric of society, in institutions, companies and clubs, there are situations that can cause someone to stumble. Thieves are not born as such, as the saying goes, "the situation makes the thief". The presence of Christians in these places has the same deterrent effect as sentencing in the judicial system.

Salt gives flavour – Just as salt gives flavour to food, the Christian gives meaning to human life. Only Christ can logically answer the three questions that all human beings who come into this world would at some point ask themselves: Where do I come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of life? Without Christ, human life is meaningless, tasteless and purposeless.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

The realism of the resurrection

"We also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. (...) So we do not lose heart.

Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. (...) because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary but what cannot be seen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:14,16,18

Hebrew anthropology and Greek anthropology
The idea that the soul is immortal and destined for eternity and that the body, which it embodies for a time, is mortal and as such destined to disappear, has everything to do with Greek dualistic anthropology and nothing to do with biblical way of thinking.

In Hebrew and biblical anthropology, neither the soul is immortal nor the body mortal. In our being, the corporeal and the spiritual dimensions form an indivisible whole.  If during our earthly life the body has a soul that animates it, then in our afterlife, the soul has a body that gives it form, a body that is not physical but spiritual. It has the same form as the physical, but not of the same nature.

Visible matter is made up of invisible things
We have always assumed that matter is visible and spirit is invisible; in reality, this is not the case. The quantum physics of our times, which has dethroned Newton’s mechanistic and materialistic physics forever, tell us that visible reality is made up of invisible realities.

The atom, considered to be the "building block" of matter, is invisible and is made up of an electron that is always in motion, inside a nebula or cloud, the centre of which is composed of neutrons and protons; these in turn are made up of quarks, which are further made up of the most elementary particle discovered recently and dubbed "the God particle". From this we can conclude that simplistic definitions such as: the matter is visible and spirit is invisible have nothing to do with modern physics.

The water metaphor
Water, without ever ceasing to be what it is, exists in nature in three different states: solid, liquid and gas. In its gaseous state, water, without losing anything that characterizes it in its essence, exists in an intangible and invisible form.

Just like how water can exist, without ceasing to be what it is in its essence, in an invisible and untouchable form, so we as people can also exist in an invisible and intangible form in our spiritual body, which replaces our physical body after death. Our physical body is our way of being and existing in time and space; our spiritual body will be our way of being and existing beyond time and space.

Coming back to our analogy, water in its solid and gaseous state is like being in limbo because it is in a pure state. But it is only the principle of life when it exists in the liquid state, that is, not pure but drinkable. When water vapour condenses, in the form of rain or dew, it penetrates mother earth, and after acquiring a "physical body" formed by the mineral salts that make it up, it is born from the earth, which is why it is called a "water source".

Mineral salts are the physical body of water, as they transform it from pure to drinkable and fix it inside every living organism. Pure water, without the mineral salts, is not the principle of life because, unable to retain it in its pure state, living beings would dehydrate and die.

When water evaporates, it lets go of the mineral salts which were its way of being in this world and returns to its pure state. The evaporation of water is like our death; just like water, which does not need mineral salts to be water, we do not need our physical body to be what we are, children of God: it is not, therefore, our physical body that identifies us before God, but our spiritual body.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Ressurection or Reincarnation?

"So, it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body." 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.

Reincarnation is a Hindu and Buddhist concept that the New Age has spread to the Western Christian world. The fragile and often inconsistent way of thinking of today’s man, fascinated by the possibility of having seven lives, like a cat, has uncritically assimilated this concept. It is common to find Christians who believe in both resurrection and reincarnation, without realizing that the two concepts are mutually exclusive.

Like everything that is authentically human, faith will always escape the magnifying glass of the scientific method of knowledge; man is not an object of science. However, in order not to degrade into pure superstition, faith must be married to reason. Superstition is irrational, faith, while not rational, is at least reasonable, plausible, and must make sense. Let us put both concepts to the test of reason:

Reincarnation – As in Greek philosophy, for Easterners the soul is eternal, it existed before and is independent of the body it embodies. In an ascending process towards perfection, each life, each body, that the soul incarnates is an opportunity to progress towards perfection, successively incarnating in higher and increasingly more perfect forms of life. Contrastingly, when the soul misbehaves, it regresses, or it reincarnates in the next life in a lower form of existence, which can even be an animal, a cow for example.

Astronomy – Reincarnation seems to assume that the world has always existed and will always exist; but current astronomy says that the world came into existence with a Big Bang and will cease to exist one day, when the universe has used up all of its energy.

Demographics – For reincarnation to be possible, it assumes a planet with the same population throughout time.  Demographics tells us that man began inhabiting this planet 5 million years ago; it is estimated that the world population at the time of Jesus was 300 million people, now we are at 7 billion.

Evolution of Species – Life started with a unicellular organism that diversified and progressed to ever higher and more intelligent species until it reached the human being. The science of evolution of species does not acknowledge any regression. Between us and animals, there are millions of years of evolution that cannot be reversed.

Genetics – The combination of genes in the genetic code of each living being is unique and exclusive in the life history of this planet; part of human dignity is due to this fact. It makes no sense for a soul to have a genetic code for each life it lives, nor does it make sense for several bodies of the same soul to have the same genetic code.

Regression – How then do we explain certain therapies that lead people to regress and learn what they were in another life and what type of person they were? If there is any truth to this phenomenon, it could be explained by the notion of "collective unconsciousness", proposed by Carl Jung, a follower of Freud.

People would not therefore regress to other lives they have had, but rather, through meditation and regression techniques, they would connect to psychic materials that do not come from personal experience but are found in what Jung calls the “collective unconsciousness”; this is a kind of database of the inheritance and heritage of all humanity, which contains everything that human beings are and have done throughout human history.

Resurrection – This concept owes no satisfaction or explanation to any of the sciences described above, because it is not in conflict with any of them. In the Judaeo-Christian thinking, the soul is not eternal and is intrinsically and forever united to a body; there are no bodies without souls, nor souls without bodies.

By God’s grace, every human being is naturally a candidate for eternal life, his or her entire being, body and soul transformed into an immortal form of existence, that is, the spiritual body or glorious body (1Cor 15:42-44). Those who respond negatively to God’s grace, denying it in their lives and living with their backs to God, are probably making themselves candidates for eternal death, that is, a return to the nothingness from which God created everything.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Death does not exist

Father, there's something I don't understand: when I die, my body goes to earth, my soul goes to heaven, and what about me? Where will I go?

Death shouldn't concern us because we will never coincide; as long as we exist, it won't exist; when it exists, we won't exist.   Karl Marx

As Lavoisier’s law says, in nature nothing is lost, everything is transformed. In continuous transformation, nothing stays the same. Death and life are part of the same process, there is no life without death or death without life. Death is not a state in which a living being can be found, but the passage from one form of life to another. Death is a means by which life diversifies and progresses in the evolution of the species.

The green grass in the fields grows until the day the gazelle eats it; the grass has not died, it has progressed and changed form, it has become a gazelle. The gazelle leaps and jumps through the ravines, drinks water from the streams, and wanders through the woods until the day it is eaten by the lion; it has not died, it has been absorbed and assumed by the lion’s body.

As the lion has no predators, it dies of old age or in a fight for male supremacy, its mortal remains are eaten by hyenas and vultures, and what is left is eaten by ants and worms which, in turn, when they die, fertilize the earth where the grass grows again.

On the surface, life is as good as death because neither remains, one follows the other unceasingly.  However, if we take a closer look, we realize that this is not the case.  Although they are two parts or stages of the same process, life and death are not on equal footing; on the contrary, life is on a higher plane because it does not exist for the sake of death, but death does exist for the sake of life.

Therefore, it is not true what the philosopher Heidegger says: "We are a being made for death". The grass lived for months before it died; similarly, the gazelle and the lion lived for years before they died; death was a moment, while life was for years; death was a passage while life is a constant; we are therefore a being made for life.

The same life-death-life process that happens between living beings in the food chain, happens inside every living being. Our body is made up of around 30 trillion cells; each of them behaves as if it were a living being following the rules that govern life on this planet. In other words, they are born, they grow, they reproduce, and they die (interestingly, only cancer cells refuse to die); this is how we explain the growth, transformation and ageing of our body; every 7 years we have biologically a new body.

Psychological maturity, which according to Freud takes place in the transition from the pleasure principle to the reality principle, also implies and presupposes death. The same can be said for spiritual maturity: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:24)

Just as the lion, which has no predators, is at the top of its food chain and is king of the jungle, Man is king of creation.  Easter means passage; our death or our Easter is like that of Christ. The passage from temporal-spatial form of life to a life in God’s eternity, in which we will not only be a soul but, like Christ, we will possess a spiritual body, a glorious body.

For this reason, we do not lose heart, because "we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC