June 15, 2015

Person of the year

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Where are the prophets
That in the old days gave us
The hope and the strength to walk.

In the cities, in the countryside
Among us they are.

Simple thing is death
Difficult thing is Life
When fighting becomes pointless

We were taught the rules to put up with each other
But we were never taught how to love. 
(Song by Ricardo Cantalapiedra translated from Spanish)

The Religious Life as a Prophecy
The tradition of selecting the Person of the Year started with Time magazine in 1927.  The designation is often given to someone who was the news maker of the year, someone who has been admirable, who did something for the humanity, who had an outstanding charisma, and who responded most appropriately to the challenges of his time; someone who was in some sense a prophet.

For example, Barack Obama was the Person of the Year in 2008 and 2012 for being the first black president of the United States, with all said and done in a country where slavery was only abolished in 19th century and racism in 20th century, after Martin Luther King. In 2013 Pope Francis was named the Person of the Year because in a few months he won the admiration of millions of people with his simplicity and symbolic gestures.

In the Old Testament tradition, a prophet is the right man for the right moment; he is the one who knows how to interpret the people’s present situation in light of God's will, who is a messenger, and at times also an intercessor between God and men. As a natural and charismatic leader he would condemn behaviours that were not righteous in the eyes of God, but he would console and instill hope in the bitter times as well, such as during the Babylonian exile.

I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees (Amos 7:14). Unlike the priests in Jerusalem and the doctors of the law, the prophets did not arise from the establishment, or from lineage. It was the Spirit who here and there, in the most crucial moments, would arouse a guide for His people.

In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader, no burnt-offering, or sacrifice, or oblation or incense, no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy. (Daniel 3:38)

As it is evident from this verse the prophet was an important figure for the people; without him, the people felt disoriented, confused, forsaken, alone, insecure...

According to the canonical distinction, there are two types of clergy today: the regular clergy or religious and the secular clergy. The secular or diocesan clergy is more affiliated with the world; they are the shepherds of the Lord's flock.  In this sense, their role is very similar to that of the doctors of the law and the priests of Jerusalem.

The religious, on the other hand, are somewhat set apart from the world so to better understand and help the world, as only by being outside the forest can one see the forest.  In the Old Testament tradition their role is more in tune with that of the prophets.  The religious is called to be a person of the year, a Nobel Prize winner, a superstar for a particular time and place.  He is a prophet who knows how to read the signs of time and says the right word at the appointed time; he recognizes the problems at hand and points to the solutions with his words, actions and talents.

The religious life is in general associated with the Prophetic Mission of the Church.  During the Middle Ages while the states were warring among themselves, it was in the monasteries where culture was maintained; it was from them that schools, universities and hospitals were created.  To the point that even the civil registry was started by the Church recording information of the baptized faithful; which the State along with the Republic took from the parishes in 1910 in Portugal.

Symbolic Acts of the Prophets of Israel
The actions of the prophets in the Old Testament were so bizarre compared to the current secular standards of sanity, that in the present days they would have been institutionalized, or at least be receiving intense psychotherapy.

These prophets were not only proclaimers of the word, they also embodied the teachings with their lives, talents, bearings and actions; all these were part of the message; their choice of clothing and even their body and body language.  Thus testifying with their whole being how transforming and mystifying can the Word of God be.  Words could vanish in the wind but the symbolic and dramatic actions of the prophets spoke much louder and were much more difficult to forget.

  • Isaiah, stripped off all his clothes and wandered about naked (Isa. 20).
  • Jeremiah, hid his underwear under a rock and after some time came back to look for it (Jer. 13).
  • Hosea, deliberately married a prostitute and gave the name "Lo-ruhamah" meaning  "without compassion" to his daughter (Hos.1) 

With the coming of Christ, we can look back and see these prophets as forerunners, not only through prophesies where they spoke of His life, but also through their prophetic actions.  Christ is, after all, the Word incarnate in the richest and most perfect way possible . And, like the prophets, Christ's behavior was at times bizarre, disconcerting and puzzling according to the social standards and conventions at the time.

He was after all, someone who promised that he will rebuild the temple in three days, ate with prostitutes and tax collectors, drove out demons into a herd of pigs, cured a blind man by rubbing his eyes with mud he made with his own saliva, and he walked on water. But the most shocking and dramatic action was without any doubt washing his disciples' feet.  He wanted to perform the most humble act so that his disciples would never forget what he had already said in words: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mk.10:45)

Consecration as a Symbolic Act
The life of a monk, a friar or a nun is already in itself a symbolic act as they live here and now the  life that all people is called to live in Heaven.  A life that embodies the values of the gospel is like a guiding star that indicates the true path to God, a finger pointed to Heaven.  It exposes the senselessness of certain realities of this world that people tend to self-indulge. Like a lighthouse, a religious is also a beacon that exposes the dangers of navigation, the dangers of losing our life during the pilgrimage to our heavenly home.

In this way the three Evangelical counsels can be seen as gestures or symbolic acts that speak for themselves like the dramatic and symbolic acts of the prophets in the Old Testament:

The vow of Poverty - Declares that possessing material goods beyond what is strictly necessary to maintain life can be an impediment to spiritual growth. As the gospel says, where your treasure is, there is your heart, whoever gives his heart to the riches, sells his soul to the devil; he no longer owns but is somehow owned by things he thinks he possesses.

The vow of Chastity - Considers the value of sex; contrary to what the society wants us to believe; sex is not a necessity of the individual but of the species, nor is it intrinsic to love, it is only one of the many expressions of love.  If love in its natural and physical expressions creates the family and family ties, then in its sublime expression, it creates universal fellowship and solidarity.

The vow of Obedience - Declares power and freedom of comparative value; according to the gospel, power is not to dominate but to serve the needs of others.  As for freedom, I am free until I make my fundamental choice, once I have made it life consists of being faithfull to the commitments made. “Keep the rules and the rules will keep you”, If you observe and obey the rules of the commitment you have freely chosen for your life, these very same rules will protect you and give you a sense of security, identity and purpose.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

June 1, 2015

Year of the consecrated life

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Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver.
Purify my heart, let me be as gold, pure gold.

Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart for You, Lord.
I choose to be holy, set apart for You, my Master, ready to do Your will.

Purify my heart, cleanse me from within and make me holy.
Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin, deep within. 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IvXA0yRDwY)

Upon reflection on the consecrated life, the theme chosen by the Church for this year, it came to my mind this song that was sang so often by a group of young Christian singers whom I used to attend to when I lived in Canada.  The lyrics of this song touches the essence of how a consecrated life should be lived; what it means to be consecrated and the process to follow for all those who enter the Religious Life.

Set apart for You, Lord - The Jews set apart for the Lord the offerings of the first fruits of the harvest and every male firstlings among the livestock. Everything that opened the womb was set apart for the Lord as an act of thanksgiving; every firstborn son was offered to the Lord and presented at the Temple to be redeemed in exchange for a sacrificial offering, which for the wealthy was an ox, for the less affluent a lamb or kid and for the poor, as it was in the case of Jesus, a pair of turtledoves or pigeons.

"To Consecrate" an object means to remove it from ordinary use and to set it aside and reserve it for a particular and exclusive purpose. When a chalice or another object is consecrated, it is reserved or kept for a sacred use, in the case of the chalice, the Eucharistic celebration.

It is in this sense how we should interpret the "fuga mundi" (flight from the world) of the religious in the Middle Ages. It was not a matter of escaping from the world so as not to be "contaminated" by it, but to be called to a Mission, to depart from the ordinary way of life and to live in a challenging way.

Inside a forest we cannot see the forest, we only see trees; in order to see the forest we need to go out of it.  The consecrated separates himself from the world in order to understand it better, and contribute to it in a particular way; so he departs from the world and does not live an ordinary life in order to dedicate himself to the world in an extraordinary way.  He withdraws from his own little world to give of himself to the entire world.  He puts aside his cozy and comfortable life, to be mindful of the lives of others especially of those in need..

Purify my heart, let me be as gold, pure gold - I entered the Consolata Missionaries when I was ten years old, my main reason for joining was my search for adventure; to know the world, and in particular Africa.  For this reason I strongly refused to enter the seminary of the diocese in the beginning. Once in the seminary, however,  I found out that each of my colleagues had also their own peculiar reasons to be there; I remember what drew one of my classmates was the thought that he would be playing soccer every day. 

With the passing of time and the formation we received, these childish reasons were refined and purified.  It was this that our founder, Blessed Joseph Allamano, had in mind when he counselled the first missionaries to "do goodness in a good way". Jesus denounced the hypocrites and the Pharisees not because they did not comply with the law of fasting, praying and practicing charity but because they did the right thing for the wrong reason.

Hypocrisy is a constant threat to the religious; therefore there is a need for a continuous purification of our purposes. The heart is what drives everything in our body; it is the center of motion, emotions and motivations and for this reason, we need a heart that is pure, cleansed of all false intentions.  Purified and cleansed internally of all our sins, as the song says because the evil is within us not outside of us.

Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire is to be holy - The objective of being pure as gold is achieved by fire; not the kind of fire that devours and destroys but the kind that refines.  It is the fire that purges all impurities and appraises the gold; the stronger the fire the purer the gold.

Saint Francis of Assisi would roll over naked in the snow to overcome temptations of impurity and some other saints would self-flagellate.  It is not necessary to go in search of unnatural ways to atone for our sins since life itself presents us with enough situations where we can atone naturally, by simply carrying our cross every day (Lk.9:23). For example, when I was in Ethiopia there came a time when I did not eat for 5 days and another for 7 days; I consider this much easier than to eat what is strictly necessary for day to day without giving in to gluttony when I am at table.

The only aspiration of the religious is to be holy as God is holy (Lev.19:2); this is the objective of the continuous purification of motives and intentions, a purification carried out by the fire of the Holy Spirit.  If we are docile to the Spirit, like the clay is in the hands of the potter, His fire will purify our thoughts, our intentions, our motivations, even the subconscious impulses of instinct.

Holiness is found when sin is scrutinized. When we work hard in our life to look for defects, sins and imperfections then we are on the road to holiness. In this regard, St. Francis of Assisi who was already regarded as holy by all who knew him, used to say of himself that he was a great sinner.

Ready to do Your will - Our founder used to say "First the saints then the missionaries"; to be holy refers to our essence, what we are called to be, our vocation; to be missionaries refer to our existence, what we are called to do, our way of living and serving in the world.

It is only after we purify our essence, our being, that our existence, how we live and act in the world, is pure.  We are only truly ready to do God's will when we are holy; when our whole being surrenders to the will of God. This is only possible when we deny ourselves (Lk. 9:23) so that we can say, like St Paul, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"(Gal. 2:20). It is only when Christ lives in us that we are truly Christian, and empowered to continue in the here and now the work that Jesus began in Israel some 2,000 years ago.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC