SEEING THE OLD TRUTH WITH NEW VISION

A sales agent for a soap company was once traveling in the same train with a priest. The detergent salesman remarked that apparently the Gospel preached by the priest has not done much good. “Look at all those bad people around; how bad they are; criminals, corrupt and dishonest leaders and citizens all. What have the gospels done?” Just then the train pulled into the station and urchins with dirty hands and faces were jumping up and down the train platform. The priest turned to the soap agent. “Your soap has not done much good either. Look, there are still much dirt and dirty people around.”

"But Father,” retorted the sales agent, “soap is good only when it is used, when it is applied.”

'It is the same thing with Christianity. It works only when it is lived and applied to daily life,” replied the priest.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton said it is best for all of us when confronted with the same challenge. “Christianity has not failed; it has not yet been truly tried” was his remark.

HOW WILL THE CHURCH CARRY OUT EVANGELIZATION TODAY?

If the Church is to carry out the task of evangelization “it has the responsibility of reading the signs of the time and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.” Reading the signs is really asking why? It is probing the cause and prayerfully studying where Jesus and His Message can come in. “We,” in the Church, “must be aware of and understand the aspirations, the yearnings, and the often dramatic features of the world in which we live.” So the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World reminds us. (LG, 4). We therefore must listen more than we hear, understand more than we see. Pastors, ministers and the laity listen beyond the shouts of the poor and the weak amidst the disarray of demands between leaders and the led, and accompany them towards that which people commonly seek. Alas, leadership roles in governance, industry and business appear clearly to be a game played only by the powerful, the influential and the rich. For us in the Church the flock has something to say in the vision, because a good vision includes the needs and the experiences of the people.

The Church is in solidarity with the rest of humanity because to it belongs “a community composed of humans, who, united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit press onward towards the kingdom of the Father and are bearers of a message of salvation intended for all.” (LG, 1). The Church announces that the life Jesus promised to all in its fullness has already been attained through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Himself. And that the death suffered in love for us enables everyone to be hopeful, able to wish and able to dream, to begin again and to achieve. In Jesus Christ, God-man, Teacher and Saviour, it is possible and hopeful to desire and to become fully human, truly Christian and genuinely patriotic because as Filipino s/he is able to listen to and accept goodness from God.

VISION LEADS TO REALITY

Some dreams are unreal, but visions are always attainable. This is the reason why it is better to have a vision than to pursue dreams. Dreams may be graphic but often times are illusive. A vision is both based on the human experience (of successes and failures, of triumphs and frustrations) and on the reality of needs. A good vision is also anchored on the Word of God. In other words God confirms the many good desires of the person. In a vision one can see that what humans desire is also exactly what God wants. It happens that when people want to live in peace and desire not to cheat and to be cheated, that is also what God wants. “You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil,” the Psalmist reminds us of who our God is. (Psalm 5:4).

It has already been said, but let us repeat this to ourselves today, that “it is treason to lead without a vision.” The Good Book reminds that “where there is no vision the people get out of hand.” (Proverbs 29:18). Without a vision the people will not know what they want to be, where they are going, who is leading them to where, with what and with whom, how and for what reason. Before the start of any journey we want to know our direction, who are going with us, for what reason and how.

REASON FOR BEING AND PURPOSE AND BECOMING  

Someone beyond placed us on earth to become what He wanted us to be --- as equipped by goodness, right values and culture destined to become His image and likeness --- people capable of repeating His goodness in this planet, earth. (Genesis 1:26-31). It is always good to recall this image as we journey through life for this will make us remember our mission, our vocation as humans, as believers, with status or with non; there must be a direction to life and the sooner we choose this guidance, the securer will the path be where we travel, as believers and Filipinos. The Vision as a direction in life does not consistently point to how we have been different, where we have heatedly disagreed, but stresses where we, as Citizens --- believer or not, with or without personal ambitions and prejudices --- can be united as one exuberant nation that believes and still hopes in goodness. There must be one such desire that unites us; let us together discover and put our hearts to it.

EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT S/HE NEEDS IN A VISION  

In a vision the people identify what they need and why. Most would like to be freed from want and weakness; all desire knowledge, righteousness, compassion and peace; all would want more to live on; a little more of humanity is what most of our Kababayan desire; what they want of others, that they also wish to be and have --- to be unchained from greed, vice and sin. But all these are what Jesus also desires for us when He said that “I have come that you may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.” (John 10:10). Jesus already began to share this fullness of life with humans, when he preached the Father’s Kingdom as accompanied by the ministry of compassion, healing and teaching, feeding, understanding, forgiveness and friendship. “Do good to everyone even to your enemies…Treat others as you would like others to treat you.” (Luke 6:27; 31).

The Lord showed that the “fullness of life” (which is the liberation from enslavement of ignorance, poverty, sickness, selfish attitudes, values and ultimately sin (which is the root of all this evil) could not wait for the human person only in heaven. it must begin here on earth for everyone without exception, because it will be a great dishonour to God to allow even just a single day of an inhuman existence for a person made to His likeness on earth.

The final crowning of that “fullness of life” is in one’s union with Christ for as St. Paul said the “the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity, and you have been given full life in union with him.” (Colossians 2:9-10). Such union definitely begins here and is fully sealed with Christ in heaven.

This fullness of life is attainable only within the Kingdom which for the Christian is not a place, philosophy or a system. “ Kingdom of God means Yahweh is the only Lord and He shares primacy with none in the life, family, community of humans. In actual life the “Reign of God” means He is the highest value and His love is the supreme consideration in all human acts and judgment. In human love God suffers no rival or competitor. “Only the Kingdom is therefore absolute, and it makes everything else relative,” the late Pope Paul VI of happy memory reminded us. (EN, 8). And of all values that belong to the Kingdom, love alone is without equal; it has the power to admit people to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus assured, “in truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine --- I was hungry you gave me food; I was thirsty, I was thirsty, you gave me drink - - you did it to me…you will enter the Kingdom prepared for you.” (Matthew 25:34-36). We place the Kingdom of God at the center of our vision because Jesus held His Father’s Kingdom a the center of his preaching whence salvation comes as freeing humans from the bondage of sin and from everything that oppresses humans. (EN, 9).

Even in just a short but compendious expression, vision has the capacity to give a direction, instilling a purpose in a person or in a community; it is easy to retain.

We all want to be :

THE NEED TO BE REMINDED OF WHO WE ARE

In today’s confusing models of progressing as people, some want to make us see only what is difficult emphasizing situations of helplessness amidst the violent contest of greed, making others think that it is impossible to change. Still there those who present today’s world as completely bereft of positive resources, and that it is now impossible to reverse things. Furthermore others there are who, hungry for quick and easy change, would even tool development of people with violence tempting people to become brutal and severe. If humanity were a hopeless case for conversion and redemption, there could not be a need for Jesus, the Redeemer. But if the people are reminded that they are made to God’s image (Gen. 1_26), are treated as God’s sons (Hebrews 12:7) and (they) are destined to live with fullness of life, knowing how to share with one another----as freed from selfishness, greed, vices and especially from sin---they they can move towards a more humane community where God and only goodness reign.

In this society everyone, witnessing to Kingdom values, lives in the certain path to greatness known commonly as the exercise of (personal) discipline, the use of responsible freedom ever responsive to the rights of others, capable of sacrifice, tolerance, compassion and forgiveness, but which Jesus elevated to the greatest mystery of “life-death-glory process” and is now revered as the PASCHAL MYSTERY where every person’s and every nation’s story is both remembered, magnified, reverenced and given the power to inspire.

THE CALL TO SEE

The One that has launched us to this quest of what is always better through the difficult passage of “death-moments”, called discipline or sacrifice, is the Triune God who, as Father, initiated us to vision of goodness (ID-Direction); as Son, taught us the value of life and loved us to the point of death showing us that the same love could be repeated in our midst; and as Spirit, gave us the gift of peace and unity. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to witness to the love of God shared with us in the heroic generosity of Jesus.

A good vision gives us direction and purpose; it summarizes the plan of salvation and assures us of the attainment of life’s purpose; it elevated and unites human desires for a more humane community to the level of God’s will. The vision is a gift given not only to the shepherd; it is a gift given to all.

Let us at this moment thank God for the vision which does not exclusively belong to the shepherd, but which he owns, because the hunger and the longing come from the flock. These words perfectly describe Jesus, the Christ, ever with the vision of the Father’s Kingdom. Bishops and priests (worth the name) apply the same task and direction of vision to self; and every Christian in our Local Church who cry with the same hunger takes the vision as its own.

Time and again any of us can be presented as disjunctive---Believe of Live. And we blush in embarrassment for lack of one or the other. Witness has not been part of belief and as result rapacious and selfish values have gained acceptance even in our supposedly Christian (communities and) society.

But with a vision of a believer in Jesus, Son of God, the Christian is challenged with a conjunctive--- Live as you believe!

Thank You and GOD BLESS!

MAGPAS
Manila Archdiocesan General Pastoral Assembly
LA SALLE – GREENHILLS
21 October 2005