THE CHRISM MASS
On the 29th of March 2012, Religious and Diocesan Priests, Seminarians, Deacons, Sisters gathered together before the Chrism Mass for a talk on "Faith" to begin with the preparation to Celebrate the "Year of Faith" on the Diocesan Level.
Rev. Fr. M. I. Raj (Scripture Professor at Gujarat Vidyadeep, Sevasi, Vadodara) delivered a very inspiring and enlightening talk on "Faith". The whole talk is given below for those who are interested in reading it and to share it with others.
Right at the start Rev. Fr. Joel (Vicar General) the organizer, introduced Rev. Fr. Raj.
At the end several questions were asked for further clarification. Rev. Fr. John Raju thanked Fr. Raj on behalf of all present for the inspiring thoughts on faith.
After the Talk on Faith all the priests gathered to concelebrate with the Bishop Most Rev. Bishop Godfrey de Rozario the Chrism Mass.
Right at the start of the Eucharistic Celebration Respects were paid by garlanding the Photos of Late Bishop Ignatius Salvadore D'souza on his Birth Centenary Year; to Late Bishop Francis Leo Braganza who left for his heavenly abode on 21st December 2011; to Rev. Fr. Savari Muthu Arasure and Rev. Fr. Mathew Kochupara who passed on during the past year.
Bishop Godfrey de Rozario then inaugurated the "Year of Faith" at the diocesan level by lighting a Candle as the Candle symbolizes the Passover experience of our Faith. Our faith consists in the Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Light of the World. As the Gloria was being sung, Bishop Godfrey lighted the Candle.
The Bishop as the successor of Apostles called on his fellow priests to renew their commitment. Their commitment includes following Christ to become another Christ, to celebrate the Sacraments, offer the Eucharist, to teach the Christian faith and to witness to Christ in their life as true Shepherds of the flock entrusted to them. To every question of the Bishop, the Priests responded with a solemn "I am".
After the Homily Bishop Godfrey de Rozario blessed the Holy Oils of Sick, Catechumens and Holy Chrism. Oil of the Sick is used to bring strength and healing power of Christ, who is at work in the Church by the action of the Holy Spirit. Oil of Catechumens is used at Baptism, to strengthen (with wisdom and courage) and purify the candidate (from original sin) before baptizing with water. Holy Chrism is a mixture of olive oil and balsam fragrance is a fullness of grace and spiritual strength, it consecrates and enables us to live out the call to follow Jesus Christ (as anointed one) as baptized, confirmed and ordained Christians.
At the end of the Eucharitic Celebration (Just before the final blessing) Lighted candles were given to the Deans by the Bishop as a symbol of spreading Faith in their respective deaneries. Holding the Lighted Candles all the deans together recited the creed.
After the Eucharistic Celebration Rev. Fr. Galdos was felicitated as he had just completed 50 Sacerdotal years in the service of the Lord as a Priest. Fr. Ignacio Galdos is a missionary at heart, catechist by vocation, an Adivasi by life and mission. He has worked in Bharuch, Zankvav, and Unai. He is the founder of the Bardipada Mission. He has produced a Gamit Liturgy. The Bishop thanked him for his service in the Diocese of Baroda for his pioneering missionary work, for saving and promoting Adivasi Culture, and renewal of liturgy. Bishop hounoured him with a bouquet of flowers.
The Priests (Relgious and Diocesan), sisters, brothers then went to have a sumptuous meal served by Rosary Parish. Thanks to Rev. Fr. William Carvalho the Parish Priest of the Cathedral for meticulously arranging the whole event.
The person behind the planning and success of the whole event was Fr. Joel R. Pais (Vicar General). Thanks Joel for your efficiency and hardwork. God bless.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TALK OF REV. FR. M. I RAJ ON FAITH
FAITH
Rosary Cathedral, Baroda
Dear Friends,
The current year has been declared by the Pope as the year dedicated to Faith. So, I have been asked to share some thoughts on the theme of “faith” – really some thoughts only, because the theme of faith is very large and even crucial and I don’t think I can be comprehensive about it. Although my specialty is the Bible and I will deal with the theme of faith mainly from the perspective of the Bible, yet I want to begin my talk by considering the theme in a more general way, that is, faith as the most fundamental and common human experience.
Let us pose a question and then find the answer. What is common human experience cutting across gender, caste, creed or color? If we look at our human nature, we see a deep inbuilt longing which we feel the need to be fulfilled. St. Augustine
To trust that there is such a transcendent someone or something exists and to surrender to that is what we call faith. Now it is important to realize that men and women do not possess this Someone or Something, on the contrary, they are possessed by it. Their whole life is gripped and affected by it; they stake their whole life on it. Of course, there is the danger of deluding and fooling oneself by construing a finite material reality as an absolute reality, as one’s ultimate concern. This is precisely what the Bible calls idolatry. But, a true and authentic experience of trust in and surrender to the Absolute Transcendent reality is faith. Very few have kept this experience only to themselves. The longing to share this experience is as strong as the longing for that Absolute itself. Those who have experienced it have tried to articulate it, bringing it into expression.
Now, we know that our primary language is born out of and related to our experience of finite material reality. So, how to express something that is infinite and non-material through a language that is basically related to finite material reality? Human beings have always struggled to express this deep most experience. They used stories, songs, and symbols, not as exact equivalents, but as pointers to their experiences. And the expressions always fall short of experiences.
Before we go ahead, we must distinguish between faith as experience and faith as expression. This corresponds to the use of faith as a verb (an experience) and faith as a noun (the expression). First, I shall consider faith as an experience, which as we shall see is the most basic and crucial thing and then we shall talk about faith as an expression.
To talk about faith as an experience, the best place to begin is the letters of Paul, especially the letter to the Romans. Let us take the most famous, yet somewhat difficult statement of Paul in Rom 3.26: “This was to prove at the present time that he (God) himself is righteous and that he declares righteous the one who has the faith of Jesus.” First, the word “righteous” – one of the most important words in Jewish thinking and as you can see in the present verse, it is applied both to God and to human beings and it means “right behavior” or “a behavior that is fitting or appropriate for the being of the person”. What is the behavior appropriate for the being of God –- that is the righteousness of God? According to the Bible, “The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… “(Ex 34.6-7). Even his judgment and punishment is for the sake of saving his people. In other words, the saving fidelity of God is his righteousness. Saving through love and forgiveness is almost the duty of God. Now, what is the righteousness, the right behavior for human beings? Or who is the righteous person? According to this verse, “the one who has the faith of Jesus”.
Most of the Bibles translate this verse “… the one who has faith in Jesus” but the original in Greek is “the one who has the faith of Jesus.” Paul uses this interesting phrase “faith of Jesus” with two meanings – faith which Jesus himself had and our faith in Jesus. So, to have faith in Jesus for Paul means to have the same faith which Jesus had. Now what is the faith of Jesus? If we take the clue from Rom 1.5 and 16.26 where he uses another interesting phrase, “obedience of faith” that is, faith that is manifested in obedience. For Paul, obedience does not mean obedience to a set of laws and commandments, but the surrender of the entire person to God. In the Philippian hymn Paul describes the faith of Jesus, without using that word, when he says, “…he emptied himself, … he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death…” (Phil 2.7-8). In Rom 5.12-21 where Paul contrasts Adam and Christ presents this “obedience of faith” as a matter of life and death for humanity – Adam representing the unrighteous or the unbecoming behavior for a human person and Jesus representing, on the other hand, the righteous behavior. So, faith for Paul is the total surrender of the entire person to God.
Now, what does this total surrender of the entire person to God mean in day to day practical terms? As we know God is love and therefore surrendering to God in simple terms means surrendering to the call and demands of love, which in turn means going beyond oneself towards the other in love. And love can take various forms in different situations – like peace, harmony, justice, compassion, forgiveness, comforting, encouragement and so on. Karl Rahner expresses this like this: “Man realizes himself truly and achieves the authentic fullness of his own nature only when he turns radically away from himself and to his fellow” (Theo. Invest. Vol XI, p.240). Paradoxically, it is in transcending one’s self one finds one’s true self; one finds the authentic meaning of life. Paul expresses this rather strongly in Gal 5.6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” To put it differently, the authentic faith is seen in the experience of “kenosis” – that is, the surrendering of the obstacle of one’s ego in order to become a free channel of divine dynamic love.
Little further in the same chapter in verses 13 and 14 Paul considers this love as a sign of one’s true freedom. In other words, to the extent one is not able to love, that is, one is not able to surrender in faith one is not free. In this context, it is good to reflect on another bold and strange statement of Paul in Rom 14.23: “…whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” It is interesting to note that Paul considers sin as the opposite of faith – any action that does not proceed from one’s surrender to God, even if it is a seemingly good action, is an action born out of egoism and pride. [Someone remarked that the “I” is right at the center of pride and sin, but so also in faith.] And EGO is Edging God Out of our life. That is why Paul excludes or rules out any pride or boasting. Unlike the Pharisee praying in Lk 18, there is no claim for credit or merit. True faith is to recognize oneself not as an actor but as a medium or a channel of God’s actions.
This self-surrender acquires a significance of its own when it is done in the context of absurd and awkward situations. The Letter to the Hebrews speaks about the faith of Abraham in 11.8-22. I like to pay attention to two verses: “… from one person who was as good as dead descendants were born…” (v.12; cf. also Rom 4.17, 19). And when he went to offer up Isaac Abraham “considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead…” (v.19). In this context, it is good to consider how in the presence of his absurd death, “Jesus brought his faith to its perfection” (Heb 11.2) showing an absolute confidence in “Him who could (by the resurrection) save him from death” (Heb 5.7). In Rom 4.24 Paul declares that just as Abraham’s faith was reckoned to him as righteousness so to our faith in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead will be reckoned to us. This is what we call the “paschal faith” – the ability of God to bring life out of nothing. Walter Brueggemann considers this as the heart of Biblical faith and sees it manifested in the creation out of nothing; in the promise of descendants to a barren couple; in raising Jesus from the dead and in justifying the sinner who was as good as dead. And Juan Luis Segundo gives an inspiring interpretation of this paschal faith:
WHO, THEN, IS THE CHILD OF ABRAHAM, THE MAN OF FAITH?
"Every atheist, pagan, Jew or Christian who refuses to have contractual relationship with the Absolute, who trusts in the promise inscribed in the human values offered by existence and fights for them as if death did not render that struggle futile."
This is also the primary theme of the book of Job. At the beginning of the book Satan challenges that human beings like Job are basically selfish; they are faithful to God just to get favors and blessings. If these were not there then they would not care for God. God takes up the challenge and allows Satan to test Job. Now, if God were not sure of winning he would not enter into it. But, he had faith in human beings, his creations (note that not only we have faith in God, but God also has faith in us) and that is why he takes up the challenge. In other words, God affirmed the capacity of human beings to be faithful to God unconditionally. The unconditional love of God is matched by the unconditional devotion of human beings. Putting this in common secular language we can say that human beings are capable of doing something good just because it is good without any expectation for any reward and recognition. [This is the Niskama Karma of Gita.] In other words, when you surrender, the divine goodness within is manifested.
This is called the audacity of faith, because it demands tremendous courage to be faithful to the good, because often it does not seem to pay to do good or to be good. In the face of the wicked thriving and the righteous struggling, prophet Habakkuk posed this agonizing question before the Lord: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?” (Hab 1.2) In a similar situation the psalmist feels that “All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence” (Ps 73.13). To such the divine responses is: “the righteous shall live by their faith” (Hab 2.4). They will persevere in doing what is good and not tempted or shaken by the apparent success and prosperity of the wicked.
Now, let me say something about faith as expression. As we saw earlier, we human beings not only long for the Absolute Infinite Reality, we equally long to articulate that experience. Human imagination, with the help of knowledge about this world, construes the object of faith in images and concepts. [At times, these images and concepts are so human that God looks almost like a human person. Someone put it like this: “God created us in his image and likeness and in gratitude we created him in our image and likeness.” That is how you have God being jealous, getting angry, regretting, punishing and rewarding etc.] The construed knowledge about the transcendent object of faith is what is known as the system of beliefs. Thus, beliefs are human expressions of faith experience. It is easy to see that beliefs are dependent on faith, but distinct from faith. The two cannot be equated nor given the same status.
Since beliefs are the human construal of the transcendent object of faith based on the human knowledge of the world, three things follow: First, there can be many systems of beliefs as there are many ways of understanding the world, conditioned by varying socio-cultural and historical factors. Second, every belief system can and does change, for the same reason. From these two inferences follow the third that every belief system is partial, relative, limited and inadequate to interpret the transcendent object.
Since faith at the existential and experiential level is the dynamic commitment of the entire person praxis becomes the constitutive element of faith where praxis is understood as the conscious and intentionally directed human response. However, from depth psychology we know that there are deep motivations, which are often hidden and govern human behaviour and conscious intentions often obscure these motivations from the self. We can say that a “false consciousness” with hidden agendas is operative. This “false consciousness” always served the negative partisan function of protecting the interests of some people over against the interests and rights of others. Hence, a reflective analysis of human action is essential in order to safeguard against false consciousness and to maintain an adequate correspondence between faith and praxis.
Thus, faith on the one hand finds expression in beliefs and on the other hand directs human behaviour. At the practical level, therefore, there must be an adequate correlation between beliefs and behaviour. When beliefs fail to correspond to one’s commitment in faith they are no longer beliefs in the true sense of the word but empty statements, mere notions. But, when the beliefs are authentic they become the principles of human action.
It is via the medium of this belief system a community of faith is formed, which in turn gives a sense of identity and security to its individual members. Although beliefs are dependent on faith yet from the social perspective they appear prior to faith and even generate faith. In fact, the faith expressions are expected to lead to faith experiences. For example, the belief that God is a Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth implies a specific behaviour. Every belief is a crystallization of an experience and therefore it must evoke that experience. If it doesn’t then it is a set of mere words. It is also possible that in the process of transmission eventually only the words are captured and the experience is missed out. [Our faith becomes the soup of Mullah Nasruddin.] We must capture the original experience behind our belief system, because what is transforming and empowering is the experience and not the expression. Otherwise when crises and difficulties come we are swept off our feet.
We must also take into account a couple of problems that are intrinsically connected with faith expressions. The belief system is conditioned by the language that is used to express it and the language in turn is conditioned by the culture, worldview and the way of understanding reality. On account of this, a belief system, especially the Christian one, faces two kinds of problems. One due to spatial shift. When a belief system is transferred from one culture/language to another – from Hebrew to Greek to English to Gujarati – something is lost. What makes sense in one culture/language does not make sense in another, thus leading to misunderstanding at times. The other due to temporal shift. Take any language. It is significantly different from what it was 200 or 300 years ago. These twofold shifts create problem in understanding the set of beliefs. So, there is a need to make the beliefs relevant, understood in the changing times. This is supposed to be the task of theology – in making faith understood.
There is a bigger and harder difficulty that many of us face – the crisis created by the conflict between one’s experience and one’s belief system. Israel temple of Jerusalem
Finally, a word about the power of belief. Normally we hear people say, “I will not believe unless I see.” But Wayne Dyer twists this phrase around and says, “you will not see unless you believe.” Using the power of the subconscious mind people have seen miracles in their lives by affirming the power and goodness of the divine within them. Here faith is a way of actualizing the Divine within.
M. I. RAJ, S. J.
GUJARAT VIDYA DEEP
SEVASI, VADODARA
No comments:
Post a Comment