Caritas

*Christmas, Gifts*

In his December 19, 2002 column in World magazine, Marvin Olasky wrote: "The emphasis on material gifts at Christmas may make us think of Christianity as just one more exchange religion: You do something for a god, who will then do something for you. Roman pagans 2,000 years ago. . . understood liberalitas, giving to please a recipient who will at some point please you. The smart set in ancient Rome thought it was better to give than to receive, because by clever giving to wealthy friends they could receive even more later on and they applied the same concept theologically, offering sacrifices as investments.

"Christians, though, practiced caritas, help to the economically poor without expectation of anything in return. They did that to imitate Christ, who was unjustly abandoned, tortured and killed for the sake of all who believe in Him. They praised God's willingness to pour his grace over those who had done nothing to earn it.

"Christmas is about God's caritas. Jesus in the manger may seem cute, but the incarnation for God was actually an enormous comedown, like being born as a dog would be for us. (No, worse: a cockroach or beyond a different realm of being.) And yet, Christ showed caritas right to the last, by telling one of the thieves dying alongside Him that they would be together in paradise."


Hindi kaya some of us Christians preach giving like the Romans? Magbigay ka at ibabalik sa yo siksik, liglig, at umaapaw! Ayos, di ba? But the way to be motivated to give the caritas way is to reflect on God's giving.

Pwede ba Mag-tithe?

There was a question: Is it Biblical for a church to give a tithe of its income to an association or churches or convention?

I answered:

Two levels kasi ang tanong. First, the principle—tithing. Biblical ba ‘to? OF COURSE!!

Second, the application of the principle—can a body, such as a church, give a tithe to a bigger body to which it belongs? Why not? I don’t see anything that would tell the church not to do that. In addition, the church, by this act of giving, is forced to look outside of itself. To be other-centered, kumbaga. Di na siya parochial. I would like to hear more kung ano ang context ng tanong. Besides, kasama rin sa giving ang purpose nito.

Natz

To: Nathan Montenegro
Subject: Re: Tithing

This is the context. The church is in red. The church is giving 10% to the association + convention. Solution: Stop giving the 10% and use it for its own. (Sounds more unbiblical to me.)

Thanks kuya Natz.

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:50:57 +0800, Natz wrote:

It seems to me that the issue goes back to the condition of “kulang na nga pera ko, magta-tithe pa ako.” This church does not have a unique problem. Lahat ng naghihirap, individual or family or church or institution, face the same inadequacy of resources. So, where does that leave us? Hindi na tayo magta-tithe kasi kulang bigay ni Lord?

“Hey Lord, you’re not doing a good job of providing for me, so I’ll take care of my needs first. Okay?”

Pwede ba yun sabihin? Baka tamaan ka ng kidlat.

Maraming factor bakit in-the-red ang isang church—legitimate or otherwise. However, the issue for the church to decide is, as part of the body of Christ, can it, as a body, decide to come to the Lord empty? In the OT, the poor were given an option of giving a dove for an offering. That’s why after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary offered in the Temple the poor man’s offering for the Cleansing ceremony. Poor sila, di ba? But they could not come empty-handed. Pero, in view of what they receive—the Son of God—ano ba naman yung dove? Their hearts were overflowing with gratitude.

If this church begrudges God his tithe, mas mabuti ciguro they should reexamine their attitude on giving. Incidental lang kung saan pupunta ang tithe nila—association or convention. What they cannot not do is give the Lord’s tithe. It’s not their money, isn’t it? Gratitude finds ways and means. Ingratitude finds excuses.

Talangka mentality

The following is an excerpt from an article by Jack Wheeler "The Secret to the Suicidal Liberal Mind". It deals with the sin of envy from an anthropological viewpoint. Do you think this explains a little how "Talangka's" think?

Exploitation and Black Magic

For such understanding, we need to travel to the Amazon. Among the Yanomamo and other tribes deep in the Amazon rain forests still adhering to the ancient hunting-gathering lifestyle practiced by our Paleolithic ancestors, it is an accepted practice that when a woman gives birth, she tearfully proclaims her child to be ugly.

In a loud, mortified lament that the entire tribe can hear, she asks why the gods have cursed her with such a pathetically repulsive infant. She does this in order to ward off the envious black magic of the Evil Eye, the Mal Ojo, that would be directed at her by her fellow tribespeople if they knew how happy she was with her beautiful baby.

Anthropologists observe that for most primitive and traditional cultures, “every individual lives in constant fear of the magical aggression of others ... there is only one explanation for unforeseen events: the envious black magic of another villager.”

Reflect for a moment on the extent to which tribespeople in a tribal, “primitive” culture suffuse their lives with superstition, witchcraft, sorcery, voodoo, “black magic,” the “evil eye.” The world for them is teeming with demons, spirits, ghosts and gods, all of whom are malicious and dangerous—in a word, envious.

A great many, if not the majority, of tribal or traditional cultures, whether in the Amazon, Africa or the Pacific, have no concept of natural death. Death is always murder.

For the Shuara Jivaro of the eastern Amazon, the first tribe I ever stayed with, there are three ways to die: actual murder (such as a spear through your stomach); demon-murder (accidental death, such as being killed by a falling tree in a storm or by snakebite, which the Jivaros see as perpetrated by a demon); or witchcraft murder (death by illness or unexplained causes, perpetrated by an envious sorcerer).

The Jivaro, just like the Tiv in Nigeria, the Aritama in Colombia, the Dobua in Micronesia, the Navaho in the Southwest U.S. and the tribal mind in general, attribute any illness or misfortune to the envious black magic of a personal enemy.

Envy is the source of tribal and traditional cultures’ belief in Black Magic, the fear of the envious Evil Eye.

The fundamental reason why certain cultures remain static and never evolve (e.g., present-day villages in Egypt and India that have stayed pretty much the same for millennia) is the overwhelming extent to which the lives of the people within them are dominated by envy and envy avoidance: as anthropologists call it, the envy barrier.

For the Mambwe in Zambia, for example, “successful men are regarded as sinister, supernatural and dangerous.” In Mexican villages, “fear of other people’s envy determines every detail of life, every proposed action.”

Members of a Hispanic “ghetto” in a community in Colorado “equate success with betrayal of the group; whoever works his way up socially and economically is regarded as a ‘man who has sold himself to the Anglos,’ someone ‘who climbs on the backs of his own people.’ “

It is an ultimate irony of modern times that left-wing Marxist-type intellectuals consider themselves to be in the progressive vanguard of sophisticated contemporary thought—when in reality their thinking is nothing but an atavism, a regression to a primitive tribal mentality. What the Left calls “exploitation” is what anthropologists call “black magic.”

As sociologist Helmut Schoeck summarizes in his seminal work, “Envy: A Theory of Human Behavior” (and who collected the above anthropologists’ observations):

A self-pitying inclination to contemplate another’s superiority or advantages, combined with a vague belief in his being the cause of one’s own deprivation, is also to be found among educated members of our modern societies who really ought to know better. The primitive people’s belief in black magic differs little from modern ideas. Whereas the socialist believes himself robbed by the employer, just as the politician in a developing country believes himself robbed by the industrial countries, so primitive man believes himself robbed by his neighbor, the latter having succeeded by black magic in spiriting away to his own fields part of the former’s harvest.

The primitive atavism of left-wing bromides like “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is best illustrated by arguing that one can be healthy only at the expense of others. That in order to be in superior health, bursting with energy and vitality, one has to make someone else sick or in poor health—just as in order to be rich you have to make others poor.

The healthy are healthy because they unjustly exploited and ripped off the sick, spiriting away the sick’s fair share of health with black magic. In fact, the sick are sick because the healthy are healthy. If this is absurd, then claiming the poor are poor because they have been exploited by the rich is equally absurd.

Mass-understanding

Below is a blog post by a programmer, Gervase Markham, who titled his weblog as "Hacking for Christ". Really! Galing nyang mag-evangelize. See for yourself.

December 06, 2004

Mass-understanding

WierdAl invoked my name ;-) in a blog post.

Like Gervase Markham, I am a Christian, and pretty serious about it.

However I'm afraid that, much as I love the guy (and I really mean that), I'm going to have to put a bit of distance between me and him on this one. He says:

Now, when I was in the U.S. Navy, there were times when we weren't able to celebrate Mass for a month. In fact, it was the Navy that (inadvertently, but nonetheless) came between me and God, and that drove me absolutely batty.

This gets to the heart of one of the massive differences between Christianity and Catholicism.

As I understand it, Catholics believe (and Al will have to jump in here if I'm misrepresenting his particular view) that it's vital to go to Mass regularly, because that's where the priest pronounces that your sins have been forgiven. That, it seems, is why Al felt that the Navy came between him and God when it prevented him going to Mass.

But I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation [including the US Navy], will be able to separate [me] from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's from Romans 8, verses 38-39. The Bible clearly teaches that you can have a ongoing relationship with God without the need for any intermediary apart from Jesus, and that it's not conditioned on attendance at any ceremony.

At Mass, Catholics believe, the bread and wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ, as he is sacrificed again for the forgiveness of sins of those present. Catholics are required to attend Mass every week, as the sacrifice is made again and again on their behalf.

But the Bible teaches that Jesus made one single sacrifice upon the cross, and his work is now finished. Hebrews Chapter 10 explains this. Discussing the old, Jewish system it says:

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [that is, Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

By his one sacrifice he has (past tense) made Christians perfect forever. He sat down at the right hand of God, his work done and completed. He is now waiting "for his enemies to be made his footstool", which will happen at the Last Day. So there is no need for further sacrifice, and no need for priests to perform it. (This is why many Christian churches avoid using the word 'priest' about their leaders, to prevent confusion.)

So is this just some esoteric religious quibble? No, it's absolutely key. If forgiveness from God is conditioned on something that is done (attending Mass) then we can't be sure that we are saved. If Jesus's saving work needs to be perpetuated, repeated or "made effective" by ceremonies, then it's power is limited and we can't rely on it.

But, wonderfully, on the cross Jesus cried "It is finished!". And it is. So I would encourage Al and anyone else to study the scriptures again, particularly the book of Hebrews (where a key theme is the magnificence and finality of Jesus' work on the Cross), to see if what I'm saying is true. Because it's of vital importance.

[I've just about cleared the backlog; hopefully this post marks the resumption of normal blog service. Thank you for your patience.]

Posted by gerv at 06:53 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

Dawdling toward Gomorrah

The following is from Michael Duduit, citing Calvin Miller:

In his wonderful new book The Unfinished Soul (Broadman & Holman), Calvin Miller has collected "bits and pieces" from a variety of articles and books he has written over the years. The book is filled with fascinating (and often challenging) insights from the "poet laureate" of the evangelical world.

In one vignette, Miller plays off the title of Robert Bork's book Slouching Toward Gomorrah, and wonders if that evil city wouldn't look right at home in today's culture. He closes with these thoughts:

"Gomorrah and its sister city at the end of this tale go up in burning sulfur in a single day. But I believe that sometimes brimstone is gradual. Which of Toynbee's twenty-eight civilizations, rotting from within, woke up and suddenly said, 'Whoa! Look at us! We're post-modern!' None. Neither did Gomorrah. With civilizations, it is always the case of the amphibian in the stewpot. The only way you can cook one is gradually. So when the brimstone fell on Gomorrah, Abraham and God were bargaining over eroded values in a culture which — as the culture itself saw it — no longer sinned. God's narrow view of things surprised everyone on Nightline.

"The odd thing is that the people in Gomorrah seemed not to have been aware that God was bargaining with Abraham over the death of their culture. But we who follow Christ should be ever aware that God has a requirement of those who haggle over just how many are righteous in any city. His requirement is that we, like Abraham, are responsible for doing our part in Christ's rescue operation.

"Imagine this: God loves Sodom and Gomorrah! The moment we forget that, it is not just Gomorrah that is dead. We, too, are dead. God holds no glee over the death of cultures. He grieves over urban evil and longs to call sinners back to their lost Edens.

"It's no easy job being God! To stand for holiness and yet love the unholy is almighty stress — if not for God, for us. To live in Gomorrah and love it is our calling. But to live in Gomorrah and accept it is to accustom ourselves to gradual brimstone."

Three Wise Women

*Christmas*

Do you know what would have happened if it had been Three Wise Women instead of Three Wise Men?

1. They would have asked directions
2. Arrived on time
3. Helped deliver the baby
4. Cleaned the stable
5. Made a casserole, and . . .
6. Brought practical gifts.
(from The Humor Haus newsletter)

Shame on us?

The following is a "sermon" from a columnist of the Philippine Star. He is also the publisher. Shame

BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven The Philippine Star 11/25/2004

I’m sure all your hearts sank when you read about one of our supposedly "best and brightest" being shipped home in disgrace for "alleged" theft, and a ridiculously silly caper at that. Could we ever have imagined that the just-graduated valedictorian of the Philippine Military Academy – a duly-certified "officer and gentleman" – would be caught shoplifting at the commissary in Fort Benning, USA? Army 2nd Lt. Rolly Angeles Joaquin had been caught, the American authorities averred, by surveillance cameras, switching a 50-cent discount tag from a "sale" item and affixing it to a $12 CD (compact disk) which he was purchasing. For trying to cheat on a $12.95 item, he brought down on his own head a ton of grief, probably – after court martial here – the end of his career, and worst of all, disgrace for his country. The future had been full of promise for young 2nd Lt. Joaquin when he graduated from the PMA last March. He received the PGMA achievement award for academics, the Presidential Saber (from the hands of President and Commander-in-Chief GMA herself), the Army Saber, Army professional course, natural sciences, management, and academic group awards and the JUSMAG Saber for Army. While an admiring crowd watched, listened, and applauded, graduating Cadet Joaquin delivered the Valedictory Address – the first to be granted that honor – on behalf of the Academy’s Maliyab Class of 2004. An exemplar who had topped his classes from his first year as a plebe, Joaquin who hails from Aguilar, Pangasinan, had chosen as his first field of assignment "Mindanao . . . where the action is". The United States awarded him with a study grant (via its Joint US Military Advisory Group) to train in the Basic Officers Course in Fort Benning, Georgia. Then closed-circuit TV in the Fort’s commissary allegedly caught Rolly, on film, doing that shoplifting bit. The US kicked him out of school, and sent him home to face military discipline here last October 28. Where did our youthful "hero" go wrong? For less than twelve bucks he trashed his own career and future. * * * This is the point at which opinion writers hesitate to sound preachy, owing to the old Pinoy cop-out excuse, so often bandied, sapagkat kami’y tao lamang (because we’re just human). But rectitude and high things were expected most of all from a model cadet and up-and-coming, much-bemedalled young officer like Joaquin. Some may argue that the few dollars purportedly stolen by tag-switching or shoplifting are a "small thing". However, lieutenants become generals, and in the process, find it easier and easier as time goes by to escalate from $12 to $12 million, to $120 million, – and above. Somebody once told me how John Dillinger, who ended up as Chicago’s crime boss (and had to finally be taken down by the F.B.I. and J. Edgar Hoover), became a bigtime racketeer. Dillinger started out as a young fellow stealing hubcabs, then tires. Once he "victimized" the car of a mobster. The guy caught him in the act, gave him a beating up and told him: "Young fella, you’ll never make the big time if you keep on stealing only the tires. With a little more effort, why don’t you steal the car?" From that day on, Dillinger never looked back. His bloody and violent climb to the top ended only in a blaze of gunfire in a movie theater. When we were pimply-faced college editors, full of virtue as well as full of ourselves, I used to quote as one of my favorite maxims an engraved sign in a monastery in France which went: "It is a sin to steal a pin, what more a bigger thing." Alas, 2nd Lt. Joaquin did worse than that. He betrayed himself, lost his honor, and brought grief to his country. Wasn’t it John F. Kennedy who once said: "From those to whom much is given, much is required?" Lawyers will argue that Joaquin still hasn’t been convicted in any court martial here, and must be presumed "innocent". The irreparable harm, though, has already been done. Especially to himself. * * * The inevitable comparisons are being drawn between Joaquin, PMA 2004, and Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, PMA ’71. Then there’s Major Ferdinand Ramos (PMA 1988) who’s been taken into "custody" in Fort Bonifacio under technical arrest for allegedly soliciting sexual favors from soldier-trainees. (A fascinating turn-of-phrase, the above: I cadged it from a newspaper story.) In short, did the Major force a subordinate to give him a . . . well, blow job? True, perverts and crooks have, in the past, come from the best schools and the best families. Why single out the Philippine Military Academy for opprobrium and question its training and curriculum? Yet we must. From the first year, to begin with, PMA cadets are not just granted scholarships, they are paid a monthly salary – their training is underwritten by the hard-earned money of taxpayers like you and me. PMA cadets, moreover, are trained to be leaders of our armed forces, the troops who guard our nation, our liberty, and our territorial integrity day and night. The PMA’s motto is: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. (A spin-off from West Point’s, the US Military Academy’s Honor, Duty, Country.) Since October 25, 1898, when the PMA was established by decree of Revolutionary President (General) Emilio Aguinaldo in Malolos, Bulacan, the Academy was intended to produce leaders of men. The term "Integrity" in its escutcheon hits one immediately in the eye. A week ago, Gen. Efren Abu, our Armed Forces Chief of Staff, rang me up to say that the Philippine Military Academy wanted to invite me to be honored with a Parade and Review, and address the Corps of Cadets. The tentative date proposed couldn’t be worked out, since it was next January 29th – at a time I am supposed to be in New Delhi, India, as a guest of the Indian Government. General Abu said he would contact this writer again, with a suggested alternative date for the occasion. I wonder if the PMA will still invite me after today’s column. Yet, in a sense, this is my Message to the Cadet Corps I may never get to personally deliver. I commend to our men and women of the corps only three familiar words: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. When all is said and done, it’s not enough for a military school, much less the elite military academy (guys like me got our commissions in combat Infantry via the ROTC and the Infantry Training Group in Camp Floridablanca), to produce men-of-war. Having covered a few wars, from rebellions here to conflicts abroad, I’ve learned that true warriors must have a code by which they live and die. In the PMA they speak about an Honor Code. Too often along the way, "honor" seems to be discarded in favor of winning – in everything and anything – at any cost. It’s not our brief to scold the PMA and piously insist that the Academy review its curriculum. Is Ethics, for example, stressed enough – or simply excelling in sports, military exercises, engineering, and sciences? Can personal "ethics", "moral values" and "rectitude" be taught in the classroom alone? In the fog of war, in the heat of battle, men’s perspectives can become warped. But not, if their eyes and their hearts are fixed, from their formative years unerringly on the ever-bright and constant star of courage, integrity and loyalty. It’s there, branded forever, into the Academy’s motto. No more need be said.

Lighting a Candle for Tatay

I received a letter from Nanay dated Nov. 11, 2004. In it she shares how she and Tatay discussed the prospect of death and their preparations for it. Tatay died May 23 last summer. Nanay shared that in her mind, she was prepared. But it was altogether different for the heart. The will and the emotions have to go through a grieving process. Letting go of a beloved one after so many decades of knowing and serving God together is extremely difficult. Tatay and Nanay got married in 1960, I think. She did not bare her soul casually.

November is especially poignant for us—Nanay and four brothers—because of All Saints’ Day and Tatay’s birthday on the 15^th, and Thanksgiving on the last week. This is a first experience for all. Remember, ASD was observed to celebrate the lives of Godly men and women who have gone ahead.

We Filipinos have always believed that we retain a connection to those who have passed away, whatever our religion. So how do we who know Jesus as Lord celebrate those who died in Christ and are alive with God?

In our culture, we have always lighted candles. However, this act is invested with meanings that may be contrary to Scripture. Could we, as Christians, invest new meanings to old cultural forms? I believe we can. When believers light a candle to celebrate a loved one who is with Christ, they could give the following good explanations:

1. Life is short. Death is sure. Mauubos ang kandila. Tatay was allowed 74 years, and he applied himself to honoring his Lord and Savior once he became a believer. No vacations from faithfulness.

2. All of us will give an account to God for how we lived our lives. By the grace of God, Tatay finished well. Someone has said, 70% of Christian leaders don’t. I hope I will. May my life “burn well.”

3. Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Life wasn’t always fair to Tatay. But he focused on letting the light of Christ shine in his life. The love of Jesus and gratefulness left no room for insecurity in him, allowing a single-mindedness of purpose.

Do everything without complaining or arguing. Then you will be blameless and innocent. You will be God's children without any faults among people who are crooked and corrupt. You will shine like stars among them in the world as you hold firmly to the word of life. Then I can brag on the day of Christ that my effort was not wasted and that my work produced results.

Philippians 2:14-16, God’s Word