Some Christmas Thoughts (with the help of Blessed Charles de Foucauld)

1. Adam and Eve ate from the prohibited tree. A command was given, "You may eat from any and all trees EXCEPT from the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil". There is nothing wrong with knowing what is good. There is nothing wrong with knowing what is evil. The problem lies in the word "and"; hence "good AND evil". 
2. With the help of a Biblical concordance, when this phrase with the word AND emerges in a Biblical text it indicates a problem, a risk. Good AND evil implies the risk of transforming evil into good and transforming good into evil. For example I like to kill my fellow. It is evil but I want to make it a good thing to do. Nobody will tell me it is bad because I consider it good. A confusion is thus described in the phrase "good AND evil"; it is the confusion of mixing up good with evil and losing proper discernment. 
3. Hence the command of the Lord God in the garden is a description of the human condition as created by the Lord God. The human condition involves freedom. You may do anything you want; BUT know the limit. Feel free to do anything you want, BUT recognize the limit. If the human rejects the limit "you will die". It is deadly to live with mixing up evil with good and not knowing which is really good and which is really evil. It is no longer a happy and vibrant life to live according to the intolerable; that is, to live with evil as if evil is good.
4. When the Lord God gave the command, the Lord God immediately supplemented it by saying, "it is not good for the human to be alone". Hence you may do anything you want to do, but know the limits by living with the other. It is in living with the other, or as the book of Genesis would say, with a "helper" that you will know how to manage limits. The "helper" will guide you with the limits. Both Adam and Eve, then, were to be helpers to each other. Life becomes an adventure in which the partners in the garden will explore the whole garden, discover what is in there and do anything they want within the given limit of not eating from the prohibited tree. The adventure dies if they eat from that tree. If they eat from that tree they will start saying that they have no more limits--hence there is nothing more to discover, to learn, to see, to enjoy; there is no need to adventure.
5. Hence the Garden of Eden story, as written by human authors, is a description of human life meanto to be adventurous; and we might add as "socially adventurous". We know the story, Adam and Eve, each ate a fruit from the prohibited tree. They accepted the story line of the serpent and lost the fun and joy of adventuring in life.    
6. I would like to appreciate the story in the perspective of philosophy. The human has limits starting with the limits of human incarnation. I have a body and at the same time I am my body. Hence this body is not just a thing, not just a material object for scientific scrutiny. This body is also me. 
7. Beginning with the human incarnation the world is then delineated into space, time and society. Clearly the delineations indicate human limits. For example in terms of space the human can reach certain places and the human cannot reach certain places. I can reach the pen next to me but not the top of, say, Mount Apo. I can see the computer screen but not the wall behind me. I terms of time I can pace in my own way but I must recognize the pacing of the world around me. I might want to rush planting papaya seeds in my garden but I also must recognize that the best time to do this is during the next rainy season. I may want to drink my cup of coffee but I must wait for the coffee to somehow cool a bit so I will not burn my tongue. In terms of society I may have my own thoughts and feelings and express them to others, but other people also have their own thoughts and feelings. I must recognize that fact and not violate their own access to their own thoughts and feelings. I might want a child to master at once algebra in school but I must also recognize the pacing and capacities of the child for learning algebra. With others I need to keep in mind that they have their thoughts, feelings, joys, pains, plans and goals. Others are my sabbath too.
8. What can I do? This is the human condition with all its limits. I can adventure and adventure with others, in the family, in the neighborhood, in society. Forgetting the limits can create a hellish life. 
9. Just think of the violation we have been doing to the carrying capacity of nature. We demand so much from nature and if nature cannot give in to our demands we intensify our demands and production to the point that we do not care about the plastics we throw into the sea and the carbon we spit into the air. 
10. Just think of conditions of many workers. From many workers are demanded profitable work but with salaries that cannot sustain a decent family life.   
11. Returning to Biblical reflections I am reminded, this time, of the first creation story--the seven-day story. The Lord God is such a marvelous and powerful creator but on the seventh day the Lord God takes a distance from being the marvelous and powerful one. The Lord God takes a distance--a "sabbath distance"--from God's own mastery over the world and allow the created order to take its own stand. Some biblists would poetically say that as soon as the Lord God takes this sabbath distance the created world sings joyfully and thank the Lorde God.
12. Among the creatures is the human being created in the image AND LIKENESS of the Lord God. This word "likeness" specifies that the human being is TO BE LIKE GOD by ALSO taking a Sabbath distance. The human is master of the world, ok, fine, great. But the human is commanded to take a distance from that mastery. The human is created male/female BUT must also be man/woman. You may be male/female BUT BE MAN/WOMAN. You may be master BUT know how to take a distance from that mastery. Note the same structure found in the garden of Eden story: "you may, but". In the case of Adam and Eve, the other person is a "sabbath". The human can be master but the other person must be recognized in his/her sabbath status. Know when to distance from your mastery in order to allow the other person to be himself/herself. (This is one reason why, in the first creation story, the human is told to be vegetarian--eating without competition with the animals. It is only in the Noah's ark story where the Lord God agrees that the human can also eat the meat of animals--BUT not the blood. The same structure is insisted on: "you may, but...")
13. So comes a Christmas meditation. The Word became flesh. If in the creation story the Lord God takes a sabbath distance--a distance from being Lord and Master and Powerful, the same logic is found in the New Testament. In the New Testament the Word became flesh or, as St. Paul would say, "Although he was God, he did not count equality with being God, HE EMPTIED HIMSELF AND BECAME HUMAN". The logic of the sabbath distance is now reiterated in the Incarnation of the Son. The command that the human take a distance from power and mastery, the command to be free with all desires but with recognition of limits is now, in the New Testament, made so evident. The solidarity of the Word of God with us is in our very own incarnation--starting with conception and with the birth in Bethlehem. This solidarity of God with the human is expressed in the confirmation of our creation. We were created "like God" and we were created to have a full, adventurous life. In and through the Incarnation of the Word God has confirmed and affirmed that our very own incarnation is of so much value and dignity.
14. Let me end with some thoughts taken from Blessed Charles de Foucauld. He was so enamored by the Eucharist. In the Eucharist he saw both Christmas and Holy Week. Let me just mention the Christmas side. Each time there is a mass the bread becomes Body of Jesus Christ. It is a Christmas. Jesus was born in the First Century Palestine, and during each mass he is again born in Pacita San Pedro Laguna, in Cotabato City, in New Delhi, in Lima Peru, in Yaounde Cameroon, in Fribourg, Switzerland etc. For Blessed Charles de Foucauld there is always this Christmas going on each day, somewhere, in which the Incarnation occurs. The solidarity of the Incarnation, this time in the Eucharist, assures us that really God is with us. 

On Touching Jesus and Jacob's Wrestling with God

On Touching Jesus
Look at the miracle narratives in the Gospels (and Acts). The narratives are theological constructs written by the authors. Sure, they are based on the historical experience with Jesus, a healer and someone who restored people to their human integrity. But the actual miracle reports were theological texts. Post-Easter Christians, as can be discerned in the letters of St. Paul, understood Christian life as characterized by the efforts to empower each other and to help each other restore each other from pains and struggles. Hence the effort to exert medical help to someone ill is, itself, a miracle.
God does not contradict the nature of God's created world. In and through nature miracles happen. This includes the actions we do to help each other live with dignity. Hence we do not have to look for extraordinary events to witness miracles. Miracles can happen in the most ordinary situations of daily life. I know of someone who made the courageous decision to address his deteriorating health due to vices by consulting, first thing in the morning, the doctor. I'd see that as a miracle. Think of a parent who is so emotionally distant from the children and who decides to re-bond with them. I'd see that as a miracle. Or think of someone so attached to his/her loneliness and decides to seek ways to be happy with the help of friends. Isn't that miraculous? Consider someone who puts work for justice above self-centered career. Isn't that miraculous?
I am not exactly sure of what goes on in people's minds when they wipe their handkerchiefs on statues and images and re-wipe the handkerchiefs on themselves. Do they expect a certain "power" coming from the statues and images? Let us, however, look at one power, it is the "power of the resurrection" as St. Paul stated it (see, for example, 1Cor15). This is seen, for example, in our efforts, small and silent as they may be, in supporting each other to rise constantly from the pull of the dark knowing that "at the end of the day" we will all rise with the Lord.

On Jacob's wrestling with God:
In Genesis we read about Jacob wrestling with God (see Gen 32).
One interpretation of this wresting goes this way. God, who is Almighty, pretends to be weaker. God gives Jacob a trial--a trial that Jacob can handle. So the interpretation extends to our life by saying that God gives us trials--God wrestles with us--but gives us trials that we can handle. 
Is God, however, also really "weak"? Biblical views show God has, from the very start in the creation story, shown a weak side. The Sabbath distance of the seventh day is God's option to take a distance from power and might to be in solidarity with the created world. In the Christian tradition this God will be nailed on the cross. Over the centuries the Church, with her councils, will deal with the "heretical" refusal to acknowledge the humanity of Jesus Christ. One heresy states that Jesus Christ was only pretending to have a hard time up the cross; his God side was using his human side as a front.
Going back to the Jacob story, then, we see that after the wrestling with God Jacob is given a new name, "Israel" signifying "wrestling with God". 
Put this in the whole Jacob cycle of Genesis. Jacob is fearful because of Esau. He is now confronted with his own fear. Jacob is frozen in fear (see his preparations before meeting Esau). 
Jacob is then to confront the fear by first wrestling with God. Face God tonight, face Esau tomorrow. Jacob will address fear by first wrestling with God and receiving God's blessing. What does the story conclude? 
Jacob can never flee from fear. Remember that after the wrestling Jacob will receive a handicap on his hip. Handicapped, he cannot flee, he cannot run. He cannot flee using his own strength--his resources. He will need others--and God. The most authentic way to face fear is by relying on others and God's solidarity with him. Here is where we can appreciate the "weakness" of God. 
Of course we tend to say that God is so strong, all mighty, all powerful and has no weak side. Theologians of the Middle Ages have emphasized this strong and powerful side of God. But "weakness" can be interpreted as the option of God to be on our side, to accompany us, to be one with our joys and pains. "Weakness" can be interpreted as God's willingness to respect us and our being creatures. 
We can appreciate this through what St. Paul called as the "self-emptying" of Jesus: "he emptied himself and became human " he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2/7-8a).
 Remember the Adam and Eve story where God puts them in a condition in which life will be an adventure between both of them. Each will be a partner of the other. It is the human condition described in the Adam and Eve cycle, a human condition that is refused, not acknowledged by Adam and Eve. Now Jacob is to live in adventure with God as partner. Israel is to live in partnership with God.  Jacob thus will have to learn to face, rather than avoid, his fear, thanks to the fact that he is not alone. 
This interpretation, if correct, helps me re-frame my view of God. I am more attuned to the view that God walks with us in life and accompanies us in the trials we face. God does not give trials, God undergoes our trials with us. Both God and us wrestle with our trails, pains, joys, adventures. Hopefully this interpretation helps me face my own neurosis developed in time since childhood by the view that God tests me and sends me trials.

Love and forgiveness in our Christian vocation

In social media sometimes we read posts that wish bad things happening to others. For example we read about differences in political views and affiliations. Those on one side show intense bitterness and hatred against those on the other side. But how would a Christian behave in such situations? We were taught love and forgiveness.

To forgive is in the teaching of Jesus. In the Our Father Jesus also teaches that "if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions (Mt 6/14-15). Jesus insists here on the importance of forgiveness. Now we can think of the story of the unforgiving servant in Mt 18. The parable is given in the context of Peter's question regarding forgiveness "seven times". In the parable the master forgives first. The forgiveness comes first. The servant's unforgiving of another comes next. 

The parable is saying that when one is forgiven the result is that the forgiveness is transmitted to others. God forgives so we know how to forgive. Our forgiveness is a result of our being forgiven. If we refuse to forgive we then do not accept the forgiveness done to us; we do not live up to the fruits of the forgiveness done to us. This thus explains what Jesus means when he says "if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions". The image of the Father not forgiving is, in reality, the refusal of the forgiven to accept the forgiveness of the Father. This refusal has its consequence in relationship with others. One remains stubborn and one treats others harshly. Why will the Father like that?

Jesus also teaches about love of enemies. This is a tough lesson to accept. How can we love enemies? How can we love those who have caused us so much suffering? Jesus in fact tells us to love our enemies and "do good to those who hate you (Lk6/27)". What? Do we do good to those who have done us so much injustice? Do we not have bitterness towards them? How can we love them and even do good to them? Is Jesus crazy in his teaching?

Love comes from a loving heart. One loves because the other person has the dignity of being loved, no matter who he or she is, no matter what he or she has done. Love desires the good of others, including enemies. This is because each and every single person has human dignity and is image of God. By the fact of being existent, each person is worthy of love, especially of God's love. So loving an enemy is not narrowly about feeling affection for that person; it is about recognizing the human dignity proper to that person. Hence we never wish bad things for an other person, no matter who he or she is, not matter what he or she has done. We do good to those we hate by keeping them away from their refusal to live up according to the dignity God has given them. This is part of our Christian vocation in the world. 

The Christian does not promote hatred and discrimination. The Christian does not promote wishing bad things to happen to anyone. The Social Doctrine of the Church has emphasized the central place of human dignity. The Christian is always guided by this dignity.

Love, in the teaching of Jesus, involves our being open to others. We never close the door to the dignity of others. Refusing to forgive is thus refusing to love. Why? This is because the refusal to forgive is a closing of the door. It is a way of saying that the other person ceases to share a future with us. Our dignity is no longer something we share. We are no longer on equal terms. This is a refusal of the dignity that God has given to each person. 

If we are guided by love then we always wish the good of others, even those we hate. This is why we can talk of "forgiveness". In forgiveness we never give up the hope in and the respect for the dignity of others.  

In practical terms we oppose the injustice that someone else will do, in love we protect that person from doing the injustice! We struggle to make sure that the person is disabled from doing injustice. Note that we wish the good of the other person--we wish that the other person step away from the evil of injustice. We wish that the person exercises justice. We wish that the person stays faithful to the dignity God has given him or her. This is why we forgive not just seven times but seventy times seventy times--that is, we forgive infinitely. We remain faithful to the dignity that God has given to each and every single human person.

Love hopes to protect others from doing bad things. This too is forgiveness. This is a way of recognizing and respecting the dignity proper to others. Because of their dignity and because they are image of God they must be re-located from injustice to justice, from violence to peace, from hatred to love itself. The bad things that others might be doing only harm them. The bad things destroy them. Our struggle for justice does not involve wishing bad things to happen to the unjust. It involves restoring the goodness that the dignified person is really capable of doing. 

God loved us first. God has forgiven us first. Hence the fruit of what God has done to us is for us to transmit love and forgiveness in our relationships. We would like to have love and forgiveness bloom in our actions even if we find it impossible to delete the pains others have done to us. 

Jesus taught that we be "perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt5/48)". The perfection of the heavenly Father is something we can always do. The Father loves, the Father forgives, we can do the same. Christian vocation is thus not about doing things we can never do. We have been given guidelines by Jesus and we can do them as best as we can.