CONSORTIUM NEWSLETTER
(OCTOBER 28, 2016)
HOW WE VIEW THE WORLD HAS GREAT RAMIFICATIONS FOR OUR FAITH LIFE
The other day I was watching the television show called the T. D. Jakes Show; the focus of the show was on extra-ordinary kids. The program was so refreshing and uplifting that later it raised an important question for me: given our culture today, how have I been influenced or formed by that culture and how has it shaped thereby my Faith life?
I made a decision to ponder the question because it really asked me to look at those cultural influences and their impact on my life. I have now for a long time been aware of cultural criticism and how it affects my Faith. And I have used this discipline well in my ongoing ministry with good results. But because of the television program above, this question had a newness about it that I had to explore now for myself. I ask you to accompany me on this second look.
I began by looking (again) at the usual news coverage by today’s media and I was struck by how much of it was/is essentially bad news. I do not mean that the news was covered badly with all kinds of mistakes, errors, biases, selective by choice, etc.; I mean this was literally true of the contents – it basically was about bad things like war, strife, crime, disease, bad consequences (like those of climate change), strife, evil propaganda, people doing bad (sinful) things, marriage breakups, murder, etc., etc. In many cases, the coverage was totally these kinds of concerns.
Throw in the pan-sexualism (sexuality all over) of newscasts and entertainment and the media barrel marked reality was overflowing, e.g., I still keep wondering what beautiful womenbeside sport cars has to do with selling the car – what is the logical connection here? I know this is meant to entice me to buy the car (or anything else that uses this approach to advertising) but that is not a logical connection.
I have been well-instructed as to how advertising works and I am aware of the statement that media needs to cover stories that grab our attention, stories that sell, and this is why media concentrates on these kinds of stories for their newscasts. All this I have encountered before but what was new for me was the mega-question that came out of this, i.e., Fred, when you look at our world today, have you become cynical or optimistic? This jolted me!
We all believe that the world needs Christ’s redemption and I certainly believe that strongly. But when I look at today’s world, how do I see that need? Am I seeing the world going to hell in a hand-basket or is it a place of goodness and sin that needs Christ to bring it to the fullness of its possibilities and potentialities? The first seems to be riddled with cynicism and pessimism whereas the second one is more optimistic. So I asked myself, without a lot of thought but looking at my gut reaction, where do I belong? Without giving in to the desire of wanting to be a “good” person who would like to hold the latter, I was surprised to find myself maintaining much of the former view! The former view, my view, seems to be less Christian and seems to be saying that when I look at the world, it seems to be saturated with sin, badness, negativity, dog-eat-dog attitude, falling apart-ness, failure and failure, etc. I realize this is not the stance of the Gospel because it overlooks too much the fact thatin our world there are many very good people (formed in Christ’s Resurrection which is really impacting on today’s world).
I need to convert myself from the first stance to the second one. The T. D. Jakes show mentioned above is helping me to do this. Please let me give you just one example from it. The Bishop had on the show a 12-year-old girl who wanted to make a difference in the world. For a class/school assignment, she did some research on hunger in today’s world and presented this to the class. Then she set up a foodbank called “Make A Difference” where hungry people could come to get a meal and take it with them. At this point, I was totally in awe to what this little “saint” was doing (she is a Christian!). Then she totally blew my mind when she said people could ask for a meal based on meat or on fish or vegetarian. She was encouraged in all this by her mother. And when the Bishop asked her how many meals she gives away per month, I fell out of my chair! What would you guess the number to be? It was over 1400! A young school girl who could manage all this because she was a Christian and believed she could make a difference! God bless her in every way! And our culture is in desperate need to hear “good news” stories like this one.
If you have been following me in these reflections, you will know that there is another television show that I watch on occasion and that is the Steve Harvey Show. I like his show because it is positive and promotes good values and God-talk is certainly used and allowed. One day recently he was celebrating heroes/heroines (of all ages) and bringing them to the attention of his audience (and to the many viewers of the show).
On this particular show, he had a young boy (about 13 years old) with an adult man whose life had been saved by the boy. The man was his coach and the boy wason a team (I am not sure if it was football or basketball). The man was coaching the team when he fell down; he fell down because he had some kind of a heart-attack even though he was younger than 30, was in good shape, and did not have any history of a heart problem. The boy immediately went to the fallen man and picked up his cell phone which apparently had fallen out of his pocket. The boy called 911 and stated what had happened; he was told that they would tell him how to do CPR until the medics could arrive. So the boy did this until the medics arrived and took the coach to the hospital. The coach did survive.
The boy was recognized as saving the coach’s life. What an amazing feat! In all of this, I did not catch all the details but apparently the boy had to keep tapping the phone to keep it “live.” I have no idea what this means and why he had to do it but I did catch that the boy had to do this so that the phone could be used! In any case, the focus is not here but what the boy did in this situation. In the interview with Steve Harvey, the man was very grateful for how the boy saved his life.
Steve Harvey later in the show stated that big city neighbourhoods (as, for example, in Chicago) are often portrayed in the media as places filled with bad people; so he is going to add a segment to his television show to highlight the good people in these areas. Secondly, in one of the conversations on the show, Harvey was speaking to a woman who was reaching out to people who needed help and the conversation turned to the topic of God. Harvey said one thing about God that really stayed with me. He said that we block God’s blessings to us because we are fearful and “wary” (uncertain). This makes sense to me.
I know that how we view our world shapes and fashions how we do ministry. In the future, from time to time, I will prayerfully need to ask myself the following questions: maybe you may need to do the same:
a)on the spectrum of judgment going from very good to very bad, how would I judge the world to be, the world where I live and the world where I minister or build up the Kin_dom of God?;
b)is there any one who or any situation where I should refuse ministry/ministrations?;
c)can I approach everyone I encounter and especially everyone to whom I minister Pope Francis’ way, i.e., here we are on sacred ground?
d)and do I believe in the power of God to work “miracles” through one person? Can that person be me?
THE ENIGMA OF SUFFERING
Note: The following material of this section of the newsletter is very relevant to those who are separated or divorced, those in bereavement, and anyone who is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by events like losing one’s job, developing a serious illness, being shamed in public in some way, a serious failure on the academic path, etc. Please passit on if you know someone who can use this. Thank you!
SUFFERING! SUFFERING! Suffering is inevitable if one is alive and it is a major experience/challenge on our journey. How is a Christian/Catholic supposed to handle it? Learning and thinking and praying about suffering is relevant to anyone who accepts God. If I may, allow me to walk you through a mini-course on the topic. Thank you. God help you if you are suffering in any way. Let us begin with some thoughts and reflections for your meditation and prayer (below).
The material below comes from the days of my graduate studies in the Holy Scriptures at TST (Toronto School of Theology) and it comes from a great Scripture scholar whose material is excellent. What we have below is a synopsis about what the Bible says about suffering taken from one of his works (Doctor/Professor Daniel J. Simundson, “Suffering,” Harper’s Bible Dictionary). It is a great idea to look up the given biblical references (below) in the Bible because then you increase your understanding of the material you are reading.
Suffering is “pain or distress, one of the most persistent of all human problems. Even those who experience relatively minor suffering in their own lives are constantly confronted with the suffering of others – within their own families, among their acquaintances, or even in distant lands. Suffering takes many forms … Such unpleasantness comes to good religious people too.” (Simundson).
The biblical view of suffering can be subdivided five-fold.
The first consideration is suffering as the result of human sin. Basically this biblical view is saying suffering is the fault of human beings. Genesis Chapters 1-3 tells us that God intended the world to be good but man’s/woman’s disobedience brought suffering into the world. “No longer is the world the way God wanted it to be … All now are vulnerable to the possibility of suffering in their lives.” (Simundson)
In this context, suffering at times is seen as retribution for sin. The Wisdom Book of Proverbs tells us that one who leads a good life suffers less than one who lives a bad life. True, but as a way to differentiate why one person suffers and another does not, this point of view does not hold up because there are too many examples of bad people prospering and good people suffering. There are too many examples of this to make this a universal explanation.
Thus the retribution approach does not always work. Note that Jesus in the Gospels tells us that it is wrong to interpret each example of suffering as if it were a consequence of sin. “And following Jesus is not guarantee that one will avoid suffering” (Simundson).
The second biblical consideration sees suffering as leading to a greater good. At times it seems terrible to say this but some good comes out of suffering. “Many have found this to be a helpful way to find meaning in their suffering. It avoids preoccupation with suffering as punishment with God as the Judge, and turns the sufferer toward the future and the possibilities that God will work something good from what seems so bad.” (Simundson)
Sometimes suffering may benefit others but it is hard for people to believe this until there has been enough time elapsed to see that God has used suffering to help others. A good example is the story of Joseph towards the end of the Book of Genesis. Remember the story: his brothers sell him into slavery and Joseph then ends up in Egypt. A lot of things happen to Joseph but at the end of his life Joseph sees how many people have benefited because of his suffering (Genesis 50:15-21). Joseph was in the right place to help people survive famine; this would not have happened if his brothers had not sold him into slavery.
And do keep in mind that Christians maintain that Christ’s suffering (and death) has benefited all humankind. “His death, brought about by human beings acting out of wicked motives, has been turned by God into Christians’ most central saving act” (Simundson).
This view also sees suffering as benefiting the one who is suffering. Many biblical people attest that they are better people because of their suffering. See the Letter to the Hebrews 12:3-11 and Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans at Romans 5:15.
The third biblical consideration of the question of suffering states suffering is caused by the evil forces in the universe. Here God’s role is turning “what is bad into something that, if not good, at least can be of some benefit” (Simundson). Another possibility here is that the source of suffering is not God nor humans but supernatural forces of evil, hostile to humans and God, too powerful for us to stand on our own but absolutely no match for God. At times the evil force is the Devil (Satan) or a sea monster as a personification of superhuman evil powers or demons. Thus, “psychological, physical, and spiritual suffering may be caused by the evil forces and are not due to human sin or God’s execution of justice” (Simundson).
“In modern times, many people are uncomfortable with these images as a way of identifying the origin of suffering. On the other hand, many find there is no better way to talk about some forms of suffering. Some experiences of suffering are so terrible, so enormous in scale or depravity, that it is difficult to believe that humans are bad enough or that God is cruel enough to cause them. If one believes in a third force that is a common enemy of both God and humans, it is possible to join forces with God, not needing to blame either God or self, knowing that God will ultimately triumph over anything that can hurt humankind (see Romans 9:35-39).” (Simundson)
The fourth biblical approach or understanding of suffering is to regard suffering as a mystery.
“Human efforts to explain with satisfaction all experiences of suffering are deemed to frustration. Answers may be found that are partially satisfying, that may work in some cases, or may provide some help for the need to find meaning. No matter how hard one tries, however, unanswered questions remain. At some point, one is finally confronted with the necessity of giving up the intellectual search, and leaving the unknown in the care of God.” (Simundson)
A good example of this is the Book of Job. “Human beings cannot even begin to comprehend the complex wonders of the created order, let alone the mystery of human suffering. There is an enormous gap between what God knows and what people know. Humans should be content to be human, leaving to God those matters that are and will always be (at least this side of the grave), beyond human comprehension.” (Simundson) A big part of our response here is to trust God!
The fifth and last biblical approach to suffering is permission to lament.
“This final category is of a different sort than the others [above]. Whether or not humans can find answers to their questions about suffering, they still need some ways to cope with the immediate experience. The biblical laments provide some help, to with the ‘why’ questions, but with the ‘how’ questions. How can one survive? How can one get through the long nights of pain, the months of loneliness without the loved one, the weeks and months when despair hangs like a heavy weight around one’s neck? ‘How long, O Lord?’ The laments (e.g., Psalms 3, 5,10, 17, 38) provide a biblical resource that helps sufferers to keep praying to God even when they are angry with God, doubtful of God’s good intentions, uncertain even where God might be found. They give them permission to express negative emotions without fear of reprisal from God. They remove the isolation, letting people know that others who have traveled this way before even great heroes of the faith like David and Jeremiah, have had thoughts and feelings similar to their own. They are not the only ones who have ever lived who felt like this. Perhaps they are not losing their minds or their faith.” (Simundson)
Our culture stifles lament with sayings like “keep a stiff upper lip” or “smile on the outside and cry on the inside.” However, “the response of biblical peoples to the suffering in their lives can be helpful to all who seek ways to deal with unpleasant thoughts and emotions that intrude into their existence in times of great trial.