The Importance of the New Year

New Year

The New Year evokes the passage of time, to which we are subjected and which drags us irretrievably (it is that of one more year and one year less); it is a year of grace (time is a gift that God makes to us, totally full of his goodness, of his proximity, of his call); It reminds us of the mystery of the incarnation and the historically of our faith (it was on a given day of a year that Jesus was born; it was another day of another year that he died. Like our lives, yours is also subjected to the course of time: being born, growing, dying). That the new year is celebrated within the Christmas festivities is for Christians an invitation to live throughout this 365-day span that begins in the company of the Lord Jesus, in whom the benignity of God is manifested to us.

New Year, Old Man

This is usually not what happens ordinary in our personal lives, even on New Year's Eve on December 31 that links the year that says goodbye to the one that shakes hands at the cold dawn of January 1. I wish it were, not in the sense of changing our shirts to that of another political color, but in what it represents, however worn out the expression, that of the New Year, new life. He is a magnificent saint and sign, provided that life-changing is a sign of authentic growth and moral improvement. It is not bad, but quite the opposite, that of wishing each other a prosperous new year, provided that we do not exhaust or dimension in the field of economics those good wishes, as seems to imply, with tomatillo, the qualifier in question.

It is worth here, as never before, that of putting the values of being before those of having.  Remember that law on manifestly improvable rustic farms? Someone said to several of its owners: Here the first manifestly improvable are you.  Well, apply the story! What is to be renewed in the new year is our personal life, from the inside out and not the other way around. Understanding by quality of life not only the old triptych of health, affection and money, but also, and, above all, moral dignity, the spirit of service and the constant commitment to doing good at full hands.

The law sets specific dates for the expiration of food and medicine and also sets the periods in which cars are to be passed to the workshop for necessary review. And we, what? Oh, if so many bad habits, so many inertias, so many routines expire on December 31st! And, how good it would be for many of us, as   Lent approaches, to enter the workshop   of a Spiritual Retreat, of an Annual Exercises, to review the interior mechanisms, to renew some useless pieces of our already exhausted    programs!

Dissatisfied

We are special beings ourselves, who pursue tranquility, security, growing development..., but nevertheless we are always dissatisfied. When we’ve achieved something, we quickly become routine, repeated, boring: "Everything is always the same!" Perhaps this way of being has its motive and foundation.  Because we have been made for a word that has permanence and always validity; for a word that, on the other hand, is always new.

Shalom/Peace:

Jesus, as a good Jew, would say "shalom". Even today, when one Jew greets another with "shalom" he doesn't just want you not to be warned and not harassed by your neighbors.  "Shalom" is not only biblically the absence of war. It's kind of a summary of all the saving goods. To desire "shalom" is to wish one inner and outer peace, acceptance, fraternity, being for the good of the other, harmony with oneself and with nature, deep harmony with life and with the cosmos, the ineffable peace with God. 

We started a year. A "new year" people say. But it can be just one more year for the usual war, one more year to keep talking about reconciliation. The truth is that the year we started is nothing more or less than a conventional space open to our responsibility. Time doesn't change anything. It is the man who must change the world. And he has to do it with the greatest realism.

Because, on the one hand, we know that last year's world hasn't happened. The same problems remain: war, hunger, injustice. And the same conditionings continue to weigh: ideologies, prejudices, taboos, confessable interests, selfishness. This is not to make it easy to exercise freedom and change the world so that everyone's freedom is possible.

But on the other hand, we believe that Jesus, the Son of God, was born of woman and has grown under the law in a precise sociocultural context, to redeem us: so that we may have the possibility of being children of God and, as such, sovereignly free.

This is who we already are: children of God. But it is essential to become aware of our new situation, so that we do not cry again at any pretense of reducing ourselves to slavery. Because we are already liberated, even if it has not manifested itself objectively and quiet, we can live in freedom and we can act freely. Rather, we must commit ourselves to creating the necessary conditions to make everyone's freedom possible.

This is our task: to free ourselves and others from all biological and circumstantial conditionings, so that everyone's life may be possible. Bread for all is the first task. But new living conditions must also be created for collaboration and mutual understanding. Peace for all is the other aspect. For without bread life is impossible; but, without peace, bread and life are unbeatable.

For commitment

Prayers, wishes and speeches will not suffice. All committed. All called to be witnesses and sowers of peace. If not all of us can become great prophets or Nobel Peace Prize winners, we can be small masons or pawns of the new society. The policy of small steps is imposed: an acceptance of yourself, a reconciliation, a forgiveness, a loving closeness, a patience, a word, a dialogue, a mediation, a clean complaint, a brave fight. A small pacifying gesture is worth more than many speeches about peace.

Objection to all violence We will have to begin by disarming and pacifying ourselves and we will have to make common with all those who raise the flag of conscientious objection, tax objection and the objection of all violence. And we will have to oppose every arms race and all terrorism and all manipulation and all injustice and all dehumanization. And we will have to continue to believe in man. And we will have to continue believing, above all else, in Jesus of Nazareth. "We will therefore seek what fosters peace" (Rm 14,19): the peace that Jesus came to bring to earth and that He offered to his disciples: Shalom.

Coronavirus: Will families be able to meet at Christmas and New Year's?

The world is preparing to live the sweetest time of a challenging and rarefied year by covid-19.

Family meetings for Christmas and New Year are tradition every year on those dates, although the coronavirus pandemic could upset plans. Family meetings for Christmas and New Year may be affected by the coronavirus crisis in the rest of the world' countries.

The rise of contagion worldwide threatens to see these meetings that every year are a tradition for celebrating family holidays. Some measures such as maintaining the safety distance or reducing the number of people gathered in private spaces could cause these to be the first Christmas holidays long damaged by the incidence of the pandemic.

In the future, when we remember the atrocious 2020 and tell what this Christmas was like, we will do it with a bittersweet taste. We will have ended the most terrible year of which we keep memories and the cups will help to leave behind what has been experienced and that the announced vaccine arrives soon.

Believers and non-believers, forums of the Christmas spirit and agnostics of this rite, we will all be infected, inevitably, by the emotional and cheerful climate that will float those days in the environment, which always ends up softening the most reluctant. However, the unheard-of conditions in which we will celebrate them, coupled with the heaviness we have dragged since March, will remind us of a strange Christmas, the rarest of our lives.

It is impossible to know at this time whether migrants will be able to return to their home locations to meet with their relatives, how many will be able to sit around the same.

Many older people waited for Christmas to leave their residences and join their relatives. Losing that rubbing will increase the feeling of sadness and helplessness they have already been dragging. The list of Christmas traditions that this year we will have foreseen is long and varied. But the set of rituals that we can celebrate is just as extensive. In the end, it will all depend on the attitude with which we face this experience. If we live it as a loss because of the resignations we'll have to assume, we'll feel bad. If we see it as a different Christmas, the emotional impact will be less.

Don't let your guard down, take care of yourself and take care of yours. Celebrate these festivities in the privacy of your home and with biosecurity measures. Remember that the covid-19 will not disappear overnight and, therefore, at Christmas the recommendations regarding the use of Masks, frequent hand washing and social distancing should be respected.

Choose to be happy. Everything is temporary, and this pandemic remindes us that we have no control over most things, but it does have at its fingertips the attitude with which it faces difficult times and lives special dates like Christmas.

This year 2020 will come to an end and will leave us, not only a great void, but also a great learning. It has been a clear example of how human beings can face extreme situations and draw strength even from where there are none.

We will have the memory, a couple of heartbreaking images and the internalization of the great philosophical conviction "the past times were always better."

Honor and Respect for the Deceased, November 2nd.

 

The Catholic Church, since the time of the first Christians, has always surrounded the dead with an atmosphere of sacred respect. This and the funeral honors that have always been taxed on them allow them to speak of a certain cult of the deceased: worship not in the strict theological sense, but understood as a broad sacred honor and respect for the deceased by those who have faith in the resurrection of the flesh and in future life.

Christianity in its first centuries did  not reject worship for the deceased of ancient civilizations, but consolidated it, prior purification, giving it its true  transcendent meaning, in the light of the knowledge of the immortality of the soul and the dogma of the resurrection; since the body  which during life is "temple of the HolySpirit"and"member of Christ" (1 Cor 6:15-9) and whose ultimate destiny is spiritual transformation in the resurrection has always been, in the eyes of Christians, as worthy of respect and veneration as the most holy things.

This respect has been expressed, first of all, in the very way of burying the corpses. We see, in fact, that in imitation of what they did with Lord Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the pious women, the corpses were often washed, anointed, wrapped in bandages impregnated in scents, and thus carefully placed in the tomb.

In the minutes of the martyrdom of St. Pancracio it is said that the holy martyr was buried "after being anointed with perfumes and wrapped in delicious canvases"; and the body of Saint Cecilia appeared in 1599, when the cypress ark that enclosed her was opened, dressed in delicious clothes.

But not only is this careful preparation of the corpse a sign of the piety and worship professed by Christians to the deceased, but also material burial is an eloquent expression of these same feelings. This is especially clear in the veneration from the time of the first early Christians was professed towards the tombs: flowers were scattered on them and freed from perfumes on the graves of loved ones.

In the first half of the second century, after having some concessions and donations, Christians began to bury their dead underground. And so, began the catacombs. Many of them were excavated and expanded around the tombs of families whose newly converted owners did not reserve them only for their own, but opened them to their brethren in the faith.

As time went on, the burial areas widened, sometimes at the initiative of the Church itself. It is typical of the catacombs of Saint Calixto: The Church directly assumed its administration and organization, on a community basis.

With the edict of Milan,promulgated by emperors  Constantine and Licinius in February  313,Christians ceased to suffer persecution. They could profess their faith freely, build places of worship and churches inside and outside the city walls, and buy lots of land without danger of being confiscated.

However, the catacombs continued to function as regular cemeteries until the beginning of the 5thcentury, when the Church reburied exclusively on the surface and in the basilicas dedicated to important martyrs.

But the veneration of the faithful focused in a particular way on the tombs of the martyrs; it was actually around them that the worship of the saints was born. However, this very special worship of martyrs did not suppress the professed veneration of the dead in general. Rather, it could be said that, somehow, it was enhanced.

Indeed: in the minds of the early Christians, the martyr, the victim of his unwavering fidelity to Christ, was part of the ranks of God's friends, whose friends of God beatific vision he enjoyed from the very moment of his death: what better protectors than these friends of God?

The faithful understood this and always had as a very high honor to rest after their death near the body of some of these martyrs, fact that received the name of tomb ad sanctos.

For their part, the living was also convinced that no tribute to their deceased could be equated to burying them sheltered from the protection of martyrs.

They considered that this ensured not only the inviolability of the tomb and the guarantee of the rest of the deceased, but also a greater and more effective intercession and help of the saint.

This is how the basilicas and churches generally became true cemeteries,which soon forced the ecclesiastical authorities to put a limit on the burials in them.

 Funerals and Burials

But this did not affect the feeling of deep respect and veneration that the Church professed and continued to profess to her deceased children.

Hence, despite the prohibitions she was forced to avoid abuse, she remained steadfast in her will to honor them. And so it was established that, before being buried, the corpse should be brought to the Church and, placed before the altar, the Holy Mass was celebrated in his suffrage. 

This practice, already almost common towards the end of the 4th century and of which St. Augustine gives us a clear testimony in recounting the funerals of his mother Saint Monica in his Confessions, has remained to this day.

St Augustine also explained to the Christians of his day how external honors would not bring any benefit or honor to the dead if they were not accompanied by the spiritual honors of prayer: "Without these prayers, inspired by faith and piety towards the deceased, I believe that it would be of no use to their souls if their bodies deprived of life were placed in a holy place. If so, let us convince ourselves that we can only favor the deceased if we offer for them the sacrifice of the altar, prayer oralms" (Decura pro mortuis gerenda, 3 and 4).

Understanding it this way, the Church, who always had the concern to give dignified burial to the corpses of her children, toasted to honor them the best of their spiritual deposits. Depositary of christ's redeeming merits, he wanted to apply them to his deceased, taking into practice offering on days on their graves what he so beautifully called St. Augustine sacrificium pretii nostri,the sacrifice of our rescue. 

The Deceased in the Liturgy.

On the other hand, since the 3rd century it is common to all liturgies to remember the deceased. That is, in addition to some special Masses offered by them next to the tombs, in all the other Eucharistic synaxis memory moment of the deceased was made, as is still done. This same spirit of affection and tenderness encourages all prayers and ceremonies of the wonderful rite of the exequias.

Today the Church recalls in a special way her deceased children during the month of November, in which the "Commemoration of all the Faithful Dead"stand out,  on November 2nd,especially dedicated to her remembrance and suffrage for their souls; and the"Feast of All Saints", on the 1st of the month, which celebrates the arrival in heaven of all those saints who, without having acquired fame for their holiness in this life, reached the eternal prize, among which are the vast majority of the first Christians.

May all our faithful departed brothers and sisters especially those who have died of coronavirus (COVID-19) rest in peace. Amen.

Robert., NSINGA

 

 

 

 

Is Homosexuality inborn or acquired, learnt?

Homosexuality is a very old practice, which is still a reality in today’s world. Some countries have even taken the step of legalizing it as marriage while others criminalize it. Other countries prefer not to say anything on the topic. Its existence pushes us to ask ourselves a few questions:

What is homosexuality? Is it inborn or acquired (are homosexual oriented people born like that or do they become homosexuals)? Is it possible to change one’s orientation from homosexuality to heterosexuality? What is the aim of homosexual activity? Is homosexuality morally good or bad? Are there consequences of a homosexual activity? What attitude should we have towards homosexual oriented people?

What is homosexuality?

Every human being is a sexual being: we are born male or female. The physical, biological and psychological aspects of a male are different from those of a woman. This is obvious. Among the differences, we can note that the sexual organs of a male human being are different from the ones of a female human being. These sexual organs are also called reproductive organs because they play a very important role in the reproductive activity of human beings.

When a human being becomes mature, he feels the need to exercise his sexual activities: the sexual activity is in the sense of a man with a woman or a woman with a man. In most societies and religions, sexual intercourse is not allowed before and outside marriage. Therefore, the man and the woman are expected to officially get married in order to have sexual intercourse which in itself leads to reproduction or procreation as the ultimate scope of the union.

At times there are people who are sexually attracted to both sexes. These are called bisexuals. In other cases, there are people who are sexually attracted to another person of the same sex what we normally term homosexuality: a man sexually attracted to another man, and a woman sexually attracted to another woman.

Homosexuality is a sexual orientation in the same way as heterosexuality: when someone is sexually attracted by a person of the opposite sex. Some homosexual oriented people are active, others are not, just as for heterosexual oriented people.

Is it inborn or acquired, learnt?

What l have mentioned above leads us to ask the question over homosexuality: is it inborn or acquired? In other words: are there people who are born homosexuals or is it something which is acquired? Do some people become homosexual?

It is not easy to answer this question. There are two positions: those who say that it is inborn and those who say that it is acquired.

Some people claim that they were born homosexuals because they have never felt any attraction to the opposite sex. They say it’s not a free choice, but they are born like that, as one is born white or black without any choice on his behalf. Some think even that it is linked to the biological, physiological and neurological functions in them. There would be some gene or hormones or nerves responsible of this orientation. That’s why they have never been attracted to persons of the opposite sex. If they are responsible of the behavior which results from their attraction to the same sex, they don’t feel responsible of the attraction which doesn’t depend on them.

But the fact that one has never been attracted to the opposite sex is not enough to affirm that he was born homosexual. Sexual attraction comes with age. If one becomes homosexual in his childhood, it is later on that he will feel that attraction.

On the other hand, there is nothing to prove that homosexuality is not inborn. Maybe later on science will be able to prove that it can be inborn. Even then, we cannot exclude the possibility that it may also be acquired.

In the case it would be inborn for some people, it could be considered as a “mistake” of nature. At times nature can have failures, for instance when a woman gives birth to a monster, which is possible.

For the time being, there is no proof that homosexuality is inborn though some people claim that it is. At the biological point of view, there is no gene or hormone or nerve responsible of homosexuality. Should we for instance make a biological test with scientific instruments to compare a heterosexual oriented person and a homosexual oriented person, we would find no difference in the genes, hormones and nerves. Therefore, the problem is neither genetic nor hormonal or neurological.

It is a different story when it comes to a hermaphrodite: it can be discovered in him a gene responsible of his hermaphrodite state, but it is not transmissible: a hermaphrodite will not give birth to another hermaphrodite.

How does one become homosexual?

If homosexuality is not inborn but is acquired, then the question is: how does one become homosexual? There are many possibilities.

There are factors which can play an important role in becoming homosexual of some people:

-              The lack of sexual identity in a person. This can be caused by some aspects which can be found in the childhood of the person, depending on how he has been treated by the parents or his educators.

-              A hyper-protective attitude from the parents.

-              An exaggerated authoritarian attitude from the father can influence the boy to become homosexual.

-              A non-resolved conflict between the father and the son or the mother and the daughter can result in the son/daughter becoming homosexual.

-              A prolonged absence of the father from the family. The son has no opportunity to identify himself to the masculine figure and so develop a feminine identity.

-              Some become homosexuals because of some kinds of disappointment in life. Thus one can meet someone who was heterosexual, married but who abandon the relationship in order to be united to a person of the same sex.

-              The influence of the milieu or the place, like nowadays the influence is greater in Western countries, with an easy access to movies, internet, clubs etc on the topic.

-              Money and some other material advantages or favours.

-              The practical experience of a homosexual act.

-              There might be much more reasons why people become homosexuals.

-             It has been noted that while listening to the stories of homosexual people, there is always something especially in their childhood: divorce, authoritarian father, etc. This doesn’t apply to those who become homosexual at adult age.

Can a homosexual become heterosexual?

The question can be asked differently: Is it possible to change one’s orientation from homosexuality to heterosexuality?

If homosexuality is not inborn but acquired, we can think that it is possible for a homosexual to recover his heterosexual orientation. For this, an appropriate counselling by specialized psychotherapists should be necessary.

Unfortunately, nowadays, many psychotherapists, especially those who are somehow anticlerical or antichurch tend to rather help their patient of homosexual orientation to accept their situation and be at ease with it, since one cannot change what they consider to be natural.

Psychologists of Christian faith try to help their patient to be aware of the possible origin of it and to recover again the heterosexual orientation in them. In some cases, they succeed, and in others do not because the person/patient is not to be forced, but let free to choose his life.

What is the aim of a homosexual activity?

As l said at the beginning that in many societies and religions sexual intercourse is allowed only to married people of opposite sex and it is associated with the intention of procreation though it can be accomplished without the aspect of procreation. The aspect of pleasure is part of it. People can seek pleasure in this activity though pleasure is not the main aim of it. Then there is another aspect in it: complementarity. A man alone feels lonely and incomplete. The same for a woman, a heterosexual relationship fosters or enhances the realization of a certain complementarity.

In brief, we can identify three reasons for a heterosexual relationship: procreation, complementarity and pleasure. Above all these three aspects there should be love which is at the origin of a marriage.

In a homosexual relationship, the first two aspects are absent. It is only pleasure which remains. In general, people who engage in homosexual activities are looking for the pleasure which they experience during that act. Is there love in homosexual couples?

Is homosexuality morally good or bad?

Since l am witting in the context of moral philosophy, it is quite normal to ask the question about the morality of homosexual activity. Here we need to be specific that we are not judging the homosexual orientation in itself; we are not judging homosexual oriented people since many are not responsible of it and their freedom has not been engaged and most might have found themselves homosexuals. We will judge the homosexual activity because it engages free will of those who practice it, a part from children who are somehow pulled in without their full free will.

Some philosophers spoke of it. Taking example of Plato and Aristotle, we shall apply some moral principles to the situation of homosexual activity.

Plato has spoke of homosexuality in various books and some scholars say that his position was not clear at the beginning. But in his later thoughts we get the idea that Plato rejected homosexuality. For him, the pleasure is natural when it is in a heterosexual relationship; he condemns homosexuality by stating that all forms of sexual conduct outside heterosexual marriage are shameful, wrongful and harmful.

In Book VII of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the topic of homosexuality, in various moments he considers it as something natural but against nature and another time he considers it as a morbid state and a kind of bestiality.

In Judaism and Christianity, it is an abomination and therefore a sin: (Leviticus 18,22 ; 20,13 ; Rm 1,26-27). In Christianity, apart from the aspect of pleasure, every sexual activity should be open to procreation. This aspect is impossible in a homosexual relationship because it somehow refuses/not oriented towards procreation. Hence a contradiction when some of them ask for the right to adopt children, which is unjust toward those children who will grow up without a parent of the missing sex… A child need both!

The practice of homosexual activity contradicts the principle of sufficient reason which affirms that there is a reason to everything and why something is the way it is, not otherwise. There is a reason why God or nature made human beings male and female. There is a reason why their sexual organs are different in the way they are made. Then it is not normal for instance to perform sexual intercourse in the nostrils.

We can also confront homosexuality to the categorical imperative of Kant: “So act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle establishing universal law”. Here we can ask ourselves: can we universalize homosexuality, considering it as a value for everybody all the time? The answer is clearly No.

We can confront homosexual activity to the ideas of Hans Jonas who says we need to avoid the destruction of humanity. Humanity has to exist. Should everybody be homosexual, would humanity exist? ¡No!

At realm of health, homosexuality is more dangerous than heterosexuality. It has been proved for instance that among men, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are more easily spread among homosexuals (especially male), just because the anus is not the natural place of the penis.

All these elements show us that a homosexual activity is not morally good. Our rationality should help us to see that it is not a good practice.

What attitude should we have toward homosexual oriented people?

When one goes to a psychotherapist, it is because he discovers there is a problem and is seeking for help. Not to try to help him is not fair.

Some people think that spiritual means can be used as well to help homosexuals become heterosexual. We should not exclude these means since a human being is also a spiritual being.

Towards homosexual oriented people, we need and they need understanding. We should not condemn them. We can let ourselves be inspired by Levinas who said that every encounter is ethically meaningful, and so it is also for them: 'ethically meaningful'. Their face reveals to us the face; the Epiphany. To use the anthropology of St Thomas Aquinas, we can say they are created in the image of God and they are 'image of God', therefore endowed with human dignity as any human being. We need to love, to respect and to understand them. They are human beings. Those who can be helped, let us help them.

From my class Notes of Social Ethics, 2014.

NSINGA., Robert.

The Christian In the Face of Death

We normally live a certain number of years, having suffered, like everyone else, some passing diseases especially the COVID - 19. But on a good day, we discover with sorrow that we have cancer and that body so faithful, so durable, so useful, we begin to fall apart irretrievably. And after many or few cares, in a more or less short time, we die.

Either it can happen that being perfectly healthy, we fall fulminated by cardiac arrest or we lose victims of a fatal accident. In the end, one way or another, WE WILL ALL DIE. No one will absolutely escape death. It's the most irrefutable reality in the world. Since we are conceived in our mother's womb, we are by definition mortal.

Death is the ultimate trance of life. Before her comes all her realism, the weakness and helplessness of man. It's a moment without a trap. When someone is dead, there is the dispossess of a deceased: a corpse.This situation causes a very complex climate in family members and the Christian community. The dead man's body generates questions, unbearable questions. It confronts us in the face of the meaning of life and everything, it causes acute pain in the face of separation and annihilation. Anyone who has contemplated the dramatic immobility of a corpse does not need dictionary definitions to find that death is a terrible thing.

That loved one, from which so many memories we have, who interned his life with ours, is now an object, one thing to remove from the middle, because death follows decomposition. We have to bury him. And after the funeral, as we retreat from the grave, we go thinking to Becquer: How lonely and sad the dead remain!"

What is Death?

The definition given by a very in vogue dictionary is:"The definitive cessation of life". And it defines life as "the result of the play of organs, which is the development and conservation of the subject". It must be recognized that these or other definitions of both life and death do not express all the beauty of the former and all the horror of the second.

Death is tragic. Man, who is a living being, meets death, which is the contradiction of all that a human being yearns for: projects, future, hopes, illusions, perspectives and magnificent realities.

Instinctive Attitude to Death.

No wonder, then, the horror of death. And not only to the mysterious moment of the "cessation of life", but perhaps more so, to the painful process that leads us to death.

We have the wonderful instinct for conservation that makes us defend and fight for life. We know that life is a formidable gift and humanity loves life, spreads life, defends life, prolongs life and hates death. In many cases we fight for life even if this is a real hell.

If there are people who at the top of hopelessness resort to suicide, we usually don't want to die and we are willing to go through all the suffering and spend all our fortune to heal a sick person. We fight him to death a loved one at the expense of anything, from time to time even against the will of the interested party. Life is life! Thanks to the advances of science and technology, we can now resort to sensational methods in the fight against death.

A formidable example of this is organ transplantation, including the heart. Unfortunately, on some occasions, this struggle is not really an extension of life, but of a painful senseless agony. We feel compelled to remove from the body of the dying sick, until the last beating of a heart that alone would stop, totally exhausted. Sad spectacle to see our loved ones full of tubes everywhere and surrounded by sophisticated gadgets in an intensive care room. Let's not resign ourselves to letting him die.

Worthy Death

The question now arises of the right to a "dignified death." We must understand for this reason the right of the person to decide for himself the treatment of his disease. When the body has already fulfilled its normal life cycle, there is no obligation to resort "to extraordinary methods" to prolong life, as defined by the Church. The sick person has the right to ask to be left to die in peace.

The time may come when it is not fair to artificially keep a person alive, at the expense of the same person. The sufferings of prolonged agony by a misconception of what life is or what death is, make no sense. But it is one thing to dispense with those extraordinary methods and another is to provoke death positively, a crime that is called euthanasia. Nor can we call suicide "dignified death." Nor are we obliged to painfully postpone the moment of death, nor can we provoke it.

Do we know anything about the more there?

Since man is a man, he has had the intuition that life somehow does not end with death. The oldest archaeological testimonies of humanity are precisely the tombs, in which we can discover the idea that different cultures had from beyond. Similarly, man has always tried in a thousand ways to come into contact with the deceased. Various kinds of spiritualism, apparitions, ghosts, souls in sorrow, have been a vain and superstitious attempt to transpose the lintels of death and know something from beyond.

How many theories man has invented! How many experiments you've done! Books, novels and magazines proliferate from the most innocent to the most terrifying, to science fiction that appearing to be scientific solidity, only discover its falsehood. The reality is that our efforts to investigate what happens after death are otherwise frustrating. We can say that everything is left in speculation, some totally wrong or fraudulent, that explain nothing or comfort anyone. We know practically nothing.

Death and Resurrection. 

Thus, the Christian knows that death is not only not the end, but on the contrary, it is the principle of true life, eternal life. In a way, since we enjoy divine Life on this earth through the Sacraments, we are already living eternal life. Our bodies will have to pay their tribute to Mother Earth, from which we leave, because of sin, but the Divine Life we already enjoy is by definition eternal as Eternal God is.

We carry in our bodies the sentence of death due to sin, but our soul is already in eternity and in the end, even this body of sin will be resurrected for eternity. St Paul (Rom.8:11) expresses it magnificently:

"But you are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, for the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever did not have the Spirit of Christ would not be Christ's. On the other hand, if Christ is in you, even if the body goes to death as a result of sin, the spirit lives because it is in God's Grace. And if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead is in you, he that raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to their mortal bodies; He will do so through his Spirit, which already dwells in you."

The Christian enlightened by faith therefore sees death with very different eyes from those of the world. If we know what awaits us once the threshold of death has been transposed, it may become desirable. St Paul himself, in love with the Lord, complains "of the body of sin" asking to be released from him. "For me life is Christ and death gains" (Fip.1:21) "When the one who is our life, Christ, is manifested, you too will be in glory and come to light with Him" (Col.3,4).

The Sky

Unfortunately, we are so carnal, so earthly, that we cling to this life. After all, that's all we know, the only thing we've experienced. From the use of reason, we learn to discern between the good things of life and the bad, between the beautiful and the ugly, between the pleasurable and the unpleasant. And we work hard to get the best for us from life. All man's cares are motivated to accommodate us on earth as best we can.

Not being able to deny us that life can offer us precious things. Enjoy the beauty of the prodigious world, open the senses to the whole cosmos, the intelligence to the secrets that matter encloses, learn to love and be loved, create works of art, finish a work well, see the fruit of our struggles, have what we call "satisfactors" because they precisely satisfy our tastes, know other cultures, read a good book, etc...

It's not easy to relativize all of this or downplay it.Our relatives and friends, our possessions, our projects, are all we have and have worked for all our lives. We've spent on it, investing all our strength. And so we don't even think about the afterlife. Not in Heaven or Hell. Neither Heaven attracts us, nor hell frightens us. We live immersed in time, as if we were immortal. Talking about Heaven or Hell may even seem ridiculous. And yet it is, one thing or another, our inescapable destiny!

We can say that all the enjoyments or all the sorrows of this temporal life, are not so important, they are not so much. St Paul, who was taken away in ecstasy to have a glimpse of those who await us, cannot describe in human words his experience: "Neither the eye saw, nor the ear heard, nor came into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor.2:9). And in 11 Cor. 12:4, he entrusts us that he snatched from paradise, where he heard words which cannot be said; are things that man would not be able to express."

Faced with the ephemeral of the enjoyments or sufferings of this life, the Apostle himself recommends us in the letter to the Colossses 3:1-4, "Look for the things above, where Christ is located; think of the things above, not the things on earth".

The way and the Goal.

This way of thinking can be compared to a journey: however charming the landscape of the road is, that is not the important thing, but the arrival of the destination. It would be awkward to wish that the road would never end and forget that at the end of this, we are waiting for for a delicious holiday by the sea.

There could be a possibility that we would change our minds and decide to stop in a more beautiful place than the same purpose planned above. But in life this cannot happen: we go to death unfailingly; we can't stop time, we can't "change plans." And if we make fatal progress at the end of the journey, it is wise to set our sights on what can await us.

Someone might say that thinking "about the things above" as advised by the Apostle is detrimental to humanity's progress and the development of all human possibilities. That's why Marx said religion was the opium of peoples. And he was not right to study certain religions, especially Eastern ones, in which it seems that all human effort lies in leaking from everyday reality. Christianity doesn't fall into that position. History demonstrates this extensively by seeing what it has been like precisely in Christian countries where the greatest steps have been taken in the well-being of the human being.

The danger lies not so much in 'running away' but on the contrary in clinging in the temporal, losing sight of the eternal. The true follower of Jesus Christ, while working to make this world more livable, nevertheless loses sight of it, that this is but the way to eternal and boundless happiness that God promises us. We live with our feet well seated on earth, but with the yearning to obtain at the end of our day, the crown of eternal glory.

 Getting older is Wonderful. 

The instinct of conservation and the lack of faith, make us have horror of irretrievable aging. We've made youth a myth. "Youth, divine treasure, " said the poet, and losing youth we consider it a drama. It is worth seeing mature and post-mature people, trying to defend against baldness, graying, wrinkles... They fail, of course, to deceive anyone, let alone stop time.

All the plastic surgery operations they suffer, neither preserve the youthful beauty, nor subtract a single day from their advanced age. All these vanos attempts to drink at the source of eternal youth only show that we have lost our sense of life and death. Age not only makes us put temporal things to their right extent (which young people have not yet learned) but bring us closer and closer to God, our last end. The elders take advantage of the boys. They are already reaching their full realization, they are reaching the finish line.

The great St. Paul writes to us: "That is why we are not discouraged. On the contrary, as our exterior is destroyed, our inner man is renewing every day. The light and soon passing test prepares us for eternity a wealth of glory so great that it cannot be compared. We, then, do not look at what is seen, but at the invisible, for visible things last a moment and invisible things are forever." (II Cor.4:16-18)

And it's not that we meekly resign ourselves to the inevitable. It is on the contrary the jubilant awareness that we are being called of God. Grays and wrinkles are the signs of this joyful call. And diseases and blames tell us the same thing: the goal is already close. You'll see God soon.

The great St. Ignatius of Antioch, old man and on the way to martyrdom, progresses joyfully to the encounter with God and writes to the Romans: "My love is crucified and the fire of the land desires is no longer in me; I only feel within myself the voice of a living water that speaks to me and says, 'Come to the Father. I can no longer find delight in the material food or pleasures of this world." How wonderful to come to understand that death is the beginning of true life and that all this has been but an essay, a path, an invitation! 

"Death is the companion of love, which opens the door and allows us to reach the One we love."St Augustine "Life has been given to us to seek God, death to find him, eternity".

 Personal Reflection on Death as aresult of Coronavirus. 

NSINGA., Robert. 

The Crisis of Coronavirus in the World

 

Covid19 virus, a new plague     

    

The covers of all the media on the planet have been virtually monopolized in recent months by the covid19 pandemic. Without being as lethal as SARS, MERS or swine flu (pandemics of our century), Covid19 has expanded much more easily and quickly, now assuming one of the most fearsome health threats. To be sure, the extraordinary increase in international travel, the result of globalization, has contributed crucially to this expansion.

It should be remembered that this pandemic, regardless of its origin, has neither been the first nor will it be the last. Remembering only the deadliest since the beginning of our era, we can cite the plague of Justinian (541-542) that ended the lives of more than 30 million people in just one year. The Black Plague (1347-1351) took more than 200 people ahead (one-third of the population in Europe at the time); smallpox (1520) took the lives of 56 million people; already closer to us we have the American flu imported into Europe (1918-1919) that wiped out 20 million people, and finally AIDS (1981- )  that has killed between 25 and 35 million people.

It is worth remembering the history of pandemics to avoid the presumption of believing that they are new catastrophes. Certainly, no pandemic is similar to another; in this sense we can say that what is happening to us is something "new". For example, one of the novelties of Covid19 is the rapidity of its expansion, the result of the great interconnectivity of humanity, as well as the media magnitude it has had or the incredible impact on the world economy, managing to paralyze for the first time in history, and at the same time, the largest economies on the planet. As some experts say, the economy is now on unsociable ground.

Even so, these unique characteristics, typical of globalization achieved in the 21st century, should not overshadow the reality of a common denominator that helps us interpret each pandemic from its fundamental keys. Although the tools with which we are to deal with this pandemic should not be the same as those of our ancestors, it would be foolish to discard the wisdom acquired by humanity throughout its turbulent history. To give an example, there we have the ancient technique of confinement or separation between healthy and sick as a better solution to stop an uncontrolled infection.

Believing and reading of the Virus. 

Unfortunately, believers have not always been bold enough to face the evils that come from an ever-creative nature; we have not even been to interpret natural disasters within the divine design in a constructive way. In this way, we must recognize that religion has sometimes understood pandemics as plagues of divine origin, either to annihilate enemies (as in Egypt) or to punish believers themselves because of their sins (such as banishment). The tremendous insecurity that comes to human beings does not understand the meaning or origin of the tragedies seems to have made it necessary to seek "guilty", whether It is God in his inscrutable designs or mankind in his sinful condition.

It is clear that there are fundamental theological experiences related to concepts such as "divine punishment" or "wrath of God", although making a literal reading of them, ignoring historical, psychological and even mystical contexts, can cause us to fall into not a few traps that we will find very much about going out of. The simplicity of attributing to God any event that overflows our intellectual and even spiritual knowledge can constitute a serious transgression of the second commandment, taking without modesty the name of God in vain to justify not only our rational limits, but even our intellectual and spiritual laziness.  

Covid-19 offers us the opportunity to advance the pastoral conversion. In addition to a health and economic crisis, it is also an opportunity for spiritual liberation. It is about leaving behind once and for all a magical and superstitious attitude transvestite of Catholic spirituality. This "pest" has given us the opportunity to turn away from the sacred, not to separate ourselves from God, but to approach him in a deeper way. God asked Moses to barefoot before the burning bush and Mary Magdalene not to touch him once he was resurrected. Catholicism (especially Latino) finds it very difficult to believe without touching, kissing, hugging. Without realizing it, perhaps many Christians have become addicted to forms, ignoring the substance. This means the compulsive use of the internet of many priests overwhelmed by having to live weeks and months without being heard.

Covid19 is another step in the inexorable paradigm shift we are witnessing. There will undoubtedly be more or less traumatic experiences that accelerate this change. Let us hope that for the sake of humanity the next virus is no more dangerous than this or that the natural disasters to come will be progressive, so that it gives us time to adapt to them. In any case, we must rejoice that Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular have taken a giant step in helping to heal and liberate, rather than delving into the wound with more magical than religious visions, which always end up blaming the same humanity they seek to serve.

Believing attitude to the Virus.

Reality is making us smaller and smaller in number, but that's not why it has to make us weaker. On the contrary, in nature this process of squeathing has its advantages in increasing what is now called "resilience". This is therefore an ideal time to recover some essential values of faith, especially those that reinforce the community as an antidote to individualism. If individualism makes the subject great is to differentiate him from the community, Christian personalism advocates a relational humility that not only dignifies the individual by making him a person, but reinforces the resilience of groups whose members live in communion.

The stress to which we are subjecting the planet forces us to a model of a more ecological Church, where relations with nature, with others and with God are imposed by their quality. Digitization will test the quality of our relationships. If new technologies cease to be a means and become an end, I fear that far from reinforcing ourselves as individuals and collectives will make us more fragile, immature and dependent. It is essential to value a natural relational sense, where artificial is a medium and never an end in itself. The domestic church must take centre stage and thereby the pastoral promotion of family relations. I am thinking, for example, of the need to recover children's catechesis as a family, freeing parishes from too collegial a structure to become an oasis of spirituality in an increasingly desert world. The treatment of the sick and elderly in hospitals and residences must be a priority, prologue to the healing of Jesus of Nazareth. Needless to say, given the economic crisis ahead, social service from charity must be the backbone of our parishes, even if it entails the loss of economic power of the clergy which, although in itself low, enjoys social security available to many few people. 

In short, it is a question of taking a step further in the process of pastoral conversion that is based on a spiritual renewal, taking advantage of the plagues to leave our addictions and freely enter the deserts of life, because the hardness of the desert also frees us from the accessory, purifies us and strengthens us in the essentials.

Robert., NSINGA

Authenticity And Language

Is it possible to live it in today’s world?

The world is not a perfect place; in fact, we live surrounded by contradictions in all social spheres. Spirituality, morality, tolerance, solidarity... are concepts that do not mean the same to everyone and that become important only by virtue of what interests those who are interested. How is it possible to live an authentic and fulfilling life in a society that contradicts itself? How can we be honest and honest when those who should be are not always honest or seek to disguise the truth to appear what they are most interested in at that time?

What does it mean to be authentic, we could say that to be authentic is to give yourself permission to be yourself, to assume the right to be wrong, and to act on our values and goals? Being authentic means being honest, responsible, and self-aware.  What prevents us from living an authentic life?, There are some obstacles that prevent us from living an authentic life. These obstacles are ego, pride, guilt, inequalities, complexes, external influences, socio-economic factors, fear and lack of self-knowledge, among others. Social contradictions make it very difficult to overcome or minimize these obstacles.

Sometimes our sharp tongue shows an inability to live our beliefs in goodness. For example,  on a Sunday in a class, a brother asked for the floor and commented:  "The church is not a charitable center where all the needs of the brothers are met. We have limits, and we can only deal with a few, but not all, cases." This comment caused discomfort in some people, especially in an old man who complained about what the brother had said. The following Sunday, the same brother asked for the floor and  said, "Brothers, the previous Sunday I made a comment that caused harm to some brothers,and since only the rivers are not returned, I want to retract my words and ask forgiveness to the brothers who were offended." One can reverse the consequences of his words through words, speaking with his mouth the opposite of what has caused the harm. Language is such an undyed member myth, James.3:8-10, that we need to do our best to discipline it.

The truth is, we all have problems with what we say. That's probably why the Bible talks so much about the power of the tongue. The proverbs are filled with verses about the positive and negative aspects of the tongue. James 3:4-5 says: Most people want to be heard. What better way to be heard as a believer than as a gospel teacher? However, James urges us to consider the power of the language. We must not rush to propel ourselves to a position where the tongue is constantly used. It is powerful and as such, it will incur a "stricter trial." Control the tongue and you'll control the rest of the body. James argues from highest to lowest in verse 2. If one can control his tongue then we will be able to control the rest of the body as well.

Words can build or destroy. Better than anything else, the tongue shows the state of our hearts. Humanity alone cannot control the language. If James left us here this would be a miserable message: the tongue is a deadly poison that no man can stop. Fortunately, we're not left alone. Talking negatively is costly in the spiritual realm, as we observe that what we say can bring spiritual reward. In Jericho, God's people marched silently around the city for six days. When they finally screamed on the seventh day, the walls fell immediately. Their silence and their cries at the right time earned them victory. This is also true for us individually. If we keep our speech, we can win a big win.

St. 3:9-12, presents us with an impossible image: the indomitable language. He compares the control of the tongue to a forest set on fire by a single spark. It's like the time I participated in a paper lantern lighting event: real flames, dry land and paper. An incorrect movement or gust of wind, and the result would have gone from beautiful to devastating. Our words have the power to bring life or destruction. If, with your speech, you praise God and curse man, how can you really say that your faith changes your life? Let God redeem your speech by thinking before you speak. St.3:17-18, The flange of our tongues begins in our hearts, moves toward our minds, and comes out of our mouths. A changed heart is a heart refined by the wisdom of God, which is what gives us the right words to say at the right time. But how do we know the difference between wisdom divideandworldly wisdom? St. provides us with the criteria to decipher between the two. Choose the wisdom of God and let what resides in your heart pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, merciful, good, impartial, and sincere. As you pursue divine wisdom, your heart changes.

Finally, we all have a responsibility to be true to ourselves. Becoming an authentic person and living authentically in a contradictory world is an individual mission, different from person to person. Being authentic is an ongoing process that will last a lifetime. Authenticity begins when the intention to be genuine is established, especially when personal values have to face situations in which interested and manipulative behavior can occur and are strengthened. These are moments that are personally equivalent to the cotton test. Thus, the values are made ours  when we have to pay a price for them in exchange for putting them into practice. Then there must be an awareness of what is seen and felt, and the will to act on one's own genuine nature, even when one feels vulnerable.

Although authenticity quality seemingly intangible, its results have a very easy and clear translation into reality. According to one study, authentic people feel better, are more resilient and less likely to resort to self-destructive habits in search of comfort, and tend to have a purpose in their choices and more likely to meet their goal.. In other words, Santiago’s letter has an immediate topicality to discover the roots of a Christian project that harmoniously combines faith and active commitment.

 By Robert., NSINGA