South Sudan's Challenge

South Sudan's Challenge
Healing & Reconciliation

Friday, May 30, 2014

The Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension (A)



Readings: Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Matthew 28: 16-20

Text: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matthew 28: 18b-20)

Meditation: Jesus’ mandate is make disciples of all nations… And have no fear, because He assured us of his presence in us until the age of time.  We reach out to our Ascended Lord by ‘lifting up our hearts to God.’   We lift up our hearts to God  in prayer, in our mission, and in our everyday life.


DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Short Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter (A)


Readings: Acts 8: 5-8; 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21

Text: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.” (John 14: 16-17)

Meditation: Jesus does not leave as orphans.. He sends the Spirit, our Advocate, to be with us always... The Spirit – the Advocate- is the source of our HOPE. And this hope gives us a sense of God’s fidelity at all times, especially when relationships collapsed or threatened. Hope also gives us strength and courage in times of persecution, discrimination, exclusion and difficulties.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD
1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

The Following of Jesus

FOLLOWING JESUS – ACCORDING TO THE LETTER OR THE SPIRIT

If one were searching for a single formula to determine who is Christian and who isn’t, one might look at the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 5. In it, St. Paul tells us that we can live according to either the spirit of the flesh or the Holy Spirit.
We live according to the spirit of the flesh when we live in anger, bitterness, and judgment of our neighbor, factionalism, and non-forgiveness.  When these things characterize our lives we shouldn’t delude ourselves and think that we are living inside of the Holy Spirit.
Conversely, we live inside of the Holy Spirit when our lives are characterized by charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, longsuffering, constancy, faith, gentleness, and chastity. If these do not characterize our lives, we should not nurse the illusion that we are inside of God’s Spirit, irrespective of our passion for truth, dogma, or justice.
This may be a cruel thing to say, and perhaps more cruel not to say, but I sometimes see more charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, and gentleness among persons who are Unitarian, New Age, or Baha’i (and are often judged by other churches as being wishy-washy and as not standing for anything) than I see among those of us who do stand up so strongly for certain ecclesial and moral issues but are often mean-spirited and bitter inside of our convictions.
Given the choice of whom I’d like as a neighbor or, more deeply, the choice of whom I want to spend eternity with, I am sometimes pretty conflicted about the choice: Who is my real faith companion?  The angry zealot at war for Jesus or cause?  Or the more gentle soul who is branded wishy-washy or “new age”? At the end of the day, who is the real Christian?
(Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)

Monday, May 19, 2014

I am a Christian and I have NOT apostatized.

I am a Christian, I Have Not Apostatized'
Understanding Absurdity of Condemning Woman to Death for Converting to Christianity
By Valentina Colombo
KHARTOUM, May 18, 2014 (Zenit.org) - “I am a Christian, I have not apostatized.” Thus Sudanese Doctor Maryam Yahya Ibrahim, declared to the court, after a Muslim religious tried for 30 minutes to convince her to “return to Islam” or retract her apostasy. The story, namely Maryam’s nightmare, who is a 27-year-old mother of an almost two-year old boy and eight months pregnant, shows what a long way some Muslim countries have to go to ensure the fundamental rights of their citizens. On May 15, 2014 she was sentenced to death for apostasy and to 100 lashes for adultery. Initially, in August of 2013, Maryam was arrested, accused of adultery, on the basis of article 146 of the Sudanese Criminal Code, because she is married to a Christian with whom she has had a son. During the trial, in February of 2014, Maryam stated she was a Christian and, therefore, the accusation of apostasy did not apply, on the basis of article 126.

Many Sudanese activists protested outside the courtroom, holding posters with the following writings: “No to the prosecution of religions,” “No constriction in religion,” “Respect the freedom of religions.” The embassies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Holland issued a joint communique asking for respect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International mobilized immediately.

However, to understand fully the absurdity of what is happening to the young Sudanese mother and wife, to understand the atrocity of the brutal verdict issued in Maryam’s case, it is necessary to review her life briefly. Maryam was born of a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. For Islam, the marriage of her parents is correct because, in Islamic law, a Muslim man is allowed to marry a woman belonging to the People of the Book, namely, a Christian or Jewish woman. However, Islamic law does not provide for the opposite case, so Maryam was accused of adultery because she married “illegally” a Christian who, as provided in the Shariah, did not embrace Islam before marrying.

But is Maryam a Muslim or a Christian? She affirms that she is Christian, but the court considers her a Muslim and condemns her as such. On the basis of what is clearly affirmed, not in the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1948, to which the diplomats and Amnesty International appeal, but in the Cairo Declaration of the Rights of Man in Islam of 1990, which refers to Sudan, Maryam is a Muslim. One reads in the Preamble: “desiring of contributing to the efforts carried out by humanity to guarantee the rights of man, to protect him from exploitation and persecutions and to affirm his freedom and his right to a fitting life, in conformity with Islamic law, which in article 11 states that “man is born free…” Despite this, article 5 affirms that “men and women have the right to get married, and no restriction based on race, color or nationality can impede them from exercising this right,” not to mention the restrictions just mentioned which have to do with the religious membership of the future spouses. However, it is in article 11 that the key affirmation is found: “Islam is the natural religion of man (al-islam huwa din al-fitra). It is not licit to subject the latter to some form of pressure or to take advantage of his eventual poverty or ignorance to convert him to another religion or to atheism.”

Article 11 is based on the expressed concept, be it of Koranic verse 30 of the sura XXX “Therefore, turn your face to the true Religion, in purity of faith, first Nature in which God hasmen,” be it by the saying of Mohammed transmitted by Abu Hyrayra “Every child is born with the a natural disposition to Islam (fitra) , it is, then, his parents who make him Jewish, Christian or Zoroastrian.” On the basis of what Islam has just shown, it does not provide for a sacrament similar to Baptism and it considers every person born of a Muslim father as physiologically Muslim. This would be Maryam’s case according to the Sudanese court. But once again the woman’s life contradicts what is upheld by the judges. At six years of age, the father abandoned Maryam and her mother, hence if in this absurd story a guilty one must be found, it’s the Muslim father who entrusted his daughter to the woman he had married and who brought her up in her faith. Therefore, Maryam is right when she affirms that she is a Christian, because she has not known any other religion in her life.

The case of the young Sudanese woman is still more emblematic of so many other accusations of apostasy because, if the sentence is confirmed, it would be a dangerous precedent that would consider an apostate one who has never changed his creed or never knew he belonged to Islam.

Fortunately, the woman’s pregnancy and the rules of Islamic law in this regard, make it so that the sentence cannot be applied for the next two years or at the end of the nursing period. In this lapse of time the international organizations, diplomacy, and public opinion must oblige whoever affirms religious liberty to affirm it outright, otherwise, there is no liberty.
(source: Zenit)

Sunday, May 18, 2014

In Search of New Platforms for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogues


In Search of New Platforms for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogues
by Fr. Eliseo 'Jun' Mercado, OMI


It is a truism that when people of various faiths live together, and not simply in the sense of co-habiting the same space, the question of dialogue and cultural exchange does not arise.  When they work, study, struggle, celebrate, and mourn together and face the universal crises of injustice, illness, and death as one, they don’t spend most of their time talking about theories and ideas.  Their focus is on immediate concerns of survival, on taking care of the sick and needy, on communicating cherished values to new generations, on resolving problems and tensions in productive rather than in destructive ways, on reconciling after conflicts, on seeking to build more just, humane, and dignified societies.  When believers are actively cooperating in such activities, at certain rare but privileged moments, they also express what is deepest in their lives and hearts, that is, their respective faiths, which are the source of strength and inspiration that form the motive force which drives and guides all their activities. 


In trying to formulate in the abstract what is involved in the shared life commitment intended by the somewhat inadequate term dialogue, it is important to keep in mind that the raw material of inter-religious encounter is composed of the issues faced daily in concrete ways by Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Indigenous Peoples who live in plural societies.  Such people are not professional theologians and have not engaged in formal dialogue situations, but grocers, housewives, manual laborers, nurses, students, clerks and secretaries who want to live conscientiously and with faith amid the challenges that arise in the context of religious and cultural pluralism. 


These small streams form new “platforms” that capture the dialogue and exchange that people face as they eke their daily life. These streams become actual platforms for people to meet, pray and work together.


Dom Helder Camara of Recife, Brazil is a good example of this emerging platform. When he was once asked about his unsettling involvement with the poor and the cause of justice in the early 60s, he said that his Christian witness in this area is not the big fire that burns a forest but a lighted matchstick in the darkness of poverty and injustice. 


These streams in the world and in our Oblate units, though small and seemingly insignificant, are in reality attempts to light the proverbial matchstick. They are rays of hope and strength to many Oblates, especially to our renewed apostolic communities and their lay partners/associates.  They are lighted match sticks that show the way in the search for new and emerging platforms as they forge ahead in  interreligious and intercultural enterprise.  


We cannot conclude this presentation without recognizing the wounds of  the ethnic and religious divides that mar our relationship as people and communities. These wounds are, indeed, very deep and are closely familiar to them.  The trauma and pains continue to exercise tyranny over the spirit of the peoples on both sides of the divide. This is one reason why the relations between and among peoples are, largely, shrouded in mutual suspicion and mistrust.  There remains the challenge on either side to rise above the general ignorance and bias that have, for years, characterized the relationships between and among faith and ethnic communities and individuals.            Now that we have come at a critical juncture in defining and shaping our relationship in the context of interreligious and intercultural enterprise, there is a sense of urgency to dare break new ground both in our discourses and actions.   Our sacred spiritual traditions need to rise above the heritage of mutual suspicion and fears and address squarely the conflictual relationships that continue to soil the earth and divide our faith and ethnic communities.   


I wonder if this is what the martyred President of Egypt Anwar Sadat expressed at the Knesset during his historic visit of the Holy City of Jerusalem on November 7, 1977.


“… Yet, there remains another wall.  This wall continues and constitutes a psychological barrier between us, a barrier of suspicion, a barrier of rejection, a barrier of fear, of deception, a barrier of hallucination without any action, deeds or decision.  A barrier of distorted and eroded interpretation of every event and statement. It is this official statement as constituting 70% of the whole process. Today, through my visit to you, I ask why don’t we stretch out our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we might destroy this barrier?”



Our interreligious dialogue and intercultural solidarity have to give birth to a new relationship that heals and empowers. Politics and economics are inadequate to shape that meaningful relationship. We affirm that our religious traditions have the power to not simply to manage conflictual relationships but to transform them.  Here, I echo what Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ said years ago: 


“The age of nations is past. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudice and build the earth.” 

Healing Sudan...?



HOW DO WE MAKE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY LEADERS WORK TOGETHER FOR RECONCILIATION AND HEALING...?

SUDAN NEEDS A MANDELA, A TUTU AND MORE...! WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO FOLLOW I THEIR FOOTSTEPS AND UNITE THE VARIOUS TRIBES AND ETHNICITIES TO WORK FOR THE COMMON GOOD... A SUDAN THAT IS FOR ALL!

Short Reflection on the 5th Sunday of Easter (A)


Readings: Acts 6: 1-7; 1 Peter 4-9; John 14: 1-12

Text: Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14: 6-7)

Meditation: Jesus is our way, truth and life… Do we truly believe it and live by this belief?  Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life. 

When we are afraid and unsure; when the sailing gets rough; when the signposts are blurred; and when we no longer know what to do… hold on to the belief that Jesus is our WAY and our TRUTH, and our LIFE.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.


Friday, May 16, 2014

A Second Look at the Call to Dialogue with Muslims


A Second Look at the Call to Dialogue with Muslims
By Fr. Eliseo 'Jun' Mercado, OMI
Graduate School - Notre Dame University

With the accession to the Papacy of the first non-European, first from the ‘new world’ or the Americas, and first Jesuit in the person of Most Rev. Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, new and interesting era begins.  The very first choice of name (Pope Francis) tells, in a way, the direction by which the present pontificate would take.  The name Francis is after St. Francis of Assisi (founder of the Franciscan movement) and not St. Francis Xavier, SJ.

I am personally excited by the choice of name.  St. Francis of Assisi is not only known for his humility and reform within the ‘corrupt’ medieval church but also as an ICON of the interreligious relations, particularly with the Muslims.  

It was NO accident that when Pope John Paul II began the Church’s new look at the relationships between believers and communities in 1986, he chose Assisi as the locus of this new initiative.  He invited prominent religious leaders to Assisi to reflect and pray on the Message entrusted to them vis-Ă -vis the imperative of peacemaking.  Echoing the Beatitude: ‘blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons and daughters of God’ (Mt. 5:9), Pope John Paul II told all people of goodwill that ‘peace is NOT an option but a duty’ for all believers.

The better-known discourse about St. Francis in the relationship with the Muslims was the ‘Crusade of Peace’ as against the Crusade of the Official Church and the Christian Kingdoms of Europe.  St. Francis’ ‘crusade of peace’ was mainly composed of the poor not to vanquish the Muslims but to journey to the Holy Land as Pilgrims.  This journey was depicted in the famous panting by Giotto at the Basilica of St, Francis in Assisi.  The poor and unarmed Francis was recognized by the Sultan and welcomed him to the throne room in the now famous dialogue with the Sultan at Damietta.  While the rest of the world treated the Muslims as enemies, Francis called the Sultan as ‘BROTHER’. 

Beginning with Francis, the Franciscan Mission in the Holy Land and in the rest of Middle East has always been known as ‘Legatio Pacis’ or Legation of Peace.  This tells us of the original ‘intent’ of Francis to treat everyone as brother or a sister and each one should find a peaceful abode in any Franciscan mission. Every time Francis began his preaching, he invoked Peace… saying: “the Lord gives you peace.”  It is Peace and all good. 

One of the lessons I give for the Badaliyya Movement is about St. Francis as a Badal (Ransom or Substitute) in the path of interreligious relations.  St. Francis remains the Model of Christian Witness in the world of Islam. The offer of St. Francis before the Sultan at Damietta – the “Test of Fire” (Mubahalla) and his “crucifixion” (stigmata) at Mt. Al-Verna are, today, read in the spirit of Badal (Ransom).

Frs. Charles de Foucault and Louis Massignon traveled “mystically” the path of Badaliyya as inspired by St. Francis of Assisi.  St. Francis was a man of God.  And because he was a man of God, he always lived what was essential.  So he was a simple, courteous and gentle to everyone, like God in his mercy.

Today, Phenomenological Manifestations of St. Francis to our epoch consist of the following:

  • Emptiness.  It is born of a feeling of impotence.  There is very little we can do to change our life, our community and society. Finally there is really nothing important…

  • Loneliness. It is an experience of lack of contact with nature and others in terms of friendship and gentleness. There is the lack of courage to commit oneself.

  • Fear It is the fruit of objective threats to life, to employment, to collective survival of humanity in general.

  • Anxiety. It has its origin in imagined fear, ignorance as to what one ought to do, in whom to trust, and what to expect.  When anxiety grips an entire society it means that the whole society feels threatened and senses its approaching end.

  • Aggressiveness without objectives.  It reveals a rupture with the norms of relationship without which a society cannot be built or defended.  What results is anonymity and the loss of the meaning of the self, that is, the worth and sacredness of human person.

From the above, Two consequences ensue… first is Emptiness and second is Loss. It is the loss of language of everyday communication, the loss of meaningful relationship and the lack of vital relationship with nature and habitat.

St. Francis stands for a new way of life with many and varied relationship to nature, to others, to religions and to God.  In St. Francis, it has always been through Pathos, Sympathy and Eros – fraternal communication and tenderness. 

The manifestations are:
  • His Innocence
  • His enthusiasm for nature
  • His gentleness to all beings
  • His capacity for compassion with the poor and “confraternization” with all elements and even death itself.

To Be Saint in the case of Francis, it is necessary to be human.  And to be human, it is necessary to be sensitive and gentle.

“Man knows as much as he does.” Francis’s gentleness was demonstrated, especially in his human relationship.  He broke the rigidity of the feudal hierarchy and called all persons as brothers and sisters.  He himself was called “little brother” (fratello). He wanted to unite great and small, to treat the wise and simple with brotherly affection, to bind with tie of love those who were held at a distance.  He treated everyone with outmost courtesy, even Saracens, Infidels and thieves.

I hope and pray, that the new Pope Francis would turn a new page not only in the ways the Church relates to the poor but also in the way she looks at people with peoples of living faiths outside of Christianity.  The name itself is refreshing to inject new blood and elan to Christian and Muslim relations, in particular. 

Post the famous Muslim letter also known as the Common Word, there are only two things that bind all peoples of God – the Love of God and the love of neighbor.  Pope Francis, both in word and deeds, invites all to take that second look at the call to dialogue and fellowship between and among peoples of living faith amid the World that is known as the “regio dissimilitudinis” and behind these dissimilarities are camouflaged injustices and violence.

The peace that we ought to proclaim in word and deed should always be present in our hearts.  Let no one be provoked by us to anger or scandal, but rather let all through humility and gentleness be led to peace, tranquility and fellowship.  “BE KINDER WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS.”


Saturday, May 10, 2014

Short Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Easter (A)



Readings: Acts 2: 14a, 36-44; 1 Peter 2: 20b-25; John 10: 1-10

Text: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10: 9)

Meditation: Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life. Jesus expresses his CALL in one sentence: “ I came so that they might have life have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.  And how do we describe our CALL…?

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.