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Featured Article
Jan
8
The Gospel of Mark today speaks about the unconditional love of God that in Christ who himself manifested to us. Christ showed pity with the people who are lost, confused and hungry of the love that the world cannot just give. Even his disciples did not fully understand at first, but instead asked him to to send the people to the nearby villages to buy their own food. But Christ challenged them, “Give them some food of yourselves.” The word is “yourselves”. It is the same challenge of Jesus Christ to all of us.
Sometimes ,many of us complain, “We have none but only what is enough for the family.” Here, Christ is not only telling us to feed people literally but to love others unconditionally. The message is clear that our sacrifice becomes meaningful when it is served for the needs of others. Love is somehow defined as, “seeking the well being of others.” That is the Eucharist. When we start making our lives as manifestation of the love of Christ, we participate in the never ending Eucharist of Christ when we are blessed, broken and shared. We all eat and be satisfied; satisfied with the same love of our Father in Heaven, and that same love for those who don’t know Christ yet. It is a witnessing act when the Eucharist becomes alive in our everyday living; meaning, it doesn’t just end after attending Masses every Sunday but living it everyday with the people.
Reflected from the Gospel of Mark ( 6:34-44)
Aug
29
Starting from a very different idea about the Book of Apocalypses, it would be difficult for me to change my paradigm a little bit. When I was a little kid, all I knew was a literal translations of terms used in this Book. And sad to say, my parents knew it that way, too. The understanding was from my own perspective or at least from the perspective of the people who didn’t experience the situations of the people of the time when the Book was written.
But what is Apocalyptic writing? The book of Apocalypses was written around 95 c.e. By a person named John of Patmos. During that time the early Christians were experiencing persecutions by Domitian and also from the Jewish hostility like excommunication from synagogues; by driving them away. Public suspicions, imprisonment and executions were experienced also at that time. The author of the Book tried to reassure the early Christians of their faith in Jesus Christ, that the end of time is coming very soon, but nobody knows when it will happens. It reaffirms the Christians’ hope for an immediate transformation of the world, and this is one of the Book’s theme. And yet, the book is also presented in such a way that it is full of symbols and metaphors and that what made it “apocalyptic writing.”
End of time or the “eschatological” beliefs of early Christians is badly interpreted as giving exact dates or years by modern interpreters of the Book of Revelation. And yet the message of the writing should not be contradicted with Jesus’ words that the end of time is not revealed to anybody (Matt 24:36) except that the author conveys the the end of time is “now.” Meaning, the apocalyptic writing is not only intended for the early Christians but to all the people of the world at all time. “Of all times,” means, “now.”
Apocalyptic writing comes to us with a meaning, “revealing” or “unveiling.” It reveals God’s truth, the course of human life and our spiritual life. God’s judgment comes to us as the final confrontation between the forces of evil and the forces of good. And that in the end, we are assured of the victory being won by Christ at the cross.
