Musings

A stunning day

2012-01-12T13:45:00.001+05:30

A stunning day today: clear, fresh, and COLD. Samih, our factotum, says it snowed a bit last night. There certainly was frost on our cars this morning. I was glad I had gone well coated and covered to the Latin Patriarchate co-cathedral this morning for the Eucharist with the Holy Land Coordination Committee. The co-cathedral tends to be cold. No heating possible in that large neo-whatever structure.

They had a very interesting christmas crib though - quite modern, in white, offwhite and gold. And - Christmas is not yet over there - perhaps out of respect for the Orthodox and others who will celebrate this week.

Daffodils?

2012-01-11T12:10:00.003+05:30

Daffodils?

These pics were taken in 2008 in a little village called Dorney, not far from Eton and Windsor... The track that is visible was made by some crazy motorist perhaps under influence...

White jonquils

2012-01-08T19:30:00.001+05:30

White jonquils in the Ratisbonne garden.

and the gardeners...

Cyclamen again

2012-01-08T19:27:00.002+05:30

Cyclamen, Mamilla walk leading to Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem.

Lonergan and Kierkegaard

2012-01-07T21:59:00.000+05:30

I am working on a paper on Lonergan's notion of authenticity, for the Puthenpurackal Festschrift, and am reading, once again, the pages of Insight on genuineness. I find them strangely moving. No, that is not the word. Not strangely, because I was moved, and even excited, by many parts of the book when I first read it. But reading now the references to genuineness, especially the lesser known ones in ch. 18 on Ethics, I find myself moved, touched, and I even find myself lingering over, tasting, savouring Lonergan's writing.

In section 3.3, The possible functions of satire and humour, he is drawing from Kierkegaard. That he had read Kierkegaard enough to be able to incorporate him thus is already significant. He mentions Kierkegaard's distinction between the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious. He compares the aesthetic and the ethical to counterpositions and positions: they stand to the whole man, the existential subject, as counterpositions and positions stand to the cognitional subject. He goes on to say that, on the counterpositions, the good is identified with objects of desire, while on the positions, objects of desire are lumped along with objects of aversion as instances of the potential good.

Then: he notes that it would be a mistake to identify the ethical sphere with the acceptance of the positions, and the aesthetic with acceptance of the counterpositions.

For the spheres are existential, but the positions and counterpositions are defined sharply. One might claim that Marxism satisfies the definition of the counterpositions, for Marxism is a philosophy. One could not claim that Marx satisfied the same definition, for Marx was not a theory but a man. (3:648)

Very salutary to keep in mind in the functional specialty, dialectic. P and cp regard precisely the opinions, statements, judgments of someone; not that person herself.

More:

The fact of the matter would seem to be that men commonly live in some blend or mixture of the artistic, dramatic, and practical patterns of experience, that they tend to the positions in enouncing their principles and to the counterpositions in living their lives, and that they reveal little inclination to a rigidly consistent adherence to the claims either of pure reason or of pure animality. (3:648)

Shema, Israel...

2012-01-07T21:47:00.000+05:30

Here in the midst of Israel I cannot help remembering again the story I read so long ago, of the young Jew standing in the ruins of the ghetto in Warsaw, after the Nazis had destroyed it and carried away most of the inhabitants. The despair and the pain as he asks God why he has allowed such a thing to happen. And then the heart-rending cry, the ringing proclamation of faith: But even if you do not love us, I will say, I will shout: I will love you, the Lord my God, with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my strength.

“Something very surprising happens today in the world: this is the time at which the Almighty turns his Face away from those who cry to him... As soon as I have emptied the last bottle of kerosene on my clothes, I will put this letter into an empty bottle and hide it among the stones. If later someone finds it, he can perhaps understand the sentiments of a Jew, of one of those millions of Jews who have died: a Jew abandoned by the God in whom he believed so intensely... I will love you forever, even if you don’t want it. And these are my last words, my God of anger: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One.”

Pier Francesco Fumagalli, “Fratelli maggiori, ‘maestri di fede’: La ‘Lettera a un amico ebreo’ di Svidercoschi, Avvenire (domenica 11 aprile 1993) 13.

The story has something to do with John Paul II. Svidercoschi was one of John Paul II's friends.

Prof. George Menachery on John Paul II

2012-01-07T21:18:00.000+05:30

I found this very moving:

ELECTING A NEW POPE — The Vatican October 1978

Prof. George Menachery had read and written much about PAPAL ELECTIONS. When he went to Rome as a free lancer for the October 1978 election where the conclave of Cardinals chose the present Pontiff His Holiness Pope John Paul II, he had merely wanted to experience at first hand the joy and excitement of a papal election as described in classics he had read many times over such as Morris West’s ‘SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN’, Irving Stone’s ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, and Henry Morton Robinson’s ‘The Cardinal’. But his Roman holidays turned into a memorable adventure. Read about it here.

The Cardinals were arriving one by one for the ‘Mass for the Election of the Pope’. They entered the cobbled courtyard behind St.Peter’s Basilica in huge cars and walked towards the special back-door of the Basilica quite close to the main altar.After the Mass they would enter the Conclave (‘with key’) and proceed to elect behind locked doors the next spiritual leader of the crores-strong Catholic community of the world and the temporal head of the State of Vatican.

I was the only Indian among the 1300 press reporters from all over the world in Rome that October accredited by Archbishop Pancharoli’s Vatican Press Office.Of these 300 belonged to the English-speaking group. The Italian group was 320-strong, the French were 200 odd, and the Spanish/Portuguese 140. In addition there were more than 300 TV crewmembers. Apart from two or three selected TV teams only fourteen of the 1300 reporters who had arrived to report the papal elections were permitted to enter the Basilica for the function to report and to take exclusive photographs.
Vatican accreditation given to George Menachery by the Vatican Press Office

These were selected by lot during the briefing sessions and I was extremely lucky to get one of those fourteen coveted cards. Some well-known magazines and papers from the United States and France were willing to pay huge amounts for this card. In fact some of the fourteen photographers present now at the Basilica door represented the most famous magazines and newspapers of the world, having procured the cards from the original lucky winners paying quite hefty sums.

One of the very first to arrive to attend that crucial function before the all-important Conclave locked its doors against the outside world was Lawrence Cardinal Picachy of Calcutta. As he got down from the huge car on to the vast brick-paved yard and proceeded towards the Basilica my Minolta flashed twice or thrice. One or two other pressmen also photographed the Cardinal from India, I noticed with pleasure.

It was with a huge coterie of admirers and followers that Cardinal Siri arrived. So also Cardinal Benelli. Both were front-runners in the first ballots in the previous election and one of these two was expected to come out of the Conclave as the new Pope. Hence the photographers vied with each other in taking their pictures. I also took one each. But I was now mainly waiting for the arrival of Cardinal Parecattil of Ernakulam, ‘my Cardinal’. Then came Cardinal Rossi of Propaganda in the company of Archbishop Lourdusamy (now a Cardinal). They talked serious business for a while before the Cardinal entered the Basilica and Lourdusamy went back. I didn’t forget to snap the duo.

But now the sound of music from inside the Basilica was growing louder and louder. Like the Wedding-guest in Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’ I had to still reluctantly tarry waiting for my Cardinal to arrive. There was still no sign of his car. Most of my fellow photographers were preparing to enter the church to cover the Mass and the decisive guide-line speech to the Cardinals. It was then that I noticed a solitary figure in red approaching from the huge gateway. This Cardinal looked lonely, tired, and crestfallen, yet somehow upholding the dignity of a prince of the Church. He alone among all the Cardinals arrived on foot, walking hurriedly towards the Basilica. No camera aimed to take his picture coming as he was without benefit of admirers and supporters. One or two of the big-time photgraphers from the US were looking at this pitiable figure almost it seemed contemptously. “There are lots of unused frames in my Minolta. I need only a few more to cover Cardinal Parecattil. So why not snap him, whom nobody appears to care for?”, I thought. And so I took a photo of this lonely man. He raised his head in some surprise, and went in silently. Soon afterwards Cardinal Parecattil came from the gianicolo hospital where he was staying, smiled at me, and went in, the very last Cardinal to enter the Basilica.

With thousands I stood in the Piazza San Petro between the colossal columns of Bernini near his fountain and the huge obelisk in the Vatican looking at the thin pipe raising its head to the left of Michaelangelo’s mammoth dome from the famous fresco-adorned Sistine Chapel to see whether it would spit white smoke this time, fifty-six long hours and seven ballots after the Cardinals had been locked up inside to elect one, most probably from among themselves, as the new successor of St. Peter. Two days back I had the rarest of privileges to study the arrangements in the conclave area as the goddess of fortune had given me one of the sixty cards distributed by lot among the 1300 journalists to inspect the secrets of the Conclave . I was especially attracted to the pepper containers on the table of each cardinal who will be attending the Conclave. I told fellow journalists how two millennia back 100s of 1000s of gold coins minted by Caesar Augustus who forced pregnant Mary to travel all the way to Bethlehem, Tiberius Caesar the master of Pontius Pilate, and the ‘fiddling’ Nero had found their way into distant Kerala in exchange for Kerala’s pepper and pearls and how Alaric the Goth had asked for 3000 pounds of Indian pepper. as ransom to free the Senate Fathers of Rome. From the stoves arranged to burn straw and chemicals to produce the white and black smoke I put some coal pieces into my coat pocket as mementos of this historic visit to the Conclave area.

Now, standing in the St. Peter’s square or piazza I looked at the balcony of the Basilica to test my newly bought binoculars. Some days back I had gone up to the roof of the basilica to examine the marvels of its architecture. As a student and teacher of art and architecture this exercise has always given me immense pleasure. On this occasion however I had another motive also. I had always wanted to touch the thin white pipe that would inform the world the election or non-election of a Pope. So with the intention of touching the pipe I approached it. But many wooden barricades had been erected to prevent just such an attempt. While I proceeded towards the pipe disregarding the barricades I could see from the corner of my eye a policeman coming towards me to prevent my proceeding further. Pretending not to see the arm of the law coming nearer and nearer and now shouting something very loud, I walked quickly to the pipe and touched it. Turning around I saw the furious policeman who immediately caught hold of my arms. I innocently asked him in Malayalam what the matter was. He shouted again. I repeated my question in Malayalam again. Then in broken – very broken – English I told him I could not understand what he was saying. In despair he brought me out beyond the mobile barricades and pushed me in the direction of the staircase and shouted something like GOOOO! That was a week ago

Now I was standing in the square or piazza looking at the balcony of the Basilica and the Sistine roof. Suddenly the tip of the pipe began to spit white smoke. The crowd began a deafening non-stop shout “Bianca! Bianca!” It’s white, it’s white. “We Have a New Pope! We Have a New Pope!” Tens of thousands were soon concentrating their attention on the balcony where the new Pope’s name would be announced and where the Pope himself would eventually appear. But within twenty-four minutes of the election of the Pope Osservatore Romano the official organ of the Vatican came out at 6.43 p.m. carrying a half-page picture of the new Pope. I bought a copy from the boy selling the paper like hot cakes among the crowd to see who had been finally elected. To my surprise I saw the lonely hero of my photograph keenly looking at me from the front page. He was the new Pope. But I didn’t know until then the name or country of Karol Joseph Woyitila. Even when Cardinal Felici announced the name in sonorous Latin very few in the crowd could recognize it. Once again the Italian adage was proved true: “He who goes into the Conclave Pope comes out Cardinal” – and the last and very least became the first, a Polaco, a non-Italian in 400 years, that too from the underground of a communist country – from the fourth world, so to say – as had happened to Anthony Quinn as Kiril Cardinal Lakota in the Holywood version of The Shoes of the Fisherman.

The huge lamps of the Vatican Palace and the Propaganda College started to flood the St. Peter’s Square, together with the huge Roman moon lighting up the whole area and converting night into day. By this time the crowd had swelled to some two hundred thousand souls filling the whole square and the Via De La Conciliazione up to river Tiber. It was another half an hour before the Pope appeared on the balcony to give his blessing Urbi et Orbi – to the City and to the World. Before giving that Latin blessing he talked to the people in simple Italian – to their great delight and to the displeasure of the Curia officials. ‘Viva il Papa’ Long Live the Pope, the crowd shouted again and again. ‘ Polonnia! Polonnia!’ Poland, Poland. Bearing witness to the birth of a new era the bells in the four hundred churches of Rome began to ring, led by the eleven ton Kanchenone of the St. Peter’s Basilica.

Morning. When I came to see Cardinal Parecattil once again at the hospital Gianicolo where he used to stay when in Rome I showed him the pictures I had taken. Of himself, Lourdsamy, Picachy and the new Pope as they were arriving at the courtyard entrance of the basilica. He couldn’t believe that I had taken a picture of the Pope before the election, because nobody thought he would be elected.

It was in a way my visit to Cardinal Parecattil at Ernakulam to bid him bon voyage that was the occasion for my deciding to go to Rome. Bishop Sebastian Mankuzhikkary who knew the Cardinal’s affection for me jokingly said to me then, ‘Are you not going with the Cardinal to Rome?’ I replied, ‘ I will go if he takes me with him.’ Of course the picture of many cardinals during previous elections taking an assistant with them came to my mind – that was not possible now after Pope Paul the Sixth had forbidden the custom in his directions for the papal election. After the departure of the Cardinal to the airport on his way to Rome for the election I brooded over the possibility of going to Rome for the election. I had read up so much on the election for many, many years that my desire to be in Rome during an election had become something of an obsession with me. This was my last chance, I thought.

Fortunately for me the largest circulated daily of Kerala and India agreed to part finance my expenses and what is more to publish my reports from the Vatican – if in fact they reached India in time – chances for which were quite nonexistent in those days. When I told Bishop Kundukulam of Trichur and others the same day about my desire they all encouraged me very much in this matter. And so I arrived in Rome just two days after the Cardinal’s arrival, which itself was a miracle – what with visa regulations, reservation hitches and what not. He was very glad to see me there. I was able to meet him there often and learn about the discussions among the Cardinals about the forthcoming election. Cardinal Picachy and Archbishop Lourdusamy also talked to me often. It all helped me to send relevant reports to India.

After meeting every Cardinal individually and after meeting the heads and representatives of the various countries who had arrived to congratulate the new Pope His Holiness gave an audience to the Press on the eve of the “Coronation”, to which not only the 1300 journalists with Vatican’s accreditation but many more were invited. While waiting at the bottom of the Great Staircase leading to the hall in the Vatican Palace where the audience was to take place somebody who appeared to know me told me from behind to proceed. I didn’t know why I should try to go before the others. Any way I tried. But the two Swiss Guards stopped me with their extended spears. Picp& +caption Dejected, I climbed down the steps. Then somebody from the Oriental Congregation appeared from behind the Swiss Guards from near the audience hall and beckoned me. Though the guards protested at first finally they allowed me to go up, also possibly because they were amused at my timidity. When I entered the hall many seats were already taken by officials and so on. The bearded official from the Congregation was leading me in when a Rev. Sr. took me under her charge and led me to the benches. She sat at the aisle end of one bench. When I tried to take the seat by her side she asked me to take the seat behind her. At that time I took it as an insult. (My 1972 experiences of segregationist attitude in the New York Sub-Way were only too strong in my mind.) But she only smiled. She was the official on Radio Vatican who was in charge of all the Polish programmes, and as such was very familiar with the new Pope as he used to give many talks to his people in communist Poland over Radio Vatican. She was a close friend and room-mate or something of the Rev. Sister in charge of the Indian programmes and hence had seen me often at the Radio Station. That was why she took me under her charge. When the Pope finally came into the hall and was proceeding to the rostrum he looked in our direction, and seeing the Polish nun came towards us. He came and stood in front of us and began to talk to the Rev. Sr. Although the well-built ecclesiastic who was the Pope’s body guard tried to prevent it I shook hands with the Pontiff. The Sr. whispered to me, “Say something to the Pope, you may never get such a chance in your whole life.” I gathered all my courage, and in spite of the tough body guard’s piercing looks, asked the Pope:” Your predecessor Pope Paul the Sixth did not come to Kerala when he came to India, though there is an Apostolic Church there. Will Your Holiness visit Kerala?” I completed the question somehow. I do not know whether the Holy Father heard or understood me fully. But he replied in perfect English, “Why Not?” That was quite enough for me, and for the body-guard too I suppose because he whisked the Pope away towards the rostrum with all his might.

After that the next day’s Mass for the Commencement of the Ministry and “Coronation” – the term is no more used and the three tiered crown is no more seen – was not such a great treat though it was pleasant to watch the whole function on the steps of the Basilica’s facade from the vantage point of the balconies over the Bernini columns in the company of great journalists from the world over.

Why was Cardinal Woitila so late that day on which the Conclave began? Why was he so tired-looking? These questions troubled my mind often in the next several years whenever I looked at the rare Photo that I had published in some papers and at the Vatican accreditation card and all those other rare and wonderful press cards I was lucky to draw.

Then I went to Rome once again in 1985. I had an appointment with the chief of the Vatican Museums. I had persuaded him to allow me to take the photographs of the hundred odd statues of almost all the popular Hindu Gods and Goddesses that the ethnological museum possessed for my Indology volume (i.e. of the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India). Such an exhaustive collection I hadn’t seen in India even. But when I arrived in the museum for the final sanction the director was absent. However he had made arrangements for me to meet his assistant Msgr. Pankowiski, who was from Poland. To curry favor with him I told him that I had organised much of the Malankara Golden Jubilee Exhibition at Kottayam in 1980 that was inaugurated by the Polish Cardinal Rubin, and a large picture of the Polish Cardinal had been displayed by us in the exhibition hall which is today the home of the St. Ephraem Ecumenical Research Institute. Then I told him jokingly that I was the only journalist who knew a Polaco would be elected to the Holy See, and I told him the story of the late-coming Cardinal Woitiva and my taking his photo. The asst. director jumped up from his seat and told me the following interesting story breathlessly gesticulating and standing all the time.

“Do you know why he was late that day?” I said I did not know. Then he said: “ You know he is a great devotee of the blessed Virgin Mary, like most of us Poles.”

That was quite true. Most Poles gift you pictures of our lady of Chestochowa, as the Rev. Sr. from radio Vatican had done when we met during the Papal audience for journalists.” Almost the whole weekend before the commencement of the Conclave ( the Msgr. continued) the cardinal was away at the Mountain Shrine of Mary at Mentorella, praying for the Church to get a Good Shepherd at the election. On the morning of the Conclave after the prayers he stood talking to a Polish monk there for a few minutes. So when he came to the valley climbing down two miles the only bus to Rome had already gone. Rome was far away and he had to reach Rome before the doors of the Conclave were locked. Then he got a bus but it broke down some thirty miles away from Rome. (Cardinal Woitiva travelled only by bus, and always wore only tattered old black clothes.) There was no other bus. As directed by a sympathetic villager he approached the driver of an unused bus who was on holiday and told him his plight. The driver felt pity for the Cardinal and took him to the Vatican, the Msgr. concluded. Now I understood why he was late that morning and also why he looked so tired and depressed. Only then did I understand the reason why the Pope soon after his election flew to Mentorella in a helicopter (not in a bus this time!) to venerate the little wooden statue of Mary there.

That journey was the prologue to the new Pope’s many journeys to destinations beyond the Vatican and Rome, even to the ends of the world.

http://nasrani.net/2007/02/20/st-thomas-christian-encyclopedia-of-india-volume-i-prof-george-menachery/

Theroux's Mediterranean

2012-01-07T19:28:00.000+05:30

Reading a travel book this time, Paul Theroux, The Pillars of Hercules: a journey along the coast of the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar (one of the pillars) to Ceuta on the other side (the other pillar), but by way of the coast. We have reached Corsica, place I have always longed to see. I remember seeing the headland from the northern trip of Sardinia... dark, green, mysterious, and just across the water. But, as Theroux says, a continent apart. One of the places, according to the natives, that Ulysses landed on in his long wandering, the place where he met the Lystragonians or some such people, giants anyway. Fascinating. What is even more fascinating is the writers and the books that Theroux talks about as he wanders the coast. He is wandering in off-season, February; the towns and resorts are bare, often dead, shorn of the summer crop of tourists. Very different. No need of booking. But also sombre, dreary, wet, cold, windy. Not the Mediterranean of dreams. Not the Mediterranean that I remember from Mediterraneo - wonderful movie. Wish I could find a copy.

Just learned from the net that Theroux used to be a friend of another great travel writer: V.S. Naipaul. In a sense, both are similar: the caustic remarks and observations, for example. It seems they had a falling out.

Besides, Theroux was brought up Catholic. His mother was Italian, his father French-Canadian. He seems to have had a falling out also with his Catholicism: very sharp comments on Catholicism in the Pillars.

But what I absolutely love is his familiarity with other travel literature, and, in general, with books that speak about the places he is travelling through. It makes me want to read all those. One of them being Evelyn Waugh (Labels): again, very caustic at times. My impression is that Brideshead Revisited is quite different from the other, almost flippant, novels that were included in the omnibus edition we had in Divyadaan. Perhaps Brideshead was from his post-conversion period.... Haunting in its beauty, and especially in the way it explores the slow and almost invisible working of grace.

H.O. Mascarenhas on pre-Portuguese Christianity in Goa

2012-01-05T17:33:00.002+05:30

I am taking the liberty to record here the following very interesting interview by H.O. Mascarenhas on pre-Portuguese Christianity in Goa, from http://thenazrani.org/feasts9.htm:

Let us now reproduce the interview of Rev Dr Hubert O Mascarenhas Ph.D; DD with the Editor of New Leader (of the Archdiocese of Bombay) which appeared in the Silver Jubilee Souvenir of the Archdiocese of Tellicherry, 1970 :-

Editor: Father, You are a scholar on Hinduism and apostolic Christianity as it is related to St. Thomas. Could you explain for our readers how you got interested in St. Thomas ?

Fr. Mascarenhas: If I were to speak of a systematic interest in St. Thomas, I must say, it properly started with my doctoral research on “Incarnation in Indian tradition”. I have to discover from what sources the people of

India

got their Mystical Doctrine of Incarnation, apart from the general primitive revelation. The first thing for me was to find out whether there was any pre-Christian contact at all between ancient India and the rest of the world, especially with the people of Israel. Everyone knows that the wise men came from the East. “Where is he who is born king of the Jews ? They asked. Why should these merchant-princes be interested in the JEWS and their king if there was no direct and trust-worthy pre-Christian contact ? The coming of St Thomas to India, I consider was only the natural result of many centuries of commercial and cultural contact between the tribes of Israel (popularly called Beni-Israel) and the people in India.

Editor: You mentioned your systematic interest in St. Thomas. Does it mean that you were interested in the subject many years ago, even much before you started your research work ?

Fr. Mascarenhas: That exactly is the point. I was actually initiated into the subject by my grandmother who was from Aldona, in Goa. She never missed an opportunity to talk about St Thomas, who was the patron of her village. St Francis Xavier meant everything to me, but very little to her. She was interested in the very Apostle of Christ our Saint and St Francis Xavier too ! There was no difference in earlier times, she used to tell me as a child between those whom we call “Christians” today and the other people of Goa; there existed no odious discrimination in the villages between “Christians” and “Konkanis”. Her own family was known as “Noronha”, which was the Portuguese version of Narayana, i.e. “People of the Lord !”. That went into my head like a nail. It has brought me to the tomb of St Thomas at Mylapore, finally. One of the many “apocryphal” stories I heard from my grandmother was the popular one about the stone-carved, equal-arm CROSS near our house on the hill WITHOUT ANY IMAGE on it which the local villagers used to hide away when the Portuguese soldiers came looking for “heretics”. I used to ask: Why did we hide that Cross ? And she used to tell me: these equal-arm crosses were sacred to the Nazarenes; but the Portuguese used to look upon them as Nestorian symbols. She told me that the many Nazareth surnames in Nasrana Vall (today: Nachnola, near Aldona) were named after our Lord Jesus of Nazareth. This was a deeper nail for my little head. The Portuguese or the Latin Cross with its longer vertical bar was considered in our churches and chapels as the only orthodox symbol. This set me thinking and won dering. I later discovered that no equal arm cross was to be found inside any church inGoa. The only place in which you will find them tolerated are on hills and road-sides, and it would be more amusing for you to know that very many of them have been put up by the Hindus of Goa, especially after the Portuguese republic was declared in 1910. In the churches they could not survive, because of the all-embracing Lusitanization ( Lusitania means

Portugal

in Latin) and wholesale Latinisation, since 1510, for four hundred years !

As a young man and later as a theological field-worker, I also noticed that the Hindus of Goa celebrated around July 3^rd as “Dhukrana” what they consider to be the biggest religious festival of the year, though it was always raining heaviest in June-July, in goa. Now, to any impartial student of these findings, Dhukarana sounds like a distant echo of the Syriac Dhukrana, which means the remembrance of the feast of the martyrdom of St. Thomas. Fortunately now, it is recognized by the universal church that July 3^rd is the proper date of the martyrdom of St. Thomas. These people who celebrate the feast and they are regarded as staunch Goan “Hindus” are called Thomse’s which means followers of St Thomas.

There is even a colony, close to Kalyanapuram near Mangalore, of these Thomse’s both Hindu and Christian. They are the people who probably fled from Goa during the early Portuguese centuries (XVI XVII). At Kalyanapuram, there are Christian Thomse’s and Hindu Thomse’s. Of these, the Hindu Thomse’s are regular in going every year on pilgrimage to the Kalyanapuram (at present called Kalapura) in Goa, for their yearly festival. “Kalapura”, you know, means storehouse in Malayalam, or depot for spices (that is Kalapuram in Konkani). Everybody knows also another place called Panola in Goa and Panduripur on the Deccan plateau, both famous for the cult of Vittala (vidu-Alu becomes Vittalu in Kannada as well as in Tamil and means Lord of the house, something parallel to Bethel). The Hindu Thomse’s make a pilgrimage around July 3^rd according to the full moon of the Lunar Calendar, not only to Kalyanapura (Kalapura) and Panola in Goa, but a vast number of them now go to Maharashtra, to Panduripur also. It would seem that this pilgrimage, outside Goagained strength for two reasons: to escape the ravage of fanatics and to keep out of the reach of the Portuguese inquisitors (1560 – 1910).

Editor: When you say that even the non-Christians in Goa are or should I say where called Thomse’s and that even the one big feast they celebrate during the year is that of St Thomas’ martyrdom on the full moon around July 3^rd, what do you mean to indicate ?

Fr Mascarenhas: It is not a question of their being once upon a time called Thomse. Among the non-Christians in Goa and Mangalore even today, there are groups which go by the name thomse. What I do mean is that these people who are known as Thomse inspite of their being considered in the census as non-Christians could not have been anything else but Apostolic followers of Jesus of Nazareth, namely Eastern Nazarenes, that is people who are the descendants of those who accepted Christianity from St Thomas himself, in a word “Thomas Christians”.

Editor: Then what about the generally accepted fact or theory please correct me if I am wrong that Christianity in Goa traces its origin to St Francis Xavier ? Do you mean to say that even in Goa Christianity goes back to St Thomas ? If so, how can you substantiate such a statement with historic proofs ?

Fr Mascarenhas: Very good ! I am glad you have asked me that question. You put the burden of proof on me and so you will have to give me a very patient hearing. I am going to give you proofs from the horse’s own mouth from St Francis Xavier himself. In fact we must be grateful to the Society of Jesus for making these proofs popularly available (since 1953). What I am referring to is the critical edition of the letters of St Francis Xav ier by Fr Felix Zubillaga, S.J., published for the fourth centenary fo the death of St Francis (1952). In it there are three letters of the saing (numbered, document 15, 16, 17) which are very relevant to your question. These three letters were written by St Francis from Goa and addressed according to the editor, first to his confreres in Rome and the other two to St Ignatius, the Founder. All the three are dated Sept 20, 1542. They were probably written during the rainy season (June, July, august, September) in Goa and dispatched on Sept. 20, when there happened to be the first sailing ship leaving for Lisbon. It is also good to remember that St Francis arrived in Goa on May 6^th, 1542. He wrote as an eyewitness and his evidence is unimpeachable.

Let me also refer to document 14, which is his earliest writing in Goa. In it there is a statement of Christian doctrine in the “I confess” and he puts Sts. Peter, Paul and Thomas of the same footing, which should at once remind you of the “I confess” still recited by st Thomas Christians of Kerala as well as generally by the East Indian, Goan and Mangalore Christians of the Konkan. Now I translate St Francis’ outstanding impressions of Goan Christianity for you from the Spanish I the critical edition P. 91 #5: “It is four months and more since we arrived in India, at Goa, which is a city totally of Christians a sight to be seen!

Before I comment, let me also quote from the other letter of the same date which he wrote to St Ignatius: “The first thing that I beg for in the service of Our Lord Jesus Christ is, on the ground, that the people of this land are greatly devoted to the glorious Apostle St Thomas, who is the patron of the whole of this India; for the increase of the devotion of all these devotees that His Holiness the Pope should grant a plenary indulgence, on the feast day of St Thomas and its octaves, to all those who confess and communicate on that feast day and its octaves, and that for those who do not confess and communicate they should not gain the plenary indulgence”.

St Francis could not leave Goa by sea or land till the monsoon storms had stopped. For him, “Goa” was indeed

India

! How could he urgently and unequivocally describe all these devotees of St Thomas, if it was he who had baptizsed them all and remember he speaks of the city being “totally of Christians” and remember how could they all be devoted to St Thomas, if they were not already St Thomas Christians in the most literal sense ? This kind of devotion to St Thomas existed and exists nowhere in Spain orPortugal or in any part of the world, except in

India

A second point is regarding the date of the martyrdom of St Thomas, which according to the Chaldean Syrians is July 3^rd and according to the Latins, until recently, was Dec 21. While pleading for a plenary indulgence from the Pope, for the feast of St Thomas, St Francis speaks like a man who has already seen the extraordinary devotion of the people manifested during the preceeding novenas and later octaves of the feast of St Thomas in Goa. If the feast were always celebrated in Goa and elsewhere in

India

on dec. 21, as it was claimed till recently, St Francis could not have seen or participated in such an impressive feast, before writing to St Ignatius, because his letter was dated Sept. 20. But if the feast was celebrated on July 3^rd, which the Goan Chaldeans and later Syrians (Eastern Christians) always claimed as the actual date of the martyrdom, St Francis must have personally witnessed that feast because he had arrived in Goa on May 6, and wrote his letters on Sept. 20, that is after personally witnessing the events of July 3^rd in Goa, he later attested the people’s extraordinary devotion to St Thomas.

Again St Francis is known to have baptized Goans on an average of 10,000 a month. Let us say he baptized about 25 days a month to give him some rest. It works upto about 400 baptism a day. Consider also the long rite of baptism he had to go through at that time. Moreover, was he only baptizing and not instructing ? How could he instruct so many in so short a time ? Or was it only a question of rebaptising the Christians of St Thomas (See Cardinal Tisserant’s Eastern Christianity in India p. 175) ? In that case we can understand there was no absolute need of instructing and preparing them. Both internal evidence from his letters and other reasons given above force one to conclude that the 10,000 baptisms a month attributed to St Francis were not an instance of mass conversion or miraculous Christianisation but only of mass Lusitanisation, under the aegis of the Portuguese Empire.

We would be closer to the truth if we said that St Francis himself was a victim of the process of the Lusitanisaiton and empire building and that is why he left Goa and came to the tomb of St Thomas at Mylapore to resolve his scruples and to get inspiration from St Thomas himself, if not to make reparation for what the Portuguese had done with St Thomas Christians. We know too well that St Francis spent four months at the tomb here, at Mylapore the Vicar General at the time being Gaspar Coelho, who has left vivid reminiscences for posterity to read. The spiritual agony must have been unbearable.

In conclusion, one is led to think that today’s so called non-Christians of Goa are those who refused to give up the Chaldaic (East Syriac) Rite with its Kurbana (Mass) and their Eastern traditions of Christianity symbolized by the Qurbana itself and the equal arm CROSS; and if today especially we, the East Indians, Goans, and Mangalorians are called Latin Christians, it is all due to the westernizing process which was started and carried to the extreme by the Portuguese and the empire builders who followed, perhaps with the best and noblest of intentions, but with disastrous results for the propagation of the faith throughout Asia and Africa.

SDBs and FMAs at Cremisan

2012-01-05T12:59:00.000+05:30

The popular Israeli newspaper Ha'Aretz carries today a piece on the SDBs and FMAs of Cremisan, in the context of the Wall that is coming up and that will likely split the two communities. See http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/new-segment-of-west-bank-security-fence-may-separate-nuns-from-monks-1.405542. However, the piece is quite contentious in the sense that it distorts, selects, and in short mauls the truth.

Cremisan, 7th January 2012
Press Release
Full Agreement between Salesian Sisters and Salesians of Don Bosco in Cremisan serving the population since 1891 with social works and international formation activities
With reference to the article entitled ‘The Separation Wall will pass between Monks and Nuns’, which appeared [in Hebrew] on the Ha-Aretz newspaper on 31.12.2011 and on its website [and printed in English] on 05.01.2012 under the title ‘New segment of West Bank security fence may separate nuns from monks’, the Salesian Sisters and the Salesian Male Religious of Cremisan clearly affirm that there is no discord among them whatsoever and that their positions with regard to the building of the ‘wall’ do not differ.
The two religious communities are autonomous in organizing their own activities in favour of the local population but have always had and still enjoy excellent relations and mutual respect.
They have always expressed their opposition to the building of the ‘Wall’ and, in ways deemed most appropriate, have also shown solidarity with the Palestinian families of Beit Jala who, because of the construction of the ‘Wall’ suffer injustice and are deprived of land which is their property.
At Cremisan the Sisters manage a kindergarten, a primary school and a youth centre for the integral formation of children and young people, all of them welcomed without any distinction and with particular attention given to those more in need.
The Salesians are present in Cremisan since 1891. Originally a formation house and Centre of Theological Studies for young members of the Society from various parts of the world (over 20 nations), restructuring plans are now underway, especially since the Theological Centre moved to the Ratisbonne Monastery in Jerusalem, in order to promote an International Centre of Ongoing Formation for young people and adults of the entire Salesian Family (present in 132 nations) and at the service of local institutions that are interested.
The wine production has always been at the forefront for in technique and quality and has also recently received international recognition. It provides work for about twenty families of the area and goes to sustain the educative and formative activities of the Salesians in the Holy Land.
Mother Superior Father Superior

It might be useful to keep in mind the recent communication by the Salesian Provincial, Fr Maurizio Spreafico:

Bethlehem, 27th December 2011

The Wall near Cremisan – Official Declaration

The position of the Salesian Middle East Province with regard to the Wall is the one contained in the Press Release of 30th August 2007 signed by Father Giovanni Laconi, provincial vicar. That communiqué was published in Arabic on the Al Quds daily paper on 4th September 2007. This position was confirmed in the recent clarification of 23rd November 2011 by Father Maurizio Spreafico, provincial, and was published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate on 30th November 2011 and updated today, 27th December 2011.

1) The Salesians of Cremisan have never asked to ‘pass on the Israeli side’.

2) The entire route of the Wall, including the section that directly affects the Cremisan property, was established independently by the Israeli authorities, despite the well-known guidelines issued by the International Court of Justice on 9th July 2004. The Salesian community of Cremisan, a victim of a decision imposed by the Israeli authorities, expressed its opposition to the unilateral separation policy and reiterated its complete extraneousness in the planning of the route of the Wall in a Press Release of 30th August 2007, signed by the former Salesian Provincial Vicar Rev. Father Giovanni Laconi, released in four languages and approved by the Latin Patriarch and the Apostolic Nuncio.

3) When the Israeli Governor, in a 25th September 2009 meeting in Kfar Etzion, tried to put pressure to obtain an explicit consent from the Salesians to ‘become part of Israel’, our response was expressed in the following terms:
a) The construction of the Wall is an imposition by Israel that contradicts international law. Therefore we do not intend to address the issue of the Wall, because we do not recognize its legitimacy
b) We do not have any responsibility in Israel’s decisions concerning the Wall, because they are decisions of a political-military nature: it is not up to the Salesians to get involved in such issues and to determine boundaries between the two States.

4) Recently, the construction of the Wall has gone on for a long stretch on the edge of our property uphill, destroying a considerable portion of our land.

5) We Salesians continue to express our full solidarity with the Palestinian families of Beit Jala who, because of the construction of the ‘Wall’, suffer injustice and are deprived of land which is their property. For this reason we support their legal action and we ourselves reserve our right to take legal action in order to defend our property, which has never been defined in previous agreements between the two states.

Fr. Maurizio Spreafico
Provincial

Cyclamen

2011-12-29T11:36:00.005+05:30

And this is a cyclamen. They come in various colours, red, pink, yellow perhaps, and are often available potted, expensive though.

Absolutely beautiful, though: like a snowdrop. The purity of the colour and line.

Fr Stephen tells me that this came as a potted plant. There are others planted near it, gathered probably from the Carmel hill. Not yet in flower.

Jonquils

2011-12-29T11:30:00.005+05:30

These are probably jonquils - narcissus jonquilla, a type of daffodil. They are tiny. I thought daffodils were bigger. At any rate, these are autumn - winter flowering.

Of sheep and shepherds

2011-12-27T19:56:00.002+05:30

Sheep and perhaps a shepherd at Bet Gemal.

Salesian house at Bet Gemal

2011-12-27T15:09:00.000+05:30

The lovely Salesian house at Bet Gemal (= House of Gamaliel), where St Stephen's body was buried after his martyrdom in Jerusalem. Note also the ancient olive tree, still bearing fruit, reputed to be more than 2000 years old (estimated by the girth of the trunk).

Children of God

2011-12-26T21:18:00.000+05:30

We know that in our cribs there is Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph. We also know that there are shepherds, and some sheep, and the three kings, and an angel or two. But why the ox and the ass? Where do they come from? Search the gospels, and you will not find them. Instead, read Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knows its owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." The ox and the ass: mute invitations to recognize our master - to whom we belong, who gives us our food (manger, see the Italian mangiare, for instance), who gives us himself: Bread of Life!

John puts it in a different way in the Prologue to his gospel: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." God comes, but his own do not receive him. There is no place for them in the inn, or the katalyma, or just simply in our hearts. But to those who do receive him, he gives power to become children of God, born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. To us who receive him. To you who receive him. You have been transformed into children of God. Born not of flesh or of blood or of the will of man, but of God.

This is the mission of Jesus: Jesus who died, to gather into one the scattered children of God. Jesus who broke down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Greek. Jesus in whom Paul says there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free, but we are all one.

Here then is the call of Christmas: to become children of God. Children of one Father. The new family of God. So today we shall pray for the needs of our broken world. We shall pray for peace, in the Holy Land, in all lands, on the earth. But we shall pray also for ourselves. Today we are called not to be neither Jew nor Greek, but both Jew and Greek. We are called to celebrate differences, not to drown them. We are called to love and to grow together into the one family of God.

There are not only cultural and national differences, but also personal differences stemming from our histories and our geographies. Each of us has our own own shopping lists of things we want and things we don't, things we like and things we can't hear. One wants everything perfect, another cannot tolerate too much perfection. One rejoices in noise, another would like blessed silence. We are different. But we all all called nonetheless to love.

But what is love? This is a large question. But I was thinking: to love you means to have a positive attitude towards you, to esteem you, even if we are different. It means being willing to spend time with you and eventually even to begin liking it and you. It means being ready to be of help when I am needed.

All this is central to our formation. And the power to do it comes from love. Only he who is loved is able to love. So let us realize that God dances over us. "See how he comes, leaping over the mountains." (Song of Songs 2:8) "He will exult over you with joy, he will renew you with his love, he will dance over you with shouts of joy, as on a day of festival." (Zephaniah 3:17-18) For it is not we who love God, but he who has first loved us. So let me hear these words as addressed to me today: "Come then my love, my lovely one come, my dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice, for you voice is sweet, and your face beautiful." (Song of Songs 2:13-14) All this Benedict XVI has in mind when he says that God begs for our love, thirsts for our love, longs for our love. (Message for Lent 2007)

I wish you much Joy, overflowing Joy, Joy that flows down like oil on the beard of Aaron and on the collar of his robes. "How good it is when brothers dwell as one. It is like oil flowing down upon the beard of Aaron, upon his beard and upon the collar of his robes." (Ps 133:2)

Mass at the manger grotto

2011-12-25T21:54:00.001+05:30

Just back from Bethlehem, where we celebrated mass in the manger grotto... 8 or 9 salesian priests, and about 20 of our brothers, plus some lay people... Wonderful. And after that, sitting in St Catherine's church, which is just adjacent to the Nativity Basilica and belongs to the Franciscans, the powerful experience of a church full of people from some French speaking African country. What a choir, what lively participation. Wonderful. Even the long wait - interminably long - at the checkpoint has not dampened our spirits.

Years ago, in my first visit to Bethlehem, we read the same Prologue of St John's gospel, and I was powerfully moved at the concluding words: From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given to Moses, but grace and truth - hesed and emeth - have been given to us through Christ Jesus.

Photos: (1) the large crib outside St Catherine's; (2) A Palestinian family that runs a souvenir shop; (3) the overcast skies over Bethlehem at Christmas.

Wet Christmas

2011-12-25T16:51:00.001+05:30

One of our priests here has Hebrew class in the afternoon. It is quite usual to have Hebrew class on Sunday afternoon. The problem is that today is Christmas. I said this was not sensitive. They were anti-Semitic: they were not respecting Jesus. Till I came to know that the teacher had consulted the class: how many of you would have a problem having class on 25 December, seeing it is Christmas? The problem was that a large part of the class is Orthodox Christian - they celebrate Christmas much later, perhaps at Epiphany. No problem they said. So much for flash judgments!

A real rainy Christmas anyway. "I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas..." But I find it quite... novel and fascinating.

Lunch is just over. And now off to the manger grotto in the Basilica of the Nativity at Bethlehem, for a mass...

The ox and the ass

2011-12-25T14:15:00.001+05:30

Someone wanted my homily for the midnight mass, so here it is, more or less.
Have you ever asked yourself: the ox and the ass in our cribs: why are they there? Where do they come from? Search the gospels, and you will not find them. Instead, read Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knows its owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."
The ox and the ass: mute invitations to recognize our master - to whom we belong, who gives us our food (manger, see the Italian mangiare, for instance), who gives us himself: Bread of Life!

Our response: Joy!
"I give you good tidings of great joy." "When they found the child they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy."

and more: Dance!
Two people who danced in the Bible: David who danced before the Ark of the Covenant, and danced with all his might.
And the babe John the Baptist dancing in the womb of his mother, recognizing the new Ark of the Covenant, Mary, bearing within her the Glory of the Lord, coming over those same hills on which David danced.
The word 'LEAP' is the same as the word dance: SKIRTAN, in Greek.

So: dance at the coming of the Lord! rejoice in his incarnation!

But there is more: God dances over us!

"See how he comes, leaping over the mountains!" (Song of Songs 2:8)
"He will exult over you with joy, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you, as on a day of festival." (Zephaniah 3:17-18)

The Good News is that it is not we who first long for God, but it is God who first longs for us.
"Come then my love, my lovely one come, my dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff. Show me your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face beautiful."

Benedict XVI: God longs for our love. Before the human heart, God is a beggar. He thirsts for our love, he longs for our love.

So on this Christmas night: let's hear these words as addressed to us, to me, to you. Words of endearment: come then my love, let me hear your voice, for it is sweet, let me see your face, for it is beautiful. This is the reality of Christmas.
Let us respond, let us open our hearts to him.
"Give up everything that does not lead to God, all worldly ambition. Have no ambition except to do good."
Rejoice over God, over his incarnation, over this helpless baby. Dance. Know you are loved. And Love, with all your heart.

Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall'

2011-12-24T15:20:00.002+05:30

I've been reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, a fictional depiction of Thomas Cromwell and his role in helping Henry VIII set aside his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, get married to Anne Boelyn, and separate from the Catholic Church. The novel paints a very favourable picture of Cromwell, and is particularly bent on demonizing Thomas More. The card that is played, both in upholding Henry's acts, and the ideas of the Reformation, and against More, is religious persecution: More is depicted as a viciously cruel persecutor of heretics. Casual dipping about for information reveals contrasting pictures: several, and not all of them Catholics, have the highest regard for More. But More was accused by some of being the type of person Mantel makes him out to be. More himself denied cruelty. It would seem, however, that at least 6 persons were burned at the stake for heresy during More's three years of Chancellorship. Whatever the truth of the matter, two things: (1) Mantel goes out of her way to blacken More, just as she probably goes out of her way to paint a favourable picture ultimately of Cromwell; (2) there is absolutely no justification for the Church's use of violence in the service of the truth. To set things in a balance, perhaps I must say here that Protestants themselves did not hesitate to use the worst possible methods in defending the truth. But two wrongs do not make a right.

Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-23T19:27:00.003+05:30

The famous atheist and antitheist Christopher Hitchens died a few days ago. There is some notice about him in the Israeli papers here. It seems he discovered he was a Jew at the age of 38. That did not change his pro-Palestinian stance, it would seem, nor his anitheism. But perhaps it did modify it somewhat. About his discovery of his Jewishness, he said: I am pleased to find that I am pleased.

Dancing for Christmas

2011-12-23T19:23:00.000+05:30

The four leaps: David leaping before the ark; the lover leaping over the hills in the Song of Songs 2,8; God leaping over his people in Zephaniah 3,18; and the babe leaping in Elizabeth's womb in Luke. The first and the last certainly are the same word: SKIRTAN in Greek. Dancing.
The human being dancing before the Lord, before the Ark of the Covenant: David in the Book of Samuel, and the babe in Elizabeth's womb before the new Ark of the Covenant in Luke.
But also God himself dancing over his people, over us, over me, in the Song of Songs, in Zephaniah.
Human longing and waiting for the Lord, but also, and perhaps more truly, and first, God waiting for us, for me. Coming bounding over the hills to see his beloved. Dancing with joy over his people.

William Russell on Scotus and consensus

2011-12-20T00:13:00.001+05:30

Bill Russell is working on a book on Duns Scotus (Bill isScottish; I had no idea that the Don was a Scot, despite the name). He told mehe came across a little book in a Franciscan library in Zambia, which spokeabout Scotus’ proposal that the right to rule is based on consensus. He hadbeen earlier familiar with certain writings of about the same time in Scotland,arguing that Bruce had the right to rule because he had the consent of thepeople. He made the connection between the two. Scotus’ work predates thesewritings; it is from 1302 or so. Bill proposes that the writers, mostlyScottish clergy, came over to Paris where Scotus was teaching at the time. thatthey came over is recorded. That they met Scotus is not. So Bill is making aproposal, a suggestion, a hypothesis. His book proposal has been accepted byBrill, he told me, but the book is long, and long in getting ready. But onceBrill publishes, the book remains in print. And despite the terrible prices,the scholarly world gets to know about the book.

The idea is that the notion of consensus arose within the Catholic Church. It is not something that the church has to learn to accept in a sort of rearguard action.

Bill says we have demonized Scotus too much, and set him upunnecessarily in opposition to Aquinas.

I remembered Hauerwas putting a huge accusation againstScotus, that I need to look up. He blames the univocity of being proposed byScotus for all the ills of capitalism and consumerism and even certain forms ofpostmodernism, and finds salvation in Aquinas’ analogy. (See my paper for ACPIFaridabad)

Then of course Scotus is a bête noire for Lonergan.

And Scotus seems to be behind Wolff, and so Kant, andultimately Hegel and Heidegger too. And therefore behind much of thecontemporary philosophical cultural scene, if not also theological.

But all this is my conjecture.

The Lord does not stay in an inn

2011-12-17T00:23:00.001+05:30

"Yahweh, hope of Israel, its Saviour in time of distress, why are you like a stranger in this country, like a traveller staying only for one night?" (Jer 14:8)
Some commentaries make the inn explicit: "that turns into an inn to lodge there for a night, and that only; and so is unconcerned what becomes of it, or the people in it; he is only there for a night, and is gone in the morning." (See Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, at http://bible.cc/jeremiah/14-8.htm)
The Lord is not a stranger who stays in an inn.

Swaddling clothes

2011-12-17T00:21:00.001+05:30

Solomon says in the Book of Wisdom:

"I was nurtured in swaddling clothes, with every care.
No king has known any other beginning of existence;
for there is only one way into life, and one way out of it." (Wis 7:5-6)

Ox and ass

2011-12-17T00:15:00.004+05:30

Why the ox and the ass in our cribs?

"I have reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; Israel does not know, my people do not understand. (Isaiah 1: 3)

Christmas thoughts

2011-12-17T00:14:00.000+05:30

+ We are called to be the epiphanies of God
+ The ox and the ass in the crib: Isaiah: the ox and the ass know their owner, but my people do not.
+ Swaddling clothes: the king (Solomon) was wrapped in swaddling clothes (Wis 7:3-4)
+ The inn: God does not stay in an inn, like a wayfarer (Jer 14:8)
+ The great goal of Jesus: the joy set before him: the reconciliation of all things in him

Nabatean watershed

2011-12-16T11:38:00.001+05:30

An ancient water conservation system, built by the Nabateans, near Shivta. Channels running down from the two slopes on either side, and terraces for collecting water, with a slot in the middle for the overflow. Almost our modern watershed technique, and this 2000 years ago. The trees visible have of course grown over the centuries - but they bear witness to the water that is there underground.

Nizzana and Shivta in the Negev

2011-12-16T11:32:00.001+05:30

The trip was great. This is the third Ratisbonne trip to the Negev Desert in the south of Israel, but my first, I missed the other two. We drive down towards Beer Sheva (7 wells), where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob seem to have stayed (now a modern town); then further south to Nizzana, which practically touches the border with Egypt. Then back up to Shivta. Both these are towns which probably have a lifespan of 100 BC to 700 or so AD - ended with the Muslim invasion and the defeat of the Byzantine army by Caliph Omar in 636 AD. After that they dwindle. The Nabateans became great builders (you might have heard of Petra of the desert?), and also wonderful irrigators and conservers of water in an arid land. The remains of the churches are amazing, and our dear Fr Vernet made us even spend 30 minutes of silent praying or wandering about. Stunning. (The two photos above are of Nizzana, while the three below are from Shivta or Sobota.)
The church on top of the hillock (Tel) is dedicated to Mary, Mother of God (Theotokos) and to the soldier saints Sergius and Bacchus.
In this church, there was discovered a very precious store of papyri, now known as the Nitzana or Nessana papyri, containing both religious and secular documents, which provide us with much knowledge about life in the Negev at the time. According to Fr Vernet, part of this store may be found in the Franciscan Convent of the Flagellation, in the Old City at Jerusalem. For one of the texts, see The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert, at http://books.google.co.il/books?id=Weqy__d__xAC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=nitzana+papyri&source=bl&ots=AgJRXfuB2q&sig=ie6yVvMmZOrH-72NCUQ5ZVyMaEw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pfbqTreDGoiKhQfP4ry6CA&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=nitzana%20papyri&f=false

To think that this was the land in which Abraham wandered, and where Isaac and Jacob were born and lived; and through which, perhaps, Jesus, Mary, Joseph walked in their journey to Egypt...
Many associations with Isaac. The Hebrew word MEASHEARIM comes from Gen 26:12: you will reap a HUNDREDFOLD (mea = 100 in Hebrew). Today associated with an Ultra Orthodox quarter of Jerusalem. The town name REHOVOT comes from the large well dug by Isaac (Gen 26), it means LARGE ROOM, and is translated by the Latin Vulgate as LATITUDO. Both the words indicate blessing, abundance, peace...
The Negev, or a large part of it, used to be the portion of the tribe of Shimon (Simeon), a tribe that had a very short life, being rapidly absorbed by the tribe of Judah, and hardly mentioned in the OT. The rabbis regarded it as a punishment for the deeds of Shimon...
The other impressive thing about Shivta: the presence of Dina and Ami, who have chosen to live in the desert, reconstructing the life of the Nabateans, trying to live off the land, and so on. They run a small restaurant and also have 3 rooms to be let to guests. Dina spoke to us, in halting English, but impressed us all with her gentleness. The tel.: 08-6550911 , 0507-383802

Levinas on the Eucharist

2011-12-16T11:21:00.002+05:30

One of Vernet's asides yesterday, during one of the pauses during the visit, probably in the monastic church at Shivta: it seems the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas was being interviewed. (Levinas, it is well known, is a Jew, and a philosopher who has reflected abundantly on the Bible and the Talmud.) He was asked: What do you think of the Christian Eucharist? In reply, Levinas shifted the microphone away, and then said: I think the whole of the Bible points to the Eucharist.

Shivta and the Nabateans

2011-12-15T00:20:00.002+05:30

We are going to the Negev desert in the southern part of Israel tomorrow, to a place called Shivta, where there are ruins of cities and Byzantine churches. We have to pass through Beer Sheva (=Seven Wells), 4th largest city in Israel, and on one of the old routes to Egypt. It is likely that Abraham, Jacob, Joseph used this route. Isaac seems to have lived here most of his life - Fr Vernet described him as timid. Jacob instead was a great wanderer, as was Abraham. The Nabateans - the same ones responsible for "Petra of the Desert", now in Jordan - built cities here from about 100 BC onwards. They also had sophisticated water conservation systems. They eventually adopted Byzantine christianity. The cities and churches were destroyed when the Byzantine army was defeated by Caliph Omar in 636 AD...

Agora (2009)

2011-12-11T12:13:00.001+05:30

We watched Agora (2009) last night. The science - religion conflict introjected into 4th or 5th century Alexandria, centred around a beautiful woman philosopher Hypatia, and the Christians, mainly Cyril of Alexandria. A Da Vinci Code type of historical mishmash, which people tend to swallow up whole. Quite a lot of probably deliberate playing about with history. The Christians come out very badly, of course. see http://armariummagnus.blogspot.com/2010/05/hypatia-and-agora-redux.html, which points out, for example, how the philosophers are all mostly dressed in white and speak in upper class British accents, while the Christians are portrayed mostly in black, and seem to be all louts.
But the way Hypatia explains her stuff is fascinating, especially the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun, which is her last insight before she is (in the movie) stoned to death by the Christians at the instigation of Cyril of Alexandria.
Still, see the note on Cyril in the online Catholic Encyclopedia: not very flattering. He did expel Novatians and Jews from Alexandria, and he did incite mobs to violence. And Hypatia was a contemporary, as was also Orestes, the Roman Prefect.

The Jews over the centuries

2011-12-10T12:59:00.001+05:30

This morning I accompanied our fourth year theology students to the Holy Sepulchre for mass. On the way back, talking with one of them, I realized, to my great surprise, that by 'Christian persecution of the Jews' he understood only the Nazi Holocaust. It was a great surprise to him to learn that there had been persecution of the Jews by Christians down the centuries, for at least 1700 years. I asked him whether the topic had been dealt with in any of the courses he had attended over four years. He said no.
I began having doubts myself, because most of my knowledge of the persecution comes from James Michener's The Source, I think, or some other novelistic source. So I went down to our library and looked up the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. ed. Nothing under 'Anti-Semitism.' But there was a substantial article under Judaism, post-Biblical history of, by K. Hruby. Very fair and objective, I think. And it contains substantial references to the persecution.
But I also came across Samuel ha-Nagid (our institute is on 26 Shmuel Hanagid) of Spain; the poet Rashi (we have an auditorium named after him); and of course Moses Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, and others.
The Sephardim are, in fact, Jews who migrated out of Spain towards Turkey and other Muslim countries where they were better received. Spharad is the Hebrew name for Spain. The Ashkenazi, instead, were associated, in the article, with the Jews in Poland. Yiddish is the Jewish language developed in Germany, but carried with them to Poland. Ladino instead is the language developed by the Jews in Spain and carried with them to Turkey and other places.
See Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land, for a fictionalized history of the 12th century Jewish merchant from Egypt, with Indian connections, based on documents found in the Cairo Geniza. I had begun reading this interesting novel, which the Wikipedia defines as undefinable in terms of genre, but had to return the book before coming to Jerusalem.

Some Arabic words...

2011-12-03T11:48:00.001+05:30

Slowly some words of Arabic are seeping through... I go for mass sometimes to the Holy Rosary Sisters nearby, who form part of an all-Arab congregation founded in Palestine. The sisters are interesting: the mass is in English, some of them reply in Arabic, the first reading is in Arabic and sometimes in Italian if the Blue Sisters come, the response and some of the singing is in Arabic. But, as I said, some words are beginning to seep through. Rab, for example, as in Rab ne bana di jodi, means Lord or God. Noor means light. Sabah is morning, almost our subah. Then there is Mabruk = welcome, Mubarak as in Id Mubarak, meaning blessing or blessed (the barak root seems to me to be the same as in Hebrew, baruch and so on). Qurbana, of course, indicating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as it does also in Kerala.

The Anathoth of Jeremiah, and Wadi Phara

2011-12-02T13:55:00.001+05:30

We had the Rusticatio today. The word inevitably calls upfor me the ‘rustication’ reserved in India for those caught cheating, copying,etc., but really rusticatio comes from the Latin word for the countryside, andso means a ramble in the country. The indomitable Fr Vernet led a group toAnathoth and Wadi Phara. Anathoth – barely 7 kms. from Jerusalem, which was thefirst surprise – is the birthplace of the prophet Jeremiah. We took an ‘Arab’minibus from Damascus gate, paid 5 shekels each, and were driven through acheckpoint into Anathoth. I did not understand the exchange in Arabic, but Igathered that much of what we were passing through was a refugee camp calledAnath. After winding through the ‘town’ we came to the outskirts and got off.In front of us was a barren hillock, with a single small construction, whichturned out to be the tomb of a Muslim notable from the 18^th century.Vernet showed it to us as an example of what the tomb of Abiathar might havelooked like. Abiathar – one of the two high priests in the time of David – fellout of favour with Solomon (he backed the wrong contender for the throne) andwas exiled to Anathoth, where he died.

At any rate, the prophet Jeremiah was born in Anathoth. Hisfather Hilkiah was a priest of the high place of Anathoth. There were many highplaces dedicated to the Lord in Israel in those days: Bethel, Nob, and Anathothamong them. So this barren hillock must have once housed a sanctuary to theLord, in the days of Jeremiah. It would appear that Jeremiah deserted thissanctuary for the one in Jerusalem; this earned him the wrath of his ownpeople, his own family (see Jer 11:21: the people of Anathoth are determined tokill me). The town was a Levitical town, and so probably full of priests. Allwe could see now was stones and a very large number of cisterns. Jeremiahspeaks of cisterns, leaky cisterns: see Jer 2:13 (they have abandoned me, thefountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, leaky cisterns thathold no water).

From the hillock Vernet pointed out a number of townsmentioned in the Bible: Givat Shaul, which was the first capital of Israel,Saul’s capital; Nob, 5 kms. away from Givat Shaul, marked now by the tower ofthe Augusta Victoria Hospital, but completely destroyed in its day by Saulbecause its priests had helped David; Ophrah, or the Ephraim mentioned in Jn11:54; and so on.

The OT mentions Anathoth a number of times, but the NT nevermentions it. But surely Jesus must have passed by, if not through, Anathoth onhis way to and from Jerusalem. It was on the ancient route, through whichconquering armies marched upon Jerusalem.

We sat on the top of the hillock and heard passages from Jeremiah:1:1-2 (The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living atAnathoth in the territory of Benjamin), 7:1-4 (Do not say, the Temple of theLord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord); 11:18-20 (I for my partwas like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughterhouse); 16:1-5 (You are notto marry or have sons and daughters in this place - Jeremiah is the onlycelibate prophet); 20:1-6 (not Pashhur but Terror-on-every-side is the Lord’sname for you); 20:7-18 (the famous passage where Jeremiah complains that Godhas seduced him); chs. 30 and 31 (the book of consolation); 32:1-15 (Hanamelsells a field to Jeremiah, who has the right of redemption; it must have beenone of the fields around the hill of Anathoth); 29:11 (Jeremiah’s letter fromBabylon; Vernet quoted a line in Hebrew: I have thoughts for you of peace andnot of affliction). And then the mention in 2 Mac.

Jeremiah – the reluctant prophet, the complaining prophet;but also the prophet who sees God’s word in the little things of everyday life:buying a field, burying a loincloth, a leaky cistern. A powerful prophet. Oneof the four great prophets of the OT, with Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.

From Anathoth we walked down to Wadi Phara, with its spring(En Phara or En Parat). Jer 13:4 has the Lord telling the prophet to bury thewaistcloth by the Euphrates. Vernet said the Euphrates was too far fromJeremiah’s home town; it was probably the spring at Phara that was meant by theoriginal. The translators into Greek in Alexandria had no idea anymore of thetopography of Anathoth, and so translated En Phara as the river Euphrates. Butit was probably En Phara that was indicated in the text. Delightful place, nowenclosed in a nature reserve, for which we had to pay 22 shekels each to enter.The spring was flowing, the water clear and cool, and full of largish fish. Anda monastery on the hillside. The monastery of St Caritone, the first ‘laure’.Laure means the narrow way, in contrast to the wide road to perdition. Caritonewas captured by thieves and left bound in a cave in the wadi. Some snakes cameand began drinking from the wine in an amphora left by the thieves. As a resultthe wine was poisoned, so that when the thieves came after another robbery,they drank the poisoned wine and perished. Caritone managed to free himself,distributed the gold to the poor, and began to live in the cave, a life ofpenitence and self-abnegation. Some others came to join him, the first laure,in different caves on the hillsides. This was at the same time as St Anthony ofEgypt.

Daniel Attinger, Apocalypse de Jean

2011-11-30T14:15:00.001+05:30

The librarian at the Bibliotheque St Anne, Jerusalem, is Daniel Attinger, a Protestant pastor and member of the community of Bose in Jerusalem. He is the author of Apocalypse de Jean: A la recontre du Christ devoile, which Bill Russell, our professor, says opened up the book of Apocalypse to him. There is, of course, another Apocalyptic author in Jerusalem, and that is our doctor, John Ben-Daniel. See John and Gloria Ben-Daniel, The Apocalypse in the Light of the Temple: A New Approach to the Book of Revelation (Jerusalem: Beit Yochanan, 2003). Quite another take, though.

Gianni Sgreva's lecture on exorcism

2011-11-30T13:38:00.001+05:30

Yesterday Fr Gianni Sgreva, a Passionist priest, gave us a lecture on Exorcism. Fr Sgreva is an experienced exorcist. He told us that he had his first experience when he was 35 years old, at the Shrine of Medjugorje. He also reminded us that a priest needs the explicit permission or faculty from the local bishop if he is to exorcise someone.

Among the things we learned: there are degrees of possession: from the possession true and proper, to infestation, etc. It would seem that the devil can attack either the body, or the soul, or the spirit. Thus it can happen that even holy persons can be subject to attacks. Attacks can be either invited by the person, or caused by other people. Fr Sgreva mentioned witchcraft, black magicians, and the like.

Above all he reminded us that exorcism is one of the three exousia or powers given by Jesus to his disciples, whom he sent out to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons.

He said that deliverance was solely the work of God, and God works when and as he wills. Sometimes, therefore, deliverance comes not during the prayer of exorcism, but later. He spoke of a young man who had undergone exorcism for over 3 years; and then, later, he reported that he was free, and was studying to be a priest.

Rejoicing in the incarnation

2011-11-29T11:53:00.001+05:30

The gospel of this morning: an invitation to rejoice in the incarnation. "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Many prophets and kings longed to see what you see and to hear what you hear, but they did not."

The babe dancing in the womb of Elizabeth. David dancing before the Ark of the Lord. And Ratzinger inviting us to learn to rejoice in the incarnation.

From aesthetics to something more profound

2011-11-29T11:50:00.001+05:30

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem; Jesus prophesying the destruction of the Temple, saying not one stone would be left over another: merely aesthetic, a lament over this beautiful city and its glorious Temple? Or something more profound? "You did not know the time of your visitation."

I am reminded of Kierkegaard's progression, from the aesthetic dilettante, to the ethical, to the religious.

"Put on the mind of Christ." It is certainly quite different from our own.

Many will come from east and west

2011-11-28T15:40:00.001+05:30

It is interesting that the very first readings of the Weekdays of Advent speak about the coming together of all peoples. Isaiah 2 speaks of all the nations streaming to Jerusalem, and God bringing about peace. In Matthew 8 Jesus speaks about many coming from east and west to take their places with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

The end of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent remind us repeatedly about the end of the world. The end is not only our 'final destination' but also the 'purpose' towards which God directs all things. St Paul sums it up: the reconciliation of all things - including all people and nations - in Christ. And the Letter to the Hebrews 12:2 speaks of Jesus enduring the cross because of "the joy that was set before him." I am reminded of James Allison and Brendan Lovett again: the joy that Jesus looked forward to was precisely the reconciliation of all things and all people in himself.

It was the possibility of delighting forever in a huge celebration along with a huge multitude of us human beings, people who are good, bad, creative, depressive, but humans and, for that reason, loved. (Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination, New York, Crossroad, 1996, 189 = Living in the End Times, London: SPCK, 1998. Lovett 222)

Marcel Pagnol

2011-11-26T13:24:00.001+05:30

I was mentioning the movie My Father's Glory to Pere Dominique Arnauld the other day. He was enthusiastic about it, La gloire de mon pere, in French. He told me that Marcel Pagnol had two other books / films, one of which was Le chateau de ma mere. I forget the third one. It would be delightful to get my hands on these... These are sort of autobiographical works by this famous French man of letters.

St King David and others

2011-11-23T13:40:00.001+05:30

I was amazed to learn yesterday that there is, in Jerusalem, a feast of St King David and the holy ancestors of Our Lord Jesus Christ - on 16 December, actually, the first day of the Christmas novena. There is also a feast of St Abraham, also restricted to the Church in Jerusalem. Someone told me that there is even a feast of the Good Thief!

The languages of the Holy Land

2011-11-23T13:15:00.001+05:30

It is amazing how many languages are needed in Christian Jerusalem. The Franciscans who are the big presence here, use Italian. The Benedictines of Dormition Abbey use German. Several communities and institutions use French: the Missionaries of Africa who run St Anne's and the Pool of Bethesda, as well as Eleona or the Pater Noster garden; the Sisters of Sion who run Ecce Homo; the Latroun monastery; the Abu Ghosh monastery; and so on. In general, French seems to be the second language of most Arab-speaking Christians. The Latin Patriarchate uses French almost more than English. The Salesians of the MOR province use Italian, though many of them know Arabic and now, increasingly, English too.

Then of course there is Hebrew and Arabic. The road signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

The man who ate too much

2011-11-23T13:07:00.001+05:30

Yesterday one of our students was telling me that he was reading the life of Pope John XXXIII, and how much he loved the man. He was recalling how the French were offended when this fat and ugly old man was sent to them as Nuncio; how Roncalli had learnt Turkish and other languages in the places he was posted, much to the disapproval of the Vatican, but to the delight of the Turks and others, and how he is still much loved and remembered in Turkey; and so on. The student also said that he loved Papa Giovanni for another reason: he was fat, like himself, and there are very few saints who were fat. I told him there were some, and remembered the following story:

“One day the Baal Shem Tov became curious about whowould be seated on the other side of him in the Kingdom of heaven. So heapproached the Holy One and was given a name. The man in question was alive andlived alone deep in a forest. The Baal decided that he would seek out this manand speak with him. After all they would be spending eternity together, and itwould be good to know him better.

One day he was travelling, and decided to go a bit outof his way to find this man. After much searching, and as the Sabbath wasdrawing near, he found the house, in the middle of the forest. He knocked.

After a long time the door opened and the Baal ShemTov saw the largest and most unkempt man he had ever seen. He stared rudely,not welcoming him nor speaking. The Baal requested to come in, as the Sabbathwas drawing near. The man grunted, stood aside, made way, but said nothing.

It was the Baal who had to say the Sabbath prayers.The other man said nothing. As soon as the prayers were finished, the manstarted pulling out food from every nook and corner and proceeded to eat, eatand eat. The Baal was stunned. Finally he asked for something, and was given acrust. Finally everything was pushed away and they went to sleep.

The Baal was troubled and disturbed. This was the manwho would sit next to him in heaven for eternity. He did not even keep theSabbath. Perhaps he prayed at night. He kept vigil. He found nothing. The otherman slept soundly.

The next day passed the same way, with the other maneating, eating, eating, and now and then throwing something to the Baal.

The next morning the Baal prepared to leave, butbefore that he blurted out: The Lord says you are holy, and that you are goingto spend eternity next to me. But I don’t understand you. You don’t appearholy. You don’t keep the Sabbath. You do not pray. You do not even practicehospitality! Who are you? And why do you live like this?

The man did not reply for the longest time. Thenfinally he looked straight into the Baal Shem Tov’s eyes and spoke.

‘I was a boy. I lived here with my mother and father,my sisters, my grandfather and grandmother. We were poor, but we were happy.Then one day the Cossacks came. My father hid me. They dragged my father away.I heard the screams of my mother and sisters and grandparents. I watched themtying my father to a tree and torturing him horribly. They taunted him andtried to get him to deny the Holy One. Eventually they poured fuel over him andset fire to him. My father was a small, thin man and he burned fast. The flameswent out quickly, and it was over.

‘I came back and buried what was left of my family. Istayed on. But I made myself a promise. When the Cossacks come again, they willfind me and tie me to a tree. But I won’t go quickly. I will be so huge, sofat, so strong that when they put the match to me, I will burn and burn, hotand furious. I will burn long, crying out: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,and I will love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, andwith all my strength.... They will hear my words screaming in their ears and Iwill refuse to burn out. I will just keep burning.’

There was a long silence. The great hunk of a manstood before the Baal Shem Tov with great tears running down his face, and thenbegan to pray, oblivious once again of the Baal.

‘O God, Master of the Universe, how long? How longwill your people continue to kill and slaughter one another? How long, O Lord,will you suffer us and stand by and watch us destroying your creatures? Howlong, O Lord, will you weep over your children and their fights and theirhatreds? How long, O Lord, how long?’

The Baal Shem Tov withdrew as quietly as he could. Forthe first time, he wondered if he were worthy to sit next to this man in theKingdom of heaven.”[1]

[1] Megan McKenna, Lent: TheSunday Readings: Reflections and Stories (Bangalore: ClaretianPublications, 2007)90-94.

The Dies Academicus at Ratisbonne

2011-11-17T21:21:00.001+05:30

Several points to muse over from the Dies Academicus and the inauguration of STS as the Jerusalem Campus of the Faculty of Theology of the Salesian Pontifical University.

One is the hint at the special status of Jerusalem as the meeting point of the Old World, Africa and Asia (Pizzaballa, the Franciscan Custos): Jerusalem as the cross-roads of cultures.

The other is the invitation from Msgr. Franco, the Apostolic Nuncio, to think already of going further, in the direction of a master's degree in Salesian interests such as catechetics and pastoral theology.

The cultures point is both interesting and challenging. Interesting because we have here not only a meeting of cultures, but also of religions, Christian denominations, and rites. Our own community is intercultural, and therefore a practical stage on which to live out interculturality. The neighbours are a challenge: to overcome our own deep-seated feelings, and so on. So ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, intercultural dialogue: several pertinent areas.

The Salesian point is always interesting. If we leave first-phase specializations - archaeology, grammar, lexicology, dictionaries, and exegesis at various levels and different fields - largely to the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, we could still contribute by way of second-phase specializations. Catechetics and pastoral theology come under the specialization of 'communications', at least in Lonergan's way of thinking. Much place for creative thinking here. But the creativity will flow from a new appropriation of doctrines and new systematics.

Another area is that of method. The strengths and limitations of the historico-critical method; the existence and contribution of other exegetical methods; the insertion of these into the process of theology, perhaps functionally divided, so as to avoid the danger of the imperialism of specializations.

And, linked to the topic of cultures: the incarnation of reason. An incarnated reason illuminated by faith. A joyful faith, as Msgr Srei stressed this morning - a resurrection faith. But also an integral faith, with the parrhesia, the boldness, of bearing witness to what is sometimes not quite politically correct.

Chinese reason

2011-11-17T20:49:00.001+05:30

The Dies Academicus is over. Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai gave the lectio magistralis, "Theology, Wisdom and Evangelization." I liked the lecture. It was suggestive. It was not direct in the occidental manner. It was - chinese, I think. The archbishop began by invoking a suggestive phrase: theology, not as fides quaerens intellectum, but as fides quaerens sapientiam. Theology as the search for wisdom. And the needed and sought after wisdom as coming only through friendship with Christ. Friendship is a term that echoes through Chinese (Christian) thinking ever since Matteo Ricci wrote his De Amicitia. It is also a term that has long been around Western thinking, at least since Aristotle made friendship a condition for philosophizing.

The other element that remains with me from the talk is the metaphor of leaves, dead leaves. The metaphor comes from the title of the memoirs of Cardinal Celso Costantini, first Pontifical Delegate to China, and later Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Obviously the man means something to Archbishop Hon Tai Fai: he is a predecessor. But the memoirs: Foglie secche. And a quote:

One evening in Beijing, I left the house for the first time after a serious illness and went with the faithful D.G. Comisso to the imperial park and entered the enclosure of a solitary pagoda. ... The enclosure was full of large trees. ... It was autumn. Many leaves had already fallen to the ground. The guardian of the pagoda came out from a side house and began to sweep the floor, piling up the leaves in the corners to bring them out and lay them somewhere in a wild and remote place.
It seems to me that my life resembles one of those autumnal trees; many leaves have fallen, others are about to fall. As the guardian, I have also decided to pick some dry leaves up; the leaves are not longer valid, but may still contain some hidden and useful wisdom in germ. Even the most humble life may reserve some good seed of experience. This is the reason of this book and its title.

The archbishop did not say as much, but dry leaves, dead leaves, evoke the whole cycle of life, death and resurrection.

Someone said, during the day, that we can speak today, not of philosophy as ancilla theologiae, but of theology as ancilla of the dialogue between faith and reason. Whatever. I found the archbishop edging towards a new use of reason: no longer the pure reason, whatever that might have been, of the past, but the incarnate reason of many colours. He gave us an example of a Chinese use of reason: allusive rather than direct and to the point; metaphorical, certainly, rather than purely theoretical. He said many things without saying many things. There is undoubtedly a concern for respect. He quotes Benedict XV upbraiding the missionaries for being more zealous about expanding the interests of their own countries than that of the Kingdom of God (Maximum illud, 30 November 1919). He refers to Costantini quoting the example of the Indian Buddhists "who were able to forget their architectonic style" and take up that of the Chinese. He talks about friendship with all.

This is a postmodern use of reason insofar as it is an incarnate reason that is used. It is not a postmodern use of reason, if by postmodern we mean utter degradation of all powers of reason.

And, at any rate, there is always several incarnate reasons engaging in scholarship, retrieving texts ancient and new, gently engaging in dialectic and inviting to radical displacements in intellectual, moral and religious areas, and moving towards taking a personal stand.

The historico-critical method has its great merits. Taken in isolation, infected by the imperialism of specializations, it can be incomplete and even damaging. But inserted into the movement of research, exegesis, history, dialectic, foundations, it can pour, together with other methods, into new appropriations of doctrines, ongoing systematics, and fresh communication.

The Atonement

2011-11-17T20:45:00.001+05:30

I found, surprisingly, a copy of Ian McEwan's The Atonement in our library. Impressive film, which I saw during some flight years ago. The novel is equally good, if not better. The long musings of the principals do not really come through in the film. The film is a different medium, really. Haunting images, pace, focus, and so on. But writing is different. There is a quality in McEwan's writing that grips the imagination profoundly, if I may use that word. The Atonement is the story of lives that might have been, if only someone had not. That someone turns out to be a precocious young girl, hardly a child. Or perhaps I find the novel gripping because it portrays so well, and once again, the class divide that used to mark, and perhaps still marks, British society. Class divide: sensitive issue.

Salesian Convent, Bethlehem

2011-11-08T00:50:00.000+05:30

These photos are from the "Salesian Convent" - which is the Salesian house at Bethlehem (not the FMA house, which is adjacent), a solid building built somewhere in 1862. It is built with the usual white 'Jerusalem' stone, which sets off the flowers very graciously...

A lovely cactus flower

2011-11-05T11:54:00.002+05:30

Colours of autumn

2011-11-05T11:41:00.000+05:30

Jerusalem does not have too many of the classic autumn colours of, say, North America, but this creeper is an exception...

The eyes of love

2011-10-31T13:20:00.001+05:30

Yesterday we had a visit by Bishop Janos Szekely, auxiliary bishop of Estergom, Hungary. Janos is a past pupil of Cremisan: he studied theology there, as a diocesan seminarian, from 1987-1990. Interestingly, he also ordained two young Salesians recently - one of them being Claudius Misquitta. (He said yesterday: the Indian Salesian has picked up Hungarian very well.)
Bishop Janos gave us a simple but profound goodnight. He advised the seminarians (1) to pray, (2) to study hard, and two other things. He ended with a lovely story of a boy who was not very good at baseball, but was put into coaching by his father. His father would come to see him towards the end of the practice session, and the boy's face would always light up. One day his father died. The coach was wondering what would happen. But after a few days the boy came back to the training. And one day, when there was an important match, he asked the coach to be put into the match. He performed brilliantly during the match: he ran faster, he caught more accurately, and so on. The coach was surprised. He said to the boy: I thought you would not be able to perform without your father. The boy said: I played for my father. You see, my father was blind, so he could never see me play. This is the first time he could see me. I played for him.
The bishop concluded: we have a Father who sees us. We are looked upon in love. Let us play well. And let us look upon our people with that same love.

The importance of Face

2011-10-30T21:06:00.001+05:30

We had Fr Joseph Nguyen, SJ, at our table at lunch after the Mass in honour of Our Lady Queen of Palestine at Deir Rafat, and he joined us in our bus back to Jerusalem. Fr Joseph is the Rector of the Jerusalem section of the Pontifical Biblical Institute (PBI) at Emile Botta Road, not far from Ratisbonne. He is from Vietnam, and was telling us that he spent 9 years in a Vietnamese prison. This man is wonderful: he carries no resentment against his jailers. Instead, he was telling me that he ended becoming friendly with all of them, including the highest officials. They studied all his life, his writings, so much so that they could make out which were his writings even when his name was not on them. They found ultimately that he was not an enemy of the state. Instead, that he could be helpful.
Fr Joseph was telling me that we should learn to understand the Chinese and the Vietnamese. Most Westerners do not understand them, he said. Their deepest driving force is nationalism, and the memory of the great humiliation they suffered for centuries under Western rule. Communism became for them a way towards freedom and nationalism. Since they associate Christianity with the West, they tend to fiercely attack it.
If we approach them as enemies, they will become enemies, and they will never change. But if we approach them with respect, if we are not aggressive, we can work with them. In the East, he said, respect is very important, FACE is very important.
Fr Joseph said that Face is important even for God: the only thing God fears to lose is Face. See, for example, the way Moses deals with God: what will the Egyptians say if you destroy your people? They will say that he liberated them only to destroy them in the desert. And God relented.
The Chinese and the Vietnamese often consider Westerners as barbarians: they are too abrupt, too blunt, they are not polite, not respectful. I remember reading this repeatedly in my novels: gwai-loh, they call the Westerners. But Fr Joseph said they had a worse word: barbari. They actually seem to have borrowed a word to describe the Westerners.
You can tell a lie in the East, but you cannot insult anyone. Respect is more important than truth. There is much to be excavated here: it is the truth of the person that is being placed before the truth of a statement. It is a holistic approach. "Speaking the truth in charity," as St Paul says.
Fr Joseph's approach has worked wonders. He was showing me a Bible in Vietnamese: translated by Catholics, financed by the Protestants, and printed by the Communists! At first they used to go through every word, and they had objected to "The fool says in his heart, There is no God." But he had explained to them that this text of 3000 years back could not have been meant as a criticism of Communism which is only 70 years old. They had been content with that, and had made no more problems.
They have learnt now that Christians do not want to destroy anything, that they are friends, that they want peace and reconciliation. Many realize, after they lay down office, that their true and real friends are Christians.
I was surprised to learn that Matteo Ricci's first book in China was L'amicizia. He realized that the only way to enter the Forbidden City was through friendship. This is wonderful. The only way to evangelize, in many parts of the world today, is through friendship and respect.
Friendship and respect: wonderful words. All of us in our community can learn. We can take a commitment to be friends together. And we can be deeply respectful towards one another, all of us. The mark of greatness is when we can be respectful to our employees, and towards those who are junior to us: our boys, our youth, the younger members of the community.

The river Jordan, the Mount of Temptation, and two monasteries

2011-10-27T20:48:00.000+05:30

We went to the newly discovered baptismal site of Jesus at the Jordan River, not far from Jericho, today. About 45 minutes drive from Jerusalem, so not very far. The site is on the border with Jordan, and heavily guarded. The Franciscans own a small piece of land there; once a year the Israeli authorities permit a mass on the site. Today was that day. The Custos celebrated the Mass of the Baptism of Our Lord. There was a fair crowd: priests, religious, laity.

The river is really small at this point: a mere ditch by Indian standards, but probably quite deep. On the other side are some beautiful churches, especially a lovely Orthodox church with golden domes. Several other churches are now coming up, the brothers tell me, after the recent visit of Benedict XVI and his appeal to the Jordanian government to enable and facilitate Christian worship in the holy places.

Before reaching the site, we visited an old Orthodox monastery, I think it was the Monastery of St Gerasimos. The monks were surprisingly very welcoming and hospitable. They even offered us refreshments. The monastery is associated with the beautiful story of a lion. Gerasimos found a lion limping, and pulled out a splinter from its paw. He thought the lion would go away, but it did not, and followed him to the monastery, where it became very popular with the monks. The lion was given the task of guarding the monastery's donkey when it was grazing. But it happened one day that, when the lion was dozing, a passing merchant made away with the donkey. When the lion returned to the monastery crestfallen, the monks assumed its appetite for flesh had overpowered it, and that it had eaten the donkey. As a punishment, they gave it the work of the donkey: carrying wood and water for the monastery. Much later, as the lion was going about its work, the same merchant was passing by, with the donkey and 3 camels. The lion let out a loud roar, the merchant ran away leaving the donkey and camels, and the donkey followed the lion back to the monastery, together with the 3 camels. The monks realized then that they had been wrong, that they had misjudged the lion. The lion remained on in the monastery, and when Gerasimus died, it lay down on the grave and would not rise.
A good story for Bill Russell's theological anthropology: he speaks about animals too!

After the mass at the Baptismal site, we went to the Mount of Temptation. We had to pass through Jericho, a rough Palestinian town, but much greener than Jerusalem, perhaps because it is hotter and because there must be water in the ground.

The Mount of Temptation rears up just outside Jericho. A rugged stratified sandstone mountain, dotted with caves, and this monastery perched on the height. The monks open up once a year; the Franciscans hold a small service of the Word at the door, then everyone goes in for a tour of the monastery. The place was surprisingly well-kept, and once again, the monks were hospitable, offering refreshments. The views were breathtaking. Beyond the lovely little monastery church, there is a small staircase, leading to an alcove where there is, traditionally, the stone on which Jesus sat. Was it the one he sat on when he was tempted? I don't know.

The Jordan river is, according to Fr Vernet, the lowest place on earth: some 400 m below sea level. If Jerusalem is 800 m above, we make a descent of some 1200 m in this journey.

On the way one sees the Inn of the Good Samaritan, but this is something rather new. Close by, the Israelis have set up a museum housing mosaics from the synagogues and monasteries of the region.

In Jesus' time, the road was known as the Bloody Road, because it was lonely, and attacks by dacoits were frequent. It is still rather winding and lonely, but there are the occasional Bedouin settlements, here and there, from what I could see. Rather shabby tin affairs; the old tents must have been far more lovely and wholesome.

And even the monks cannot avoid producing garbage. There was a dirty garbage heap on the path leading up to the monastery, not far from the entrance.

Tuloy sa Don Bosco - a unique work for street children

2011-10-25T19:29:00.003+05:30

One of the significant visits yesterday was to TULOY SA DONBOSCO, which translates as Welcome to Don Bosco. Tuloy is a Tagalog wordmeaning welcome and also let’s go ahead. The play of words here is significant,because Tuloy sa DB caters to street children. Street children – defined in thePhilippines not as roofless rootless, but as any child on the street for 5 or 7hours a day – are welcomed here, and they are accompanied into the future.

The centre is the brainchild of Fr Rocky Evangelista, SDB .It is rather unique, in the sense that, as he explained, it does not belong tothe Salesians. It is run by a trust, of which the provincial is a de iuremember, and Rocky the executive secretary. The others are lay people, andprobably some religious. The ‘community’ is irregular by current canonicalstandards: 2 SDBs, some sisters of various congregations, and lay people, allliving together. Rocky chose not to go for his silver jubilee sabbatical,instead, asked to remain forever with the street work he had begun in 1993,just two years before his jubilee. His great help and support has been and isCathy, a lay person, who began by sending him anonymous cheques, followed up tofind out why the cheques were not being cashed, pushed the priest to beginsomething, and found herself involved up to the neck. She is part of thecommunity that runs Tuloy. She recalls that the only religious object in herhouse was a statue of our Lady, which turned out to be Mary Help of Christians.She did not know it at the time; she was shocked when she came to know. Maryseems to have prepared the way for this unique project. Another Marian tale ishow a small statue of MHoC had been tied to a tree in a piece of land Rocky wastrying to buy. They lost it after a while, but one day, 10 years later, foundit – the binding wire had fallen off, but the tree had grown around the base ofthe statue, so that the statue was still standing, attached to the tree. Thetrunk and the statue are now in Rocky’s office.

The philosophy of Tuloy is simple. Children need to be giventhe best, so that they can feel they are special, no less that richer children,and they can begin to dream of a better future. So the centre is large,extremely well kept, and spotless clean. About $ 80,000 is needed – per month –to run the centre. It comes from donations and contributions. The collaborationof some large companies is visible: there is a Macdonald house, a Caltex house,and so on. About 220 boys and girls reside in various dorms, and another 500children in need come in as day scholars. Second is the power of choice. No oneis forced to stay on if s/he does not want to. So if anyone does, it is becauses/he wants to, decides to. Third, Tuloy is not for those who do not want towork. An hour of manual work to keep the surroundings clean is mandatory.Fourth, children are helped to finish school, and also receive a professional education,after which they leave in search of work. Boys who have no parents aresupported for a year till they gather money to get accommodation. Girls arehelped somewhat longer. A fifth point is ecology. Rocky is very sensitive tothe issue, and is passing on this education to his youth. They becomeenthusiastic and passionate about it, he says. There is water recycling, whichalso serves to raise fish, water vegetables, and so on.

And he is clear that professional help is needed: socialworkers, psychologists, and so on.

The church is remarkable, built of 400 year Spanish erabricks, cut to size, and used with great artistic effect. Old bricks can beused to create a work of art; street children can be transformed into works ofbeauty.

And behind the church, using the nature and lay of the land,is the residence for the community, and also well-appointed rooms for guestswho can spend the day in prayer, or celebrate an anniversary in the church.Most stay on to become benefactors.

Not all the Salesians are happy with this work that does nottoe the line. But a significant Salesian, Pascual Chavez, is: he seems to havesaid: this is the most Salesian work I have seen. The international presidentof Rotary International, an Indian by the name of Bannerjee, is enthusiasticabout the work, and has invited Rocky to speak next year at Bangkok. ColinPowell mentions the project in his memoirs, and says that volunteerism is thefuture hope of the world.

Rocky is a communicator. He can talk, and he writes. He presentedme with an autographed copy of his latest book, I have come home. I think he is on a good track. The irregularstatus of his community, the presence of lay people and other religious, theinnovations, the belief in the child, the ability to communicate, these are allsolidly Don Bosco qualities.

Makati and Fort Bonifacio

2011-10-25T19:25:00.000+05:30

After the Sunday mass in the mall, we wandered aroundGreenbelt Mall, which is huge. Manila has, it is said, the largest mall in theworld, and also the fourth- and the seventh-largest. It is perhaps because ofthe large landholding families which developed their lands pretty much as theypleased. Makati and Fort Bonifacio are really clean, well-kept and beautiful,they could match any great city in the world. Of course, on the fringes thereare the houses of the poor and lower middle class, but none of that is seen inthe central areas.

Manila is gearing up for Christmas, though everyone kepttelling me that Christmas preparations began already in the ‘ber’ months – themonths ending in –ber, which is September onwards. The Philippinos have anothertradition, picked up from the Spanish, that of celebrating the Christmas novenawith mass every day at 0400 in the morning! I believe they carry this traditionwherever they go, so I should expect to find it also in Jerusalem.

From the Americans they have borrowed the way of celebratingAll Souls Day – Hallowe’en. I saw the pumpkins or mock-pumpkins, and one malleven had a whole troupe of actors in fanciful and beautiful Spanish eracostumes, with masks. I was too shy to take photos of them! But they were striking.The new generation of Philippinos is far taller than their parents. Better foodperhaps, and also steroids in the fast food they love?

Mass in the Mall

2011-10-25T19:21:00.004+05:30

Yesterday (23 October) was Mission Sunday, and I had an experience of anew frontier: Sunday Mass in a mall. Fr Gregorio Bicomong, SDB, companion ofmine at Testaccio, Rome, took me along with him. He said the mass wasoriginally held in the lobby, and it was much better there because morepassersby would stop and join in, and the crowd was much bigger, some of themeven occupying the upper galaries. The mall belongs, I think, to the Ayalafamily which owns a large part of Makati, and also donated land to theSalesians – where the provincial house, Amici, publishing house, parish andschool now stand. They invited the Salesians to celebrate mass in the mall, andpriests take turns to do so. I believe they have mass every day, but certainlyon Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. Our mass was in a large open space onone of the top floors, the hall was quite full with people, young and old,there two senior Eucharistic ministers, a young man who did the altar serving,a prayer leader, etc. Quite well organized. Gregorio has turned out in a boldand pleasant and energetic speaker. He surprised me by asking me to say a fewwords after his longish homily, which I did, after apologizing to the peoplefor a second homily. The atmosphere was good. Greg says that people areappreciative of the Salesians.

So Mass in a Mall: a first for me. I suppose this issomething that can happen only in a country like the Philippines. Not possiblein highly secularized Europe, not even in Italy.

The surprising thing was that there is a beautiful littlechurch right inside another mall, the Greenbelt, also belonging to the Ayalafamily. Actually it is in one of the many large open spaces that characterizethis A-A upper class mall – the green spaces give it the name, Greenbelt.Pretty little church, a low dome open all round, with the altar in the centre,pews rising upwards all around it, an office for the priest, etc.

The SDBs at Makati, Manila

2011-10-22T21:14:00.000+05:30

The Provincial House of the Northern province of the Salesians in the Philippines is in the Makati area of the Manila City, smack next to the Skyway. A large complex. Next to it is a very large academic and professional school, with a total of 6000 students; the St John Bosco Parish; a printing press and a publishing house; space given out to a stationery shop; and the famous Salesian Italian restaurant, Amici or Cara mia, now leased out to a private party, but formerly run by an Italian Salesian, and then, for a year, by Fr Francis Gustilo, former provincial of the Philippines. Fr Francis told me he used to visit every table, chat with people about their lives, their families, religion, the Sunday gospel, vocations, religious life, priesthood. He said he enjoyed the experience very much, and that he not only got to know many people, but also that many kept coming back to the restaurant because they liked the priestly attention they were receiving.
The Salesians here have been involving their staff in the ministry, by investing in their formation. This has paid off very well, from what I hear. Most of their vocations come from their own schools - a good index.

Don Bosco Center of Studies, Paranaque

2011-10-22T21:06:00.001+05:30

I am at the Don Bosco Center of Studies, Paranaque, a short distance outside Manila. This the theology study centre for the Salesians in the Philippines, and also for the whole East Asia region of the Salesians. A large compound, with the study centre, a spanking new library, a residence for professors, and a large residence for the Salesian students, who number about 54. But the centre itself has some 600 students, including 200 plus sisters, mostly novices, who come for weekend courses. I believe there are also other departments on the campus.

The new library building is especially impressive. It is named after Pope Benedict XVI, is built in pleasing shades of white and off white, has ground plus two and a half floors. The ground floor houses the offices of the librarian, but also of the dean, registrar, etc. The cool white decor is offset very well by remarkable prints of paintings by a British Christian artist, who paints biblical themes, as well as by one large painting commissioned specially for the building, by a young former Salesian or Salesian aspirant, now deceased. It attempts to portray Don Bosco and his mission in the context of the Trinity. A remarkable feature is that the Father and the Son reflect each other: the Son is the Face of the Father. The Holy Spirit is represented in the traditional image of the dove.
I was pleased to see the state of the art desks, with fittings for laptops, and wi-fi environment, in the main reference section. There is also an adjoining section with about 20 computers. The library is open access. The special feature is the Salesiana section, still in phase of development, but already promising. This is supposed to serve the entire East Asia region.
The Salesian residence has a remarkable chapel done up in traditional Philippino Luzon island style, with actual furniture and fittings recovered from old traditional houses. The tabernacle is actually a wooden rice bin, tastefully done up of course. Another chapel is done up in traditional Japanese style, where you enter barefoot.

Guinataan and halo halo

2011-10-22T20:49:00.001+05:30

I want to report two more delicacies: guinataan (if I rememberright) and halo halo.

The guinataan is a sort of sweet dish composed of cubes ofsweet potato, ube (probably a deeply purple coloured yam), sticky rice balls,cassava balls, and banana, all soaked and probably cooked a little in coconutmilk, so that the cubes are soaked in a thickish sweet liquid, gently violettinted.

The halo halo instead causes much excitement: you take atall glass and begin putting together the ingredients: small black lentilssoaked in sugar; transparent creamish beans soaked in sugar; the fruit of somespecial palm, the size of dates, but whitish and translucent, once again soakedin sugar; the pulp of a special tender coconut which is all flesh and no water,very sweet; and sweet corn in a thick syrup. Over this goes a generous dollopof crushed ice, and then milk to soak it all, and to top it, a piece ofcustard, made of milk and egg some delicate other flavor. The whole is stirred,from which the name halo halo: halo means to shake, in Tagalog, I think. Verymuch like our own haloy! Wonderful, the combination.
For more descriptions of wonderful Philippino desserts, with photos, see the following site:
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/favorite-filipino-dessertssweets-revisited

Other Philippino delicacies

2011-10-21T10:15:00.002+05:30

I have already mentioned one Philippino delicacy, the Bukopie, based on fresh tender coconut (buko). In its pure form, only fresh tendercoconut is used in this pie. The variations are: buko with pineapple, or bukopandan pie (pandan is a type of local herb, with a light, delicate flavor), or simplypineapple pie, and so on.

There are many sweets made of rice. The rice used is ‘stickyrice’ (also found in Myanmar, where they distinguish between ordinary rice noodlesand noodles made of sticky rice); I think it is this rice that is responsible forthe utter lightness of the rice-based sweets here. Yesterday, at lunch I think,there were pancakes with a lightly sweet banana filling, gathered up togetherand pinned with toothpicks; the lightness of the pancakes was amazing. At tea,the other day, there were little balls made of sticky rice, with a sweet-potatobased filling, rolled in sesame (til) and fried; but once again, so amazinglylight. Then again there were little larger elongated bands of rice, fried andthen dipped in a sweet syrup; rubbery and light and delightful.

Many other types of sweet made of cassava, our tapioca. Rollsof lightly sticky tapioca, cut into bits and artistically laid on little piecesof banana leaf: heavenly taste. I inquired about the ingredients: just cassavaand sugar, but with butter. Perhaps that was what gave the exquisite taste. Thenagain, little balls of tapioca swimming in a large bowl of warm tapioca sauce:delightful.

Four fruit juices mixed together in a large bowl, and iced,with the delightful name of Four Seasons.

Buko water (tender coconut): offered in the traditional way,whole with straws. Then, later, poured into the large bowl, with floating stripsof the tender flesh, and iced.
But I forgot the most important: BIBINGKA - sounds familiar to Goans? Bebinca! But something quite different from ours, however. A little light fluffy cake like thing, with butter and sugar topping. Quite delicious, really.

Buko pie and other things

2011-10-19T12:27:00.003+05:30

One of the specialties of the Philippines is Buko pie. ‘Buko’means tender coconut, so that is tender coconut pie. The real thing is made byvery few bakeries, and consists of pieces of tender coconut baked into alight-crusted flaky pie. (See the stuff on the extreme right, middle shelf, in the photo above.)

The sister in attendance said to me something that used tobe said also in India: the coconut is a miracle tree, every part of it can beused. She mentioned also the roots, and I asked for what. She said they weremedicinal. Another extremely useful and powerful medicine, she said, is virgincoconut oil. Regular coconut oil, the type used for cooking, is made from copra– even the word is similar. But virgin coconut oil is made differently. I wassurprised at the process. A mature coconut is grated. The milk is extracted andstirred a hundred times in the same direction. It is then kept aside overnight.In the morning, one finds three layers: a top creamy layer, which can be usedfor cooking; this must be scraped off. It is the middle layer that is thevirgin coconut oil. The bottom layer is the water; it is useless and can be thrownaway. The virgin coconut oil can be drunk; it can be poured over food. It issaid to have cancer-preventing or cancer-curing properties.

But it appears that the Philippinos have not yet learned thesecret of coconut feni. Or if they have, it is not a very popular thing.Perhaps they have. Sister said that some people extract the sap of the coconuttree, and make wine or liquor out of it, and she said it was very strong. Shealso said that the trees will not bear fruit once they are tapped, so people arecareful which trees they tap.

Tender coconut milk is very expensive, she said. Most of itis bland, but there is one variety that tastes very good, tangy, like Sprite,she said.

The sisters from the different provinces have each carriedsome specialty from their countries. The Indians have carried soan papdi,chikki, potato chivda, cashewnut barfi, cashewnuts, halwa. The Japanesecontributed delicately wrapped little biscuits flavoured equally delicatelywith seaweed or perhaps fish, I could not make out. The sister from Hong Kongbrought along the wonderful little cupcakes of Hong Kong, especially the onesfilled with fruit.

Another Philippino delicacy is groundnuts or peanuts soakedin garlic. I have seen of course the famous Bharuch groundnuts soaked incoconut water, but this is the first time I see them soaked in garlic. And theytaste good!

Cashew is well known in the Philippines, but I think no onehas discovered cashew feni.

As for fruits, I have mentioned already the extraordinarylooking rambutan. But I was surprised to find the chickoo here, and even calledalmost the same way: chicko! Then there are, of course, bananas, papayas,mangoes, oranges. The pomelos, delicately pink fleshed, were extraordinary. Itried asking for seeds, but they were the seedless variety. They grow all over,but very well in the south, in Mindanao, I was told. Guavas are in plenty, someof the very large, like coconuts, it would seem; but I have not seen any, beingperhaps the wrong season. I wonder if they have custard apples, ramphal, andsoursops. They do have jambuls, I think, from the description they gave me. Runealaplums? I wonder.

A wonderful land, magical, with lagoons and mountains goinginto the distance, and nearby mountains packed densely with vegetation. Andopen to the Pacific, the Great Ocean, with typhoons at least six times a year,and rain for six months of the year. Only two seasons, the rainy and the dry.The rainy, from May up to October, but possibly up to December. Yesterdayevening it rained: and what rain. I haven’t seen rain like that for years:straight, thick, heavy, and LOUD. The amazing thing was that it was pouring soheavily, but none of it was entering the room or the windows, it was soperpendicular.

The Rambutan

2011-10-19T12:15:00.004+05:30

The exotic fruit - red with curly spikes - is the RAMBUTAN. I havent seen it in India. It seems to be a cousin of the Lychee - same type of white sweet juicy flesh, peelable red skin, and a large seed inside. The difference: instead of small spikes on the skin, this has curly spikes. Exotic!

Tabor House of the SDBs

2011-10-15T10:44:00.002+05:30

Just back from a visit to the nearby Tabor House of theSDBs. Used to be their house for elderly Salesians, but is now an OngoingFormation Centre. Large campus, somewhat lower down the hill compared to theSisters, but also very beautiful and very well kept. I saw a fair number ofpoorer children from the locality: a festive oratory. The children were veryfriendly: the Philippinos have a custom of taking your hand and touching it totheir foreheads if you are a priest or religious. Others were playingbasketball: a national obsession, probably picked up from the Americans whoruled here from 1898 for about 50 years.

The back garden of Tabor House is reserved for Salesians andSalesian guests who spend time on a retreat or just for some quiet time forthemselves. There is an open-air chapel where mass is celebrated on Sundays forthe neighbours – done in indigenous style with local materials – palm leaves,bamboo, rattan, etc. There is also a ‘kiosk’ done in the same style.

It was surprising to discover many connections with theNorth-East. Fr Danny, the Rector and Vice Provincial, said an Italianmissionary who had worked with the Nagas in India, had discovered a tribe up inthe mountains that was amazingly similar: same dress, same colours, similarwords in their language, etc. Tagalog, the national language of thePhilippines, seems to have come from Bahasa, the national language ofIndonesia, which itself has a Malay origin. This seems to account for someIndian words in Tagalog: compound with ‘maha-’ meaning big or large, ‘Hari’meaning king, etc. Ric Fernando had said much the same thing to me in Israel.The food also is part of the same family as the North-East: rice, noodles,dried fish (there rice and dried fish even at breakfast), lightly cookedvegetables and meat…

The Philippines - first impressions

2011-10-15T10:40:00.001+05:30

I arrived in the Philippines, for the first time, thismorning. The KLM plane touched down perfectly on schedule. My first impression,looking at the land through the windows, was of familiarity: the houses andbuildings weathered by the annual monsoons, the bright green luxuriance of thevegetation. Immigration went through smoothly enough, and I could see a sisterwaiting near the baggage clearance area. It turned out to be a Salesian sisterwaiting for me: she had take a special pass to be inside. The checked in bagarrived without incident, we met another sister waiting outside, who happenedto be missionary in Cambodia, and then drove up to Pansol. The SDB provincialhouse, they told me, is in downtown Makati, in the business district; there iseven a Don Bosco road leading off the main motorway. Further along, we passed,on the right, the exit to Paranaque, where the SDB have their theology house.The motorway is good, flanked by new housing where there were rice fields onlya few years earlier. Manila and surroundings are situated on a very large bayor lagoon and face west – somehow I had always imagined Manila situated on theeastern sea front. Water is ubiquitous in an island country: fascinating. Theretreat house – the Mornese Spirituality Center – is situated on the lowerslopes of Mount Makili, which quite dominates the landscape, somewhat likeVesuvius dominates that of Naples. The sisters said there were many religioushouses on the slopes, and also ‘private pools’ because of the easy availabilityof hot springs in the area. Makili is probably a dormant volcano. Covered justnow with lush green tropical vegetation.

The retreat house is very well built, designed by an FMAsister who eventually left. The top floor opens out onto a view deck, whichaffords a stupendous view of the Laguna bay. My impression is that it is, forthe most part, a shallow bay; there are what look like fishing arrangements –the weir system probably – covering a large part of it. In the further reachesis probably what is Manila bay.

The Philippines: my first impression is of the interiordécor and the food. The chapel we are using, for example, gives me theimpression of people in love with nature: the back wall is open to the lushvegetation outside; the two inner corners are dedicated to the blessedSacrament and to Our Lady Help of Christians, with flowing water on one side,and orchids on the other. Tasteful, probably less minimalist than the Japaneseor the Chinese.

The food has been extraordinary. The sister in charge is adietician, and takes pains over the food. In the afternoon: a wonderful lightsoup; white rice; lightly seasoned pork bits wrapped in cabbage leaf with a redsauce poured over the whole; fish, fried whole with the head, though afterhaving been cleaned of the innards; and fruit. New for me was the rambutan:reddish, with long curling spikes which give it the name – rambu means hair,tan means forest. A variety of lichi, perhaps: the skin with the spikes ispeeled off, the flesh inside is white and delicate like the lichi, and the seedis like an almond, which some people even eat, I am told.

Supper – which is at 1900 hrs – was once again soup, thistime with a leafy vegetable and fine noodles; white rice again; what lookedlike red pumpkin delicately prepared without being overcooked; an extraordinarysalad which allowed the taste of each ingredient – lettuce, cucumber, and someother vegetables; fried fish, probably mackerel, pierced through and made tostand on what was probably a small watermelon; and delicately sautéed porkchops. Fruit of course. I really like the way the taste of the ingredientscomes through: delicate, and wholesome. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The sisters have been very welcoming and extremely kind andhospitable. They all look young, and to me they also look one like the other,so it is somewhat confusing: the provincial, Sr Sarah Garcia; the superior ofthe house, Sr Christine; the provincial secretary, Sr Rachel. The otherprovincials have begun arriving: Sr Paola of Timor Est; Sr Wilma and theprovincial of Chennai; the provincials of Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan, whospeak Italian but not English.

Tel Aviv to Manila

2011-10-15T10:35:00.002+05:30

I was fortunate to have had a rather good journey. Thechecks at Tel Aviv went surprisingly well. The questioner was nice and quitequick; my check in bag was screened but not sent for opening; the check in alsowent well. Further down, I think, checking of cabin luggage, and immigration,of which I hardly remember anything. The first KLM flight to Amsterdam wentwell. We were served breakfast, and before landing a light snack. I think I sawpart of a crazy comedy called Arthur – a dirty rich young man who will not growup, but finally does when he meets a girl, and has to fight to marry heragainst his mother’s wishes.

A five hour wait at Amsterdam: 0930 to 1430. I had a Dutchcappuccino, which is somehow never the same as an Italian one; accessed theinternet at the café; continued editing Joaquim’s article for DJPE 22C;wandered around till I found the meditation room, quite nicely kept, which evenhas arrangements for celebrating the Eucharist; noticed the lounge chairs whichare good to keep in mind for long waits in the future; had a shave; and then itwas time to begin the long process of boarding. This seemed even morecomplicated than the Israeli procedures, but perhaps it was the number ofpeople – it was a very large plane, and it was full.

The second flight I found interminably long. Perhaps Ishould have exercised a little at Schiphol. Perhaps I should have drunk morewater. Perhaps it was the foulness of the air in the cabin. I found myselfrestless, unable to sleep properly, though in the end I did, in snatches. Iwatched the rest of Arthur, and then The Green Lantern, based on the old DCcomics, but very interestingly situated in the context of the guardians of thewhole universe who run and protect the universe through the green force of will,whereas there is now a threat coming from the yellow force of fear.

Vernet's 'You, Joseph'

2011-10-09T15:21:00.002+05:30

Just finished reading Fr Joan Maria Vernet's You, Joseph. A romanticised life of Joseph, but penetrated by the author's expertise in the Bible and archaeology (he is a professor of scripture and archaeology at Ratisbonne). I found myself moved several times by the delicacy of his imagination. This is the first time I have come across a life of Mary that is obviously penetrated by the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. As the White Father, Dominique Arnauld said, he expected a sentimental novel, but was quite taken up by what he read.

Highly recommended, both for the figure of the young Joseph and the figure of Mary. Vernet's descriptions arise from an imagination that is steeped in years of prayer and meditation on the scriptures.

The original is Catalan; the book has been translated into Spanish, Italian, and now English, published in Nairobi. The English translation would benefit from a look-over though, to remove at least the obvious mistakes.

"We have been obstinate" - a Yom Kippur reflection by Prof. Weksler-Waszkinel

2011-10-08T12:15:00.001+05:30

The Ha'aretz supplement for Yom Kippur (Friday, 7 October 2011, p. B9) contains some interesting articles, commentaries on the Vidui or Prayer of Confession. I was particularly struck by the tone of the comment on "We have been obstinate" by Prof. Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel, who turns out to have a very interesting personal history. Born in 1943 to a Jewish family, while still an infant he was placed by his mother in the care of a Polish Christian family, who raised him lovingly. His Polish mother did not tell him about his Jewish origins till he was 35 - "by which time I had been a Catholic priest for 12 years." He came to Israel in 1992, and very soon met his Jewish aunt and uncle, his father's brother.

One of the first things my uncle, a religiously observant Jew, asked me, was: 'How can you carry within you, as a priest, the Christians' 2000-year hatred of the Jews?'

I had a hard time answering. His question struck a place that hurt me, and hurts me still. Nevertheless, I replied that I could not speak in the name of 2,000 years, but rahter only 49 (my age at the time), and that I love Jews. But my uncle continued to interrogate me: 'How many Catholic priests would say they love Jews, like you?' I could not provide a precise number, but was able to say that the priest who loves Jews more than all of them was the head of the Catholic Church: Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla).

The summary of the article reads:

The term 'a stiff-necked people,' used to describe the Jews' betrayal of God on Mt. Sinai, has been erroneously applied through history. But in one case, at least, it is sadly apt.

The professor concludes:

A view from the outside of the relations between man and God reveals a colorful, attractive picture: The people of Israel are still learning by a variety of routes to be free and at the same time to cope with God's demands. But in relations between man and his fellow man - one can find in Israel much enmity, repulsion and sometimes even contempt with regard to relations between the different conceptions of God and of those who remain indifferent to him. I am saddened by such attitudes.

But what saddens and worries me most is the attitude toward the stranger and the 'other.' From this point of view, the people of Israel have the stiffest necks of all. After all, God's commandment to the people is very clear: 'The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.' (Leviticus 19:34). Even in Israel's complex local situation, we must remember that the stranger and the 'other' must be one of us. Is that possible, or is it an unfulfillable dream?

Prof. Weksler-Waszkinel taught philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin, and now lives in Jerusalem and works at Yad Vashem, we are told by a note. Is he still a Catholic priest, or has he returned to the religion of his fathers? We are not told. But the spirit of the Rabbi from Nazareth does pervade his writing - which surely should not be taken as applying only to the Jewish people, but to anyone who listens to the word of God - Christians included.

Just found from the web some useful information about Fr Weksler-Waskinel - who is still very much a Catholic priest: see
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/news/jewish-born-polish-priest-dreams-of-aliyah-1.278518

Latroun and Tel Aviv

2011-10-07T00:21:00.000+05:30

Community outing to the Trappist Monastery at Latroun and then to the beach at Tel Aviv.

The monastery is not very old, perhaps about a hundred years, with vast holdings with vineyards, olive groves and other crops. The wine (Domaine de Latroun) is well known, and very good (we tasted the Pinot Gris, very remarkable). We were able to see the olive oil production, and we learnt that the monks make also a vinegar from garlic.

Fr Vernet explained that the Crusaders had some construction on the site (the ruins can still be seen from the highway); the name was corrupted to Latroun by locals, and from there sprang the idea that this was the birthplace of one of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus. (Latro in Latin means thief.) Which thief, someone asked the new Abbot, Rene Gascoet. I don't know, he said.

We celebrated mass in the crypt of the church. This was followed by refreshments - because we were making our first visit, said the young monk. Then the Abbot himself took us around, first into the Cloister - chapitre, bibliotheque - and then to the winery, cellar and olive press.

At 1130 we left for Tel Aviv. Never imagined somehow that there would be beautiful beaches in Israel, but there they were. Lovely white sand, crystal clear water, Mediterranean skies and water that varies from deep indigo to light blue and green. The facilities were amazing too: free toilets and places to change, shade huts, and best of all, showers and places to wash your feet. The name of the beach was not very inspiring, however - Banana Beach. The ancient city of Jaffa can be seen just off the beach - place where Jonah embarked on his ship, trying to run away from the Lord; place which Peter visited and embarked for Caesarea, etc. Famous port of the Holy Land. In fact, Jaffa Gate leads via Jaffa Road to Jaffa.

Franciscan days

2011-10-05T09:28:00.004+05:30

The 3rd, 4th and 5th have been Franciscan days here in the Holy Land, or at least the 3rd and the 4th.

On the 3rd we had solemn vespers and the Transitus in the Church of St Saviour, which is part of the complex that is the Franciscan Custody. The Transitus is the commemoration of the death of St Francis of Assisi. This was followed by an Inter-Seminary gathering: Franciscans, seminarians of the Latin Patriarchate from Bet Jala, and Salesians from Ratisbonne. A very impressive gathering, especially the presentation of the life of St Francis in dance and song and mime.

Yesterday, 4th October, I participated in the Eucharist at 1030 in the same church. Again a very impressive gathering of church personnel as well as diplomatic personnel and lay people. This was followed by an orchestra consisting of Muslim, Jewish and Christian children, and lunch for invited people. Besides the Salesian provincial, Fr Maurizio, I had the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Abu Ghosh on one side, and the Superior of the Community of the Beatitudes at Emmaus Nicopolis on the other. Abu Ghosh is not far from Kiriat Yearim, where the Ark of the Covenant rested on its way to Jerusalem. It is also considered by some to to be the Emmaus of the gospels. Emmaus Nicopolis is another Emmaus, probably the most authentic one: ruins of an old Byzantine church have been found there, and the documentary evidence goes back to the 5th century, whereas that for the other two Emmaus (there is in fact a third claimant) go back only to Crusader times, according to Fr Joan Maria Vernet.

This morning we go once again to the Church of St Saviour, which is the sole Latin parish church in the old City. We will have, at 0900, the inaugural mass of the academic year for the seminaries of Jerusalem.

Dormition Abbey

2011-10-03T11:38:00.002+05:30

Yesterday I participated in the solemn blessing of the new Abbot of the Dormition Abbey here in Jerusalem. The new Abbot is Gregory Collins, an Irishman, elected by the German-speaking community of the Dormition. The ceremony was in Latin and German, with some English thrown in. Abbot Gregory's mother and relatives and friends from Ireland were there, as were also the German Ambassador, the British Ambassador, and the Irish Ambassador, besides other dignitaries from the various churches in Jerusalem.

The Dormition Abbey was built at the beginning of the last century, thanks to a donation made by the German Emperor who had visited the Holy Land. It is situated on Mount Zion, which falls outside the walls of the Old City. It was in no man's land during the Arab-Israeli conflict, and seems to have suffered much during the two wars.

Right now it houses an ecumenical centre for the study of theology.

Next door is the 'Tomb of David', and also the Cenacle where according to tradition Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, and where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples gathered together with Mary. The Cenacle is, however, under the control of the Israeli government; religious celebrations are permitted only very rarely. The Franciscans, however, have a little Cenacolino quite nearby.

Angels

2011-09-30T11:12:00.002+05:30

Angels - they seem so superfluous. But not only the OT but also the NT speaks of them, and more, Jesus mentions them several times.

Just a small reflection on Michael. The name itself is significant: Who can be like God? Lucifer chose to be like God, and so went against God. Michael recognised his creature status, and chose for God. We have to make choices everyday for or against God; only, where the angels make their choice once and for eternity, we have to renew our choices every day. Human freedom is worked out over time.

But the angels also indicate our final state. In Mt 22, 30 we have Jesus saying to the Sadducees: in the Resurrection there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but you will be like the angels in heaven. What is it to be like the angels? In Mt 18, 10 Jesus says about children that "their angels behold the face of my Father in heaven." So: seeing God; praising, worshipping, adoring, being united with God in love.

And religious life as an anticipation of that final state already in this life.

Philippino Catholic Community Feast, Jerusalem

2011-09-25T20:07:00.001+05:30

The Philippino Catholic Community in Israel celebrated the feast of the first Philippino saint, Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, today at the Ratisbonne campus. Besides communities in Jerusalem, groups came from Rehovot as well as Tel Aviv. There was a colourful procession, the Eucharist celebrated by Bishop William Shomali, Vicar, Latin Patriarchate, followed by cultural items on the basketball court, lunch, and a basketball and volleyball tournament.

The new Philippine Ambassador to Israel was himself present for the cultural items and lunch. There was also Fr David Neuhaus, SJ, Fr Angelo OFM, Philippino Chaplain, and others.

The community spent a lot of time, energy and money celebrating the feast. It was a really colourful and happy day. Quite amazing that the community can come together so well.

Msgr Shomali said that there was also a very large Indian Catholic community, mainly in Tel Aviv, hailing mostly from the Konkani speaking areas of India.

Diary of a Country Priest

2011-09-24T11:29:00.000+05:30

Wonderful piece on the film version of George Bernanos' Diary of a Country Priest, in The Tablet (17 September 2011) 9-10, by Paul Bailey, entitled "Doomed Angel."

The subtitle runs thus: "The actor Claude Laydu, who died in July this year, stunned cinemagoers in 1951 and ever since with his uncompromising depiction of an ascetic country cure'. It was a performance that gave an insight into the paradoxes of Christianity and of total self-giving."

At the very core of the film is the confrontation between the countess - morning the tragic early death of her son; ignoring her husband's myriad infidelities, the latest of which is with the governess, Louise; refusing to acknowledge her daughter's state of near-suicidal despair - and the now patently dying priest. He is there to rescue her from her selfishness, the selfishness of protracted grief.

"I would rather be with my son in hell than separated from him in heaven, she asserts. It is then that she notices the anguish on the childlike face of her counsellor and perhaps recognises at last the depths into which possessiveness has taken her. She throws a medallion containing a photograph of her boy on to the fire and the priest, risking burning his hands, retrieves it. She has, through his guidance, attained peace.

"How wonderful that we can give others that peace which we do not possess. Oh, miracle of our empty hands": of all the thoughts visited upon the priest, that surely is the most profound.

The ending lines of Bailey's article:

What will survive, beyond any doubt, is the film he starred in at the age of 24, which ends with the image of the Cross and the words 'All is grace'. It was only after the seeing the film in its entirety, before it was shown at Venice in 1951, that Claude Laydu realised that he had played a saint. I like to think that he was pleased with the revelation.

The film in question is Robert Bresson's Journal d'un Cure' de Campagne.

The book is still well worth reading. Our seminarians take note.

The Tomb of Mary

2011-09-22T20:10:00.002+05:30

The Tomb of Mary - in charge of the Orthodox Church, with the facade already at a lower level, and then a large tunnel-staircase leading downwards into the earth, into what used to be a very large grotto, with as many as 60 Jewish type tombs. The tradition is that Mary was buried here and that, some years later, when the Romans were about to invade Jerusalem, the Christian community, mindful of the prophecy of Jesus, decided to flee, taking with it the remains of the great saints, including Mary. But when they opened the tomb, they found nothing, no bones, not even ash, but only a delicate and beautiful perfume. It was then that the bishop of Jerusalem said: she has risen, like her Son, and with her Son, she has shared in his Resurrection. And the people believed.

The church of the Tomb is very dark and very fascinatingly oriental: so many lamps hanging all around, a beautiful and very large icon of Our Lady behind the Tomb, and the Tomb itself, very much like the Holy Sepulchre, standing by itself in the middle. You have to stoop to enter it, and there, encased in glass, you can see the tomb where the body of Mary is said to have rested. There are odd holes in the tomb, made by old pilgrims who wanted to take home some precious relics, said Vernet.

So there it is, the Tomb of Mary. I hadn't seen it before. Next to it is another large grotto, where Jesus and his disciples seem to have slept often, and a stone's throw from there, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the church with the Rock on which Jesus is said to have prayed, his Agony in the Garden. There are 8 ancient olive trees in the garden, very large, and the experts say that this kind of girth means they are more than 2000 years old. Perhaps they are the trees that bore witness to the Agony of Jesus and his Prayer.

The gate that is shut

2011-09-22T20:00:00.002+05:30

Another thing that struck me very much in our topographical visit this morning was the Gate that is Shut. This is the Eastern Gate of the Temple, and it is shut, quite walled up. It seems there is a prophecy of Ezekiel to this effect, saying that only the Prince of Israel will enter through it and eat in its shadow.

Ezekiel 44:1-3
1 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut.
2 And he said to me, "This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut.
3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way."

But this is the very Gate through which Jesus entered the City, for Jesus came from Bethphage and over the Mt of Olives into the City, and the only entry was through the Eastern Gate. And, according to Vernet, this Gate was walled up at a later time.

And so the prophecy was fulfilled: it was open to allow the Prince of Israel to enter, and now it is shut.

You can see the gate in the photo above.

David and the sanctuary of Nob

2011-09-22T19:56:00.002+05:30

From the reference of Jesus in the gospels, and from the Old Testament itself, many of us have known about how David, when he and his men were hungry, went to the priests of Nob and asked for food, and they, who had only the Loaves of the Presence, gave them to the men on David's assurance that "their vessels were clean." (1 Sam 21, 2-10) I had no idea, however, that the 'high place' of Nob was so close to Jerusalem. It is, in fact, on one of the hills overlooking the old city of Jerusalem, today known as Mt Scopus, the Mount from where it is possible to See, to Observe. This was the mount from which all the invading armies spied upon Jerusalem, hence the name. Today it is crowned with the vast campus of the Hebrew University, and, adjacent to it, the Augusta Victoria Hospital built thanks to the donation of a generous German Emperor who visited the Holy Land at the end of the 19th century, and named after his wife.

Well, this Augusta Victoria Hospital is built on the very site of the old town and high place of Nob - the very place to which David went in his flight from Saul. Saul was, at that time, reigning at Gibeah Shaul, about 4 kms north-east of Jerusalem. Jerusalem had not yet been established as the Temple of the Lord (something which it fell to David to do), and there were many high places, Nob being one of them.

The story is of course tragic. There is one of Saul's trusted men, Doeg the Edomite, who happens to be in Nob. This man reports of course to Saul, who summons the priests and has them massacred, and then order the 'wiping out of the memory' of Nob, killing every man and woman, child and animal. (1 Sam 22, 6-23)

Nob seems to have been rebuilt later by David. But nothing of all that is visible now. It is only the Hospital that occupies a large and relatively serene campus, that overlooks, on the East, the desert of Judah and the new Israeli settlements. But on that eastern slope of Mt Scopus and the Mt of Olives, we have the famous villages of Bethany, the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and Bethphage, from where Jesus began his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Joan Maria Vernet, SDB

2011-09-20T18:52:00.002+05:30

Joan Maria Vernet: few of us in India have heard of this great Salesian, professor of the New Testament and Biblical Archaeology here in Ratisbonne, and author of more than a dozen popular books on the life of Jesus, the latest being Tu, il Salvatore. I say popular books; but I think they are penetrated through and through with the vast knowledge of this good scripture professor. At the age of 74, he still guides our students with great passion through the sites of the Holy Land. Last Thursday he took them to the Holy Sepulchre (my blog entry on the subject is entirely a summary of his handouts) and the Mamilla Pool. Next month there is a scheduled trip to Galilee. He is easily the most popular professor on the campus.

For a list of Fr Vernet's books, see:
http://ratisbonnesdb.net/Pages%20for%20the%20Website/Publication.html

The first book, Tu, Giuseppe, has just come out in English translation: You, Joseph: A Historical Novel on Saint Joseph (Kenya: Philothea Missionary Society, 2011).

Don Bosco's insistence on work

2011-09-20T14:29:00.000+05:30

Don Bosco's insistence on work takes on a special significance when seen against its historical background: the current anticlerical accusation that religious and the clergy in general were parasites, idle and sterile persons, living off holdings and benefices that remained unproductive for society as a whole. Don Bosco not only drew his Salesians from the common people, but also insisted that they be workers. It was, in its time, a new model of religious life: a religious who was a worker among working people. This, dangerous as it could turn out to be in single cases (says Arthur Lenti), seems to have been Don Bosco's concept of the 'active' life understood as 'apostolate'.

The electric shock that was Don Bosco...

2011-09-20T12:29:00.000+05:30

Fascinating observation by don Rua, declared under oath:

“I remember that when Don Bosco came to say Mass for us […], something like an electric shock seemed to run through all the children. They would jump to their feet and leave their places to mill about him […] It took quite some time before he could get through to the sacristy. There was nothing the good Brothers could do to prevent this apparent disorder, and so we had our way. Nothing of this sort happened when other priests came, even pious and renowned ones … The secret of this attachment could only be explained by their awareness of the spiritual and untiring love he felt for their souls.”[1]

[1] BM II p. 247-248.

The Holy Sepulchre: a history

2011-09-14T23:28:00.001+05:30

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross today. Fr Vernet took the First Year students for a guided tour, which I missed because of a meeting of Religious Superiors at the PBI. But his handouts are very interesting.

Calvary was a small hill on the west of the city outside the walls. From 7 BC to 1 AD the place around was a quarry producing white stone. In 1 AD the quarry became disused and a garden took its place. Several tombs had been cut in the vertical surfaces of the quarry's walls. The tomb of Jesus was one of these.

In AD 41-43 Calvary and the Tomb were brought within the walls. The Jerusalem Christian Community used to hold liturgical celebrations on the site till AD 66. Even when the tomb was brought within the new walls, the site was not built over.

In AD 135 Hadrian filled the quarry and built a Capitoline temple on it, flanked by a shrine honouring Aphrodite. It was the Roman attempt to erase old 'superstitions.'

In AD 326 a huge new building was erected on the site by Constantine, and consecrated in 335. The old buildings were torn down. As the work progressed, Eusebius of Caesarea reports, "and as layer after layer of the subsoil came into view, the venerable and most holy memorial of the Saviour's resurrection ... came into view." (Life of Constantine 3, 28)

The Constantinian basilica had an Atrium, a covered five nave basilica, an open courtyard with the hill of
Calvary at its south-east corner, and a large Rotunda in whose centre stood the Sepulchre.

The basilica was destroyed by the Persians in 614. It was rebuilt after the victory of the Emperor Heraclius in 628.

In 1009 the basilica was systematically destroyed under orders from the Fatimite Caliph Akhim. In 1042 the Emperor Constantine Monomachus provided a subsidy for reconstruction, but it was not enough for complete repairs, so a great part of the original edifice had to be abandoned. This was the church found by the Crusaders when they captured Jerusalem on 15 July 1099.

The church we see today is the Crusaders' basilica, inaugurated in 1149. All the sites were reunited under one roof. The basilica was beautiful but much smaller than the Constantinian basilica, lacking the nave and the atrium. The style was not Romanesque but Gothic of the 12th century.

Hi-tech discussions

2011-09-13T11:34:00.000+05:30

We had quite a hi-tech discussion yesterday. We are discussing the Lineamenta for the forthcoming XIII Synod of Bishops on The New Evangelization. We were supposed to download the document and read it. The document is some 55 pages long, 45 if you omit the notes. Not all of us were willing to go in for a printout. So Ric Fernando, one of our staff members here, brought down his Wi-Fi generator: a little unit that plugs in to the ethernet, and generates a wireless network ambient for a range of about 20 metres. So there we were, with our laptops, connecting to the net and downloading the document.

The fruits of our discussion are to be presented at the meeting of the Committee of Religious Men - perhaps what we call the CRI back in India - tomorrow, 14 September, at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

The faith of the centurion

2011-09-11T23:34:00.001+05:30

For a homily tomorrow:

The gospel is about the faith of the Roman centurion in Capharnaum.

Faith: it takes time to realize that faith is not something we create for ourselves, that instead it is a gift, the great gift of God. Here we have a Roman centurion - someone who did not belong to the Jewish people - who has received this gift. But Jesus marvels at his faith: which means that he had grown in the exercise of this gift to an extraordinary extent.

A former priest: I lost my priesthood. But many years before that I lost my faith. And there is nothing so miserable as a priest who has lost his faith.

We pray - that the gift of faith that has been given to us might be fanned into a flame, that it might keep burning bright, that we might be men of great and living faith, like our Father Don Bosco.

Olive trees

2011-09-10T19:08:00.001+05:30

Olives trees in front of Ratisbonne Monastery. These are old, but not as old as some others in the Holy Land. I was told that there is one that is said to be 3000 years old, in our Bet Gemal monastery.

Ratisbonne Monastery

2011-09-10T19:06:00.002+05:30

A view of Ratisbonne Salesian Monastery...
The bust is of Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, founder of the monastery.
The strange roundish edifice is called the Turkish Tower, the most ancient part of this campus, probably one of a series of such towers from Jerusalem to the coast, an ancient communication system...

The archbishop and the mataji

2011-09-08T19:57:00.002+05:30

Two lovely books I am reading these days: Priests for the Third Millennium, by Abp. Timothy M. Dolan, and a book on Our Lady by Vandana Mataji. Both the Archbishop and the Mataji have the ability to penetrate to the heart, and to the heart of matters. They probably live their faith deeply...

Studium Theologicum Salesianum, Jerusalem

2011-09-08T17:44:00.000+05:30

STUDIUM THEOLOGICUM SALESIANUM "SAINTS PETER AND PAUL" - that's perhaps the official title of our Theology Centre here at the Ratisbonne Monastery, Jerusalem.

The Centre started off in Bethlehem way back in 1929, was transferred to Tantur (half way between Bethlehem and Jerusalem) in 1949, and to Cremisan in 1957, where it remained for a long time - almost 50 years. In 2004 it was transferred to its present location in the Ratisbonne Monastery, Jerusalem.

The story behind the final transfer is long and complex. The Ratisbonne Monastery was founded by Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, who was also the founder of the Fathers of Sion, a religious congregation with the principal aim of dialoguing with Judaism. Ratisbonne bought land on a hill overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, at a place not far from Hezekiah's Upper Pool, where the prophecy about the Virgin Birth was made. At the time, the monastery was practically the only building in the locality. Today it is in the very heart of an upper class and largely Jewish neighbourhood.

When numbers fell and needs changed, it would appear that the Fathers of Sion handed over their property to the Vatican, who in turn, after a while, looked around for a religious congregation to take care of it. Since the Franciscans and the Jesuits both had large houses in Jerusalem, the Vatican approached the Salesians. In September 2004, the Salesians moved into the monastery with their Theology Centre. Over the last six years, a major work of renovation of the interiors has been carried out by the Salesians.

The Fathers of Sion still retain one wing of this large old monastery, which is built like a French castle, with a semi-underground floor and two others above it.

The most colourful and ancient edifice on the campus is the Turkish Tower, which has a whole lovely apartment within it. Fascinating to think of living within a tower, but it's not bad, I think.

So: Ratisbonne is the name of the monastery, not the place. The study centre is called STS, and the whole building, which includes the Salesian Community, is perhaps best called Ratisbonne Salesian Monastery.

Francis Preston

2011-09-08T14:53:00.003+05:30

With Fr Francis Preston, the outgoing Rector of Ratisbonne Salesian Monastery, in front of the Holy Sepulchre.

St Anne's, Jerusalem, birthplace of Our Lady

2011-09-08T14:13:00.002+05:30

Just back from mass at St Anne's, near Lions Gate, Old Jerusalem... just next to the famous Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus cured the man who had been waiting for 38 years for someone to help him get into the Pool.

The Pool itself has been excavated, and is really a maze, and very deep too... In Byzantine times, a church had been constructed on it. When the Crusaders arrived, they found the church in ruins, and built a smaller chapel.

The mass was a solemn affair, with the Franciscans presiding, in French and in Latin. Solemn Gregorian music, homily in French, and the French consul and his wife in attendance, given that the church is under the protection of France. I was introduced to the consul, and he expressed his desire to visit Ratisbonne, which was also under the protection of France.

The following is from the introduction to the mass booklet distributed to all this morning:

The protogospel of James (2nd century) indicates that the Virgin was born in the neighbourhood of the Temple at Jerusalem. already from the 5th century, pilgrims were visiting the the Pool and the church of the paralytic and of "the place where Mary was born."
This church, destroyed before the arrival of the Crusaders, stood where the present church of St Anne now stands, with a big monastery, supported by royal revenues. Several of the royal women of the Crusaders finished their lives in this monastery.
In 1192, as indicated by an Arabic inscription on the tympanum of the great door, the church was transformed by Saladin, the Muslim Emperor, into a Shia College; hence the name Salahiye.
During the Muslim occupation, the Francicans Friars, Custodians of the Holy Land, tried their best to obtain access, from time to time, to the crypt, to pray there with the pilgrims. They were allowed to enter only through a small window which can still be seen today from the platform through which one enters the crypt of the birth of Mary.
From the 15th century, the Franciscans obtained a firman permitting them to celebrate Mass (which they did with difficulty and fear) on 8 September, the feast of the birth of Our Lady, and on 8 December, feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1856, after the Crimean War, the building was given to France by Sultan Abdul Majid. The church, restored with great care, was in 1878 entrusted to the White Fathers founded by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie.
During the war of 1967, the basilica with its cupola were badly damaged by bombardments. In the years that followed, the church was restored under the direction of the architects M. Trouvelot and P. Couasnon OP. On 14 July 1971, National Feast of France, it was solemnly reopened for worship.

FedEx and customs

2011-09-06T18:43:00.000+05:30

I spent the better part of the day at Tel Aviv, trying to clear my 4 boxes of books and papers through customs. The nice part was that the Maman employees (which is the company that works with customs to clear things) were all very courteous and even cordial, and the better part was that I met so many Indian Jews there... two ladies whose parents came from Mumbai, and who said 'basaa' to me with great delight, and three young men who had come mostly recently from Mumbai, and spoke very fluent Marathi.

The bad part was FedEx. I wish FedEx Nashik had told me clearly that Israeli customs expected a detailed list of contents, with valuation. Because of the lack of that, we had a delay of ... almost 10 days before clearance, and then, finally, they suggested that I clear the parcels personally, myself.

It is probably in the end much cheaper and far more convenient to send personal parcels through the post.

St Stephen at Bet Gemal

2011-09-05T19:43:00.001+05:30

On our way back from the airport, where we had gone to drop Fr Francis Preston, Fr Gianni Caputa took us to the Salesian House at Bet Gemal, also once known as Caphargemala - the House or Village of Gemal or Gamaliel, the famous teacher of St Paul.

Bet Gemal also seems to have been the burial place of St Stephen, the proto-martyr. In the 5th century, a cave was discovered containing 3 sacrophagi - one of Gamaliel, one of his nephew, and the third of Stephen. Most of the remains of Stephen were then translated to Jerusalem, to a place on Mount Sion, where later a church was built. This church has since disappeared, but it is probable that it stood where the Ecole Biblique now stands.

A Byzantine church was also erected in Bet Gemal, which was later destroyed, perhaps in the Turkish invasions. The once large Christian community was also scattered or reduced.

The present Salesian property at Bet Gemal was bought by Fr Belloni when he was a member of the Latin Patriarchate. When Fr Belloni became a Salesian and merged his congregation with the Salesians, he brought along his properties, including Bet Gemal, Cremisan, Bethlehem and Nazareth, if I am not mistaken. In the 1930s the remains of the church of St Stephen were discovered - the church is the only round church in Palestine, symbolizing 'crown', the root meaning of 'Stephen.' In the last part of the 20th century, Fr Andrzej Strus, SDB discovered the cave and the part of the relics of St Stephen that used to be venerated there.

The house of Bet Gemal used to be an Agricultural School, one of premier schools in Palestine, with vast acres of olives and vines, and a group of residential students. Eventually, in the 1980s, the school had to be closed down for lack of students. Now it continues to run the olive orchard and vineyards, and also serves as a house for pilgrims, prayer groups, retreats, etc.

The new church of St Stephen, built by the Salesians in Byzantine style on the ruins of the ancient church, also houses the remains of Ven. Simon Srugi of Nazareth, who served all his Salesian life in Bet Gemal as infirmarian and in charge of the grain mill.

On 26 December, the whole Salesian province of the Middle East gathers at Bet Gemal to celebrate the feast of St Stephen.

Not far from Bet Gemal is Bet Shemesh, which used to be a Canaanite temple to the Sun God. The ruins of the temple are still visible on a little mound, but much neglected. This was the place where the Philistines held the Ark of the Covenant before David captured it and took it back to Jerusalem.

In the vicinity is also the town where Samson brought down the supporting pillars of the palace, killing himself as well as the heads of the Philistines.

The Rector's Office, Ratisbonne

2011-09-03T16:18:00.000+05:30

I was surprised to learn yesterday that the Rector's office here at Ratisbonne is a historical place in its own right: the initial meetings between the Vatican and the State of Israel, exploring the possibility of recognition of the state, were held here. There is, in fact, in the office, a photo with Ratzinger and other officials from both sides. The photo needs to be restored to an honourable place.

Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

2011-09-03T16:16:00.000+05:30

Yesterday we paid a brief visit to the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, just outside the New Gate of the Old City. A huge, recent building, belonging to the Vatican, and entrusted to the Legionaires of Christ. A sort of 5 star pilgrim accomodation, with a first class Rotisserie, restaurant, and Terrace Garden.

We were particularly impressed by the Terrace Garden - and not only because of its legendary 500 varieties of cheese and fine wines, but because of the utterly stunning view it affords of the Old City. The golden dome of the Al Aqsa Mosque is mostly stunningly visible; not far from it the two darker domes of the Holy Sepulchre; and the tower of the Franciscan Custody. In the background lie the low hills with the Garden of Olives, with a Russian onion-top golden domed church, and perhaps at the top of the same hill the church of the Ascension.

Then of course there was the PBI (Pontifical Biblical Institute, the extension of the Biblicum in Rome), the Italian Quarter, the Russian Quarter, and so on. In the distance the Anglican church. Somewhere also a Mormon church.

The Notre Dame campus contains a huge auditorium, named after John Paul II I think; and built with money obtained from the alienation of part of the Ratisbonne property (now containing a very posh apartment block with swimming pool and works). It also has halls for top-level meetings of the Vatican, the local hierarchy, etc. The Conference of Ordinaries of the Holy Land also has its offices in the building. I was told that this conference traditionally includes the Franciscan Custos, for many centuries regarded the head of the Latin Catholics in the Holy Land, till the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate.

The Holy City and the extreme luxury in tourism, all mixed up together.

The Turkish Tower, Ratisbonne Monastery

2011-09-03T16:07:00.000+05:30

The most ancient building on the Ratisbonne Monastery campus is the Turkish Tower. It appears that this is one of a series of 7 towers built perhaps in Ottoman times for the purposes of communication between Jerusalem and the coast. One of these towers seems to be on the Mount of Olives, or the Garden of Gethsemane.

I was surprised to see a whole apartment within the tower: a ground floor space, a middle floor that used to serve as an office, a top floor that used to serve as bedroom, and that still has the carpet. Adjacent to the tower is another L-shaped space, with kitchen, hall space, and so on.

The tower used to be occupied in earlier times by a family. Right now it is in a state of disrepair, and the water and electrical connections have been cut off.

The Salesian Biblical Association at Ratisbonne

2011-08-30T18:25:00.000+05:30

The Salesian Biblical Association has been meeting at Ratisbonne in the last week. Today the members returned from a short trip, and I was surprised to meet so many old friends from Testaccio: Mario Fiandri, now bishop in Guatemala, Felipe Plascencia, Jean-Sylvain Jeannot, Pedro.... There were also Morand Wirth, Cesare Bissoli and Mario Cimosa from the UPS.

Mario was appointed about 3 years ago, to a small and remote diocese in Guatemala, he was telling me, 9 hours by road from the capital. He has about 25 priests, and is very happy that the Rector Major has offered him 3 salesians to begin a youth work in his diocese.

Jeannot has been novice master, then rector of the pre-novitiate - quite an ideal thing, I was telling him, and he agreed. I did not know he had studied in Cremisan.

Jerusalem

2011-08-30T00:28:00.000+05:30

Arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, with an hour's delay, but everything else went very well: immigration, baggage claim, etc. Francis Preston and Biju Michael were waiting patiently for me outside. We drove the 40 kms up to Jerusalem. Things have changed since I was last here some 15 years ago: the city looks spanking new.

The Ratisbonne Institute looks beautiful. It is a very old building, the oldest in Jerusalem outside the Old City. When it was first built, there was absolutely nothing around. Now it is in the centre of the new City.

The salesians took it over - most of it - at the request of the Vatican some 6 years ago, and have put in a fair amount of work, doing up the rooms, etc. One wing is still used by the Fathers of Sion, founded by Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne. A new basketball court has been put up. And the Old City is just some 20 mins away on foot.

Alms, giving, and charity

2011-08-18T08:16:00.002+05:30

A wonderful article on almsgiving which I want to record here:

Naomi Kritzer, "On Giving to the Poor: Variations on a Biblical Theme," Commonweal 133/22 (15 Dec 2006) 8-11.

Zindagi na milegi dobara

2011-08-01T11:50:00.001+05:30

We watched Zindagi na Milegi Dobara the other day. Extraordinary movie. Three heroes, more than well-matching up to one another - Hrithik, Farhan and Abhay. Two heroines, but clearly with Katrina overshadowing the new Koechlin. The camera lovingly caressing the extraordinary beauty of the faces (Hrithik, Katrina) but also the faces of Spain.

But the movie goes deeper than merely physical beauty. It dares to depart from the beaten track as far as Hindi movies are concerned (though there was a Dil Chahta Hai not long ago), to enter into the intricacies of relationships, friendships, with life, money, and elementary competitiveness interfering to cause the pain and the beauty that is life in the concrete. There are exaggerations, no doubt: for how many of us will have the luxury of living out challenges like deep-sea diving and parachuting and running the bulls as our three friends do, ordinary though at least one of them seems? There is also the witness of the sea change in Indian morals: bedding down so casually, for example. And, what struck me the other day as quite strange: Zindagi na milegi dobara, in an India that has believed in the samsara of millions of lives.... quite extraordinary, and I don't quite know what to make of it. But, perhaps, quite true, even given millions of lives: this life, this now, this moment is not going to come my way again; let me live it to the full. "Look at the birds of the air," said a rabbi years and years ago, in one of the most extraordinary of his sermons. Live now. Live free. Like God.

Fed up with manna

2011-08-01T10:02:00.000+05:30

The first reading of this morning: powerful icon of what Francis de Sales calls 'attachment to sin.' The children of Israel, fed with manna in the desert, manna that looked like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium - fed with manna and fed up with manna, longing for the onions and the fleshpots of Egypt. They dream of the fish that they caught free, the leeks, garlic, vegetables...

And so it is ever: the boredom of liberty makes us recall with nostalgia the little pleasures of slavery. Attachment to sin: the sick man forbidden to eat a certain fruit, but longing to get well so that he can eat it again.

Paul Kennedy on Lonergan

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000+05:30

Certainly, Lonergan's vocation was intellectual, but seemed more apt to writing than to teaching. he was seen to be extremely intelligent and perspicacious, but with some degree of vanity about it. Yet there was a timidity or shyness about him, a difficulty of access in conversation, but also somthing of a harsh sense of humour and a bluntness that could hurt. He did not suffer fools gladly. Yet he also showed a lack of confidence in his reaction to being questioned or opposed in his opinions. A strange mixture, then, of brilliance, bluntness and inaccessibility.

William Mathews, Lonergan's Quest 88. Cited by P. Lambert in Lambert and McShane, Bernard Lonergan: His Life and Leading Ideas 36.

Mothers and God

2011-07-27T18:35:00.000+05:30

Had to speak to the school assembly this morning, and I spoke on Mother's Day. After racking my brains for a story, I finally settled on something I hoped the students would find interesting: Peter Berger's 'pointer' to the existence of God from the familiar gesture of a mother who says to her child that gets up with a fright in the middle of the night: "Go to sleep. Everything is fine." That gesture presupposes that all is well. It presupposes the existence of God. If God were not, then all would not be well.

Mother gives life. She gives love. Above all, she gives faith and trust in life. I thought of children who grow up without fathers, I thought of Don Bosco and his mother, Mamma Margaret. It was said of Don Bosco that he never doubted himself. What a wonderful thing to say. His mother was able to be mother and father, she was able to bring him up with a tremendous confidence in himself, because there was her unshakeable faith in the providence of God.

Don Bosco's place in the church

2011-07-21T11:06:00.000+05:30

What does Don Bosco have to say to the diocesan clergy? Or: what is Don Bosco's place in the church?

1. He is a model of what a simple diocesan priest is capable of doing, if he has faith and the energy that comes from faith.

2. He is an icon of the church's concern for youth, and among these most especially those on the margins.

3. He also reminds the church of its concern for the simple faithful: the need to reach out to them and strengthen their faith through good literature (today, the means of communication), devotions, the sacraments.

4. He is a great example of faith.