Rev Venusto L Mata
San Vicente ISur to the World Series
In a comic strip, Pogo the main character said, “The enemy is us.”
Dr Abe V Rotor
A Study of Human Nature
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A Study of Human Nature
Utopia of Plato as conceived in The Republic
Fr Ven is a homegrown leader who has a distinct advantage of knowing the people by pulse, so to speak, like a good doctor attending to the health of the villagers, teachers assigned in remote schools. I compare them with the famous 18th century missionaries Albert Schweitzer and David Livingstone whose works in the heart of Africa brought enlightenment among the natives in knowing God and His ways of making life meaningful and fulfilled. Mission work is indeed leading the “natives” into the stream of civilization, in the concept of Plato’s Allergy of the Cave and Republic.
But mission does not end there. It is the post-mission challenge that takes the pioneer back to the front line. To Fr Ven there is no retirement. It is the sunset of life that makes it golden – the golden years, the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – self-actualization, which is beyond material and social measures.
But “Quo vadis?” Like the strange figure at dawn asking Peter outside the walls of Rome the same, the greeting fell on him as a challenge. Peter turned back and met his martyrdom.
I asked Fr Ven many things, having found him a pillar to cling on from the current of doubt, pride, prejudice, of human frailty as one.
I asked whatever happened to Liberation Theology, a “paradigm of salvation” the paramilitary way in the sixties at the height of the Cold War, when the world was polarized into two ideologies: democracy which supported capitalism, and socialism or communism based on the ideology of Marx, Hegel and Mao, which advocated for a classless society. Our world was divided for 40 long years until the detente broke up.
I asked whatever happened to Liberation Theology, a “paradigm of salvation” the paramilitary way in the sixties at the height of the Cold War, when the world was polarized into two ideologies: democracy which supported capitalism, and socialism or communism based on the ideology of Marx, Hegel and Mao, which advocated for a classless society. Our world was divided for 40 long years until the detente broke up.
Though not sanctioned by the church, armed priests like Fr Balweg of the Cordillera joined the guerillas in the forests or on the streets. The iconic figure of Che Guevarra of South America attracted a number of young revolutionaries many from religious organizations. The armed conflict resulted in many deaths, and soon after the Cold War ended in the late eighties, the movement too, died down.
“The movement is alive, but with a different platform,” Fr Ben said, “as long as Idealism lives. It lives in the young - religious and lay, in the youth, in schools and communities, deeply engrained in faith and trust in God. It is the youth that brings change - the needed change of our society. The world is global battlefield of good and evil. But who is the enemy?
In a comic strip, Pogo the main character said, “The enemy is us.”
If we are fighting for idealism, then the enemy is us who have broken away from idealism as the seat of values, the road St Augustine laid down for man to choose: whether to the city of God or the City of Man. Alas, and the less trodden was the lesser choice. A bandwagon - The Good Life has taken the easier road, the road to the City of Man.
When one finds back sanity, the mind reopens wider, deeper and more encompassing that make one hold more firmly of faith and hope. I see Stephen as the first martyr of the church, Paul converted persecutor into an apostle of Christ, Kolbe the first saint for a forsaken fellowman (Matthew 24), Francis the holy and original environmentalist, Teresa the saint and mother of the poor and outcast, Francisco and Jacinta (photo) as living angels of infants and adolescents mostly victims of inhumanity.They are in flesh and spirit, they walk among us, from Diogenes to Florence Nightingale to Pope John Paul II (now a saint) and our own Lorenzo Ruiz. And countless non-Christians who by life and deeds are undoubtedly Christians, among them a frail man whose only weapon against a proud empire was non-violence. It is non-violence that liberated India from British rule for two centuries. Gandhi’s philosophy earned him “man of the millennium” and his legacy transcends through the whole profile of society.*
Today in our postmodern society renouncement of the seven deadly sins is the most difficult challenge to face in life. It is usually the lesser man who fails. It is he who takes a neutral side – neutral morality. Conscience-tization is a movement that has yet to spread like fire. In reality sin is contagious and spreads like epidemic, nay pandemic.
This is not new. Athens at the peak of power (“The glory that was Greece”) fell victim into this syndrome. The Athenians even silenced their guru, the father of philosophy, the inspiration of their youth. Socrates (picture) was forced to drink hemlock as capital punishment. Neutral morality is not only indifference; it is taking morality into our hands, like criminals taking the law into their hands.After visiting and interviewing Fr Ven, I trudged home with heavy thought and heart, but not of defeat. I felt more determined to go on in life. In my reflection I see Christ coming back into every one of us, irrespective of ideology, race and creed. I see the faithful continue Christ’s teachings through self-denial of the comforts of the Good Life, carrying their own crosses and following Christ. I tell to myself, fear not for WE are together, and God will be with US always. ~
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* Gandhi built a bridge of understanding between and among Christians, non-Christians, other religions notwithstanding on the principle that goodness is universal. His way to the Truth, his way to Peace through non-violence, in fact the way he lived and died - truly make him the Man of the Millennium (Time):1. Wealth without Work
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Science without Humanity
4. Knowledge without Character
5. Politics without Principle
6. Commerce without Morality
7. Worship without Sacrifice
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Science without Humanity
4. Knowledge without Character
5. Politics without Principle
6. Commerce without Morality
7. Worship without Sacrifice
These seven deadly sins in Mahatma Gandhi’s version have basic commonalities with the Vatican’s seven cardinal sins: Anger, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Envy.