Commentary
Not all is mystery
By Asuncion David Maramba
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:18:00 01/11/2009
Filed Under: Culture (general), Religion & Belief, Churches (organisations)
NOW that the dust of commerce whipped up for Christmas has settled, let’s try to recover what’s left of “the reason for the season.” Actually the Christmas season in the liturgical calendar lasts until the second Sunday of January marking the Baptism of Jesus. In the Philippines, there is one more week of tawad—up to the third Sunday for the Feast of Sto. Niño.
Swamped by sense overload, the Christmas season (and later, Easter) is deep down a hushed season wrapped in mystery, profound, ineffable and holy.
That a baby could be born in abject poverty, that the man would suffer and be “crucified”; such is possible for mortals, such has happened down the lanes of history and such is happening right now in the most wretched ways. But that the Babe is the Son of God, is God and man, is Redeemer; that He will resurrect, ascend to Heaven and come again; such is mind-boggling, soul-boggling if you will and total mystery. This is divinity and divinity is mysterious.
The core of Catholic Christianity is mystery. Its central beliefs are mysteries. They are the bedrock of Faith: Incarnation, Consecration, Eucharist, Jesus, God and man, Trinity, the workings of grace, the power of prayer, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Resurrection, Ascension—these are unfathomable, inexplicable.
Right after Consecration, the priest intones, “Let us proclaim the Mystery of Faith”; “Mysterium Fidei” a priest-friend says, adding to the air of mystery. Break your head but no one, not even Augustine who tried to crack the mystery of the Trinity, can plumb such depths.
The wonder of it is, although utterly unbelievable, the mysteries are utterly believable. There is no need for any suspension of disbelief for there is a real world “beyond reason,” beyond understanding—why not. And mystery is it.
Besides, by nature, human beings strain for the transcendent. There is a supernatural dimension implanted in us wired to the Fount of Transcendence. Witness beliefs in vital spirit worlds and nature worlds, and in the superstitions woven around them—primordial attempts to connect to the Source.
We call our connection “Faith.” It is a fact, a need, a gift. “Keep the Faith” and there is no way for Faith to go but blinder. God is as He is and mysteries are the flashpoints of this God. And Jesus, born in a manger is the human face of God. We needed Someone to whom we could relate; God knew that. And He gave us His Son, like us, human; like us, flesh and blood.
How these mysteries can permeate our lives is our lives’ pursuit, the stuff of our Faith-prayers. Teresa of Calcutta kept the Faith and how she kept it, even as she revealed that God eluded her for half a century of her life!
Meanwhile, Church matters that very palpably impinge on our daily lives are no mysteries at all. There is nothing mysterious about corruption, about its trailing poverty and the attendant miseries traceable to corruption in the inner circles of government. And that is where the battle must be brought by priest and people.
But remarks about some churchmen being on the take, about hierarchic wealth in great contrast to poor parishes and missions, keep cropping up in newspapers, the Internet and the socio-civic circuit. Are these some reasons for the Church’s weak and waffling leadership; for the uneven outcomes of the “preferential option for the poor”?
There is nothing mysterious about the need for a reproductive health (RH) program acceptable to all parties. This brings us smack into the inflammable moral angle. There is nothing mysterious about the fact that much of moral theology is not beyond understanding; that there is nothing heretical about emerging paradigms for moral criteria; about many moral teachings not being core or infallible tenets of Catholicism; that solutions can be arrived at by people studying the confluence of science, history, experience, morality. The final word need not come from edicts from above or divine inspiration. It’s true, in final analysis, all comes from God; but for diverse matters He has equipped us to help ourselves. As a priest said. “Hindi na ito grasya ng Dios; pinagtrabahuhan ito” (This is not Divine Grace, this is the fruit of our labor) or in this case pinag-aralan (acquired). Sectors of the Church do study on-going issues like bioethics, ETs condoms, etc., all of which have moral and theological implications. But there are many no-no’s.
Having outgrown childish or controlling notions like black hearts for mortal sin and the revoked 5, 10 years indulgences (although the plenary is making a comeback), it is no mystery that a growing but non-adversial sector seeks deeper explanations for Church decrees or rules for matters within reason, which God gave us to use; and for matters that do not constitute the central tenets or dogmas of the Church. Listen to your favorite theologian about which they are. And conversely, prelates can listen to diverse laic voices, not only to priestly echoes at large.
I began with the sacred mysteries, with the Babe of Bethlehem as the best-loved. Believe in the Babe. Forgive the inartistic shift but it’s the bathwater we must change.
Asuncion David Maramba is a retired professor, book editor and occasional journalist. Comments to marda_ph@yahoo.com : fax 8284454
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