A Catholic Response to the Da Vinci Desecration
By Deacon Barth E. Bracy

As I am in the midst of writing a Licentiate Thesis I had promised myself that I would not waste precious time weighing in on the Da Vinci Desecration. This brief news item this morning changed my mind:

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Dateline: 23 May 2006, Manila Philippines
http://news.inq7.net/express/html_output/20060523-76664.xml.html

SM cinemas around the country have as a matter of policy not shown movies rated R-18, or for adults only. But even before the Motion Picture and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) came out with an R-18 rating for the controversial “The Da Vinci Code,” the family of SM group patriarch Henry Sy reportedly had made up its mind not to show it in their theaters.
The film’s promoters were quoted as lamenting that they would suffer a huge drop in income as a result of the SM movie chain’s boycott. But Sy reportedly reasoned that the MegaMall in Mandaluyong City has a chapel at the fifth floor in which the exposed Blessed Sacrament is adored by hundreds of people every day, so how can they show the movie that desecrates Jesus Christ?

A little background for readers outside the Philippines: The SM Group owns and operates the largest chain of shopping malls and cinemas in the Philippines. Their formerly largest location (recently surpassed by the humongous new SM Mall of Asia) is the aforementioned MegaMall in Mandaluyong City, which is one of the many cities that make up Metro Manila. On the 5th Floor of MegaMall they host the “Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord” where exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament indeed occurs throughout Mall hours.

While the stance of Mr. Sy regarding the Da Vinci Desecration is remarkable in a day and age where most businessmen, Catholic or otherwise, make decisions solely according to anticipated earnings, what I find absolutely brilliant is the reasoning upon which his stance is based. And by the way, as far as I know, Henry Sy is not (yet?) Catholic, though I understand that Mrs. Sy is.

Mr. Sy’s reasoning is so lucid that even the most crass pseudo-intellectual Catholic-basher must concede the point, namely, that adoration of Jesus and desecration of Jesus stand in mutual opposition, one to another, as contradictories. Because material cooperation with an act of desecration obviously constitutes active participation therein, Mr. Sy wanted nothing to do with the Da Vinci Desecration.

Reading about Mr. Sy’s stance confirmed my prior suspicion that the Da Vinci Desecration is in fact apocalyptic, with a little “a”, even if it is (perhaps?) not Apocalyptic with a big “A”. To wit, an apocalypse, properly speaking, is a revelation, and, specifically, a revelation of light and darkness as standing in mutual opposition, one to another, such that there is nothing whatsoever in common between them. This understanding is a clarion call for Christians everywhere to wake up and smell the coffee, as it were. Let me explain…

First, anyone who had any hand whatsoever in making or promoting the Da Vinci Desecration, whether they want to believe it or not, has spat directly in the Divine Face of Christ. Those who consider themselves Christian and yet have profited from the book or film, i.e., owners of cinemas and bookstores, have committed the sin of Judas. Faithful Catholics need to charitably correct these people where possible but, more importantly, we need to make reparation to the Heart of Christ for these outrages.

Second, many Christians apparently consider the film entertaining even while, presumably, not believing its deceptions. An article attributed to Mark Shea of Catholic Exchange gave the lie to this pseudo-position by asking whether one might conceivably find any entertainment value in a film the storyline of which revolves around the assertion that one’s own mother is a prostitute! The point is as compelling as it is clear: << If you can watch this film without being outraged, you simply do not love Jesus! Though you perhaps did not spit on His Face as did those who made, promoted and profited from the film, He will indeed spit you out of His Mouth for being pathetically lukewarm. >> Faithful Catholics need to charitably correct these people accordingly but, more importantly, we need to make reparation to the Heart of Christ for the lack of outrage that bears witness to their pathetic lukewarmness.

This, finally, brings me back to Mr. Sy who brilliantly and succinctly expressed how adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament stands in opposition to desecration as its contradiction. The clear message of this apocalypse, with a little “a”, as well as the Book of the Apocalypse, is that our love for Jesus must be stronger than the hatred and indifference of the world and, specifically, that adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament should be our primary response as faithful Catholics in combating the Da Vinci Desecration. “It was this that brought them before God’s throne: day and night they minister to Him in His Temple.” (Rev. 7:15)

Indeed, how can we forget that in the midst of His bitter Agony, only request fell from the Suffering Lips of Our Blessed Lord: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” If you don’t already make a weekly holy hour, please make this commitment today. If you already make a weekly holy hour, please consider a daily holy hour, and / or an hour of reparation in the middle of the night. If your parish does not yet have perpetual adoration please ask your pastor and contact me if you need assistance.

http://www.perpetual-adoration.org

P.S. Thank you Mr. Sy!

Who's Afraid of the Da Vinci Code Movie?

I am flabbergasted that some Christian groups in Malaysia and Singapore are calling for a ban on the screening of the Da Vinci Code movie (DVC movie).
Why this hysteria? Is the DVC movie the Antichrist or what? (Hey, that's an idea for a book. The Antichrist is not a person. It is actually a movie starring Tom Hanks. Do you think it will sell?)

The church has experienced much more serious assaults and survived. Why this hoopla over a movie? When folks see Tom Hanks prancing around on the screen with
a beautiful heroine accompanied by an exciting soundtrack, it should hit home that we are dealing with fiction here. The DVC movie may be the best thing that happens to this whole DVC phenomena where Christians are concerned.

The DVC book is just so-so. I think Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is a better written book. But the DVC phenomena took off because of the book's claim to be true and its tapping on our love for conspiracies. It also rode on feminist sentiments and the fact that the history of the church is by no means spotless.

The DVC book has already been pooh-poohed by any number of reliable authorities. The continuing controversy only serves to make Dan Brown a very, very rich man. It has also provided Christians an excellent platform to talk about the faith with folks who normally wouldn't give Christianity a second look.

But does the DVC movie warrant the high profile we are giving it? Should we ask the government to ban the movie?

First off it is virtually impossible to stop people seeing a movie if they really wanted to. They can download it online. Friends will bring back copies from their travels. And in Malaysia you can buy pirated DVDs of any movie you want. Banning it will only increase people's curiosity and may lead to even more interest in the show as people wonder what the church has to hide and why the church is so frightened.

Secondly censorship is always a double edged weapon in the fight for truth. Once you encourage the government authorities to wield this weapon, there is no telling where
they will stop. It might be a movie that offends the church today. It might be a show deemed anti Islamic tomorrow or one deemed dangerous to the social order.

If we encourage the powers that be to wield the sword of censorship, especially where ideas and concepts are concerned, it might be a weapon used against the church
tomorrow. I'd rather take my chances with a society committed to an open market for ideas.

The bible says that we shouldn't be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good (Romans 12 : 21). The best antidote to things like the DVC is to faithfully teach and model the truth in our churches. Healthy churches where the truth is both taught and experienced should be able to shrug off attacks like the DVC.
And healthy churches should have enough credibility in society to be trusted when they clarify false claims about the faith.

Therein lies the problem. Many churches today are not paying the price of teaching our people biblical truth and teaching them how to think biblically.
More concerned for rapid numerical growth, many churches focus on methods and programmes. Pragmatism rules. “What works” is the de facto battle cry taking precedence over “what is true.”

The DVC phenomena has caught us with our pants down and now we are scrambling to help our people fight off these assaults on our faith. And in our panic some of us do things like calling upon government authorities to ban the movie. History has shown that depending on government authorities rather then getting our own act together has often been a poor bargain for the church.

Perhaps we can thank the DVC phenomena as a God allowed wake-up call to the church. In a post-modern connected world, there will be many more DVC types up the road. We can't be fighting fires all the time.

What is needed is to take seriously our task of teaching our people the Scriptures so that they are both able to detect error and to help explain to their non- Christian friends the fallacy du jour (2 Timothy 3: 16-17).

We also need to help our people to be able to reflect biblically so that they are functioning with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2: 16). And we need to do that in ways that show the relevance of the Word for daily life.

Too often theology has been taught as an intellectual scholastic exercise.We need to help our people see biblical truth as something that is part of the warp and woof of daily life. Not some spiritual dogma removed from life.

I am glad for all the effort going into refuting the false claims of the DVC. For example I am very proud of grass roots apologetics initiatives rising up, like my Agora friends in Malaysia and Singapore, who are working with more
established church groups to counter the false claims in the DVC. Agora Malaysia is also trying to produce DVC countering materials in Chinese and Malay. All this needs to be done.

But I can't see us putting the same kind of effort against every popular fallacy that erupts in the entertainment media. We will end up with a very reactive agenda. Some of this will have to be done. But I'd rather the church be more pro active and giving the appropriate attention to grounding our people in the truth.

And lest we forget what is involved, this is no high school debate.We fight to protect the veracity of God's Word because, as Peter said: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6 : 68)

Soo-Inn Tan
sooinn@graceatwork.org

Getting the Full Picture

A long time ago I learnt from C. S. Lewis never to judge a man as he is without knowing how far he has come. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

"Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reason, it is quite possible that in God's eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the V.C. (Victoria Cross). When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God's eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend."

Note that Lewis is not saying that morality is relative. Courage and kindness is good. Cowardice and cruelty is bad. However Lewis is saying that our moral choices are rooted in the raw material of our lives. He goes on to add:

"We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it."

We need to hear Lewis afresh on this point in the Internet age. So much discourse takes place these days through blogs and emails. I am beginning to realize afresh how inadequate these are for informed, nuanced discussions of issues of import.

We read an email or a blog entry and it contains statements we strongly disagree with. But the usual lengths of emails and blog entries are such that they cannot be exhaustive statements by the writer on that subject. In addition text communication denies us access to body language and tone of voice, which are the main channels of human communication.

Emails and blog entries are at best freeze frames of one person's thoughts. They help us know a little of what is being said but not why. They may help us know a little of where a person is but not where they have come from or where they are going. They do not tell us whether a person wrote the piece with tears or with glee.

I was always a bit perturbed as to why my Southern Baptist friends were so hard on alcohol (what's wrong with a glass of a good Merlot with my steak) and seemingly fairly quiet on smoking tobacco. If anything I think smoking is much more dangerous to the body and medical science is now touting the health benefits of a glass or two a day. And while the bible speaks loud and clear about the dangers of drunkenness it
does not ban drinking as such.

I later found out that alcohol has destroyed so many lives in the States. This was the context of their horror of drinking. And many Southern Baptists come from States where tobacco farming is a major industry.

I am not here entering into the debate as to whether Christians can drink and I am sure no one today would defend smoking as a pastime. I am merely using this as an example of how we need to understand a person's context as much as his convictions.

Often our encounters with blog entries and emails of people we have never met lead us to think of people as people without contexts or histories. We may end up responding to a picture we have of this person, which is at best a caricature and often an unflattering one.

I note again that God's final revelation to us was not a text but a person.

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…" [Hebrews 1: 1-2a ESV]

And while Paul uses letters extensively, he knows that the most important things can only be done personally.

"For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you --- that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." [Romans 1:11-12]

The structure of modern life, especially modern life in the cities is that the nature of urban commute is such that we think twice before we set out to see someone face-to-face. And a world connected by the Internet means we are often interacting with people we may never get to meet because they live on the other side of the globe. It is quite natural that emails and blogs have become our main means of communication.

Perhaps we should unplug awhile and think through the potential consequences of using text based Internet tools as our primary channels of communication. At worst we must be aware of the potential distortions of the medium. At best we may want to reserve our most important discussions for face-to-face encounters.

There are many issues facing the church today. We need the collective wisdom of the whole Body Of Christ to respond to these issues. We really need to be working together as a family so that different people can bring different insights to the table.

All the more we should be careful as to how we communicate. Let us be aware of methods that are open to
misunderstandings and generalizations. If an issue is important enough let us make the time and effort to sit down together to pray and discern God's mind.

It is the biblical thing to do.

Soo-Inn Tan
sooinn@graceatwork.org

Reflections on a hammock

July 2005

Last month I was graced to have the privilege of returning to the Philippines (where I lived for the first 8 years of my religious life) for a renewal programme as well as to spend my annual retreat. I’ve always loved hammocks – perhaps it has to do with being suspended between heaven and earth – so it was to a delightful surprise for me to discover that some hammocks were available for quiet reflection and prayer at the retreat house I stayed. So I’d often be swaying on a hammock, under pine and palm trees, overlooking the truly breath-taking view of Lake Taal in Tagaytay. Many reflections came, pertaining to my life of religious consecration but also others which can be applied to anyone seeking a closer relationship with God. Here are a couple I scribbled:

• As the sun rose, the morning mist on the lake slowly cleared and the colours of the mountains and trees grew deeper and richer as they emerged from their silhouettes. The entire earth is in darkness, if not for the sun, illuminating the rich beauty of nature on the planet. God’s love in my life is like the sun. Without it, I’m just in darkness. His grace in my life enables me to reflect on His infinite beauty in my finite ways. Increase my trust and faith in you O Lord. Let your love shine within me and empower me with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• I’m surrounded by hundreds of plants, flowers, and trees with the cool mountain breeze refreshing the earth after the rain. Each plant I realise had first to die – their seeds had to be buried and “broken” so that they can be brought to new life, and what a transformation! Flowers of different patterns, shades of colour and scents! Trees of varied shapes, sizes and designer leaves designed by the Master artist! My life too is in constant transformation, with areas that also have to be “emptied” - to face death - so that the Lord can transform me into a thing of beauty to behold, and give others and God delight. A community also contains a variety of different personalities – each having his or her own beauty and colour to contribute, enriching the entire landscape. The rains which come are our problems and trials that not only nourish us but help make us grow stronger in faith. All of us are in constant revision and rebirth, symbolised aptly by that empty shell of an insect I saw on a leaf. The question is, how willing are we to let go, to surrender to the Master, to “die,” so that He can transform us to new life?

Sr Wendy Ooi, fsp

Please visit MEDIA HUB - Inspiration

for link to Multi-media remembrance of

Pope John Paul II

ADVENT....

preparing for the Lord's Coming

It’s December and the closing of another year. While students are enjoying their school holidays, shops carry out inventory checks, and accountants become busier than ever preparing their year-end balances and reports. Around the world, we find a variety of creative and colourful Christmas decorations transforming the facades and interiors of major office buildings, shopping centres and hotels, all trying to capture the “magic” of Christmas, which in reality is the spirit of peace, joy and love of Christ.

As the days to Christmas become fewer, crowds get bigger as shoppers scramble in the hustle and bustle of Christmas commercialism. Come December 25, when we are supposed to commemorate the birth of Jesus our Savour, the spirit of peace, love and joy may well be absent in our hearts as we may be too busy and tired with the season to truly live and celebrate it. We may be out of sync with the Christmas spirit. Chances are, while we may have prepared well externally for Christmas (decorating the house, sending out our greeting cards online or otherwise, exchanging gifts and feeding the family well), we may lack spiritual preparation for the Lord’s coming. Fortunately the season of Advent is here to save us from this sad state, provided we are willing to live it well.

While December marks the closing of the year, the Church ironically begins a new one. The Advent season, which opens our liturgical year, lasts about 4 weeks and helps us to prepare ourselves for the grand feast of the Incarnation, our Lord’s birth. The word “Advent” (from the Latin “adventus”) means “coming” or “arrival” and through the liturgical readings, we prepare ourselves to commemorate not only the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem 2000 years ago but also His glorious Second Coming (Parousia) at the end of the world. The final return of Jesus is not an event to be feared but one that we look forward to – the fulfilment of salvation in Christ is after all the basis of our faith and hope. Yet there is a third coming – that of His coming within us, into our hearts and lives, in the here and now. How do we prepare to experience the Incarnation within us? Can we experience this Incarnation amidst the external preparations for Christmas?

Perhaps the best model for us during the season of Advent is Our Lady. For 9 months Mary waited as Jesus grew within her in silence. The season of Advent also entails a waiting on our part – in hope, in openness and silence – for the growth of Christ within us. Caryll Houselander (a British mystic and spiritual writer) likens the season of Advent to the season of the seed. The seed of the world’s life was hidden in Mary. For us, the seed, as Jesus says, is the Word of God sown in the human heart. Just as the seed in the darkness of the earth needs time to germinate, so too we should wait in patience for the Word of God to germinate in our lives, and in the lives of others. Advent is the season to be still and silent, to take time to read and reflect, to ponder on His Word. Yet apart from scripture, the Holy Spirit continues to sow the seed of Christ within us in many other ways: through persons, events, experiences, the media etc.

We gradually realise that in everything lovely and pure, honourable and just that we allow to grow quietly within us, Christ also grows. We must create a space within us for the seed of Christ to grow. For those who can spare the time, a weekend retreat or a day of recollection would be ideal. Otherwise a set quiet time in one’s daily routine would also be appropriate.
For Mary, the season of Advent was a season of humility, silence and growth, in patient waiting. While we live in an impatient age of instant cash, instant food, and instant communications, we can try during this season of Advent to slow down our pace. For example, if we need to wait (whether for someone, the MRT/bus, or in a queue, or for a reply), we can use it as an opportunity to experience Mary’s patient waiting and liken the experience to the gradual unfolding of Christ in our lives. We may not immediately see the light of Christ shinning in our lives, but we have to remember that our time of darkness (however that darkness manifests itself) requires deep faith, faith in the fact that He is truly growing in our lives.

Our belief in Christ’s silent growth within us would then gradually lead us to relate everything in our life to this reality. Everything we do then becomes Christ acting within us – whether it is our daily work, visiting the sick, or cooking and doing the laundry for ht family. We gradually allow Christ to live and serve through us.

While Christ was totally dependent on Mary during Advent, so too He now lays His trust in us by depending on us to carry Him in our hearts to wherever He wants to go. Mary has been compared to a living tabernacle, bringing joy to Elizabeth, We too are asked to be bearers of the joy of Christ to the people we encounter. The season of Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ in our lives. Come Lord Jesus, come and may your light shine in our darkness.

Sr Wendy Ooi, fsp

TSUNAMI DISASTER

Where is God in this Tragedy?

The year 2004 ended with the joy of the Christmas season turning into horror, sadness and gloom as coastal regions of South and East Asia, and even Africa, were besieged with an unprecedented disaster of enormous proportions. On Dec 26, 2004, an earthquake in the bed of the Indian Ocean with a Richter scale of 8.9 (the highest in 40 years) spurred gigantic waves and a new word to most of us in Singapore - Tsunami (tsu harbor + nami wave) – otherwise restrained only in Geography textbooks, became part of our daily conversation. The towering waves with a force of the ocean jolted by the earthquake, travelling at 800km/hr, wrecked havoc to the coasts of 12 nations, from Indonesia to Somalia. Lives, property, infrastructure, entire livelihoods were destroyed in one sweep of the giant waves. More than 150,000 lives have perished, many still unaccounted for and missing. Thousands are wounded.

Where is God in all this? I like the answer provided by an interviewee* who said, “He is crying with the people.” Indeed I couldn’t agree more. The Incarnation, the reason for celebrating Christmas is precisely Emmanuel – God with us. God is also in the hundreds of relief workers and aid volunteers, dedicating their time, effort, talent to help the surviving victims recover and rebuild their lives. God is in the compassionate donors who willingly and generously empty their pockets to help their neighbours in need. God is most of all in each victim – those who perished (and await their resurrection), and those who are wounded and scarred, physically and psychologically, some possibly for life. God is also very much in those who survived but lost their loved ones.

God is in each of us, you and I, as we join our hearts to pray and do all we can for the Tsunami victims, realising that we are all one in the body of Christ who at present suffers His Passion once again. But with faith, we believe that all suffering in this life is passing, and what matters ultimately is the Kingdom that awaits us. Yet we still have to build this Kingdom on earth today, in the here and now, in anyway that we can, leading one another to share in the great inheritance of everlasting Joy, a Joy that can never be interrupted nor short-lived by any man made or natural calamity, a Joy that lasts.

(*when I covered the prayer service at St. Ignatius Church for the Catholic News)

- Sr. Wendy Ooi, fsp