  Just like last year’s Christmas, a small group of local lay faithful, as they were finding a way to make their holidays meaningful, again asked me this year to join them for some volunteer trips. We visited Lar de São LuÃs Gonzaga on December 24, Centro de Santa Margarida on December 25, and Instituto de Menores and Ká Hó Settlement on January 1, 2012. All the same places! Yet my experience of faith and of life was not necessarily the same; it was renewed. The trips have added new vigor to my beliefs and helped me better understand how “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us†(Jn 1:14), primarily to the shepherds (cf. Lk 2:8-14) – those who were generally poor and to some extent outcasts, considered by the “respectable†to be ignorant, dirty and lawless (Jerome Kodell).
SIMPLE FAITH STRENGTHENED
Lar de São LuÃs Gonzaga and Centro de Santa Margarida are rehabilitation centers that provide health care services for male and female adults who are mentally retarded, physically handicapped, or with mental disabilities. Thanks to the Sisters of Saint Ann and the Macau Caritas staff, we were arranged to meet the residents of each center in their recreation room, which was much cleaner and more hygienic than one could think. There we sang, danced and played with them. From them I’ve learnt that even when we cannot do anything, just a handshake or a little word “Hello†could also make them a day.
People with mental retardation, nowadays called “intellectual disability†or “developmental delay†to avoid hurting people’s feelings, are those who learn and develop more slowly than others of similar age. In fact, the residents we met seemed to be mentally disabled or disordered rather than retarded – they came out with serious trouble acting and functioning in everyday life. Their physical appearance was mostly disfigured and changed. Many of them liked to talk and make friends with the guests, though they could not articulate their thoughts or express themselves properly. While those who still stay physically healthy were singing, dancing, making noise, and thus making the center sound as if a paradise; the others were much weaker, looking so depressed in their wheelchairs.
One the member of our group, Pablo, told me that he has a younger brother living in the center. Wondering why his brother was not present in the recreation room and also as a way to express my appreciation for his generously offering me a drive, I had the Sister in charge bring me to the man. It was a place of total silence and almost without hope. The residents staying here appeared to be in persistent vegetative state. They lost cognition and could not act voluntarily. Thinking of taking care of these people and making sure to treat them with full dignity I see not only a strenuous and energy draining but also stressful and depressive job it is. Moreover, who can say if the caregiver’s emotional well-being won’t be one day affected? Looking outside the door was walking from side to side a Sister whom without her religious habit I would not be able to tell who she was!
So admired the hard work they have been doing I asked the Sister in charge if the Sisters have ever been wearied of this daily routine and if they have ever failed to see the human being of those appearing in the vegetative state. The answer I had was quite straightforward and not as much theological as I expected. It’s just a simple faith! Their care for the patients is more than mere duty. Grounded in their simple faith in a God incarnate of Christian faith, they see beyond these ignorant and dirty faces the different facets of God’s Image. Yes, it is with simple faith that they recognize how precious these intellectually delayed are; because God has intended to be born for them and to dwell among them, they are fully and simply deserving respect, affection, care, attention, and dignity. It is with simple faith sustained by a prayerful life that the Sisters never fail to trust in God who always provides enough for their daily life. It is with simple faith that the Sisters are able to acknowledge God’s love bestowing upon their lives and that they are, in turn, called to love the brothers and sisters sent to them.
From the witness of the Sisters I have learnt that, since we do not know what kind of life God may call us to be in the future, it should be a right attitude for me to live fully today just with simple faith, constant hope and grateful love. Looking at Pablo’s brother, who could tell that this gentleman used to be an altar server about forty years ago? Yes, this was true until he got a very bad cold.
LITTLE HOPE BOLSTERED
January 1, 2012 – New Year’s Day and feast day of our Mother of God – we set off for the Instituto De Menores – a government institution in Coloane where juvenile delinquents are kept for certain re-education. Here we met a group of about thirty young boys, roughly ten persons less than last year. Thank God! Among many new friends I, however, recognized an old one. He now looked thinner but more mature. We were both happy seeing each other; and with confident we were talking for quite a while.
Learning from last year’s experience, this time I made myself so bold as to try to add some spiritual values into the program. But how could we go further once we had not known one another before? Several icebreaker and teambuilding activities were used to create an open environment in which all participants should be willing to open up and take part. Common Christmas and New Year songs were also employed to break down our barrier of languages and cultural differences to the minimum. After nearly two hours singing, dancing and playing together we could finally create a friendly atmosphere in which all people felt it more comfortable and relaxed to open up to one another. Before it was time for us to call it a day we made use of the last thirty minutes to tell the students the purpose of our visit, also the culmination of the program, using 1 John 1: 1-3. Sitting down in a circle facing each other, we began sharing our faith, then exchanged the meanings of life, stayed in communion with one another’s intentions, and finally joined in the prayer of the Lord.
Had the students been Christians, this kind of activities might be only mediocre. As most of them were not, the way they responded really touched all the members of our visiting group. We did not expect them to open up that much. Yet they did; for it was the Word and the Holy Spirit that opened their hearts and helped them utter their own words of intentions. Unadorned but filled with hope they one after another spoke their mind and offered prayers for a brighter new year for themselves and for their family back at home. I wished that their parents, relatives, and friends had just been there to hear how they prayed for them. Their hearts have been softer than one might think! The Word has obviously struck a chord with them and enlightened their hope for a better future.
No one is born a criminal, I believe so. We are mainly made by the environment we live in. The boys indeed reminded not only the parents of their children at home, but also anyone of us, who are basically vulnerable and can be any time affected by negative social influences from a city of indulgence like Macau. Why not we let the Word rather than the world outside make up our lives? Why not we continue to hope that we can transcend ourselves to become perfect as our Father in heaven who is perfect?
Leaving the Instituto De Menores at about 5:00 pm, we then headed for Ká Hó Settlement. It was at twilight in a remote leper colony when an 86 year-old woman was hanging in there waiting for the last Christmas visitors like us.
HUMILITY EXTOLLED
Very often we are told that people able to receive God incarnate into their lives are those simple in life and humble in heart. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the humble†(Mt. 5: 3-5). Though being poor and having nowhere to latch onto would help people easily depend on God; being able to acknowledge that what we have is nothing as compared to knowing the Truth from God and to detach our selves so as to lovingly attach to God is more important and blessed. The Christmas trips have allowed me an opportunity to meet both of those people. Writing down these reflections on the feast day of the Epiphany of our Lord, the story of the magi has again illumined the teaching why so important is the virtue of being simple and humble for those who want to find God.
The magi are indeed the simple and humble persons. No matter whatever meaning the Latin word “magus†may be rendered (e.g. sage, priest, astrologer, wizard, seer, or king), the crucial point is that they are typical intellectual and noble people who might have enough. They are, however, ready to leave everything behind and follow the star travelling far to do the new born king homage. In our human logic, not many people would actually risk leaving certain things seeking for something uncertain. How could the magi do it if they did not have faith, hope and love for God? And even when they happen to possess such (theological) virtues, still they could not find God in “an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger†(Lk 2:12), if they did not humble themselves to enter the dusty, dirty, filthy stable where Jesus was born. Moreover, “on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of god, frankincense, and myrrh.†(Mt. 2:11) They have emptied themselves of all the best of the earth out of their love for God. Still intellectual and noble they are even praiseworthy for being simple and humble seeking and thus manifesting the Love of God. They are not intellectual noble snobs!
In contrast to the gentile magi are the intellectual noble Jews in Jerusalem. Precisely mentioned in the Bible they are King Herod, chief priests, and the scribes of the people. Without doubt they must be learned people, very well educated and highly ranked in the society of that time. Certainly they have ever heard of the Messiah, where he would be born and what he would do (cf. Mt. 2: 4-6). Nonetheless, the knowledge they have could only bring them fame and fortune of anyone but God, unless they were humble enough to love God more than their egos and things. The danger increases when they were so concerned about their earthly security and let themselves be tempted to sin and go against God. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the intellectual like chief priests and scribes are but hirelings or ornaments to the evil authority like King Herod’s. They indeed knew it very well, even quoted from the prophet that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem of Judea. Nevertheless, they did not move their legs following the magi to find him and pay him homage. Knowing what kind of person King Herod and how greatly troubled he was at hearing the news, still they told him the information, which later led to the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
* * *
“The Word has become flesh and dwelled among us†(Jn. 1: 14). The Good News has become visible to all creatures in the whole universe. Through the humble beginning of Jesus, God has made his love manifest to all peoples and nations. Though the light has come, the glory of God shines upon his creatures (cf. Is. 60: 1-6), the humility of God incarnate, nevertheless, invites us to humble ourselves so as to find him first of all in the lowest places – the outcasts, seemingly ignorant, dirty and lawless. With simple faith, constant hope, grateful love, and especially with profound humility, we can, therefore, find and meet God in any walks of life. O Baby Jesus, fill me with faith, hope, love and humility so that I can daily live fully the life you have called me to be. Amen.
On the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 2012
Peter Thoại O.P.
Dear brothers and sisters,
the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us,
until the day of his return.
Through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year’s culmination,
the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial,
and his rising celebrated
between the evening of the Fifth day of April
and the evening of the Seventh day of April,
Easter Sunday being on the Eighth day of April.
Each Easter – as on each Sunday —
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent,
will occur on the Twenty-Second day of February.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the Seventeenth day of May.
Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter,
will be celebrated on the Twenty-Seventh day of May.
And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be
on the Second day of December.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,
in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.
To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come,
Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.
Amen.
            The religious men and women of Macau celebrated their Christmas Party on December 30, 2011 at six in the evening at the Seminary building. Attended by about seventy religious, the program had spiritual and material dimensions. It opened with the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and closed with a fraternal dinner. The Dominican students animated the Exposition with the appropriate liturgical songs.
Right after the Exposition, His Excellency the Most Reverend Jose Lai, DD, Bishop of Macau imparted his Blessing to all present. After the Blessing of our Bishop, we all shared in the fraternal dinner: all religious congregations represented brought food and drinks that were joyfully shared by all.
Within the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the well-known expert on the theology of religious life, Fr. Jose C. R. Garcia Paredes, Claretian, reflected meditatively on the Art of Living Together as the art of following Jesus in the Church. (Thereafter, we present the beautiful reflection of Fr. Cristo Rey).
My dear sisters and brothers:
At the end of this year 2011, you, priests and religious women and men come together with your Bishop to celebrate the end of the year and to thank our God for his benefits and to pray for your church. You are a very important part of this local and centennial Church of Macau. You have a strong responsibility regarding the new evangelization, to which Pope Benedict XVI has calling us.
We must to take advantage of today’s feast of the Sacred Family to meditate during a short time on the “art of living together†as Church and community.
The Purpose of this meditation about the art of living is to help us
- Â to be aware of our identity as living beings;
- Â to make sense of our interdependent world and who we are in it
- Â to connect and create on increasingly higher levels and, together, bring the greater lives and world we all envision into reality.
Epictetus was a philosopher, born into slavery about A.D. 55 in Turkey. He was sold as a child and crippled from the beatings of his master. He was freed and established an influential school of Stoic philosophy. Stressing that human beings cannot control life, only how they respond to it. Epictetus dedicated his life to outlining the simple way to happiness, fulfillment, and tranquility. He wrote a very famous book entitled ““The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectivenessâ€.
“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.†(Epictetus).
Jesus is, above all, our Master in the art of living, the art of loving (Eric Fromm). In communion with him our passing life is connected with the eternal life, our poor love is connected with the amazing love of the Spirit. The Gospel, the teachings of Jesus, we follow, are the best method to learn the art of living and or loving.
We priests and sisters know very well the philosophy of Jesus! But our main task consists in embodying it!
We are now the body of Jesus Christ in Macau, the visible manifestation of our Lord. We are in Christmas days not because the city is full of lights and music, but because our community celebrates the birth of the Son of God. We are astonished by the amazing mystery of God’s Son becoming flesh. From that very moment of the incarnation everything is different: we are in a new world children of light. All our sins and failures are forgiven. The covenant of God with humanity, with the cosmos, is everlasting; his love for us has no end. The Holy Spirit fulfils the earth. Jesus became a citizen of our planet, a member of our humanity. After his resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven, but his blessing remains with us. He is always “Emmanuel†–God with us- through the Holy Spirit, abiding in our hearts.
We are the Church, -that means, the body of Jesus, the human extension of the Eucharist-. Our life is connected with the eternal life, with the life of Resurrection.
The Bride of Jesus
The Church is the body of Jesus, the Spouse of Jesus. A local Church –like this of Macau- encloses in itself the whole mystery of the Church. You are the beloved Bride of Jesus, but not as individuals, but all of you as a body.
The power of the Church resides in the mutual love, communion, interconnection. Individualism destroys the Church. Our card of identity needs our given name, but also our family name.
The art of living is founded in the art of loving. Love one another as I love you! To be catholic means to be inclusive, and not exclusive, to be ecumenical and not fundamentalist. The power of a Christian community resides in mutual love and communion. By this sign we are recognized as disciples of Jesus.
This is a very common problem in our local churches and community: the lack of mutual love, divisions, confrontations, individualism. Those who love are in the world of light. Those who do not love are in the world of death and darkness.
The mother Church
The Church, as Spouse of Jesus, becomes mother. We call her “mother Churchâ€. This Church of Macau is “motherâ€. This motherhood of the Church is the best gift she receives from Jesus, her Bridegroom. The Church is not called to be sterile. She has received the power of being mother: mother of new Christians, of new vocations for Christian Marriage, for Priesthood, for Religious Life, for an engaged laity. The true Church is a spiritual mother, she gives life, she is generative. Maternity or motherhood is the name of Mission. A missionary Church is a mother Church, who gives birth to new children of God, to new vocations.
My brothers and sisters, we are in Christmas days, in times of birth. Put your hope in the Lord Jesus. He will surely give you new children. You will not be called “sterileâ€: nothing is impossible to God.
The local Church of Macau is a beautiful family of God. In it we contemplate the body of Jesus, the presence of the Spirit. Mary, Joseph teach us the art of living: in the company of Jesus, in loving service to the people, in constant prayer to God.
A living Church manifests her identity in three traits:
- creativity, innovation, generation. We need a culture of creativity in mission, to maintain the fecundity of the Church, birthing new children, new vocations.
- Another identity trait of a living Church is the care of life to those who are in the shadows of death, who do not find the meaning of life, who are hopeless.
- To be a Church is to be interconnected by love, friendship, communion. Alone we are nothing. Together everything is possible.
We finish our meditation with the words of Epictetus:
“Don’t explain your theology of the Church. Embody it.†(Epictetus).
You are, my brothers and sisters the embodiment of the Church in Macau. Through your vocation and ministry the Church is the beloved bride of Jesus and the mother of charity, of faith, of hope. Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!
One of the great traditions of Christmas is the Xmas Cards, no matter whether it is printed style, msn message or email formats. But have you noticed that every year Christmas Cards are less and less religious? Most of the cards are related to snow, Santa Clause or scenic winter pictures. I dare to say that the message portrayed in the cards has nothing to do with tonight’s, December 24 celebration. Even if you buy a card with the picture of the Holy Family, like the ones that our brother Sebastian bought for us, it looks far away from reality. Mary does not look like she just had a baby; Joseph looks like one of the Beatles and not like the typical father worrying for not been able to find a place for his family to stay. Even the baby Jesus does not look like he just came out of the womb. You know what I mean? Xmas Cards do not portray the reality of Christmas because what would be realistic could not be beautiful.
In fact the first Christmas was neither beautiful nor perfect. The story of the Christmas we celebrate today was filled with mess and confusion. I would like to invite you to read the first Christmas story and find out how many things went wrong. Let me just enumerate a few things: Mary was expecting and Joseph didn’t understand this at all, and had his doubts about what was going on; because of the Census Mary and Joseph had to travel; Bethlehem was very crowded and there was no room at the inn, as the story says; they were stuck in the middle of nowhere and Mary in labor had the baby in a stable; the shepherds all of a sudden saw an angels and got terrified; the three kings or wise men got lost. As you can see the First Christmas has nothing to do with what is portrayed in our Christmas Cards. The First Christmas was not perfect scenery, it was a complete mess.
Our world like the first Christmas is not a perfect picture either. We live every day in a messy world. There are wars; there are conflicts; people get sick; terrorists attack innocent people; we have earthquakes like the one in Japan or flooding like this month in the Philippines; there are car accidents; our loved ones die, and we get lost, we hurt each other, etc. etc. etc. Imagine if we had to portray this in a Christmas card! Nobody would buy it. Nobody wants to deal with messy things, except one person: Jesus. And this is the good news for us in this messy world we live in. He came to handle our mess. God has been handling mess ever since that night in a barn outside of Bethlehem. He took our mess upon Himself. You cannot put that on a Christmas card, because nobody would buy it. It is not pretty or beautiful or festive. But the fact is that He changed us and our world forever. And that is something beautiful, even when it is messy. That is something to celebrate today, and forever. That is something worth to be portrayed in a Christmas card. Would you buy that Christmas card or would you be afraid?
Across two thousand years, the words of the angels reach out to us in joy and hope and consolation. No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what your circumstances are, this is what matters: Do not be afraid. Are you afraid?
While so many people are powerless by fear of what is coming on the world, you and I can share the conviction, which comes from beyond us, from beyond our powers. God did not come as a dictator demanding submission but as a vulnerable child. God did not come as a legislator with an ideology but in the life of a child to melt our divisions and with the promise of peace and goodwill for the entire world. Jesus is the hope for peace on earth, for peace of heart. “Do not be afraidâ€.
Another great tradition of Christmas is the exchange of gifts. I do not know about you but whenever I receive a gift there is always a kind of excitement for what the gift could be and whenever I give a gift there is a kind of anxiety to whether the person will accept and like the gift. Allow me to tell you a story I read long time ago: A young man who was about to graduate was asked by his parents what he would like to have as a graduation gift. He told his parents that he would like a sports car that he had seen in the showroom of one of the car dealers shops. So on the big day of the graduation his father gave his son a small but beautifully wrapped gift.
With great disappointed he unwrapped the small gift to find a lovely leather-bound Bible. Looking at the gift and at his father he said: “With all the money you have and you give me a Bible“. He put the Bible on top of a chair and left the house.
As the years passed by the young man became more and more successful in his business with a lovely family and a lovely home. He had everything that a man can aim to achieve, however the fact that since his graduation he had not spent any real time with his father, was something that was bothering him continuously, so he decided that he should go and make up with his father.
Before he could make the arrangements, he received a telephone call to say his father had passed away suddenly. When he arrived to his father’s house he was filled with sadness and regret. He also found the Bible still new as he had left it.
With tears he opened the Bible and as he turned the pages, a car key fell out from the back of the Bible. It had a tag attached with the dealer’s name of the sports car he had desired, the date of his graduation, and the words paid in full.
God sent his only Son into our messy world and messy lives because he wanted to do so, just because he loved us. Everything that we celebrate tonight is a gift. Tonight we celebrate the most durable, long-lasting enduring gift of all. However the gift comes wrapped not in beautiful and colorful wrapping papers but wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed not under the Christmas tree but lying in a manger.
The question we have to ask ourselves tonight is: Do we miss God’s blessings and answers to our prayers because they do not come as we had expected?
The value of the Christmas story is not to simply give us information about what happened 2000 years ago but rather to point out the way we are called to live. This story tells us that the way to happiness is the art of compromise. There are many things that none of us want to deal with at Christmas. We do not want to struggle with poor health, take care of a sick person, finances problems, losing a loved one which comes from divorce or death. But there are people here with those realities right in the center of their lives. Can we compromise? Can we choose to find the good that is still in our life, the people who love us, the opportunities that are still ours, or will we insist that there can be no joy until things change?
The first Christmas was neither white, silent, perfect nor the Christmas that Mary or Joseph have chosen. I am sure they would have preferred a Christmas that was more familiar, safer, and cleaner, however it was a compromised Christmas.
Jesus presents himself to us tonight and anxiously looks on, hoping that He will be accepted by each one of us. The Giver of the gift Himself becomes the Gift. As we ponder about the first Christmas and meditate upon our own Christmas, let us all say to the Lord: “This is not only the gift I wanted, it is truly the gift I needed. It is the perfect gift, it is the perfect Christmasâ€.
FR. ALEJANDRO SALCEDO, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory
The Pew Forum’s definitive global survey on Christianity shows that the total has quadrupled in 100 years but the demographic is shifting, with the largest concentrations no longer in Europe.
Christians are by far the largest religious group on the planet, and the religion has gone truly global over the past century, according to a new report out Monday, which finds some of the world’s biggest Christian communities in surprising places.
Europe was the clear center of world Christianity one hundred years ago, but today the Americas are home to more than a third of all Christians. In fact, the United States has the world’s largest Christian population, of more than 247 million, followed by Brazil and Mexico.
China also appears on the list of top 10 largest Christian populations – with an estimated 67 million Christians, it has more followers of the faith than any western European country.
There are nearly 2.2 billion Christians around the world, making up about one-third of the world’s population – the same percentage as a century ago, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Islam is the world’s second largest religion, with about 1.6 billion followers worldwide, the Washington-based organization calculates. That’s just under one-quarter of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the biggest explosion in its Christian population in the past century, going from about 9 million Christians in 1910 to about 516 million today – nearly a quarter of all the world’s Christians. Three of the world’s ten largest Christian populations are in Africa: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
Article taken from ucanews.com - http://www.ucanews.com
URL to article:Â http://www.ucanews.com/2011/12/20/latest-figures-on-christianity-the-worlds-largest-religion/
