Not 'I' but 'Us': a counterpoint

Yesterday I finished writing a reflection about interpersonal-relationships as the soul and purpose of our humanity wherein it is in relationships that can be found in life that is shared in relationships –relationships that can be found in that of parents, grandparents, children, siblings, relatives friends, comrades, kindred spirits and lovers that the wholeness of our being is found as creatures created after the image of God.

It is in relationships that we are animated into living life and enact love because love is a feeling that begs to be expressed and life is the arena upon which we enact love in our relationship with God, to one another, and to all creation. Thus giving us a to live and make meaning in living.

Here I would like to offer a counterpoint upon which what is the consequence of following self?

If life’s wholeness is found in relationship what then is the ultimate goal of life that stands over and against this design of wholeness?

The Black Button is among the finalist of the YouTube Award 2007 for Best Short Film that was made Lucas Crandles.

The film’s premise is simple yet intriguing: if you couldn’t get caught, would you kill a stranger for $10 million?

The last line is a killer: "the evil can be saved. the good can still be condemned!"

Not ‘I’ but ‘us’ | Relationship as the essence and goal of human wholeness

I remember ending my week with a goodbye that underscored a sense of lonesomeness as it means that for a time life will be lived apart from a loved one. While, the following day I started the week with a celebration of my father’s 85th birthday that also coincided with Father’s Day.

Thinking about it now further reinforces my conviction that our humanity if we are to look at human life it can be summed up in terms of relationships. It is in relationships that we discover ourselves and our tenacity to live and make meaning in living –because to be human is to stand in a unique relationship to God, to one another, and to all creation. This, of course is because God, as Trinity, is relational. The perichoretic God makes perichoretic people. God’s being-as-communion overflows in humans’ being-in-community. Therefore we as humans have no being apart from others. Humanity is co-humanity.

Read more >>>

The Synthesis Between Historical Inquiry and Divine Revelation

A summary of Gordon Fee’s Exegesis and Spirituality: Completing the Circle, an excerpt from Listening to the Spirit in the Text

To paraphrase the words of Gordon Fee: ‘The ultimate task of exegesis is spirituality,’ as he proposes the need for an interface between exegesis and spirituality which can be found in between the historical exercise of digging out the original intent of the text and the experience of hearing the text in the present terms of both its presupposed and intentional spirituality.

Accordingly if the goal of exegesis is spirituality it is crucial now for us to ask what spirituality is in the first place –for it is in framing it into a working definition that we start what Fee, portrays as the circle of approaching the Scripture from the vantage point of a serious exegete and a earnest followers of Christ that are seeking for a genuine encounter with the God who has revealed Himself in the Word.
Read more>>>

The Language of God

A couple of months ago I stumbled upon this blog by the United Church of Christ as part of their "God is still speaking," or "The Stillspeaking Initiative", campaign that was originally launched in 2002.
Having historically favored progressive or liberal views on civil rights, gay rights, women's rights and other social issues, the video appeals to me as it shows how in my opinion churches should be.

ut haud lacrima can exsisto effundo.

Why can’t I cry?

Does the absence of tears mean that I have gone past the point of crying?

Have I totally lost my humanity that I am not totally devoid of emotion?

I have gone past the point of crying…one can only wonder why the things hoped for are the things that blow up onto our faces with a resounding “no!”

I have gone past the point of caring. For the nth time I have been burned and rendered broken for caring.

I have gone past the point of living.

I’ve done so much.
I’ve hurt so many.
I’m a miserable person.
God help me now…

decisions

for the longest time i've been asked to make decisions on what is just, fair and equitable to all parties
for the longest time i've made decisions based on such principles
for the longest time i've been told that what i did was the noble thing to do
for the longest time i've been made to feel that what i did was right
but for the longest time i betrayed my heart and its desires....

Going beyond 'cash values'

Whenever it is half-way to my next payday, I keep on being reminded of money and the lack of thereof. It seems that the world today revolves around it and given its place in our modern life I believe that it deserves serious reflection that goes beyond the ‘biblical stewardship’ that is often peddled in contemporary churches.

Reflecting on the ethical implications of Matthew 6:19-34 Craig Gay, encourages his readers to transcend and rediscover meanings and values that go beyond the Christian response to the impasse that money poses to believers:

There are many things that we would need to say if we were to properly exegete this remarkable passage, but there are several points we can mention briefly in light of our discussion. The first is that Jesus describes ‘mammon’ not simply as a possible object of worship but also as a kind of ‘master’ to whom service must be rendered if it is to be worshipped. The second is that Jesus suggests that we are moved to worship mammon primarily out of anxiety and fear of not having our basic material needs met. And the third is that our anxiety and fear disclose a fundamental—and to—Jesus’ mind almost ridiculous –lack of trust in the goodness of God.

Christian TV: God help us all

Last night, Araneta Center, Cubao was teeming with Christian hipsters and their trendy youth pastors to watch the Christian-Rock worship group Passion, which as I was told by a friend will be a long-awaited worship experience, for 'born again' Christians. Anyways seeing the long lines, the merchandise, the CD's, the t-shirts worn I cannot help but feel, something like this video below: Watch. Be Horrified. Weep For Modern Christianity.

Here's a post that I wrote last year on the same phenomenon from a Filipino perspective. I guess not too many differences can be found here...

the space in between

Why the change of name?

For those who’ve been visiting this blog it used to be called: ad maiorem Dei gloriam which is Latin for the phrase: “For the greater glory of God,” which incidentally is also the motto of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits.

Anyways I opt to change the blog name not because I no longer want to pursue a life that is lived ad maiorem Dei gloriam, I changed it because I firmly believe that if I were to pursue such a life I ought to be honest with where exactly I am in my walk of faith or whatever you would want to call it.

After days and nights of reflection on it I realize that with all honesty I haven’t reached that life yet. I am still this selfish, and self-consumed person who writes in condescending theological language online to speak out about the things that I have read, or are still struggling with.

In short, I am still a work in progress.

I am unfinished and I am in that vast space in between beginning and completion. I am in the tension between the now and not yet.

That is why I chose to rename it from a phrase that has commonly been attributed to Victor Turner’s concept of liminality which I got acquainted to via a lecture at the seminary on The Jewish Exodus from Egypt.

This is where I find myself in –in the space in between: the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

Prayer

This is another one of those things that I’ve read a few months back that I’ve always meant to post, but haven’t really done so because there’s so much going on and there’s a lot of other things that were deemed important before. However, events in life would jolt us and we’d have to struggle with things like faith, hope, God’s Omnipotence and prayers, that are not answered according to our yearning, which Patrick Grant articulates so well in his book about the struggle towards a contemporary Christian spirituality:

“In the words of the old formula, prayer is an elevation of the heart and mind to God. It is the mind raising the heart’s chalice, the body’s offering.

The best-known prayer is petitionary, even though it does not make logical sense to ask Omnipotence for favours; we can only ask that God’s will be done, yet God’s will is done whether we like it or not. Still, logic does not account for the contradiction within which we find ourselves contending with Omnipotence.1”

1 Grant, Patrick. Out of Contradiction: Meditations towards a contemporary spirituality. (Edinburgh: The Pentland Press 1994) pp. 35-36