By Fr. Mathew T. O. Praem. –
A tree is known by its fruit is a Biblical dictum. When I look at the global scenario of Christianity and Catholic Church in particular, there seems to be a “ground zero’ of ‘Faith’ from which the phoenix awaits resuscitation. Now comes the Corona virus that rubs ‘salts to the wounds’. Christianity that promoted culture, civilization and scientific tempo to humanity seems to biting back from which the Church struggles to liberate. The theme of Liberation and Hope run through the history of Israel (O.T) down to the New Testament, as a fulfilment Revealed in the life and Mission of Jesus Christ. I pray the humanity hold on to this ‘Hope and Faith’.
When we look at the history, the first millennium was an ‘era of faith and explosion of religions’ including Islam. The Catholic Church witnessed ‘faith ‘to the extent of ‘Martyrdom’ for Christ. It was not merely a ‘Pistein’(Gk) with mere “intellectual, dogmatic Faith’, rather “Faith seeking understanding” (Sub-stare) (Lat) in its original content and etymology of “standing under the cross” like Mother Mary. Thus, “faith” became synonym to “salvation” with the slogan, “Believe and be saved”. Despite the Middle ages were called, the “Dark Ages of the Church”, there were explosions of “saints” and “missionary activities” across Asia, Africa and America.
In the aftermath of the Schism, Protenstantinism, Reformation, Renaissance, French Revolution and Communism from the 16th – 19th c., the faith that “moved mountain” until then, the mountain began to move without faith. An evolution of this transition indicates how the “Truth failed to set man free”. Jesus said, “I am the Way, Truth and Life” and “Truth will set you Free”. The adamant nature of the Church from introspection and correction to some extent contributed towards the Schisms and social Revolutions. Here, freedom became the “Birth right of man”, leading to the perverted forms of “personal liberty, individualism, rationalism, skepticism and finally materialism and secularism”, closing the door against “Truth”, Church, while each discovering a truth to reach his end by hook or crook.
The ascent of ‘psychology’ with its stress on ‘individual over the society’ and the progress of scientific technology promising to make a ‘heaven here on earth’ coupled with ‘Christian humanism’ paved way for a pure ‘secular society’ doing away with ‘institutional religions’ in the West.
In the middle of the second millennium, we find how the unified and hierarchical Church splits into so many sects, finding their own ‘Faith’ away from the ‘Apostolic Faith’. In India, there are 326 Christian denominations. In a recent ‘Inter-denominational meeting’ where I have been a participant, every preacher was emphasizing the ‘unique mission’ of Apostles, presenting so colorfully, ‘a Rainbow Church’. I wondered, if all these colors came together, it would have been the ‘pure white,” a light that could shine in the darkness”. And the” people living under the shadow of death could see the ‘Great Light”. The failure of Christendom in the middle ages was not because they were not Christians; rather the catholic kings were divided on their views on fighting the crusade. The ‘Reformation’ ’Counter Reformation” and “Renaissance” are the fruits of ecclesial deviation from faith whereas ‘French Revolution’ with its slogan of ‘Liberty, equality and fraternity’ was the historical outcome, leading to ‘Democratic Liberation’ from civic and Ecclesial Imperialism.
The flourishing of Monasteries in the middle Ages, following the compendium of Christ to “to go and Teach”, the ‘Laity’ (Laos Anglo-Saxon) meant ‘ignorant’ were given secular education. Later, the so called educated and civilized began to sit on the branch of the tree and cut the stem. Scientific experiments and scientific tempo travelled to the extent of finding out the ‘God-particle ’to explain the origin of the matter and the universe thereof for the past a few years. The very title ‘God particle’ only confirms’ the imperceptible leading to the perceptible’. Viz. the ‘great collision of electrons and protons ‘to verify the ‘Big Bang’ theory of the origin of the universe. The Church half-heartedly though, admits and eulogize the human achievements in the fields of science while remain immune to influence the society at large. I wish, ‘New Evangelization ‘could be an attempt to fill this gap.
The counter arguments of the Church, despite most of the early principles of science are the fruits of the clerics and monks remain in the graveyard of a few Church literatures that don’t reach out to the ordinary men. As a matter of fact, the modern generation is misled as if science is the ‘sole achievement’ of the ‘skeptics’ ‘materialists’ or those in opposition to faith and religion.
Thus, the success of science is conceived as the direct effect of the ‘failure of faith’, an unwarranted historical fallacy as “quest for God and explanation of cosmos’ the Church and the scientific community inherited from the ‘pre-scientists’ or rather ‘proto-scientists’ like Plato, Aristotle and many other Greco- Romans who were staunch believers and seekers of Truth that are denied by the contemporary world.
Having denied the ‘core of science’ and its ‘historical genealogy’, science is portrayed as ‘purely an achievement of rational man antagonistic to Religions’ digging the ‘grave and death of God’ in which the ‘universe is a mere product of by chance’ of ‘cosmic force of physics’’ gravitation’ ‘black holes’ ‘Higg’s boson’ and ‘natural selection’ of Evolution. While the present scenario of “Covid 19 confirms the theory of the survival of the fittest, the scientific community is equally challenged with rational limitation to find a solution to it, indicating the significance of Divine intervention.
For the Catholic,” faith is not blind or opium” as claimed by some. It is the end result of a “rational seeker”. In this context, a catholic priest is supposed to be the “father of all rationalism, submerging into the Divine abyss of Faith”, otherwise he wouldn’t make sacrifices of himself, denying his own nature, taking up the evangelical counsels especially celibacy. When scientists are the ‘waves of the ocean, the priests are the depth of the sea’, the former seeking the mystery of the immediate physics surrounding him while latter goes further into the horizon – the ‘why’ of the things. If the “gliding” from the “How” to the “Why” doesn’t take place in the human mind, scientific achievements will remain in the ‘peripheral, ephemeral’ level, something like” peeling the onion” which ultimately will find no “essence” in it. Even the very process of scientific discoveries, many mental activities until reaching ‘hypothesis, cannot be tested and proved in the Lab-test tube.
As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”, it is better for mankind to “hold on to faith” despite “numerical growth “than “subjugate and dominate”. So, Jesus said, “I have come to serve”- is not a “weakness”, but strength”. Faith, like Atom, though the smallest, is capable to move mountain. This era of ‘New Evangelization’ hence need to take care mainly to re-evangelize the intellectuals, scientific communities, theologians, teachers, youth and universities of the origin of Science, its evolution, the contribution of the Church and the effect of its should flow to the ordinary flock of the society, rather than remaining in the creamy layer of intellectuals.