APOCALYPSIS: A MOVIE REVIEW

The “Apocalypsis” is a film based on the last book of the bible, the Revelation authored by the apostle John in the island of Patmos. It is directed by Raffaele Mertes and written by Francesco Contaldo and Raffaele Mertes. Released in 2002, it starred Richard Harris and Bruce Payne. The film features the Christian persecution under the reign of Domitian, who proclaimed himself divine and demanded worship from all, including from the Christians. It presupposes that it is under such condition that the book of Revelation was written by John from Patmos.

The film is helpful in elucidating the rather obscure book of Revelation. The Apocalyptic literature that influenced the book of John is replete with images that posit great difficulty to be decipher by modern-day readers. It is in this vague and incomprehensible aspect of the book that the film sheds light. The film, faithful to the very text of the book of Revelation, presents images. They are attempts to guide the viewers on what John meant about a particular text. There are three particular images showed in the film that may help the viewers to understand the book of Revelation: The great Eucharist (Rev 4-5), the woman crowned with stars (Rev 12:1-6), and the transfigured church (Rev 21-22).

The great Eucharist mentioned in Rev 4-5 is presented succinctly by the film. The scene for this chapters present the elders gathered round God, the four living creatures (human, lion, ox, and eagle) forming the throne of God, the seven lampstand and the sealed scroll. The scenes for these chapters culminate with the announcement of the lion and the coming of the lamb. The film employed heavenly images. It displays scenic views portraying a transcendent reality, one that is beyond this world. In this way, the film is effective in evoking from its viewers the feeling of divine, of awe and fear, in demanding adoration for the lamb, to whom all characters in these scenes point to.

The woman crowned with stars described in Rev 12:1-6 is depicted with great precision by the film. The tension between the woman and the dragon is rightly “painted” by the film with the apt actions, and other film elements. The film employed appropriate sounds and lights illustrating the great sign that appeared in the sky, the woman adorned with various bodies of heaven, her pain in giving birth to her son, the monster dragon and the chase made by the dragon after the woman. The film is able to help the viewers to have a glimpse of the vision of John regarding the Church under persecution and her persecutors; Satan and the Roman Empire depicted as the dragon and its connivance. These scenes climax with the rule of Son of the woman who reigns from heaven with his iron rod. Indeed, this part of the film features the triumph of God and his Church over Satan and her oppressors throughout the ages.   

The transfigured church mentioned in Rev 21-22 speak of the new creation, holy city and the new paradise. The scenes of the film for these chapters are of triumphalist in character. From the experiences of tyrants, despots of all ages, John presents in the book of Revelation the destiny that awaits those who remain faithful in God during those dark moments in the life of the Church. The film employed images describing the reign of God overall and in all in heaven and on earth. The evil one had ceased to exist as the sea is no more. The joy that pervades every scene depicts the beatific vision enjoyed by those who endure the great sufferings and tribulations. They illustrates the accomplishment of all that had been promised by Christ to those who remained in Him.

The film concludes with the end of the Domitian persecution, seemingly to display the triumphant (for now) achieved by John and his communities by remaining faithful and truthful to the life God called them to live and proclaim; that is life in Jesus Christ.

By presenting these three scenes from the book of Revelation, it can be said that truly the film is helpful in understanding the book of Revelation. The effectiveness and affectivity of the film to communicate the message of the book is made possible by the film’s use of vivid images (based on contemporary and medieval interpretations of the text of Revelation) and putting them in a particular context wherein they can be understood properly by the viewers and readers alike.   

THEOLOGY OF PREACHING

Rahner presents Revelation as embodiment of the God Himself through his own Incarnational Theology. The incarnation of Christ is the model and the basic structure of reality. Christ is the perfect realization of Spirit-in-the-World. Scripture is not only propositional but also symbolical. Language, employed by the Scripture is not just textual but contextual, not just logical but symbolical. Through language, a reality is concealed more so revealed. Rahner would even go as far as saying that man is not spirit against the world but a spirit in the world, using the reality as means of God to reveal Himself, to incarnate, make flesh Himself for Him to be known by man. Thus, through the sensible reality, the spiritual reality is experienced. 

Naming Spirit in the World; Naming Jesus; Naming grace can be the method used in order to reveal God. Man is tasked search for God and his presence in the midst of this world; in this very worldly phenomenon. If God is truly incarnated in this space, thus man have to search for Him in this reality, through his experiences. Man have to name, pinpoint the grace of God in the world events he experience.

The preacher thus names grace, points out the grace in the reality of this world. His preaching becomes an act of naming grace. 

For Schillibeeckx, language is the miniature replica of the world. Human language with all its weaknesses can become the servant of God in communicating Himself to man. The message of God, however, is not just to be heard but it is also meant to be experienced. Thus the message of God has to be transcended from symbol to reality, from our story to God's story. The stories or narratives behind the events man experiences embodies the message of God; God Himself. These stories expressed in Language present God in concrete and sensible manner, though He may be spiritual and intangible. 

The search for God in the language we hear and experience is transcended through the experience of contrast. The world may be filled with contradiction; bitter sweet; despair and hope, but it is through these contrasting and contradicting elements that one can see God present in the midst of pain and sorrow. 

The preacher is to bring his listeners to the experience of faith in the Lord and in the unfailing hope that God will fulfill his covenant. He is able to do this through his very own experience of the pain of contrast, in his own hope in the midst of contradictions in his life.

Gutierrez championed the Liberal Theology. It is a rethinking of theology from the base; grassroots experience of the subject; historical experience. It is a theology from the ground coming from the poverty and misery experienced by the destitute of the society. 

Knowing the experience of the listeners; their very life-experiences, one would be able to understand them and their needs. Thus, God and his message is made known by knowing the context in which the listeners are situated, and seeing these through the lens of the story of Jesus who though in the form of God did not deem equality with God.. 

Pedagogy of the Oppressed - interpreting the communal experience of the poor and allowing them to find hope in God who chose to be a poor Himself, and chose to liberates the poor form their misery. 

Pedagogy of the privileged - the privileged join the ranks of the poor and thereby partake of their poverty. 

The task of the preacher is to humanize the oppressed and concomitantly the oppressor by interpreting their misery through the Gospel message contained in the Beatitudes. The preacher is the main pedagogue of the oppressed, the bringer of hope because he acts as a catalyst of change. He brings to the realization of both the oppressed and the privileged that the beatitudes are not just a promise for the future but a covenant being fulfilled here and now. 

A PHILOSOPHY ON EDUCATION

Learning can be likened to a story writing. Students write the story entitled: My Life . There is a beginning. There is an end. And everything in between is what matters most. It is an act of gathering materials, lessons, experiences in life that can be of great use to students writing their story. Thus, activities of learning are focus on experiential aspects. There is a great emphasis on the process more than the result. Mistakes are highly appreciated in the learning process. It is through the pains and wounds that students can learn lessons in life, which they can use in their story writing. Models are introduced to students as inspirations, either persons or their stories from the past or present times. Learning in this context is not limited in the academic sense. Learning becomes a lifelong commitment. Learning becomes living, having life as the end result of the whole process of story writing. 

Students are viewed as persons having something to share, a story to share, a story that is yet to be written. They are capable of directing the course of their own lives.  Choices are vital in the process of learning.  They are tasked to write their life-story in the process of learning. They are to be exposed to the realities of life: pain, joy, love, indifference, etc. Through this experiences, they can gather lessons they can include in the story of their life. 

A teacher facilitates the process of learning by providing experiential and more engaging activities, activities from which students can learn about the realities of life. A teacher should introduce models, either from the contemporary times or from the past. Telling great stories, biographies and memoirs can be of great help too. 

Act of Love: Malasa Apostolate Reflection III

The third and last time I attended the Malasa Apostolate is during their family day. It was raining the whole day. Vis-avis the heaven down pour of rain water in that mountainous barrio is the out-pouring of love and generosity of the brothers to these people of God, to this community. But in truth, it was us who experienced love, of being loved, by God and by the simple folks of Malasa. We went there bringing food, gifts, prepared programs and a generous hearts ready to be emptied for them. We went home with empty food pans, empty containers, but never an empty heart. It was filled with love, a reciprocated love coming from our nanays, tatays, kuyas, and ates in Malasa. 

In the course of the day’s activity, I was tasked to give a brief input about confession. This proved to be more challenging than the one I had before, here in Malasa. I was assigned to deliver it before children in their early teenage life. Most of them were in their 14th year. Though I spoke in Kapampangan, I found myself grasping for simple words that would help these children to comprehend what confession means. I made use of the image of their mothers washing their dirty clothes, comparing the former with God and Mother Church, and the latter with us who had been stained with sins. I thought it would be fitting to end my sharing with the children about the great love of God for each one of us: love that is beyond measure, love that knows to limit, love that is self-diffusive, that is the love of God. On that part, it came to me, that they did not experience difficulty in understanding such love. No questions were asked. Their faces were not filled with void and antipathy. I thought there was clarity in them about this conclusion, about love. Perhaps it is because, love is what they have been experiencing throughout their lives. In the simplicity and unsophisticated way of life, they found the greatest of all. That is love, love of God made present by the brothers. Love of God made present by the members of their community. Love of God made present by God Himself in their very own lives. 

We arrived in UST, almost past six in the evening. The flood water subsided. Things seemed to be back to normal after the heaven rain that morning. But the out pouring of love I experienced in Malasa insist to exist within. Indeed, after my Malasa apostolate days, something had changed within. And I have never been the same again. 

Act of Hope: Malasa Apostolate Reflection II

The second time I visited Malasa is an event filled with hope and joyous. It was then a Sunday of Advent – season of cheerful expectation for the birth of the Savior. The roads leading to Malasa were decorated with pomp and elegance, considering with passed through Pampanga which is rather known for their Christmas decorations. I was then excited to return to this community, after my experience with them. And the spectacles along the way seemed to provide good omens and promises yet another inspiring encounter with these people of God. 

We were tasked to facilitate the community’s Advent Recollection. For my part, I was assigned to give a small sharing with the group of mothers. I explained to them the mystery of Incarnation and its importance in our lives. It was tough one though. It was very difficult to look for images and events through which I could explained this mystery of God becoming man. But what inspired me most, in that Sunday apostolate is my encounter with the little children who were playing outside the Chapel, while their mothers were attending to some things inside. These children were running around, playing, and shouting each other, sharing the meager food brought by the brothers. The usual stuff the children do, then I thought. I sat in front of the chapel, looking after the kinds, while it was the turn of the other brothers to do their sharing. I observed how joyful these children were, how satisfied they were in the simplicity of their lives, how less complicated their lives were (compared to ours from the Metropolis). I prayed then that they would remain to be such: happy, satisfied, less complicated. I prayed too that I would be like them: happy, satisfied, less complicated. 

In them I saw the hope of this community. In them I saw the hope brought by the God-made-man. Through these children, if only they would remain as such, the kingdom of heaven would surely dawn on this part of the world as it deed thousand of years ago in Bethlehem. 

Act of Faith: Malasa Apostolate Reflection I

The first Sunday Apostolate I had in Malasa, Bamban, Tarlac can be described as an act of faith. On the way to Tarlac, a lot of thought came into my mind about our apostolate. I thought it would be another typical ministry we have in the seminary: retreat and recollection facilitation. Boring thoughts started to flood my mind. But before I felt asleep in the van we took, I prayed. I prayed that God grant me strength to face with courage and ample creativity anything and anyone that I would meet in Malasa. To Him I entrusted everything. Indeed the Lord did not disappoint me. 

I was tasked to preside over the liturgy of the Word and the Communion Rite before the gathered people of Malasa. As I led them in the celebration, I saw in these people of God the thirst and yearning for His Word and for the Eucharist. I saw in them the need for a pastor who would tend them, guide them towards the path of Light. I saw in the faith of these gathered people of God, Jesus Himself present in their midst forming a community of believers, forming a domestic church. And that strengthened me. That strengthen my vocation: God calling me to tend His sheep and feed His flock. 

What I thought to be a boring and usual ministry turned out to be an encounter of faith between the community of Malasa and me: an act of faith between us. 

WITNESS OF THE KINGDOM

And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, "Who are you?"

A witness is expected to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the case of John the Baptist, he bore witness to the truth of his identity, when asked by the priests and the Pharisees. Gregory of Nazianzen, whose memorial we celebrate today, said ‘He (John) denied directly being what he was not, but he did not deny what he was: thus, by his speaking truth, becoming a true member of Him Whose name he had not dishonestly usurped’. 

Some times, I am asked who am I; my identity, my status in life, etc., may it be as a requirement for an application/resume or simply a tête–à–tête. Very seldom, however, that someone asked me about my religious vocation; the vow I professed, the life I strive to live, the essence of the life I live. Thus, I assumed the task of asking myself these questions on my vow and religious life. Who am I? If religious life is about witnessing of the Kingdom that is to come, how do I bear witness to this kingdom? Am I truthful to the vow I professed? 

Truthfulness is often associated with consistency. If you would like to find out the truth about a person, ask him several questions regarding a single topic. Should he be consistent with his answers, there is the probability that he is telling the truth. The KADAUPAN brothers are good in this. With the throngs of indigents who flock the seminary from time to time asking for help, and with a limited resources for them, those who are truly in need have to be identified. And the truth about them is made know through their consistency in answering questions regarding their case.

For over a year now, I have been going back to a watch boutique. I keep on looking at their display cases and the watches placed therein. I have been toying in my mind the idea of buying a watch from this boutique, however, I could not simply buy one. ‘I already have four watches, why buy another one?’ I ask myself. I could not bear to spend a couple of thousand pesos in a mall and return in Santo Domingo and be welcomed by beggars who almost literally have lived in the church portico. I could not spend those hard-earned money of siblings which they send to me for my caprices and whims, knowing that they are living in very meager way just to meet ends in our life. I could not spend the resources entrusted to me as its steward for not so important things, knowing that there are far more important things that can be procured. This year, perhaps, I would stop visiting this watch boutique so as not to tempt myself in buying another watch; so as to be truthful to the vow I professed and to the life I dared to embrace. 

Witnessing to the life God has chosen for us need not be done in grant and pompous way. Witnessing to the truth of our vocation can occur in small deeds we do every day. Witnessing to the Kingdom of God becomes truthful when it is live consistently with that of Christ, whom we seek to follow radically. It is only then that the way of the Lord is made straight to the heart, when the word of truth is heard with humility; the way of the Lord is made straight to the heart, when the life is formed upon the precept.

What does it mean to be a witness of  the Kingdoms of God?

VARIED ROLES OF TEACHERS

A teacher assumes a lot of roles in realizing his/her profession, more so his/her vocation. I named some these roles below:

Decision maker - Planning, Assessing and Reporting 

A teachers decides on many aspects of learning inside the classroom. These decision made are very much related with Planning, Assessing and Reporting, particularly in the Planning. At the planning stage, the teacher takes into consideration and decides on the various factor that would affect the learning process. 

Judge of Achievement - Planning, Assessing and Reporting 

A teacher as a judge of achievement assesses and reports the performance of the students in the learning process. By assessing and reporting, a teacher is able to determine the level of learning the students achieved and failed to achieve. 

Counselor - Diversity of learner 

As a teacher counsels students, he takes into consideration the uniqueness of each student. He responds to their varied needs. By doing so, the diversity of students is recognized and respected.

Moralist - Learning environment 

The facilitation of learning morality involves the conducive moral atmosphere created inside a classroom. The teacher should be able to create an ambiance that would facilitate to such kind of learning, e.g. house rules, classroom routines etc. Thus it is important that the teacher is able to create such atmosphere inside the classroom, indeed even outside. 

Model for the Youth - Social regard for learning 

What could be the most effective instructional tool of the teacher if not his very self, his words and action as a teacher, as a person. A teacher should be able to live a life very much consistent with the things he teaches, with the profession he embraces; being a teacher. Thus by practicing what he teaches, he can be truly a model for his students, worthy of emulation. 

Person of Culture - Community linkages 

Learning does not involve only of data found on papers, produced by pens. It involves the events that occur in the community of the students, experienced by the students. Thus, a teacher should be possessed knowledge of the students’ experiences in order to facilitate a learning that does not float in the air (abstract) but a very much concrete (visual/living) learning. 

Community linkages - Community Linkages 

By taking into consideration the context/situation where his students are in, a teacher is able to build a link between the learning processes inside the classroom to the homes, local communities where his students actually live. In this way, the things learned by the students are not alien to them and to their communities. Learning becomes more relevant to their lives for it discusses/tackles something that is very close to them; their very own experiences in their locale. 

Mediator of Culture – Community Linkages 

The teachers should be conscious to the culture and aspiration of the students’ community, including their sensitivities, values system etc. He can utilize whatever is good in such culture, in the learning process. In this way, the teacher contribute to the growth of the students in knowledge and skills, rooted in their local cultural and traditional values systems. At the end of the learning process, the teacher is able to produce students not alien to the community but students very much conscious of the riches of their own community, of themselves.

Did I missed a role lived by a teachers? Name them in the comments below!

 

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE ISSUE OF GRACE AND THE SQUABBLING DOMINICANS AND JESUITS OF 16TH CENTURY

In the beginning

In the middle ages, Dominicans and Jesuits were no keen friends. The members of the two orders were known to have opposed each other, particularly on the issue of grace. The conflict was sparked by the Jesuit Luis de Molina’s Concordia Liberi Arbitrii Cum Gratiae Donis Divina Praesentia, Providentia, Praedestinatione er Reprobatire, published in 1588 in Lisbon. It was a dispute that refused to rest in the next centuries, even after Clement VIII established the Congregatio de Auxiliis in 1598 to avert further controversy. This, however, did not stop further debates. Sixtus V ordered the Dominicans and Jesuits to stop their squabbling and let the Magisterium decide. A decision was never rendered, but thankfully, the controversy soon died down. The question, however, lingers: is there still a rivalry between the Dominicans and Jesuits? Not in the Philippines. Not with the younger generations of Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits of Quezon City.  

    

It is in the genes

“Pueblo amante de Maria,” a people deeply in love with Mary-- this is how Filipinos are in relation to the Mother of God. For the Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits, blood, truly, is thicker than water. The love for Mary that runs in their veins makes them one.  They have not allowed the conflicts on grace of their Western forebears to hinder their being one in their love for Mary, who is full of grace. Instead of arguing on grace, they have chosen to love Mary, full of grace. There now exists a warm fellowship between the younger generations of Dominicans and Jesuits, under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a brotherhood that is truly filled with grace. 

The encounter

As part of their formation, the Jesuit novices used to go on pilgrimage to Manaoag from their novitiate house in Novaliches, Quezon City. They would journey on foot, walking two by two going to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manaoag, Pangasinan, approximately 200 kilometers away. The pilgrimage was an arduous three-day of walk, begging for food and sleeping in the houses of strangers. However, when they arrived in Manaoag, at the Dominican Novitiate of the Annunciation, they received the welcome of long-lost brothers from the Dominican novices.

The Dominicans would offer them accommodation, food, and rest from the long and tiring journey.  They would even invite the Jesuits to join them in their regular schedule of praying in common, eating in common, and time for recreation in common. They would organize sessions where they would share their stories about their formation, the richness of their respective spiritualities, even cracking some Dominican and Jesuit jokes. Indeed, they learned to laugh with each other, without the vestige of past rivalries. Those momentous encounters have served as the fertile seed bed where Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits formed relationships that bridged any differences, with Mary and her Son filling the gap with grace.  

     

Nurturing a brotherhood, a brotherhood that nurtures

If great philosophical thoughts and ideas in Continental Europe were mostly developed over cigars and cups of coffee, the fraternity between younger Dominicans and Jesuits has grown over the banquet of the Eucharist celebrated on the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary, La Naval de Manila. For several years now, on the second Sunday of October, Jesuit scholastics have graced the grand procession in honor of our Lady of Rosary, La Naval de Manila, a procession that commemorates the 1646 victory of Filipinos and Spanish soldiers against the invading Protestant Dutch. It was a victory fought and won through the intercession of the Lady of the Rosary. Jesuit scholastics, together with their Dominican student-brothers-- “batchmates”-- would join the throng of thousands of devotees walking through the streets of Quezon City, praying the rosary and shouting “Viva la Virgen.” They are made one by their deep devotion to Mary, making them sons of Mary.

After the grand procession, seminarians from various inter-diocesan seminaries in the metropolis would join other religious in a banquet prepared by the Dominican community to cap the celebration of the great feast of the Lady. For the Dominican and Jesuits scholastics, however, their celebration would start when other visitors have left, bottles of wines are brought in. The brothers would share their stories and struggles in formation, just like before in their novitiate days. Should a passerby see the Dominican and Jesuit scholastics, he would probably think that they have not seen each other for centuries, though it had just been over a year since the last visit.

It was the issue of grace that divided the Dominicans and Jesuits in the past. Today it is the Mary who is full of grace, and her Son, who now unite them in this corner of the world. Divided by centuries of disputes and rivalries, younger Filipino Dominicans and Jesuits have found brothers in each other through Mary, their Mother, uniting the fragments and cracks between their Orders with her Son’s unending grace.          

More than grace, more than rivalries

The history existing between the Dominicans and Jesuits is not always of bitter episodes. There exist too sweet chapters worthy of being remembered and indeed of being treasured.

During his year of discernment and conversion in 1522, St. Ignatius stayed with the Dominicans in Manresa. He was given a cell by the Dominicans in their very own convent. Here he had severe illness. It can be presumed that the Dominicans had took care of Ignatius, for in the spring of the following year, 1523, he left for Barcelona en route to Rome.  His stay there prove to be of great importance as it is during that respite in Manresa with the Dominicans, he was able to write the Spiritual Exercises and saw a vision of the future of the Society of Jesus.

The joy of being together was not felt only by St. Ignatius and the Dominicans of Manresa. Years after that poignant encounter with Ignatius and the Dominicans in Manresa, there occurred another event wherein brothers from these two congregations held each others hand building the Church.

In 1579, on his way to his then far-flung and newly established diocese of Manila, newly appointed Bishop Domingo de Salazar, OP, the first bishop of Manila, asked the Juan de la Plaza, SJ, the Jesuit provincial in Mexico City,  to give him a large number of religious to accompany him to Manila. De la Plaza granted the request of Salazar and had allowed Antonio Sedeno, the director of the group, Alonso Sanchez, Gaspar de Toledo, and Nicolas Gallardo. Aside from a lone Dominican companion in the person of Cristobal de Salvatierra, Bishop Domingo de Salazar, OP arrived I Manila in the same year accompanied by brothers from the Society of Jesus; A Dominican accompanied by Jesuits. That cooperation between these Dominicans and Jesuits of the 16^th century did not stop in accompanying the Bishop of Manila to his diocese. Indeed, after they had arrived in Manila, the Jesuits helped the Salazar in administering the newly established Diocese. He had Alonso Sanchez, SJ as his trusted secretary until Sanchez left for Spain in 1586. He assigned to the Jesuits the study and solution of difficult cases of conscience; cases related to justice and restitution of properties. Salazar had a high opinion with the sons of Ignatius that he would often stay with them in their convent for days. Jesuits indeed showed the same hospitality the Dominicans of Manresa rendered to Ignatius by building a room dedicated solely for the Bishop.    

Almost five centuries had passed since these encounters took place but they remain to be springs of insights whereby the generations of today can derive inspiration in doing their own collaborative efforts with each other in building the Church in the Philippines and in Asia.