CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot M.C.C.I., respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, signed the message that, on the occasion of the feast of Vesak, that dicastery annually sends to the followers of Buddhism.

Pope Francis greets people as he arrives on his papamobile for his weekly general audience in St Peters Square at the Vatican on May 1, 2013. Pope Francis urged political leaders to make every effort to create jobs and said unemployment was caused by economic thinking “outside the bounds of social justice.” AFP Photo Gabriel Bouys

Vesak is a major Buddhist holy day that commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during the full moon of the month of May, thus Vesak is a mobile feast, which this year falls on Mar 24 or 25 depending on the country it is celebrated in.

On those days, Buddhists visit local temples to offer the monks food and to hear the teachings of the Buddha, taking special care to meditate and to observe the eight precepts of Buddhism.

This year’s message is entitled: “Christians and Buddhists: Loving, Defending, and Promoting Human Life”. Following is the letter in its entirety.

“On behalf of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings and good wishes to all of you, as you celebrate the feast of Vesak which offers us Christians an occasion to renew our friendly dialogue and close collaboration with the different traditions that you represent.”

“Pope Francis, at the very beginning of his ministry, has reaffirmed the necessity of dialogue of friendship among followers of different religions. He noted that: ‘The Church is conscious of the responsibility which all of us have for our world, for the whole of creation, which we must love and protect. There is much that we can do to benefit the poor, the needy, and those who suffer, and to favour justice, promote reconciliation, and build peace’ (‘Audience with Representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions’, 20 March 2013). The Message of the World Day of Peace in 2013 entitled ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’, notes that: ‘The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end.

True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend, and promote human life in all its dimensions- personal, communitarian, and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life’ (‘Message for the World Day of Peace’ in 2013, n. 4).”

“I wish to voice that the Catholic Church has sincere respect for your noble religious tradition. Frequently we note a consonance with values expressed also in your religious books: respect for life, contemplation, silence, simplicity (cf. ‘Verbum Domini’, no. 119). Our genuine fraternal dialogue needs to foster what we Buddhists and Christians have in common especially a shared profound reverence for life.”

“Dear Buddhist friends, your first precept teach you to abstain from destroying the life of any sentient being and it thus prohibits killing oneself and others. The cornerstone of your ethics lies in loving kindness to all beings.

We Christians believe that the core of Jesus’ moral teaching is twofold; love of God and love of neighbour.

Jesus says: ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love’. And again: ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’ (‘Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1823).The fifth Christian Commandment, ‘You shall not kill’ harmonizes so well with your first precept. ‘Nostra Aetate’ teaches that: ‘the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions’ (NA 2). I think, therefore, that it is urgent for both Buddhists and Christians on the basis of the genuine patrimony of our religious traditions to create a climate of peace to love, defend, and promote human life.”

“As we all know, in spite of these noble teachings on the sanctity of human life, evil in different forms contributes to the dehumanization of the person by mitigating the sense of humanity in individuals and communities. This tragic situation calls upon us, Buddhists and Christians, to join hands to unmask the threats to human life and to awaken the ethical consciousness of our respective followers to generate a spiritual and moral rebirth of individuals and societies in order to be true peacemakers who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions.”

“Dear Buddhist friends, let us continue to collaborate with a renewed compassion and fraternity to alleviate the suffering of the human family by fostering the sacredness of human life. It is in this spirit that I wish you once again a peaceful and joyful feast of Vesak.”

Understanding hope in biblical terms

The word ‘hope’ is a little word consisting of only four letters, but when understood, spiritually, it opens up an abundant flood of revelation connecting up the past events which worked out well by trusting in God and His word. This could consist of historical events that took place in our lives or other people’s lives as in the case of crossing the Red Sea by the Israelites, that reflects how awesome God is and that all things are possible through Him. Therefore, I would say that the word hope is a mighty word that has to be applied in our spiritual walk with God.

Let us therefore spend some time understanding this word. We apply the word ‘hope’ when we look to the future and we hope something good will happen. We rarely use this word ‘hope’ relating to future events of adversities. When this happens it is often taken over by ‘fear’ as opposed to ‘hope’.The scripture educates us that ‘fear’ is not of the Lord but the evil one, but hope on the other hand certainly has positive spiritual implications. Therefore I would say in our spiritual vocabulary this word ‘hope’ is a strong supportive word when we apply the Word of God as Manna to our Soul and thereby exercising hopeful thoughts we find spiritual help in our devotional walk with our Lord Jesus.

This is because the word ‘hope’ in a biblical sense is connected to relying on God’s word and trusting God to work out things in a positive way for the future. So, when you are surrounded by a hopeless situation and the natural man’s reaction is to fear for the future, the believers who hope in God’s word and put their trust in the character and word of God are actually worshiping Him, as they set their hope on Him, as true worship is trusting in God and accepting all situations as being controlled by our awesome God. Therefore hoping in God’s word becomes true worship.

If we are going through a rough time, it is good for us to look at something similar that happened in the Bible and see how God dealt with it in bringing out a blessing in that situation, then look to the future events that we can experience through this trouble we are going through. Here you will find that you are hoping for a similar blessing to take place in your situation. So you can understand why ‘hope’ connects up the past event that was adverse to the good result that God brought about and brings about peace where your present situation is concerned.

God, therefore expects us to ‘hope’ by using past situations that He has dealt with in your lives this way. Romans 8:28 says: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

You can see here that through all situations one has to ‘hope’ that God will bring about some good to those who love God. Therefore to ‘hope for something good is biblical, and therefore you will find that you will have to hope for God’s blessings to happen in your life many times. It is scriptural therefore for your mind to hope for God’s blessings I would, therefore encourage you to hope for things to happen. This is one way of encouraging yourself in God’s word. During your prayer time instead of dwelling on your troubles, learn to ‘hope’.As you meditate on Romans 8:26, with the help of the Holy Spirit learn to hope as to how God can change this adverse situation you are going through. His word says God is working something good for you!

For ‘hope’ to work successfully in your spiritual life, you will find that you have to ‘believe’ as well.

One has to ‘believe’ in God’s word for hope to function in a spiritual sense. In the example I gave above you are using Romans 8:26, which is God’s word which says:And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Step 1: to hope therefore is to believe His word. Get these words into your heart and believe it totally because these are inspired words of God. In other words, these are words that are spoken by the Holy Spirit and therefore special, and trustworthy.

Step 2: to hope is to ‘trust’.Again, you have to place your trust in these words since it promises some action to the believers - ‘all things are going to work for good’.

Step 3: to hope one has to demonstrate faith’.In order to ‘hope’ you must also have ‘faith’.For the future event that you are hoping for one must carry this through the vehicle of ‘faith’.This is so important or else you will get despondent and the enemy can crush the hope you have built and lack of faith will make this whole exercise collapse.

So it is essential for ‘hope’ to work in your spiritual life you must (1) believe, (2) trust and (3) have faith.

1. Believe - you must believe in the attributes of God and Christ Jesus. God is all-knowing, all-powerful and is everywhere. One must accept His saving power, where salvation is offered to us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and having risen sits in glory today. It is also important that one must believe in The Word of God, the Bible.

2. Trust - Again one must trust in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. One must also trust in the Word of God which is full of promises from God instructing us how we humans must live.

3. Faith - Hebrews 11:1 gives the best quote for Biblical faith: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 11:3: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Unlike a natural person, one cannot trust on the five senses to have faith. One must allow faith to operate even when your eyes cannot see and all your senses say contrary to what your faith is about. The best example is God created the world by His spoken word. Your senses cannot confirm this, but you have to accept it by faith.

God has given us some wonderful ways of tiding through this life, if we study His Word, the Bible and apply its principles. I must warn you about the importance of placing your hope in the right things as I have stated above.

Two wrong places where we trust and place our hopes and will be disappointed are

The Bible clearly teaches us this will bring about the downfall of our spiritual walk with Jesus. Let me quote some biblical verses on the above mentioned warnings:There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. (Psalm 33: 16-19)

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:19-24)

I am sure you can understand how important ‘hope’ is to survive in this world so full of sin and pain. May your spiritual walk with Jesus be blessed in applying ‘hope’ in your daily walk with our Lord.

Prayer: Thank you Father for teaching me how to apply hope in my spiritual walk with Thee. Lift up my eyes from my troubles to look to you my Jesus in hope to receive all the beautiful things that you have promised to bless me with. Thy word is Truth and I believe in it my Lord. Please grant me sufficient faith to hope in your word so that this in turn will carry me through life with the help of the Holy Spirit. I thank you for your attributes and nature which I can rely on to see me through this life full of trials and even as you said Jesus because you have overcome this world I too have hope in life everlasting in your presence.

Continuation form God’s people... (Part 2)

I can hear the reports getting back that Pharaoh had Israel trapped. All of Egypt expected to see the Israelites brought back in chains. Parades would be planned to celebrate Pharaoh's victory, with golden idols exalted over the God of Israel. What was Moses’ reaction to this crisis? Facing the vast sea before him, he cried, “Move forward!” Moses so believed in God's care, trusting his word to lead Israel into his promise, he declared, “I know the Lord is faithful. And I'm going to act on is word.”

Think about the consequences of such faith. If the Red Sea didn't open up miraculously, Moses would be thought a food. The Israelites would go back into bondage and God would never again be trusted. Yet we all know what happened: As Moses stretched out is hand, the waters divided and the people walked across on dry ground. I tell you, no one who fully trusts in God will ever be put to shame. He will deliver on his promise for his own name's sake.

2. Consider Joshua

For six days Israel had marched around the impenetrable city of Jericho, saying, “These walls are coming down.” To the people inside Jericho, this sounded absolutely foolish. They must have laughed in derision. Then finally, on the seventh day, God's people were commended to arch not just once but seven times. At this point, even the Israelites must have felt foolish. They might have thought, “Noting happened the first six days. Now this seems desperate, We'll be shamed if these walls don't fall.”

But such thoughts never entered Joshua's mind. He said, “I know what I heard from the Lord, and I know he is able.” He committed God to his promise, putting his glory on the line. We know what happened: “The people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass .... that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him and they took the city” (Joshua 6:20). When God's children commit him to his Word. He will never let them be shamed.

3. Consider the Hebrew children

Daniel and the tree Hebrew children refused to bow in worship before Nebuchadnezzar's 90-foot gold idol. They stood resolute even when condemned to die in a fiery furnace. As the wicked king taunted, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15), the young men committed the Lord to his promises:

“O Nebuchadnezzar's, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. We don't hesitate in our response. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace... But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not sere thy gods, not worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (3:16-18). They were so confident God would honor his name, they willingly faced certain death.

Prominent leaders from throughout the land gathered for the execution: princes, governors, judges, rulers from surrounding provinces.

And Nebuchadnezzar ordered the fire stoked seven times hotter than usual, a heat so fierce it killed the servants tending the furnace.

The crowds were aghast, exclaiming, “These men can't survive. They'll drop dead before they get near that furnace.

No God can deliver from this kind of fate.” Again, the Lord's name was on the line. If he didn't intervene, his name would be defamed throughout the nations. But the Lord never puts to shame those who fully trust him. Scripture says Jesus himself showed up in that furnace to protect and comfort his servants. And out of the fire walked the our Hebrew children, without even a whiff of smoke on them.

[Pope Francis]

Hope of those wallowing in poverty

Was once upon a time detested by the Papacy
Cause He propounded the so called Heresy
That Jesus and his Apostles lived a life of Poverty

Hence, He was ordered by the papacy
To root in a pig pen with his fellow swine
For this Heresy
But the Franciscan friars never abandoned
their vision
Though many were burnt at the stakes
By order of pope John XXII – in the course
of their mission

Your election to the papacy
Vindicates St. Francis of Assisi
It give you an opportunity
To guide the world to peace, via,
Selfless service, social justice And equity

When a dove did alight
On the roof of the chimney before it did
emit smoke white
A.T.V. Anchor did confidently Fore cast
That it was a heavenly signal that the
die had been cast

An hour later Your unostentatious appearance
On, St. Peter's Basilica's Balcony
Signaled to the City and the World your
Christlike simplicity and humility
The heavy cross you may be called upon to bear
St. Francis of Assisi will be there to share

The Rock on which, around 2000 year ago,
The spiritual church of Christ was built
Which is about to crash or tilt
Will with your Christlike behavior par excellence
Be put to even keel with your good
Equitable administrative and spiritual governance

Message of Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue during Vesak

Understanding hope in biblical terms

Continuation form God’s people... (Part 2)

2. Consider Joshua

3. Consider the Hebrew children

[Pope Francis]

Hope of those wallowing in poverty