THE PROSPERITY CHURCHES

BBC presented today a report on Prosperity Churches in Nigeria, based on the proclamation of a prosperity gospel and which have produced a good number of multimillionaire pastors. By the numbers of members and by the sums of money involved, they are very successful; but are they faithful to the values of the Gospel? Are they true witnesses of Jesus Christ?

Surely Jesus came to bring hope and relief to the poor, the suffering and the downtrodden. He said: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28). Indeed, God doesn’t feel any pleasure in poverty and suffering. In spite of that, we must remember that Jesus rejected the devil’s proposal of a Kingdom of God based on power and wealth. And he warned us in no uncertain terms about not allowing the money to become our god: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches)." (Lk 16:13). Jesus told his disciples to put their trust in God, not in riches.

The link for the BBC report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14713151

THE HORRORS IN LIBYA

These past days, all of us have heard the stories of pain, suffering, death and horror left behind by Gaddafi, his family and his soldiers. The picture of the nanny of two of Gaddafi’s grandchildren with her head burnt and full of open wounds was horrible. She came from Ethiopia and has been working for one year without a salary, to receive only beatings and be poured hot water on her head. But the pictures of the charred bodies in a warehouse in Tripoli are even worse.

How is it possible to become so inhuman and so devilish? The war is always horrible! Civil war is even worse. But how can one sink so low as to inflict such suffering and destroy so many lives! It seems as if by falling one wants to bring down everything and everybody.

Time and again, we find similar stories, anywhere in the world, whenever there is conflict. It seems that human beings never learn how to become humans. Human power easily becomes totalitarian power, which oppresses and destroys. We must accept that only God is God, and that only God puts everybody in his rightful place. 

XXII SUNDAY, year A: Mt 16:21-27

Behind me, Satan

The harsh words used by Jesus in his reproach to Peter show how far he was from Jesus’ ideals and plans. The scene is even more striking, if we remember that just a few moments before Peter had been praised for his profession of faith and had been promised a position of leadership in Jesus’ community.

The outspoken Peter, who never wasted time expressing his feelings and voicing out his thoughts, had proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God. Although Jesus accepted his statement, he told Peter that he could not make such an affirmation out of his own mind, but for a revelation from the Father.

However, there was a big misunderstanding on Peter’s side, because Jesus was not a Messiah according to his expectations. Peter with the Apostles, the disciples at large and all the people of Israel were expecting a triumphant Messiah, full of power and glory, who would destroy all the enemies with the stroke of his hand. With him, the people of Israel would rise in glory and power and rule the world in God’s name. They dreamt of an imperial figure of the Messiah, in the style of the roman emperor, only with far greater glory and power.

If we look attentively, Peter’s ideal was not different from the proposal made to Jesus by Satan in the desert, when he promised to make Jesus the king of kings of this world. And Jesus did with Peter what he had done with Satan: he gave him a sharp and swift refusal. “Get behind me, Satan” – he said. Jesus did not expel or exclude Peter, but he reminded him of who was in charge. If he wanted to be a disciple, Peter had to follow Jesus behind. Jesus is the way, and he is the one who sets the standard, not the other way around. Jesus knew that to carry out his mission with faithfulness, he had to pass through rejection and suffering. He had not come to rule or to oppress, but to serve and to save.

XXII SUNDAY, year A: Ro 12:1-2

WITH A NEW MIND

In Ro 12:1-2, Paul speaks about true worship: we must worship him in a way that befits us, and the only way worthy of thinking beings is to offer “our living bodies” to God, which means to offer ourselves: our minds, our hearts and our bodies. The Revised Standard Version translates: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”.

In our culture, there is a culture of the body, which looks for satisfaction and pleasure as supreme values. In the Bible, be it in the OT or in the NT, we can find as well the importance of the body, in such way that there is no true salvation without the body sharing in that salvation. In the end, we are not human beings without a body; and Jesus came to save human beings. That’s why resurrection is part of the mystery of salvation. The only sacrifice that God accepts from us is the sacrifice of ourselves in communion with the sacrifice of Christ. As must offer ourselves to him, we must offer our bodies as well, because they belong to him.

We should not allow ourselves to be guided by “the behaviour of the world around” us. We must be guided by a new way of thinking and a new vision of the world, the one that we receive from Christ. We cannot argue that everybody does it, so we can do it as well. Everybody steals; why should we not steal? Everybody profits from his position; why we not do the same? Everybody bribes or receives bribes; why should we not behave in the same way? Everybody has an affair and betrays his/ her spouse; so what is wrong with that? If everybody does, I can do it as well. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must think and behave like Jesus Christ. With the mind of Christ, we can know what is good and honourable and we can discover “the will of God”.

With my friend, Fr. Horácio

Church built by Fr. Horácio
with the people of Kawama, Chililabombwe

This week, I have been with my sister Sabina in Queimada (which means burnt), a small Parish near the river Douro area. The landscape is full of vineyards and apple tree plantations. It is time to pick up the apples and one can see the passing trucks full of apple boxes. Very soon, the vintage will start as well.

Yesterday, I spent some time together with Fr. Horácio, who came to see me. We worked together in Chililabombwe. He was in charge of Konkola Parish, with all the outstations. With his motorbike, he would go everywhere, spending time with people. In Kawama, which was a poor compound near Chililabombwe, he was able to motivate people and working with them he built a church that is like a cathedral. It always surprised me the way he motivated the people, so that they got involved and contributed with their work, being able to put up a big structure with very little money. He was always in the forefront, being the first to climb up the scaffolds and to hold the hammer or the trowel.

With him, I learnt that one must always be present and involved if he wants people to get involved as well. How can people believe in a project if they don’t see you believing in it? That is the big problem with most of our leaders, mainly political leaders: they stay away from people, being aloof and disinterested in the situation of the people or even in the projects that they themselves started. Will the ones that present themselves to election be different? If they were not up to now, they will not be in the future as well.

SHARE YOUR FAITH

The words of the Pope during the World Youth Day still reverberate with emotion. He didn’t speak a lot, and his addresses were always short. In spite of that, he touched the core of the Christian message and touched the hearts and minds of many young people, who welcomed him and with him gave witness to Jesus Christ.

I just want to point out some of the main themes, which the Pope referred to:

·      The search for truth and love

“Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.” (Vigil address)

·      God’s great love

“Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful. We are not the product of blind chance or absurdity; instead our life originates as part of a loving plan of God.” (Vigil address)

·      The universal significance of Christ, the Saviour

“We need to speak with courage and humility of the universal significance of Christ as the Saviour of humanity and the source of hope for our lives.” (Vigil address)

“Make Christ, the Son of God, the centre of your life.” (Mass address)

·      THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST

o   God’s true wisdom

“The mystery of Christ’s glorious Cross, wherein is found God’s true wisdom which judges the world and judges those who consider themselves wise (cf. 1 Cor 1:17-19).

o   Christ’s love

“Christ loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). In the face of such disinterested love, we find ourselves asking, filled with wonder and gratitude: What can we do for him? What response shall we give him?”

o   We must carry the sufferings of the world

“Saint John puts it succinctly: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). Christ’s passion urges us to take upon our own shoulders the sufferings of the world”.

o   The cross is not a sign of failure

“The Cross was not a sign of failure, but an expression of self-giving in love that extends even to the supreme sacrifice of one’s life. (…) The Cross, by its shape and its meaning, represents this love of both the Father and the Son for men.”(Address in the Way of the Cross)

·      Keep alive the friendship with Jesus

“Dear young people, if you wish to discover and to live faithfully the form of life to which the Lord is calling each of you, you must remain in his love as his friends. And how do we preserve friendship except through frequent contact, conversation, being together in good times and bad? Saint Teresa of Jesus used to say that prayer is just such “friendly contact, often spending time alone with the one who we know loves us” (cf. Autobiography, 8).

And so I now ask you to “abide” in the adoration of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist.” (Vigil address)

·      In communion with the Church

“But let me also remind you that following Jesus in faith means walking at his side in the communion of the Church. We cannot follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be tempted to do so “on his own”, or to approach the life of faith with kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.” (Mass address)

·      Participate in the life of your parishes

“Growing in friendship with Christ necessarily means recognizing the importance of joyful participation in the life of your parishes, communities and movements, as well as the celebration of Sunday Mass, frequent reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation, and the cultivation of personal prayer and meditation on God’s word.” (Mass address)

·      Faith – a personal relationship with Jesus

“Faith does not simply provide information about who Christ is; rather, it entails a personal relationship with Christ, a surrender of our whole person, with all our understanding, will and feelings, to God’s self-revelation.” (Mass address)

·      Bear witness! Share your faith

“Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference. We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others. So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God.” (Mass address)

THE GROWING TREES ARE THE FOREST

Imiti ikula, e mpanga (the growing trees are the forest) is a Bemba (from Zambia) proverb that is repeated time and again, when people speak about the youth. It means that young people are the future and that they deserve attention and care. The proverb indicates an attitude of hope and expectancy. And that is the attitude Pope Benedict presented during the just ended World Youth Day, in Madrid.

Old people like to look backwards and see the past as the golden age, when everything was good, in contrast with the present, in which plenty of problems bother us. The present is always the difficult time, because that is the time we live in, the time in which we have to make difficult decisions and bear the consequences of those decisions.

The youth cannot remember the past, because they were not there yet. They feel the pain of the present and turn themselves to the future. They want a better world and dream about it. However, many people feel them as threat to society, due to their rejection of the present. And this is made worse by the fact that a good number of young people only see ahead of them a hopeless future, full of darkness, leaving them in despair; and in their despair, they use their energy in a destructive way, causing havoc in the community, as we saw in the recent past.

Instead of blaming the youth, we should ask ourselves what kind of society we have been building, to cause so deep rejection, revealed in acts of vandalism. What do we have to offer them?

The World Youth Day showed a very different youth. They participated and they celebrated with joy. There were no disorders and no violence. There was rejoicing in peace, there was sharing, and there was prayer. The youth that went to Madrid live in the same world and face the same problems as all the other youths, but they were illumined by the light of Christ, which gives them guidance, strength and hope.

I watched with emotion the Way of the Cross, being webcasted alive; and I heard and read the words of the Pope, which were words full of hope, giving guidance to search for truth and love, and calling for witnessing and sharing of the faith, a faith that is a total commitment to Jesus Christ.

During the vigil, Pope Benedict told the youth:

“Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.”