BEIRON'S WAY: THE WAIT WATCHER

The Feast of the Ressurection of the Lord The most ancient of festivals the new Church celebrated immediately after the death of Jesus (quite definitely around 6-9 April AD30) was the unexpected resurrection of the Lord. This was to be so controversial in the small Roman colony of Judea in the time of Augustus Caesar, that its impact on the whole human civilisation that was to come could not have been underestimated. As historical fact, it would remain a mystery, and it seems part of the Divine Will that this should never be so compelling a fact that unbelief would be impossible. For this would make faith unnecessary, if doubt were impossible. This perspective is dealt with in the Gospel of John, after Jesus’ resurrection: “Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came… Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. The h...

Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: “How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill.” Luke 6:20-21 In Luke’s gospel, Jesus spoke these when he approached a level ground where many people had gathered, to hear him and to be cured. Because of its similarity to the familiar words we know as Matthew’s Beatitudes, which were taught by Jesus on a mountain when he saw the crowds (Matthew 5:1), we tend to read one text over the other. But the subtleties in difference between the text are sufficient for us to take a look at Luke’s version of events, and see if he intends to inform his readers of something else. We know he wrote in beautiful Greek, and therefore this makes it unlikely that the variance was an accident, even if he had the same source (which in French is Quelle , a reference to the missing “Q” gospel from which all the synoptics share a commonality). Jesus according to Luke goes on to immediat...

Saturday, 25 March 2006 Today, the universal church celebrates the Annunciation to the blessed Virgin Mary, an event which in the Gospel of Luke heralds the coming of the Messiah for the Jewish nation. In the Quran, it is also an epic event, in which the Prophetic Traditions explain that God's Word created the nabii Isa (prophet Jesus, to the Muslims), in a miracle birth which marks the immaculate conception. To Christians, it is not merely the miraculous nature of the event, where God has sent one of his own angelic messengers named Gabriel, to announce the birth of one to come. This has happened before, where angels took human form to mingle among the Children of Israel, and make specific revelations. To Abram, as visitors from the heat of the desert, who enjoyed his hospitality and promised the birth of his son; and in another instance, the story of Gideon, who was to lead the Israelites. Yet in none of these instances, did the angelic messenger seek the willing participation a...

Apologia Pro Fides Sua First Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2006 With as few lines as possible, should I endeavour to express the substantive causes for my belief in relation to the friendship of faith that comes before and after Christianity. For the history, theology and philosophy of the faith I believe in, the culture of Sonship in God the Father, and all that pertains, proceeds from the Jewish religion. This culture of belief in the family of God stems from the relationship taught elegantly by Jesus, as Son of the Father, which is forcefully denied by the Jewish faith, and after the birth of Christianity, by the faith of Mohammed, Islam (which means, “submission”). To my friends who are Jewish and Muslim, I have never had the need to address my own belief, which runs so gravely contrary to their own. The common history of civilisation is riddled with too many potshots, massacres, that now makes any real cry for “peace!” to be tangibly felt, and impactful. These many problems – past and p...

Thursday after Ash Wednesay, 2 March 2006 The whole Jewish and Christian history hinges on the act of a journey. After the loss of Eden, the early patriarchs were each given journeys to take, culminating in the final exodus of the Hebrew people to the promised land. Then we find them in exile and return, with the prophets journeying to preach and act, as if their monstrations were symbolic of Israel in some way. When the Temple was established at Mount Moriah, in Jerusalem, we find the Jewish people transformed to a people of pilgrimage, seeking the Divine Presence. The difference between this shrine and virtually all the other religious shrines of that time, is that it was not oracular. The people were summoned to pray, but their prayer was one of praise and supplication. There were prophets right up to the time of the birth of Jesus, and because the biblical canon was yet to be defined, there were many “scriptures” and pious, Jewish devotional writing in circulation, some popular and...

Ash Wednesday, 1 March 2006 Do you recall your earliest memory of visiting a church? Did you think of it as a place the family went to, once a week, or when was your earliest realisation where you felt the urge to visit one because it is the sanctuary of God? I was baptised on 11 October 1964, ten days after I was born at Kadang Kerbau Hospital, just a few years before that maternity hospital in Singapore could lay claim to fame in the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of maternity deliveries in a single year. I believe that record still stands, and remains the novel reason why a portion of the hospital complex is preserved as a national monument. Fortunately, the new KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital located at the adjacent road (Kampong Java Road) and by a small pond is a splendid architectural tribute and modern facility. My baptism was at the small countryside church of Our Lady of Fatima, and the presiding priest was Rev. Fr. Thomas Pasquale, MEP, after whom ...

Composed, Monday, 13 February 2006 Modern, western civilisation as we know it today, with all its flaws or weaknesses, apogee of freedoms or summit of liberalism, is the development of at least 2000 years of prolonged thought and enquiry. We know this, because as the Hellenist school of philosophy faded as the Roman Empire waxed and waned, it was ultimately the springtime of Christian thought which as it grew through conciliar debate and defense, and holding out against the ancient philosophies, formed the foundation of Western civil law and society. Enlightened historians today are willing to attribute to the Catholic Church much of the basis for this development in western thought. In the same way, the biased, popular view that the Inquisition was vast and cruel, or that Galileo was unfairly tried, should be examined with the true facts. The mythologies of conspiracy theories that the church sought to keep a great deal of matters secret to protect its teachings, or adulterate records...