By Fr. Antony Christy, SDB –
Seventeen-year old St. Pedro Calungsod was a native of Visayas Region in the Philippines. He was born on 21st July 1654 and not much of his origins are known except that he was born in a place within today’s diocese of Cebu. Right from this point he becomes a great inspiration demonstrating to us that our origins do not matter as much as what we do with our lives! He was educated in a Jesuit Boarding School and was trained to be a Lay Catechist. He was an ardent student of faith.
In 1668, when the Jesuit mission superior Padre Diego Luis San Vitores launched a missionary expedition to the neighbouring islands with himself and 17 lay catechists, Pedro willingly joined the evangelising team. They went to the Islas de los Ladrones (Island of Theives), and started spreading the Goodnews. Not only the people converted themselves the whole island was renamed Mariana Islands! While preaching the Goodnews, they had to come in direct conflict with a local religious tradition called Chamorros which consisted of some objectionable practices of digging up graves and other sorts of black magic.
The leader of the Chamorros, Matapang was initially converted and baptised but later apostatised. His wife was a baptised Christian too. When Padre Diego heard that they had a new born daughter, in the morning of 2nd April, 1672, he went there taking along with him Pedro Calungsod to baptise the child but an altercation arose and Matapang killed both Pedro and Padre Diego with his spears! Though Pedro had every chance of escaping, he stood by Fr. Diego till the end and gave his life for the mission of evangelisation! He was beatified on 5th March, 2000 by Pope Saint John Paul II and canonised on 21st October, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
This 17 year old martyr has been a great Christian witness to the youth of that region and can inspire every young Christian all over the world to stand for God and live for our faith!
Dear Young Friends,
– do you feel you are doing anything for the spread of God’s love and good news wherever you are?
– do you think you will be ready to face hardships if you had to, for the sake of Christ and his Gospel?
YOU CAT
HOW WE ARE TO HAVE LIFE IN CHRIST is Part III of the You Cat and the second chapter (Questions 321-342) is entitled HUMAN COMMUNITY. In Questions 337-342, the end of Chapter 2, we have a discussion on Grace! We are all Saved by God and Salvation is not something that happens at the end of our life but it happens all through our life, right from when God sent God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. To be saved means to be freed by the Holy Spirit from the power of sin that separates us and to be brought back to communion with God – this communion with God, this experience of the presence of God is called GRACE.
At times, we speak of grace as if we speak of a thing, to receive grace! Grace is neither a thing nor can it be earned – we can only dispose ourselves to that state or experience. Because, Grace is a free loving gift of God, a gift of Godself. God communicates Godself to us and that is Grace, feeling the presence of God deep within us – that is why it is Supernatural Grace; as it sanctifies us it is Sanctifying Grace; when this helps us to live our daily life in goodness it becomes Habitual Grace; when we feel this in a particular moment or event it is Actual Grace; at special moments when this experience comes through the sacraments it is Sacramental Grace; and each of us is blessed with a special communication of God’s presence within us which is called our Charism.
Apart from these, our very life, the state of life to which we are called by God to live – the family life, the priestly life, the religious life – gives us what is called the Grace of State! This is merely to say, at every moment of our life God is with us…that is Grace! But we need to be careful, whether in our freedom, we choose to be with God! The section ends with a reminder that every one of us who is baptised, is called to be a Saint – a call that Pope Francis reminds us of in the recent exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate.
– Given a moment of choice, how disposed are you to choose God, as opposed to other considerations in your life? Are you convinced of your call to be a Saint?
KNOW YOUR CHURCH:
#4. Do you know about Ecumenical Councils?
We have seen so far three of the seven Councils of Antiquity, and let us go ahead and complete the list here: the fourth in the list was the Council of Chalcedon convoked in 451 by Emperor Marcian of the Byzantine Empire during the Pontificate of Pope Leo the Great. The council condemned Monophysiticism, which was a heresy that denied the divine nature of Christ, saying that Christ was just a human being.
A century later in 553 the Second Council of Constantinople, the fifth of the Ecumenical councils was convoked by Emperor Justinian I during the Pontificate of Pope Vigilius to reaffirm the teachings of the previous two councils about the integral nature of Christ as divine and human at the same time. The Third Council of Constantinople was convoked in the year 680 by Emperor Constantine IV during the papacies of Pope Agatho and Pope Leo II, as it lasted 11 months closing in September 681 after 16 sessions. It had to teach with firmness the truth of the two wills of Christ – the human will and divine will – in contestation against the heresy of Monotheleticism which denied the human will of Christ.
The seventh of the Ecumenical councils, that is the Second Council of Nicea has a very special identity as the last of the councils to be accepted as Ecumenical, by both the Eastern and the Western Churches in history. This council was convoked in 787 by Emperor Constantine VI during the Papacy of Pope Adrian I. There is another importance attached to this council as it decreed against Iconoclasm. Iconoclasm was an ideology that no pictorial representation of Christ or Mary or any other saints should be venerated and there was a movement in 730 which went around destroying the icons! This council, basing itself on the Bible and the Teaching tradition of the Church, taught that icons are a help to our devotion to God. What would follow after this seventh council is a curious turn of events in history…stay tuned!
DO CAT
LIVING IN FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE – Peace (Questions 270-304) – The theme analysed in Questions 284-297 is about War and Violence! War and violence are created by hatred and desire for power and wealth. A war, for whatever reason it could be, is a failure of peace and it is a defeat of humanity. The Church insists on Free Societies where people experience responsible freedom and dignifying rights without having to strive for it.
The Church urges the Regional and International Organisations to do all within their powers to promote peace and trust among societies and nations. The International Community has to take responsibility for situations where some parts of humanity are affected due to war and use all means to deter war, promote peace and maintain welfare. Sanctions are methods of bringing the warring nations to the negotiation table and they cannot be modes of threat or punishment. And they have to be used only in as much as they are effective in creating peace and no disproportionate crisis arising out of these sanctions should be tolerated or justified. Though a nation has its right to defend itself against any aggression, war is not ready means for it.
A war for the defense of rights and freedom of a nation can be tolerated only when there is no other option and when there is a realistic chance of establishing peace and wellbeing of the people through such an intervention. No weapon of mass destruction or modes of genocide can be justified. The Church is totally against Arms trade as a business. Making, proliferation and use of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and using anti-personnel landmines are against acceptable norms; they are against God and humanity.
– How well are you informed about the various wars that are going on in different parts of the world today? Are you aware of real reasons behind these wars and the real victims? What is your stand?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.