Doing something “slightly mad” for God

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Contrary to common anticipation that the three-day IEC Theological and Academic Symposia will cause the collective nosebleed of media workers and lay delegates, I found the exposition on the different topics very relevant with some providing insightful perspectives and answers to many social issues that beset our times.

The symposia served as “underpinning,” according to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress plenary which reels off today at the IEC Pavilion in barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., former head of the Dominican Order, opened the symposia with, “Hope in the Desert” and the moment he took the rostrum, delegates were all eyes and ears to the controversial preacher and writer.

In case you haven’t heard, Fr. Radcliffe has pushed the limits of tolerance of conservative Catholics who think homosexuality and gay sex are mortal sins.
In a 2006 religious education gathering in Los Angeles, he stated that “We must accompany (gay people) as they discern what this means, letting our images be stretched open. This means watching ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening with them as they listen to the Lord.”

If this was not controversial enough, he tackled human sexual ethics in a 2013 article that further cemented his “status” as radical liberal and outspoken supporter of homosexuality, as he is being painted by conservative sectors in the Church. That is why when Pope Francis appointed Radcliffe a consultor to the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, many were dismayed, to put it kindly.

I will reserve my comments on his beliefs but listening to his exposition set in the context of “acute crises of our times,” I became a fan. Radcliffe struck a sensitive chord in many people in the Cebu Doctors’ University Auditorium, including priests who may be tempted to despair.

The Dominican friar shared his experiences in Iraq where many Christians had fled to Kurdistan, but a significant number have also opted to stay despite the threat to their lives. By just staying in their homeland while thousands have fled, Iraqi Christians have expressed their hope in God, Fr. Radcliffe said.

“This is not to criticize those who left, perhaps for good reasons. But by simply staying put is a sign of hope in the Lord who has promised to be with us until the end of time.”

The rise in terrorism which is closely linked to religious fundamentalism, massive poverty and a looming environmental crises of devastating proportions have created an “acute crises in our time” Fr. Radcliffe said.

Rather than words, a Christian can express hope through “brilliant gestures,” like the late Pope John Paul II who during his lifetime joined hundreds of Jews read psalms in The Wailing Wall.

The particular gesture, more than any document helped break the stalemate of conflict between Christian beliefs on the one hand and Judaism on the other.
Fr. Radcliffe described as “brilliant,” Pope Francis’ gesture of washing the feet of prisoners including a Muslim girl, in a Maundy Thursday ritual.

His act of embracing a man whose body was full of lesions, “made the world sit up,” according to Fr. Timothy in his presentation last Wednesday.

Fr. Radcliffe likewise recalled that in January 2014 when Pope Francis visited the Philippines to commiserate with victims of Supertyphoon Haiyan, a poor girl pointedly asked him “why God allows children” to become victims of drugs and prostitution. Pope Francis’ reply was to embrace the weeping girl.

“Our task is to make signs that will draw people to Christ, because they embody a hope beyond our words.”

He then urged IEC delegates “to do something slightly mad,” because no one notices “even the most wonderful documents.”

Prayers, music and doing good deeds for their own sake are signs of hope, Fr. Radcliffe pointed out.

“Because we hope in God we do not resort to terrible means to attain the end. We can leave things in the hands of God, not because we are passive but because we are free to do what is good, however little that seems to achieve,” Fr. Radcliffe said.

“We witness to God’s rule by not trying to control everything.”

“To live out of control is to renounce the illusion that our task as Christians is to make history come out right. God’s rule will do that,” Radcliffe stressed quoting American theologian Stanley Hauerwas.

The English-born Dominican friar who now heads the Las Casas Institute, the social action center of Oxford University, also emphasized that education is a sign of hope and the “long-term response to the growing tide of fundamentalism which is consuming the Middle East.”

“Ultimately, the only response to the rise of ISIS is to encourage people to think,” Radcliffe stressed.

Finally, he cited children or the youth as a cause for hope in the Church.

“A Church which hopes has children and cares for them, which is why collapse of the birth rate in some countries may be a form of despair, and the abuse of children is so terrible.”

Fr. Radcliffe’s presentation elicited a moving reaction from Brother Karl Gaspar, C.Ss.R. who, together with a group of Redemptorists and lay missionaries live among indigenous communities in the villages of Jose Abad Santos in Davao Oriental. (To be continued)