St. Joseph the Worker - Worker of God's Salvific Plan

What is your image of St. Joseph, the step father of Jesus, the husband of Mary?

The Bible does not tell much about Joseph –except he is on the Abrahamic and Davidic lineage (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38), was engaged to Mary when she became pregnant with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and adopted him as his own son (Luke 1:26-38,2:1-52; Matthew 1:18-2:23).

On May 1, the Catholic Church honors Joseph as a patron saint of workers, calling him St. Joseph the Worker.

Joseph has another feast day, March 18, known as the Fiesta of St. Joseph’s Table.

St. Joseph’s Table Day (March 18) focuses more on Joseph as the provider to his family, the Holy Family, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1) rather focuses as Joseph’s hard work ethic as a model to all workers.  These two feast days of St. Joseph remind us of the importance of work to care for our loved ones – our families. Not to mention, this is a part of the salvific plan of the Father in Heaven, as salvation requires our hard word to realize the Will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven.

Besides Joseph’s hard work as a carpenter (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), and a loyal and loving husband to Mary and stepfather to Jesus, what impresses Joseph is his commitment to protect his family, when baby Jesus was threatened by King Herod’s evil sword,  as described in Matthew 2: 13-23.

The way Joseph protected baby Jesus and Mary, as the head of the Holy Family ( Matthew 2:13-23) evokes the way Jesus’s character as the Good Shepherd, who saves his sheep (John 10:1-18).

Though it is not that Joseph had to lay his own life to save the lives of baby Jesus and Mary, what he did was an act of saving by taking them out of Nazareth in Galilee to Egypt, similar to how Moses led his people out of Egypt into wilderness.  What is common both to Joseph’s act of saving his family and Moses’ act of saving his people is that both of these leading men listened to God’s will and faithfully acted on it.

As a baby, Jesus, who has become a leader, like his step father or earthly father, Joseph, was once benefited by Joseph’s shepherd-like act.  I am certain that this impacted Jesus in a way for him to identify himself as the Good Shepherd to us.

St. Joseph, the worker, is not just about protecting families from perishing through our hard work, bringing bread to the family table. He is also about working hard in doing God’s will to save our families like the Good Shepherd.

St. Joseph, based on his act in Matthew 2:13-23 is no stranger to his son’s self-identification as the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-18. 

The work of St. Joseph was not just about carpentry. It was rather the work of taking care of the Holy Family, protecting and saving Jesus and Mary, from any harm's way - because it is in the will of the Father. And, Jesus also has obeyed this in a way far greater than his step father, Joseph did, as he has laid his very life for his sheep on the Cross, for our salvation. The spirit of St. Joseph the worker now calls us to follow this. 

Happy feast of St. Joseph the Worker! May we work hard to protect and save and nourish our loved ones, especially our families, as it is in God’s salvific plan.

Advent: Season Hope for Salvific Light of God Beyond Religious Boundaries: Immaculate Conception, Bodhi Day, Guadelupe, Santa Lucia, Simbang Gabi, and Chanukah

Light  in the Rising Conditions and Causes Behind the Fact that Immaculate Conception, Bodhi Day, Guadalupe, Santa Lucia, Simbang Gabi, and Chanukah to be in Advent Season

December 8, is the solemn feast of Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, to the Roman Catholics, as well as the Bodhi Day to the Japanese Buddhist. I do not think it is a mere coincidence.

Am I just superstitious? No. I am more in to empirical science with my psychology background. However, with my theology background, I realize that there is just so much in reality but so little that we can comprehend. The rest of the reality that we cannot comprehend at this time, with our current sensory-cognitive capabilities, is accepted as a mystery, which is not to be confused with a myth.  Though I am Catholic, in fact, my study of and family background in Buddhism, helps us see that there is nothing by coincidence, as things exist and happen due to rising conditions and causes, which we can understand only as little as a tip of iceberg.  Given this background, I want to explore possible rising causes and conditions that put the solemn feast of Immaculate Conception in Catholicism and Bodhi Day in Japanese Buddhism not only on the same day but also so close to the feast of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (December 12), the memorial feast of Santa Lucia (December 13),  Simbang Gabi (December 15-24), and Chanukah (December 16-24, this year – 2014). Given religious meanings of these sacred days in Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism, I believe that light, in particular, light of salvific hope, associated with the coming Messiah, is what makes sense to have these sacred says to fall on this time of the year – Advent .

There must be certain reasons or rising conditions and causes, as Buddhism teaches, for light to be a common theme not only for Immaculate Conception and Bodhi Day but also for the feasts of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Santa Lucia, Simbang Gabi and Chanukah.  In fact, as candle lights and festively decorated lights are commonly seen at this time of the year, this is a season of light, though it is the darkest time of the year, if you live in the northern hemisphere, due to the proximity to the winter solstice.  Though Mother Nature tells that it is the darkest time of the year, God on the other hand, reminds us that this is when we recognize light more, because God created light first (Genesis 1:3) in His Creation process.

In God’s Creation, light must be the foundation to everything He created and blessed. This includes humans, which God created on the sixth day in His own image (Genesis 1:26-31). At that time,  there was no darkness of sin and its consequences, though there were day and night to punctuate time.  But, the focus of this punctuation is light (Genesis 1:14).

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As indicated in Revelation 12:7-9, Satan, as in a serpent, came to Garden of Eden, which was the paradise on the newly created earth,  and tempted humans, as in Adam and Eve, into sin against God, Original Sin.  That was when the darkness of sin and its consequences, such as suffering and death, entered human life (Genesis 3). And, as the rest of the books in the Scriptures, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, describe,  Original Sin resulted in a vicious cycle of sins, called the deuteronomic cycle. This is an endless cycle, so far, of darkness of sin, indicating the eviction from Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:14-24) and not being in the Kingdom of God.

Throughout ages, as written in the Old Testament, especially through the words of prophets, humans’ deuteronomic (repetitive) sins have angered God to a point of punishing them, God’s mercy always overrides His anger.  God sure punishes for our sins. Yet, He always wants us to be back in harmony with Him. 

God always wants us back to Him. This is the nature of God’s mercy. And, this reflects why God’s Creation process was not completed until humans were created and why God created us in His own image.  To God, losing humans would mean losing His own image. It would bring so much grief to Him.  This is why God’s mercy always prevails to bring us back to Him when our sins separate us from Him.  And, as Buddhists use light as a metaphor to address the light of Amitabha, who is the cosmic Buddha, Christians view the mercy and benevolence of God as light that shines in the darkness of sin and its consequences, such as suffering and death.  Believers are willing to return to be in intimate harmony with God through repenting and reconciliation. So, we sure desire to have something like what Adam and Eve lost, Eden, which literally means “paradise”, more figuratively, as we hope to attain intimate harmony with God. And, it is the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to teach us and to usher us into. This is God’s redemptive plan, which will eventually win over our deuteronomic cycle.

Immaculate Conception

Now, the above-mentioned Old Testament background is very important to appreciate the solemn feast of Immaculate Conception as a feast of light – light of messianic and redemptive hope.  Immaculate Conception of Mary was God’s way of preparing to bring the light of messianic and redemptive hope. In other words, arranging Mary to be conceived without any stain of Original Sin in Anna’s womb,, though it is not a virgin conception,  is to prepare Mary to be fit to conceive and give birth to Jesus as virgin.

Bodhi Day

Because of this light, Gautama in northeastern India (now Nepal) became enlightened and began to see the light of Dharma through the Eightfold Path on Bodhi Day. Upon becoming bodhisattva with enlightenment, the light of Dharma and the immeasurable mercy of Amitabha have become accessible to those who seek, leading to Nirvana by practicing Gautama Buddha’s teaching of the Eightfold Path and Paramitas.

About 500 years after Gautama opened his spiritual eyes to the light, God, who first created light (Genesis 1:3) began His preparation to send His light to the world, which has been infested with the darkness of sin, by making the Word (logos), the Holy Spirit, become flesh in Jesus. But, for this to take place, God needed the right human vessel. And, God chose Mary, before her birth, to be conceived in Anna’s womb without any stain of Original Sin, making this Immaculate Conception.  Because of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, she was able to conceive the Son of God, as announced by Angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38, the Gospel reading for the feast of the Immaculate Conception) and gave virgin birth to himthe divine light, has come to this world, as Christ, and the Messiah, through Jesus, to deliver us from the darkness of sins into the light of the Kingdom of God, as said in John 1:1-14; 8:12; 9:5; and 12:46.

The light to the world, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to this world through the virgin birth in Bethlehem, as described in Luke 2:1-14, Christmas Midnight Mass Gospel reading, and prophesized by Isaiah, about 700 years before (Matthew 1:18-25, the shorter version of the Gospel reading for Christmas vigil Mass), because Mary was immaculate, full of grace, ever since her conception. And, this light, Christ the Messiah, has begun God’s mission to deliver us from the darkness of sins in this world into the Kingdom of God, our ultimate “promised land”, which is envisioned in Revelation 22.  Christ the Messiah is the guiding light to us, shepherding us through the darkness, as sung in Psalm 23, while Buddha, an enlightened one, who has received light, has begun teaching the Dharma to deliver us from the darkness of dukkha, suffering to Nirvana.

Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

The light of God has also touched us and the world we live, through Mary’s apparition to Santo Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico, December 9, 1531, as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe to bring the light of healing and hope, in response to people’s cries.  Mary, who is Immaculate Conception, as she identified herself to Santa Bernadette of Lourdes, France, in 1858, “Je suis l'Immaculée Conception”(I am the Immaculate Conception), said these words to San Juan Diego:

I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings. And to bring about what my compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve, you must go to the residence of the Bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you here to show him how strongly I wish him to build me a temple here on the plain; you will report to him exactly all you have seen, admired and what you have heard.    As recorded  in  “Huei tlamahuiçoltica” (The Great Event)

The Marian apparition as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe was to shine the world with the light of God’s mercy through Juan Diego’s cooperation with her.

Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia, St. Lucy, is a patron saint of eye sight for the miracle of her eyes restored upon her burial, though her eyes were gouged out for persecutory execution. Another legend says that Lucia was able to walk as if she could see even after her eyes were taken out.  Not to mention, etymological meaning of her name is light (lux in Latin – luc) , which is deeply related to eye sight. In Scandinavian nations, where winter darkness is much longer, the feast of Santa Lucia is characterized with candle lights to lighten communities.

Not to mention, theological significance of Santa Lucia is not just about eye sight but metaphorically about our spiritual abilities to see God’s truth, as enlightened ones, bodhis, can see the truth of Dharma. The eye sight in a spiritual sense, is the abilities to recognize God’s wisdom in Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9), which is the truth – the teaching of Christ, the Messiah, which continues on as parakletos  (John 14:26).

God has given us eye sight to see the truth (Exodus 4:11), even our physical eyes were gouged out. Thus, the feast of Santa Lucia reminds us of the importance of keeping our spiritual eye sight to see the light of God, meaning, seeing the truth of God.  And, the light (John 8:12) is also the truth and the way (John 14:6). Thus, our spiritual eye sight enables us to see God as the light, the truth, and the way, in the Messiah.

Simbang Gabi

The Filipino Catholic Christmas novena tradition, Simbang Gabi, is also about light of God.  Its prototype was Misa de Gallo, which has been a popular celebration on Christmas Eve through Spanish-speaking Latin America since 1587, given that the Philippines had been Spanish colony for more than 350 years until 1898.

Though Misa de Gallo takes place on Christmas Eve, Simbang Gabi is celebrated for 9 days leading to Christmas – from December 15 until Christmas Eve as it is a novena. But, both Misa de Gallo and Simbang Gabi starts before dawn. When Mass is over, the sun is rising or just risen.

Simbang Gabi is a 9-day preparation for the coming of Christ, the messianic light. And, each Simbang Gabi  celebration takes place in a way to welcome new light of a day, as it starts before sunrise and ends around sunrise.  Interestingly, the color of celebrant priest’s vestment color is always white for Simbang Gabi, though this novena is during the season of Advent, for which purple is used as the nature of Advent preparation is penance.  White as a liturgical color symbolizes light. Thus, Simbang Gabi is about light, who is Jesus (John 8:12), the Christ, the Messiah, and the Son, who is coming, juxtaposed with the rising sun at dawn. Perhaps, there is a bit of pun to put the Son, who is coming, and the sun, which is coming on the horizon, in Simbang Gabi. That you must ask your Filipino Catholic friend.

Chanukah

Chanukah is known as a Jewish festival of light. It is because of the miracle of the menorah candle light still burning even on the 8^th day thought the oil for the candle was to last only for a day, when the Temple in Jerusalem was redeemed for purification from the hands of Greek oppressors, who defiled the Temple. The miracle menorah candle light that kept burning for 8 days, has become a symbol of God’s redemptive power, associated with salvation of the faithful.

Chanukah prayer includes:

We light these lights
For the miracles and the wonders,
For the redemption and the battles
That you made for our forefathers
In those days at this season,
Through your holy priests.

Though the light that symbolizes the presence of God, God being with us, Emmanuel, was kept for the Temple’s redemption in 165 BC, it was not the case in 70 AD, as the Temple was destroyed  completely into ruins by the Romans. Even today, the Temple is not rebuilt.

This makes some people wonder why God did not keep His light as He did back in 165 BC – why God did not make the second miracle of light for another redemption of the Temple.

But, to those who believe in  Christ’s resurrection, God did not leave the Temple destroyed but rebuilt in a very different way already with the Resurrection, as these words of Jesus are written, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19).  Thus, the menorah light that kept burning until the Temple redemption and purification upon Maccabean revolt’s victory over Seleucids Greeks, who desecrated and defiled the Temple. In 165 BC, has been burning as the light of the risen Christ, even the Temple has been destroyed physically ever since 70 AD.. 

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection”(John 11:25). This statement of Jesus explains what he meant by his words in John 2:19. Thus, the risen Christ is the New Temple, who sits on the throne of God in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21, 22), where he continues to shepherd us, through parakletos, upon his Ascension (i.e. John 10:11, 14; 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7), until the end of time (Matthew 28:20).  It means that the light of Chanukah, the menorah light that lasted for 8 days in the Temple  to signify God’s presence over God’s people’s victory of the Maccabean revolt is never lost, in spite of the Temple’s permanent destruction by the Romans in 70 AD., as the risen Christ’s presence, as the rebuilt Temple, is no longer necessarily visible and tangible.  The Chanukah light continues to burn and shine in the hearts of the believers.

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God's Salvific Light in the Rising Causes and Conditions Beyond Religious Boundaries, Accented by Immaculate Conception and Bodhi Day

The solemn feast of Immaculate Conception of Mary is about how God had chosen Mary for the Messiah  to come to this world, as said in John 1:1-14 and 3:16. For the Messiah to come as the Word in flesh (John 1:14), meaning as God’s tangible revelation, Mary, who was chosen as the physical vessel to become pregnant with the Word in flesh, has to be born immaculate, meaning, absolutely free from any stain of Original Sin. And, the Messiah that Mary was prepared to be immaculate to serve as a vessel of his advent (coming), is the light (John 8:12).

On the other hand, Bodhi Day is about historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, attaining enlightenment under the bodhi tree, awakening to the Four Noble Truths, which leads to the Eightfold Path, in response to his long quest of answers on causes of suffering (dukkha) and a way to overcome it. Thus, it is the day to commemorate Gautama Buddha’s enlightenment with the truths about suffering (the Four Noble Truths – the nature, cause, cessation of, and liberation from suffering. And, the way of liberation from suffering is the Eightfold Path.

When Gautama was born in Lumbini, Nepal about 2,500 years ago, the world did not seem to know a way to overcome suffering.  Suffering was like a business as usual. People were more toward finding ways to avoid suffering. But, such efforts did not see to get anywhere. People were living in the vicious endless cycle of Samsara, reincarnation. On the other hand, when Jesus was born from the immaculate body of Mary, the blessed virgin, about 2,000 years ago, in Bethlehem, Judah, the world was in the darkness of the deuteronomic cycle of sins, which has been spinning ever since Original Sin, because we keep sinning and sinning throughout generations.

About 500 years prior to the advent of the Messiah, Gautama went on a journey of seeking an answer to the questions on suffering: what it is, what it is caused by, what can stop, and how it can be overcome. For this, Gautama even went through ascetic monastic life. But, such a life of austerities did not bring any light to a tunnel of suffering, as he was suffering tremendously. Gautama gave up an ascetic life style and came to a village exhausted.  Seeing Gautama, seemed almost lifeless, a village woman, Sujata, offered him sweetened milk. Gautama regained liveliness and bathed himself in the Najranjara River as his strengths returned and began meditating under the bodhi tree. During the meditation, Gautama fought forces of Mara (Satan), who tried to derail him from his seeking and defile him with various temptations. Yet, Gautama overcame and attained the light of Dharma wisdom, as Jesus overcame temptations inflicted by Satan when he was about to complete his 40-days-and-night fasting in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11).

When Gautama overcome attacks by Mara (Satan), he came out of his meditation and began his ministry for overcoming the darkness of kleshas (defilement), which brings dukkha (suffering). When Jesus overcame assaults by Satan, he came out of his fasting and started his ministry for overcoming the darkness of sins. Gautama Buddha taught the way of breaking free from the vicious Samsara cycle of suffering to be delivered into Nirvana. Jesus Christ taught the way, by being the way, truth, life, and light, to shepherd us from the endless deuteronomic cycle of sin into the Kingdom of God.

In approximately 500 years of time span, both Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ came to this world of darkness of sin to show the salvific light. But, with Jesus, we have come to know that this light of salvation is God’s constant work to deliver us from the vicious endless cycle of sin into the Kingdom of God better than what Adam and Eve lost, the Garden of Eden.

Immaculate Conception of Mary had to take place so that God can ensure that the Word becomes human flesh blessishlessly, as the Messiah – so that the faithful will be delivered from the deuteronomic cycle and ushered into the Kingdom of God. 

Advent is the time to remember how our ancestors in faith, at the time of John the Baptist, prepared for the coming (advent) of the Messiah in human flesh, as a result not only of Annunciation (Luke 1:26-88, the Gospel reading for Immaculate Conception Mass and feast Mass for Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) but also Immaculate Conception.

The apparition of Mary as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe shows the salvific light of God is always casted upon us. However, for this light to work, it takes our cooperation to God’s salvific will, as exemplified by Santo Juan Diego.  The memorial feast of Santa Lucia reminds us that God’s light is never lost, even though our physical eyes are taken away or lose their visions, as in the case with Lucia. As long as we kep our faith, we can always see the salvific light of God.  Simbang Gabi  teaches us how we can prepare for the coming of Christ the light, in connection of preparing for the rising sun, in a unique Hispano-Finilipo way. And, Chanukah, to Christians, is not only remembering that God never abandons us even His Temple was physically defiled by enemies of God’s people, as the miraculous menorah flame burning symbolizes, but also the ultimate miracle menorah light is continuously burning in the hearts of the faithful, preparing for parousia (second coming ) of Christ, the light, for the judgement and deliverance into the Kingdom of God at the end of time.  And, these are all in God’s magnificent salvific plan, which kicked off, when we started our deuteronomic cycle of the darkness of sin, accented with Immaculate Conception and Christmas, during Advent season.  Though Bodhi Day seems to have irrelevant to this God’s salvific plan, who knows, God may have let Gautama become enlightened about 500 years before Jesus, the ultimate enlightened one, came. Thus, like John the Baptist shortly before the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee, Gautama Buddha also prepared a way to see the light by overcoming the darkness of sin (kleshas), though he did not mention God. If you study Buddhism – the teaching of Gautama Buddha, you sure notice how Buddha’s teaching makes sense in Christ’s teaching  as the way into the Kingdom of God.

Immaculate Conception, Bodhi Day, Nuestra Senor de Guadalupe, Santa Lucia, Simbang Gabi, and Chanukah are all connected through the salvific light of God, as in the rising causes and conditions, , crossing three religious traditions: Catholicism, Buddhism, and Judaism.  And, December 8, the day for both Immaculate Conception and Bodhi Day highlight this truth veiled in mystery. 

Immaculate Conception in the Advent Context

Immaculate Conception is a clear sign of God’s salvific plan at work during the time of darkness of absence of God’s messenger in Judea. This dark and empty era lasted for about 400 years between the presence of the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, and the advent of the Messiah on earth, Jesus, about 2, 000 years ago – except for a brief period of the Maccabean victory, symbolized with the menorah light of Chanukah, about 160 years before the coming of Jesus.

To prepare for the advent (coming) of the Messiah on earth in a human figure, God had to make certain preparation. And, Immaculate Conception of Mary was the first major step that God took in order to bring the Messiah in human flesh as blemishless sacrificial offering  in light of Yom Kippur. But, in order to make it the ultimate Yom Kippur to complete this sin offering sacrificial ritual once for all. It was the meaning of Good Friday. For the Messiah to be offered for our sins to be blemishless (Leviticus 17:1), he must be born without any influence of Original Sin, though he is to be born and to come into a form of human flesh (John 1:14). For this condition, the woman, who is chosen to make the Word becomes human flesh (John 1:14) must be completely free from any stein of Original Sin. Thus, Mary was already chosen by God, before Annunciation and even before her birth, to be conceived immaculately in Anna’s womb, though Anna and her husband, Joachim, had intercourse to bring Mary to this world. 

Theologically, human intercourse is considered as an act of bearing a stain of Original Sin, as Adam and Eve had their children, Cain and Abel, after they committed Original Sin and were evicted from Eden (Genesis 3:1-4:2).  Because of this, God had to take an action to keep Mary’s conception, which resulted from a human intercourse, free from any influence of Original Sin. And, this is Immaculate Conception, enabling Mary to be the very one to conceive Jesus in her womb, making the Word become flesh in her womb, and give virgin birth to the Son, Jesus, as the Messiah to suffer and to be sacrificed (Isaiah 52-53).

Though the sacrificial aspect of the Messiah invokes a dark impression, this is a critically important part of God’s salvific plan to bring His light to this world of darkness of perpetual sins, which was appeared as if God were absent from.  But, it is in this darkness of sin, which separates us from God, God forces Himself to come to us as the light of salvific hope. It is because God’s ultimate mission is to bring every faithful person into the Kingdom of God, as envisioned in the last three chapters of Revelation.

Because Mary was immaculately conceived, Mary is full of grace, meaning that she was absolutely free from stain of Original Sin, in spite of her parents, Anna and Joachim, had an intercourse, as Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain, who killed his brother, Abel, and Abel, who was killed by his brother, Cain.  Cain’s murder of his brother, Abel, has a symbolic meaning of how steins of Original Sin can be transmitted intergenerationally through intercourse. However, Immaculate Conception of Mary makes a shining exception so that Mary becomes able to conceive Jesus from the Holy Spirit that God impregnates her with the Son, Jesus, the sacrificial Messiah without any influence of Original Sin, even though he has to come in human flesh.

In other words, Immaculate Conception of Mary is to endure that Jesus can come into this world in human flesh without any blemish from stains of Original Sin.  After all, it is to ensure that the light of God in Christ (John 8:12) comes in the purest form, as white light.

That is why the liturgical color of Immaculate Conception Mass is white.

In celebrating Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary, we know that we are preparing for the coming (advent) of the purest light, the blemishless sacrificial Messiah, to shepherd us to the Kingdom of God.

In this Advent, let’s praise the Lord and give thanks to God for this wonderful work for our salvation! Halleluiah!! Also, we praise our theolokos and our spiritual mother, Mary!

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. ....

Hail, Mary! Full of grace, as you were conceived Immaculate, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou, amongst women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, the Messiah and the light!! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen! 

Narcissism and Free Will is a Deadly Combination – A Lesson from Comparing and Contrasting the Nathan’s Parable to David (2 Samuel 12:1-7) and Jesus’ Parable to the Religious Leaders (Matthew 21:33-46)

Jesus was sent to this world to covert our hearts and minds from a life of sin to a life in God. God the Father sent His only begotten Son to this world for this purpose, because God so loved the world that we might not perish and might have eternal life as we believe in him (John 3:16). God did this because He really loves us, regardless of our sinfulness, and wants us to come to Him. And the only way to God the Father, whose desire is to have us closer to Him, is through the Son (John 12:44; 13:20; 14:6), as our Good Shepherd to follow (John 10:11,14). But, the wickedness of the leaders of the God’s house of prayer killed the Son that the Father in heaven sent, by conspiring the Roman civil authority to crucify him.

Before Jesus, God sent various prophets to turn our sinful hearts back to God. However, these prophets were persecuted (Matthew 23:24). Jesus was like a stone that builders rejected and cast out (Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:22). But, the Father, who sent the Son, Jesus, who became the rejected stone, will make him a cornerstone (Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:23), as it is the Father, who raised the Son from his death on the third day.

The parable of the tenant vineyard worker (Matthew 21:33-46), in conjunction with Isaiah 5:1-7, reflects this progression of unrepentant sinfulness and its consequence.

Jesus told this parable specifically to the hypocrite religious leaders of the time, who turned the Temple, the God’s house of prayer, on earth, into the house of thieves (Matthew 21:13) to point out their sinfulness, by juxtaposing them to the tenant vineyard workers, who hijacked the vineyard and stole the inheritance of the vineyard owner’s son, upon killing all of the vineyard owner’s servants and his son.

Through parables spoken by prophets and Jesus, God teaches us a lesson of acknowledging our own sinfulness and need of repentance to reconcile with him.  Some learn the lesson and turn their sinful hearts and minds from sin and back to God. But, others refuse to convert and choose to remain in sin.

In this regard, this is a striking contrast between Jesus’ parable of the tenant vineyard workers to the hypocrite religious leaders (Matthew 21:33-46) and prophet Nathan’s parable of the rich man and the poor man’s ewe lamb to David (2 Samuel 12:1-13).

Nathan was a prophet to David, the King of Israel, offering spiritual advice to him as God commanded.

David humbly listened to and obeyed the word of God, as spoken to him by Nathan (2 Samuel 12:7). However, once experiencing sensual temptation upon seeing a bathing scene of Bathsheba, a beautiful wife of Uriah, a David’s royal guard, David was succumbed into double mortal sins:  conspiring of murder and adultery (2 Samuel 11).

The Nathan’s parable comes to David to point out David’s sinfulness.

In response to David’s sinful acts of stealing Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba, by conspiring to have Uriah killed, God spoke to her through Prophet Nathan, in the parable of the rich man and the poor man’s ewe lamb.  In this parable, the rich man, who had a great flocks and herds, took the poor man’s only ewe lamb and slaughtered to serve for his guest’s dinner.  The poor man basically lost all he had, as he loved his only ewe lamb so much and took a great care of her. To this parable, David became very angry at the rich man and uttered that the rich man should to be put to death, while the poor man should be compensated four-fold for his loss. David was so angry because the rich man had no regard for the poor man.

Obviously, David grew so indignant out of his compassion for the poor man. This shows that David was a man of kind heart. However, until Nathan reminded David that the man he became angry at for his ruthless and pitiless act was a metaphoric projection of David himself for arranging to have Uriah killed in order to have Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, as his own.

David could have killed Nathan, if he were a narcissistic man, as pointing out his sins could have irritated him. However, David humbled himself and acknowledged his great sins and repented (2 Samuel 13:13), and this is also reflected in Psalm 51, which David wrote. 

David’s humble response and repentance in response to the Nathan’s parable (2 Samuel 12:1-13) draws sharp contrast with the hypocrite religious leaders’ response to the Jesus’ parable (Matthew 21:33-46).

In the parable of the tenant vineyard workers (Matthew 21:33-40), Jesus juxtaposed the sins of the religious leaders to the wickedness of the tenant vineyard worker in the parable and projected this back to them.

As these leaders corrupted the Temple by their own narcissistic ambitions, turning the God’s sacred house of prayer into a den of thieves (Matthew 21:12-13), the tenant vineyard workers turned a fertile vineyard into a field of abomination (Matthew 21:33-39). The religious leaders were entrusted by God to take a good care of the Temple as the God’s sacred house of prayer. However, instead of doing the will of God to take care of the Temple, these hypocrite leaders abused their free will and run amok with the Temple as a den of thieves.

David also forgot about the will of God when he was seduced by the bathing scene of Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:2-5). It was when he was abusing his free will without the consideration for the will of God, carried by a powerful sensual temptation.  The hypocrite religious leaders were also living only with their free will, ignoring the will of God, to hijack the Temple to do whatever they willed to do.

Though both of them committed serious sins, the difference between David and the hypocrite religious leaders is that former repented but the latter refused to repent, when they were given opportunities to turn their hearts and minds from sins to God through the parables.

Like David, even a humble person can lose our sight on God and the will of God when there is a certain temptation and slip into an abuse of free will. When we abuse the God-given gift of free will, we do whatever we will, without any regard to the will of God, the will of the very one who gave us the free will. Psychologically, narcissists tend to practice the abuse of free will in their own relentless pursuit of the objects of what they will.

It was grace of God that came to David as the parable that Nathan spoke. The words in the parable were of God to give David a chance to use free will to wake up to his own sinfulness and repent. And David did so and was forgiven by God (2 Samuel 12:13).

On the other hand, the hypocrite religious leaders used free will not to repent, even though they realized that Jesus’ parable was sharply pointing their sinfulness. Instead of acknowledging their sinfulness and repenting, they continued to abuse free will to decide to silence him (Matthew 21:46).

It was the narcissism of them that made the hypocrite religious leaders refuse to repent. Rather, they decided to arrest Jesus and kill him – just as metaphorically said in the Jesus’ parable, as the wicked tenant vineyard workers not only killed the landowners’ servants but also the very son of him and stoke his inheritance. So, Jesus became the stone that the builders rejected (Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:22).

Because David was not narcissistic, all he needed was God’s grace through the parable to let him turn free will to be used for the will of God.

Psychological studies, such as Williams & Leopendorf (1990), Kenis & Sun (1994),  and Paulhus & Williams (2002), indicate that narcissism makes it difficult to have remorse. For us to repent, we must have remorse, as repentance is contingent upon remorse.

In response to grace of God, through the teaching message of the parables, David felt remorse over his sins and repented, while the hypocrite religious leaders did not but decided to attack the agent of the grace. This comparison of David and the hypocrite religious leaders indicates that narcissism, which is a stumbling block of remorse, impairs our abilities to repent and reconcile. As the above-cited studies indicate, narcissism is what let us continue to abuse free wills until we hijack what God has leased us and destroy His servants and Son, as the wicked tenant vineyard workers did with the vineyard and the landowner – as the hypocrite religious leaders did with the God’s sacred house of prayer and His son, Jesus Christ.

But, as God has turned the rejected stone into the cornerstone (Matthew 21:42, Psalm 118:22-23), God already raised the Son, who was killed by the devil of the narcissism of the hypocrite religious leaders, from the dead. Though the world that God so loved and sent His only Son (John 3:16) has been plagued by the evil of our narcissism, especially among the ministers of the Church, God will renew the world, as prophesized in the Book of Revelation. In this cleansing process toward the end of time, those who refuse to overcome their narcissism and refuse to repent will face due judgement. God will take away what they have hijacked and clung to, as also prophesized in Isaiah 5:1-7.

A lesson from the comparison of the above two parables is that narcissism and free will make a deadly combination, as it can disable us to have remorse over our own sinfulness and repent. As we refuse to repent but continue to sin, pursuing objects of what our free will dictates without any regard to God and His will, we will eventually lose everything – even salvation at the end.

As we use God-given free will to fight our narcissistic disposition, we can keep ourselves from becoming narcissistic. Therefore, using the free will to overcome our narcissistic tendency is a necessary condition to our salvation. For this, as David did for his repentance, we need God’s grace. In order to be merited by God’s grace, we must turn our hearts and mind to the Word of God, which may come in parables (Psalm 78:2).  

The Word of God, especially in the parable spoken by God’s servants, prophets, and His Son, Jesus, are vehicles of God’s saving grace to help us stay on the right course so that we can use free will to do the will of God. And this is how we journey into salvation. Even we stumbled by temptations, God still gives a chance with parables, as He did to David. But, it is ultimately up to us in deciding what to do with free will: to remorse and repent or not to do so. 

For God’s grace to make its intended effect, it needs our free will to turn to God. Psychologically, our battle with Satan is our war against narcissistic disposition, which is what we gained upon the very first abuse of free will, committed by Adam and Eve.

Kernis, M. H. & Sun, C. (1994).  Narcissism and reactions to interpersonal feedback,   Journal of Research in Personality, 28(1), 4-13

Paulhus, D. L. & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556-563

Williams, N. & Lependorf, S. (1990).  Narcissistic pathology of everyday life: the Denial of remorse and gratitude, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 26(3), 430-451

We are Loyal Trustworthy Workers of God’s Vineyard – A Lesson from Three Vineyard-Related Parables

In the northern hemisphere, this is the harvest season for grapes.  In the Middle West and East Coast regions of the United States, this is when we enjoy harvesting concord grapes.

Interestingly, as to reflect the grape harvest season, for the last 3 Sundays (25^th Sunday, 26^th Sunday, and 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A), Gospel readings have a theme of vineyard. These Gospel readings are: Mathew 20:1-16 (25^th Sun), 21:28-32 (26^th Sun), 21:33-43 (27^th Sun). 

The parable in Matthew 20:1-16 is bout vineyard workers complaining about their wages to the vineyard owner.  The vineyard workers who started working at the crack of dawn felt unfair, when they found out that the vineyard owner paid the same wage to those who came to work in late hours and did less work.  But, the vineyard owner insisted that he was not treating his workers unfairly as he sure paid what he agreed to pay with each of his workers.  The vineyard owner also told these complaining workers to leave his vineyard with what they received.

In this parable, God is the vineyard owner, and we are the vineyard workers.  The vineyard is the place that God provides for us to be and act as who we are and are to become in the eyes of God.  The vineyard owner went outside the vineyard to invite those who have no jobs to work in his vineyard. It means that God reaches out to those who are not treated for their self-worth by the place where they are. Then, God invites them into His domain so that their lives will have meaning and purpose by working in God’s “vineyard”.

 In Matthew 21:28-32, one son did not say “yes” but actually changed his mind and went out to work in the vineyard, while the other son said “yes” but never did the work, when their father asked them to work in the vineyard.

This parable reminds us of the importance of conversion, an act of turning our minds and hearts from a life of sin to a new life of doing the work for God.  In this parable, doing the work for God is juxtaposed to working in the vineyard.

While some people filling the pews every Sunday only live with empty “pious platitude”, there are people who are considered as outsiders by these pious platitude church goers, actually doing the work for God.  To point out the hypocrisy of those only live with empty “pious platitude”, Jesus referred the son who did not say “yes” to his father but actually did the work to tax collectors and prostitutes, who converted from their former lives of sin to do the will of God.  Thus, vineyard is where we do the will of God, upon our conversion – turning our lives from sin, Satan’s lure, to God.

The last of these three vineyard-related parables, Matthew 21:33-43, is the parable of the tenant vineyard workers, who hijacked the vineyard, abusing the trust that the vineyard owner put on them.  The vineyard owner worked hard to set up a nice vineyard with great care and leased it to his tenant workers.  These workers are to produce good fruits by the harvest season. However, when harvest time nears, instead of showing the progress of their vineyard work to the vineyard owner’s servants, they beat and killed these servants.  Finally, when the vineyard owner sent his own son to the vineyard, the tenant workers threw him out of the vineyard, killed him and stole his inheritance.

In this last vineyard-related parable, God is the vineyard owner, who set the vineyard up to lease.  The tenant workers in the vineyard are the hypocrite religious leaders at the time of Jesus. They are the ones who turned the Temple, the house of God, the house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7), into a den of thieves (Jeremiah 7:11), as Jesus confronted them when he cleansed corrupted Temple (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48). In other words, what Jeremiah 7 describes as false religious teachers, are projected into the hypocrite religious leaders who manage the Temple and deconsecrated this holy house of prayer. And, they are further juxtaposed to these tenant vineyard workers in the parable of Matthew 21:33-43.

The vineyard is the world that God set up for us to bear fruits.  We are not only called to work in His vineyard to bear its fruits but also to be judged by the fruits we produce (Matthew 7:19-21), as Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount, echoing John the Baptist’s challenge to the hypocrites in Matthew 3:10. What was a tree that cannot bear good fruits in Matthew 3:10 and Matthew 7:19-21 is now projected into the desecrated vineyard hijacked by corrupt tenant workers in Matthew 21:33-42. Thus, there is a progressive thematic development leading to this vineyard-related parable in the Matthew’s Gospel to remind us how important it is for us to be faithful to God, not abusing His trust in us, and to bear abundant fruits in His vineyard. Not abusing God’s trust in us means not abusing God’s gift of free will.

Originally, vineyard is a metaphor of Israel, the nation of the first chosen people in the Old Testament, as in the first reading for the 27^th Sunday, Isaiah 5:1-7, describes.  However, because of Isaiah’s prophesy of salvation of the world (i.e. Isaiah 45:22, 52:10, 15,  56:7, 60:3, 66:18) and elsewhere in the Old Testament prophecies (i.e.  Zechariah 9:10) and Psalm (i.e. Psalm 22:27-28, 72:8-11), on the universality of salvation, the salvific dominion of God is applied not just the nation of the first chosen, Israel, but extended to all nations on earth. This extensive dominion of God’s salvation is projected into the vineyard metaphor throughout these parables read in these three Sundays:  Mathew 20:1-16 (25^th Sun), 21:28-32 (26^th Sun), 21:33-43 (27^th Sun).  However, Matthew 21:33-43 indicates that unrepentant sinfulness, as in the rebellious tenant workers who hijacked the vineyard, has turned the salvific world into desolation, filled with sins of greed and so forth, in a similar ways the Temple had turned from the God’s sacred house of prayer into a desecrated den of robbers.

The first reading for the 27^th Sunday, Isaiah 5:1-7, is a prophetic prototype of the 27^th Sunday’s Gospel reading, Matthew 21:33-43, to prophesize a possible consequence of not just unrepentant sins but rather progressively escalating sins.

The progressive nature of unrepentant sins begins with our selfishness – our attachment to “our will”. -This makes it difficult for us to accept the will of God, which is emphasized in the vineyard-related parable for the 26^th Sunday Gospel, Matthew 21:28-32. This selfishness, our clinging to our own will, a misuse of God-given free will, makes us complain like the vineyard workers in the 25^th Sunday Gospel reading, Matthew 20:1-16. However, as indicated in the 26^th Sunday Gospel reading, Matthew 21:28-32, like the son, who first did not say “yes” to his father to work in the vineyard but changed his mind and actually worked, we are given a chance to turn our hearts and mind from a life of sin – a life of abusing free will -  to a life to do the will of God, by accepting the will of God with the gift of free will that we have. But, if we fail to convert our life from a life of abusing free will – a life of sin – to accept and do the will of God, then, we will be like the rebellious tenant vineyard workers, who killed not only the vineyard owner’s servants but also his son, and stole his inheritance, as described in the 27^th Sunday Gospel parable, Matthew 21:33-43.

It is the harvest time for concord grapes in North America. We will rejoice as we see abundant fruits in the vineyard at this time of the year. 

It is also when the end of the liturgical year draws near. It means that Gospel readings are more geared to draw our attention to the end of time to prepare for the coming of Christ the King.  We start this season of our eschatological preparation with these three vineyard-related parables from Matthew’s Gospel this liturgical year (Year A).

We must ask now, “Are we still complaining about the term we agree with God, because we have not yet overcome our selfishness?”, “Are we still living a life of free will without the regard to the will of God?”, “Have we turned our hearts and minds to do the will of God?”, or “Are we becoming like the tenant vineyard workers, who hijacked the vineyard and stole the vineyard owner’s son’s inheritance, because we refuse to convert our hearts and minds to the will of God but continue to abuse free will?”

Both Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-43 also remind us that God will impose a judgment upon those who remain unrepentant and refuse to convert.

God will take the vineyard away from those who hijacked and stole the inheritance of the vineyard owner’s son.  It means that the Kingdom of Heaven, the domain of God’s salvation, will be taken away from such unrepentant progressive sinners at the time of the final judgment. Their names will not be found in the Book of Life.

Though it is already the harvest time for concord grape.  However, the eschatological harvest time in God’s vineyard has not yet come. It means that we still have time to become loyal vineyard workers, worthy of His trust, to our vineyard owner, who generously provides us with the place and opportunity to do meaningful work for the will of God.  As we turn ourselves from a life of sin, a life of abusing free will, to a life to do the will of God in the God’s vineyard, we will turn the vineyard abundantly fruitful field of harvest, when Christ, the Son, returns.