Theology of Internet

In his pastoral letter on 2013 World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI identifies social networks as the new “agora” and therefore new spaces for evangelization[1]. Reflecting on this letter, Bishop Anthony Fisher says that Pope discovers a new continent called “digital environment”. He commented on his Facebook page:

B16 just called social media "new spaces for evangelisation" and the digital environment "a ‘continent’ where the Church must be present and where believers must share with others the deepest source of their joy and hope, Jesus Christ.[2]"  

The Internet is the landscape of this new continent; the digital networks are its super highways and the digital content, its resources. Netizens are its citizens and its new “agoras” – the social networks – have turned in to super cities or nations. Facebook had 1.06 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of December 31, 2012[3] making it the 3^rd largest nation on earth after China and India, and holds more information about its netizens than any nation state about its citizens. This new world is definitely a continent.

 

Whenever we discovered a continent in the past, the Church always sent its missionaries. The mission of those missionaries was to venture into those unseen lands to risk formidable challenges to spread the good news of Jesus, with great courage and faith. This will be true to this newly “discovered” continent of “digital environment”. There is a need for missionaries and missionary expeditions into this new continent.

What should be the style of mission work in this new landscape? We can only look up to Jesus, as we always do, in search of an answer. So the question can be rephrased as “What would Jesus do in this new holy land? ” 

He would have gone to Capernaum. Capernaum was the “agora”, Jesus chose to be in. There was a special significance and intent in choosing Capernaum as the major field of Jesus’ public ministry where he spent at least 18 months – half of his public ministry after his expulsion from his hometown - Nazerath. It was almost premeditated, and of course according to the Divine plan. It was THE major connecting town between Galilee and Jerusalem - the Jericho Route which the Jews preferred to avoid traveling through Samaria. Every person who travels between Galilee and Jerusalem had to touch this town.  It had the largest synagogue in the region and a Roman military post. Jesus chose to heal the servant of the synagogue official and the daughter of the centurion at the military post. He chose to stay at one of the largest houses in that vibrant city – of that of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus would have imagined that the connectivity of Capernaum will simply ensure the proliferation of His good news to reach up to the ends of the world - to Jerusalem, to Rome and beyond. The important thing is to be at the crossroads and to saw the good news, just like the sawer sawing the mustard seed leaving the Divine Providence to do the nurturing (Mt 13/31-32).

Jesus’ Capernaum strategy shall be the style of missionaries into this new networked continent of digital environment. The important thing is to be there at the crossroads, doing the right things, influencing its immediate and accessible surroundings. The rest will be taken care of by the Divine Providence, as happened throughout the history in commissioning new missions for every newly “discovered” continents and islands.

This could also be the new Areopagy of St Paul, where we need to re-interpret the “Unknown Gods” remain latent in the information explosion and to manifest the real goodness to the netizens of this continent. As always in the past, the cloud of Elijah – Mother Mary - shall guide our ways to manoeuvre carefully through these uncharted territories to produce a fertile land for the kingdom of God.  

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[1] Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on 2013 World Communications Day (May 12) http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20130124_47th-world-communications-day_en.html

[2] Bishop Anthony Fisher (Parramatta Diocese, Sydney, Australia) on his Facebook wall on 25^th January.

[3] CNET, 2012, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57566550-93/facebook-by-the-numbers-1.06-billion-monthly-active-users/

PS: This is the first draft attempt, in producing a fully fledged "Theology of Internet" and related "Theology of Social Networking" and "Theology of Computing"

Jaison Mulerikkal CMI
February 2013

Lawrence B. Bean RIP

Lawrence B. Bean
(1929 - 2013)

Lawrence B. Bean (Larry) who gifted 238 acres of land to the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate to start the Carmel Spirituality Centre at Liberty, Tennessee, USA  died on January 21, 2013 at the age of 83 at DeKalb Community Hospital in Smithville. According to his wishes, his body was cremated. A memorial Mass was celebrated by the director of the Centre Fr. Thomas Kalam, CMI on Wednesday, January 30, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Lebanon, TN. The CMI priests of the Diocese of Nashville along with others concelebrated.  His relatives and friends were present on the occasion.

 Larry had been ill for some time and was bedridden, essentially, for more than a year (since he broke his left hip on October 12, 2011). He remained at home; Bonnie, his wife, and co-founder of the Carmel Centre, was his caregiver. Up until the end, arrangements were made for nurses to visit him at home twice a week, and a physical therapist also came twice a week – not on the same days as the nurses. He was on oxygen fulltime. He was unable to stand up at all for the last week while at home; he was barely able to stand before that. He was taken to the hospital by an  an ambulance on Sunday night, January 13, when he became very ill at home. They admitted him, and he expired just over a week later. He had that bad MRSA pneumonia, dehydration and other things going on, which overwhelmed him. He put up a very good fight for a such a long time.

 He was born in Washington, DC on November 11, 1929. His parents were the late Edwin Temple Bean, Sr. and Mary (a’Becket) Bean. He was also preceded in death by a sister, Mary Osborne. Survivors include his wife, Bonnie (Axley) Bean of Liberty; son, Lawrence B. Bean, Jr. (“Skip”) and wife Jill of Penobscot, ME; daughters, Cynthia Lee Bailey of Rochester, NY, and Pamela (husband Christopher Panfil) of Angola, NY; step-son, Christopher Brunetto of Seminole, FL; step-daughter, Angeline Brunetto Sprague, M.D. and husband Timothy Sprague of Christiana, TN; brothers, Edwin Temple Bean, Jr. (wife Susan) of Buffalo, NY, and Neil Bean (wife Patricia) of Wilmington, NC. He had five grandchildren: Katherine Lee Bailey, Silas Jude Panfil, Becket Alexander Panfil, Kendall Faith Sprague and Ethan Ray Sprague.

 Mr. Bean grew up as a young man in East Aurora, NY. He was a veteran of the U. S. Naval ROTC program while at Clarkson College, NY, where he obtained a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering. He was President of Conax Florida Corporation of St. Petersburg, FL, which produces life support systems for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Mr. Bean was an avid reader and had worked as a Librarian in the Dowelltown and Liberty Library for 15 years. He was a member of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Lebanon, TN.

 Larry who was born Episcopalian became a Catholic mainly inspired by his fevent Catholic wife Bonnie  and the good CMI priests they met, starting with Fr. Peter Akkapadickal, CMI.  It was Father Cletus Plackal, CMI, who received him to the Catholic Church.  The spiritual friendship between  Larry and Bonnie and the early CMI's grew stronger and deeper.  Larry and Bonnie were present at Kottayam for the beatification of Blessed Chavara.  Impressed by the life of the CMI's they met, Larry and Bonnie decided to donate all they had to our Congregation to start a spirituality centre, which would impart the type of spirituality they were privileged to experience from them.

 They lived in a cottage on the Carmel Centre property and took care of the running and maintenance of the property, which Bonnie continues to do. According to the agreement they had with the CMI Congregation, we have the obligation to celebrate a Gregorian Mass for Larry.

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February 1, 2013

Dear Rev. Fathers and My Dear Brothers,

Larry Bean, one of our great benefactors in the United States, passed away on January 21, 2013. Kindly find below a detailed obituary prepared by Fr. Thomas, Kalam, the director of our Centre at Liberty  in Tennesee. Larry was a close friend of our Congregation and he worked tirelessly with Bonnie to run our Centre at Liberty which they donated to us many years ago. I take this opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude the great committed services of Larry for our Congregation. Let us remember to keep Larry in our daily prayers. I have known Larry for many years and I will miss his beautiful smile and loving friendship. May he rest in peace.

Rev. Fr. Jose Panthaplamthottiyil CMI
CMI Prior General
Prior General's House,
Chavara Hills, Post Box No: 3105,
Kakkanad, Kochi,
Kerala 682 030, India

The Lucky Country

Ours is a lucky country. It is true in many ways, as we sing in our national anthem:

We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare

This Australia Day weekend is a good time to thank God for all the blessings He has showered upon us during all these years “beneath our radiant Southern Cross”. It starts with the story of our first people, their tenacity and their generosity. We acknowledge them with great respect. It’s also the story of those who came to this land to build it to what it looks like today – a land of opportunities and well being. Let’s put a great tribute to their industrious efforts and to the sacrifice of those who tried to defend it and its values.

It is also a good time reflect on the deep rooted values on which our society is built on, and still stands firmly. Those are the Biblical values of love, kindness, forgiveness, equality and social justice. These values remind us of the need to have active reconciliation and genuine action to bridge the gaps that taint our society in many ways.

Let this day also reminds us to ensure a better place for our children, who can enjoy their freedom, to practise what they believe, and to prosper in families. Let us also ensure a humane welcoming attitude to those who come our shores with great hope and resolve to share our riches with the less privileged.

Happy Australia Day!

Fr Jaison Mulerikkal CMI

PS: Published in the Corpus Christi parish bulletin, ACT on Australia Day weekend 2013

Life of Jai - A Tale of Two Mugs

It's the tale of two mugs, from the life of an ordinary Indian boy who swam to distant lands he never knew!

The first one - the orange mug - reads "Delectable Caterer"! It was presented to me by the lovely ladies - Betty, one of them, if I remember correctly - at the kitchen of GNH (Greensborough Nursing Home), an old age home near Bundoora, VIC.

I treasure it as one of my precious gifts. On the last day of my work as a kitchen-hand there, they surprised me with this mug and a song - "He's a jolly good fellow..". I worked there as a kitchen-hand for an year and a half, because I couldn't find a job as a priest in Melbourne, but still had to pay my enormous international student fees at the university. I was doing three jobs at the same time sometime while I was doing my masters in IT at RMIT. One job at the nursing home as a kitchen-hand, one at a religious shop as a teller and third as a tutor at the university. That was a great adventure and a huge lesson in humility.  I cannot forget the support I received from CMI congregation, back in Kochi and from the kind Carmelites (O Carm) in Melbourne, who allowed me to stay with them. Also grateful to people like Thomas John, Ann De Costella (of Southern Cross Church Supplies- the mother Canberra's own legendary athlete Deeks!) and my good old friend Manoj Antony who in the very first place lured me to Melbourne, to start this adventure!

The second one - the white mug - reads "Australian National University". The day I submitted the hard-copy of my PhD thesis at the university's exams office, the lady asked me "pen or a mug?". It's a tradition to present the successful candidate with either of them and I didn't have to think twice to answer - "A mug, please" - because I knew the value of a mug.

It was an amazing run. The minor thesis I did at RMIT fetch me two technical papers and I was offered PhD scholarships at RMIT and ANU. It was hard for me to leave Melbourne, but was happy to do research  in supercomputing at one of the best 20 universities in the world. The best thing about my research - it was to help scientists to do their work much faster and easier, the best a Catholic priest can offer to the world. Its faith that fosters science and there's no Two, only One - Advaitha. I had my own struggles - after an year and a half into my PhD, I came to realize that the software I was working was not suitable for the purpose. I literally had to re-engineer it from scratch - nearly 20,000 lines of codes. Holy Code! Then the emergence of Cloud Computing and successfully convincing my supervisor to change the course of my research to accommodate this new technology into my work! And now, here I am, with the two mugs! The PhD is through with all the three examiners evaluating it positively, almost unconditionally. What a run. And in this tale of providence, there emerges God - "Life of Jai".

An Epiphany of Meaning in the Holy Lands

I have travelled a bit over recent years, thanks to the international technical conferences that I had to attend as part of my PhD work and supported by generous ANU funding. I was impressed by history-laden Europe, where every alley and stone has a tale to tell of centuries old, the wonder of modernity in the US and Canada, the beautiful blend of the new and the ancient in the streets of China, and the natural beauty of “God’s own country” – Kerala (my home state!), where we can breathe God in the air. But nothing has left the lasting impression that my recent visit to the Holy Lands has! The Bible came to life as I walked the walk Jesus and his disciples did in those lands.

After celebrating the first anniversary Mass for my brother at home in September, I started a Holy Land pilgrimage. I was in a group of 50 and took my mum with me. We flew from Kochi to Amman, the capital of Jordan. From Jordan, we entered Israel, then later from Israel to Egypt - all by road. No flights to and from Israel can fly over Muslim countries which surround by it. That is one of the reasons we enter through Jordan and exit via Egypt – but they all are part of Holy Lands of the Bible.

The Moses Moment

In Jordan we saw Mount Nebo, where Moses watched the Promised Land, which he would never enter. It is a stunning landscape, claimed to be the deepest valley in the world, where we could literally look to the horizon to see the Promised Land (present day Israel). That was the “Moses moment” for me where I felt how Moses felt thousands of years back.

Bit of Biblical Geography

To understand the Israel of Jesus’ times we need to be aware that there were three major regions then – Galilee in the north, Samaria in the middle and Judea to the south. Galilee is the place surrounding Lake Galilee (Lake Tiberius and the sea of Galilee are all the same), where Jesus spent most of his time.  Nearby are Nazareth, Cana, Magdala, Mount Tabor and Capernaum, etc. Jerusalem is in Judea, which is 164 km from Nazareth.  Bethlehem and Jericho are within 20-25 km of Jerusalem. It is amazing to learn that Jesus did this walk of 160 plus kilometers between Galilee and Jerusalem three times during his three-year public ministry with his group of friends, called apostles. Jesus deliberately developed his ministry around these three great walks. Samaria was the place of gentiles. Most Jews avoided travelling through this part because they did not want to mingle with gentiles, but Jesus did, which was revolutionary. That’s why we have the Bible story of the Samaritan women.

A Great Travelling (Holy) Family

It was not only Jesus, but the Holy Family were also great travellers. The parental houses of Joseph and Mary are near Jerusalem. But they settled in Nazareth in Galilee – perhaps for work. After Annunciation, we see Mary visiting Elizabeth in a mountain village, Ein Karen, a picturesque village near Jerusalem. Then Mary goes back to Nazareth. Then she returns to Bethlehem for the census, which is few kilometres away from Jerusalem. It’s lot of travelling for Mary. The only means of transport she could afford was a donkey! It doesn’t end there as the Holy Family walks to Egypt, after Mary gave birth to Jesus, through the Sinai desert, which would be somewhere between 200 to 300 kilometres, and returning to Nazareth after the death of Herod.

A typical Holy Land Surprise – Capernaum

One of the great surprises was the city of Capernaum, a city near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, in Jesus’ time. We would not have gone to that place unless our guide, ‘Moses’, insisted. This is the city Jesus lived in for almost 18 months during his public ministry – that is around half of his public life. When we arrived we understood why Jesus chose to live in that city. Readers may recall that Jesus was expelled from his hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4) when he started his public life by saying that the Scripture was fulfilled in Him. He moved to Capernaum. It was a major city from where the road to Jerusalem began from Galilee. That meant that almost all the people from Galilee had to go through this town for their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem and all merchants and other travellers from Jerusalem to the rest of Galilee also passed through this city. There was not a better-connected place than Capernaum in Galilee to spread the new message of the gospel for Jesus. Moreover, Jesus selected his first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James and John from this little town and found a home to hang around in Peter’s mother-in-law’s house.  The house allegedly is still there in Capernaum.  The city had the most prominent synagogue in the region and also a Roman military outpost. The remains of the synagogue, which was built over the foundations of the old one in the 4^th century AD, is still there.

Jesus tried his level best to pursue its inhabitants to convince them of his divinity. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, who was a leader at the Synagogue, and cured a servant of a centurion who was stationed at the Roman post there. Also, he healed Peter’s mother in law at her house and cured the paralysed man who was brought in through the roof of the same house. It all came to life for me when we were there.  We could feel how naturally these things would have happened during Jesus’ time, but of course with great disbelief and admiration from Capernaum’s residents. But interestingly Jesus curses Capernaum towards the end of his life by saying that if he had done the same to them as in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented more (Luke 10).  Sodom and Gomorrah are on the other side of Jerusalem, on the way to Mount Sinai along the Dead Sea. It was amazing how Jesus related these stories, which would have been part of the folklore of Jews, even in Galilee, at that time.

A lot more

A lot more things would bring the Bible to life in the Holy Lands during the remainder of the trip, for example, the feeling the little cloud of prophet Elijah coming from the sea (1 King 18) as we look from Mount Carmel to the sea in Haifa, Bethlehem and Calvary, the passion tracks from Gethsemane to the very city of Jerusalem and the exodus trail from Egypt through mount Sinai. All these experiences bring new meaning to what we read and contemplate in the Bible. 

* To be published in the "Parish Magazine", Corpus Christi Parish.
* Thanks to Robbie Costmeyer for the proof-reading.

New Evangelization in the Parishes

Last Sunday marked the conclusion of the 13th Ordinary Synod of Bishops on “the New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” in Rome. In his final address Pope Benedict noted “it (new evangelization) applies, in the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry… to inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in Community worship and gather on the Lord's day to be nourished by His Word and the Bread of Life eternal.” It can be read as an invitation to transform our parish activities, especially the parish life around Sunday observance as instruments for the new evangelization. The list of 58 prepositions suggested by the Synod to the Holy Father gives us some directions for the two-fold New Evangelization strategy of kerygma and catechism. Kerygma means the initial proclamation of the good news and catechism refers to the deepening of that experience in faith. Traditionally, parishes tend to be strong on catechetical efforts. So, the challenge of New Evangelization is to open new frontiers in Kerygmatic proclamation of Jesus along with renewed catechetical efforts. Synod suggests every parish to have a “Pastoral Plan of Initial Proclamation” that “animate its members to become agents of the New Evangelization, witnessing through both their words and their lives” as a first step towards becoming a kerygmatic parish (Propositions 9 & 44). Meaningful celebration of the Liturgy, sacrament of reconciliation, family visits, integrating migrants to parish community, parish missions, parish renewal programs and parish retreats are some other instruments proposed by the Synod (Propositions 21, 26 & 44). Let this Year of Faith help transform us into an evangelizing parish.

Ref: Synodal bulletin avaiable at: http://bit.ly/XVbfZv
Published in Corpus Christi parish bulletin on Sunday, 4th Nov 2012.

Nobody’s Perfect!

 One the inspirational thoughts roaming around Facebook will read like this:

Nobody’s Perfect!

NOAH got drunk.
ABRAHAM was too old.
ISAAC was a daydreamer.
JACOB lied.
JOSEPH was abused.
MOSES was a murderer and couldn't talk.
RAHAB was a prostitute.
JEREMIAH was too young.
JONAH ran from God.
NAOMI was a widow.
JOB went bankrupt.
The SAMARITAN WOMAN was divorced

PETER denied Christ.
and LAZARUS was dead!

So, No more excuse!

We are called to perfection - perfection of our Heavenly Father. But we will never be perfect for we are humans and limited in time and space. So too Church. But we don’t have excuse not to try for it and get near to it. That’s why we don’t have excuse not to take care of the victims of abuse whose lives are damaged by human weaknesses. Also we don’t have excuse, not to stand for gospel values but to speak for all good things we value in our lives: children, marriage, refugees and much more. This is because we are called to be healers - wounded healers - the true shepherds who don’t scatter, but gather. We are called to do it with humility and compassion in this year of grace. 

* To be published at the Corpus Christi parish bulletin for the weekend - July 14-15