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Summary
From NHK Learning Basics, “Reading the Core of Christianity. In the previous article, I discussed the “Augustinian” Confession. In this issue, I will discuss Christianity and the modern age.
Previously, we have discussed the Bible and the classic “Confessions. This time, I would like to discuss the present situation with those classics. This does not necessarily mean to evaluate Christianity from a modern point of view, but rather, from a Christian point of view, how the present situation looks like and what Christianity can do in it.
The clue in all of this is the vision of “building bridges. This is a phrase often used by Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, who says: “This is the heart of our faith.
This is what is at the heart of our faith: “This is what is at the heart of our faith. God the Father sent his Son, and his Son is the bridge <Pontifex> – this word is a simple expression of God’s attitude toward humanity, but it must also be the political attitude of the Church, of the Christian.
Pontifex in the quote is Latin, from pons (bridge) + facio (to make), meaning “priest. And “pope” is Latin summus pontifex (supreme priest). In other words, the Pope derives the meaning of “bridge builder” by going back and considering the etymology of the word here.
The Pope also says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is himself a bridge from God to man. This implies that each Christian, inspired by Jesus, is a bridge-builder to others, especially those who are at the end of their lives.
The phrase “building bridges” connects the various themes mentioned above. In the story of Abraham in the Old Testament, “God seeking man” can be understood as “God building bridges for man,” and in the New Testament “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” the attitude of building bridges for others through the way of being their neighbor, as described in the “Confessions,” can be seen as a way of “building bridges” for man. Augustine’s journey is also a story of building and being built bridges to various people and books.
Ecology of St. Francis
We will look at what Christianity can do for modern society through the words of the current Pope Francis. We will focus on the first encyclical written by the Pope, “Lauder et si. The encyclical is a letter from the Pope to Christians around the world and to all people of good will.
At the beginning of the encyclical, the Pope states
I do not intend to write this encyclical without mentioning the bearer of the name I chose for guidance and inspiration when I was elected Pope, that charming and irresistible man. I believe that St. Francis is the best example of care for the vulnerable and the best example of integral ecology, lived with joy and sincerity. He is the patron saint of all those involved in research and work in the field of ecology and is greatly loved by non-Christians.”
Whoever is elected Pope chooses his own name as Pope. The current Pope has chosen the name Francis, which comes from a 13th century saint named Francis of Assisi. The Pope says he chose this name in hopes of “guidance and inspiration” from Francis of Assisi, “the best example of care for the vulnerable.”
In the aforementioned quote, the Pope refers to Francis of Assisi as “the best example of total ecology.” Ecology here goes beyond the dimension of environmental issues. It means being in harmony with God, with others, with nature, and with oneself, having a rich relationship with all of them without any breakdown.
He was extraordinarily compassionate toward creation, the poor and the abandoned. He lived in love and was deeply loved because of his joy, generous devotion, and open heart. He was a mystic and pilgrim who lived without adornment and in perfect harmony with God, with others, with nature, and with himself. He shows us how inseparable are the bonds between compassion for nature, justice for the poor, active involvement in society, and inner peace.
Francis of Assisi would become the founder of the Franciscans, one of the leading Catholic religious orders. Officially known as the Order of the Little Brothers, he lived a life of thorough poverty, emphasizing harmony with nature and also imitating Jesus, who died poor and on the cross.
Considering such a way of life, the current Pope Francis, taking his name, said that the center of the current boundary should be the one that rebuilds the connection with the natural world and with people on the periphery of society, which is the raison d’etre of Christianity.
Healing the disconnect
To begin with, “Laudato Si,” which is the title of Pope Francis’ encyclical, is a line from the hymn “Song of the Sun” written by Francis of Assisi, which means “May You be praised. Francis of Assisi, who regarded all things in nature as “brothers and sisters,” praises God, the Creator, together with those brothers and sisters in the “Song of the Sun.
And such harmony that Francis of Assisi experienced with all of creation was one understood as a “healing” to the “rupture” described in the Old Testament book of Genesis, the Pope said. The book of Genesis strikingly depicts the “rupture” that human life suffers through the following story.
After God creates the world in six days, Adam, the first man, commits the sin of eating only of the forbidden tree. This causes a distortion in the relationship between God and man, which in turn distorts the relationship between Adam and Eve (Adam places the blame on Eve), and the entire earth is distorted by their sin. In other words, the relationship between God, neighbor, and the earth has been torn apart.
In Genesis, on the last day of the creation of the world, “God saw all that he had made. And behold, it was very good. In other words, this whole world is the origin of the world. In other words, the world as a whole had, at its origin, a positive way of being, a way filled with harmony. The story of “Genesis” tells us that this was distorted through human sin – self-centered behavior.
The harmonious way of being that Francis of Assisi, a unique adult, embodied with all of creation, points to a way of being in which this rupture has been healed. The Pope then says that if we review our current situation with the vision of “universal reconciliation with all creation” realized in St. Francis as a source of light, we can see how destructive the power of sin is.
In other words, the Pope is saying that we are in a world of disconnection, loneliness, and nihilism, a world devoid of any harmony. Christianity, he says, is saying that by assuming a transcendent God (as the source of light), we can re-balance our relationships with ourselves, others, and nature, and by including a vertical relationship with God rather than a horizontal dimension of human relationships, we can more easily see the situation in which we find ourselves.
A “theology of the periphery” that transcends itself.
What to do with such a perspective, then, is what the Pope puts forth in what he calls the “theology of the periphery.” In his work “Rejoice in Joy,” the Pope states.
God is an everlasting newness. It is this newness that again and again pushes us to leave the familiar, to go far beyond, to the periphery and beyond. It takes us to the places where our humanity has been most depleted, to those who continue to search for answers to questions about the meaning of life, even if they seem shallow and conformist. God is not afraid. He knows no fear. God is always beyond our stereotypes and does not fear the periphery. He Himself has become the periphery. So if we are willing to go to the margins of society, we will encounter God there. God is already there. He is there in the hearts of his brothers and sisters, in their wounded bodies, in their oppressed lives, in their souls that have lost their strength. Jesus is already there.”
What the Pope is trying to convey here becomes a way of being in order to transcend our previous selves. God will always pour out a picture of a way of being in which we shed our fixed self. God is always painting a picture of a way of being that is shedding one’s fixed self, and encouraging one to step out to the periphery. God, who is “everlasting newness,” moves us not to stop after one adventure, but to make new connections by always opening up to newness and continuing to move beyond our previous selves. And it is only when we take such steps that we can encounter something called “God,” which may renew the souls of those to whom we go. This is what the Pope is telling us.
The periphery here is that just as God emptied Himself to become human (Jesus Christ) and to be in solidarity with empty human beings, each of us must also be in solidarity with the poor and the empty, thereby opening the possibility of encountering God with the “weak” and the “small,” and in this is where true joy can be found. This is where true joy is to be found.
Hurt is a human condition.
Finally, I will take the words of Henry Nawen, one of the leading Catholic thinkers of the 20th century, on this “theology of the periphery”.
Nawen was a Catholic priest from the Netherlands who taught psychology and theology at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University, and Harvard University in the U.S. But ultimately he was not satisfied with that and was called to L’Arche (French for “ark”), a community for people with intellectual disabilities, where he spent the last 10 years of his life. He spent the last 10 years of his life there, becoming a true traveler.
Nauen’s work integrated Christian spirituality and psychotherapy. In his book, “The Wounded Healer,” he states.
Like Jesus, those who proclaim liberation are called not only to care for their own wounds and those of others, but to make their own wounds a great source of healing power.”
When we think of healing, we first think of a model in which a healthy-looking doctor treats a sick patient, or a healthy person who has not been hurt himself cares for and heals those who have not. What Nauen put forth, however, would be the idea of using one’s own wounds as a source of healing for others. This is a contemporary context for the fundamental Christian image of “Jesus suffering on the cross.
Nauen explains why it is possible to “make one’s own wounds a source of healing”: wounding and suffering are essential components of the human condition, and when one suffers and suffers, rather than simply accepting it as an accidental anger, one must recognize the human condition that we all share, that “we are, in the first place He says that it is important to realize the human condition that we all share: that we are beings that hurt and suffer in the first place.
By opening our eyes to the fact that human beings are sufferers, and by having an attitude of empathy for those who hurt and suffer, we are equipped with a way of being that can lead to the healing of others. This does not mean taking the easy way out of suffering, but rather, walking with others as we share in their wounds and suffering. This is precisely the “companion Jesus” that we have been talking about.
As human beings grow up, we are bound to face our own hurts. When that happens, we realize that it is not only happening to us, but it can happen to others as well, and that realization is the bridge between ourselves and others.
Christianity Reimagined
Finally, I would like to introduce one more ancient saying of Nauen. This is a sentence from his book “With a Burning Heart,” which connects to the Augustine story mentioned in the last issue.
Augustine said, “My soul, oh God, will not be at rest until it has passed into You.” But when we examine the winding story of our own salvation, we see that not only do we long to be joined to God, but God also longs to be in solidarity with us. It is as if God is crying out to us. My heart will not rest until it rests in you, my beloved children.”
Nauen here offers a vision that does not come out in an explicit way in Augustine, that the hair also seeks connection with man in the inner heart of rest.
Christianity is constantly being born anew in creative dialogue with the classics. In the case of Nauen, he does not believe in fixed doctrines, but rather reads the Bible and the writings of Augustine, and through dialogue with them, he reinterprets Christianity in a way that is more accessible to people living in the present. The words he spins out in this way become a sensitive and multifaceted light source that illuminates our current uneasy journey as it is.
Christian thought and writings from ancient times to the present day give each of us, who walk through life’s journey with anxiety and loneliness, the strength to face them head-on, rather than simply cover them up and pretend not to be aware of them.
In the intellectual “journey” of reading books, not all of the journey is pleasant or meaningful, and there are disappointments, pains, boredom, and detours, but all of these are part of the charm of the journey, and if only one meaningful encounter is made, the journey can be said to have been a good one. If you have only one meaningful encounter, you can say that the trip was a good one.
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