21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 23/8/2015 - Gospel: Jn 6:61-70
Purified cultures
Every society has some good cultures and not so good ones. The good cultures are the transcendent cultures and the not so good one is the contemporary culture. The transcendent cultures come from above, from God's love and mercy which helps to promote life, peace and justice. The not so good cultures are the ones that are causing harm to creation and disharmony to a society. Any culture which has no foundation in the teaching of Jesus about God's everlasting love is considered a contemporary culture. All contemporary cultures are the products of the human mind.
It is rather hard to have a universal concept of a contemporary culture because our minds are influenced by philosophical ideas such as pluralism and secularism. These 'isms' are the product of our mind about our world views and this world view is heavily promoted by people who are passionate about a particular idea relating to the philosophy of life and their propaganda somehow influences our the outlook of life. Without having a concrete definition of what a contemporary culture is but when narrow it down to certain aspects of live we understand exactly what it is all about, for example: the culture of violence, the culture of death, the culture of abusive. The transcendent cultures are easy to define simply because they have a foundation in the teaching of God's love. Jesus himself promoted it. The creation accounts have told us that we are created in God's image and likeness. The image and likeness of God have a certain defined quality that provides the foundation for the transcendent cultures namely God's benevolent goodness, abounding in love and rich in mercy. God created the cosmos for us to enjoy and any destruction of relationship to God and God's creation and to each other must be avoided. God alone creates the cosmos and God allows us to take part in the creation by means of continuing to be responsible stewards of the cosmos and make it a less hostile place for everyone to live in.
We are not call to protest against or to live outside of a society's culture but we are called to live within the cultures of our time and somehow make God's love to transform of those cultures in view of Jesus' teaching. The call to transform the cultures has its foundation in the teaching of Jesus when he calls us to be salt of the earth and the lamp that gives light to the world Mat 5,14. In order to be light for the world and salt for the earth, we must profess that God is the creator of the cosmos and God continues to create it in our world and in our lives. This realization helps us to cooperate with the Spirit of God to care for the creation. Through prayers and openness to the attentive of the voice of God's spirit we become the instrument of peace.
It is rather hard to have a universal concept of a contemporary culture because our minds are influenced by philosophical ideas such as pluralism and secularism. These 'isms' are the product of our mind about our world views and this world view is heavily promoted by people who are passionate about a particular idea relating to the philosophy of life and their propaganda somehow influences our the outlook of life. Without having a concrete definition of what a contemporary culture is but when narrow it down to certain aspects of live we understand exactly what it is all about, for example: the culture of violence, the culture of death, the culture of abusive. The transcendent cultures are easy to define simply because they have a foundation in the teaching of God's love. Jesus himself promoted it. The creation accounts have told us that we are created in God's image and likeness. The image and likeness of God have a certain defined quality that provides the foundation for the transcendent cultures namely God's benevolent goodness, abounding in love and rich in mercy. God created the cosmos for us to enjoy and any destruction of relationship to God and God's creation and to each other must be avoided. God alone creates the cosmos and God allows us to take part in the creation by means of continuing to be responsible stewards of the cosmos and make it a less hostile place for everyone to live in.
We are not call to protest against or to live outside of a society's culture but we are called to live within the cultures of our time and somehow make God's love to transform of those cultures in view of Jesus' teaching. The call to transform the cultures has its foundation in the teaching of Jesus when he calls us to be salt of the earth and the lamp that gives light to the world Mat 5,14. In order to be light for the world and salt for the earth, we must profess that God is the creator of the cosmos and God continues to create it in our world and in our lives. This realization helps us to cooperate with the Spirit of God to care for the creation. Through prayers and openness to the attentive of the voice of God's spirit we become the instrument of peace.
Written by Fr Vũđình Tường
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia
St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane Australia