A Fascinating Church

The present Conception Church,
built in front of the original church.  

A short walk away stands St Francis Xavier Church, built for the Vietnamese.

The first Catholic Church in Bangkok was built before Bangkok even existed..  ,
It was built in 1674, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. 

This is where it all started for the Church in my Bangkok, and even before Bangkok was ever established.  Just fascinating!  Why is it so?  

It began with King Narai giving land in 1674 for a church to be built for a community of Cambodian refugees then living in that then remote place.  From such a humble beginning 350 years ago, we have the present day Bangkok neighbourhood named Samsen, a small Catholic stronghold in Buddhist Thailand.  

I have known for sometime that Samsen was important in the history of the local Church.  It just took me 15 years to go and have a look.  Slow, ain't I?  On arriving, I was surprised at what I met.  It was so worth the effort, for it was more than just a look at churches and their history.  It was an experience of something quite unique, for walking around the obviously, well defined, parish area, you got a feel for a long standing Catholic community, which may be small in area, but definitely not inconsequential.  After all, I was amazed to discover two churches in this one confined area of Bangkok.  

I asked myself, why are two churches so close together?  Well, later in history along came Vietnamese fleeing persecution.  They settled in this same neighbourhood of the by then established Bangkok as it was already Catholic and so they could feel at home.  Instead of using the already standing church, they chose to build their own, St Francis Xavier.      

Along with the two churches, I found in this one, distinct part of Buddhist Bangkok, a Catholic cemetery and three Catholic schools.  I do not know all the ins and outs but I can only imagine the history of this community, which today presents like a little Vatican .  

Truly fascinating, for, as you walk around the narrow streets of this nearly ghettoish district, you can feel its distinct history and richness, separate from the Bangkok surrounding it.  For a small Church, the Church in Thailand is ever full of surprises, with its complex and diverse history that makes it what it is today.  A rich and fascinating tapestry that should never be lost.     

Reminiscing

My previous entry, being a piece written originally for elsewhere, made me reminisce.  As a result, I found this piece, I wrote for Pentecost, 2016.  I share it as, while it comes from the pre-COVID-19 era, it so speaks of this time.  Prophetic?  

"Politics in our world - USA, Brazil, Philippines, Venezuela (as I was reminded by a member of today’s congregation), Iraq, Syria and so many other countries (too many to list)  - is a mess.  We can no longer simply say that elections are won by politicians who make the most promises or who have the best policies, or who are the most brazen or the strongest or most brutish, or who are the most corrupt offering the biggest prizes.  Any assessment of election wins has to go much deeper. 

We lack truly good leaders.   Too often promises are made but never met.  This has been going on for far too long and people are sick of it.  People no longer stand by political establishments and elites which continue to be corrupt and just do not deliver on what they promise.  Revolutions have failed and people linger in endless bewilderment.  People can no longer wait for a delivery of what they need to live and enjoy life.  People flee war, persecution and fear and have nowhere to go.  War and terror rage without a sense of end in sight.  People are tired of living under a security threat.  More and more people are becoming poorer and losing their sense of power in society, not enjoying their rightful share of the goods of this earth.  So they look beyond the usual boundaries and vote for the unusual, the rough and tough, the cowboy in politics.   

I am not here to talk politics and I am not looking to lay blame or play a political game.  That is not my place or role.  I am a theologian and I want to talk theologian to theologian and so go much deeper with you than what is presented by political analysis.  Yes, we as Church are all theologians.  We are theologians not necessarily because of the books we read, the study we pursue or the tomes we may write.  Rather we are theologians because of our baptism and how good a theologian we are is judged by how actively we live our baptism as people of faith.  Theology is primarily about what we do in living out our baptism commitment to live the gospel and simply help each other, our neighbor.    

As theologians, we need to reflect on our world and engage in discussion.  So what I present here is merely presented to start off that process of theological discussion and reflection.  This is not about giving the answers nor is it about stopping discussion.   

We look at our world through its political reality and go deeper.  While our world needs good leaders and politicians, it needs even more so good theologians – those who will engage our world at the deeper levels.   

No longer can the Church, as it has for the past three decades, just criticize our world for being ruled by materialism, consumerism or individualism.  We have to go beyond such simplistic classifications of our world which can no longer be fully described by –isms.  Our world faces much deeper problems for it is becoming an empty place, with poverty that is much more than just a lack of wealth and resources enjoyed by citizens.

Our world is one where so many know disillusionment.  Our world is one where more and more people find a loss of hope and a loss of dignity.  These are themes of humanity and they run deep. 

This is the world we face and its challenge to us is – how do we respond? 

During the past week, Pope Francis spoke with the women religious leaders of the Church.  He spoke forthrightly about women and their place in the Church and the need for them to assume their rightful place for the good of the whole Church.  He did not approach it as a power play or as a politician.  Rather he approached the place of women in Church as a theologian and in doing so offered us all a model for mission, for building up people and the kingdom. 

1)      The right of women to participate fully in Church is through baptism.

2)    Clericalism and the clericalising of the Church are dangers to be avoided and eradicated. 

3)    Women have an incisive role in the decision-making in the Church.  

4)     Women have a voice that needs to be heard.  

5)      Women are to be empowered for leadership in service.  

In talking with women religious, Francis is offering a five step model for approaching human development and community building in general.  This five step model simply put is:

1)      Human dignity belongs to all and this is the basis for working with any people in pursuing their development. 

2)     Address the evils and abuses that keep people oppressed or hold them back from reaching their rightful potential.  

3)      Give a role to the excluded.  

4)       Give a voice to the voiceless.   

5)       Empower those marginalized in society for leadership in service.   

 In this way, we show love and in showing love we show God.  Such love builds up human dignity and gives hope to a people that need it."          

I read this four years later and I was just amazed.  So I had to share again.    

The awe, the mystery of it

 

I am asked during this time of the pandemic that it must be difficult being alone, to which my reply naturally arises.  Alone?  This is happily a reflective time.  This is an extraordinary time that has proved for me to be a grace filled time, a freeing time.  I never planned it this way but this is how it has unfolded. 

I have experienced this as a time when you see others for who they are – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Definitely, this time has seen the rising up of humanity with people reaching out to each other, being kind and generous in ways not usually seen.  I have seen strangers who have lived in the same building for so long, now becoming friends as they stop and sit and chat.  I hear people asking who might be having problems at this time and how they may help.  So it goes on. 

This time has also served to show up our weaknesses and the limitations of humanity. In my sphere of influence, I see leaders who have shown themselves in the best of times to be simply lack lustre, who are now showing themselves in times of lockdown and crisis to be no leader of note at all.  What has struck me is how these ones lack respect for others, maybe even for themselves.  If this is so, I ask how can they be a leader?

Respect is a key word of this time, as is solidarity.  The small issues of life have become big as they raise the wider questions of social behavior.  Arriving late to mass is no longer just a personal happening but an issue of respect for others, as people need to allow time to follow guidelines and be seated in set places, then allowing all who gather to join in the time of worship.  Livestreaming of masses and now lack of space in churches due to social distancing raise the basic questions around community and gathering.  

Who is out there?

Who is coming now and who isn’t? 

How do we all blend in together? 

So authority is clearly shown as being based on respect and not on the exercise of control.  It is not about issuing orders for running mass in these times but about gaining trust and cooperation for allowing mass to occur together. 

As I peeked from the inside of a quiet cathedral at the Corpus Christi adoration outside, I was taken by the dramatic and external action of the moment.   I ask.  Does this action speak of the mystery and freedom of God or is it our presenting a God on tap who is safe and predictable for our own worship?  Fact is we don’t control God.  This virus reminds us who is in charge.   Thus we approach God with respect and happily give up any urge for control so as to be open to the change needed in our lives, world and church.  I wonder.  Are we becoming the mystics as predicted by Karl Rahner who boldly stated that the Christians of this century would be mystics or nothing at all?    

{from a piece written for elsewhere on  26^th June, 2020 and worth sharing now)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is freeing

As I travel through this pandemic, I find that I no longer have the same roles in my work; that life is just not the same; that I am gaining new perspectives on all sorts of things.  Do I find this frightening?  No.  Rather I find myself questioning what is going on , with the result that the word 'mystery' keeps ringing bells in my mind.  In the midst of all, I find this a freeing time, feeling freer than I have felt for an age.  Maybe the pandemic has blown that needed sea change my way, forcing me not to wait for making plans and preparations. Just do it!  

The day after I write this, my daily news briefing from CNA, Singapore, features an article entitled - "We are not returning to a pre-COVID-19 world".  It is the Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry stating that his island nation needs to map a new path now for creating a new economy.  This is our age.  Whether the individual, society or church, we are facing the opportunities and fears of building a new stage on which we are to live together.  This is more than a business or survival quest.  It is a spiritual quest.  

My experience of this pandemic naturally speaks strongly to me.  The real action of what I experience has been emanating from the grassroots and essentially happening at the depths of our existence.  

I have seen what has been going on around me.  What is it all saying?  I have seen leaders in my world being shown up for who they truly are.  If they are limited and chaotic in normal times, all they can do in a crisis is do what they always do, exercise control.  How could they?  I was taken into new ways of working from home and of livestreaming mass which I naturally found deeply spiritual.  These ways gifted me with a deeper sense of communion with others and a new contemplative perspective for life. I have also seen good leadership flourish in this pandemic, enforcing the right messages -  We are in this together/  Leave no one behind.  Human solidarity is essential to life.  The key themes arising out of this crisis consistently remain respect and responsibility. 

So we are called to new ways of being and operating.  I see these ways being based on spirituality and on the good of all, including me, upholding the rights and dignity of all, including me.  I could go on but I won't.  All I want to share is that for all these reasons, and more, this is a time when needed and overdue change is staring at us at all levels - for myself, for society, for church.  But much more, I find this such a freeing time.      

Double Tragic

Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki

This coming Sunday marks the 75th anniversary since the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki, for over 400 years a centre of the Catholic Church in Japan, despite long periods of most violent persecution.  Despite all suffering, this neighbourhood remained over time a vibrant Christian community.  Finally, a Catholic church could be built there in the 1870s by those Christians returning home from the last period of persecution in Japanese history. 

In 1945, the cathedral on this same spot found itself only 500 metres from the hypocentre, so being obliterated with the loss of souls who were at church in preparation for the upcoming celebration of the Assumption of Mary.  As my friend, a young, Japanese Augustinian said, in contemplating the history of tragedy and loss around this one church - "It is just unfathomable.  Too sad."

I had thought - Imagine going to church and ending up in the centre of the world's second ever atomic explosion.  People would not have even known what it was.  It would have been a truly apocalyptic horror.  Just double tragic.  

Such is our world or thus have we made it?  So goes the last line of "The Mission", given by the fiery Jesuit to the political Cardinal.  

We live in an age where there is much hope for needed change in our world but the trap or fear is that too many human beings know only one way which may be labelled as "fight, conquer and survive'.  There is another way for humanity.  We must fight for it but not with bombs and destruction.  Kiasu!