Selections from my Franciscan essays (hover cursor over link for source or click for full article)
‘Your Metaphors Man. ‘The Journey Back To Me’ – Ricky Lee’

Truth revealed. There are 3 things that make the Catholic distinct from any Protestant chic: While Protestants believe 100% in the Bible, Catholics believe 100% in the Bible, 100% in Holy Tradition, and 100% in the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church. So I say, the Protestants are Okay in that they believe in God 100%; the Catholics are A-OK in that they believe 3 times more – they believe 300%. Of course, I’m a Catholic.

***

So, what is truth? To the Catholics, truth is what the Bible says, and what Holy Tradition says, and what the Magisterium says, taken all together. If you invoke the Bible only, your truth is incomplete, to say the least. If you want to bring the wrath of God on some people you have publicly condemned using the Bible only as your basis, you can cast the first stone if you are without sin. Better to remind yourself that you’re not God.

Is that Catholic chic or Catholic redundancy? Both. In the Philippines, the treasures of Catholic chic and redundancy you can find nowadays in most publications of Shepherd’s Voice (shepherdsvoice.com.ph), such as the magazine Kerygma in photo, as by and large they present the Catholic seduction, in print, as each article of faith leads the reader to one’s own exciting exploration of many a discoverable truth. Condemnation is the opposite of seeking the truth.

***

Preachers or not, Protestant or not, the truth we preach we find difficult to practice. It is easier to condemn others than to condemn ourselves, offenders that we are.

***

‘God, please give me back my sanity.’ But God wasn’t listening to me! So I said there is no God. And in answer, God didn’t speak to me for years; that would be about 35 years. Tatlumpu’t limang taong walang Diyos. Can you survive 35 years without God? I know I did. But barely. If it wasn’t Hell, it was Purgatory. And I got married in March 1967, 2 years later. When my wife Amparo told me she was pregnant with our first child, that was about the end of May that year, working backward from date of birth, February 14, I immediately blurted out, ‘Puede bang …?’ (‘Can we …?’). My wife was horrified, and I instantly knew that in those 2 words, God forgive me, I had already said too much.

***

Ricky Lee was going to kill himself; I was going to have somebody else kill my first baby. Ricky survived his own death wish because a soldier cared; Cristina survived her father’s death wish on her because a mother cared. Ricky felt he was ready to welcome death; I felt I wasn’t ready to welcome fatherhood. Thoughts on suicide and abortion, both about assisted death. Ricky and Frank were both trying to play God, even if they no longer believed in Him.

People who insist on their own truths either have no God, or think they know better.

***

In my own pilgrimage of years, I found my peace after my wife and I were welcomed by the Bukás Loób sa Díyos (Souls Open to God – my translation), a Catholic charismatic community, in 1991 and after years of wrestling with God and myself. One early evening, perhaps in 1995, I was walking home in our little street when I was moved to look up and saw stars twinkling, as little as they were, and it was as if God spoke to me, in Tagalog yet, when He knew I was an Ilocano and proud of it! I’m translating now: ‘How proud you are! Yet, you can’t even make one little star like any of these.’ I felt washed by a strange feeling from head to foot, and I must have shuddered a little. I never thought and felt like that before. In fact, I wasn’t even thinking of God when I looked up at His handiwork. If you don’t watch out, you discover something.

***

It’s Ricky Lee’s story that has inspired me to write this essay. A writer that he is, his story is not a script from his fertile head; it is non-fiction. About the Bible: Isn’t it fantastic stories, that is to say, fiction told by sinful and wildly imaginative humans, the most popular being gospel writers Matthew, John, Luke, Mark, and letter writer Paul? And yes, the superplots and subplots in the Bible are all incredible, improbable, impossible, like drinking water turning to drinking wine, like the blind suddenly seeing, like the sick instantly getting well with just a word said from afar, like the dead rising to life with all eyes watching. The Bible is a book of faith that either you accept or reject 100%; there are no two ways about it.

***

In fact, if you’re a Protestant, it’s sola scriptura – your faith is based 100% on what the Scriptures say. So, Ricky Lee, if you just keep on reading your Bible and never ever graduate from that, you’re a Protestant in a Catholic’s clothing – the Protestant will swear by the Bible and nothing else.

***

Not only that, Ricky, the Bible is not an easy book to understand. In the early 1990s, when my wife and I were lambs in the woods, I made sure we had many versions of the Bible so that I could understand the verses: King James Version (KJV), New KJV, New American Bible (NAB), Christian Community Bible (CCB), Today’s English Version (TEV), New International Version (NIV), Jerusalem Bible (JB). The TEV & NKJV are gone now; we still have the KJV, NAB, CCB, NIV, JB. When it comes to the Bible, my attitude is: you can’t have too many of a good thing. The thing is not to argue verse by verse but understand chapter by chapter.

***

Notwithstanding, for the Christian faith, 100% Bible is not enough; my 5 Bible versions are actually worth only 33.33%. I have already written (‘How The Bible Came About,’ thewonker.wordpress.com) about the ‘three-layered rock of faith’ of Catholics: Holy Tradition, the Bible, the Living Magisterium.

***

In non-mathematical terms, the Christian formula is this (my equation):

CF = Bible MaHT

The Bible is not enough. My Bible MaHT formula means you add the Bible to the Magisterium (Ma) and Holy Tradition (HT) and you have your Christian / Catholic Faith. Bible MaHT is beyond mathematics – it’s meta-mathematics.

Bible MaHT means Catholics believe that faith in God must be based on two other sources of divine revelation, that is to say, taken as one: 33.33% Bible, 33.33% Magisterium, or the teaching authority of the Church, and 33.33% Holy Tradition. (You protest: 33.33% taken 3 times equals only 99.99%, right? That’s the problem with man-made formulas. Don’t worry; your faith will make it whole.)

Thus, the Bible and Holy Tradition are twin guides to living in the past; the Magisterium is a guide to living in the present in the light of the guides to living in the past.

In practical terms, Ricky, my mathematical equation means that anyone’s interpretation of what the Bible says is acceptable only if it holds true with what Holy Tradition says and what the Magisterium says it is. Three heads are better than one. Holy Tradition is the recorded voice of the ancient Church fathers; the Bible is the recorded voice of those prophets and priests and preachers of the past; the Magisterium is the recorded interpretive voice of the present. Divine revelation must be relevant to the present, or it isn’t divine at all.

***

Go on and read your Bible, but Ricky, don’t forget that Comforting Companion is only one of the metaphors on Jesus Christ. In fact, ‘the journey back to me’ is your own metaphor. We cannot fathom the mysteries of life, so we live, we thrive on metaphors. What about the metaphors on God the Father (that’s the metaphor!), the Holy Spirit (like Dove), the kingdom of God (like seeds sown by a sower)?

***

‘Master, why do you teach them in metaphors?’ ‘Because that’s what they understand.’ The Protestant belief is based on metaphors coming only from the Bible. Our Catholic belief is based on metaphors coming from the Bible and from Holy Tradition (like apostolic succession) and from the Magisterium (like Mary, Mediatrix). Thank God for metaphors.

***

Metaphors increase our understanding; we are much richer for them. Metaphors cannot be measured by science; we are much richer for that. Therefore, I wish you more metaphors!