Reprinted from the Asian Journal
October 26, 2007
Dobar Dan or “good day” as they like to greet each other here in Medjugorje.
Twenty-six years and thirty million pilgrims later, Medjugorje, situated in the heart of mountainous Bosnia-Hercegovina, is no longer the quiet, God-forsaken village that it was in Tito’s Communist Yugoslavia. It has, in fact, become one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Christendom.
The story is now well known. On June 24, 1981, the feast of St. John the Baptist, six children, walking by the hill of Podbrdo on their way home to Bijakovici, saw an incredibly beautiful lady. Dazzling like the sun, she wore a luminous white veil over her head and cradled a baby in her arms. The children claim that no words are adequate to describe her lovely face and smile.
Since that momentous afternoon in 1981, Kraljica Mira (translated to “Queen of Peace” in Croatian) has miraculously appeared to the six visionaries every day at around 5:40 PM. The daily apparition may last from two minutes to an hour, but usually occurs in five to ten minutes.
The children go into ecstasy when the apparition occurs and they report that they see Kraljica Mira or Gospa (“Our Lady”) just like they see you and me. They converse with her freely and she in turn gives them private and public messages. Through Marija, a public message is given to the parish (and the world) every 25th day of each month. In the early years, the message was promptly posted on the front door of St. James Church. With the advent of the Internet, such message is disseminated world wide by a click on the keyboard (log on to http://medjugorje.org).
Today, only three of the visionaries -- Marija, Vicka and Ivan -- continue to see Kraljica Mira each single day. The other three -- Ivanka, Mirjana, and Jacov -- no longer see Our Lady except on special occasions. Reminiscent of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, the last three children (now adults) have received ten secrets each, which are to be revealed to a priest of their choice, at the proper time.
The secrets of Medjugorje understandably scare people who link them to the Book of Revelations or an apocalyptic end of the world scenario. But the visionaries emphasize God’s love and say that people who strive to live the messages of Medjugorje have no reason to fear. Theologians who have analyzed the hundreds of messages through the years see them as consistent with lessons in the Gospel. Fr. Jozo Zovko, the parish priest of Medjugorje when the apparitions began, summarizes the messages into five main points or requests by Our Lady, namely:
1. To “pray with the heart” or to pray the Rosary each day (preferably to pray together with family).
2. To attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist regularly.
3. To read and reflect daily on Scripture.
4. To fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays (assuming one’s health allows; otherwise, to fast from other things, i.e., TV, movies, video games, internet, and other distractions).
5. To practice monthly confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation).
American pilgrims frequently ask if morning coffee is consistent with fasting to which Mirjana responds with an impish smile: “Sure, just drink it before Our Lady wakes up!” Italians typically ask if pasta can substitute for bread (rice for Filipinos?). The visionaries respond with good humor. The point, they say, is that Our Lady does not wish to give us a hard time. Far from it, she just wants us to advance spiritually, step by step.
Actually, none of the above Christian practices are radically new. Fasting may have been forgotten along with other ascetic traditions known since the time of the Apostles. The purpose of fasting is to develop the virtue of self-discipline, which is essential for spiritual maturity. Kraljica Mira frequently invites the visionaries (and the world through them) to make every effort to incorporate these virtuous practices in our daily life.
The Vatican has not officially approved the apparitions at Medjugorje. But that is not unusual; traditionally, the Church waits until apparitions or supernatural phenomena have ceased before embarking on a full theological investigation, as in the case of Fatima and Lourdes.
The visionaries, however, have been subjected to a battery of medical and scientific tests. A local physician, Dr. Ante Vujevic, conducted the first examination when communist police brought the children to the doctor four days after the first apparition took place. On June 29, the children were rushed to a clinic in Mostar and examined by Dr. Dzudza Mulija. The psychiatrist reportedly remarked that the frantic officers who brought the visionaries to the clinic were the ones who acted insane. The children were clearly psychologically normal.
Other psychiatrists, including Croatian Dr. Nikola Bartulica who practices in Missouri, have evaluated the visionaries from October 1981 to 1989. In 1991, Dr. Bartulica published his conclusions in the book, “Are the visionaries telling the truth?” All the medical and scientific experts to date have uncovered nothing out of the ordinary or pathological with the visionaries. They have all been assessed to be physically and psychologically healthy and definitely not epileptic or hysterical.
The most exhaustive series of examinations, utilizing technically advanced monitoring devices, were performed from March to December 1984 by a team of French experts, led by Dr. Henri Joyeaux. Their findings were published in the book, “Etudes medicales et scientifiques sur les apparitions de Medjugorje”.
The following year, a scientific and theological commission composed of 17 French and Italian experts, including a vision and a hearing specialist, interviewed and tested the visionaries. The consensus was invariably the same -- the visionaries were physically and mentally fine.
In 1998, at the request of the Franciscans, a team headed by Dr. Andreas Resch, Professor of Theology at the Papal University Alfonsianum in Rome, expanded on the tests conducted by the French and Italian team.
The most recent scientific investigation was performed on the 24th anniversary of Medjugorje, at the behest of the Holy See. It was conducted by Professor Joyeaux, with the assistance of neurologist, Dr. Philippe Loron. When the visionaries went into ecstasy, their brain waves and vital signs were recorded in detail. Ivan resents being “treated like a guinea pig” but endures having a nest of electrodes and wires taped all over his body if only to persuade skeptics and unbelievers.
All the medical and scientific testing through the years have arrived at the same conclusion: the visionaries are undoubtedly normal, healthy individuals. They are not under the influence of drugs or any mind-altering substance. They are not pretending, imagining things, or hallucinating.
Needless to say, the daily appearance of Kraljica Mira cannot be proven scientifically. But, indirectly, scientific methods applied to the visionaries have not detected fraud, delusion, hallucination, or any other subjective irrationality. Granted, for the sake of argument that the visionaries are pretending to see things and making up stories, it is humanly impossible to go through such acts fraudulently every day for 26 years.
To believers of the supernatural events in Medjugorje, no further proof that the Mother of God is appearing daily is needed. To unbelievers, no amount of proof, scientific or otherwise, will suffice.
more . . . E-mails from the Desert - Dr. Ed Gamboa
Friday, October 26, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Wanderlust, Kempis, and Chardin
Who in the world does not want to travel? I certainly count myself among humanity's inveterate adventurers. Indeed, I write this piece on my way to Rome by way of San Francisco. Most Filipinos in the United States, by the mere fact that they mustered the courage to venture halfway around the globe, automatically qualify as bona fide "wanderlusters".
Wanderlust seems like an archaic word. But, in fact, the German derived term first appeared in the English dictionary in 1902, about the time when the effects of the second industrial revolution rendered the world dramatically mobile.
Not knowing any better, I simply assume everyone wants to get out there to see the whole wide world. Strangely, I've met people who have not ventured more than a few miles from their place of birth! When I lived in Buffalo, New York, I had patients who had never seen the Statue of Liberty in Ellis Island! In Southern California, I've known folks who have not crossed the border into Baja California. Why would people not take the opportunity to travel to another country next to their doorstep? In Hawaii, I met several natives in the outer islands who had not surfed or at least trekked along world famous Waikiki Beach.
Perhaps, these souls have been influenced by the famous writer Thomas a Kempis who said: "...they who travel much abroad seldom become holy." (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 23).
I think I understand what the German mystic Thomas a Kempis was concerned about. The world, during his time (1380-1471), was not conducive to leading a decent life. He found peace and solitude “only in retirement and in books”. Earlier, around the 3rd century, the Desert Fathers fled to the Scetes desert in Egypt, far away from the reaches of the hedonistic Roman Empire. For centuries thereafter, holy men and women viewed the world with justifiable contempt, cautious about being contaminated by its secularity.
It took the genius of Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) to make the world attractive again, for indeed, if God created the world – “The Divine Milieu” -- why wouldn’t it be good? Subsequently, the social activist Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Workers Movement, and the Trappist Thomas Merton made engagement with the world theologically sound. We cannot retire to the chapel even as the world teetered in the brink of nuclear self-destruction. It was imperative that we immersed ourselves in world affairs and play active roles in the direction of history.
The Peruvian Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez and liberation theologians of South America remind us that it is good to pray but that we can ill afford to spend hours in the altar while our brothers and sisters go to bed hungry each night because of society’s unjust economic and political structures. In the 1960s, Vatican Council II acknowledged that the pathway to sanctity was through the world, not outside of it.
As Filipinos, we can be proud that our people, in the darkness of crisis, found a way to balance prayer and action. I must say it took a while for us to take action in the face of an increasingly oppressive dictatorship. But we did act. And the way we did it, in the innovated form of people power, effectively blended prayers in churches and demonstrations in the streets. It was such a powerful combination of prayer and action that Lech Walesa’s Solidarity in Poland learned from it, triggering Communism’s downfall, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, we see the continuing ripple effect of people power in Myanmar (Burma), as non-violent Buddhist monks take to the streets to protest the military stranglehold of their nation.
But, active involvement in world shattering events aside, isn’t it pure joy to travel and marvel at the exhilarating beauty and expanse of the world in which we live? Seeing the world, interacting with people of various cultures and customs, we realize that despite the differences, we are all basically the same – blessed with the same dreams, the same hopes, the same aspirations for ourselves and for the next generations.
Wanderlust seems like an archaic word. But, in fact, the German derived term first appeared in the English dictionary in 1902, about the time when the effects of the second industrial revolution rendered the world dramatically mobile.
Not knowing any better, I simply assume everyone wants to get out there to see the whole wide world. Strangely, I've met people who have not ventured more than a few miles from their place of birth! When I lived in Buffalo, New York, I had patients who had never seen the Statue of Liberty in Ellis Island! In Southern California, I've known folks who have not crossed the border into Baja California. Why would people not take the opportunity to travel to another country next to their doorstep? In Hawaii, I met several natives in the outer islands who had not surfed or at least trekked along world famous Waikiki Beach.
Perhaps, these souls have been influenced by the famous writer Thomas a Kempis who said: "...they who travel much abroad seldom become holy." (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 23).
I think I understand what the German mystic Thomas a Kempis was concerned about. The world, during his time (1380-1471), was not conducive to leading a decent life. He found peace and solitude “only in retirement and in books”. Earlier, around the 3rd century, the Desert Fathers fled to the Scetes desert in Egypt, far away from the reaches of the hedonistic Roman Empire. For centuries thereafter, holy men and women viewed the world with justifiable contempt, cautious about being contaminated by its secularity.
It took the genius of Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) to make the world attractive again, for indeed, if God created the world – “The Divine Milieu” -- why wouldn’t it be good? Subsequently, the social activist Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Workers Movement, and the Trappist Thomas Merton made engagement with the world theologically sound. We cannot retire to the chapel even as the world teetered in the brink of nuclear self-destruction. It was imperative that we immersed ourselves in world affairs and play active roles in the direction of history.
The Peruvian Dominican priest Gustavo Gutierrez and liberation theologians of South America remind us that it is good to pray but that we can ill afford to spend hours in the altar while our brothers and sisters go to bed hungry each night because of society’s unjust economic and political structures. In the 1960s, Vatican Council II acknowledged that the pathway to sanctity was through the world, not outside of it.
As Filipinos, we can be proud that our people, in the darkness of crisis, found a way to balance prayer and action. I must say it took a while for us to take action in the face of an increasingly oppressive dictatorship. But we did act. And the way we did it, in the innovated form of people power, effectively blended prayers in churches and demonstrations in the streets. It was such a powerful combination of prayer and action that Lech Walesa’s Solidarity in Poland learned from it, triggering Communism’s downfall, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, we see the continuing ripple effect of people power in Myanmar (Burma), as non-violent Buddhist monks take to the streets to protest the military stranglehold of their nation.
But, active involvement in world shattering events aside, isn’t it pure joy to travel and marvel at the exhilarating beauty and expanse of the world in which we live? Seeing the world, interacting with people of various cultures and customs, we realize that despite the differences, we are all basically the same – blessed with the same dreams, the same hopes, the same aspirations for ourselves and for the next generations.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Dirt and Divinity
by Dr. Edgar A. Gamboa
Reprinted from the Asian Journal, October 12, 2007
Recently, I attended a talk by the noted Zen master, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh. The 80-yr-old Vietnamese monk, who drew worldwide attention for his efforts to bring North and South Vietnam to peaceful reconciliation in the 1960s, delivered the keynote address during the 18th Annual Social Issues Conference at the University of San Diego.
Author of over a hundred books on spirituality, psychology, and religion, Thich Nhat Hanh lives in Plum Village, a monastery in France, but travels around the world promoting "compassionate listening, peace, and understanding." At USD, his message touched on the current global war on terror. He spoke about how a peaceful pathway can be pursued if leaders listened to each other with genuine trust and understanding, tremendously difficult as that may be.
Garbed in a Buddhist monk's brown habit and seated in lotus position, he spoke softly to more than three thousand faculty members, students, and a mixed crowd of San Diegans about a wide range of subjects, any of which would easily take up a book's chapter, if not an entire volume. The one topic he dealt with which struck me was the problem of suffering.
Life is soaked in suffering. Entire civilizations suffer from war, natural disasters, poverty, starvation, sickness, crime, injustice, etc. We all desire a pain free life, a world devoid of suffering. Indeed, people often question the existence of God because of this painful reality. If a good God really exists, why is there so much pain and suffering around us?
All major religions have looked into this complex subject. Rabbi Harold Kushner's 1981 book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," which explored suffering on the occasion of his son's death, was a national bestseller and remains popular. Through the years, the metaphor I've found that gives at least part of the answer is that suffering is a kind of tapestry, a piece of embroidery in the making, which we can only view from the backside. The ugliness and randomness do not make sense to us until later (perhaps in the next life) when we can see the real masterpiece, from the front, from a comprehensive perspective.
Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist perspective offers the view that suffering is "mud, garbage, compost" -- ugly, smelly stuff. Yet, the wise gardener knows that mud is essential for roots to thrive. When roots reach deep, plants grow and bear fruits; flowers bloom.
Echoing "the little flower," the popular Catholic saint and Carmelite nun, Therese of Lisieux, the Buddhist monk from Bordeaux, reminded the audience that life is a garden, with a variety of plants and flowers. It needs rain and water, the good things, of course. But, it also needs, mud and compost, the dirty yucky stuff. It is through our pains and sufferings that we develop compassion, tolerance, sympathy, and understanding. It is through our compassion and understanding that we learn to love. And it is by loving that we become more like God.
To paraphrase the idea of the great theologian of the 5th century, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: The Divine descended to become human so that we may ascend to become divine.
Reprinted from the Asian Journal, October 12, 2007
Recently, I attended a talk by the noted Zen master, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh. The 80-yr-old Vietnamese monk, who drew worldwide attention for his efforts to bring North and South Vietnam to peaceful reconciliation in the 1960s, delivered the keynote address during the 18th Annual Social Issues Conference at the University of San Diego.
Author of over a hundred books on spirituality, psychology, and religion, Thich Nhat Hanh lives in Plum Village, a monastery in France, but travels around the world promoting "compassionate listening, peace, and understanding." At USD, his message touched on the current global war on terror. He spoke about how a peaceful pathway can be pursued if leaders listened to each other with genuine trust and understanding, tremendously difficult as that may be.
Garbed in a Buddhist monk's brown habit and seated in lotus position, he spoke softly to more than three thousand faculty members, students, and a mixed crowd of San Diegans about a wide range of subjects, any of which would easily take up a book's chapter, if not an entire volume. The one topic he dealt with which struck me was the problem of suffering.
Life is soaked in suffering. Entire civilizations suffer from war, natural disasters, poverty, starvation, sickness, crime, injustice, etc. We all desire a pain free life, a world devoid of suffering. Indeed, people often question the existence of God because of this painful reality. If a good God really exists, why is there so much pain and suffering around us?
All major religions have looked into this complex subject. Rabbi Harold Kushner's 1981 book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," which explored suffering on the occasion of his son's death, was a national bestseller and remains popular. Through the years, the metaphor I've found that gives at least part of the answer is that suffering is a kind of tapestry, a piece of embroidery in the making, which we can only view from the backside. The ugliness and randomness do not make sense to us until later (perhaps in the next life) when we can see the real masterpiece, from the front, from a comprehensive perspective.
Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist perspective offers the view that suffering is "mud, garbage, compost" -- ugly, smelly stuff. Yet, the wise gardener knows that mud is essential for roots to thrive. When roots reach deep, plants grow and bear fruits; flowers bloom.
Echoing "the little flower," the popular Catholic saint and Carmelite nun, Therese of Lisieux, the Buddhist monk from Bordeaux, reminded the audience that life is a garden, with a variety of plants and flowers. It needs rain and water, the good things, of course. But, it also needs, mud and compost, the dirty yucky stuff. It is through our pains and sufferings that we develop compassion, tolerance, sympathy, and understanding. It is through our compassion and understanding that we learn to love. And it is by loving that we become more like God.
To paraphrase the idea of the great theologian of the 5th century, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: The Divine descended to become human so that we may ascend to become divine.
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