Fr. Richard Ho Lung, Contributor WE LIVE in a time and age in our civilisation where we need to get back to the basics. This means living in a way that is pure, simple, and joyful, while at the same time creative and self-sacrificing.
Creativity combined with self-sacrifice can be a powerful tool for achieving greatness in any society. In every civilisation there are people who express their creativity with power and beauty. The ideal civilisation provides sustenance for body and soul.
Today, however, our modern world is characterised by materialism; education has become merely a means to an end; politics has become a selfish game for many; music and art have lost all sense of aesthetic purpose and inspiration. Politicians, artists, poets, indeed all of us need to recognise that Jesus was the most civilised person in all of history. The sin of man destroys his soul. The kind of civilisation we have is intimately connected to man's personal struggle in holiness.
True civilisation is not far from sanctity. We see this in the life of Jesus - the ideal man. Mankind's thirst for God, his unending search for the Truth, takes him on the road leading to a just, holy and perfect civilisation. However, when man gives in to his inordinate passions and desires, then the world he creates is materialistic and shallow. When Christ becomes the centre of man's life, we can be sure that the journey to a perfect civilisation has begun. Man needs to "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness," so that "all things will follow."
Modern man is primarily carnal and centres his life on everything that can satisfy his carnal desires - sex, money, power; but every now and then something arises within him to touch his spirit, something beyond the mere carnal. When man exercises self-sacrifice, he allows the spiritual in himself to grow at the expense of the flesh. Christ is the ultimate example of this. He taught and showed us that a life of total self-sacrifice brings spiritual perfection.
Our need today is for a culture marked by self-sacrifice and deep \spirituality so that a civilisation patterned after that of Christ can be established. The men and women of this new society should ideally be like Grace Christie, a mother whose son was murdered, who prayed for his murderer's conversion and forgave him as well.
The natural reactions of anger and revenge could be expected in a situation like this, especially from a grieving mother, but Grace provides a very different response. She offers forgiveness, love, mercy, and most of all, the Lord himself to the murderer of her son. Her relationship with Christ, and her understanding of what a Christian should be, enabled her to conquer her passions and exercise true Christian virtue.
Although not highly educated, she has attained the very heights of civilised society. She begged for the life of the killer explaining that this young man needed a mother and father. The ability to do such an unusual act came from the spirit of Christ within her. Because He forgave her sins, she in turn wanted to do the same and in so doing taught the police and all of us what true civilisation and Christian culture means.
Culture is derived from the same root as 'agriculture.' In a Christian culture the values of Jesus Christ are cultivated in the hearts of men and women. Agriculture brings to mind a cultivated field, similarly, culture suggests a society cultivated with values. A true Christian culture has the values of Christ rather than the values of the flesh at its centre. Jamaica has the potential for being a highly civilised society with a deeply spiritual culture. To do this, every aspect of our society must be transformed by the power and presence of Christ, the most civilised person who ever existed, the Word made flesh Who was both human and divine. To this end we must all strive so that Jamaica may reveal to the world the real meaning of civilisation with the engraving of a deeply Christian culture within it.
The Very Rev. Fr. Richard Ho Lung, is founder and Superior General of the Missionaries of the Poor.
