Christ the King

Today the Church celebrates the last Sunday of its calendar with the solemnity of Christ The King, the Alpha and the Omega.

Whether we know Him or not, believe in Him or not our lives will be measured, ultimately, according to our submission to His Rule.

Too bad that we don't like this kind of language -left alone the reality of having to surrender to anyone -God included. It is too bad because we were born for this surrender to our Savior King.

The second reading of the Divine Office today gives us a hint, in the words of Origen -one of the Fathers of the Church- as to what can we expect from Christ's Kingship:

The kingdom of God within us will reach its highest point when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all.

Note this about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.

There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power and virtue in us is cast out.

Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.

Christ is the only King who wants all and each one of us sitting in the throne with him sharing in the Glory of the children of God. He gave his life in the cross to conquer this legacy for us. This is our future in following Christ's lead.

In our times it has become almost common place to find accounts of what technically is called Near Death Experience. As an example I recommend, one of them is leading, right now, the New York Times "bestseller" list, Heaven is For Real. This kind of stories shortcut organized religion but can give us some taste of how true and real our Catholic religious faith is in spite of all the trappings and sinfulness of those who have passed it on to us -and in spite of our own poor discipleship and our doubts.

We can be sure that we will meet Christ in a more or less distant future. And when we meet him the issue will not be to present ourselves holy and without sin before him, but to be able to choose Him and trust Him in spite of our sins -past and present- because that's the only thing he needs to save us: that is, that we choose to be saved.

Let us think about this. Let us pray for this ultimate grace in our life and in the life of those we love. Let us become familiar with this choice for Christ in our life. Let us practice some training in making the most decisive choice of our lives, a choice that no human being can skip.

And let us rejoice as we sing with all the Saints.

Christ Jesus, Victor!

Christ Jesus, Ruler!

Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer!

Dedication of Our Inner Temple

Today we have this beautiful reading at Mass from the First book of Maccabees (4:36-37,52-59)

Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took command of the army in place of his father, Mattathias, and he defeated the army of King Antiochus which was commanded by Lysias. Then Judas en his brothers said, “See, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.” So all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion.

Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces and worshipped and blessed heaven, who had prospered them.

So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burn offerings ... There was very great joy among the people, and the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed.

Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.)

We have here a great account of rebirth and renewal: the Israelites had been reduced to slavery, their temple desecrated, and their identity lost as well as their self esteem. But starting from the revolt of a small portion of their people they have come far enough to be able to recognize the need and the possibility of restoring and cleansing the sanctuary, and they are now united to dedicate/consecrate it anew. The result is an explosion of JOY, and the realization on an astonishing fact: the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed.

It seems to me that this is a beautiful metaphor for our own soul and its ups and downs. It is a magnificent temple originally dedicated to God but often reduced to slavery when turned away from God.

When God is not worshiped, there is always another god taking over the worship. If God is not the center of our lives, I (we) become the center, and the result is selfishness, competition, violence, sadness... you name it, because there is no room in the universe for multiple gods, we inhabit a One God universe.

Thus if my life is not centered in God, the best thing I can do is to begin a personal revolution, like the Maccabees, against the tyrant who is ruling my life for its own benefit and against my greater well-being and good, against my own self-centered egotism.

I don't have to wait, like the Maccabees, until all my inner demons are crushed to re-dedicate my personal temple to the Holy Spirit again. As Catholics we have already a victorious Savior who has made available for us the way to our original greatness. We only have to present ourselves with our plea before the Throne of Mercy -the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Then we can experience the deep Joy of being reconciled with our deepest Center, of having the legitimate Leader who gives us identity and direction clearly before our sight so that we can not only follow Him but become one with Him.

No matter how hard we try to create unity among peoples and nations, the only way to true unity is becoming each one united to/with God, then we automatically become one with each other. Isn't that what heaven is about already on earth?


I think it's important to be aware that when the disgrace is removed -as the text shows us- the new temple is even more magnificent than the old one, and the people recognize themselves to be so much more privileged than before they lost their freedom and their temple.

Ultimately our journey on earth is about allowing the Spirit of Christ to fully take over our life in the complete consecration of utter surrender to God. This is the condition in Heaven, these are the saints -we were born to become saints, no less. And we will not be ready to join them until we have the same dedication of our inner temple to God that they had. There are not more or less saintly saints in Heaven, each and everyone of them is a saint because they have given their ALL to God -to the God who gives himself totally to us.

If God is not the Center of the whole of our life, then we may need to take a look at what are we using the journey for, because everything else will be left behind. We may be wasting our time and our life.

And also, once we have allow God to take over the whole of our being and life, our mistakes, errors and infidelities will mean absolutely nothing, as if they never were except, perhaps, that thanks to them and in order to overcome them we engaged ourselves in the challenging revolution of a serious Journey to our final destination.

San Jose Articles: Abortion and the Unborn Child in International Law

Last month a pro-life document created by a team of 31 experts in International Law, international relations, international organizations, public health, science/medicine and government named as The San Jose Articles was presented at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and several other international forums. Due to its relevance I'm publishing here the Articles as well as some background information taken from the San Jose Articles website:

It is now commonplace that people around the world are told there is a new international right to abortion.

Those delivering this message are influential and believable people; UN personnel, human rights lawyers, judges and others.

The assertion they make is false. No UN treaty makes abortion an international human right.

Even so, the assertion is gaining traction around the world.

The San Jose Articles were created to help governments and civil society promote human rights through a proper understanding of how the rights of the unborn child are protected in international law. The articles should be used to counter false assertions, such as the erroneous notion that abortion is a human right.

The purpose of the San Jose Articles is to provide expert testimony that no such right exists and also to demonstrate that the unborn child is already protected in human rights instruments and that governments should begin protecting the unborn child by using international law.

San Jose Articles

ARTICLE 1. As a matter of scientific fact a new human life begins at conception.

ARTICLE 2. Each human life is a continuum that begins at conception and advances in stages until death. Science gives different names to these stages, including zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, infant, child, adolescent and adult. This does not change the scientific consensus that at all points of development each individual is a living member of the human species.

ARTICLE 3. From conception each unborn child is by nature a human being.

ARTICLE 4. All human beings, as members of the human family, are entitled to recognition of their inherent dignity and to protection of their inalienable human rights.  This is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international instruments.

ARTICLE 5. There exists no right to abortion under international law, either by way of treaty obligation or under customary international law.  No United Nations treaty can accurately be cited as establishing or recognizing a right to abortion.

ARTICLE 6. The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) and other treaty monitoring bodies have directed governments to change their laws on abortion.  These bodies have explicitly or implicitly interpreted the treaties to which they are subject as including a right to abortion.

Treaty monitoring bodies have no authority, either under the treaties that created them or under general international law, to interpret these treaties in ways that create new state obligations or that alter the substance of the treaties. 

Accordingly, any such body that interprets a treaty to include a right to abortion acts beyond its authority and contrary to its mandate. Such ultra vires acts do not create any legal obligations for states parties to the treaty, nor should states accept them as contributing to the formation of new customary international law.

ARTICLE 7. Assertions by international agencies or non-governmental actors that abortion is a human right are false and should be rejected. There is no international legal obligation to provide access to abortion based on any ground, including but not limited to health, privacy or sexual autonomy, or non-discrimination.

ARTICLE 8. Under basic principles of treaty interpretation in international law, consistent with the obligations of good faith and pacta sunt servanda, and in the exercise of their responsibility to defend the lives of their people, states may and should invoke treaty provisions guaranteeing the right to life as encompassing a state responsibility to protect the unborn child from abortion.

ARTICLE 9. Governments and members of society should ensure that national laws and policies protect the human right to life from conception. They should also reject and condemn pressure to adopt laws that legalize or depenalize abortion.

Treaty monitoring bodies, United Nations agencies and officers, regional and national courts, and others should desist from implicit or explicit assertions of a right to abortion based upon international law.

When such false assertions are made, or pressures exerted, member states should demand accountability from the United Nations system.

Providers of development aid should not promote or fund abortions.  They should not make aid conditional on a recipient’s acceptance of abortion.

International maternal and child health care funding and programs should ensure a healthy outcome of pregnancy for both mother and child and should help mothers welcome new life in all circumstances.

We — human rights lawyers and advocates, scholars, elected officials, diplomats, and medical and international policy experts — hereby affirm these Articles.

San José, Costa Rica

March 25, 2011