Author: ANTONINO

There are perhaps dozens of categories of freedom. Religious freedom is taken from those who have it, without giving it to dozens of countries that have never had it. Not a few, today, repeat the buzzword that one’s freedom ends where another’s freedom begins, as if it were all clear.

Many flee from thinking of their inner freedom, the freedom of their own neurons, the freedom of their passions, affections and hearts. And even more flee from linking it to responsibility. It is repeated that thinking is free; and can be; do not forget, however, the unique thought, politically correct, that so many want to impose on us.

Most people like to multiply theories of freedom from social constraints. They forget the constraints of fashion and the biological ones that nobody chooses; and the limiting conditions of freedom that each add up in the illusion of, but nevertheless do not reduce his freedom.

The “catechism” of the French Revolution leads many to think that everything is said with a few words on freedom. Many people are convinced that if they do what they like, they are already free. Despite Nelson Mandela’s centenary with 27 years in prison, many do not wonder how he, while incarcerated, remained liberated in his thinking and being.

There is a certain dread about speaking on debauchery as if there were only freedom with kindness, and people do not abuse it when they relate to others. Nor do many people like to speak of those who lose inner and outer freedom in each repetition of their substance-dependent behaviors and obsessive thoughts and behavioral compulsions. Few like to think that there are many people, perhaps more and more, who behave with reduced freedom in one, two, three and more behaviors.

Are the millions of Anonymous who face, with the Twelve-Step method of Minnesota, some of their behaviors without freedom and without truth, mistaken? At least these put side by side freedom and truth as the opposite to the lie of their life; they put side by side freedom, beauty and kindness of living.

It seems that it is not politically correct and well accepted to say that lie is glued to the lack of freedom, even when it is stated otherwise. Before Pilate, who seemed to want to know the truth about Jesus, he soon became disinterested in hearing Jesus saying that he came to bear witness to the truth (Jn 18: 38-39). Freedom and lying, together, can only be an illusion; the opposite of goodness and beauty of life. Freedom and lies end in corruption and slavery for the liar and others.

This apparent freedom, cooked with lies, cannot lead to the much-vaunted fraternity of the 1789 revolution, nor to the equal dignity of all people.

Equality, proclaimed without the dignity, respected, of all people, is a colossal sociopolitical lie. And why is the statement of the One who fully knows what it means to be free, so forgotten, “you shall know the truth, and it shall make you free”

Fr. Aires Gameiro, OH

– Brought to you by Fr. Aires Gameiro (aires.gameiro@isjd.pt)

In all periods of time there is a lot of talk on the poor… on trying to solve the problem of poverty. It always remains unsolved. In all talks, culprits are found. On the other hand, some give food, clothing, and shelter to many poor people. There are a large number of theories on how to end poverty. Even some very rich people are doing much to end, not poverty, but the poor victims of poverty, disease and misery. Many are inventing techniques so that there may be no poor, sick and weak people; ranging from abandonment, to technologies of not letting them be born, and to discarding the disabled.

For 2000 years the words of Jesus have been remembered and misunderstood: “You will always have the poor among you” (Jn 12: 8) and forgotten the parable: there was a rich man and a poor man, Lazarus, with wounds at his door, to whom not even crumbs the rich man gave (Luke 16: 19-31).

It is little remembered that Jesus receives what is done to the poor. They “are” Him. Many reject the poor because they reject Jesus. They do not want to accept a weak and poor Saviour Messiah, nor those who believe in him and are by his side; they only accept powerful and rich saviours who crush the poor. This is what led Jesus to the cross. They admired and preferred Barabbas, the robber, to a “meek and humble of heart” Messiah.

They do not accept the poor, so they do not accept a poor and weak Jesus; they do not accept Jesus, so they do not accept poor people. Christ, Son of God, and the poor, are inseparable. One accepts each other or rejects each other.

Darwinism, Nietzsche (ism), Marxism, Leninism, Nazism, Stalinism, Maoism and other ideologies are implacable examples of rejection of weak, poor and miserable people. Nazism seems to be the first anti-Christian ideology that made laws to favour animals more than poor and weak people.

On the contrary, thousands of merciful men help their poor brethren because they accept Jesus Christ and see them as images of Jesus. The rejection of the poor and the sick makes it difficult to accept Jesus Christ and His true word. Big titles world events that are contradictory can be better understood in the light of what is done or not done to the poor / weak and to Jesus Christ. To respect the dignity and life of the poor; to give them food, clothing, home, school, health care even if they are incurable patients, is wisdom of the heart, which improves givers and receivers’ quality of life. Without this wisdom, humans despise diamonds because they are dirty.

Are not abortion, euthanasia, putting animals before children, the poor and refugees comparable to throwing away the baby with dirty water? Are they not similar practices to Darwinism and Nazism? The poor, and Jesus Christ, are always together in the heart of merciful people.

Aires Gameiro, OH

COME TO WORSHIP – GO TO SERVE!

It was my first and only visit to Pennsylvania (USA) to visit my friends Michael and Olivia, and their children, who had moved from California. Michael was a Seventh Day Adventist and Olivia a devout Portuguese Catholic. They had two children, and I used to visit them like if we belonged to the same family. In spite of being Adventist, Michael never missed the Sunday Catholic Mass to accompany his children and his wife in their faith journey.

One day, he received orders from his work to move to Pennsylvania. Later on, I was surprised when I was invited to be Michael’s grandfather. Michael was going to be baptized in the Catholic Church! Of course when I visited this family in California, I always tried to behave like a Catholic, including prayer before meals. Also, I never pushed but I really, once in a while, invited him to become a Catholic and walk closer to his family in their faith journey.

During my visit to Pennsylvania, they took me around and of course I forgot many of the things I have seen. But there was one thing that I will never forget. This church was open and we decided to visit the church. I don’t remember the size or the structure of the church. But one thing I do remember: at the front door of the church there was a gigantic door mat. In the direction to the altar we could read these three words: COME TO WORSHIP. Then, on the same door mat, when leaving the church we could read, in big letters, these three words: GO TO SERVE. Then I thought to myself: this door mat and these words should be mandatory in every church of the world.

Today’s Gospel (Mark 6:7) starts like this «Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs…». We don’t come to church mainly to be protected. We come to church mainly to be sent. The world is waiting for us. Go to serve.
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An important part of Evangelism is the simple act of inviting a friend or a family member to join us in worship. Let us try. You will be surprised to see how many people are going to feel happy to say one day: «I was very lucky to find a friend like him or like her». And this person can be you or me.

TURN YOUR SCARS INTO STARS

When, last Sunday, I met Dr. Luisa, MD, for the first time, I immediately realized that I was standing before a golden vase.

Very gently she approached me with such a beautiful smile, to inform me that she was going to spend part of the Mass looking at her telephone. The reason was that she was deaf and she was going to use the telephone to accompany the celebration of the Eucharist, especially the readings.

I didn’t resist the temptation to ask her if she wouldn’t mind to give her testimony to our congregation; if she wouldn’t mind to tell her story. Dr. Luisa immediately said yes. Before the Mass ended, I invited her to come to the pulpit and tell her story. It was a very moving story.

Her grandfather had been a physician. Her father had been a physician. She never doubted that her way of staying in this world would be to become a physician too.

Dr. Luisa is a Medical Doctor and spends the best of her time and the best of her skills in helping deaf people like herself.

That reminds me of a 13-year-old girl in California, daughter of a Protestant Minister, Dr. Robert Schuller, who lost one of her legs in a motorcycle accident. After a long and painful recovery journey, she told her story by writing a book called “TURN YOUR SCARS INTO STARS”. This is what Dr. Luisa did. She turned her scar into a brilliant STAR.

Since I am saying Mass in this Chapel I have seen people many times applauding other people and other stories. Last Sunday July 8th was the first time that I saw people standing for a long applause to Dr. Luisa who for a few times repeated that she lived to help people. Thank you Dr. Luisa for turning your scar into a beautiful and brilliant STAR.

Thank you Dr. Rui and Dr. Cristina Silva for being the guiding star that guided Dr. Luisa to our Mass. Thank you Dr. Rui, my personal friend, for being the Guardian Angel (as she called you) of Dr. Luisa in her professional life as a Medical Doctor.

Love & Peace, Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade: (bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

In a mother’s womb were two babies; one asked the other: «Do you believe in life after delivery? ». The other replied «Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later. » …
« Nonsense », said the first, « There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be? ».
The second said «I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouth. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now».
The first replied – «That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded. ».
The second insisted – «Well I think there is something, and maybe it’s different from life here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore. ».
The first replied: « Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes nowhere. ».
«Well, I don’t know, » said the second, «but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us. ».
The first replied «Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now? ».
The second said: «She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist. ».
«Well I don’t see her, so it is only logical that she doesn’t exist», said the first, to which the second replied: «Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above. ».
Sometimes we are like the two babies in the story, and we ask: “Is there life after death?”… “Does God exist?”
I have heard that even though birds are surrounded by air, they don’t see the air. Fish are surrounded by water, but the last thing they see is the water. We are so immersed in God. We are completely soaked in God like a sponge with water. We are completely surrounded by God like babies by their mother’s wombs, like birds by air and fish by water but we are so distracted by the «life» and the «needs» created by us that we take the risk of even saying and feeling that God doesn’t exist unless like the second baby says «Sometimes, when you are in silence and focus and listen we can hear HIS loving voice, calling down from above».

Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

One of my first small cultural shocks, when I went to live and work in California, happened in one of my first Baptisms. I baptized a beautiful little girl with the name of Victoria. I spent the Mass and the entire ceremony calling her Victoria. When I dropped the sacred waters of her Baptism on her head I knew that I had said: «Victoria, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit». I thought, and everybody was saying, that it had been a beautiful and meaningful celebration. However, as soon as the ceremony was over I heard all the people talking to the baby and calling her Vicky. « Hi, Vicky!»…«You are so beautiful Vicky!»… «You are an angel Vicky!» That’s when I got into some kind of panic. «Oh my God. I baptized the wrong Baby». Then it was when I realized that Vicky was a nickname for Victoria.

That’s when I started discovering that, in other countries, it was OK and cute to use nicknames even with adult people. That’s when I learned that Bill is William, Manny is Manuel, Jack is John, Tony is António, and so on. That’s when I learned that it’s part of the Anglo culture to shorten people’s names. That’s when I started understanding people when they would ask me: «Fr.Bernardino, can I call you Bernie»? And my answer was: «Of course you can, but it is not my name». «Fr. Bernardino, can I call you Dino»? «Yes, of course, but it is not my name»

You see, when I was a child, changing the name was one of the ways that people, especially children, had to insult one another, and very often that would cause physical fights. But finally I discovered that changing the name was neither right nor wrong. It was cultural. And cultures can only be understood by our hearts. Cultures are a sacred ground.

2.

Later in my life, just to make things easier and faster, I started signing my emails and my letters to my family just like this: « Tio B. »…That means « Uncle B. » short for « Uncle Bernardino ». My two nieces, living in different countries, (Ana in the USA and Noraima in Aruba), without talking with one another, decided to see in this «B.» a short for «bee», the simple name of a simple insect. What they never knew was that, one day, in a workshop conducted by a priest from Brazil, he asked all present to introduce themselves and say the name of an animal that would most identify us. And guess what. I chose the simple insect bee. And the three of us, without talking with one another, saw the same meaning of the insect bee.

It was like an inspiration to program my life and I wish this would become a way of life. The program for my life and for the life of each one of us, would be that when I contacted people it would be like the bees contacting the flowers of the fruit trees. The bees contact the flowers, gently touch them, are nourished by them, take the best of each one of them without hurting them, and then visit other flowers, sharing with them the best of each one of them. And from that hard work, they become powerful sources of life.

From that work, the trees produce beautiful, healthy and nourishing fruits. According to my nieces, that should be part of my job description: to touch people, and try to find and take the best of their stories and share with other people to inspire them and give them meaning for their lives; helping them to live their lives in full. This could mean bringing people together to help each other, healing their wounds, alleviating their suffering. This could be called «building common-union». This could be called «building Communion». This could be called «living a permanent Sacrament of the Eucharist». This could be called «Celebrating Mass, 24 hours a day».

Love and Peace, Fr. Bernardino Andrade