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December 2006 
Jesus Christ, and his contribution to Mankind.
Jesus, and who He was.
We who are Catholics, or Christians in general, have our views, due to the
teachings we have learnt from our childhood. As whatever is
understood, differs according to the capacity of the mind of the one who
understands it, perhaps the early missionaries who taught in our lands, kept it
simple and it was devotion oriented, as it was grasped easily.
Deeper knowledge was acquired only by serious studies, that were offered in the
Seminaries, which trained priests. Now a days, this knowledge is
given even to lay people and so it is in the open.
Common knowledge has that a person known as Jesus, was born in Bethlehem in
Palestine around 2000 years ago, when the Romans ruled this area and the Consul
of the Roman Empire was Pontius Pilate. The Hebrew King, Herod
the Great had just built the Jewish temple where the present day Al Aqsa
Mosque stands, and it was considered his greatest
achievement. It was in this temple the parents of Jesus came
searching for him, when once on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he was not seen in the
company of either of them
The early information of the existence of a person called Jesus, whom many
Jews followed was made known to the Roman emperor by Pliny the Roman
Historian. Josephus, the Hebrew historian, who might have been
a young boy during the time of Jesus, wrote about the Jewish travails of
those times, focused mainly on the traditionalist Jews, who were the powerful
section of those times. As the followers of Jesus were from the
lower classes, he failed to record events that took place, perhaps as Jesus was
a persona non grata among the higher classes of the Jews. However,
Josephus comments on the existence of the followers of Jesus who did not take
part in the rebellion against the Roman Empire, which brought destruction
of this city in 70 AD and the subsequent dispersal of the
Jews. From that time, there has been an antagonism between the
traditionalist Jews and those Jews who broke away to follow
Jesus. The followers of Jesus merged into the Roman Society as
the leaders of the Church decided to welcome non Jews in their
midst. This decision too aggravated the schism..
The followers of Christ were the simple people of that area and the early
writings which were read during their prayer assemblies, were recorded and
written down, and copies sent to the different communities of the
believers. They came to known as the "Good
Tidings" also known as the Gospels. There were many
writings, but the Church decided to adopt only four of them, from Mathew, Mark,
Luke and John. Luke also wrote an additional book called the Acts of
the Apostles. The letters which the Apostles addressed
to their congregations in different churches were also copied and sent to them
and distributed and came to be known as the Epistles. All
these writings were codified and preserved as the New Testament in the 2nd
century after the death of John the Evangelist. The Christians
attributed to them a divine quality of truth. That they did
not contain any errors and that they were the Word of
God. This comes from the early pronouncements of Jesus
who referred to prophesies in the old testament as inspired by God Himself about
his coming. Thus after the Protestant Reformation, as it implied a
break from the Roman Church, which considered divine guidance and the
infallibility of the Pope whom the Protestants rejected, were in need of a
document which would re-enforce their legitimacy a, called upon the Bible as the
word of God and began quoting it to give themselves the legitimacy which they
lacked after they had rejected the Pope. Unfortunately, that
was not the idea of Jesus, who had founded the Church,
on Peter. The
inevitable interpretation of the Bible by different leaders to suit their
individual aims brought about the myriad denominations, but as their followers
may be sincere and can not be faulted, God may have a leeway for them and be
understanding and even help them, and the Catholics will be wrong to condemn
them as they are in no position to judge what God has in His mind.
The Present Times.
After two thousand years of Christianity as interpreted and understood by
humans we seem to be in a mess. Each one points out at the failures of the
other, and the imperfections they find in them. Many are tempted to give
up on their Churches, and jump the boat. Find greener pastures
elsewhere and go on groping in the darkness of their souls in anguish and
agony. In spite of all the failures within the Church one wonders
why the Church seems to stand on its feet. There have been
experts from the beginning, who have pronounced doom on this Church, but it
always has the habit to rise from the ashes. Before taking the fatal
step of jumping the boat one is well advised to ponder on the following, and
wait for some more time.
According to Mathew, one of the followers of Jesus, this conversation took
place between Jesus and his aposltes::
(Mathew: ch 16. ver. 14-19)
"14. And Jesus came into the quarters of Caesarea
Philippi: and he asked his disciples, saying: Whom do men say that the
Son of man is?
14 But they said: Some John the Baptist, and other some Elias, and others
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
15 Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am?
16 Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona:
because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in
heaven.
18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in
heaven. "
It has been suspected by many that as an institution created by God for a
purpose known only to him, he guides it in spite of the fact that it is run by
weak human beings, prone to commit sins and evil, have evil
intentions and not willing sometimes to do what their Master had
asked them. - in spite of all this, God has a way of pulling out the rug from
under their feet, make them suffer persecutions and cruelty so that they are
reminded, and made to realize who the real Master is.
The Protestant Reformation
The western Church which reached such heights of wealth, and power, was
destroyed by this one great schism which befell the Western Church some 500
years ago. But today the story is one of re-uniting and forgiving
the past. The hidden hand of God was shown when Europe
was tearing itself asunder and brother was fighting against his brother,
spreading scurrilous stories with the aid of the invention of Guttenberg,
somewhere in Spain, the Basques were fighting the French, and one soldier named
Ignatius of Loyola from Spain got injured and was hospitalized in
France. When he wanted some books to read, the nuns gave him
scriptures and books of saints. Even though Ignatius was not
deeply religious, the hidden hand of God worked within him, and he was bowled
over by God and the result was the Jesuit order, and one of its stalwart
sons who happened to follow this Ignatius was Francis
Xavier, whose mortal remains still remain uncorrupted in a mausoleum
in the Church of Bom Jesu in old Goa, in India. Few will
understand how in a span of ten years Francis could have worked so much, that
his legacy still shines to this day. I call this the hidden
hand of God, and it is not impossible for him to do the same even in our times,
when we worry and wonder what is going to happen to us in the next few years.
Old Goa
Whenever you to to Goa, make it a point to visit this Church of Bom
Jesu. The tourist guides will be able to help you and this will help
in your understanding of your friends who might be the followers of this
Faith. Let the actions of so called "Christians" who in
their misguided belief think that God is on their side, when they go to wars and
kill the "enemies" all in the name of their "national
interest" - which term does not exist in the lexicon of
God. Instead, focus on the works of Mother Teresa who
understood Christ better than the false leaders. Help in
bringing greater understanding between people of different faiths and opinions,
as even though we can not understand, God understands them and they are all his
children. Let us not fall in the trap of false
pride. Tolerance was a virtue propounded by Jesus as well as
our own great leader, Mahatma Gandhi.
Herod the Great ruled from 37 BC.. to 4
BC. Under his kingship post-Biblical Israel really rose to its political
and material heights in the early days of the Roman Empire. At his death,
his kingdom, was subdivided among three of his sons. One son, Herod
Antipas, took the northern territories of the Galilee and those on the east side
of the Jordan River. Another son, Phillip, took the areas to the east of the Sea
of Galilee The third son, Archelaeus, took the major
portion. But Archelaeus, in contrast to his two half-brothers,
didn't fare as well as his father, as within ten years, he was removed by the
Romans and replaced with military Procurators, or Prefects, posted there
by the Roman administration to oversee the political activities of the state.
Pontius Pilate, is one of these first round of governors posted to the province
of Judea
The inscription found at Caesarea Maritima, which refers to Pontius
Pilate, is one of the most important discoveries made in the archeological work
of the last two decades.
Precisely because it's the first piece of hard evidence of the existence of
Pontius Pilate. But this is the first piece of direct evidence from an
archaeological source which actually gives us his name and tells us he was there
as Governor. The city of Caesarea Maritima was actually the Governor's
residence. This was the capital city, from the perspective of the Roman
political administration.
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