JOURNEY OF A SALESIAN SEMINARIAN Stages of Formation

Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him’. (Mk 1, 17-18)

Every salesian brother and salesian priest is one who has responded to this call of God to serve Him and His flock in the Salesian Society, following the charism of St. John Bosco. He lives out this call in a loving encounter with God and in a permanent dedicated service to the young. There are 15750 salesians, n. priests and n. brothers working in 129 countries for the well-being of poor and abandoned young people across the globe.

But, one becomes a Salesian whether priest or brother only after having undergone years of formation in holiness of life, study, work and salesian-spirit as prescribed by our constitutions (the rule book). From the moment a boy or young man expresses his desire to join the salesian society he is closely followed, formed, assisted to discern and examined whether fit for the salesian way of life. We call this process ‘formation’.

Formation consists of six stages – aspirantate, pre-novitiate, novitiate, post-novitiate, practical training and theologate – spread out into ten to fourteen years for salesian brothers and priests respectively. These are the six stages of formation – the journey of a salesian candidate.

Aspirantate

Aspirantate is a centre for vocation guidance. This stage introduces students into salesian style of life, spirit of Don Bosco and his concern for poor boys. It would be full of activities, study, prayer and work. Moreover the students will have ‘live-in’ experiences in different community a month or so.

He is then, promoted with his consent, his parents and the report of the superiors to Pre-novitiate.

Pre-novitiate

Pre-novitiate is a time to discern his vocation. Here, he is helped to mature as a human being and as a good Christian. To this end, he is guided into psycho-sexual maturity, physical growth, introduced into prayer life, Eucharist & other sacraments, Marian devotion; and salesian apostolate (youth work). He is encouraged to pick up as many skills as possible like music, dance, drama, singing, writing, communication etc. It lasts for a year.

At the end of the year the candidate, if suitable he is admitted to the Novitiate.

Novitiate

Novitiate is the beginning of salesian religious experience. In this he carefully examines the motives for his choice to be salesian, makes certain of his suitability for this call with the help of his Novice master. More importantly, here he is helped to gradually develop his salesian identity. This stage consists of initiation into interior life by deepening one’s relationship with God through Word of God, Eucharist and personal prayer; experience of fraternal life (community life); assimilation of salesian charism by studying the constitutions (Rule Book), life of St. John Bosco, and his system of education.

Normally, this stage is for 365 days – one full year. At the end of this stage, if he is found suitable, he makes his first commitment to the Lord as a Salesian. He thus becomes a member of the Society with temporary vows.

Post Novitiate

Post-novitiate continues the process of religious maturing which he began in his novitiate. It is a special time for integration of faith, culture and life through his philosophical and secular studies. Besides, it trains him for the phase of Practical training which follows immediately. Philosophical studies addresses questions basic to life like God, religion, death, after-life, meaning of life, good, suffering leading into a formation of mind for right reasoning. Secular studies (bachelors or masters) in other colleges, helps him be introduced into life sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), Mathematics and human sciences (sociology, psychology, economics, commerce). It is an opportunity to understand the society, culture and life through the subjects and their first hand experience. 

It lasts 4-6 years. At the end of the stage the candidate becomes a convinced salesian, with mental equanimity and sound reason.

Practical Training

All along the period of formation importance is not only given for study and prayer but also to pastoral activities of our mission. He is trained all through since his aspirantate in theory, and practice how to work with the young. This phase is his first hand experience of being a ‘salesian’ in the field. Here he grows in his salesian vocation and checks his suitability to this way of life – praying, playing, working and always accompanying the young like a guardian angel. It lasts normally for 2 years.

After this stage, the candidate in all maturity, through prayer and discernment opts to commit himself as a salesian either as a priest or brother for all his life. Hereafter the period of specific formation for salesian brother or priest commences respectively.

Theologate

Salesian Brother

A salesian brother is given opportunity to deepen his knowledge of salesian heritage – the tradition and history. Besides, he undergoes theological studies for two years.

Salesian Priest

A salesian priest undergoes a period of theological formation that crowns his preparation to priesthood. Here he is given opportunity to learn and experience in depth, Christ the priest, Word of God, history of the Faith, the Church, Canon law, Salesian spirit etc.  He deepens his spirituality to become another Christ to all who meet him. The phase trains him to be a good catholic salesian priest after the heart of St. John Bosco. This lasts for three and half years.

At the end of first year he becomes lector, the second year acolyte, the third year deacon and after six months priest.

Conclusion

The journey does not end here. All life is a Vocation; all life is formation. He then continues to learn all along his life with the evolution and dynamism of life, the world and the young in on going formation.

Psychology of the Gospels

‘No one should pretend to understand what one does not.

Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.’[a]

With all the hype of Christianity to be an authentic religion, Jesus as God in the form of human, and the salvific/redeeming power of his message every one attends to gospels one time or another in his/her life time. Despite nearly two thousand years of scholarship, research and study of the Bible especially the Second Testament (NT), the text remains vulnerable in the hands of the ignorant readers. We swing between two extremes from reducing it to a mythical genre of ancient literature filled with spectacular events, extraterrestrial beings, miracles (supernatural actions) and morals to treating it like any other modern biography of a spiritual person gifted with extra ordinary powers. This may seem exaggerated, however is convincing as we examine our attitude towards gospels in this case the whole Bible. Blinded by the modern jacket on the one hand, the gossips of antiquity on the other we usually fail to discern the authentic nature of the gospels, ‘the psychology of the gospels’, thus ending up with the distortion of its message. One can find numerous evidences of such distortions at different levels and at different times in history inside and outside Christianity.

The gospels contain data concentrated on ‘the message/good news i.e. Jesus of Nazareth’ of the first quarter of the first century AD, as it has been handed down by traditions (apostolic tradition). At the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the followers of Jesus who have seen, lived, heard him kept alive the memory of this founder through word of mouth in preaching, teaching and worship. C.H. Dodd names them as ‘living voice’. We may become apprehensive of oral tradition as the vehicle of the message, as it is liable to many slips between hearing a thing and repeating it to another person.  True, but the early followers of Jesus were Jews. Among Jews of that time there was a custom that the disciple was responsible for remembering and faithfully handing on the teaching of his master. The disciples of Jesus however, would not have given a word-for-word repetition as in the Jewish schools. They were practical teachers concerned to carry the meaning across to their hearers. In all probability, they would have recasted sayings, inserted an explanatory comment, to make it more applicable to the existing situation as the message was carried across borders and cultures; or, introduced an unbalanced elaboration of certain aspects of the sayings of Jesus, provoked by the debates against non-Christian public or even within Christian community, so much on the conscious side. With the growing understanding of the unceasing impact of the unconscious mind in our thoughts and actions, contemporary scholars unearth numerous biases that run undercurrent in the Jesus material of the gospels.  We have evidences of such inclusions. Moreover, the hypothesis is reasonable.

With the years, they became traditions; some took the written form as collections of sayings of the Lord, collections of miracles, and collections of infancy and passion narratives. Scholars contend Paul, who was not part of the inner-circle of Jesus, to have known Jesus’ sayings from the oral tradition, and used the authourity of the body of material circulated under the title ‘collection of sayings of the Lord’ to communicate the message in his letters.

At some point, the early Christians combined the sayings and other traditions to form a larger composition of the life of Jesus. Far from presenting mere historical facts, the writers intended them to be a written record of the living voice (tradition) as passed on to them by the early missionaries.[1]  In the traditions and written documents, as a result we find a double strain: a report of certain happenings, together and inseparably interwoven with an interpretation of these happenings, in other words ‘fact’ plus ‘interpretation’. They were reports of the faith of the early church, illumined by the risen-Jesus-experience.  Such an ‘enlightened memory’ was the ‘Jesus-material’, the reservoir at the disposal of evangelists inside early church. Luke writes in his dedicatory: “Many writers have undertaken to draw up an account of the events that have happened among us, following the traditions handed down to us by the original eye-witnesses and servants of the gospel [the umbrella term for the latter group is ‘early missionaries’].” (Lk 1.1) One such written document at hand is the Gospel of Mark,[2] the earliest canonical gospel (65-70 CE), which echoes the living voice telling the story than other gospels.    

Gospels of Mathew, Luke and John are an elaborate account of the message/goodness in style based on these materials. Mark, as mentioned above is more a compiler than an author. He reproduced what had come from traditions and other written documents with little attempt to write them in his own way, unlike Luke, Mathew and John who present them in chorological, pedagogical, and theological characters respectively. Moreover, the substantial unity in Mathew, Mark and Luke proves in all probability that Mark has been a basis of narrative for Mathew and Luke. This however does not deny their use of other Jesus material, which is obvious in their content. Gospel of John of course, has been a fruit of another tradition, quite different from the rest. Adapting himself to the pattern of Greek-speaking east – Ephesus, his work abounds with sophisticated theology, symbolism and Imagery. In gist, the canonical gospels communicate facts with the intention of bringing out as forcibly as possible the central belief, the belief in risen Jesus. To this end, they seek the aid of symbolism and imagery present in Jewish poetry and prophecy.

The fourth gospel, for example tells the readers “you will see heaven wide open, and God’s angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (Jn 1.51) as it is about to begin its account of the public career of Jesus. This does not mean that the gospel intends to describe the scene with winged beings visibly flying up and down. Instead, it meant that with his unique career, Jesus brings God and man, heaven and earth together as never before. This imagery is also present in the account of baptism - the beginning of his public ministry – in other gospels. It would be idle to ask what actually happened instead, to realize that the text presents something very important, a historic occasion, and a turning point in the career of Jesus. Its profound significance could not but be suggested only by the use of such solemn and impressive imagery.

Symbols and imagery thickly crowd the infancy narratives of Mathew and Luke, which is their prelude to the account of the public career of Jesus: ‘visit of angels, prophetic dreams, the marvelous star in the east, miraculous birth greeted with songs from the heavenly choir, all the appealing incidents noted in the Christmas carol and nativity play’. Again, they stand together to make clear that the birth of Jesus was a decisive moment in history, the beginning of something genuinely new. Such use of symbolism, as Dodd writes, is poetical. It means that the facts are viewed in depth as laden with implicit meanings. It also applies to miracle stories - the signs and symbols intended to affirm the fact that wherever Jesus was they experienced the presence and the power of God. These stories are therefore, the gripping power of the spiritual renewal, which the first Christians found in their encounter with Jesus. The question of their factual accuracy or possibility misses the purpose of its inception. Miracles (understood as a breach of the laws of nature) do not happen,[3] however the whole point of the gospel is that the circumstances were far from ordinary, in the presence of Jesus Christ. They are supposed to have felt the power of God in his presence.

At times, the scholars quote miracles and infancy narratives to prove the gospels as spiritual fabrication of the life of Jesus. But, we have made it clear that gospels were not meant to be pure historical narratives. They are content communicating the faith in history. Another proof of such hypothesis is the disproportionate space allotted to the last stages of the life of Jesus: ‘the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus and the events immediately preceding and following it’. The events have had such an impression on those involved and witnessed all the writers invariably go into details. Another reason most probably is the fact of its importance as the death and resurrection of Jesus was perceived as the final conflict between the power of evil and God for our salvation.

Gospels therefore, are neither biography nor spiritual fiction, sayings, book of miracles instead a text that expounds the living faith of the people who lived with Jesus and his disciples. Accordingly it sheds insights on Jesus, his life and mission and through him the manifestation of the love of God in our lives.

---

                

             [a] Adapted from Antony Chekhov (1860-1904), Russian playwright and master of the modern short story. 

                  [1] The early missionaries proclaimed the fulfillment of the divine revelation in Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah and the beginning of a new era in which offered forgiveness for the past, spiritual power for the present and hope for the future.

                [2] Speaking about it, Dodd notes, “[i]n Mark, within a very broad general scheme, there is a certain freedom and looseness of arrangement, and in his rather rough and informal style we seem often to overhear the tones of the living voice telling a story. We are probably near to the ‘original eyewitnesses and servants of the Gospel’ to whom Luke refers.” (pg. 36)

                  [3] Science is yet to understand the dynamics of matter.

Biblio:

Dodd, C.H. Founder of Christianity. London: Harper Collins. 

Brown, Raymond E. Introduction to the New Testament. London: Yale University Press, 2007.

                

LIFE - letz change da rulz

Life is beautiful.

Probably it is beautiful because it has shades of multiple colors… joy, success, toughness, adventure, system, tradition, culture, nature, speed, light, darkness, limitation the list goes on.

Most probably it is beautiful because it is precious, since everyone has only one life. It is natural that everyone wants to make the best of it. We want to live a happy, meaningful, fruitful and good life. This thirst is present in everyone. It is so basic a search, we unconsciously pickup rules from the environment in which we grow up. If we analyze, usually it consists of following elements: quality education, Job with a good salary, beautiful spouse, multi-wizard kidz, get settled with a house, increase bank accounts, old age tours, we don’t think about the end.

It is very important to note that everything noted in the list is steeped with ‘self-interest’. Here, the philosophy of life is ‘my life’ ‘my family’ ‘my job’ ‘my future’ ‘my kids’! How pathetic their end is… They die as if they have done nothing solid with their life!

Life is much more these boundaries we draw unto ourselves. It is like a river generously outpouring oneself. We receive freely; we give freely. Look, for example at the nature. This is the secret of life! Those abide by this we call them GOD.

Letz therefore change the rulz… education, job, partner, kidz, house and then I do something for the people around me! Because that’s going to give real meaning for our lives, a life completely lived for others is ideal!  Medha Patkar, A. Roy, so many unknown people. That need not be will of God for everyone… But everyone here is sure called to live in solidarity with our neighbor (the stranger outside our house). This is the key to meaningful life. This is what makes an authentic Christian. 

There are numerous stories of ordinary Indian who are making a difference in lives of the people! I found a score them in  Real Heroes: Ordinary People Extraordinary services. From Bina Kalindi – West Bengal to M. Yoganathan – Tamil Nadu they have worked for the wellbeing of the people from different walks of life with varied initiatives.   

Bina Kalindi

Yoganathan

If we self-examine ourselves for the happiest moment of our life, certainly it would point to the moment when we have helped someone, who could not repay us. If we have not experienced this, it is high time we have one such experience.  Let us try applying the new rules and enjoy a happy life, happy end, a meaningful existence here on earth.

MARTYR 2011: Shehla Masood (1973-2011) … and then she was shot dead.

Ever since the Right to Information Act 2005, has been instituted in the Indian Legal System, an unbroken chain of ‘murders’ of RTI activists, scores of them from different walks of life, has become a shameful and shocking reality of our country.  The death tolls of the “information martyrs” or “RTI martyrs”, as bloggers tag them, are on the rise, journalists note at least a dozen of them only in the last year. They dare to know the (uncomfortable) truth, courageously act on them, receive death-threat-calls and physical abuses, continue to pursue their noble service, and finally be killed. Unfortunately, this has become the ‘one-line-story’ of every one of their inspiring lives.

July 29, 2011 Shehla Masood posing for a photo outside the MP police HQ in Bhopal Courtesy, www.outlookindia.com.

Shehla Masood, the slain 38 year old RTI activist (16 Aug, 2011), is the latest to join this noble fold. Born in a Muslim family (1973), she lived with her father Sultan Masood, a retired government officer of the state education department, and her aunt Rubab Zaidi (Bajjo) in the Koh-e-fiza locality of Bhopal. She has a sister Ayesha Masood, then studying microbiology in New Jersey. She graduated herself from the Bhopal School of Social Sciences and South Delhi Polytechnic for Women.

Like every upper-middle-class girl, Shehla began her schooling with conventional dreams – Air Hostess, Mass Communications – she radically ‘changed d rulz’ of her life in course of time. From a full time entrepreneur she turned into a major social-environmental activist seeking justice, good governance, police reforms, women’s rights, minority and wildlife conservation. In the former part of her life (until 2005) she founded ‘MIRACLES’ an event management company, in the latter half of 1999.  It organized events like corporate promotions, rallies, social events, beauty contests for both the government and private sectors. Later in 2004, she initiated ‘UDAI’ an NGO working for good governance, transparency, environment, sports, tribal welfare, women, culture and minority issues in Madhya Pradesh.

Things gradually changed, the woman who hoarded fineries and fashionable clothes and enjoyed a good life, intruded the ‘private’ arena of Indian bureaucracy. She claims to claims to have used RTI act right from the start (Outlook, “I fear for my life. But I’ll go on”, Interview Sep 05, 2011). However, a firm entry into RTI activism happened in 2008, when she filed RTI application on tender process adopted by the cultural department of Bhopal.  Sources show that her conflicts with the high profile officials began then, only to rapidly increase with the growing years as she ploughed into uncomfortable truths of the bureaucracy.  Her massive battle for justice against the brutal murder of the JhurJhura, in Bandhavgarh National Park, MP in the last year brought her into the limelight as a social-environment activist. Her probe into that case exposed a whole band of corrupt-to-the-core forest bureaucracy and other issues concerning the welfare of wildlife especially the tigers.

Further such queries, uncovered the misuse of public funds by various officials including the chief minister of MP, certain police officers and members of judiciary. She did not stop there; she challenged the illegal mining project (£292m) by Rio Tinto in Chhattarpur district, MP which threatened the wild life in Panna Tiger Reserve and Syamri river. She has thus filed hundreds of RTIs. All this while, she received continuous ‘death-threats’, mostly from uniformed mafia (IAS, IPS and IFS)! Nothing but only death could stop her passionate crusade for justice for the wildlife conservation especially tigers and good governance. Despite her repeated petitions for her safety, one letter even penned to the Home Ministry, the government failed to protect her from her enemies. She was gunned down in her car, on the 16 August right in front of her house by unidentified assailants.

 

Gethin Chamberlain reporting the murder writes,

It is Tuesday morning in that same respectable street in Bhopal. A large khaki tent is pitched opposite Shehla’s house. Four police officers, posted to guard her family, sprawl inside on charpoys, fast asleep. The road leads to a large slum, whose residents pass regularly in front of the house, much as they must have done on the morning she died. It was Shehla’s father, Sultan Masood, who found her lying with her head back in the front seat of her little silver Hyundai Santro car. "I called: ‘Shehla, Shehla’, but she didn’t speak. I took some water and splashed it on her face and then her dupatta [scarf] slipped down and I noticed the black hole in her neck. I started screaming: ‘Somebody has killed my daughter, someone has shot my daughter.’ It is almost inconceivable that no one saw the killer or heard the shot, but Shehla’s fate appears to have been a warning to others to keep silent. For Shehla, though, silence was never an option.

“Shehla Masood battled corruption in India.Was that why she was killed?”

guardian.co.uk. 24 September, 2011

Eighty-six days have passed since her assassination, her case looks bleak, the murder a guarded mystery. But, for the ‘weird stories’ and rumors the case has made no progress. Her enemies have executed her physical life, her spirit however has been unleashed to the lengths and breaths of our country inspiring men and women, especially the young to talk the untrodden path. It is amazing to note how such a short span of public life could spur so much ‘uproar’.  Probably she has asked the right questions to the right persons direct and clear. As she writes, “Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence” in her blog, and notes in her interview to Outlook, “I fear for my life. But I will continue working and carry on.”, she has led a courageous life! The baton is passed on to us.

Her Father: Sultan Masood

Her father, brooding over her death says,

She was a fighter.

For me she is a martyr

and I would want justice for her.

Chandrani Bannerjee, “Information Martyr” Outlook Sep 5, 2011

http://www.outlookindia.com/information-martyr.html

She was equal to 4-5 sons

She knows it would take her many years

if she took the middle path.

She found a way. She jumped.

Vandita Mishra, “The Life and Death of Shehla Masood” Indian Express Sep 18, 2011

http://the life and death of shehla Masood – Express India.html  

Writing about her, her friends note,

She knew too much to live.  – writes Gethin Chamberlin in his article borrowing the expression from her friends.

Gethin Chamberlin, “Shehla Masood battled corruption in India.

Was that why she was killed?” Sep 24, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/se/24/shehla-masood-corruption-india-killed.html

Her Sister: Ayesha Masood.

‘All that this earth can give, they thrust aside…

and for one fleeting dream of right, they died.’

How quickly they fade, our little stars of truth

that come tearing through

our thick smog of violence and corruption.

How quickly they fall, burn out, disappear into the dark night.

‘They died that we might live — Hail and farewell! —

to those who, nobly striving, nobly fell…like kings they died.’
Shehla Masood, you were silenced because you dared to speak.

Your striving was noble and you died like a queen.

Like a tigress. Hail and farewell. – Annie Zaidi

Annie Zaidi, “Shehla Masood’s quiet roar”, Sep 18, 2011

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_annie-zaidi-shehla-masoods-quiet-roar_1588433

 

She was someone who could be termed as an alert citizen - says Ajay Dubey.

He is a friend and junior in her college. Dubey’s organization ‘PRAYTNA’ has been collaborating with UDAI in filing RTI queries.

Kamayani Bali Mahabal, “Murdered activist Shehla Masood had

been involved in various issues”, Aug 22, 2011

http://www.theweekendleader.com/Heroism/651/A-requiem-to-a-fighter.html

She was evidently a woman passionate about doing the right things. And she was killed – says Rachna Dhingra, who organizes SAMBHAVNA Trust Clinic in Bhopal for the gas victims.

Vandita Mishra, “The Life and Death of Shehla Masood” Indian Express Sep 18, 2011

http://the life and death of shehla Masood – Express India.html

If courage and beauty had other names 
It is surely yours - Shehla.
In a thousand ways you inspire me my friend,
A friend that I never met in person
But whose warmth and sincerity I feel
By the footprints of your actions 
And the ultimate sacrifice of your life.

I will hide my tears carefully Shehla
For I do not want your vile assassins 
And their accomplices explicit, complicit and implicit 
To revel in your passing.
For you Shayla there is no end 
You live on...
                                                       Like an eternal truth.

Posted by Ravi Shankar, on Sep 02, 2011 in Shehla’s Scratch My Soul

http://the life and death of shehla Masood – Express India.html

One of her dreams was to create a website “RTI Leaks”, a web resource for all information collected through any RTI application filed across India. We have no news about it; this post however marks a new beginning spreading the lives of RTI Martyrs. For blood of the martyrs is the seed of Truth and Justice.

A snap portraying her Anti-Corruption activism 

St. John Damascene: Hymn Writer and Defender of Icons

Saint John Damascene, the Syrian Christian monk and priest is a prolific writer and the last Greek father of the Church. In the Eastern Churches, he is revered as one of its greatest poets/hymn-writers. John’s hymns are used till-date in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Christian Monasteries throughout the world. Appreciating this special gift of John, there are legends in the account of his life. One such legend is the supernatural intervention of Mother Mary acting in favor of John in his monastery. After certain age, John renounced the world to embrace monastic life. The Abbot ordered John, renowned for his intelligence and wisdom, not to write that he might live and labour like any other ordinary monk. One of his duties was to sell baskets in the marketplace. On a particular day, John happened to meet a man who was broken hearted at the loss of his brother in the market. The man aware of the special gift of John, requested him to compose a hymn for the funeral service and for his consolation. 

Mar Saba Monastery

Moved with pity at the persistence of the mourner, John composed a beautiful lament:

‘What sweetness in this life
Does not partake of earthly sadness?
What expectation is not in vain,
And where amongst men is the happy man?
All is changeful, all is paltry
That with difficulty we have gained ­
What glory on earth
Stands firm and unchanging?
All is ashes, a phantom, shadow and smoke,
All vanishes like a whirlwind of dust,
And before death we stand
Unarmed and powerless.
The arm of the mighty man is weak,
Null are the commands of kings ­
Receive thy servant now fallen asleep,
O Lord, into the dwellings of the blessed.’

The hymn is sung, even now in the funeral services of the Eastern Church. Poet Alexei Tolstoi has versified this present form. The legend then continues that the Abbot having learned about the disobedience of John, dismissed him from the monastery. However, at the request of other monks he refrained from it but only under the condition that John clears the filth in the Monastery with his own hands. John, the humble monk, fulfilled the service demanded by the Abbot.

John is however no less a philosopher-theologian. His famous work The Fountain of Wisdom/Knowledge, - a single work summarizing the opinions of great ecclesiastical writer gone before him – is regarded as the precursor of Summa Theologica. He is rightly revered as the first Scholastic and this work as the first work of Scholasticism. The Catholic Church has declared him as the Doctor of the Church. He is specially, respected as the ‘Doctor of the Assumption’, the first one to write on the ‘Assumption of Mary’; and as ‘Doctor of Christian Art’ because of his eloquent defense of the use of images in Christian worship. After this, the Mother of God appeared to the Abbot in his sleep and said: "Do not stop up my well­spring any longer. Grant it to flow unto the glory of God". On awakening, the Abbot understood that it was pleasing to God that John Damascene dedicated himself to the labor of writing.

From that time on, no one hindered John any longer from writing theological compositions and composing liturgical prayers.

In the beginning of 8^th century, Iconoclasm, a movement seeking to prohibit the veneration of the icons in Christianity, was gaining support in the Byzantine court, the Eastern Roman empire with Constantinople as its Capital. They maintained that using image is a violation of the second commandment ‘Thou shall not make a graven image... thou shall not bow down to them”. Arguing so, they opposed the use of images and at times destroyed them. They were called as Iconoclasts (image-breakers).

Tradition, however was against them. The fathers of the Church, Sts. Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and others, defended the use of Images. In 726, the emperor Leo III issued laws against the veneration of images and their exhibition in the public places, despite the protest of St. Germanus the Patriarch of Constantinople

An Image symbolically depicting John as upholding icons

John, as a result set to fight the rise of Iconoclasts. Ironically, under the secure surrounding of the court of caliph, he courageously wrote against iconoclasm. The essence of John’s defense was that the incarnation of Christ has radically changed our understanding of God. God is no more invisible, distant, mystery instead has become visible, concrete, sensible in Jesus Christ. Thus, everything (water, oil, bread, wine, painting, sculpture, music, spoken word, all our daily tasks, pleasures) could be used to glorify God and make him known.

Moreover, he distinguished between two kinds of worship: adoration or worship, honor or veneration. The former is rendered only to God, while the latter is given to respectable people (parents, teachers, flagship etc.), angels, saints and images/icons of Christ and holy wo/men. This classic distinction is his major contribution to Theology.

Finally, he argued that for the simple people who did not know to read, could never afford the leisure of reading, images/icons were the manuals, the Gospels. Therefore to remove icons/images is to deprive the simple people of the Gospel stories. The latter served a powerful argument that gathered greater support from common people against emperor.

In the second council of Nicaea (787 CE), the Church settled the issue justifying the use of images in Christian worship. His writings played an important role to explain the use of images, in this council.

One of the ancient pictures of Jesus

Picture of our lady - Eastern Church

Another contribution of John was his defense of the veneration of saints, as an important aspect of the Christian worship. John is also nicknamed as ‘the golden stream’, for his oratorical gifts.

Life

Surprisingly, there is little authentic information about the life of John Damascene, since the account of his life is admixed with legendary matter. John lived in the middle of 8^th century CE, 645/676 – 754/787. He was born into a Greek speaking Syrian family of Damascus, known as Mansur (righteous). He was the son of Christian official at the court of the caliph Abdul Malek. John enjoyed a full course of instruction as a youth including mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, rhetoric, logic, philosophy (Plato and Aristotle) and theology. He is supposed to have learnt them from a certain monk Cosmos from Sicily. At the death of his father, the caliph chose John for the office. However, after some years he became a monk and was ordained a priest at Saint Sabbas/Sava, a monastery near Jerusalem. He lived there till his death.

Works in their Context

John has two major works.

                                i.            Apologetic Treatises against those Decrying the Holy Images. 

It is his defence of the holy images in three separate treatises, as a talented writer in the secure surrounding of Caliph. It is characterized with direct and simple style. Thus, it introduced the controversy to simple people, mobilizing them against the emperor. It gained popularity more that the edict of the emperor. It contains three letters.

                             ii.            Fountain of Knowledge/Wisdom 

It is the most important work of John. One of its kinds, in the patristic period. The Church, after centuries of serious thinking, arguments and clarification of its faith, beliefs and practices through the writings of its holy men, priests and bishops and the documents of varied councils, wanted an encyclopedic presentation of its theology. John accomplished this task in this work, collecting and summarizing the theological development of the great Greek writers and councils.

It is divided into three parts: “Philosophical Chapters”, “Concerning Heresy”, “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith”. The first part consists of a treatment of the foundations of theology, the basic principles and notions to understand the orthodox theology.

The second part presented the various false teachings until his time. It is mostly a compilation and exposition of anti-heretical writings with sections on Islam, Iconoclasm and aposchiti (wandering monks who rejected sacraments) by John.

The most important part of his work is the third part. It gives an outline of the orthodox theology in 100 short chapters. It covers topics from doctrine of God, cosmology, demonology, anthropology to Christology, Mariology and saints. This is his most important work. It is regarded as the precursor of Summa-theologia, an opening to scholasticism.

Other than these, many polemical works, exegetical works and sermons                                                    are attributed to him. It is however, difficult to determine their authenticity.

Generally, John is noted for his humble saintly life in the monastery. The church remembers him for his insightful writings in defence of the use of icons and for the systematic presentation of the dogmatic theology until his time. We celebrate his feast on 4 December. 

Bibliography

“Righteous Saint John of Damascus.”  http://www.balamand.edu.lb/theology/live_of_saint_john_of_damascus.html  accessed October 20, 2011.

“St. John of Damascus.” http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=66  accessed October 20, 2011.

Aquilina, Mike. The Fathers of Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers. Expanded Edition. Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor, 2006. 

Fitzgerald, Thomas. “John of Damascus”. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Edited by Erwin Fahlbusch et al. Translated and Edited in English by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Michigan: Grand Rapids, 2003. 3: 70-71.

Harakas, Stanley Samuel. “John of Damascus”. Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Lindsay Jonas. London: Gale, 2005. 7: 4940-4941.

Kiefer, James. “John of Damascus: Hymn Writer, Defender of Icons (4 Dec 750).” http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/  accessed October 20, 2011..

O'Connor, John Bonaventure. "St. John Damascene." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08459b.html accessed October 20, 2011.