昔日文章

The above quotation was taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s Lenten Message in 2011. Pope Benedict XVI resigned on 28 February and became the first pope to step down in 600 years. As the leader of the Catholic Church, he pointed out that people of today are often tempted to accumulate wealth and love materialistic goods. He warned that greed causes selfishness, fighting, and even death. Do you know the Chinese idiom that carries a similar meaning? That is “men will die for wealth, as birds for food” （人為財死，鳥為食亡）.  Pope Benedict XVI was deeply concerned that children and young people today are growing up in an atmosphere which is filled with false models of happiness. They risk losing hope, meaning and joy in life because they are deceived by money-minded adults who lie to them and draw them into the dead-end streets of consumerism.  For example, over the years, big companies have shifted the focus of advertisements towards children. Do you know why? As children are easily influenced by advertisements, they think that they must wear certain brands or possess a certain number of trendy things in order to gain popularity among friends. Eventually, children forget that being a good person and being a true friend are more important than wealth.  Thus, the Pope told young people, “Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer.” Materialism and consumerism not only separate us from others but also leave us empty and unhappy. During this period of Lent, let us turn our attention towards others in need and share with them our love and hope.       Lenten Message: 四旬期文告 Accumulate wealth: 積聚財富 Materialistic goods: 消費物品 Greed: 貪婪 False models of happiness: 虛假的幸福典範 Consumerism: 消費主義 Advertisements: 廣告 Materialism: 物質主義  

  I never came first in class throughout my high school years. The best I achieved was placed 5th out of the whole form. However my parents never complained nor imposed pressure（施加壓力）on me for getting a better achievement. I am grateful to have such caring parents, knowing well how to understand their child. This makes me think of a story that I read from the web.  A kid constantly asked his mother why his classmate could come first in class while he could not. He was working hard all the time, but it was hard for him to be in the same calibre （程度）. It was a difficult question for his mother to answer since she did not want to tell her son that he was not as bright and promising as his classmates. She wanted her son to have a happy childhood instead of a competitive life in such young age. So the mother decided not to answer the question but told his son to continue to work hard as it would pay off（成功）someday. Years passed by the boy still did not get to the top of the class, but finally he was admitted to university with the highest score. He was invited to go back to his alma mater to share his experience with the students. He proudly shared the story of himself and told the question that he used to ask his mother. In fact he already got the answer when they visited the seashore one time. His mother asked him to observe both the seagulls and sparrows. When the waves splashed on the shore, sparrows flew away in a blink（一瞬間）while seagulls appeared to be a little clumsy, but in the end seagulls were the one that could really fly high and stay long in the sky.  My eyes were flooded with tears when reading this. Most of the time we work hard to achieve something that prove our ability, however as time goes by we may be overwhelmed （壓倒）by satisfaction or success. Working hard is to pursue our dreams but not to show how high we can fly. Save guard your dream and you can always land on a higher ground.   

Have you been to the Lunar New Year Fair? Were you dazzled by the colours of the spring blossoms?  Chinese people like bright colours for adornment. Red is the traditional colour of Chinese New Year, so there are many ornaments in red: New Year couplets, lanterns and lai sees. Among New Year flowers, scarlet gladioluses compete with crimson peonies. Even our Sunday missals have a red cover and our altars are decorated with pink peach blossoms.  Red is a warm colour that carries an auspicious meaning. It stands for love, happiness and family reunion. At the arrival of Lent, red is replaced by purple, a cool colour that stands for nobility, solemnity and repentance. We remember Christ’s work of Salvation and prepare ourselves to receive Him as our King and Saviour.  During Lent, our altars are draped in purple, and our prayer books take on a purple hue. Violets and mauve orchids dot gardens and flower-pots. We put aside our festivities and settle down in preparation for the coming of Easter with prayer and sacrifice.  Every spring, our days will glow with red and purple. 

What does sex have to do with love? Does one have to love someone in order to have sex? What should constitute marriage and family? These and other related issues have become confusing and contentious. Some people do not think there should be any restrictions on the act of sex, that actions in the privacy of the bedroom between two consenting adults should be totally private and not subject to rules and regulations.  I would like to voice a few observations on these discussions in the next few articles. And I would like to begin with the notion that “anything goes” with “two consenting adults”. Philosophically, those who argue from this position have already made restrictions with the words “two”, “consenting” and “adults”. Somehow, they argue, anything outside of these three conditions should be considered abnormal or illegal. I could propose, just for the sake of argument, that the limitation of “two consenting adults” is already too restrictive. I think I can argue to have “adult” to be the only acceptable limitation. Or maybe not? Why have any restrictions at all? And the fact is, that is the real long-term agenda for opponents to marriage between one man and one woman, no restrictions.  You see, the present discussions on the morality of sexual behavior are all pointless! Any restriction remains a restriction. Anyone who does not agree with it will argue against it. Society has to make up its mind on what constitutes rules and laws for the good of society. Sex is not a matter of human rights, as if it is something I have a personal right to exercise, because it almost always involves another person. Something is not a private (personal) thing whenever two or more persons are involved, just as when we drive a car. Would anyone argue for the personal human right to drive a car without any restrictions and laws?  So where should we begin? The Catholic Church begins this way. The gift of the sexual faculties is for two complementary purposes, that is, the purposes enhance and complete each other and should not be separated, or great damage may be done to both. The physical and biological purposes of the sexual faculties are 1) to allow the couple to naturally bring children into the world and 2) to preserve the human race and the society in which we live. Now, some people may argue that those are not the only purposes, and I concur. However, I do ask that they must begin with the primary purpose before we discuss exceptions. For example, if we were to discuss eating, we would not begin with eating disorders as a starting point, nor would we spend much time on bulimia and anorexia.  Let’s continue. In the natural course of life, children are brought into the world through sexual acts between two people of complementary sexual faculties, that is, a man and a woman. In the animal kingdom, the young require a period of time for the adults to pass on the lessons of life so that they could survive on their own. In the human race, our young require a lengthier period of time, twelve or more years, to adequately be educated to be responsible adults. Therefore, in a normal and natural environment, parents commit themselves to each other and to their children to give them a life-time of stability and security, in the noble mission of parenting. This is how the original marital laws came about, to protect innocent and vulnerable children and to safeguard the duties and authority of parents in building a sound society. Society has the right to protect itself from children not properly formed to be responsible citizens. In fact, in many parts of the world, when children do not go to school and are found delinquent, the PARENTS are held responsible and therefore, negligent (of truancy laws). Their children may even be taken from them and placed under foster care. Consequently, SOCIETY has the duty to impose laws on the conditions for marriage and family.  The present discussion around the world on marriage and family is misleading. The proponents of these new laws want protection for their own behavior, so they demand society to condone and legitimize it by using words like “personal rights”, which inflames the already muddled area of a healthy society.  Next we will consider the love in the Sacrament of Marriage.