The WORD in Other Words by Fr Joseph Miras SVD (Canada)
Friday 4th Week of Easter
Acts 13:26-33, John 14:1-6
How do we decipher the meaning of a word, an Icon, a work of art, a person? When Fr. Francis Clark, SJ was researching on his book, Asian Saints, the following thought was always posed to him.
“Tropical countries can never produce saints. The climate so weakens the mind and body that the demands of sanctity, with its emphasis on self—denial, penance and prayer, cannot easily grow in the heat and in that languid atmosphere engendered by the heat. The temperate zones, with their seasons of summer and winter, are alone favorable for holiness.”
The context always provides a wider picture of an idea, a work of art and a person. This context contains all the relationships and connections one could ever imagine about an idea, a work of art or a person.
Sometimes it is even the context that defines what is an idea, a work of art, a person. Our context will surely define who God is for us. God (Christ) cannot be a monopoly of a single race. God is too “big” for one culture or race to contain.
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