PAROQUIA – SANTO ROSÁRIO
Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima 27 February, 2009 XXXIX:1
Trav. Carlos Portes, 171
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará e-mail: [email protected]
BRASIL
Dear Benefactors, Friends and Family:
Multiples tend to draw our attention. They attract or repel our instincts but seldom leave us indifferent. Always based on numbers, multiples are not as cold as hard numbers which tend to be invariables that are associated more with endless statistics. Multiples, in fact, are associated with and represent everything that straight numbers represent (even more), BUT their form and presence is usually rather smooth and even artistic at times. If I discover that I am in debt for 1 million dollars (US$1,000,000) that number is staggering even frightening. However if I express the same dept as a multiple of ten; 1×102, that figure appears less threatening. It gives a qualitative tone to an otherwise quantitative question ($1,000,000”) whose value is too obvious and may even be an outright shocking.
Multiples lend a sense of security to certain questions in an insecure world. If millions of people are starving somewhere, the challenge of facing that problem seems impossible. However if I speak of the “many” starving in the world, the sheer scope of the problem seems more manageable. Where hard numbers are invariable facts, multiples have a approachable, perhaps controllable, aura surrounding them. If one declares that he is 64 years of age, that age seems inescapable. Yet if I say that I have 26 or 43 or 82 years of age, this value seems negotiable.
We tend to procure and prefer things in multiples; wealth, talent success, autonomy, respect. When I was a child the term “millionaire” denoted monetary wealth at one or more multiples of a million dollars. It connoted autonomy and even success to some degree. It belied the responsibility that came with such wealth. Having (and trying to live) a vow of Poverty has paradoxically clarified (somewhat) such responsibility.
Multiples lend themselves well to metaphysical, that is, to transcendental spiritual topics. If one is highly blessed by Almighty God, the blessings received can be expressed as a plethora or abundance. One can try counting those blessings but exact numbers tend to fail us, thus we have to be content with the “multiplicity” of blessings received. We feel a certain justified security in this.
One area of spirituality however that lends itself to temptation (in multiples) is the presence of God. Ancient peoples usually worshipped a multiplicity of gods. These gods were associated with various needs, tasks, pleasures or sufferings. Slowly humanity came to recognize One True Divinity, but the temptation to follow multiple gods remains and modern society is not immune. We seem in fact, more prone to polytheism (multiple gods) than our ancestors were. ALMIGHTY GOD REJECTS THIS! He is revealed and manifest in multiple ways, BUT still one TRUE GOD. We celebrate the gem of that manifestation (done once for all humanity for all ages) in SALVATION; the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (God With Us) in a special way during the Lenten-Easter Season. Thus I pray God grant you and personally wish you
A Happy and Blessed Pascal Season of 2009!
Yours faithfully in the Risen Jesus Christ
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.