Typhoon Da Vinci

I think that's a good description of the furor surrounding Da Vinci Code, both the book and the movie. There's really nothing to worry. It will just come and go, much like a pain in the neck.

Or it can be like many of these young star wannabes, who can cause quite a stir with their looks and some talents and are propped up by clever handlers and managers, but who unfortunately do not possess enduring qualities.

Da Vinci Code is a passing fancy, a transient sensation, detached from a self-renewing, life-giving spirit. It just reveals the kind of people we are. Typhoon Da Vinci obviously is not a natural calamity. It is a spiritual disaster affecting many people.

But again, let's not get too worried. Yes, it can cause some damage in its wake, but repair and reconstruction will always be around. Let's just make some assessment and focus on what ought to be done.

At first I thought St Paul's words about people at a certain time not anymore willing to listen to truth but would rather turn to fables, heaping on themselves teachers according to their own lusts, were most apt to describe the situation. I now think they are too drastic and sweeping.

I feel that many of those seduced by the book are simply confused, ignorant, weak and inconsistent in their faith, irrespective of how fervent they say they are solid Christians whose faith cannot be affected.

This is the challenge to face-how to make people more consistent to their faith. There's a lot of spiritual lukewarmness and moral complacency, a lot of inconsistency between belief and practice that need to be tackled more effectively.

I was amused to hear people saying that their faith would be not affected just by reading the book or watching the movie. They say they are just there for the fun and curiosity-it's just fiction anyway, so why the big fuss?

Besides, they say expressing disapproval of the book and movie would just arouse more curiosity and whip more popularity for the products. They present themselves as being practical.

There are also those, styling themselves as intellectuals and avant-garde in Church concerns, who ask why not take advantage of this controversy to get into more valid issues concerning Church life?

Thing is we always have some valid points behind every rationalization we make. My only concern is that I just hope there can be more loyalty and fidelity even if at certain moments these virtues can be very costly.

Truly it takes real courage, honest-to-goodness balls, to be loyal and faithful especially to what is considered to be our most precious treasure-our faith and everything related to it: The Church, norms and customs of piety, etc.

The gospel figure of the Good Shepherd is relevant to this point. The paid hacks or hirelings, whose hearts are not really with their flock, are the first to run away when certain dangers threaten the sheepfold.

Certainly, to be a Good Shepherd a lot of things are needed-solid piety, doctrinal orthodoxy, an openmindedness that would enable us to be sympathetic with everyone in the right order, etc.

To be a Good Shepherd we need to be Christians not only by name but also by deeds, not only from time to time but always, not only in some aspects of our life but in all. Not only Sunday Christians, but Christians all year round.

Typhoon Da Vinci is a call, a warning for us to be more authentic Christians, who follow Christ closely and who love God with all our might and who love others as Christ loves us.

Typhoon Da Vinci is a stirring reminder of the need to develop our Christian life not only by ourselves but also within the Church always. We cannot be free-lance, individualistic or private Christians. We have to be Christians always within the Church. Anything against that should be held suspect.

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