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A Pentecost message for Asia

Christians on this diverse continent should learn to embrace everyone in universal brotherhood and sisterhood
Pope Francis celebrates the Eucharist during a Pentecost Mass on May 23, 2021, at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

Pope Francis celebrates the Eucharist during a Pentecost Mass on May 23, 2021, at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. (Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP)

Published: June 05, 2022 04:07 AM GMT
Updated: November 16, 2022 12:07 PM GMT

It appears that Asia is closest to the beating heart of the Holy Father after he increased the number of its living cardinals to 25, the highest number ever for this continent.

Pope Francis last weekend announced the creation of 21 new cardinals, six from Asia, including Archbishop Lazarus You Heung-sik, the South Korean prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

For the first time, Mongolia, Timor-Leste and Singapore will each have a cardinal. Italian-born Bishop Giorgio Marengo, 48, the second apostolic vicar in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, will become the youngest cardinal of the world’s youngest Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, Catholic India rejoices with two of its prelates receiving the red hat: Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad and Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão of Goa and Daman.

Around 450 million Catholics, Protestants, and born-again evangelists now make up Asia’s Christian population. The Philippines has an estimated 90 million adherents, China 70 million or maybe more, India 28 million, Indonesia 23 million and South Korea 15 million, among others.

Quite surprisingly, some demographers guesstimate that more Christian faithful belonging to both the official patriotic Catholic Church and the underground Christian churches worship inside mainland China on any given Sunday than in the United States.

Furthermore, we cannot but be mystified to look at the intricate mosaic of folk religions in every Asian nation — so much unlike in any American or European country

Asia is the Earth’s largest continent, where the most diversified of peoples who are heirs to ancient cultures, diverse languages, beliefs, and colorful traditions reside, with China and India accounting for one half of the global population.

Asia is the cradle of the world’s major religions — Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism — and many other spiritual traditions such as Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. Furthermore, we cannot but be mystified to look at the intricate mosaic of folk religions in every Asian nation — so much unlike in any American or European country.

St. John Paul II, in his 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have confirmed that Asians are basically religious, compassionate to all beings, close to nature, respectful to their parents, elders and ancestors, with a highly developed sense of community. These are elements of human nature that our Argentinian pontiff considers as ready ingredients of fratelli tutti or universal brotherhood and sisterhood.

Lest we forget, geographically, the Holy Land — the land Muslims, Christians and Jews regard as holy — refers to the biblical territory roughly corresponding to the modern state of Israel, the Palestinian territories, parts of southern Lebanon, western Jordan and southwestern Syria.

“The land where Jesus walked” belongs to the Asian continent and is part of the Middle East region. In other words, the historical Jesus was Asian, was born, lived, preached, died and rose from the dead in the Holy Land.

Jesus was a genuine Hebrew by blood, birthplace and nationality. Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic, the ancient lingua franca in much of Western Asia or the Middle East. Judaism was his religion and Jesus was a Jew when he founded the Christian Church.

Mary his mother and the Twelve Apostles were Asians. When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost “to renew the face of the Earth,” the second Person of the Blessed Trinity descended upon Mary and the Holy Apostles in Jerusalem. Mandated by Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit, from Western Asia the Apostles and early disciples went forth to preach, baptize and make “disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

The Holy Spirit has planted the seed of Christianity by preserving diversity among peoples, producing a community of growth and excitement

The first Pentecost was the birthday of the Church. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, from inside that little upper room where they were gathered, the first disciples quickly reached out to the streets. At that time, a huge crowd of devout Jews from “every nation under heaven” were present to celebrate Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. Never was there a more international crowd as those days in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost.

The diverse crowd of people speaking different languages from several countries were dumbfounded, saying, “How is it possible that each one of us can hear these Galileans speaking of the mighty works of God in our own language?” (Acts 2:7–11).

St. Peter, the first among equals in the ranks of the Twelve Apostles, delivered the first-ever kerygma and his sermon led to astonishing results. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifest and about 3,000 from the diverse crowd were baptized. They happily joined the increasing community of the first Christian faithful on that day.

To fulfill the mandate that Jesus gave — that is, to make “disciples of all nations” — St. Thomas, one of the apostles, arrived in Kerala in 52 AD and established the Seven Churches in India. Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea of the fourth century, said in his pioneering work Historia Ecclesiae that in this amazing continent a hierarchical structure was highly organized under several bishops, who were present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

The Holy Spirit has planted the seed of Christianity by preserving diversity among peoples, producing a community of growth and excitement. As the apostle Paul put it: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons” (1 Cor. 12:4-6).

From the Old Testament we learn that God scattered the people of Babel in the world when they could not understand each other. The curse of the Tower of Babel was reversed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Pentecost is the feast of human unity, understanding and sharing … Their [apostles’] fear disappeared, their hearts were filled with new strength, their tongues were loosened, and they began to speak freely,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2012.

“In the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and cultures, we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another”

What the Holy Spirit created that day was neither a religion nor a theology. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit created a unity in diversity, a united community out of diverse social conditions and rich cultures.

As Pope Francis nicely puts it in his encyclical Fratelli tutti, “the future is not monochrome; if we are courageous, we can contemplate it in all the variety and diversity of what each individual person has to offer. How much our human family needs to learn to live together in harmony and peace, without all of us having to be the same!”

Therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit does not consist in the proselytizing or conversion of Asia into Christianity but, in my humble opinion, that Asians learn to embrace everyone in fratelli tutti or universal brotherhood and sisterhood. This Pope Francis has emphasized in all his Asian pastoral visits since 2015.

“In the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and cultures, we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another,” the Holy Father continues.

And the secret weapon of the Holy Spirit is interreligious dialogue armed with universal love.

* Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of ‘The Signs of the Times and the Social Doctrine of the Church’ (Salesiana, 1992) and ‘The Church Can Handle the Truth: Mercy Healing of Historical Wounds’ (Claretians, 2017). 

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