65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 6 I will begin with a few reflections based on my specialisations on phenomenology of religion, moving to my other field, that of missiology, to continue with Pope Francesco on evolutionism... The History of a Journey I celebrated my silver jubilee of ordination in Essendon, the evening before returning to Papua New Guinea after my lectures at the Yarra Theological Union. In PNG nobody noticed my jubilee and I did not mind. My golden jubilee fell when beginning my ministry for the Italian community at Sacred Heart Parish, Preston, in suburban Melbourne. Fr Thien organized a dinner in the library of our Primary School. I projected a film that I had prepared which helped also to introduce myself to the Italian community for which I was new. It was a success. It happened that at that time the Club of the Italian Pensioners of our parish of which I was member celebrated one of its famous Pranzi (dinners) lasting between four to five hours. The President congratulated me for my golden jubilee. To be honest, I was happy that, when my turn came to say a few words, the microphone broke down, and I could sit down. My diamond jubilee fell while at Preston and the launching of my book 65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey took place as part of the Mission Saturday Celebration organized by the SVDs. 65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a journey does not have the glamour of the jubilees marked with precious metals: silver, gold and diamond. Still, it marks a journey which is worth remembering. On a journey, one leaves the point of departure to move to new geographical localities, sometimes discovering new, beautiful panoramas. I will begin with a few reflections based on my specialisations on phenomenology of religion, moving to my other field, that of missiology, to continue with Pope Francesco on evolutionism, another interest created by my encounter with the religions of the digging stick cultivators of Yobai. I will add a few facts on quantum reality and end with a reflection on the role of culture in inculturation in mission and Christianity. Phenomenology of religion. Our Christian theology has been strongly influenced and shaped by the philosophy of two greats of the past: Plato and Aristotle. Plato distinguished between a heavenly spiritual ideal and a material realization of the same in our daily life. Hence, for instance, the superiority of virginity over marriage. It is true that lately the popes tried to correct this error by canonising married people. Even today in the Mass we pray “do not look at our sins but on the sanctity of our Church”. Somewhere outside of the reality of our sinful Church - the new cases emerging in France involving not only priests but also bishops - floating somewhere in the ether there is the real, perfect Church, postulated by Plato. We Christians belong to the inferior reality but above there is the perfect reality. We forget completely that we are the Church, people called to continue the mission of Christ. Personally, I think that we Christians, in order to change our mentality, need to go to the roots of our situation, the philosophy of Plato. We admire that great intellect, but evolution is ongoing and humankind has evolved far beyond Plato. The other great that influenced our Christian tradition is Aristotle with his theory of form and matter that can be used to explain the mystery of the Eucharist: the exterior form remains but the matter changes: Transubstantiation. As already mentioned, humankind has evolved into quantum physics. Our life has been revolutionized and digitalization dominates our daily life. Only our faith has not changed, missing the possible deepening of faith and rituals.
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