TALK 3: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN

(March 19, 2010)

March 25, 2010
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Many times, being a Christian daunts people because it brings with it many duties and
obligations: reading the Bible, going to Mass, praying the Rosary. In this busy world
where people barely have time to finish all the things they need to do, taking on other
things to do does not seem all that practical.

In Talk 3, Nemboy turns the argument on its head. Being a Christian does not mean
reading the Bible and doing all those onerous responsibilities. Being a Christian means
loving Christ and doing those “other things” to get to know him, to be with him and to
please him. When a person loves someone, he wants to know everything about the object
of his love. This is no different for the person in love with Christ who wants to know him
well; the primary source is the Bible, hence, Christians read the Holy Book. A helpful
analogy would be visiting the Facebook site of someone we like: we are interested in
seeing all the pictures, finding out what groups they are into, keeping track of their status
changes and shoutouts. In the same manner, all the other Christian “duties” are
manifestations of this longing to be with the person we love. Prayer is hanging out with
Christ. Praying the Rosary is getting to know his mother to get on his good side. Going to
Mass is a real and sacramental “date” with him. Going to confession is apologizing to
him because we want to keep the relationship honest and open. Obeying his
commandments is doing things just because it will please him (it must be mentioned here
that the commandments for Christians are binding to all people, because they relate to
human nature per se and not to religious membership, but that is for another treatise).
Spending time helping others is taking care of Christ’s family and friends. All these are
within the bounds of normal behavior of someone who is into someone. We can do no
less for Christ.

At one point of the talk, Nemboy gave the floor to Jonah and Ben John who shared with
the audience what being a Christian means for them. Jonah gave up a high flying career
in corporate New York to do Gawad Kalinga in Manila. Ben John turned away from a
self-involved existence to reach out to others and take care of them.
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TALK 2: WHO IS JESUS CHRIST? (March 12, 2010)

March 18, 2010
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It is a tall order for anyone to give a talk about Jesus Christ but Francis Diaz effectively
delivered a comprehensive and insightful biography in the brief time allotted to him. The
talk centered on the divinity of Jesus, which is one of the central truths of the faith.
Presenting a neologism, the speaker demonstrated the quadrilemma, a four-pronged
dilemma, of the figure of Jesus. The logical argument was a pithy explanation of the
empirical-historical-rational evidence of the divinity of Jesus. But over and above Jesus
as the historical figure, the talk underlined the personal nature of the relationship that the
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity ardently seeks with each one of us. Carlo and Hyds
shared portions of their biographies to illustrate just how personal this relationship can
be.

Other important points covered in the talk were:

1. The itinerary of Jesus when he preached the good news. It was pointed out that for
someone who had accomplished so much even in his lifetime, Jesus surprisingly
covered only a small area. Perhaps this was to lend truth to his teaching that “a
little leaven is enough.”
2. his appellations and titles
3. what makes him different from all the great figures in history
4. his hidden life and public life
5. his impact on human civilization, as exemplified in how historical time is
rendered in B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno domini or the year of our Lord).