PAUS BENEDIKTUS MENGANGKAT USKUP KOAJUTOR UNTUK JAKARTA

JAKARTA (UCAN) -- Paus Benediktus XVI telah mengangkat Uskup Agung Semarang Mgr Ignatius Suharyo sebagai uskup agung koajutor Jakarta. Vatikan mengumumkan pengangkatan itu tanggal 25 Juli.

Uskup Agung Suharyo, 59, yang memimpin Keuskupan Agung Semarang sejak 1997, diangkat untuk membantu Kardinal Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja SJ, yang tanggal 20 Desember akan berusia 75 tahun. Menurut Hukum Kanonik, uskup diosesan yang sudah berusia genap tujuh puluh lima tahun diminta untuk mengajukan pengunduran diri dari jabatannya kepada paus.

Kardinal Darmaatmadja adalah Uskup Agung Semarang dari tahun 1983 hingga April 1996, ketika dia diangkat untuk menggantikan Uskup Agung Jakarta Mgr Leo Soekoto SJ, yang meninggal 30 Desember 1995 setelah mengundurkan diri sebulan sebelumnya.

Kardinal satu-satunya di Indonesia itu mengatakan kepada UCA News tanggal 27 Juli bahwa yang dia mohon kepada paus adalah agar dia diijinkan mengundurkan diri sebagai Uskup Agung Jakarta saat dia mencapai usia 75 tahun karena kesehatannya semakin berkurang.

“Sejak umur saya mencapai 70 tahun, saya merasa perlahan-lahan kekuatan fisik saya makin berkurang secara menyeluruh. Mata saya menjadi kurang mampu membaca dengan kaca mata biasa tapi butuh kaca pembesar, dan telinga saya membutuhkan ‘hearing aids’. Pokoknya, saya tidak merasa sekuat ketika masih berusia di bawah 70 tahun. Demi pelayanan yang baik apalagi optimal, saya sepantasnya mohon untuk mengundurkan diri dari tugas sebagai Uskup Agung Jakarta,” kata kardinal itu.

“Syukur bahwa saya telah menerima uskup agung koajutor yang sewaktu-waktu dapat menggantikan saya.”

Kardinal itu melukiskan pengangkatan paus itu sebagai pilihan yang tepat. “(Uskup Agung Suharyo) memiliki kelebihan-kelebihan yang akan diperlukan untuk berkarya di Keuskupan Agung Jakarta. Beliau tidak hanya memiliki kecerdasan berbasis IQ (Intelligence Quotient) yang tinggi tetapi juga berbasis Emotional Spiritual Quotient (ESQ) yang tinggi,” kata Kardinal Darmaatmadja.

“Beliau adalah doktor teologi kitab suci yang mempunyai wawasan luas. Pemahamannya terhadap peristiwa dan permasalahan selalu tepat dan dalam. Ini merupakan kekayaan bagi Keuskupan Agung Jakarta, dan sebaliknya tentu merupakan suatu kehilangan yang besar bagi Keuskupan Agung Semarang,” lanjut prelatus itu.

Menurut data tahun 2007, Keuskupan Agung Jakarta memiliki sekitar 500,000 umat Katolik yang terbagi dalam 60 paroki di DKI Jakarta serta Tangerang dan Bekasi.

Sometimes the truest freedom can only come when we claw our own way out.

I am waiting with my son at the bus stop when he first notices the bird.

"Look Mommy," he says, pointing a chubby finger up at the telephone wires above us. "That bird looks so funny."

I look up, squinting against a white ray of sun. A bird is perched on the telephone wires. He spreads his wings and then stops, then does this again.

"He's dancing," my son says in four-year-old innocence.

"No sweetie," I say. "I think something's bothering the bird." I take a few steps closer and shield my eyes with my hand. I notice a flutter of blue plastic and suddenly I realize what the problem is. The bird has the handle of a plastic bag hanging around its neck. The plastic bag is weighing the bird down and it can't fly. "What should we do?" my son asks, eyes wide, when I tell him of the bird's predicament. I shrug, wishing I could fix things, not knowing how. My son's school bus pulls up and I motion to the teacher who is bus monitor. He steps off the bus and I point up towards the bird. "What should I do?" I ask him.

He clucks his tongue, shakes his head. "Poor thing. Call security. Maybe they'll know what to do."

I kiss my son goodbye and dash back home, running down the three flights of steps to our apartment. I call security.

"There's a bird stuck on a telephone wire," I tell them. "It has a bag around its neck. What should I do?"

"That's not our jurisdiction," the man tells me. "Call Animal Protection."

know it will be hours or longer before someone from animal protection might come and meanwhile the bird is suffering. I run back upstairs and down the block. The bird is still there, this time fighting against the bag, its neck writhing back and forth. I wish the bird would just fly down to the sidewalk and then I could get rid of the bag. The bag is getting tighter around the bird's neck. I can't bear to watch.

I run back home and I call my upstairs neighbor whose parents are veterinarians. She has been known to save various animals in distress in our neighborhood. I describe the situation. "What should I do?" I ask her.

"I could tell you what to do for a cat," she says. "But a bird? I'm really not sure."

I pour myself a bowl of cereal but I can't eat. I'm beginning to formulate a plan. I run next door to my neighbor. She isn't home but her mother is there.

"Sandy, I need your help." I quickly outline the situation. "I think if we can coax it down we can cut the bag off of its neck and set it free."

"We'd need a sheet to catch the bird and keep it still," she says.

I know it's a long shot but I have to do something. We grab a sheet from my linen closet along with a pair of scissors. I take a packet of seeds just in case the bird is hungry. Then the two of us march up the stairs on a mission to save the bird.

When we get to the end of the block, we see the blue plastic bag fluttering on the ground, crackling like dead leaves. The plastic handle of the bag has the mangled marks of a long struggle. A bird soars with explicit freedom in the sapphire skies above us. There is no way of knowing for sure that it is our bird, but somehow I feel that it is.

"I guess that bird won't be needing our services," Sandy says, smiling.

I feel that I have also been set free and I breathe deeply with relief. While slowly walking home towards my bowl of soggy cereal, the profundity of the bird's ordeal becomes clear.

I thought that the bird needed us to save him, but my muddled attempts may have brought more harm than good. The bird needed to chew his own way to freedom.

Aren't we all a little bit like that bird? We wear our sacks of problems like bags tied tight around our necks, stymieing us and averting our ability to take flight. And we wait for salvation from outside -- from our parents, our spouses, our friends, our coworkers -- to cut those pesky bags off of our necks. But their efforts, as sincere and rooted in love as they may be, are often bumbling excuses for the help and love that only we can give to ourselves.

In the Ethics of Our Fathers we are taught, "If I am not for myself, then who is for me?" We are our own greatest advocates. We all need teachers and mentors, but nobody else can change a character trait for us. Nobody else can magically transform us into the people we long to become. That is entirely up to us. We need to learn to spread our wings and take flight even when encumbered by the "plastic bags" of life.

Just like that bird, sometimes the truest freedom can only come when we claw our own way out.

BEAUTY and the BEAST

(Personal Spiritual Diary series – Wed,08.07.09)

By David Sutedja

I picked up my friend from Singapore at the hotel. He had to check-out and go with me for the Sunday mass at the nearest parish. I saw those young ladies at the reception desk. For the first time I was impressed by them. Not so much by their beauty (although this is also true), as by their perseverance to remain standing all the time! Out of curiosity I looked for any chair behind the desk. None! I wondered how long each shift is, and I was marveled by the fact that who ever is on the job, she or he has to stand and be alert. They are also at the front line of the hotel. Just next to us, there was a guest checking-out, but for some reason his voice rose of anger. The lady spoke calmly, always with a smile, and soon the problem was solved. I began to see this as a charism of a receptionist.

As Jesus walked by on that street entering the Jerusalem gate, I wonder how the people really saw Him. How many of them pushed their way to be as near as possible to that Man and shouted as loud as possible “Hosanna to the King!” Many did see Him coming, but not all of them were alert. Many wanted to be near, but not all of them wanted to stand at the front line all the time! Many were eager to “talk” about Him, but not all of them were really willing to “walk” with Him. Many put down their clothes and palm branches, but not all of them put down their pride. Many were “cheerful” for that solemn procession, while in reality their “cheerfulness” served to veil their “fearfulness.” The day is coming closer. We are called to talk less and walk more.

The frontline is where we find ourselves striving to stand firm in the midst of false judgments, accusations, and suspicions. It can happen any time, any where, any how. Just keep standing. We need that charism of a receptionist in order to persevere in our faith journey.

THE FIRST SUPERMAN

(Personal Spiritual Diary Series - Mon,06.07.08)

By David Sutedja

I was recently teaching a class on the preternatural gifts and the supernatural gift of grace when one student asked, "I heard a priest once say that Adam and Eve could fly before they sinned. Is that true?"

Interesting idea, but it doesn't have any basis in Scripture or Tradition. Adam and Eve were endowed with special gifts, but I doubt that flying was one of them.

Adam was constituted in a state of grace. This is a supernatural gift. It is super natura ("over nature") because it elevated man to the dignity of communing with God. This ability is absolutely and infinitely beyond any creatures capacity and consequently this gift of grace was supernatural or absolutely beyond human nature.

Man was also given other gifts that were not absolutely beyond his nature, but relatively beyond his nature. In other words, these gifts perfected Adam, but were not entirely beyond his nature (i.e. somewhere between natural human and angel). These gifts are called preternatural gifts from praeter natura ("beyond nature"). They are usually numbered as three: infused knowledge, immortality, and integrity of passions.

The one supernatural gift and the three preternatural gifts bring the number to four and correspond with the Venerable Bede's (and Thomas Aquinas') "Four Wounds of the Fall" since the loss of those four gifts resulted in four wounds:

1. Original Sin (lack of sanctifying grace, and thus righteousness)
2. Ignorance (lack of knowledge)
3. Concupiscence (passions no longer integrated under reason)
4. Mortality and sickness (the body no longer strengthened)

Moreover, these four gifts and their corresponding four wounds pertain to the four powers of the soul:

1. Intellect (corresponding to the cardinal virtue of prudence)
2. Will (corresponding to the cardinal virtue of justice)
3. Concupiscible Appetite (corresponding to the cardinal virtue of temperance)
4. Irascible Appetite (corresponding to the cardinal virtue of fortitude)

We therefore see that the four gifts were gifts pertaining to morality. They were not superpowers (like flying through the air or x-ray vision). However, Christ ascended into Heaven, so maybe there's a chance!

BUTTERFLY KISSES

(Personal Spiritual Diary Series - Thur,02.07.09)

By David Sutedja

This is actually my ‘sermon’ in Komunitas Basis which I delivered in Indonesian recently. Do you want to hear a terrible bad news? I’ve got one for you. Here it is: we have lost something precious, and we are not aware of it! What is this something very precious? Our sense of guilt! Yes, in the name of human self-fulfillment, we have become more and more allergic to the healthy and necessary sense of guilt. Why is it so? First, we have learned so well how to manipulate others by purposely incur the sense of guilt so that we can gain what we want. Look at relationship between a young man and his girlfriend. This young man can play and get what he wants from his girlfriend simply by replaying again the litany of her mistakes in the past. “Oh I see, you forgot to call me because you don’t love me anymore!” “Oh well, you always prefer your family to me!” “Right, your exam is more important than my love to you!” and on and on and on. That’s why we have no clue of what a healthy and necessary sense of guilt should be.

Second, we keep asking others to understand us. Look at the streets in Jakarta. When it rains, motor bikers will stop under the fly over right at the busy cross street, or just in the under pass tunnel. They don’t care if hundreds of cars are slowed down. All lanes are practically blocked by the parked motor cycles! Or, just look at how people stop at the traffic light. Many of them don’t care if they stop at the far left lane which is supposed for those who want to turn left. The result! All other cars behind are blocked, since there are some drivers who don’t want to wait. When they are reminded, either they get angry, or they show their miserable faces. Whatever they do, it is clear, that implicitly they say, “Please, understand me!” “Please, understand us, it is raining, and we need shelter!” “Please, understand me, I don’t have time to wait in the line!” and on and on and on. What they actually say is, “I’m not wrong! Why do you make a big case out of it?” No wonder, we have really lost our sense of guilt.

Third, we have become excellent liars against ourselves. We know that what we do is wrong, but we can cleverly find excuses, even spiritual and pious ones, that at night before going to bed, we can tap on our own shoulders and say, “Don’t worry, everything is OK!” and go to bed peacefully. This, I think, is the most serious one. Many of us have even begun to see that what is so wrong is OK! Just look at the good and beautiful and logical and theological and spiritual and psychological explanations about your wrong doings. How many times do we really say and admit honestly “Yes, I’m wrong”? Look at how easily we justify ourselves simply by saying, “Well, it just happened!” By saying this, we actually say, “I was not wrong. It was stronger than me. I was just a victim!” How many times we can say plainly, “Yes, I did it, and I know it was so wrong”?

Now, do you want to hear a soothing good news? I’ve got one for you. Here it is: even if we have lost our sense of guilt, even if we can’t say anymore “I’m wrong” or “I’m sorry,” there is a man like us, with flesh and blood who is willing to do it for us, even if this man is totally blameless. His name is Jesus! He is always willing to bear the burden of our mistakes. We even let Him do this. He lost His beautiful figure. He became so unlike any other human beings. We don’t want to look at Him! Yet, on Good Friday, we do exactly this: walking to the crucified and pay respect to Him. Some would touch, while others would kiss.

We do this not with a pity to that Man, but with a pity to ourselves. We kiss not only His wounds, but our own wounds. We don’t want to embrace our sense of guilt and let Him do this by being so inhumanly disfigured, nailed, wounded, and pierced. Yes, when I kiss His wounds, I actually kiss my long lost sense of guilt! Jesus will look from the cross and say gently, “When will you embrace back your healthy and necessary sense of guilt?”