Liberal Democrat News 6 August 2004 Issue 816

I am concerned that due to Iraq, the Liberal Democrats
have forgotten about ex-Yugoslavia, where scrutiny is
needed.

The UN appeals court overturned the conviction of
Croat General Tihomir Blaskic for war crimes, his
sentence reduced from 45 years to 9. A similar fate
may await fugitive Croat General Ante Gotovina, whose
case I have written extensively on. The UN have
charged him and two others with the American
controlled Croat offensive ’Operation Storm’ in 1995
which stopped Milosevic, saving Croatia and Bosnia.
The UN - which supported the Serbs throughout the war
- ludicrously claim Operation Storm to be a war crime.
These charges should now be dropped, not least
because the prosecutors have contradicted them with
evidence in the Milosevic trial. Must we wait for
justice at an appeal?

Extensively reported in Croatia, British Intelligence
are apparently falsely claiming to international
officials that Croatia is harbouring General Gotovina
in an attempt to sabotage Croatia’s EU entry. Sadly,
anti-British feeling is thus rife in Croatia.

Elsewhere - and virtually ignored - Hungarians and
Croats are being violently attacked by Serb extremists
in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. The Liberal
Democrats should start taking a interest - and to be
sceptical of Foreign Office policy.

Brian Gallagher
London
 

Jigsaw Dubrovnik by Hellie
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22719.asp
BellaOnline's Walking Editor

Hello!
My name is Hellie and I’m your walking host.

I live high on a hill overlooking the beautiful Forest of Dean UK, which I think has some of the best walks in the country.This means of course whenever I go out walking, the journey back is always very uphill!
I’ve walked miles on the Great Wall of China, in Nepal, in Oregon, Canada and Europe.
I have always enjoyed walking and this year I shall be off on walking holidays in Croatia and in Tuscany, Italy.
I try to walk at least 5 miles at the weekends and on a good weekend maybe 15 -18.

I teach part-time at a local comprehensive school and in my spare time enjoy keeping chickens, my favourites are Marans.

I also host the English Garden site at Bellonline.

I’d like this site to become the best walker’s site on the web.
Please email me your favourite walks, places, achievements and tips - I’d love to hear from you.

If you would like to send me a comment, question or suggestion, please feel free to Email Me!

http://www.bellaonline.com/about/Walking
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22719.asp

Jumping Serpents of Bosnia

By Dennis L. Siluk
Aug 4, 2004

The Tale of the: Jumping Serpents of Bosnia

The Snake Killer of Bosnia

Along the coast of the Adriatic Sea lives what now is called the "poskok," better known as the "Jumping Serpent". These creatures are some five feet long and to my understanding can jump some three feet in the air and leap some five feet in any direction they are aiming at. But this didn't happen by chance, this really and truly happened by necessity. And this is the tale you are about to hear, the "why," of it, how it came about. And to be quite honest, you will be the first to hear of it.

The poskok has a macabre-hissing tone to its dynamic language, a hissing that bellows out fear, and out of fear and inborn aggressiveness, its impulses create a neurological reaction that makes it leap and jump. Again, the why of this will come out in the tale? But it is always prudent to know the background of things, and so I am equipped to share it with you. In addition to its poisonous bite, it has quite the temper, and at times it can look no different than a log or branch sitting by a tree. And let's add its natural abode to this narrative background: it prefers if given the natural background to live, it will choose the trunk of trees. And now come join me for my tale of tales, and think not that there doesn't be a feature of truth in this tale, for it would be ill-advised to think otherwise.

Once upon a time, several hundred years ago, or thereabouts, there were a multitude of snakes along the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and within the mountainous area thereof, in a land now called Bosnia. They grew the length of the men of that area in that day. These snakes were a reddish-brown color and a cleaver kind of breed, with sharp fangs, and were quite poisonous and aggressive for the most part. Along with living in the trunks of trees, in lack of a better home, and accommodations, and liking the sun, they slept on the side of the roads to a high extent, where often times they chummed with one another - (figuratively speaking), looking like dried up old branches, especially in the fall season laying over one another like little lions. But as winter came around, back into the trunks and holes of trees they'd find themselves. And when they seen a passerby, especially during the long hot summers, they'd play possum [dead], and when a female carrying water to the village would walk by them, they'd twist their bodies slowly and, positioning them just right and quicker than you could say "help", they'd have their teeth in one's leg. And the water being fresh would feed their thirst, along with its aggressive temperament, even on their best of days would be hard for them not to do their dirty deeds, they seemed to be simply born with an aggressive nature.

--Well, this went on for quite a spell, yes, for the longest time, and one day, one day after hearing - year after year hearing - people's complaints, the King of the area announced that whoever could rid the region of these nasty and evil serpents, he'd reward them by allowing them to marry his beautiful and youthful daughter. Will, all is fare in love and war, so they say, thus, Mr. Goose, an old man from Croatia [82- years old at the time], went to the little mountainous kingdom and spoke with King Mon about his reward to be, should he clear the land of these creepy-crawly type creatures that infested every nook, tree and, oh well, lets just say, the whole landscape.

Said the King, with a skeptical eye, "It would take an army I fear to wipe these hills and mountains and coastline of these aggressive, antagonistic evil doers that have taken over a thousand-lives, a thousand lives I say, from my kingdom's past of which it has been some forty years, to now, yes, yes, how can one man expect to do this, it is beyond me?"

Said the old man, who had an odd looking hunchback and legs that looked more animal than human with mammalian hairs sticking out all the openings of his pants, likewise his shirt, and on his face and arms; in addition, he had a long skull a very long slant to it, with a brow that receded back to prickly looking hair, quite thin, and a smirk that showed he had secrets, secrets beyond our imagination possible, and a small mustache, yes he had a small thin mustache, thin bone structure, big eyes and feet; they were as if claws from a hawk. But here he stood, the old carnivorous gentleman, smiling with a long pause, and then simply said:

(Ah! but said it keenly and sharply), "I will take your daughter for my reward, as you promise, should I accomplish the mission, but if you want to know how I shall do this feat, it will cost you your kingdom."

[Insolent thought the king] With a stiff upper lip, and eyebrow up in the air, the short stubby king, with his curly locks of golden hair dangling over his ears, stood up in front of the beggar type looking man, who had a deep-set of eyes, big, yes big and confident, that had a small and thin bridge separating them from what was called his nose but looked more liken to reptilian type air holes, with only a small arch and slits to inhale though.

Said he, said he with scorn on his cheek bones, stiff bones, perturbing bones - even through his fat:

"So be it, you will have my daughter, not my kingdom, should you achieve this mission, and should you not, I advise you, you old coot, to be gone from these hills - far gone, for I will surely have you stripped and beaten unto your last gulp of air, should you not accomplish this, simply for you absurd audacity to think so highly of yourself in front of me."

--There was no more to be said, the old man turned around and with shifty looking dark eyes, ebony-yes that resembled a rat's, he walked out through the door, as strangely as he walked in, almost silently, not looking any which way but straight. Upon the door opening up, and the king still sitting at his grand thorn, two soldiers came in with a huge seven-foot snake to show the king their good deed, their catch of the day. They had its mouth died shut with a rope, and carried it on a long stick. It must have weighed two-hundred pounds or more. As the two soldiers walked past the old man, the king starting to stand up, the serpent got a look at the old man's eyes - it was the yes and the mouth, yes the mouth most certainly, and like thunder erupting, or possible like such as the sound from a volcano, the snake started hissing, and jumping all hissing more, as if about to fly out of the two soldiers mitts, trying to get free, trying to escape the old mans presence. Matter of fact, so frantic was the snake it even started to eat the rope it was tied with.

When the soldiers seen this, they dropped the snake on the marble floor, as the King looked on, on towards the snake and the old man with one glance he had given the snake, frightened the snake with, he knew this man was extraordinary, and although he hesitated in mind and soul to stop this potential marriage, he had no other recourses left, the old man was it - who else was there, should he not make the deal, there'd be no kingdom to rule in time. As soon as the old man was out of the door: out of sight, the snake regained it's weaken composure it had before it had seen the old deformed gentleman of sorts.

Accordingly, the deal was sealed, and for five years to follow the old man walked slowly up and own the paths of the mountains; looked in every tree trunk, walked the coast of the Adriatic, and combed miles and miles of forest areas within the vicinity, whipping out all the snakes that he could find: he ate them, like an animal eating flesh, ripped them apart like a rat to a hen. It had come to a point, and it was said, that the area had over 10,000 snakes at one time, that now their existence was down to but ten. And these ten got together, and by way of necessity, thus, started learning how to jump, and leap. They'd gathered by the waters, the lakes, the rivers, wherever they could and watched the frogs as they moved about, then even watched the toads, and any creature that jumped. And by instinct, and need for continued existence, within a years time had learned how to leap some three feet in the air, and some five to seven feet in any direction - straight forward that is. As a result it was there way of escape from this flesh-eating human animal of sorts: the old man.

Four years had gone by, and the old man was now 86-years old. His heart was tired, and he wanted more than anything to leave a legacy behind - his legacy that is, but had one more year to keep the land free of these evil serpents, should he fail, he'd loose the beautiful bright- eyed young princess: and in his mind, this could not be tolerated.

As time passed, the old man found these ten snakes, all in different locations: some in trees, others along side of the road playing dead, and others by the great waters of the sea, he'd go to grab them, and before he could they'd jump, leap right through his hands. Several leaps and the serpents were gone, out of sight. Well, this bothered the old man to extremes, but he knew if he kept the snakes hidden, and busy, he'd still get his reward, or could if he was deceptive enough. And consequently, as if nothing had happened - he'd continue to play his game, and the king would be no wiser; in consequence, the old man kept walking the mountain paths - as all the villagers knew, and word got back to the king all the roads were clean and clear of the snakes; and checking out the trees, and road sides, and occasionally finding a snake or two, but it again would leap out of his presence to safety (again I say, but no one had seen snakes for a long time now, no one that is but the old man, so the king was not wise to his charade). And slowly but surely the numbers started to increase, but they were simply baby snakes, and the mothers kept them hidden from the old man, in fear they'd become extinct all over again; so again no one seen them, and the snakes knew the old may was aging, and would not live forever, if only they could out last him.

And therefore, the fifth year had passed, and the old man went to the king to claim his reward. The King looking quite dreadful at his parting of his daughter gave her to the old man nonetheless - with not much to say, and brought forth a great celebration. The lovely twenty-year old princess was adorned with all kinds of flowers, and jewels and riches beyond imagination. And the party went on and on all night. Surprisingly during this time the king noticed that he had only eyes for the princess, not the riches she possessed. Somehow that seemed to dignify the whole matter much more, in an ugly kind of way, that is. As the bride danced with the groom, all the young bucks looked on with discuss and envy. The princess although, said nothing, like a good daughter, she kissed her husband and bid good evening to the guests, as they went into their room to consummate the marriage.

As the evening went on, the old man lay back in his bed, tired, very tired, and in the morn, the princess trying to awake her new husband found him to be dead. Mortified, and yet relieved, she called quickly to her father, the doctor and the guards. Word had gotten out quickly that the princess' husband had heart- failure, and she would be in mourning. But the serpents in the area were refreshed by the news, and came out bravely, back onto the pathways, and around the trees and coastal areas with their young ones.

The king now seeing this didn't know what to do, but it was not half as bad as it was five years past, and figured he'd look for another man of same qualities, and tried to find the Goose family to no avail. Then, finding out his daughter was pregnant, he got thinking, possible, just possible, whatever the qualities the old man had, they might be in his blood line, thus, in his grand-son to be [hoping it would be a boy].

"Awe," he said with glowing and ghastly eyes, "Sure," he said to his daughter, "Should she give birth to a son, he will be the tempest for the snakes." And so the king and his kingdom all waited for the birth of the child.

--And then it happened, the 9th month, third day, in the early morning, the sun had just risen: all waited outside the doorway to hear the baby's cry, but there was no cry, yet a baby was born. As the doctor looked at the child, he was in flabbergasted; the child was horrifying to look at; hence, stunned at its appearance he just shook his head, nodded his head back and forth as if to grab onto some sanity: it looked like a ferret, yet it had human form to it. The doctor remembered what the old man looked like, and now thinking of the king. He didn't show the child to anyone, not a soul, and ordered all to stay away. And during the late night took the child out of the kingdom, telling all concerned, the child had a deadly disease, should it touch anyone, it would kill them, and needed to treat it. He called the child "Mon-goose", taking the kings name and the fathers. And left it in the woods - neither one, never to return.

------------

About the author: Mr. Siluk is a world traveler, a lover of the mysteries around the world, and has visit many World Heritage Sites, the most recent being Easter Island and the Galapagos. His most recent book: "After Eve," and his 26th book thus far, can be seen on/at Barns and Nobel.com, Amazon.com, Walmart and several other sites. He spends his time between Lima, Peru and St. Paul, Minnesota, and is wroking on two more books: "Stay Down, Old Abram," and "Curse of the Abyss Worm," the second being a suspensful mystery.

Visit http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

Contact author: dlsiluk@msn.com

http://www.useless-knowledge.com/articles/apr/aug031.htm

Invoking Mother Courage

Courtney Angela Brkic

Today's New York Times carries the following review of Courtney Angela Brkic's new
book, which is now available in bookstores....Katherine Rosich

BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'THE STONE FIELDS'
On the Killing Fields of Bosnia, Invoking Mother Courage
By RICHARD EDER

Published: August 6, 2004

In the stony fields of Herzegovina the peasants are as horny-skinned, seamed and sun-darkened as farmers in the photographs from our own Depression years. Caring precariously for her frail baby, Courtney Angela Brkic's Croatian grandmother, Andelka, was instructed by a village neighbor to put a pine cone in his cradle. To acquaint him with hardship.

She hardly needed the advice. She could remember a little sister holding a china cup decorated in a rose pattern — perhaps the only delicate thing in their mother's rough cottage — and asking, "Are we like roses?" Soon to die, their mother threw open the door and gestured at the hills outside. "We're the brush that clings to the rocky ground."

Andelka clung. Orphaned and raising her sisters, widowed young when her husband died of typhoid, moving to Sarajevo, living a brief idyll until the war, when her Jewish lover was taken away and killed in a notorious concentration camp run by the Germans' fascist Croatian allies. Then losing her sons, grown and in trouble with Tito's Communists, to emigration. Through all this she clung like the brush, or a Balkan Mother Courage, until her grasp weakened and courage failed.

"The Stone Fields" is a pine cone that Ms. Brkic (pronounced BER-kitch) has rolled into our cradle to acquaint us with hardship. Not Andelka's hardship; in fact the grandmother's story, written with lyrical precision, provides much of the buoyancy and lovely evocation in a memoir that knows a darker pain and darkly denounces it. It is the genocide that took place in Bosnia in the early 1990's, whose most atrocious example was the elimination by Bosnian Serbs of an estimated 7,000 Muslim inhabitants in the town of Srebenica.

As for the cradle: with most horrors at a distance, the world has pretty much gone back to dozing, in this case after a few years of undoubted outrage and effort. Ms. Brkic does not tolerate sleep; she wars against forgetting. Yet if it were simply denunciation and recounting of what was so amply recounted at the time, her book would lack its unique quality.

Contemporary accounts of a tragedy are like temporary grave markers. Instead, the author has carved a funeral monument, its artistry marred sometimes but in the main enhanced by the rough cuts of her chisel.

She has thrust herself into the present of a past that dates back 10 years. What is the present of an old massacre? Two things: the dead and missing and the bereft. What Ms. Brkic did seems obvious yet it surprises.

First she spent time with refugee wives, mothers and siblings of the 7,000 — undoubtedly dead yet mostly unable, even when disinterment and identification got under way, to offer the one consolation a dead person can leave behind, the certainty of the corpse. One mother insisted that each time the telephone rang and there was no voice (common enough to that rickety phone system), it meant her son was alive, captive and sending her a message.

After that Ms. Brkic, who had worked in the United States as an archaeologist, joined the forensic and excavation teams to help dig up the victims from their mass graves and examine them.

She made herself a bridge, that is, from silence as crippled hope to silence as the end of hope. She restored the victim to its mourners. And, to the heaps of bones and decaying flesh, she restored the mourners. For their own sanity the excavators could only treat the remains with professional abstraction. (Try not to look at faces or hands, one advised her.) The mourners alone could manifest the reality and dignity of what lived once and was so hideously cut down.

Of course it's symbolic restoration. Ms. Brkic could not materially connect the dead with the bereaved. She was only a small part of the operation, and she couldn't bear to stay more than a few weeks. She failed to imitate her co-workers' indispensable objectivity; her outrage puzzled and even angered them, and all the more because when she wept some of them did too. What she succeeded at was something different.

For readers it is as if by connecting two disconnected electrical poles she released a fulminating current of pity, terror and outrage. Ms. Brkic's wiring can be shaky; her current sparks and sputters. Her passion is unquestionably real, but we may feel she turns it a bit to catch the light better; at times we get the sense of an actor moving into position so as to declaim from it. Yet it hardly matters.

Atrocity lives on in the mind not by the ugliness of the violation but by the fairness, or at least wholeness, of what was violated. It is here that the life of Andelka, with its moments of beauty as well as suffering, plays its part: a notion of human dignity held up in the background while the author tries to disinter the inhuman.

There is, besides, Ms. Brkic herself, displaying marks on her own wholeness. From the excavations she flees back to Zagreb, where her great-aunts live. She examines her face in the mirror, inventorying it for what lasts — the bones, that is, and eliminating eyes, cheeks, lips. She writes down a scar, then erases, "when I remembered that skin was unlikely to survive."

She takes up with a Croatian army officer, veteran of the brutal war between Croatia and Serbia. He is a man of extraordinary sweetness, and it is a while before the darkness emerges. A Roman Catholic, he goes to confession frequently but never takes communion. God — to translate — forgives him, but he can't forgive himself. Neither, finally and after other twists, does the author. Meanwhile, lying beside him — "the flow of his blood was like water singing through rock" — she conjures up what will last:

"Beneath the warm skin were the plates of his cranium, the sutures where entire continents met in his childhood and fused over the ocean of his mind. The gentle, breakable bones of his face were like china, or the hollow bones of birds. They were as fragile as calcified breath."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/06/books/06BOOK.html
 

His mission a success, but his heart heavy

Maj. Andrew ZDUNICH

The 36-year-old grandson of Croatian immigrants returns home to Ottawa later this week
Mon, August 9, 2004
Soldier leaves with heavy heart
Unable to save Afghan girl

By CP

KABUL -- Maj. Andrew Zdunich and his armoured reconnaissance troops will never know if they saved a lot of lives during their six-month tour in Afghanistan, but there's one life he didn't save that he'll always remember. On April 5, the commander of the Canadian contingent's reconnaissance squadron spent two frantic hours up to his neck and over his bald head in black sewer water trying to save the life of a three-year-old girl who'd fallen in. He failed.
"The only thing I could think about was holding my little girl," Zdunich said yesterday after returning for the last time to the spot, a six-metre-wide ditch and 15-metre-long culvert filled with oily black sewage and garbage.
"When I left Canada and came overseas, my daughter was the last little girl that I hugged. Then all of a sudden there was this little girl that I had my arms around and she was dead.
"I wanted to have a live girl in my arms again that I could hold that close."
The 36-year-old grandson of Croatian immigrants returns home to Ottawa later this week, his mission a success, but his heart heavy.
Of all the lives lost in this war-torn country, and of all the ones he'll never know he saved, there was one he knows he couldn't save.
"I don't want to think about how long she was in that water before I got there," he said.
Zdunich's 150-member unit from 12 Regiment Blinde du Canada in Quebec are trickling home.
A larger reconnaissance squadron from Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) in Alberta has begun the transition process, after which they'll take over operations across Kabul and beyond.
Yesterday, Zdunich took some of his replacements on a foot patrol through one of his areas of responsibility, walking 8 km in sweltering heat and overwhelming stench along alleys, past cemeteries and through village markets.
When it was over, Zdunich took his Coyote armoured vehicle on a detour, returning to the sewage ditch where witnesses summoned him to save the little girl.
At least Zdunich returns to Canada knowing his squadron went where they wanted to go, when they wanted to go without enemy resistance, and his troops got through their tour without casualties.

Copyright Š 2004, Sun Media Corporation / Netgraphe inc. All rights reserved.

Croatia challenge

Explorer trio head east for Scouts award

Adventurous Scouts are preparing for an expedition to Croatia in a bid to recieve one of the most challenging awards available.

The three Explorer Scouts from Upper Caldecote are set for the challenge of a lifetime as they aim for their Explorer Belt, which encourages young people to gain a deeper understanding of another country.

Rachel Randle, 22, of Biggleswade Road will be leading Richard Holiday, 18, of Shakespeare Drive and Allan Robertson-Cowley, 17, of Dean Way as they head off next month to trek around 160 km.

Rachel said: "I can't wait. It is going to be exhausting but it should be good fun."

The group will have to complete a major project during the expedition, keep a diary of their travels and give a presentation when they return.

The project will see them investigating the post war development of the region and the effect on tourism and they hope to get as many first hand accounts as possible.

Their route will take them through major tourist centres and quiet rural areas to compare the level of development, and they also hope to meet local dignitaries to discover their views on development and hopes for the future.

For the full story see the July 30 edition of the Chronicle.

05 August 2004

http://www.biggleswadetoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=182&ArticleID=831761

Vjera i politika
29. nedjelja kroz godinu - A

(Mt 22, 15-21)

Odnos vjere tj. religioznosti i vlasti, odnosno politike, stvarnost je koja nikada do kraja nije raspletena, zapravo koja se nikada nije jasno razlucila. Da li je ove dvije stvarnosti moguce razluciti? Ako je isto pitanje postavljeno Isusu i ako mi još danas citamo isti tekst kao istinit i kao istinitu poteškocu, onda je potrebno trijezno razmisliti i barem teorijski odrediti domenu jednoga (vjere) i domenu drugoga (politike i vlasti). O ovoj temi napisano je mnogo rasprava, bilo s teološke bilo sa sociloške i politološke strane. No, stvarnost opet nije jasna ili barem možemo reci da se i danas ispreplice. Sve se to prelama u covjeku koji je istovremeno i “homo politicus” i “homo religiosus”.

Pitanje odnosa vjere (ili bolje Crkve) i politike kod nas je danas aktualno. Da li Crkva, vjera, zadire u politiku ili politika teži da zavlada Crkvom? U napasti je i jedna i druga ustanova da se nametne onoj drugoj kao gospodar ili da iskoriste jedna drugu.

U povijesti su poznata razdoblja kada je Crkva dominirala nad politikom, zapravo odredivala politiku, ali je poznato i vrijeme kada je politika (kralj) dominirala nad Crkvom. I jedno i drugo razdoblje pokazali su se negativnim, bilo za Crkvu bilo za svjetovnu vlast. Postojalo je nastojanje, a i danas se primjenjuje, barem teoretski, u mnogim državama, rastave države i Crkve. To se službeno dogodilo u Francuskoj za vrijeme Francuske revolucije, a kasnije se primjenjuje i u drugim državama. Ipak ni u tim državama nije se dogodilo potpuno odjeljenje. Uvijek postoji izvjesna tenzija izmedu jedne i druge Institucije. U zemljama gdje je vladao komunizam to razdvajanje Crkve i države izvedeno je na radikalan nacin, ali i u njima je bilo napasti da jedna Institucija prodre u drugu. Zar u Rusiji državna vlast nije pokušala indirektno “postavljati svoje biskupe”, zar na ovoj liniji nije iskrsnuo osnovni sukob izmedu kardinala Stepinca i ondašnje vlasti u našim krajevima? On nije dozvolio da država zagospodari Crkvom. Ne radi se o gospodarenju nad materijalnim dobrima, nego o vladanju vlasti nad Crkvom.

Zašto se ponavlja isti problem i zašto izgleda skoro nerješiv? Zato što je isti covjek, isti gradanin, u najviše slucajeva, istovremeno i religiozni covjek (clan Crkve) i gradanin i podložnik odredene politike. Kroz istog covjeka prolazi religioznost i politicnost. Kako to u njem razdijeliti, a da ne bude istinskog životnog odnosa prema stvarnosti koju se živi? Postoji stvarnost, materija koja prožima i jednu i drugu ‘kompetenciju’. U principu bi trebalo da i jedna i druga Institucija budu moralne i humane, da su angažirane na sreci i dobru covjeka. Ne apstraktno i samo ‘duhovno’, nego realno i kroz relani život. Ne može se religiozni covjek u politici ponašati kao da nije religiozan, i radi toga što je politican (homo politicus) odbaciti religioznost. Zar Crkva, kao ustanova kojoj je osnovni poziv kraljevstvo Božje, može ostati nijema ako politika preskace i eticnost i osnovna ljudska prava? Da li bi time izdala svoj poziv spašavanja covjeka? Ocito da. Da li politika, država, može zatvoriti oci ako se u Crkvama dogadaju ‘nezgodne stvari’ (napr. Kult sinca i ubojstva ili Scijetnisticka Crkva)? Ocito ne može. Evo ovakav je problem danas iskrsnuo u državama u kojima je izgledalo da je odnos Crkve i Države - odvojenost - potpuno riješen.

Tko god imalo pozna religioznost ili Crkvu, zna da je njezino polje cijeli covjek u svim svojim odnosima. Ona uci covjeka da živi korektno prema religioznoj savijesti u sebi i u odnosu prema drugima, u odnosu i prema politici. Crkva i njezini vjernici nužno su jedno, ali s politickom vlašcu ipak nije jedno. Svaka politicka vlast morala bi u svojem Kodeksu imati elementarne postavke etike koju usvaja i vjernik i nevjernik. Crkva ne smije ispustiti ispod svojeg interesa napr. ljudska prava. Ona su ‘dublje’ od politike. Crkva se ne može osloboditi odgovornosti za ‘zdravo društvo’, ali mora prepustiti politici, koja je razumski proizvod uvjetovan vremenom i kulturom, oblike društvene organiziranosti. Svaka politicka stranka ili svaki društveni oblik mora poštivati ljudsku savijest i religioznost i sve što proizlazi iz tog, a model organiziranosti i vladanja nudit ce se prema razumnosti i realnosti. Tako bi se covjek odlucivao za politiku prema kriteriju svojeg shvacanja (po svojoj pameti).Crkva treba tražiti od svojih clanova da se bore za ostvarivanje Ustava koji ce poštivati njihovu vjeru, a nacin ostvarivanja birat ce prema svojem shvacanju. U NZ ipak je izjednaceno ljudsko i božansko. A što danas znaci “Bogu božje, caru carevo”?

Fr. Marijan Jurcevic, o.p

© Hrvatska dominikanska provincija - 1999. - 2004.

www.dominikanci.hr 
http://www.dominikanci.hr/propovijedi/29nkg-a.php

Osnovni cilj zakona je zblizavanje ljudi
30. nedjelja kroz godinu - A

Jedina zapovijed : Ljubi Boga i bližnjega svoga

(Mt 22,34-40)

Isus sve zapovijedi (10) sažima u jednu koja regulira odnose s Bogom i s drugim ljudima. Kroz povijest se vrlo cesto lucilo “sveto” od “profanog”, Božje od ljudskog. Zato se dogadalo da se religiozno (sveto) pretvori u apstraktno i daleko od života. Tako je došlo do odvajanja realnog života od religioznosti. Profano se dijelilo od transcedencije (Boga), pa se dogadalo da religioznost nije imala nikakvog utjecaja na prakticni život. Vjera se svela na neku vrstu deizma. Vjeruje se u Božanstvo od kojeg potjece život, ali svijet je od njega neovisan i autonoman. Tako je striktno lucenje religioznog i profanog vodilo u laicizaciju ili laicizam.

Danas se postavlja pitanje ima li podjele izmedu sakralnog i profanog, božanskog i ljudskog? Zar svako ljudsko bice nije istovremeno prožeto i transcedencijom? Bog je istovemeno transcedentan (nad svijetom) i imanentan (unutar svijeta) svijetu i covjeku. A to znaci da su svijet i covjek prisutni u Bogu. I covjek je i transcedentan i imanentan svijetu.

Isus samim svojim ‘sadržajem’ tj. bicem (Bog i covjek) izjednacuje ljudsko i Božansko. Možda je bolje reci, Isus uvodi ljudsko u božansko. Odnos prema Bogu ocituje se kroz odnos prema covjeku. Ako se covjek otudi od covjeka, otudio se i od Boga. Isto tako tko se otudi od Boga otudio se i od covjeka. Ne može se naci kriterije poštivanja samog covjeka bez Boga. Bog je kriterij covjekova postojanja i vrijednosti. Covjek je slika Božja, vrijednost Božja. Božansko se slavi preko ljudskog, a ljudsko vrednuje kroz božansko; u ‘nebo’ se ulazi i spušta ‘na zemlju’. Covjeka se izdiže iz poniženja i potlacenosti. Covjek je sam po sebi (jer je slika Božja) Božji Sakramenat u svijetu. Bog se kroz covjeka komunicira i otkriva. Ljudsko lice je i božansko lice.

Osnovni odnos prema covjeku i Bogu je ljubav. Pascal rece da covjek dalje vidi ljubavlju nego razumom. Ljubavlju se više približavamo drugom i Bogu nego li svim argumentima (shvacanjem). Ljubavlju se ispovijeda vjera u Boga i covjeka. Kroz ljubav se upoznaje Bog i covjek više nego li kroz bilo koju drugu stvarnost. Covjek se kroz ljubav oslobada svih otudenja - kroz ljubav se nanovo rada.

Svi pokušaji da se svijet preobrazi bez ljubavi nisu uspjeli. Sve ostaje samo teorija ili ideologija. Ljudi se mogu prepoznati kao prijatelji i kao bližnji samo kroz ljubav. Ljubav sprecava da se ne ode u iluziju bilo u odnosu prema covjeku ili Bogu.

Kriterij ispravnosti ljudske savijeti jest ljubav, a ne zapovijed. Covjek može ispuniti zapovijed i sa zlocestim srcem, radi raznoraznih drugih razloga. Cak i radi svojeg egoistickog interesa. Koliko li se zapovijedi izvrši radi moranja i kazne bez ikakve duševnosti i covjecnosti. Zato, onaj koji ljubi ispunjava sve zapovijedi. Ljubav je po svojoj strukturi predanje i odricanje, usrecivanje drugoga. Ljubav se razlikuje od erosa koji ljubi što mu je ljubivo i razumljivo. Istinska ljubav ljubi i bez ‘razloga’. Isus je primjer apsolutnog predanja za drugog i primjer apsolutne ljubavi. Time je ispunio sve zapovijedi - ljudske i Božje.

Mi smo više osjetljivi i “poslušni” zakonu ili zapovijedi nego li ljubavi. Revniji smo u poslušnosti negoli u ljubavi. Znamo da možemo ispuniti sve zakone i ne primaknuti se ništa bliže drugom covjeku. Možda danas živimo pod zakonom i u svijetu u kojem je ljubav potisnuta. Sve se hoce propisati bez ostavljanja covjeku one spontanosti u ljubavi. Nažalost, cak se i bracna ljubav pretvara u zakon, a sve manje u vezu ljubavi. A što je manje ljubavi to je više tiranije i rastrojenosti ljudskog roda. Dovoljno je da zakon malo ‘pukne’ i dogodi se velika eksplozija mržnje i necovjecnosti. Svi smo to iskusili tijekom proteklog rata.

Zakonu je cesto cilj sprijeciti zlo. No, osnovni cilj zakona je zbližavanje ljudi; zakon stvara podložnike, a ljubav prijetalje i bracu i sestre; zakon stvara ropstvo (kako cesto navodi Pavao), a ljubav slobodu. Tko ljubi ostvaruje religiozni osjecaj, kršcanstvo i blizinu Božju. Tko ljubi ostvaruje humanost i sva ljudska prava, poštivanje covjeka.

Tko ljubi, naizgled gubi, ali on je sretan i ostvaren covjek. Tko ide putem Božje ljubavi on je spašen i vec ima iskustvo vjecnosti. Jer Bog je ljubav, a tko ljubi poznaje i Boga i covjeka!

Fr. Marijan Jurcevic, o.p

© Hrvatska dominikanska provincija - 1999. - 2004.

www.dominikanci.hr

Pukotina izmedu naše dubine i našeg nasljedovanja, izvor naših nemira
28. nedjelja kroz godinu - A

Bog poziva sve ljude na svoju gozbu

(Mt 22,1-14)

Živimo u svijetu koji je postao kao veliko ‘selo’, no ipak, jako podijeljen, bilo po zemljopisu, nacionalnosti, ideologiji, religiji ili politici, po bogatstvu... Takoder, možemo konstatirati da u svim ljudima drijema želja i nada za zajedništvom i jedinstvom ljudskog roda. Kako bi bilo ljudski da smo jedinstveni, da se više prepoznajemo u onome što nas cini ljudima? Ta težnja je od Boga utisnuta u svako ljudsko srce. Zašto se razjedinjujemo, zašto se dijelimo? Svi ljudi, bez obzira na razlicitosti, u konacnici su pozvani za ‘zajednicki Božji stol’. Nitko od Stvoritelja (koji je u našem postanku) nije otpisan niti u pocetki niti u zvršetku. Ipak, svatko od nas odgovoran je u svom pozivu, odgovoran pred buducnošcu, oslanjajuci se na cijelu ljudsku povijest. Sada nitko nije prvi niti posljednji. Svi smo mi u lancu ljudskog života. Odgovorni smo za život i kvalitetu života. Pozvani smo za zajednicki stol koji je vec sada prostrt onima koji vjeruju u Boga Stvoritelja. Ljudi su ti koji su “Gospodnji stol” ispregradivali, razdjelili se i posvadali. Mnogi pretendiraju imati pravo na Gospodnji stol iako se ne orijentiraju prema zajedništvu.

Nekada je Izrael pretendirao biti ‘Božji narod’. I stvarno, Bog mu je bio saveznik, ali kako navodi Biblija, Izrael nije odgovorio Božjem pozivu. Skoro je postavljao uvjete Bogu kako i kome ce se objaviti, koga ce pomagati. Više nije slušao glasnike Božje, cak ih je i ubijao jer se oni nisu slagali sa svim onim što je ‘Božji narod’ cinio.

Takoder nam se namece pitanje, zašto covjek koji razumom vidi što je dobro i plemenito i što je njegova zadnja životna gozba, to ne slijedi i ne prihvaca životno? Zašto se stalno odgada odgovor na poziv svoje duše i svojeg života, zašto covjek odgada odgovor na Božji poziv? Tu se pokazuje pukotina izmedu naše dubine i našeg nasljedovanja, a tu se pokazuje i izvor naših nemira. Nije problem u tomu što ne ostavrujemo sve što hocemo nego što ne slijedimo ono što držimo dobrim i pravednim.

Dokle ce covjek odbijati poziv na ljubav i prijateljstvo? Svi ljudi su pozvani bez obzira na sve razlike i shvacanja, ‘dobri’ i ‘loši’. Nema covjeka koji bi se mogao osloboditi životnog poziva na dobro.

Bog ljudima trajno šalje svoje poslanike u svijet da ih pozivaju za “Božji stol”. No, trajno se dogada odbijanje Božjeg poziva, naprotiv, ubija se one koji podsjecaju na te pozive. Ispovjedaoci i mucenici su ti svjedoci Božjeg poziva svim ljudima.

Nakon dvije tisuce godina kršcanstva danas se pitamo koliko su kršcani okrenuti Božjem pozivu i koliko mu se odazivaju? Mnogi su se nažalost naviknuli cuti pozive, cak ih i odobravati, ali se na njih ne odazivati. “Vi tako trebate propovijedati, ali mi ostajemo po svojem”. Cesto se cuje ovakav podgovor kod samih kršcana. Tome se jako cude oni koji nisu kršcani niti vjernici, kako vjernici neozbiljno uzimaju svoju vjersku misiju. U ovom neodazivu može se vidjeti skoro neke vrste ateizma. Mnogi kršcani žive ‘kao da Boga nema’. U tom slucaju nije cudno da se nevjernici pitaju “gdje je vaš Bog kad ga tako ne slušate?”

Može se dogoditi da se kršcani odazivaju na simbolicnu Božju gozbu, ali se ne odazivaju na onu pravu i potpunu. Na Božju gozbu ne može se doci bez unutarnjeg ‘odijela’ koje nam je Gospodin ponudio i koje smo dobili na našem krštenju. Mnogi su ‘krsno odjelo’ vrlo davno odbacili i hodaju svijetom bez njega. Ocito je da oni žive kao da nisu ni kršteni, kao što takoder možemo susresti mnogo onih koji nisu kršteni, ali žive u ‘odjelu’ Božjem i cekaju Gospodinov poziv. Prevara je zvati se bratom i sestrom, a živjeti izolirano i bez brige za druge.

Danas nam prijeti opsnost prevelike individualizacije i brige samo za sebe. Gradovi su se napunili ljudima, ali se smanjilo zajedništvo. Porasle su velike župe, a da li je time poraslo i zajedništvo? Ocito nije, zato se i pitamo ova pitanja. Biti brat ili sestra bez tog životnog odijela, to je izdaja ljubavi i bratstva.

Na koju i kakvu ‘gozbu’ se mi kršcani odazivamo? Je li to Božja gozba ili gozba ovoga svijeta ? Mi smo pozvani da svjedocimo Božju dobrotu u svijetu. Ona se svjedoci ne ideologijom nego življenjem.

Može li se danas u Crkvi cuti Božji poziv ili se cuju pozivi ljudi koji se oblace u Isusovu tuniku, ali organiziraju svoje gozbi i šire glas o sebi. Cesto vlastiti interesi zakriljuju mogucnost da se cuje Božji glas. Ali svi smo pozvani. Tko ce se odazvati ? Tko ce biti bez Božjeg duha i ruha?

Fr. Marijan Jurcevic, o.p.

© Hrvatska dominikanska provincija - 1999. - 2004.
www.dominikanci.hr 

http://www.dominikanci.hr/propovijedi/28nkg-a.php

Spasenje nije okrenuto prema samom sebi.

34. nedjelja kroz godinu - A

Spasenje nije okrenuto prema samom sebi. Ne kroz zauzetost samim sobom, nego kroz otvorenost i prepoznavanje drugoga i njegovih potreba

Isusov povratak (Krist Kralj)

(Mt 25,31-46)

U kojem smislu se danas može govoriti o Kristu Kralju? Iako skoro nitko više nema sliku kralja niti alegoijskog znacenja kralja kao bitnu, ipak se današnja završna nedjelja crkvene godine slavi kao blagdan Krista kralja. Potrebno je napomenuti da se današnjom nedjeljom prvenstveno slavi završetak godišnjeg liturgijskog ciklusa Isusova života i djela za nas i cijeli svijet. I kao da se na taj završetak stavlja kraljevska titula. Danas to treba ocito drugacije izreci i drugim slikama oslikati.

Covjek i svijet su u svojem razvoju. Vjerujemo da taj razvoj teži prema svojem potpunom ispunjenju, prema svojoj potpunoj istini. To potpuno ostvarenje bit ce i ponovni dolazak Isusa Krista. Ova povijest Utjelovljenja Božjeg završit ce spasenjem svijeta. I današnje evandelje povratno nam govori tko živi Isusovu istinu i Isusov život, tko je Isusov, tko je kršcanin.

Vjecna je dilema kako se ulazi u Boga i u vjecnost, kako se postiže životno osmišljenje. Mi kršcani vjerujemo da se kroz Isusa ostvaruje cijeli svemir i ljudi. On je put, istina i život. Ali što to znaci nama danas? Tko je Isusov ne samo reklamno i verbalno nego životno i stvarno? Koji i kakav je život za kojeg možemo reci da je Isusove kvalitete i Isusova duha? Kako se dogada ulazak u ‘Božju istinu’, kako se dogada spasenje ljudskog roda?

Evandelje nam nudi dva modela spasenja. Ivanov model: U pocetku bijaše Rijec... Rijec prebiva u nama... oni koji spoznaju Rijec u sebi Božji su sinovi (Iv Uvod). Božji se postaje ulaskom u tajnu samog Boga. Prepoznavanjem Boga u sebi i svijetu i življenjem božanske istine. Ici ka spasenju znaci u svijetu svijetliti kao Božje svjetlo. Spašavaju se oni koji upoznaše Božansku istinu. Isus je ta istina i tko u sebi ima istinu prepoznat ce Isusa i Isus ce njega prepoznati. Covjekovo ostvarnje se zbiva kroz upoznavanje apsolutne Istine. Tko bude u istini prepoznat ce ga Bog kao svojeg i taj ce prepoznati Boga. Poziv svakog kršcanina je ovaj: biti covjek istine u svim momentima svojeg života. Tko ostaje vjeran Istini taj ostaje vjeran i Bogu. Istinoljubci su Božji miljenici jer Božji svijet tj. kraljevstvo Božje je tamo gdje je istina. Isus je Istina i svi koji su u istini upoznat ce Isusa i Isus njih. (T. Chardin bi rekao) Isus ce biti W svega svijeta. On ce se pojaviti na koncu svijeta kao kruna svega. To bi bio prvi model spasenja: Istina i prebivanje u istini spašavaju.

Drugi model spasenja donose Sinoptici (Marko, Matej i Luka). Ovaj drugi model je na egzistencijalnoj razini. U njemu dolazimo do odgovora tko je Isusov i koga Isus prepoznaje kao svojeg, ali ne po ‘spoznajnoj’ nego po životnoj pripadnosti. Prema ovoj drugoj ‘shemi’ na Isusovom putu su oni koji žive Isusovu istinu, a ne oni koji ga površinski i nominalno znaju i prihvacaju. Tko ne prakticira Njegovu istinu taj ga ne poznaje niti Isus poznaje njega. Ovaj model nam pokazuje tko je kršcanin, tko je sljedbenik Isusov.

Zanimljivo je pokazano u kojim se cinima pokazuje božanska istina. Pokazano je kojim cinima se ulazi u ‘kraljevstvo Božje’, u Božji svijet, u Božje zajedništvo, kraljevstvo Božje. Cijeli naglasak prepoznavanja Boga i prepoznavanje nas od Boga smješten je u meduljudske odnose. Koliko drugoga covjeka prepoznajemo u njegovoj istini toliko prepoznajemo Boga i Bog nas. Meduljudski odnosi su uzdignuti na odnos s Bogom. Time je covjek uzvišen i spašen. Covjek je uzdignut na božansku vrijednost.

Spasenje nije okrenuto prema samom sebi. Ne kroz zauzetost samim sobom, nego kroz otvorenost i prepoznavanje drugoga i njegovih potreba. Žalostan covjek je žalostan Bog, gladni, zatvoreni, bolesni... Kako je to divna i zacudujuca identifikacija Isusa i ugroženog covjeka! Ovakva identifikacija se nije dogodila ni u jednoj religiji. Ovim Isusovim pozivom kršcansko vjerovanje je jednostavno, a kršcanska praksa vrlo zahtjevna. Ocito je da ju se ne može u život sprovoditi ako se ne usvoji Isusov stav, Isusova ljubav. Ljubav nizašto, pomoc bez zahvale, stjecanje srece usrecujuci drugoga.

Isus nas prepoznaje kao svoje, na svom putu, samo po našem ‘sadržaju’, po našem odnosu prema drugim ljudima. Na tom odnosu se upoznaje Isusa, ulazi se u spoznaju Rijeci Božje. Tek ‘izlazeci iz sebe’ oslobadamo mjesto Bogu u sebi (Eckhart, Tauler), spoznaji Boga i samoga sebe. Odricuci se samoga sebe, dozvoljavajuci da drugi sa svim svojim teškocama i bolima ude u nas, mi se ostvarujemo i postajemo jasna slika živoga Boga.

Isus kao covjek i Bog ‘pokriva’ cijeli svemir i on u tom svemiru nalazi svoje osmišljenje. U ovom smislu Isus je kralj svega stvorenog. Isus je spasitelj kao i svatko od nas tko ide njegovim putem i slijedi njegov život.

Fr. Marijan Jurcevic, o.p.

http://www.dominikanci.hr/propovijedi/34nkg-a.php