The E-catechism: December 2000
	Faith and Moral
	Epiphany is the responsability of all people
	Archives of Partenia
	History of Partenia, Biography of Bishop Jacques Gaillot
	Special Edition A letter from Georges Vimard, priest at Gaza

		Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter. We look forward to hearing from you. Faith and Moral The objective of religion is to make the link between the realm of God, and humanity. For that they naturally set forth rules of life for their followers. If there is a relationship between heaven and our world, human existence takes on another meaning and a new weight that necessarily bears consequences on our ordinary life.    Coming from an early transcendental alliance, religions often risk transforming themselves mostly into moral codes, and in order to give themselves greater authority, even absolute authority, they use the "Divine" reference for establishing rules. Then all dogma is justified in the name of a so-called eternal divine order. They are in great danger of escaping from a necessary and sound analysis, a permanent clarification in connection with the experience of every day life. Instead of being at the service of dominating moral code and accumulating endless multiple details of ways of behavior, religion should above all open new horizons to humans; it should put forward the immense value of existence on earth and open one to the eternal. Religion should lead us into the marvelous feeling of being loved by God, a wonderful feeling that stimulates our creative responsibility. Jesus did not bring precise rules of behavior. He exhorted every one to dare, to be responsible (Why don't you judge by yourself?) He helped the lame, the paralytic to stand up, the blind to see. " Go, your faith has saved you" He has always struggled against compelling laws. His Good News is a message of freedom and love, a message that has all its density in a presence, in an unconditional love at the heart of the difficult course of human life. There is God who has loved us first. Certainly a religious faith will normally modify human action, but not in the direction of controlling more rigorously all our acts. The God of Jesus Christ is a God of liberation and love who is confident in human beings, in their ability to be responsible and free. When religions fail to sufficiently express the wonder of knowing that "God is with us" they tend to take refuge in prescribing morals. Far from liberating, their moral code is oppressive without this stimulating feeling and hope. Too eager to prescribe first how people should act, moral authority compromise their main objective which is to give every one the access to the human dignity of being a person. The primary task of an authentic moral is in fact not to regulate human action. That belongs more to Law. Rather than determine what to do, the primary impulse of moral education is to wake up the conscience, that is to give the capacity to judge by oneself, to act as a person, to have access to responsible freedom in solidarity with others. Rather than knowing what to do, it is important to progressively discover how to make our actions really human without copying others. This is even more essential for a moral of religious origin, because God, the God of Jesus Christ, desires to meet persons who are free, and able to make a personal commitment. The French writer Peguy wrote" When I have made the experience of being loved by a free man, said God, I am no longer interested by the bows of a slave"!

		Epiphany is the responsibility of all people Epiphany means "manifestation". At Epiphany we celebrate the manifestation of God. In an astonishing way, he manifested himself in the coming of Jesus as a human. It is the feast of the Incarnation. God coming into our flesh. Emmanuel; God among us. It is Noel. In Eastern traditions, Noel and Epiphany are not distinguished. In Western traditions, they are two festivals separated by a few days. For the Epiphany we have used Matthew's story in the Gospels, and presented the visit of learned men, likely astrologers, to the baby Jesus. The popular devotion transformed them to Kings, the Magi kings and above all in the known human races: a Black, an Asiatic and a White. This made a new meaning for this manifestation. God does not manifest only to the people he chose to be born among. He came for every human. The Good News that God manifests himself is not reserved for a culture, a people or a élite. It is for all men and women. Every one of us can recognize today the manifestation of God among us. It is in the good feeling for life, in the passion for justice, in the human search for progress and truth. This Good News will not stop spreading and will appear in new ways. In fact each human being who participates in this manifestation makes it richer with his own specific culture, social and racial origin. Like the Magi came back home through another road, the manifestation of God happens in new and unsuspected ways and through different channels. Internet communication is one of these channels. It offers information accessible at will to any body. Boundaries do not exist any more. With it, the manifestation of God will appear again in a new way. It is in the measure it will be entrusted to all the people, cultures and means of communication that the manifestation of God can tend towards its full development.