By Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ
In another month, I will mark the first anniversary of my episcopal ordination. It has been an eventful year for me to say the least. Although I am not going to present a review of the year in this short article, I am eager to share with you one disturbing and repetitive experience I had throughout the year. Guess what it is?
What I have received the most and on a regular basis this year, either via email or postal mail, are complaints. And these complaints vary in style and degree of truthfulness.
There were complaints with contents so incoherently presented that I could draw little sense from them. There were those framed with partial truth but embellished with elaborations based on hearsay or speculation. The latter was, sad to say, the majority. Only a small percentage of the complaints were based on credible facts, which required serious follow-up.
And there were letters that bore no information about the sender, which was rather common. Certain letters claimed to be authored by certain groups of stakeholders but left no contact information. And some letters only provided me with a name but with no means of verification or contact. Yet, the authenticity of these names could hardly be established. Again, only a few complaints carried real names and contacts for me to verify and follow up.
The authors of those complaints must have had different motives that influenced their less than helpful actions. The possible motives are just too numerous for this article to cover.
However, I would like to take this opportunity to raise a few points for us Christians and people of goodwill to ponder upon. Is the complaint intended to vent, take revenge, blacken the name of the complainee, or attract the attention of the recipient of the complaint for actions? Or, is the complaint supported with valid facts, presented with objective understanding, and with the intention to help the complainee make the desirable changes as well as for the best interests of the different parties in mind, and not for the complainant only?
It saddens me to even think that my fellow Christians would choose to use partial facts plus speculations or made-up stories to hurt their complainees. This form of complaining is indeed common in our world today. But we Christians are all humans, just like others in the world. Is that correct? If not, are we worse or desirably different from the others?
As Christians, are we not called to witness to the secular world for the Truth and Love of God, but not having ourselves belonging to the world? But if we let ourselves belong to the secular world, we will be, to a significant degree, adopting the godless culture of the world. Is that what we want? I believe many of us will not want that if we are aware of it. It is clear that this disturbing culture that we are living in badly requires God’s redemption. And we as Christians are commissioned to help God in it.
For example, do we not have the moral courage to let our own identities be known to the recipients of our complaints so that they can follow up with us? Even if we are victims of our complainees, our unhelpful or unjust actions will not improve the painful situations. They may complicate the problems and deepen the pain further.
Can we not distance ourselves from this disturbing culture but bring healing love to it? “Where there are lies, there is no love, one cannot have love,” said Pope Francis on 14 November 2018, during his weekly general audience. Only love can heal, not hatred, my sisters, brothers, and friends.
+ Stephen Chow, SJ
