{"id":38225,"date":"2024-09-05T23:58:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T06:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38225"},"modified":"2024-09-08T14:17:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T21:17:03","slug":"to-love-others-honestly-and-sincerely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/to-love-others-honestly-and-sincerely\/","title":{"rendered":"Genuine Love for a Divided World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the last few days, our country’s mass media and social media have been abuzz with news of Pope Francis’ visit. The visit of Pope Francis the highest leader of the Catholic religion to our country is a unique phenomenon. This is because the number of Catholics in our country is only around 3% of the 280 million people of Indonesia. Our country is the country with the largest Muslim community in the world. Around 90% of our country’s population is Muslim. Therefore, Pope Francis’ visit has become a hot topic of conversation in our country.<\/p>\n

The news in the media shows and emphasizes the simplicity practiced by Pope Francis. In addition to choosing to use a commercial plane rather than a private jet, he also chose to use a vehicle generally owned by the Indonesian people rather than a vehicle at the level of a head of state, usually a Mercedes-Benz. Pope Francis also chose to sleep in the Vatican embassy guest house rather than in a luxury hotel provided by the committee. Several journalists also reported that the watch that Pope Francis was wearing was estimated to cost less than 20 US dollars (several Christian influencers on Instagram and TikTok compared it to luxury watches worth thousands of dollars worn by several famous pastors in Indonesia). The simplicity displayed by Pope Francis fascinated most Indonesians. This is because the public recently learned that our President’s youngest son and his wife went to the United States using a private jet. Another interesting thing is that our President used a car similar to the one used by Pope Francis during his visit to our country. In his speech, Pope Francis, who was informed that our country has the largest gold mine in the world, responded to the information by saying that the most valuable treasure (for our country) is harmony amidst diversity. Pope Francis also visited the Istiqlal Mosque (the largest mosque in Indonesia) which is located across from the Jakarta Cathedral church. He walked through the tolerance tunnel that connects the two centers of worship belonging to Indonesian Muslims and Catholics. In his speech on peace amidst plurality, he said: \u201cThe emergence of violent conflicts in various regions is often due to a lack of mutual respect, an intolerant desire to impose one\u2019s interests, one\u2019s position, and a one-sided historical narrative by all means.\u201d In his writing, Pope Francis mentioned Indonesia\u2019s diversity as something that needs to be preserved and developed. He said, \u201cImmersed in the beauty of this land, a place of encounter and dialogue between different cultures and religions, I wish the Indonesian people growth in faith, fraternity, and compassion. God bless Indonesia!\u201d With his simplicity and wise advice, Pope Francis has left a deep impression on many people including prominent Muslim figures in our country. They praised Pope Francis\u2019 authentic and honest manners and character, sincere and without fabrication.<\/p>\n

When reading this week\u2019s assignment book \u201cJesus and The Powers,\u201d my mind immediately connected with what Pope Francis showed during his visit to our country. In my opinion, Pope Francis shows in real terms how divine love is practiced in real action. Pope Francis shows how to practice the politics of loving properly, as Wright and Bird write, \u201cBut we believe Christians should be committed to the politics of divine love, that is, love for God and love for neighbor. We are of the conviction that the kingdom means seeing people come to Jesus in faith, just as much as it means advocating for a world where everyone can ‘sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Pope Francis also shows that he is not allergic to differences. He shows that he is willing to visit our country, where only 3% of Indonesians are Catholic. He even visited and had dialogues with people of different faiths, including with Muslim leaders in our country. There is one very interesting thing in Pope Francis’ visit to the Istiqlal Mosque, namely when Pope Francis accompanied by the Grand Imam of the Istiqlal Mosque Nassarudin Umar shook hands. Even Umar kissed Pope Francis’ head which was reciprocated by kissing Umar’s hand. What Pope Francis showed again wanted to state that Christians must be present and express divine love to anyone and anywhere. In line with that, Wright and Bird wrote, “Christians in a pluralistic and multicultural setting need to find unity in diversity, practice hospitality as a political discipline, and build for the kingdom by contributing to the common good of all.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Although he only visited for a few days, the presence of Pope Francis was seen by many as a blessing for Indonesia. Christian religious leaders in our country stated that what Pope Francis stated through his life example was to proclaim the Gospel or the news of peace for all creatures. I then remembered what Jesus said in the Acts of the Apostles, that we are given and entrusted with \u201cpower\u201d from heaven to be witnesses for Him. Continuing from my writing in last week\u2019s assignment post, may peace truly be realized between all conflicting parties. Peace arises because we as Christians truly do what is God\u2019s will in our calling. As Christians, we are \u201csupposed to be more like a boot camp for soldiers of Jesus who go out into the world wearing the full armour of God, preaching reconciliation with God, loving their neighbours, sowing good deeds in the soil of hurting hearts, and becoming the scourge of the corrupt and the champion of the weak. We undertake these tasks in such a way as to make clear that Jesus is worthy of our worship.<\/em>\u201d[3]<\/a> Let us live out genuine love for a divided world as we answer call to love others sincerely.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird,\u00a0Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/em> (London: SPCK Publishing, 2024), 38.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Wright and Bird,\u00a0Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, 170.<\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Wright and Bird,\u00a0Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, 99-100.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last few days, our country’s mass media and social media have been abuzz with news of Pope Francis’ visit. The visit of Pope Francis the highest leader of the Catholic religion to our country is a unique phenomenon. This is because the number of Catholics in our country is only around 3% of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[3257],"class_list":["post-38225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02-wright-and-bird","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38225"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38255,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38225\/revisions\/38255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}