In my last entry post, a couple of commenters either misunderstood Kiko or perhaps they want to justify their demonizing. This is what Kiko Arguello said about "Judases", (the bold is mine):
“Finally, there is a third circle, a third group of brothers and sisters, those who live a lie, who have always lied to themselves. They are those in whom Satan acts, enslaving them. Not necessarily because they are wicked, or due to any fault of their own, but perhaps for some reason or other that we will not investigate. Maybe these are the richest people, humanly speaking, the most intellectually gifted. (Judas was perhaps the brightest of the apostles, which is why he kept the purse … ) These people cannot stand the community. This mission is very important because, without Judas, there is no Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. If you are called to be Jesus Christ,you must have your Judas. Each of you here will have your hour. Your life is in function of assuming an hour. Jesus Christ was waiting for his hour to arrive and one day he said: My hour has come (see Jn 12:23). I hope that one day all of you will be able to say the same: My hour has come, the hour to give testimony of Jesus, the hour to be raised up, the hour in which the Father will be glorified in you. All Christians are called by God to take on this hour.
When that day arrives, these people will have the mission of killing you, of destroying you. Fundamentally, they live dominated by the devil because they have never been loved. To be able to love himself and other people, a man needs to be loved. These people do not listen to your reasons; they do not recognize the Spirit. They say it’s all too angelic and a form of alienation which provides you with an excuse never to have to lift a finger to do anything. The only way for these brothers and sisters to be saved is for the Church to give her blood for them, the blood of Christians, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. They will kill you and you will give your blood for them, as St. Stephen gave his blood for those who stoned him. In that way, they can all be saved.” Page 82, Day 4.
First of all, Kiko called "Judases" our "brothers and sisters" because they are either Catholics like us or non-Christians made in God's image like all humanity. Kiko also recognized that the "Judases" are important for our salvation. He said that if we are called to Christ, we must have our Judas. Many in the jungle, on the other hand, do not call us brothers and sisters. In fact, they do not even recognize us as "Catholics". They label the NCW as "evil cult", "the devil", or just plain "evil." While Kiko say that it is important to have the "Judases" and that we should have them in our midst, some junglefolks have expressed that they do not want the NCW in their midst and out of their church building.
Second of all, Kiko never said that the "Judases" are evil or even the devil. He stated: "those in whom Satan acts, enslaving them. Not necessarily because they are wicked, or due to any fault of their own,...." Kiko recognized that Satan is the enemy who enslaves our brothers and sisters. Kiko goes on to say that the Judases are NOT wicked, and he did not fault them for anything. He recognized that their life is dominated by Satan because they have never been loved. In the NCW, we are taught that the enemy is NOT the person who persecutes you. The enemy is Satan, who can enslave us and convince us to do wrong things. Satan is not human, and is the enemy of both God and man.
Finally, Kiko stated that the "Judases" can be saved if we give our life up for them just as Christ gave up His life to redeem all mankind. To the brothers walking in the Way....this means that we should live our life the way Christ did. Christ loved all sinners that He gave His life so that sinners can be saved. We should follow in His footsteps. We should also love the "Judases" and give our life for them so that they can also be saved. We follow the way of the cross.
1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
The fact is that the Judas is always outside the community. You have judge this people who do not subscribe to your beliefs system which is pathetic. Only the ones in the inner circles will be save. What are you, NCW Protestants!!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 1:22 pm,
DeleteThat is incorrect. Judas was also inside the community. Remember that he was also chosen by Christ to be an Apostle. Judas Iscariot only serves as a reminder to all of us that just because one is chosen does not mean that one cannot sin.
Diana, you quote Kiko Arguello saying "if you are called to be Jesus Christ, you must have your Judas." What does this mean? How are you called to be Jesus Christ?
ReplyDeleteYou see, here is a reason why people think the NCW deviates from the teaching of the church. Nowhere in the catechism will you find a claim like this. We are not called to be Christ. We are called to imitate his earthly ways. Thomas Kempis wrote his famous book, the Imitation of Christ, a devotional classic in the 15th century, well before Ferdinand Magellan discovered Guam. Kempis wanted to come to the Lord Jesus as close as possible. But he had never claimed that we were called to be the Savior, to be Jesus, he only said we are called to imitate Him.
If you say you are called to be Jesus then certainly there must be many Jesuses walking around who had already completed the task you are proposing. Are these people all equal to Jesus then? Are you serious claiming a human person can be equal to the Lord? What does it mean to be Jesus Christ in the NCW?
I am sure it could help a lot for people who suspect the NCW is deviating from the teaching of the church if you could clarify this dubious teaching by the leader of you movement.
Dear grow up in faith,
DeleteIt has been a while since I have not heard from you. Welcome back!
"If you are called to be Jesus Christ" means to be like Christ just as you say. We are called to be holy just as God is holy. We are called to be perfect just as God is perfect. We are called to be one with Christ just as Christ is one with God the Father. That is in the Holy Bible. Of course, we cannot be holy and perfect on our own power. Only Christ can make us holy and perfect. Though holiness, a man can become a son of God just as Christ is Son of God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
CCC 460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":"For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."
Dear Diana, thanks for your greeting. I also wish you well. The reason I am asking this question now is that I feel it is an important aspect of relation between faithful Catholics and the NCW that requires clear light to be shed on.
DeleteThe Jungle Watch group is taking now an approach I cannot agree with. There are several splinter groups, like CCOG and Laity Forward organized, that try to detach themselves from the madness of JW. Unfortunately, CCOG became a mouth piece of JW, being unable to come up with any initiative of their own. Other autonomous Catholic groups may come into being in order to initiate and conduct a civilized dialog between faithful Catholics of Guam and the NCW. We do not give up.
Considering the quote above, there is a huge gap between your intention to be holy and being called to be Jesus Christ! Jesus had existed even before creation. He is the unique Son of God, his divine nature is that of God. When we share in the divine nature of Christ, we become children of God but not Christ himself. This little nuance must be clarified in very clear terms, if you want faithful Catholics to accept the NCW's talk of Jesus.
I hope you'll prefer to focus on faith questions, rather than the daily noise coming up from the JW radicals.
Dear grow up in faith,
DeleteI agree with you. We are called to be like Christ (Christlike) or to imitate him. That is really all it means. Kiko speaks Spanish, and sometimes the English translation is not the best, but the closest.
With the NCW all over the world, that is an invalid excuse to say that "Kiko speaks Spanish, and sometimes the English translation is the best, but the closest." It is not a mistranslation. Kiko means what he says.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 3:40 am,
DeleteThen you should write a letter of complaint to the Vatican for approving the mistranslation.