By Tonette T. Orejas for PNN
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — An invitation to “get to know Jesus as a human being” was how Cardinal Pablo Virgilio S. David opened the Pampanga-leg launch of his book “Yeshua (Son of Man)” here last March 17.
David, a native of Betis in Guagua town, quickly cautioned the audience of that difficult call because Yeshua—Jesus in Hebrew— had been “put on a pedestal kaya hindi maka-relate sa kanya.” The divine in Jesus, of being sent by God to save sinners, might have taken a more dominant theme among so many faithful.
His 115-page book precisely helped to carry out, and fulfill, that task. It turned out that David, a Bible scholar, wrote it in easy-to-understand chapters without burdening the readers with researches, footnotes, backgrounds and too much context.
What he did was put his imagination to work to be able to fill the gaps of the Jesus character in the stories of the Virgin Mary, St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John.
He made simple what were couched in big terms: “interpolative method in understanding the Scriptures” or “imaginative hermeneutics.”
But he imagined in a “captivating” way, said Cardinal Orlando B. Quevedo in the foreword.
“He connects dots between episodes and sayings of Yeshua’s earthly life found in the four Gospels. He connects dots between episodes in the same Gospel, but his imagination goes beyond merely connecting dots or interpolating: he extrapolates.”
“He imagines creatively what are merely hinted at in the four Gospels. He narrates the childhood friendship of the cousins John and Jesus; their rabbinical upbringing while under the care of Zechariah, John’s father who was a priest of the Jerusalem temple; Yeshua’s following the older John as a disciple. He tells the story of John’s initial fondness for the Zealots and for some of the Essenes who followed him, his disillusionment with them as he turned towards asceticism and preached conversion and salvation through his baptismal ritual in the Jordan. He narrates the fundamental difference between John’s teaching of a time of judgment and Jesus’ own teaching of compassion. He imaginatively creates the role that the Zealot ideology played in the betrayal of Jesus by Judas,” Quevedo, the archbishop emeritus of Cotabato, pointed out.
David, according to the Cotabato bishop, told the story of Yeshua as the “Compassion of God.”
The editor, Nina Tomen, warned David beforehand that the book could “offend the sensibilities of those who are into literal reading of the Sacred Scriptures.” The cardinal wrote it as part of a course he offered at the Loyola School of Theology. The course title was “Reading Between the Lines of the Scripture (The role of imagination in biblical interpretation).”
Tomen said “more than what is written in the bible, this book is what is not written in the bible— the gaps in the text.”
She said David “supplied his interpretation based on the historic cultural contexts of that period,” adding that the cardinal “interwove these contexts with the fruits of his imagination—as he saw people, and events in his mind’s eye after praying and reflecting.”
This, she said, was the “exegete and scholar at work” in the cardinal.
According to her, David saw “everything including Judas, the “betrayer” in a good light—through the lens of love, mercy, and compassion, which was the work of the enlightened Christian and the good shepherd in him.”
The book was moving as Quevedo found out. The farewell scene between the Virgin Mary and Yeshua “can bring one to tears,” he admitted.
David extended the invitation by asking those present in the launch to “promise to read it or pass it on.”
After commenting “matindi ang utang na loob ng Israel sa Iran,” referring to how Cyrus, the king of the Persians (now Iranians) liberated the Jews, David expressed worry for the safety of two million Filipinos in the Middle East, the milieu in which Yeshua did his ministry.
The book, he said, can help deepen our personal relationship with Jesus.
“We often forget na ang anak ng Diyos ay nagkatawang-tao, ibig sabihin isinilang siya, he was born a human being, like you and me, that he grew up as a normal human being, that he was also reprimanded by his parents, that he also had doubts and fears. Then you can relate to that Jesus.”
The book, being a revised edition, was published with QR codes. The main code provided a Yeshua interactive companion book, complete with a simple bible study guide for lay people, a five-day retreat for the clergy on evangelizing through storytelling. Both materials can be downloaded and printed.
The post Cardinal’s invitation: ‘Get to know Jesus as a human’ first appeared on Pampanga News Now.