Remembering Tiananmen

By Edmund Lo, S.J.

June 4 is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. This event is also known as liu si, or “six-four” (6/4) in Chinese, referring to its date. Many university students – while protesting for more democracy – were killed by the military for their efforts. Having spent the majority of my childhood in Hong Kong, I was familiar with, and had always participated in the protests and demonstrations in memory of this tragedy. I was 7 years old when 6/4 happened. One can rightfully ask, “Well, how much can a wee 7-year-old boy understand about democracy and politics?” Not much, in all honesty. Nevertheless, I was old enough to understand that something was seriously twisted and wrong, and that I was protesting for a worthy cause.

The Injustice of Life: Offer It Up to the Lord

By Br. Daniel Leckman, S.J.

“Life is short, and then you die.” This may not be the best way to describe the cycle of life and death; especially not to a grieving family!  But it’s a start. In fact, reading through the books of wisdom in the Bible has helped me confront the themes of death and of imperfection in creation. Amazingly enough, the sentiment expressed above is found in one of the books of Wisdom.  I won’t tell you which one though! I’ll let people guess via the comments section of this post!

I can tell you, however, that these books ( Job, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom etc…) are ripe with such “rebellious statements” that deny the perfection of God’s creation. The rebellion they express is not against God, but against an idea of God that dates back to ancient Israel:  God works perfectly through creation. Through creation, he takes care of all those who revere and fear him. Anyone else who suffers calamity does so because they’ve sinned against the Almighty. They must repent in order to be ‘restored’.