Dubious quotation from Raimon Pannikar for parish bulletin-what should I do?

[AGF1461]

Our deacon asked me to put the following quotation in our parish bulletin. I’m a parishioner who does the bulletin on a volunteer basis, and I see the bulletin as a teaching tool, as well as a newsletter. My goal is to teach and inspire adults who may have missed out on or forgotten essentials of our faith.

Here’s what he wants me to include:
on having faith

“To seek Christ, you have to know yourself. At first, you will see the egotism, littleness, need to control, maybe even deeper, darker darknesses. But in seeking for ourselves in Christ, we also see that we are more than that. We see that we are beautiful, graceful, painted in God’s heart; the image of God. If we seek ourselves in Christ, we will see that goodness, beauty, and truth, and trust ourselves. If we lose this self-esteem, or never experience it, we will find it difficult to esteem others, or to have faith (trust) in God. How can we seek God unless we trust the one who is seeking?”

Raimon Pannikar, “ *Christophany, The Fullness of Man”

To me, this is confusing and somewhat dubious. What are your thoughts, and what should I do? Currently, our pastor is on sabbatical, and the deacon is the parish administrator.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I’m having a hard time why you have a problem with this quote ?

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is a commandment to love ourselves, not a parallel to loving your neighbor as you already love yourself.

The majority of people don’t love themselves, which is why we develop egos as a defensive mechanism amd project to the world a false image of ourselves. God knows our true self and spiritual growth always involves humble self-knowledge.Raimon Panikkar is addressing this in his quote.

The deacon of your parish asked to put it into the bulletin, you should humble yourself and do so.

Jim

 

[BartholomewB]

Panikkar was quoted as saying, “I left Europe [for India] as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be Christian.” It sounds dubious to me, but he was an ordained priest, so I suppose we have to go along with it.

Raimon Panikkar - Wikipedia

 

[angel12]

To me, this is confusing and somewhat dubious. What are your thoughts, and what should I do?

I don’t see anything dubious about it. Unless the pastor asked you to vet what the deacon puts in the bulletin, you need to put it in the bulletin.

 

[Joe_5859]

I would just follow the deacon’s instructions. I can see why you don’t like the quote. It seems a little self-focused to me. But it doesn’t strike me as dangerously heretical such that you should not do as the deacon asked.

 

[Horton]

“To seek Christ, you have to know yourself. At first, you will see the egotism, littleness, need to control, maybe even deeper, darker darknesses. But in seeking for ourselves in Christ, we also see that we are more than that. We see that we are beautiful, graceful, painted in God’s heart; the image of God. If we seek ourselves in Christ, we will see that goodness, beauty, and truth, and trust ourselves. If we lose this self-esteem, or never experience it, we will find it difficult to esteem others, or to have faith (trust) in God. How can we seek God unless we trust the one who is seeking?”

To me this is spot on. We must look at ourselves when seeking God, we must give up ourselves and be open to what God wills for us. If we don’t do the work to live the life God wants for us then we can never truly experience God.

I see nothing confusing or dubious here. Can you explain a little more why you are hesitant?

 

[Brian_K]

I personally think it’s a little heavy for a bulletin. But then again, not many are likely to do lectio divina on the church bulletin, so I’d look at it a glass half full, in the sense that at least it’s pointing people to Jesus, it has a positive tone, and maybe even the slightly verbose nature of it will draw some to pause and think a little deeper about the nature of God.

 

[Divine3]

I would think one gets the grace to know oneself because we ask Jesus for this grace as we grow in our knowledge and love of Christ. I forget what psalms, but there is a line in a psalm …show me my hidden faults. Also meditating on being made in the image and likeness of God is surly another way to know oneself. If I was reading Pannikar in your bulletin I would not find this statement helpful and would ignore it. If you have permission to insert a cartoon, or a small paragraph, to improve this quest for self knowledge as his quote seems a little hard to grasp.

 

[Jen7]

I think it’s fine, theologically. But it’s too long for a bull item quote. If you’re uncomfortable about the content just know I doubt most people will read it all the way with very much attention. Again, I don’t see anything wrong with it if they do.

 

[Beryllos]

If you have permission to insert a cartoon, or a small paragraph, find something to counteract his confusing ideas for next weeks bulletin and put it in.

Alternatively, you could insert something that supports or clarifies the text in question, for example, “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

 

[Divine3]

Yes, maybe it just needs more explaining or some other quote to support Panniikar’s thoughts. I found this. From Cardinal Sarah The Power of Silence, “To go in search of God is not to go out of oneself in order to find something in the outside world; on the contrary, it is to turn away from this world and to reflect on oneself”. (192)