EPIPHANY 2024 FEATURE: Nicholas L. Rosal: "Beyond the Crossroad of Philosophy and Theology* (SVWorld Series)

EPIPHANY 2024 FEATURE: Nicholas L. Rosal: 

"Beyond the Crossroad of Philosophy and Theology"

San Vicente IIocos Sur (Philippines) to the World Series

Nicholas L. Rosal: "Beyond the Crossroad of Philosophy and Theology"*  

Philosophy takes us to the highest plane of reason, whereas theology takes us to that of faith. Can a philosopher be a theologian, and vice versa? Can a learned person embrace both, their similarities and differences?

By Dr Abe V Rotor
 Living with Nature School on Blog

  

Two books written by Dr Nicholas L Rosal. "Understanding an Exotic Language: Ilokano" is the counterpart of "Balarila in Pilipino," a scholarly guide to technical Ilokano."Handbook of Miracles is a valuable guide on how to understand what true miracles are and how they relate to the ultimate purpose of our existence -- eternal life in heaven." (Msgr. Armando Perini, the author's former pastor, Edison, N.J.)

Two most important words in the house of learning are philosophy and theology, in either sequence. The science of man and the science of God.

Philosophy takes us to the highest plane of reason, whereas theology takes us to that of faith.

Can a philosopher be a theologian, and vice versa? Can a learned person embrace both, their similarities and differences?

When Albert Einstein, the greatest mind in modern times, was asked, “What more can you not understand, Mr. Einstein?” 

The man behind the splitting of the atom, and adjudged Man of the Twentieth Century, answered in all humility, “I understand just a little about the atom; all things else, only God can understand.” It is manifestation of deep faith in Higher Principle, above that of science. 

On the other side of the coin, so to speak, when Pope Francis was bombarded with questions on ethico-morals confronting our postmodern world, he answered calmly and hushed the audience, “Who am I to be your judge.” And he led the faithful to a prayerful meditation. It is deep philosophy, humbling everyone with the biblical lesson, “He who has no sin throws the first stone.”    

And Mahatma Gandhi, Man of the Millennium  brought not only man to his knees, but a whole proud nation that was once the biggest empire on earth – “The sun never sets on English soil,” through asceticism and non-violence – terms that cannot explain the force that liberated India from centuries of human bondage, undoubtedly the power of the of the Human Spirit.

To this day, no one can truly explain how one man – simple, frail, devoid of the tools of war  – succeeded in leading India to independence, and preserving democracy in this subcontinent with more than a billion in population. Similarly, how Nelson Mandela liberated his country South Africa from British colonial rule. Lately too, the great achievement and sacrifice behind the canonization of  Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and  John Paul II.   

Milton's query: If Paradise was lost because of man's disobedience, was it regained in his absence?  

Our subject, a philosopher and theologian, Dr Nicholas "Charito" Llanes  Rosal, must have reflected on the lives of these great men, the epitome of human values, the models the world looked up to, that produced equally great men and women, including our own, Dr Jose Rizal, and Jose P Burgos.  He certainly found inspiration from the life and works of one of the most learned Doctors of the Church – San Vicente de Ferrer, patron saint of his hometown. 

Dr Rosal (Fr. Charito) was a St. Thomas Aquinas scholar, having finished a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, and a doctoral degree in Sacred Theology (STD, Magna cum Laude) from the University of Santo Tomas.

If there is more to add to his rich educational background it is a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Merrill School of Journalism in the US, where at the same time became a university professor. Dr Rosal taught Christology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, moral theology at St John’s University, and contemporary moral problems at Loyola University in Chicago. He is the only Filipino preacher for the National Propagation of Faith under Bishop Fulton Sheen, and on many occasions he conducted recollections for priests, which we call spiritual retreat.  

     

As a child I looked up to Uncle Charito, as I called him then, I will always remember one summer vacation when his family played quartet classical music in violin and piano, and I was there imagining of Vienna in its glorious days.           

How time flies…   

Years passed.  On knowing that he was residing in New Jersey, I dropped at his place on my way back from Canada to the Philippines via the US. That was in July 1976, exactly 33 years since I saw him last in our hometown.

A span of thirty-three years is significant in the Christian world – it was the age of Christ when he died. So with great men like Alexander the Great, Amadeus Mozart, Chopin, Mendelssohn,  Schubert, while others found themselves at a crossroad of life.  I belong to the latter category, lost and perplexed.

I have been a disciple of the Three Wise Men, Magi or sages in their time, powerful and wealthy as kings, for which they are often referred as The Three Kings, and to whose honor we celebrate their feast day on January 6, and until lately, every first Sunday of January.

In one of my readings I came across the life of the great explorer and missionary Dr Albert Schweitzer.  When Albert was young he asked his parents and teachers whatever happened to the three kings, after seeing the Baby Jesus, and presenting Him precious gifts. 

Where were they during the years of His mission, when He was persecuted and condemned to die. What did they contribute to Christianity?  Well, to humanity?  The young Schweitzer was greatly bothered that he took upon himself the challenge to become a missionary. First he studied medicine and became a doctor, and humanities specializing in organ music. Thereafter he set foot on the largely unexplored interior of the Black Continent which is Africa. Another great man who followed his footsteps was Dr David Livingstone. He too, became one of the world's greatest explorers and missionaries.  

There is a story related to the Three Wise Men - The Fourth Wise Man. It is a story about a man who lost his way to join the caravan of the three wise men mentioned in the bible. He never found the infant Jesus, neither the child Jesus, nor Jesus in his mission.

He had been helping people all along the way, living in a colony of lepers, healing them, helping them rise over ignorance and poverty. For 33 long years.

He lost all hope of finding Jesus. He became a very sick man. There was no news from the three wise men, who were said to have seen and given gifts to the Holy Child. He learned that his father had died, so he released his servant to be a free man.

A more detailed story goes like this. 

“Artaban is a young Magus (Wise Man) who desires to follow the star to the birthplace of the coming King, against the counsel of his friends and family. Carrying three precious jewels to give to the baby Messiah, Artaban and his reluctant servant Orontes set off to join the caravan of the three other wise men. They miss the caravan, but Artaban continues the search for his King, always one step behind. Artaban spends much of his remaining wealth and all of his energy helping the poor and unfortunate people he meets, until at the end of his life he finally finds Jesus--at His trial! Has Artaban wasted his life in a foolish quest? Will he ever get the chance to present his gifts to the King? “ 

- Written by Yortsnave The Other Wise Man

The path beaten by Artaban leads to a philosophy of life - love for the least of our fellowmen.  It is a way least trodden, lighted by a spirit that glows in the heart.  It is this human spirit that elevates man to the highest level of philosophy and theology, beyond the crossroad of uncertainty. It leads to man's fulfillment in his long search for meaning. 

Mother Teresa, Maximillan Kolbe, Lincoln, Rizal, Gandhi, Mandela at al all took this road. So with many others around the world unknown, unsung, perhaps with only God the only witness to their deeds. ~ 
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Nicholas L Rosal – linguist, author of Understanding an Exotic Language: Ilokano, a dissertation that traces the roots and origin of an ethnic heritage distinctly Ilokano yet wholesomely Filipino, borrowing the words of Francisco Cruces, Archbishop of
Zamboanga.
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Dr. Nicholas L. Rosal taught Christology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn and moral theology at the former Brooklyn campus of St. John’s University. As an adjunct, he taught contemporary moral problems at Loyola University in Chicago while working toward his master’s degree at the Medill School of Journalism. A preacher for the National Propagation of Faith under Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, he gave retreats to nuns and recollection to priests.
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Dr Rosal earned (magna cum laude) his STD and PhL degrees at the Pontifical Seminary of the University of Santo Tomas. In addition to writing numerous articles about religious, educational, and government issues, he has published pamphlets on comparative religion and written books, including The Jerusalem Journal (2009), a continuous life story of Jesus (Claretian Publishing House, Manila), Learning an Exotic Language: Ilokano (1980), a linguistic analysis of one of the major Philippine native languages (Paragon Press, Manila) and The Unjust Position of the Church in the Philippine Constitution (1960), study of the state relations in the predominantly Catholic country in Asia (University of Santo Tomas Press, Manila).

He has translated from English into Ilokano the Catechism of the Catholic Church (822 pp), now being reviewed by the Archbishop of Nueva Segovia (Vigan).

Before going to the United States, he taught Religion, Latin, and music at the Archdiocesan Minor Seminary in Vigan, worked in parishes, and held briefly the position of chancellor of the Nueva Segovia Archdiocese. After receiving permission to leave the ministry, he went to work for Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., and the Perth Amboy Board of Education, N.J., as education advocate and, later, as principal of the Adult High School.
 
Dr. Rosal was born in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur to devout parents (Alfonso, a lawyer, and Matilde, a school teacher). He has two brothers (Elias and Antonio), and a sister (Natividad). He has three sons (Anthony Nicholas, Patrick, and Mark) from his marriage to Mimi (deceased) and a step daughter (Christine) by his marriage to Thelma.

Nicholas Llanes Rosal Shares Biblical Miracles 

in New Book (Excerpt)

by Christina Mancuso Dec. 12, 2013

Through author Nicholas Llanes Rosal's life's experiences, guided by his philosophical, theological, and spiritual studies comes "Handbook of Miracles", a book that showcases God's awesome power that makes extraordinary events possible and defines the happenings in the world that cannot be explained by mere principles of science or the potency of nature. Those events, explainable only by divine intervention, are considered as miracles. xxx "Handbook of Miracles" explores the nature of miracles, reason behind them, and cites numerous miracles from biblical beginnings, to Christ's days, the apostolic era, and the centuries of saints to the modern times. One way or another, miracles happen and will happen to everybody. Miracles strike instantaneous fear, awe, wonder, and admiration, which is all part of divine psychology. God attracts man's attention and then reveals His message. He uses miracles as a medium to gain man's attention before He delivers His message. ~

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NOTE: Antonio Vivaldi great composer and violinist known best for his "Four Seasons" was a former priest. A book by Richard Bennet, Far from Rome, Near to God: Testimonies of 50 Converted Roman Catholic Priests, 1997 cited the following ex-priests of outstanding accomplishments in their later careers: Henry Gregory Adams, Joseph Tremblay, Bartholomew F. Brewer, Hugh Farrell, Alexander Carson, Charles Berry and Bob Bush. And among them walks Charito trying in his own way to live up to his name. 

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PATRICK ROSAL
EULOGY FOR NICHOLAS LLANES ROSAL
October 14, 2022
Internet

On behalf of my brothers and our families, we want to thank all of you for your gestures and words of sympathy over the last couple weeks. We especially want to thank Tita Thelma, Christine, Tony, Kalesi, Tita Mila, and others who were a part of my father’s life here in Nevada. We are deeply grateful for the love, care, and affection you gave my dad in his last years. Today, I hope to take a few minutes to celebrate my father’s life by recalling his many achievements and good works, but also perhaps reveal what I have come to understand about his inner life.

Nicholas Llanes Rosal was born on Oct. 31, 1928 during the American occupation of the Philippines, studied in the seminary during World War II, and completed his training not just a cleric of the Church, but a theologian, and not just a thinker, but a priest committed to apostolic life, my father arrived in the U.S. in 1962 during the Civil Rights movement and a full three years before the Asian Exclusion Acts were replaced by the Federal Immigration Laws of 1965, the former of which locked out Filipinos from emigrating to the U.S. for more than 30 years. He met and fell in love with my mother, Simeona (Mimi), in Chicago. My father stayed in the Midwest, and my mom left for Alberta, then Toronto, to give birth to my brother, Nicholas Anthony. And my parents began the immense challenge of forging a family and raising a child apart from one another on either side of the Canadian border. Having read my dad’s letters during that time, I know those were profoundly difficult years for both of them for many reasons. They were aliens—officially and figuratively. After the priesthood, my dad wrote a good deal about the cruelty he experienced in America, but he also wrote—and thought—about the complex, but abundant generosity of many individuals he met along the way.

He put his thought into action in his many years of service at Perth Amboy Board of Ed, where he directed high school equivalency, night, and continuing ed programs. Over the years he volunteered at the hospital, worked as translator and conflict moderator for the local court, hosted a radio show, and was a member of the Middlesex County Civil Rights Commission. Throughout the 1960s my dad preached and administered sacraments in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, working under Fulton J. Sheen’s Propagation of the Faith. He had received a full scholarship to the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain, but chose instead to study at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Previously, his doctoral dissertation at UST focused on the Philippine Independent Church founded by Gregorio Aglipay, close kumpadre of the brilliant scholar Isabelo de los Reyes. My father opposed Father Aglipay and Mr. de los Reyes theologically, but all three shared an immense affection for Ilokandia, the beloved land of their language and birth. Moreover, my dad was a great admirer of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Aristotelian, who set out to prove the existence of God by logic, by syllogism. But I believe my dad shared more with St. Augustine, their temperament of passions, which could make him a difficult man to be around, those closest to him can attest. More importantly, my dad had an Augustinian desire to tell personal stories with unflinching self-scrutiny as a way to achieve God’s grace. Like Augustine, my father was a chronicler, and my dad must’ve written thousands of pages about his own life, family, culture, and history in multiple genres. Perhaps his proudest literary achievement is his book on Ilokano.

But he was also a musician. He composed original works and arranged religious, secular, and folk songs for piano and organ. This is a man who loved music. And music is yet another way to chronicle, another way to remember. What most people don’t understand is: when you listen to a musician, like my father playing Schubert or “Pamulinawen” or one of his own compositions like “Un-Unnoy,” you are not just listening to a man playing; you’re listening to a man listen — very, very deeply. Of course, my dad was an extrovert. He loved to chat up strangers, argue, flirt, provoke, make people laugh. However, this card-table charisma, this family-gathering garrulousness, was stored and replenished in reserves of his solitary (and therefore virtually invisible) but intense listening. He understood that prayer was not just reciting a memorized supplication or declaring one’s faith or silently making requests of the Almighty. My father conducted his private life in a way that suggests he understood prayer as a kind of listening. I was in the room with him and saw his downcast gaze, when he received the call that his brother Antonio had died after Katrina, how my dad hung up the phone, turned to me, and wept. Listening may be the moment we become most vulnerable, most human to anyone. This is no different in one’s relationship to God, one’s listening to God, one’s vulnerability.

For my dad, much of this lifelong contemplation was an agony, in the Classical Greek sense of “struggle,” like Christ’s agony in Gethsemane. By listening—however imperfectly—my dad struggled toward forgiveness. Not forgiveness in the abstract, but in the two principal scriptural modes: God’s forgiveness of us; and our forgiveness of one another. This is a man who wanted to forgive and be forgiven.

Sure, this was a man who burned oatmeal to a crisp on a cookie sheet; a man who spoke four languages and delighted our Italian barbers with his Latin; a man who was not great at mahjong or betting ponies; who would come down from his bedroom at 3am to greet my friends who would be playing spades in the basement, telling each of them to make sure they go to church; a man who took his granddaughter Remi to the Chinese buffet after school; a man whose rage could flood a whole house, ebbing only after weeks, months, even years. I say, remember the charmer, the lively talker. Remember the irascible grump. But also, remember the man trying to get closer to God, clacking away at a typewriter late at night, studying at the piano, the man with a scarred violin held beneath his chin or a cheap flute poised at his pursed lips, the man closing his eyes... his listening, a gift, a failure and gorgeous prayer all at once, a stillness, an attention, an intention, a devotion, an extension of love itself, a testament to mercy, both human and divine. ~