MANILA, Philippines - When I read Seth Mydans' piece "Founder of Singapore reflects on his journey" in the International Herald Tribune last September 11-12, 2010, I could not help thinking back to the years I studied at Harvard 50 years ago. In the late 1960s, there was still much talk in the Harvard community about a Catholic priest who was excommunicated by the Bishop of Boston then for refusing to stop teaching a heretical interpretation of the Biblical expression "Outside the Church there is no salvation." This priest, who for a while was the chaplain of the Harvard Catholic Club and who fortunately was reunited with the Catholic Church when he died, had angered the non-Catholics at Harvard by telling them in no uncertain terms that they were all going to hell. He did not take into account the Catholic teaching that those non-Catholics who try to live a good life can receive what is known as "baptism of desire." If there is a public figure whose actions and accomplishments merit his receiving a baptism by desire, it is Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who in Mr. Mydans' words "made Singapore in his own stern and unsentimental image" and transformed it into "a first-world oasis in a third-world region." Through his personal example of integrity and servant leadership, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has helped to build institutions and a culture of hard work and discipline that are unparalleled in the whole of Asia.
Contrary to the image projected by some sectors of the international press, he has sufficient humility to admit that he has made certain mistakes. As he told Mr. Mydans, "I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honorable purpose. I had to do some nasty things locking fellows up without trial." Let me review here the doctrine about "baptism by desire." As Fr. John Flader wrote in his best-selling book "Question Time" (Sinagtala Publishers, 2008), "When we hear about the need for Baptism, though, we should not think only of the sacrament of Baptism, in which water is poured on the head of the recipient, making that person a Christian and member of the Church. The Church has always admitted that people can be saved by a 'baptism of desire,' which can be explicit in the case of catechumens who desire to enter the Church, or implicit in the case of people who perhaps do not even know the Church, but who strive to live a good life.... "The Second Vatican Council took up this teaching in Lumen gentium: 'Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.'
As the Catechism explains, 'it may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity."' There is enough outward evidence that in his 87 years of life, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has habitually followed the dictates of his conscience. Especially outstanding is his capacity for work, which as Pope John Paul II wrote in Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) is a sure way of doing God's will on earth. Although a self-proclaimed agnostic, Mr. Lee has demonstrated more than many so-called Christians that marriage is a sacred bond which should be indissoluble. One cannot but be moved by his devotion to his wife to whom he has been married for 61 years. Unable to move or speak for more than two years because of a stroke, "his wife, Kwa Geok Choo, 89, had been by his side, a confidante and counselor, since they were law students in London." It is not surprising that he is attracted to the Christian concept of marriage. He confided to Mr. Mydans that lately, he had been looking at Christian marriage vows and was drawn to the words: "To love, to hold,and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part." There is also evidence that his desire for baptism is more than implicit. At night, hearing the sounds of his wife's discomfort in the next room, he would find solace in meditating for some 20 minutes, "reciting a mantra he was taught by a Christian friend: 'Maranatha.' " As every reader of the New Testament would know, this prayer means: "Come to me, O Lord Jesus." At the end of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote: "I Paul greet you, with my own hand...Maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. My love is with you all in Christ Jesus." May all Christians join Lee Kuan Yew in his prayer. May God reward him for all the good he has done by sending to him the one and only Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
or comments, my e-mail address is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.
