Debate: Was Jesus God?

This Wednesday, the 28^th of March, I will be debating Mr. Abdullah Kunde of the Muslim Debate Initiative on the topic “Is Jesus God?” The debate will be happening at the University of Sydney and is being organised by the Catholic Society of Saint Peter. If you are in the Sydney area, you should feel free to drop in; details of the debate can be found here.

Please keep both me and all the people who will listen to the debate in your prayers. Engaging in this kind of public debate is always a great reminder to me of how unworthy I am and how dependant I am upon God and upon the prayers of my bretheren.

Introducing Me

My name is Jason Cebalo. I’m Catholic. I was born in Canberra, Australia and currently living in Sydney where I study Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

I’ve decided to take up blogging, mainly at the advice of my spiritual director who thought I needed a hobby and suggested blogging might work for me.

So, some basic questions you might want to ask about me and my blog:

Q: Why the “Masked Thomist”?

A: Well, ‘Thomist’ because I’m a philosophical and theological follower of the one and only St. Thomas Aquinas. The ‘Masked’ bit is a little esoteric. A few years ago a good friend of mine had a party to which everyone was supposed to come dressed as someone from a movie. I suck at costuming and was in despair as to what to come as until, the day of the party, I happened to spy a plastic mask designed to look like ‘Jason’ from the Friday the 13^th movies. I decided that “Jason going as Jason” wasn’t a bad idea, bought the mask and so the Masked Thomist was born.

Q: Were you always Catholic?

A: No, actually I was an atheist for the first fifteen years of my life. Actually, I was quite a few things on my journey to Catholicism; I may blog on the subject at some point.

Q: So, what do you plan to blog about?

A: Whatever I feel like on a given day. Depending on my mood and on what is happening in the world I may blog about religion, philosophy or politics. Or I may blog on more personal topics like my favorite T.V. shows or my current spiritual struggles or simple what’s going on in my life.

Q: Anything else we should know about you?

A: Important facts about me that are likely to be relevant to the things I blog about include: I’m a member of the Dominican Laity; I’m active in the New South Wales Branch of the Democratic Labor Party; I suffer from a long term mental illness; I’m a graduate of Campion College; I’m a big fan of anything by Joss Whedon; I have very broad tastes in music ranging from sacred music, to Wagnerian Opera, to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to The Cure; I regularly worship in the extra-ordinary form of the mass at the Chapel of the Maternal Heart of Mary, Lewisham.

Q: You are a Lay Dominican?

A:  Yes, I was received last September and will hopefully be making first promises this September coming. My religious name is Br. Thomas Bartolo. I assume you can guess who Thomas is after, Bartolo is after Bld. Bartolo Longo.

Well, that’s my brief introduction to me. I hope you will enjoy my blog.

Until next time.