Vivere Christus est, et mori lucrum!

new blog address

2009-02-16T10:57:00.001-05:00

The Bishops finally say it

2008-10-22T17:49:00.002-04:00

In an extraordinary move, the US Bishops finally had the gumption to issue a statement in no uncertain terms:

"We want to be clear... Our faith requires us to oppose abortion on demand and to provide help to mothers facing challenging pregnancies.

[snip]

The Catholic community is second to no one in providing and advocating for support for women and families facing problems during pregnancy. Catholic hospitals, charitable institutions, and thousands of pregnancy aid centers, provide life-saving care and compassionate alternatives to the violence of abortion. We have advocated for universal health care coverage, generous family leave policies, increases in the minimum wage, humane welfare policies for women who are pregnant or caring for young children, expanded funding for WIC and other nutrition programs, and a federal children’s health insurance program that includes coverage for unborn children and their mothers. Because some women still feel pressured by economic hardship and lack of support to resort to abortion, our task in this regard is far from over.

These efforts, however, are not an adequate or complete response to the injustice of Roe v. Wade for several important reasons. First, the Court’s decision in Roe denied an entire class of innocent human beings the most fundamental human right, the right to life. In fact, the act of killing these fellow human beings was transformed from a crime into a “right,” turning the structure of human rights on its head. Roe v. Wade is a clear case of an “intrinsically unjust law” we are morally obliged to oppose (see Evangelium vitae, nos. 71- 73). Reversing it is not a mere political tactic, but a moral imperative for Catholics and others who respect human life.

Second, the many challenges to the Court’s error since 1973 have borne fruit, leading to significant modifications of Roe. Most recently in its ruling on partial-birth abortion, the Court upheld a ban on an abortion procedure for the first time in 35 years, and acknowledged that abortion takes a human life and does serious harm to women.

Third, Roe itself enormously increased the annual number of abortions in our society. The law is a teacher, and Roe taught many women, physicians and others that abortion is an acceptable answer to a wide range of problems. By the same token, even the limited pro-life laws allowed by the Court since Roe have been shown to reduce abortions substantially, leading to a steady decline in the abortion rate since 1980. Bans on public funding, laws requiring informed consent for women and parental involvement for minors, and other modest and widely supported laws have saved millions of lives. Laws made possible by reversing Roe would save many more. On the other hand, this progress could be lost through a key pro-abortion proposal,
the “Freedom of Choice Act,” which supporters say would knock down hundreds of current pro-life laws and forbid any public program to “discriminate” against abortion in providing services to women.

Providing support for pregnant women so they choose to have their babies is a necessary but not sufficient response to abortion. Similarly, reversal of Roe is a necessary but not sufficient condition for restoring an order of justice in our society’s treatment of defenseless human life. This act by itself would not automatically grant legal protection to the unborn. It would remove an enormous obstacle to such protection, so the people of the United States and their elected representatives in every state could engage in a genuine discussion of how to save unborn children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion. Both approaches to opposing abortion are essential. By protecting the child’s life to the maximum degree possible, improving
life-affirming support for pregnant women, and changing the attitudes and prejudices imposed on many women to make them see abortion as an acceptable or necessary solution, we will truly help build a culture of life."

Catholics Supporting Obama?

2008-10-22T12:09:00.000-04:00

Abortion and Freedom

2008-10-12T13:12:00.003-04:00

Moral Compass

Vote Your Conscience

2008-09-14T14:52:00.000-04:00

Moral Compass

2008-09-09T17:24:00.002-04:00

I work for this website, and produced this promo. Check it out!

We are all Cyrenians

2008-06-14T15:23:00.003-04:00

And they compelled a passer-by, [insert you name here] of [insert your country of origin here], who was coming in from the country (or city), to carry his cross.

Love is of God (A re-post from '05)

2008-06-04T21:28:00.000-04:00

"In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another" (I Jn. 4:10-11).
Here is a quote that I would like to share, from Hans Urs von Balthasar's book Love Alone is Credible:

The principle (of love)... cannot be reduced to man as a governing center. God remains the center, and man is drawn beyond himself toward the absolute as it manifests itself. He "possesses" love only insofar as love possesses him, which means that he never possesses love in such a way that he could describe it as one of his powers, which lies at his own disposal. To be sure, this does not mean that love remains external to him, but if it does not, it is only because love itself takes possession of him in his innmost heart--interius intimo meo.

One of the implications of this is that we must always look to Jesus Christ to see what love is, and open our hearts to be loved by him. He is here with us, in the world, and in the world he is absolutely unique--for he came down from heaven.

All things "In Christ"

2008-06-04T14:16:00.003-04:00

Spiritual love...

will find full fellowship... in the Christ who alone binds us together. Thus this spiritual love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth in Christ. It is out of this love that John the disciple speaks. "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth" (3 Jn 4).
-Bonhoeffer

A good reminder: For us, all things must be done in Christ; we must take the utmost joy in walking in Christ, and seeing that others walk in Christ. Christ is everything: God and man, the Creator and creation united. He sums up all in himself. If we have him, we have all things. "All things are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

God's Will

2008-06-03T15:09:00.003-04:00

To us, God's will is always a mystery, and whenever we treat signs of his will as if they were not expressions of mystery, then we are inserting our own ideas into God's plan. Signs of God's will must be received with profound humility and reverence--they must not be claimed as one's own. The Christian is not to indulge in imagination concerning his future; or at least, he is to limit it as much as he can, and take care not to consider such imaginings to be reality. All plans for the future must be seen as conditional on the will of the Lord, which is mysterious.
"To live is Christ"; therefore we do not need particular temporal blessings over others. Christ alone is our life. Christ alone is our joy. All other things are accounted as loss, as rubbish, in comparison with the surpassing good of knowing Christ Jesus as our Lord. Even were he to call us to himself tomorrow by some freak accident or illness, cutting off abruptly all of our earthly hopes (even worthy ones), this is the door to greater communion with Christ--"death is gain."
Clinging to Christ, expecting good things from him (the good things that he wants to give, not that we want to receive), we strive onwards and upwards in this life and beyond, deeper and deeper into the bosom of the Father from which Christ comes.

Cherishing God's presence within us

2007-05-03T15:18:00.000-04:00

“Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

How amazing it is that God deigns to dwell within us!
We can only appreciate this truth adequately when we have a deep sense of our own lowliness and sinfulness. In other words, we cannot understand what it truly means if we do not at the same time find it strange. The alternative is to take it for granted, and to think that it is because we are so great that we were found worthy to receive his presence, or that there was never a time in which we did not have it, or even thinking that we can never lose it. But the truth is both more beautiful and more grave: "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us... While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son... Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall" (Rom 5:8, 10; 1 Cor 10:12). Indeed, God makes his dwelling within us as a free gift and according to his will (when he wills and how he wills) as a seed is planted in the ground according to the plan of the gardener. The ground does not deserve the seed, nor does it have control over the gardener--likewise we do not have control over God, and did not deserve to receive God's presence within us when it in fact came and filled our hearts through faith and baptism. With humility we must cherish this incredible gift and never take it for granted, nurturing it through keeping his word, praying never to voluntarily cast it out it through grave sin or choke off its growth through less serious sin. Christ calls us to achieve and maintain the wonder and joy of the gift of the divine indwelling through vigilance.
Let us all spend time in prayer sometime this week meditating on the words of scripture: "My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." How amazing it is that God has deigned to dwell within us!

Loving God the Father

2007-04-24T11:17:00.000-04:00

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." (Jn 14:9)

I think that reflection on these words of Christ as we gaze upon his face can help us draw closer to the Heavenly Father. When we look at Jesus and think of him, we think of forgiveness and compassionate love. We pray to our Brother and God Jesus Christ with devotion because he has captured our hearts. We know that the face of our Savior reveals the love that not only heals but suffers wounds--a love that not only sets prisoners free but also suffers with us prisoners as a prisoner himself. But do we sufficiently realize that the love of Jesus is the self-same love of God the Father? Do we understand the true implications of the fact that they share the same Holy Spirit?
And further, do we know that in the truest sense it is God the Father who is our ultimate goal? Indeed, Christ came into the world not so that we could follow him to himself, but so that we might follow him to the One he called Abba: calling out his name with trust and love, and indeed loving our Abba with all our hearts, all our minds and all our strength.
In this image of Christ known as "Ecce Homo," we see him beaten and spat upon, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple cloak, and holding a reed for a scepter. Incapable of understanding Divine Love, the powers of evil have arrayed Christ as a king in mockery. They do not understand that his kingdom is not of this world, for he is not a king like unto the kings and rulers of the world, but rules by making a complete gift of his life.
All of us have come to know Christ as this sort of king--but if we always recognize him this way, why do we not always acknowledge the Father to be the same kind of king as his Son? Jesus reveals God not only by telling us about him but by being his perfect image. Jesus is "cut out of the same cloth" as God his Father: "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God."

"Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also" (Jn 5:19).

There is no justification whatsoever for fearing to approach the Father if we are unafraid to approach the Son. In fact, it was so that his Father might be better known and loved that the Son came. The next time we read or hear the Gospel accounting of Christ's great words and deeds of compassion, especially those that have always struck us most profoundly, it would be good to think also of the words, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," and "a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing." Then perhaps our hearts might be more open with love to the One from whom all, even Christ the Son, have come--the One whom Christ worshiped and was unafraid to call "Abba."

More on the Mystery of the Holy Innocents

2007-04-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

In January of 2006 I posted a reflection on the fate of unbaptized children who die, using the account in Matthew of the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents as a starting point. The International Theological Commission had been investigating the issue of limbo.
Today it seems that the commission has released a Benedict-approved statement that there is, according to Zenit's reporting (April 20), "serious theological and liturgical grounds for the hope that such babies [those who die without baptism] are saved and enjoy the beatific vision."
If this 'seriously grounded' hope points to reality, then limbo is certainly a fiction.
What then of the doctrine of original sin? It remains untouched, despite what some might believe, as Zadok explains.
For some more details check out the CNS story on the document.

The Mystery of the Triduum...

2007-04-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

...is the Mystery of Christ crucified and the Eucharist.

I thought that this entry from "the hermeneutic of continuity" blog was worth sharing: http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2007/04/eucharistic-sacrifice.html.

Stallone back in Church

2007-01-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

"Aslan is on the move" in hollywood by the looks of this heartwarming story:

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=22474

Papal Preacher...

2007-01-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

...strikes again!

Fr.Cantalamessa on the notion of Epiphania as signifying more than the manifestation at the manger [courtesy Zenit]:

"We celebrate three wondrous events on this holy day: Today the star leads the Magi to the stable, today the water is changed into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, today Christ is baptized by John in the Jordan for our salvation." With these words the liturgy describes today's feast; it consists in the triple revelation of Christ: to the magi, at the wedding feast at Cana, and in Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. Since ancient times, that which has brought about the unification of these three events in a single feast is their common theme of manifestation (in Greek "epiphania"). In these events Jesus progressively reveals what he is in reality, the Messiah and savior. Christ reveals himself to all peoples and to each category of persons with signs appropriate and comprehensible to them. To simple shepherds he sends an angel; to the wise who scrutinize the courses of the heavenly bodies he sends a star; to the Jews attached to signs, he gives a sign, that is, a miracle: He changes water into wine. With what signs does Christ manifest himself to the men of our time?
[Code: ZE07010629
Date: 2007-01-06
Father Cantalamessa on the Epiphany of the Lord
"We Celebrate Three Wondrous Events on This Holy Day"]

He poses an excellent question. Every year growing up, my family's ritual Blessing of the House on the Epiphany served as an opportunity to evaluate together our journey towards Christ; when we sprinkled holy water on our door, we reminded ourselves that in every welcome guest we welcome Christ. Do we look for sings of His presence in our homes, our families, in every corner of our heart? Do we truly make ourselves Little Bethlehems, little "houses of Bread"?

This Lord's Day, let us find in the Eucharist the most expensive, most priceless, most adorable Christmas gift we have ever received! Let us admit His presence under our roof knowing that He came to dwell among us as Word made Flesh, that those who eat of this Flesh may have Eternal Life~

New Blogger version

2007-01-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

I've switched over to the new version of blogger, and therefore will have to put back the parts of the blog that didn't survive the transfer (certain pictures, etc.). I plan on getting this done soon. Perhaps in the end there may be some changes, as well.

The Year of Our Lord, Two-Thousand and Seven

2007-01-01T20:45:00.000-05:00

Because the grace and the mercy of the God of Jesus Christ are ever new, each new year, like each new day, is a chance to begin again on the Way of Christ. The freedom of the new is constantly held out to each of us as in an open hand: new grace, new love, new forgiveness, new encounters with Christ in the sacraments, new chances to live as he lived, new joy and new peace.
But is this true? My tendency would be to say, "Of course it is true," and then proceed to continue as before: the same old ways of before, the same attitudes, the same mild despair--"I am too far, too much a sinner, and to serve Him is too difficult and complicated!"
But is it complicated? No, it is not. Religion that is pleasing to God is "to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world." In other words, to actively love your neighbor, and hate the world for God's sake. To be single hearted in the daily pursuit of these is, for us to whom Christ has revealed himself, simple enough, and it is only complicated by compromising them with contrary things.
In the end, it all comes down to the question, "Do I want to give up all to follow the way marked out by Jesus?" In other words, do I want to yield up every aspect of my life to his Lordship? Am I willing to give up those boundaries I put before his love, saying, "you may come up to this point, but no farther"?
This new year, as every new moment, is a great opportunity to turn again and serve the Lord anew. Persevering in prayer, with trust, we know that he will not let us down, but will save us and make us like himself.

Back to Blogging...

2006-12-21T13:08:00.000-05:00

After a long time away, I decided to get back to blogging regularly, that is, once a week.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus! He is coming to save his people.

Prayers

2006-05-16T15:04:00.000-04:00

for the Pilgrims.

Mark and his fellow classmates are in the Holy Land. May the Lord bless and keep them, may he make his face to shine upon them~

Happy Easter

2006-04-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

It's a happy road we walk to Pentecost from here. As you celebrate the Easter season, remember that we are a Resurrection people, entering in to the JOY of the Lord. Let us proclaim like the Apostle Peter:

"I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence."

Happy Palm Sunday

2006-04-09T12:14:00.000-04:00

I watched the Mel Gibson movie to prepare myself for Holy Week this past Friday. And all I could think afterwards is that we are each facing our own viae dolorosae. In so many ways each day Christ is suffering in the sufferings of the world and in so many moments of each day we are being redeemed by the prayers and support of one another. And in the encounter with those moments, we discover our truest selves. We realize that we too have something to offer. Let us Rejoice then, for our God is good to us and full of mercy and total compassion~

Prayer, Fasting, Mercy

2006-03-21T17:32:00.000-05:00

For Lent, from the Office of Readings today:

Reading From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop

Prayer knocks, fasting obtains, mercy receives
There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others you open God’s ear to yourself.
When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.
Let this be the pattern for all men when they practise mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.
Therefore, let prayer, mercy and fasting be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defence, a threefold united prayer in our favour.
Let us use fasting to make up for what we have lost by despising others. Let us offer our souls in sacrifice by means of fasting. There is nothing more pleasing that we can offer to God, as the psalmist said in prophecy: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God does not despise a bruised and humbled heart.
Offer your soul to God, make him an oblation of your fasting, so that your soul may be a pure offering, a holy sacrifice, a living victim, remaining your own and at the same time made over to God. Whoever fails to give this to God will not be excused, for if you are to give him yourself you are never without the means of giving.
To make these acceptable, mercy must be added. Fasting bears no fruit unless it is watered by mercy. Fasting dries up when mercy dries up. Mercy is to fasting as rain is to earth. However much you may cultivate your heart, clear the soil of your nature, root out vices, sow virtues, if you do not release the springs of mercy, your fasting will bear no fruit.
When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others.

Von Balthasar on Nature and Grace

2006-03-04T11:52:00.000-05:00

Here is a section of a paper I wrote for a class in Fundamental Theology on von Balthasar's view of nature and grace. The transfer from Word to Wordpad necessitated by the software on the computer I'm using to post this has stripped my paper of its footnotes. If anyone wants the source of a quote or idea, or even the list of all my sources, let me know and I'd be happy to give them. Here in this Wordpad version I put von Balthasar quotes in italics.

Von Balthasar’s work has a particular focus on Christ. Without doubt, the Christocentric approach is most appropriate to Catholic theology—even demanded by it. He continues this approach in his handling of the difficult question of the relation between nature and grace, influenced by his friend, French theologian Henri de Lubac, who was known particularly for his contribution to the subject. According to von Balthasar, this issue requires above all a Christocentric approach. The need here is to look to Christ.
The problem is that, in his words, “the concept of nature that Catholic theology is accustomed to presuppose undialectically can in reality only be grasped dialectically, in accord with Henri de Lubac’s renewed vision of patristic-high-scholastic theology.” Indeed, the traditional interpretation of the famous Thomistic formula, grace builds on nature, can almost make it seem that nature (which is also a gift) is something external to grace and, without grace, sufficient and complete unto itself. Nevertheless, Christ is one. Christ, in whom we have been created in God’s image, he—the perfect image of God, is also our Redeemer. After the Incarnation, which was planned before all the ages, there can be no question of a separation of the (creating) work of the world-embracing Logos from the (redeeming) work of the concrete universal that is Christ: “All were created through him; all were created for him…In him everything continues in being…. It pleased God…to reconcile everything in his person” (Col. 1:16-20).
Grace and nature, though truly distinct, should be seen as united in Christ. Pope John Paul II often used to quote these words from Gaudium et Spes: “The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam…fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling.” These words seem to tell of a unity and of fulfillment, rather than indicating a strict and clear dissimilarity between nature (Adam) and grace (Jesus Christ): “Only in the…Incarnate Word does…man take on light.” Only in the grace of the Redeemer does human nature find its meaning and center—Christ is not the “new and improved” version of an already complete humanity but rather the true man. Nature and grace cannot be as neatly separated and defined as has been thought, for they are both summed up in Christ.
What, therefore, is the relation between nature and grace? With the state of affairs as they are in the real world, in actual history, where the grace of Christ is offered to all men of all times and Christ is exalted and established as the archetype summing up everything in himself, there is no need to look to a hypothetical “ungraced nature” in order to understand the relation between grace and nature—rather, again, there is only the need to look at Christ:
Man, therefore, in investigating the relationship between nature and supernature has no need to abandon the standpoint of faith, to set himself up as the mediator between God and the world, between revelation and reason, or to cast himself in the role of judge over that relationship. All that is necessary is for him to understand “the one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5), and to believe him in whom “were all things created in heaven and on earth…all by him and in him” (Col. 1:16).
Seen Christocentrically—as it can alone be seen, given the actual state of affairs wherein the one Son of God, Jesus Christ, sums up all things in heaven and on earth—nature, though distinct, must be thought of as internal to grace; just as the human nature of Christ, though distinct from his divine nature, is brought together with it in his one divine Person, “One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, acknowledged in two natures which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation.” Angelo Schola, the Patriarch of Venice and an interpreter of von Balthasar puts it well: “Inevitably, [nature] must be thought of as a dimension, a component of that Christic whole which is grace.”
In saying all these things—it is important to try to make absolutely clear—in no way does von Balthasar let nature be absorbed by grace. Rather he is maintaining that, while on the one hand nature has its own distinct constitution, on the other hand, “the why and wherefore of nature are grace.” Jesus Christ is not only the Omega, (wherefore), but also the Alpha (why).

Given the fact that I agree with von Balthasar's view that the universe was created in the Incarnate Logos--in Christ--it seems especially odd that the "Are You a Heretic" quiz would rate me as having Nestorian tendencies. Rather, it is Nestorian to say that the relation of the Incarnate Lord to the universe is not the same as the relation of the Eternal Logos to the universe. That would be to say that the divine and human natures in Christ are not truly united. The truth is that they are united in one Divine Person who is related to the world as both Creator and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To him be all glory and praise forever!

A shameless plug of my friend's blog

2006-02-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted for a while, but there will be more forthcoming. In the meantime, love God and your neighbor--and while you're at it take a trip through Catholicland with SWP as your guide!
Enter Catholicland!

The Holy Innocents

2006-01-19T21:32:00.000-05:00

Tonight at a Holy Hour of Adoration I heard a priest, preaching on the evil of abortion, use the readings from the feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28th), the baby boys in the area of Bethlehem who were massacred at the order of King Herod, who was bent on destroying the newborn King of the Jews. The gospel for that feast is, of course, Matthew 2:13-18, which tells this story. My attention was caught by the quote from chapter 31 of the prophet Jeremiah at the end of this Matthean pericope. With the thought that the Holy Innocents must be the key to interpreting an inspired meaning of this word of the prophet, I turned to this place in his book, where he proclaims the salvation of the Lord, the return of the exiled people to the land of Israel.
I wrote a poem of sorts about verses 15-20:

The Holy Innocents
The prophet Jeremiah says, "Thus says the Lord:
In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more."
If she refuses to be consoled, why then does the Lord, through the mouth of the prophet, immediately then say:
"Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes"?
Her children are no more!
... Yes, her children are no more, but behold, the Lord has the power to bring them back.
As the Lord says through the prophet: "They shall return from the enemy's Land."
Although the innocents were born in sin, by their witness to the Christ Child they will be reborn in heaven. Though they were "untamed calfs" they will return, if the Lord allows them.
... And for His part, He says,
"My heart stirs for them, I must show them mercy."

My thoughts are that with the story and the feast of the Holy Innocents as the context for Jeremiah 31, we are presented with a scriptural witness to a solidly founded hope for the salvation of unbaptized infants and children through their witness to Christ, who experienced the frailty of being a child, and who experienced the wrath of man under which children in all ages have suffered and often died. This is, of course, not to deny original sin, but to rhetorically ask, 'Who is more open and responsive to the love of others than a child?...What then about the grace of God?' and 'Who is more "invincibly ignorant" than an infant?'

What do you all think? Tell me especially if you think that I apply the scriptures wrongly. The question of unbaptized infants/children has recently resurfaced again (See Zenit.org Archives, December 2, 2005: "Theological Commission Studying Limbo")--what are your thoughts?

Are you a heretic? The Quiz.

2006-01-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

Check out the "Are You a Heretic? Quiz."

This is how I was scored:

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451.

Chalcedon compliant

100%

Nestorianism

92%

Monophysitism

33%

Adoptionist

25%

Pelagianism

25%

Apollanarian

25%

Monarchianism

17%

Gnosticism

Modalism

Albigensianism

Arianism

Docetism

Donatism

Socinianism

Are you a heretic?
created with QuizFarm.com

It seems that I have some serious Nestorian tendencies. Thom Peters of American Papist thinks that there are a few problems with the quiz--in the wording, etc. Ask him for the specifics. It seems hard to understand how I can have such strong Nestorian tendencies and be Chalcedonian compliant at the same time.
AmericanPapist: Are you a heretic? The Quiz.

Lets Open Our Hearts to Jesus

2006-01-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

The Christmas season having come to an end, and the season of ordinary time now beginning, it is important to stay faithful to our calling, and to prayer. In Christ, the ordinary, while remaining in some sense ordinary, is truly extraordinary. The work and the leisure, the joys and the sufferings of ordinary days lived in Jesus, are days pierced through with the eternal. Heaven begins now, because "this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ" (Jn 17:3). Lets pray so that we might know our God, and that he might dwell within us.

From the Imitation of Christ, Book Two, Chapter One:

The kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:21), says the Lord.

Turn, then, to God with all your heart. Forsake this wretched world and your soul shall find rest. Learn to despise external things, to devote yourself to those that are within, and you will see the kingdom of God come unto you, that kingdom which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, gifts not given to the impious.

Christ will come to you offering His consolation, if you prepare a fit dwelling for Him in your heart, whose beauty and glory, wherein He takes delight, are all from within. His visits with the inward man are frequent, His communion sweet and full of consolation, His peace great, and His intimacy wonderful indeed.

Therefore, faithful soul, prepare your heart for this Bridegroom that He may come and dwell within you; He Himself says: "If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23).

Give place, then, to Christ, but deny entrance to all others, for when you have Christ you are rich and He is sufficient for you. He will provide for you. He will supply your every want, so that you need not trust in frail, changeable men. Christ remains forever, standing firmly with us to the end.

Lets open our hearts to Jesus.

Merry Christ Mass - God is Love

2005-12-26T13:04:00.000-05:00

Is it not exceedingly fitting that the hope of the all the world came with the birth of a child? For the birth of every child surely gives an unarticulatable hope to every parent, an experience that most often transcends any strictly rational evaluation of the possibilities inherent in this child's future. This experience surely cannot be fully comprehended except as love, which hopes all things, and is itself inexaustable.
And so when we really come to know that our God came to us in the Christ Child, it seems intensely fitting to us. And yet, at the same time, we become able to see that this Holy Child, in his divine inexaustability, was from the beginning the Alpha and Omega--the source and sum of the holy gift of every newborn infant; that our hope is the hope of immortality in him; that our love participates in his Love.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI signed his first encyclical on Christmas day. It is titled Deus Caritas Est--"God is love." This is a very fitting focus for a Pope's first encyclical, and especially fitting for the people of our time, who's hearts seem to be permanently closed to Christ. If they will not heed sound reason and continued insistence on the truth, perhaps we Christians need to re-orient everything to that central truth that God is Love. The beauty of the Love of God in Jesus Christ speaks for itself, even to the soul most depraved by sin, concupiscience and the spirit of this age.

Praying always

2005-12-16T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here are some great words of Saint Augustine on prayer, from today's office of readings:

St Augustine on Psalm 37(38)
Your very desire is your prayer
I have roared out with the groaning of my heart. There is a secret groaning, which is not heard by man: yet if the thought of some strong desire has taken so strong hold of the heart, that the wound of the inner man finds expression in some uttered exclamation, everyone wonders why. A man says to himself, “Perhaps this is the cause of his groaning? Perhaps this thing or that thing has happened to him?” But who can know the answer except he one before whose eyes and ears he groaned? So the psalmist says I roared out with the groaning of my heart because if men ever hear a man’s groanings they hear only the groaning of the flesh; the groans within the heart are silent.
And who observed and noticed the cause of his groaning? All my desire is in front of you. It cannot be before men because they cannot see the heart, but still the psalm says all my desire is in front of you. If your desire is laid before him then the Father, who sees in secret, will grant it to you.
For that very desire of your heart is your prayer; and if your desire continues uninterrupted, then so does your prayer. It was not in vain that the Apostle said Pray without ceasing. Can we be always bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands, that he says Pray without ceasing? If that is what prayer means then I say that we cannot do it without ceasing.
There is another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart. Whatever activity you happen to be engaged in are doing, if you only long for that Sabbath then you do not cease to pray. If you do not want to pause in prayer then never pause in your longing.
Your continuous desire is your continuous prayer. If you cease to desire than you will have fallen silent in your prayer. Who are those who have fallen silent? Those of whom it is said Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
The freezing of love is the silence of the heart; the burning of love is the cry of the heart. If love continues then you are still lifting up your voice; if you are always lifting up your voice, you are always longing after something; if you are always longing, it is the Sabbath rest you are thinking of.
And all my desire is before Thee. How can we suppose that our desire is before him, but our very “groaning” is not before him? How can that be, since our desire itself finds its expression in “groaning”?
And so comes the line And my groaning is not hidden from you. From you indeed it is not hidden; but it is hidden from many men. The servant of God sometimes seems to be saying in humility, And my groaning is not hidden from you. Sometimes also he seems to smile. Is then that longing dead in his heart? If however there is the desire within, there is the “groaning” also. It does not always find its way to the ears of man; but it never ceases to sound in the ears of God.

It is our task, particularly in this season of Advent, to patiently stir up in our hearts desire for the Lord by prayer. Let us stoke the fire, stir the flames and add the kindling by "bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands." Then when we go about the varied duties and leisures of life--when we cannot have our knees bent--the fire will keep burning for God and we will be prepared for when he returns.
This task is further grave duty, because it is done not only for ourselves.
Who knows? In the process many others might catch fire.

"There must be no sleeping during that time"

2005-12-14T16:49:00.000-05:00

Here is an extended quote from Pascal (from Penguin Classics' Pensees, #919), from a section called "The Mystery of Jesus." I think that it has an Advent message for us, even though it is about Christ's agony:

Jesus suffers in his passion the torments inflicted upon him by men, but in his agony he suffers the torments which he inflicts on himself. He was troubled [John 11:33. Reflexive verb in the Latin Vulgate]. The punishment is inflicted by no human, but by an almighty hand, and only he that is almighty can bear it.

Jesus seeks some comfort at least from his three dearest friends, and they sleep: he asks them to bear with him a while, and they abandon him with complete indifference, and with so little pity that it did not keep them awake even for a single moment. And so Jesus was abandoned to face the wrath of God alone.

Jesus is alone on earth, not merely with no one to fear and share his agony, but with no one even to know of it. Heaven and he are the only ones to know.

Jesus is in a garden, not of delight, like the first Adam, who there fell and took with him the rest of mankind, but of agony, where he was saved himself and all mankind.

He suffers this anguish and abandonment in the horror of the night.

I believe that this is the only occasion on which Jesus ever complained. But then he complained as though he could no longer contain his overflowing grief: 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death' [Matt. 26:38].

Jesus seeks companionship and solace from men.

It seems to me that this is unique in his whole life, but he finds none, for his disciples are asleep.

Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world. There must be no sleeping during that time.

Jesus, totally abandoned, even by the friends he had chosen to watch with him, is vexed when he finds them asleep because of the dangers to which they are exposing not him but themselves, and he warns them for their own safety and their own good, with warm affection in the face of their ingratitude. And warns them: 'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' [Matt. 26:41].

Jesus finding them asleep again, undeterred by consideration either for him or for themselves, is kind enough not to wake them up and lets them take their rest.

Jesus prays, uncertain of the will of the Father, and is afraid of death. But once he knows what it is, he goes to meet it and offer himself up. Let us be going [Matt. 26:46]. He went forth [Jn. 18:4].

Jesus asked of men and he was not heard.

Jesus brought about the salvation of his disciples while they slept. He has done this for each of the righteous while they slept, in nothingness before their birth and in their sins after their birth.

He prays only once that the cup might pass from him, even then submitting himself to God's will, and twice that it should come if it must be so.

Jesus weary at heart.

Jesus, seeing all his friends asleep and all his enemies watchful, commends himself utterly to his Father.

Jesus disregards the emnity of Judas, and sees only in him God's will, which he loves; so much so that he calls him friend.

Jesus tears himself away from his disciples to enter upon his agony: we must tear ourselves away from those who are nearest and dearest to us in order to imitate him. While Jesus remains in agony and cruellest distress, let us pray longer.

We implore God's mercy, not so that he shall leave us in peace with our vices, but so that he may deliver us from them.

"Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world. There must be no sleeping during that time."

A Little Joy on Gaudete Sunday...

2005-12-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-e. e. cummings

All praise and glory is Jesus Christ's forever. Amen.

Jesus Christ is King Forever!

2005-11-20T23:02:00.000-05:00

Today is the great Solemnity of Christ the King, Who desires--thirsts--to reign in our hearts. His rule over and in us makes us truly free--Free from every power that oppresses us, especially from the cruel slavery of sin. Here is a reading from the Church's Office of Readings for this day:

From a discourse of Origen on prayer
Thy kingdom
come
The coming of the kingdom of God, says our Lord and Saviour, does not admit of observation, and there will be no-one to say “Look here! Look there!” For the kingdom of God is within us and in our hearts. And so it is beyond doubt that whoever prays for the coming of the kingdom of God within himself is praying rightly, praying for the kingdom to dawn in him, bear fruit and reach perfection. For God reigns in every saint, and every saint obeys God’s spiritual laws — God, who dwells in him just as he dwells in any well-ordered city. The Father is present in him and in his soul Christ reigns alongside the Father, as it is said: We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.Therefore, as we continue to move forward without ceasing, the kingdom of God within us will reach its perfection in us at that moment when the saying in the Apostle is fulfilled, that Christ, His enemies all made subject to Him, shall deliver the kingdom to God the Father that God may be All in All. For this reason let us pray without ceasing, our souls filled by a desire made divine by the Word Himself. Let us pray to our Father in heaven: hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come.There is something important that we need to understand about the kingdom of God: just as righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness, just as light has nothing in common with darkness and Christ has no agreement with Belial, so the kingdom of God and a kingdom of sin cannot co-exist. So if we want God to reign within us, on no account may sin rule in our mortal body but let us mortify our earthly bodies and let us be made fruitful by the Spirit. Then we will be a spiritual garden of Eden for God to walk in. God will rule in us with Christ who will be seated in us on the right hand of God — God, the spiritual power that we pray to receive — until he makes his enemies (who are within us) into his footstool and pours out on us all authority, all power, all strength. This can happen to any one of us and death, the last enemy may be destroyed, so that in us Christ says Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory? So let our corruptibility be clothed today with holiness and incorruption. With Death dead, let our mortality be cloaked in the Father’s immortality. With God ruling in us, let us be immersed in the blessings of regeneration and resurrection.

Let us love Him, and love our neighbors, especially the forgotten and the least ones. Let us consciously, deliberately and daily look for ways to do this. Then He will give us peace and we will be sure that His Kingdom is dawning within us.

Jesus is Lord!

2005-10-29T16:03:00.000-04:00

When I am down on myself it is always comforting to say: "Jesus is Lord!"

As we are told in the Scriptures, nobody can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit. If we truly believe that Jesus is Lord--if we can say these words and really mean it, we know that God's Spirit is working in us.

In difficult times it also comforts me to call out to God from my heart: "Father!"

We are told in the Scriptures that when through the Spirit we cry out 'Father!' in a spirit of filial love, the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

For no matter what sins or weaknesses we carry, we who are baptized into Christ carry about the death of Christ in our mortal bodies, so that through the forgiveness of those same sins we have the hope of eternal life, and the hope of sharing the strength and power of the Crucified Lord--by His Love shining forth from our weakness. Those who are in Christ have no good reason to be afraid.

The Doctrine of Hell

2005-10-18T19:30:00.000-04:00

Upon reading an article which my mom emailed a while back (about a month ago), I thought that it might be appropriate to comment on something. It occurred to me likely that some people who read this particular article could have a particular set of mixed feelings about it. They might wholeheartedly agree with the article's cultural analysis, and concur with its condemnation of the harmful actions and lifestyles which are finding more and more acceptance and protection in our nation's laws, but they may also experience a measure of recoil from the unabashed tone that the writer of the article uses in reference to hell. They might agree with the condemnation of sin, but feel also (perhaps without articulating it) that the language of "a day of reckoning that never ends" and "eternal damnation" represents an outdated view of divine justice more suitable to the unenlightened minds of ancient and medieval priests and peasants.
It therefore seemed appropriate that I should comment on the much neglected and much misunderstood doctrine of hell.
I will begin by saying that the doctrine of hell really is a terrible doctrine. I do not mean by this that it is a false teaching, but I mean it in the simple sense that hell is a teaching that inspires terror. The very thought that an all-powerful God of love would condemn any of his creatures to such a fate is mind-boggling and terrifying. This consideration I take as a given. And so I neither intend nor expect that anything I say in favor of the teaching dispel such terror. What I do intend (and hope) by these comments is to clear the way for the intellectual acceptance of the doctrine of hell despite this quite natural terror and its pervading mysteriousness. I will attempt this in two main ways: (1) By appealing to the authority of the one who taught it (Jesus), and (2) by explaining something of how it fits into the wider context of the Christian teachings about God and His love for us manifest in Jesus Christ. The mature Christian must hold the terribleness and the truth of the doctrine of hell together in tension.

Before I begin with my two main arguments, let me clear up some common misunderstandings and concerns. First of all, it is not only crude but simply wrong to refer to or think of hell as a kind of "divine torture chamber." A hell of purely extrinsic punishment does not do full justice to the reality expressed in the scriptures. The references that Christ makes of hell in the Gospels and those in the New Testament as a whole are vivid in their imagery but mysterious as to their full meaning. Hell is often, though not always, depicted in terms of fire. Hell is referred to, among others, as "the outer darkness," "eternal death," "the second death," "destruction," "gehenna" (which was, as I understand, a valley where an idolatrous cult performed human sacrifice to their gods). There is a large degree of mystery as to its exact nature (for example, in what senses and to what degrees are its punishments extrinsic or intrinsic to a soul) and many Christians in different times have attempted speculation and/or depiction of it--From Origen to Dante to Nicholas of Cusa to C.S. Lewis and others, yielding diverse conceptions of the one doctrine.
Also, hell is not something that God "holds over our heads" to threaten us and scare us into doing good. It is rather a grave warning of what are the consequences of obstinate selfishness. If God holds anything "over our heads" it is his constant mercy in Jesus Christ calling us to repentance. He does not threaten us like some tyrant, though his offer of mercy is often felt to be a threat by those who wish to cling to full control of their lives, those for whom God's kind of love feels like an imposition.
Another sticking point for many is the eternity of hell. They often think that God would do better to totally destroy a soul rather than to allow it an eternity of suffering. Here is, I think, a time when we run into the mystery of this doctrine. Are we really sure that it would be a better thing to not exist than to exist in such a miserable state? In accordance with the mysterious images "second death," and "outer darkness" (among others) applied to hell in the scriptures, images which seem to indicate that hell is further down than suffering and death on the scale towards nothingness, can we simplistically ascribe our own current kind of existence (and hence also consciousness) to a soul in hell?
Furthermore, in trying to conceive of a soul in eternal hell (or heaven for that matter), might we sometimes make the mistake of thinking of "the other side of the grave" as a continuation of our personal and social histories rather than their fulfillment?
While I do not think that these reflections give exhaustive answers to the problems that the doctrine of hell poses to our minds (in fact, they raise even more questions), I do think that they can make us aware that what we are dealing with is a mystery, and help us to turn more easily to the authority of the One who revealed it for our acceptance of it. Which brings me to my first main argument.

(1) My argument is that it is from the mouth of Jesus himself that we receive the teaching of hell in the Bible. And of all the people in the Bible, it is Jesus himself who speaks about it most openly and boldly.
There is a tendency of many to forget this fact. The image which they depict when they speak of Jesus is one derived from a very selective reading of the Gospels, focusing on love and mercy and kindness and acceptance of the outcast and despised and poor, but neglecting grave words about divine punishment and harsh condemnation of obstinate yet knowing sinners (unless a particular type of sin which Jesus condemns happens to be one that a person prides himself in not partaking in--then he tends to include that in his idea of Jesus). This is more than a matter of selective vision. In so narrowing down the person and message of Jesus, the clear and coherent person shining out in the Gospels is unraveled into a nebulous and deflated idea of love as mere tolerance (an idea which is in turn used to justify all kinds of things)--here the full ideas of infinite love, mercy, and acceptance of the poor and despised are emptied of most of their meaning and cheapened. Here also the radicality of holiness is compromised--moral mediocrity reigns supreme when phrases like "do not judge" and "Jesus accepts everyone" are understood without reference to the whole person and teaching of Jesus as He is revealed in the Gospels. Likewise, this way of thinking renders Jesus' redemptive suffering and death on the cross emptied of most of its meaning. This leads me to my second argument.

(2) Divine mercy and divine wrath are two sides to the same coin, and the coin is called divine Love. When I say this, what I mean is that since evil is directly contrary to love, God pours out His destroying power upon anything (or anyone) that keeps His Love from having full sway in the universe. With His just wrath He protects His poor from the unjust wrath of evil people.
Yet God loves us, His creatures (both the good and the evil) so much so that even when we sin and are unfaithful to Him he still pours out His love upon us.
How does he do this?
He united Himself to mankind by sending His eternal Son to take upon our flesh, to become one of us. Then, His Incarnate Son, the Sinless One, took upon Himself and accepted the whole weight of God's wrath. He suffered the pain of mockery, torture, and the guilt of all sin, and He was killed by crucifixion. He thus became "abandoned" by His God and Father (the same type of abandonment that all of us feel in our darkest moments--to its farthest limit) And finally He Himself, the eternal and All-Holy One, who from all eternity is one and coequal with the Father, was consigned to hell.
Jesus went to hell!---Those who scoff at the idea of hell have not sufficiently reflected on what they affirm each time they recite the Apostles Creed. "...He was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose..."
Recently, in some quarters, there has been an increase of reflection on what it means when we say that Jesus descended into hell, and new aspects have been contemplated. This is not the place for me to go into them. One thing is clear, however. God had not truly abandoned Him--hell could not hold the Lord of Glory. Jesus brought out from the depths of hell all those who had been consigned there because of their sins and yet had responded to His grace in their life, the grace that flowed from His cross onto all history and all cultures. He brought them to the salvation that they had yearned for in life, which inspired goodness in them, but that they never saw.
Today the same reality applies. In Jesus Christ, God has given everything to mankind. He has not held back anything from us. In Christ He has poured out upon the whole world and all of history the mercy that leads us to yearn for salvation and to live lives of goodness. In Christ's cross, God's wrath has been united to His love, so that we who suffer His wrath might be forgiven and transformed through it. This is what He offers universally, to everyone.
And so the question may be asked: What if we reject this universally granted mercy? The fact that we were created with free will means that this is a possibility. If we did not have free will, we could not culpably reject God's love. But nor could we "culpably" accept it, either--nor could we reach the divine heights of love. There is no love with no freedom.
I ask it again--What if we reject this universally given mercy?... But there is a deeper and graver question, for the Lord not only has poured his Love invisibly into the world, but has sent Apostles and prophets in His Spirit to preach His love so that many whom He chooses may know His salvation now and cooperate in His work. The graver question: What if we reject Him who is that Mercy, when we ourselves are given this gift of seeing God Our Savior whom so many longed for and never saw, because we prefer some transitory created thing to the Eternal One? What if we refuse to believe Him when He has manifested Himself to us present in His Church, when He offers us His Love so that we can share in the divine nature? What if we reject Him again and again until our dying breath? As Jesus says in the Gospel, "What if salt loses its taste? With what will it then be salted? There is nothing left for it but to be thrown down and trampled underfoot."

Happy Birthday, SWP!

2005-10-11T13:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the birthday of one of our contributers, SWP. He has an excellent blog at http://www.catholicland.blogspot.com, which is updated quite often. Check it out.

Jesus Christ, or the nothingness of "choice" as an ultimate value?...Jesus Christ, hands down.

2005-08-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

Our friends over at Pontifications have posted today a quote from David Hart on modern nihilism: In Nothingness do we trust.
I recommend that you read the quote for yourselves, but I also wish to express an additional thought:

In the midst of this--as Pope Benedict has called it--"dictatorship of reletivism," each one of us must make anew our choice for Christ, each day, and with boldness--clinging to him with all the strength within us. We cannot divide our treasure between the Lord and the world. We cannot live with one foot in the Kingdom and the other in Babylon.
The Lord has made this clear to us: We must separate ourselves from the world which has the devil for its prince. We must separate ourselves from it even as we live in it, by continually choosing God and his ways, and refusing to be held back by guilt over our failures, however repeatedly we make them.
I am convinced that will be of little or no real help to the world if we do not do this. Jesus is our model of it. We can know him through daily prayerful reading of the Gospels.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Vicarious Suffering and Evangelization

2005-08-07T16:53:00.000-04:00

Catholicland's distinguished blogmaster, SWP (who is also a contributer to this blog), quoted today certain words of Pope Benedict regarding evangelization and suffering. "This is...the meaning of the parable of the grain of wheat that fell on the earth: Only through a process of tormented transformation does one obtain the fruit and see the solution," he said.
The wisdom Benedict gives us here is the fruit of our knowledge of God in Christ: Throughout Christ's public ministry, he manifests himself by preaching, teaching, and great signs and wonders--drawing many faithful (yet sinful) disciples to himself. Yet there are many who have eyes but cannot see, and have ears but cannot hear. Or, rather, it is not just "many," but it is the many who do not recognize God in their midst.

But this is not the end of the story. The most important and effacacious act of the Lord is, at this point, yet to be accomplished--his "hour" had not yet come, the hour in which he is given over into the hands of sinners and the power of the devil. Here the many who rejected him are included together with those who accepted him, for in the Cross, Christ vicariously suffers and dies for the sins of all.

In his old book The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood, the future Pope Benedict outlines the three obligations or missions laid upon each Christian in relation to the non-believer. The first is missionary activity, and Benedict wisely includes the "holy discretion" required for proper evangelization in his description. (As he says, the Church "must not try to catch men with the word unawares, as it were, without their knowing it. She has no right to draw the word out of a hat, like a conjuror. And she must recognize that there are places where the word would be wasted, thrown away, if it were spoken.")
The second is agape--Love, which is directed at non-believers directly, or indirectly (by the shining witness of the love between Christians).
The third, and "highest" mission of the Christian for the un-believer is vicarious suffering done in Christ and as Christ has done. The basic law of Christ's own life (to give his life as a ransom for many) is also "the basic law of all Christian discipleship."

When Pope Benedict says "Only through a process of tormented transformation does one obtain the fruit and see the solution," he teaches us that our mission to the world, consisting of love and proclamation of the gospel, is supported by the Cross. Our efforts are purified and made effective by the vicarious suffering of Christ infused into our lives by his grace when we accept it and willingly walk it with him.

From The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood:
"It is in her defeat that the Church constantly acheives her highest victory and stands nearest to Christ. It is when she is called to suffer for others that she acheives her highest mission: the exchange of fate with the wayward brother and thus his secret restoration to full sonship and full brotherhood."

Jesus Christ is the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever!

2005-07-26T02:30:00.000-04:00

Today is the feast of Saint James, Son of Zebedee and Apostle of Jesus Christ. The request made by James together with his brother John to sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in his glory, reminds us that Jesus now sits in that glory, himself sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! As he sits in his heavenly throne at the right hand of God, their power and love shine forth from the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Sacraments through the working of the Holy Spirit. "I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you" (Jn. 16:7).

Because Jesus has gone to the Father, the Advocate is with us and makes us worthy vessels of the Holy Trinity. Now the physical presence of Jesus in the flesh has given way to the presence of his love and grace in the proclamation of the Gospel and in the Sacraments, and in the presence of his glorified Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Let us turn to the Gospels and to the Sacraments as deer to running streams. The Lord has given us priests as the dispensors of these Mysteries. Regarding them "as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1), with renewed desire let us receive grace from their ministry as from the hands of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Then we will be empowered to do the great works to which he calls us, for the salvation of the world.

-Mark John

"Five Books Meme"

2005-06-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

I´ve been tagged! I finally figured out what I gotta do, just answer the questions and (for question 5) tag others. I don´t know anyone to tag, though, who hasn´t already been tagged--I don´t know many other bloggers! Anyway, here are the answers to the questions one through four...

1. Total number of books I own = Approx. one large bookcase.
2. The last book I bought = I think it was Dietrich Von Hildebrand´s Marriage: The Mystery of Faithful Love
3. The last book I read= Thomas Dubay´s And Thou Art Christ´s: Reflections on Virginity and the Celibate Life
4. Five books that mean alot to me = a. Love Alone is Credible - Von Balthasar, b. The Brothers Karamazov, c. Lord of the Rings, d. The First Epistle of Saint John, e. Hatchet - Gary Paulson

It was SWP who tagged me. To find more of the history of this meme, follow this link back to
Catholicland!

Love and Christian Martyrdom

2005-05-30T21:30:00.000-04:00

Been away for a while. In fact, I am still away in Mexico. Just a few thoughts:

The great interprative principle of our faith is the Love of God in Jesus Christ. (For this Love is Wisdom)
For example, Christian martyrdom is not considered to be such an exalted gift and call because a Christian Martyr dies for our cause - for our faith, but only because no greater love hath a man...

There is no greater response to the Love of God in Christ, the Love which gives over life for the beloved, than to give up our lives for love of God, and for the love of the faith which He has given to us, for the truth that He is. This response of love is the same Love as the gift. The Martyr, and every Christian willing to be martyred, is caught up in that Love by grace. We exalt Christian martyrdom, therefore, as an exalted maifestation of the Love of God in Christ. We do not exalt Christian martyrdom as a partisan of some idea or principle exalts dying for the cause. Nor does Accepting death for the sake of the truth even capture the whole picture. The Love of God in Jesus Christ alone is the true glory of the Christian Martyr, and the real reason why Christian martyrdom is greater than other martyrdoms.

Try prayerfully using the Love of God in Christ as an interpretive principle. Meditate on this Love, always think about it. And if ever someone asks you why Christians do this or that strange thing, always in your explanation bring them to the Love of God in Jesus Christ. For this Love is the Gospel that we proclaim.

Trinity Sunday

2005-05-19T00:49:00.000-04:00

O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey. Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness.

-Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Parables for Our Time

2005-04-29T02:55:00.000-04:00

In Matthew 13, we find some wisdom that critics of the Holy Father or the Church or those who cannot understand the enthusiasm of the youth in response to this election may find helpful.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

The Church is full of treasures. The papacy is a treasure. The Bible is a storehouse of treasures. Each and every papal encyclical from the past two centuries and beyond is a treasure. Each and every baptized Christian is a treasure. Our singular and divine vocations are a treasure. Do you have as much passion for the treasure of the Church as the person in the parable?

There are pearls of wisdom to be found if you seek them. In the encyclicals, in the Bible, in our hearts united with the Lord in prayer.

Ask yourself: am I fertile soil? am I open to hearing the Truth? Or am I rocky ground? stubborn and quick to judge?

Our Holy Father envisions that the Church will increasingly become a Mustard Seed. For this he has been vilified and condemned as narrow-minded. When he promulgated Dominus Iesus he was castigated. But what radical notion has he proposed? That we are to be leaven in the world. That we are not to shy away from our rebirth in Christ but rather we must embrace that gift and offer it boldly to the world!

The ascension of Ratzinger to the Petrine Office has many people worried. They fear he will reverse the course of Vatican II or that he will impose medieval barbarisms. But he was simply a theologian protecting the Doctrine of the Faith from error. And now he serves the Servants of God as Universal Pastor. "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." He is the new head of our household, and he will bring forth from the storeroom both the new and the old. His choice of the name Benedict is a prime example, and his commitment to ecumenism is another example.

Who is this Benedict XVI? Some think he is a wolf in Shepherd's clothing. Why such fear and trembling? Why such anger? People are incredulous that Ratzinger could have been elected. "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house." The Jews are not dishonoring the Holy Father. Nor are Moslems and Patriarchs. But his very own flock turn against him.

Have you overlooked the treasure? Have you missed the pearls of wisdom he has written? Where is your faith? What mighty deeds can be worked in your heart if it is closed?
Be not afraid! I bring you glad tidings of great rejoicing:
Habemus Papam~

Habemus papam!

2005-04-19T23:40:00.000-04:00

Benedict XVI - The Servant of the Servants of God

Let us pray for our brother Benedict, who has been charged with confirming us in the faith, and give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for this ministry of Peter in the Church!

Benedict XVI

2005-04-19T19:48:00.000-04:00

Let us pray for our new Holy Father, Der Papst~

LORD,
source of eternal life and truth,
give to your shepherd Benedict XVI
a Spirit of courage and right judgment,
a Spirit of knowledge and love.

By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care,
may he, as successor to the Apostle Peter & Vicar of Christ,
build your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace
for all the world.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

AMEN!

Mori lucrum est!

2005-04-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

Today, on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, our beloved Pope John Paul II has passed from this life in the flesh. Because of our great faith and hope in the merits and mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and because John Paul served the Lord Jesus with such great love, we can have a firm hope that his soul is resting in the bosom of the Triune God, and that he will be resurrected on the last day to live with God forever in a transfigured body in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
I think that we can also believe that he is already beseeching God on our behalf. Today many people from around the world prayed the ninth prayer of the Divine Mercy Novena. This last prayer of the novena pleads to God to immerse in the abyss of His mercy the souls of those who have become lukewarm in their Christian discipleship. For this to be the last prayer of the novena, prayed on the day of this Pope’s death, is quite interesting. It may be the last witness of this successor of Peter to the authentic movement of the Holy Spirit in the Church today. When he was among us in the flesh, as the chosen vicar of Christ on earth, John Paul prophesied that a new springtime of Christian evangelization was coming, where Catholics will be impelled to preach the Gospel in its purity and simplicity as the Love of God in Christ, and the call to salvation by repentance and a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the divine mercy prayer we speak to Jesus, and say: “In this fire of Your pure love let these tepid souls, who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.”
Is not this prayer beseeching the mercy of God for lukewarm souls (oh, how lukewarm I have been!) a fitting prayer to help usher in the fire and zeal of the Holy Spirit in the Church? Can we doubt that the man who inspired us and preached to us the necessity of recovering this zeal, saying “Do not be afraid! Open the doors wide to Christ!” is now interceding before God that we might receive it? And so, is not Christ now knocking at the doors of our hearts? Is not the new evangelization on the brink of realization? Does not Christ at this moment stand at the right hand of the Father, ready to pour the Holy Spirit upon the docile among his believers?
Let us open our hearts to Christ this day. Let us repent of our sins, especially the sin of lukewarmness. Let us be docile to the Spirit who enflames our hearts with living water and who calls us to preach the Gospel to every creature, not to the spirit that waters down the flame of the Gospel and replaces it with a political fervor to remake the Church according to the image of the “enlightened” of the world.

Peace.
- Mark John

Preflections

2005-03-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

In case you hadn't heard, I will be going to El Salvador for "Santa Semana" (Holy Week) with my family and a friend of the family. The six of us will be pilgrims, strangers in a strange land- yet, a place that seems familiar. We will be going to honor the memory of Archbp. Oscar Romero, who was killed at the hands of U.S. government-funded terrorists 25 years ago on March 24, 1980. That was the year I was born. Shortly after this martyrdom, the tiny nation of El Salvador (it's smaller than Massachusetts) erupted into prolonged civil war. Thus, for as long as I have lived, the people of El Salvador have been in pain.

Reading about El Salvador is a jolting, jarring experience. It pulls you into the story of a people assaulted by ignorance. I have surfed far too many webpages to include them all here, but I encourage you to become informed about the role of the US, the decisions of Church leaders, and the questions Catholic citizens must ask themselves. I will include one link, though, merely because it helped me find my footing after swimming adrift in the myriad of questions brought on by even a casual survey of the facts. The link takes you to an article by the late Pedro Arrupe, former Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Fr. Arrupe asks key questions at the end of that article, which conveys his thoughts on education and the duty to teach social justice in the curriculum. As a Jesuit alumnus, I was touched. Here are his questions:

What is my response to the needs of people who suffer misery/oppression?
How do I transform the social reality of the world in which I live?
How do I come to understand my social obligation?
How do I take into account the Gospel's preferential option for the poor?
What have I done for Christ in this world?
What am I doing now?
What should I do?

Let me include here a quote from the aforementioned article, attributed to one Fr. Alfaro:

"Inclusion in or expulsion from the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus depends on a man (or woman)'s attitude towards the poor and oppressed; towards those who are identified in Isaiah 58, 1-2 as the victims of human injustice and in whose regard God wills to realize his justice. What is strikingly new here is that Jesus makes these despised and marginalized folk his brothers. He identifies himself with the poor and the powerless, with all who are hungry and miserable. Every man in this condition is Christ's brother; that is why what is done for them is done for Christ himself. Whoever comes effectively to the aid of these brothers of Jesus belongs to his Kingdom; whoever abandons them to their misery excludes himself from that Kingdom."

When I go to this little country and meet these people, who have endured pain the enormity of which defies comprehension, what will I do for them? I- surrounded by innumerable blessings- have nothing to offer the people whose family members "disappeared" or were savagely killed, who slave through weeks of excruciating labor to earn what I make in one hour doing far less, who do not enjoy a US citizen's life expectancy, health insurance, opportunity for work, national security, or financial assets. What I can share with them? If anything, I will be enjoying their hospitality, eating their food, and depending upon their provisions during this two-week journey. It hardly makes sense! And they will do and give and provide happily, gladly, with the easy generosity characteristic of people of this culture, a generosity unmatched by the culture into which I was born.

I will spend my currency in their markets on bottled water and souvenirs. Oh, how capitalistic! Yet, an economist would agree this is a very beneficial act. Beyond that, I will listen to their stories, view the killing fields of El Mezote, and see the bulletholes in the walls. In anticipation of the trip I have found myself vascillating between the sense of fear and the sense of adventure: fear, because there are venemous snakes in this equatorial country and people walking around with unconcealed weapons and appaling statistics on gang violence; adventure, because I have never been further south than Mexicali, Mexico, nor have I been to a Third World country, and I have held Romero in awe ever since I watched the movie as a child. So, this will be a learning experience par excellence, which is the first step towards solidarity: knowledge.

And that will be the whole mission in a nutshell. Solidarity. Being With. Emmanuel.

I am reminded of my experience as a Hospice volunteer my senior year of high school. Waiting at the bedside of a man who knew he was dying every Wednesday is an effective way to reflect upon mortality. But sharing that time, however meaningful a gesture, seems insignificant when you meet the nurses, aides, chaplains, bereavement counselors, and numerous individuals who provide for the patient's many needs. In contrast, I just sat there for one hour with him.

But that's precisely the role and purpose and gift of the Hospice volunteer. It meant so much to the caregiver to see a high school youth who cared. It was sufficient that I was simply there. That I shared those last months with my patient, held his hand, looked at pictures of his rose garden, listened to his stories, and talked about the afterlife. That was all.

The gift of self is never to be underestimated, for it is ipso facto the gift of Christ. Christ who came for us, to cling to us, to never let us go. Christ who pursues us, who challenges us, who demands justice, who models love. It is through Christ and with Christ and in Christ that I will go. I will meet Christ in the people of El Salvador. I will meet Christ Crucified in their tears, Christ Resurrected in their triumphs, and the Body of Christ, the Iglesia di Cristo in their hope, a hope witnessed in the words and life of Romero. I will meet Christ in mi familia, mi madre, padre y hermanes y amiga. I will meet Christ in myself and welcome Him.

When my fears, my worries, my typical trip-related anxieties start to get the better of me, I will go to Christ. When I act like a Yanqui tourist, I will seek Christ. When I stumble through the Spanish language, I will meet Christ. When I arrive at the airport and see the US military base or stroll the markets and see machetes or (saints preserve us) meet a snake, I will fly to Christ and try to see with His eyes. Eyes of a Just Lord, a Humble Servant, a Sacrificial Victim.

Even before I arrive at the airport, even before I get on the plane, I will go to Christ in prayer, and that's what I ask from all of you who read this. Pray for me to the Lord our God. Pray for this pilgrimage, my family, and the many travelers who fly down there with us. Ask the intercession of Archbp. Romero, the four churchwomen, the Jesuit priests and their companions, and the countless souls whose fate is known to God alone.

May your Easter experience, your Passion journey, your sharing in Eucharist be as colorful, meaningful, and new as I pray for mine to be. May it bring us ever closer to Christ, more deeply in love with His Church, and more focused in our Christian mission. Pace~

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

2005-02-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

Even though his name does not appear on the calendar anymore, he is still listed among the martyrs, and rightly so. Legends prevail about this man because he represents so much of what it means to give ourselves entirely to Christ. Whether or not an actual Roman citizen named Valentinus was locked in prison for witnessing to the faith and sentenced to execution and sent letters to fellow Christians to encourage them in their fidelity to the Church is really beside the point (although that is the origin of giving valentines). The point is-- that today is about giving ourselves entirely to Christ by witnessing to the reality that LOVE binds us all together as one. No matter who we meet today on our path, we should show them the Love of Christ. Whether it be our spouse, our children, our friends, or strangers we pass on the street. Today we recognize that Christ came to build a civilization founded on that purest, most Holy Love which is God Himself; the Love that nailed him to the Cross is the Love we must give to ALL we meet today. Everyday. That is why this day is so important! It's not about teddybears and roses; today is about Christ, as is every day we live. But today we remember that, just like Valentinus, we must never be afraid to show love to strangers. We must never be afraid to witness to our faith that there is something greater bonding us to one another than our common humanity: it's the love of Jesus Christ who died for us!!! Valentinus would drop his little notes outside his jailcell window, in the hopes that passersby would see them and find his words of Christian inspiration.

Let us never be afraid to show such boundless, gratuitous LOVE to all we meet~

The Power of God's Love

2005-01-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

It does not occur to us the majority of the time how great the Love of God is. We know that it is unfathomable--measured, as it is, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ--but no kind of knowledge can compare with experience, with a real encounter with the Holy Spirit of Love. Such experiences are not within our power to create, nor can we in any way force God to give them to us. They are pure gift, that is to say, they are grace. They are foreshadowings of what is to come, tiny tastes of heaven, that God gives--according to His own choosing--to souls open to His Love.

I had such an experience this past thursday--second hand, so to speak. During our community holy hour at the seminary, a priest read us a letter that he had received from a man who had had such an experience first hand. The man had a relative (an uncle) who had been in obstinant denial of God for many years. This uncle was dying of cancer, and the man was trying his best to talk to him about Christ, and to get him to let a priest come to him. Eventually, after it was clear that the uncle would die soon, the man came with a priest to the hospital room while the uncle was sleeping. The priest was a very holy priest. As the man described, this priest gently took the uncle's hand, waking him up, and spoke to him of God's Love. The priest told him, gently stroking his forehead, that he would die soon, but that he had nothing to fear because God loves him, and would receive him and forgive him all of his sins. The man said that he was amazed by the way which the priest spoke and looked at his uncle. It was with a love that he had not seen before. And this love totally disarmed the dying man, who, without needing any persuasion, gave his confession to the priest--his first confession in thirty years.
The sight of the Love of God in this priest, and the sight of this Love's power, disarmed the man as well. The priest was also disarmed--on the ride home, he spoke to himself, almost in a contemplative trance, fixed as he was upon the Love of God, saying, "How can I ever stand before God, when He does all the work and I get all the credit? How can I ever thank Him for His Love?"

So there I was, listening to this story in the words of the man who experienced it, and was myself disarmed. The Love of God disarmed me, welling up in my heart a spring of praise and thanksgiving for-- For the greatness of His Love.... For the glorious calling of the priesthood, which he has given to me.... For His zeal for the salvation of each and every sinner, even one who has sinned as I have sinned.... For His power manifest everywhere.... For His Glory, beyond imagination.

Aqua Vitae

2005-01-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

In anticipation of the upcoming Feast of the Lord's Baptism (Jan.9), I thought it appropriate to reflect on the life of the saint whose memorial occurs today. We honor St. John Nepomucene-Neumann, the Redemptorist bishop of Philadelphia. He was a Bohemian immigrant named after St. John Nepomucene, a fifteenth-century Bohemian martyr who was drowned in the Moldau River and who is invoked as the patron saint of flood victims. This is timely, because the world continues to stand today in prayerful solidarity with the tsunami victims and their families. But I also pause to reflect on the irony that St. John Neumann is the patron of the parish where I was baptized.

In Easter1981, my parents took me down to Lubbock, Texas, where my Godparents live. My uncle and Godfather is a Deacon of the Diocese there, and he was at that time assigned to serve under the pastoral direction of a very blessed man. Fr. Joe James was pastor of St. John Neumann's parish, and it was he who baptized me in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

So I stand now, partway between the feast of the Holy Name and the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, reflecting on my own Baptism in the Name of the Triune Lord, my own cleansing in the Waters that bring Eternal Life. I invoke the intercession of St. John Neumann, whose patronage brought me into God's Holy People. I ask his continued blessing on my Godparents, whose prayers and guidance sustain me in the Faith.

I ask his blessing on Fr. Joe James, who washed me of my sin.

I also invoke the intercession of St. John Nepomucene today; so many perished in that destructive deluge last month. May St. John and the Holy Angels watch over those many souls! May their families, their communities, and their homelands find consolation, peace, and the vigilant charity of the global community. May Christians all over the world be a sign of Christ's cleansing relief in the midst of overwhelming disaster. May the Waters of Life wash over what Darkness has wrought and bring about a Springtime of Renewal.

This we ask in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen~

Christmas

2004-12-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

I invite my brothers and sisters in Christ to journey through the season with me over at CatholicLand. In this Year of the Eucharist, our participation in the liturgical seasons is all the more pregnant with meaning and possibility. We can feel ever more drawn into the Life and Heart of our Savior as we draw closer to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. We can participate more fully in the Life of Christ by our sharing time with friends and relatives in a spirit of goodwill and peace. Let us ask the Lord to bless our comings and our goings, our laughter and tears, our time together and our time apart.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!
Pacem in Terris~
SWP

Nurture the Mustard Seed

2004-12-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

A possible reflection for this Advent:

Imagine that a tiny seed--the seed of the Kingdom and of Jesus Christ--has been planted in your heart. It has been implated by your baptism and your faith. No matter how unworthy you are to hold it, it is a fact that it has been entrusted to you by God. If you sin gravely, you will cast it out--but God is generous in restoring what He had once given for those who repent.

Call to mind this seed throughout the day. Know that you must nurture it for it to grow into the great tree that it is to be, for it to transform you into the image of Jesus. Avoid anything that will hurt it, and look for ways to water and feed it. Let the light of the Sun of God shine on it as you adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, feed it as you receive Him in it. Commit acts of charity to water it. As you tend this seed, remember that it is God who causes the growth. Ask Him to do so--in yourself and in others.

You have been chosen as a vessel for this gift of infinite worth. Protect it. Tend it. Long for the time when it will be full grown and glorious. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest example to follow in this regard. Meditate on the little that she says and that is said of her in the scriptures.

When Jesus comes again, he will want to see how you have nurtured this seed.

Peace, Brothers.
- Mark John.

Thanksgiving

2004-11-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to encourage all of you in your celebration of the Year of the Eucharist to note that Eucharist means "thanksgiving", making this annual celebration all the more poignant this year. Abraham Lincoln was a prophetic sage; when he immortalized this day in the American calendar, he was recognizing the importance of crediting God with our blessings, as a nation and as families who make up our nation. The celebration offers us the chance to return an investment to those who risked their lives to forge a new nation, those men and women dedicated to the belief that God created us good, noble, and free, possessing inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: the missionaries and martyrs, the colonists and pilgrims, pioneers and patriots, the soldiers and slaves. We stand with generations of immigrants as well as those who worshipped and thanked the Creator long before anyone else arrived on this plentiful soil.
As Catholics and people of goodwill, we can honor the Lord this day by thanking Him for creating us good, for loving us into existence, crowning us with redemption, and sustaining us through the Holy Spirit. We can call upon the intercession of the cloud of witnesses at our Table, our spiritual family who we hope to join at the Eternal Banquet. Let us make this Year of the Eucharist, an entire year dedicated to thanksgiving, one in which we never forget the blessings remembered and hopefully felt this Thanksgiving Day. Let us join our domestic table to the Altar, and enthrone Christ in our hearts. Let us share our plenty with those in poverty. Let our nation grant such prosperity to those in need. Let us be the Salt which leavens the world, a Light to the nations, a City set upon a hill.
Let us praise and thank the God of Abraham and Sara, the God who led his people out of bondage and beckons us to Eternal Life. May we join our cross to His, place our hopes at His feet, and follow the Way of Truth and Life, this day and always. Amen!

We are all "spiritual semites."

2004-11-12T14:06:00.000-05:00

It is very important, as Christians, to hold on to our Jewish heritage. While a significant part of the New Testament concerns the movement from the old covenant to the new--explaining the differences--it is abundantly clear that the new covenant presupposes the old. They are in continuity with each other. In fact, they can be called, in a certain sense, one and the same.
God made a covenant with a people he chose as uniquely his own. He loved them. He revealed himself to them. He forgave them even when they sinned. In their suffering, He promised them justice. He promised that he would send them his full salvation, blessing even the nations of the world. I repeat the last point--he promised that the whole world would be blessed through them. All this God has done and fulfilled in Christ. We have been blessed through the Jews, as Christ Jesus himself said: "Salvation comes from the Jews."
Gentile Christians are only wild shoots grafted onto the vine of Israel. This is abundantly evident from the scriptures, the liturgy, and from daily Christian life. Living at the seminary for the past year--praying from the liturgy of the hours each day, studying the scriptures, seeking the Lord--I have begun to identify myself with the Jews (as I understand them from the OT and common knowledge). I can honestly say that I "feel Jewish."
Christians should know how deep is their Jewish identity when they pour out their hearts to God in the spirit and words of king David in the Psalms, when they cry out to God in their suffering, when they pray the Benedictus or the Magnificat--proclaiming aloud their joy in the messianic fulfillment, when they worship God for his mighty deeds of salvation, when they feel wrapped up in the love of God, when they seek to do the will of God in all things.

The God and Father of Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph. When someone believes in Christ becomes a Christian, they embrace faith in the God of Abraham and Sarah. It is indispensable for each new Christian to be taught the Old Testament, so that they might know the God to whom they are giving over their life (and from whom they are receiving life in return). It all makes me think of the story of the Moabite Ruth, and her words to the Israelite, Naomi: "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God." When a man becomes a Christian, he says these words to all the people of Israel. This is because he himself becomes an Israelite of the heavenly Jerusalem, and a son of Abraham according faith.

Put your hope in heavenly things, not on earthly things.

2004-11-03T19:45:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts on the feeling that many have of the futility of service in a world that has a seemingly unending need--seemingly undefeatable evil.....

I think that looking at the meaning of the incarnation of Christ and of his whole life and passion from a particular perspective sheds light on this dillemma. In these, he is shown to humble himself in being totally obedient to God's sending of him, and entering into the conditions of those in need, experiencing them himself. As he continues to serve these people, it becomes clear that the mission is too much--that the evil in the hearts of men (the very thing he came to remedy) is too strong for the numerically and geographically limited ministry he is doing. In the cross, he becomes swallowed up, so to speak, by the futility of his mission, and reaches the same end that those he came to serve and save all inevitably suffer: death. And yet all this was done in radical obedience to God, and in faith that God would not ultimately abandon him. And God will not abandon those who hope in him, those who have the loving obedience of faith in him. Because of Christ's obediance in service, though all seemed to have been loss and failure, God granted him abundant fruits. Both for him and those he was sent to.
So for us to live this in our lives, we need to follow the pattern of Christ. And this is why we need to (as is often said), "put our hope not in this world but in the world to come." If we put our ultimate hope in "what I (or we) can do" for the poor of the world, then we will be disappointed and despair because the work is too much for us (even collectively), there is too much evil in the hearts of men. But if we hope in heaven, which is God's work of "making things right," then we know that whether our service yields partial successes (for all successes in this world are partial), or yields failures, we can trust in God to bring about the fullness at the end of the ages. Rather than discouraging working in this world, hoping in heaven instead of in earth encourages working in the world. An activist view on life is thus seen to be surpassed by a active-contemplative life in God. Putting hope in this world ends up by dragging heaven down to earth, but putting hope in heaven lifts earth up to heaven.
We can do and are called to do great works of service on earth, individually and collectively, but it is an illusion to think that we can bring the kingdom of God in all its fullness into this world which is dominated by sin. Only God himself can bring it when Christ comes again. Having hope in God and in heaven is the remedy to the feeling of futility in service. And while the fruits of service are the beginnings of the kingdom, service--being obedience to God--makes the hope of THE FRUIT (which is of God's fruit in Christ) secure.

Peace.
- Mark John

Martyrs & Demons

2004-11-02T01:51:00.000-05:00

If you found your way over here from CatholicLand, you already know that Halloween is one of the most Christian holidays of the calendar year. And if you're just joining, you've jumped in for the best part. All Hallows Eve is a vigil preparing us for two sacred days to follow: All Saints Day and All Souls Day. All Hallows Eve is an opportunity to reflect on how very close we are to sin and darkness. Yet it is also a celebration that the Light is with us. Halloween is day to recognize that choosing Christ puts us at great risk; centuries of martyrdom and defamation teach us that. It is a day to reflect on our own mortality. Yet it is also a day to rejoice and make merry, because no dying, no demon, no power on earth can overcome the Love of God.

In this blog, I would like to explore in greater depth the necessity of understanding the power of evil, but also its antidote, a saintly life which chooses Christ above all else, witnessing the Gospel even unto a martyr's death. In choosing to juxtapose these two subjects, I am reminded of a piece from the original Fantasia. It begins with a visual representation of the Night on Bald Mountain, when the demons and ghouls hearken to Lucifer's call. They join in the dance macabre around the burning flames and their merriment reaches a fevered pitch before a lone knell sounds out from the valley below. The demons cower back in fear at the sound of the Churchbell and slink away back to their graves and shadows. Then, from the town, a winding queue of luminaries appears, gracefully progressing towards the forest. As the vigilant souls carry their lights into the forest, they illuminate the trees overhead, which resemble the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral. The breathtaking strains of Ave Maria fill the animation sequence as it fades into a haunting finish.

We must remember that there are two ways we can be haunted on Halloween. We can be haunted by great fear, or we can be haunted by the hallowed souls who lead the way to Christ. We can reflect on our sins and the horrors of the Devil, or we can look with great hope to the example of those possessing heroic virtue. For all the terror in the world, there is a more-surpassing goodness which calls on our senses. But perhaps you don't regard either? Perhaps you think the Devil is a myth? Perhaps you think martyrdom is the stuff of history? Perhaps it's time we explored the truth...

Eucharist and Mission

2004-10-25T02:55:00.000-04:00

Today is World Mission Sunday. Let us reflect on the importance of living out our baptismal call as Christians to bring the Good News to ALL peoples. Here are some inspiring words from our Holy Father, a man who has answered this call like no other:

"The bread and wine, fruit of human hands, transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit into the Body and Blood of Christ, become a pledge of the 'new heaven and new earth' (Rev 21,1), announced by the Church in her daily mission. In Christ, whom we adore present in the mystery of the Eucharist, the Father uttered his final word with regard to humanity and human history.

How could the Church fulfil her vocation without cultivating a constant relationship with the Eucharist, without nourishing herself with this food which sanctifies, without founding her missionary activity on this indispensable support? To evangelise the world there is need of apostles who are 'experts' in the celebration, adoration and contemplation of the Eucharist.

Journeying through the centuries, reliving every day the Sacrifice of the altar, the Church, the People of God, awaits Christ’s coming in glory. This is proclaimed after the consecration by the Eucharistic assembly gathered around the altar. Time after time with renewed faith the Church repeats her desire for the final encounter with the One who comes to bring his plan of universal salvation to completion.

The Holy Spirit with invisible but powerful working, guides the Christian people on this daily spiritual itinerary on which they inevitably encounter difficulties and experience the mystery of the Cross. The Eucharist is the comfort and the pledge of final triumph for those who fight evil and sin; it is the "bread of life" which sustains those who, in turn, become "bread broken" for others, paying at times even with martyrdom their fidelity to the Gospel."

Consider what is meant by the text in bold. We must remind ourselves that the Day of Satisfaction is not yet come. Our lives are to be spent in pursuit of that which the eyes cannot see. We must have faith that the Eucharist is indeed Christ and our labors are indeed bearing fruit in the lives of others. We are not allowed the privelege of knowing all things or knowing what will happen next or knowing why; that is God's task. Our mission is to serve the Lord, to accept the Cross, to live with FAITH, HOPE & LOVE!

When we share our faith with others, when we trust in hope, and when we truly love another, we ARE spreading the Good News! That is what is meant by Good News: we can have faith that no difficulty happens without a reason, we can hope that a better world is our destiny, and we can love unconditionally because that's how the Lord loves us.

It is our mission and destiny to be FREE. When we free ourselves from demands/expectations, trivial pursuits, fruitless desires, we are better able to serve. When we turn our eyes towards the needs of others, the pursuit of the common good, and the will of God, we will find true liberation. We need to relinquish control and trust that God has it all covered. I find the following prayer tremendously helpful in this effort to let go and let God. It is often mistakenly attributed to Oscar Romero, in spite of the fact that Cardinal Dearden spoke the words in a homily for deceased priests. But the words were actually drafted for Dearden by the late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw:

It helps, now and then, to step back and take
the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

Vivete!

2004-10-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our friends in Christ- and all those called to "slip the surly bonds of earth!"
If you like the view from here, consider romping over to CatholicLand, where you can revel in the Joy of being Catholic. Until then, thank you for being with us in prayer and comraderie. Feel free to offer your own thoughts on the troubled world in which we live and the joys and hope you may have received from the Holy Spirit.

May God bless you with every good thing~
Seth

Meditate on the Theotokos, who brings Christ forth into the world

2004-10-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

Meditate on the Theotokos, who brings Christ forth into the world.

"Whoever does the will of God..."

2004-10-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers [and your sisters] are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and [my] brothers?" And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. [For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Mk 3:31-35.

I think that part of the meaning of this passage is often missed. What is missed, I believe, is that this passage is profoundly marian in character. Some miss this meaning so far that this passage to them is actually seen as an indication that Mary the Mother of Jesus did not do the will of God, that she was a sinner. St. Luke, however, makes it abundantly clear that this is not true.

In this passage, Our Lord, upon discovering that his family is calling for him, uses these circumstances as an opportunity to teach his followers who they are and can further become--insofar as they do the will of God. It is here that the passage is found to be related to Mary.

"Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

We know that through our faith in Christ we become sons and daughters of God, together with The Son of God. As we are conformed to the Son who is such by nature, we become such--we are adopted. And as adopted children of the Father, we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus. What is not so well known is that through our faith in Christ we become, in a sense, his mother. This is what our Lord seems to allude to here. In a sense, then, we become conformed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We become chosen, as she uniquely was, to bear and give birth to Jesus Christ in the world.

How are we to respond to this knowledge? First of all we are to praise God because of the glory he has seen fit make known through us, because he has given us a portion of, in a sense, the same gift, the same honor, that he has given to the Most Holy Mary of Nazareth. Secondly, we are to ask the Lord (persistently) for the grace of growing in this identity of divine "motherhood." Thirdly, we should strive to be like Mary, making our lives pure obediance to God. We should say together with her, "Let it be done unto me according to your word." We should take delight in, and take every opportunity to, "ponder"(Luke 2:19 and again throughout the Gospel) in our hearts the mysteries of Our Lord's life, especially, though not exclusively, through the Rosary.

All this can be summed up in doing God's will, as the passage in Mark puts it. How do we do this, even more concretely than explained above?
We do this by doing the same works that we must do to become sons and daughters of God, the first of which is given to us by Christ in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel: "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." Flowing from this are the works of the commandments and all precepts which are contained within them, the commandments of God which are truly fulfilled when they are done out of love for God and neighbor. Do not lie, do not steal nor desire the possesions of others. Do not commit fornication or adultery, do not lust in your heart, nor murder, nor hate another human being. Honor and obey you mother and father, and obey all rightful authority. Love your enemies and pray for them. Observe the day of rest and worship that God has established for our good. Fear the Lord and above all obey him in all things. Persevere in prayer, and seek the Kingdom before all earthly things.

We already know these commands, but it is always helpful to bring them to mind again (and again). It is helpful to be reminded that it is promised that if we do these things, our light will shine out in the darkness--and in a true sense, we will give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ in the world, whereby his dominion over it will be completed until he comes again in glory to establish his kingdom where God will reign with mercy and justice forever.

Pax Christi.

2004-10-23T01:14:00.000-04:00

Our life is to be the life of the Risen Christ. Let us take hold of this by faith in him.

Vivere Christus est!

2004-10-22T04:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings, brothers and sisters in Christ! Welcome to Vivere Christus est. The purpose of this weblog is to help support people trying to live their lives in Christ in today's very troubled world. I hope that my posts and your responses will serve that purpose well. I hope that they will contribute to the building up of the Church by promoting the unity in love that is and is to be ours in Christ Jesus.
I feel like these hopes are tall hopes to have--I think this in particular because of my personal estimation of my own weaknesses--but I also think that Our Lord calls us to have the virtue of magnanimity. If to live is Christ, then let us be unafraid to do great things for him, or, as Blessed Theresa of Calcutta (Mother Theresa) said, to do "small things with great love." We know that we have his help in all that we do according to his will.

May the Lord God give us the grace to live in Christ and do all things for Christ. May he plant in our hearts such a desire for the fullness that he promises to us, that we may come to believe with St. Paul that, in fact, "death is gain."

Welcome, again, to Vivere Christus est.

God's Peace.
- Mark John