The Apostolate of the Laity

Thank You Archbishop Vlazny

2010-04-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Statement from Archbishop John G. Vlazny March 31, 2010

It did not take long for me on the morning of March 31 to cancel my subscription to the Oregonian. This was not the first time I had contemplated such a move. When the “Catholic bashing” was principally local, I thought this was something I simply had to endure along with the rest of you. Why? The jury of public opinion seemed to conclude that the church deserved such punishment because it was no better than anyone else in handling the problem of child sexual abuse. But I was always suspicious that there was more behind all the attention given to our plight by the secular media.

Let me be specific about my complaints. In the column on March 29 by syndicated columnist, E.J. Dionne Jr., towards the end of his clever attempt to ridicule the Vatican, we find this bold assertion: “The church needs to cast aside the lawyers, the PR specialists and its own worst instincts…” If that’s not bad enough, try this: “The church will have to show not only that it has learned from the scandal, but also that it’s truly willing to transform itself.” Now you tell me, when you are served with a lawsuit for millions of dollars, is it malicious to seek a lawyer’s help? PR specialists? Dream on. As for “transformation”, ask anyone who works for the church or pays attention to church activities about all the efforts at victim assistance and child protection which have been incorporated into church policies both here and elsewhere.

Then on March 30 there was the unconscionable cartoon on the editorial page which unfairly belittled our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. It was a portrayal dripping with hostility, an attack against our high priest, our universal pastor, our faithful teacher, the one person who, in the eyes of the world, symbolizes all that we are and do as Catholics. I was insulted and I hope you were too. People called wondering what I would say or do. I’m grateful for the prod. Can you imagine the reaction people of other faiths or persuasions would have if their leadership were so publicly scorned? The Oregonian wouldn’t dare publish something so ugly about the Dalai Lama. Nor should they.

The last straw came on March 31. On the editorial page again, this time in the form of a prominent editorial, the editors arrogantly scolded the church for its past failures in handling this matter of child sexual abuse and, in an insulting and unfair attack, chose this most holy time of the year, during our church’s Year of the Priest, to connect the practice of celibacy among our clergy with the problem of child sexual abuse, when everyone knows that most abusers by far are married persons! Is every single person now under a cloud of suspicion? Or only single Catholic priests? If only the latter, don’t you wonder why?

For more than ten years as Archbishop of Portland, in one way or another, I have pondered these challenges and perhaps taken them more seriously than they merited. But I knew that reconciliation and healing among those aggrieved would only be possible if we who are the church were truly repentant and serious about doing better.

But the media could never be satisfied. Why? It’s a trick as old as the human race. “When you don’t like the message, destroy the messenger.” The Catholic Church, in exercising her prophetic role and responsibility, is sometimes a very lonely speaker when addressing reasonable solutions to problematic realities like abortion, devaluing marriage and family life, injustices in the economy which lead to unabated poverty demeaning the sacredness of human sexuality and the place of religion in the public forum.

The Oregonian is most likely no more guilty than its counterparts in other communities, but that’s the newspaper for most of us in Portland and other folks in western Oregon who like a paper with a “big city” feel. But the triduum of hostility, arrogance and ridicule that greeted readers during the early days of Holy Week, at the expense of the Catholic Church, is simply not tolerable and should not be condoned without some form of protest. The editors, of course, hold all the cards, so what to do? I canceled my subscription and urge others to do the same.

Something will be missing while I sip my morning coffee, but with less time for breakfast, maybe I can jog a bit farther and eat a bit less. There’s inevitably something good that can be discovered in most unpleasant situations.

My friends, we Catholics are not perfect, but we are deserving of human respect. I had thought I should delay making assertions like these until later. Well, later arrived this morning with the last issue of the Oregonian that will be delivered to my home in the foreseeable future.

Persuading God

2010-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Every one has been there. A situation or circumstance in life develops that one has no idea how to handle or does not feel he has the strength to cope, and in desperation, prayers get launched to God imploring Him to make things better. An urgent plea to change reality and make it something different is the request. And if that entreaty seems to fall on deaf ears then faith, hope and even love of God starts to wane.

The chasm between ourselves and God is largely man made. For it remains the tendency of humanity to place God in a distant location on high; watching over His creation and waiting for one to die in order to be judged. When adversity strikes one naturally hopes to get the attention of this powerful being to perform an intercession. Even if prayers are not spoken aloud, they are shouted by one's soul.

What if one's prayer was a less an act of persuasion and more of an elevation to the will of God? The Almighty certainly has given all free will, and out of love, He doesn't tamper with that most perfect design. Prayer may indeed be better seen as an ultimate affirmation that one embraces the will of God. The book of Job in sacred scripture perhaps best illustrates this in the Old Testament, and Christ gave us the Lord's Prayer to more define how we are to pray in the New Testament.

Oneness perhaps comes the closest to best summarizing and understanding God's will where man must elevate his thoughts and actions. All of the sacraments point to oneness. Baptism claims one's soul for the mystical body of Christ. Confirmation strengthens that claim into oneness with the body of Christ and His Church. Eucharist is that most intimate physical encounter with being one with Christ. Reconciliation provides the means to come home when one has stepped outside of that oneness. Anointing of the sick prepares one for the final journey into oneness from this temporal experience. Holy Orders brings the ordained into a state of oneness that straddles the temporal and eternal. And finally, marriage which shows how oneness perfectly cooperates with God's will for creation and serves as an icon for the eternal relationship one ultimately achieves with the mystical body of Christ.

It is providential that the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday, February 14th, proclaims what is often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain, or Luke's version of Christ teaching of the beatitudes. They are words of wisdom as one prepares for the season of Lent as they reflect what man looks like when he is in oneness with God's will. It's difficult to read that for man to be in conformity with God's will he is poor, hungry, mournful, and persecuted. It is Christ's allegorical way of saying that to be one with the will of the Divine, one has to be the opposite of oneness with the fallen world where success would best be defined as rich, full, happy, and aggrandized. It's not that any of the temporal blessings of God are evil, but rather the failing comes in not recognizing those blessings belonging to the will of God and thus they are inherently intended for a higher purpose than solely serving their recipient's pleasure.

And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers." And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant; and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, `Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise'?"

Matthew 21:12-16

Let prayer become a helping hand to Christ as he cleanses the temple of one's very being. Do not allow the money-changers in one's heart, that is to say the sinful will, to defile this place of worship. Do not try to persuade Him to let you keep this or that imperfection because it brings you comfort or security of some kind in this world. Pray for conformity to God's will and see the healing of one's soul that can be attained. The areas where one is blind to grace will become enlightened. The areas where one is crippled will be made whole. Then as a child, sing the song of perfect praise Christ referred to as he reminded the chief priests to reread Psalm 8.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Peace Over Drama

2009-11-29T10:00:00.001-08:00

"...today, as in Jesus' own time, Christmas is not a children's fable but God's response to the drama of humankind as it seeks true peace. 'He shall be the one of peace' says the prophet referring to the Messiah. It is up to us to open wide the doors to welcome Him. ... Happy Christmas to everyone!"

Pope Benedict XVI
Reflection at the Angelus Prayer
December 20, 2009

Drama.

What better word to describe the human experience. It seems life mostly hinges on a continuum of played out events, some scripted, but for the most part life leans towards improvisation, adaptation, and a few surrenders. It seems difficult to understand the design of the Creator at times. The natural law indelibly written onto the heart of every human being gets consistently challenged by the evil one who simply takes the virtues and distorts them just enough to seem alluring.

The result is drama.

Some say that drama is the spice of life, but they presume that the opposite of drama is boredom. More than anything, humanity wants to exist with as little tribulation as possible; however, drama gets in the way. And one drama leads to another and to another. The drama of covetousness leads to the drama of infidelity. In point of fact, each of the Ten Commandments deals with a specific drama.

Christ came to provide the antidote to the poison of drama that was released in Eden and has been transmitted to every human being from that moment forward save Blessed Mother. When the Christian celebrates Christmas, the joy to world that gets loudly proclaimed is that the savior has come; the one who can provide the true opposite to the devil's perversion. Christmas celebrates the true coming of peace.

God Incarnate seeks the marriage with His bride the Church. Despite the drama man entertains, He, that is to say, Christ, remains ever faithful, ever true, ever peaceful. CK Chesterton wrote in his book, Day by Day, of the lack of drama in a truly happy marriage. Read this passage and envision Christ as the groom and oneself as the sensible wife.

A happy love-affair will make a drama simply because it is dramatic; it depends on an ultimate yes or no. But a happy marriage is not dramatic; perhaps it would be less happy if it were. The essence of a romantic heroine is that she asks herself an intense question; but the essence of a sensible wife is that she is much too sensible to ask herself any questions at all. All the things that make monogamy a success are in their nature undramatic things, the silent growth of an instinctive confidence, the common wounds and victories, the accumulation of customs, the rich maturing of old jokes. Sane marriage is an untheatrical thing; it is therefore not surprising that most modern dramatists have devoted themselves to insane marriage.

How sane is one's relationship with Christ? As Christmas approaches it's a good question to ponder. For if one finds that there is high drama this time of the year; if the shopping outweighs the magnitude of the reality that God physically entered into the human experience, then perhaps it is time to reexamine the meaning of the season.

Perhaps the reason that the nativity creche displayed in the public square remains so offensive to some Americans is that it does not depict a drama, but rather it symbolizes the peace they desire yet their hearts are ever closed to receive it. In dramatic fashion they expel this image of tranquility, jealous of the comfort it may bring to others.

To all believers, this author wishes a very Merry Christmas. To all non-believers, peace be with you.

A Marvelous Thing

2009-11-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

First a little family history...

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers... and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Matthew (RSV) 1:1-2,16

For the sake of brevity and readability, the middle section of this list of generations was omitted. Turn one's focus to the last line and zero in on Joseph the husband of Mary. At first glance it appears very ordinary and matter of fact. All know that Joseph was indeed the husband of Mary. Today, if one were to get introduced as the husband of one's spouse, it would hardly register as anything but normal.

Yet in St. Matthew's day, and for the audience whom he wrote for, the Hebrews, it would have been out of the ordinary to introduce a man as the husband of a woman. In fact a read of the entire genealogy from Matthew's gospel doesn't mention any of the wives. Mary is singled out, and for good reason.

To understand this a little better, it's necessary to examine the Latin translation of Matthew 1:16 with an emphasis on the words in bold below:

Iacob autem genuit Ioseph virum Mariae, de qua natus est Iesus, qui vocatur Christus.

(Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.)

Beginning the with the word genuit which is actually a verb meaning to beget or to bring forth. In the modern English translation this verb gets changed into the noun, father, though the Douay-Rheims holds true to the verb and uses the word begot here. It's important because each in this line of succession did something active to create the next person in line until that line gets to Joseph. Suddenly there is a shift here for Joseph did not beget Christ yet his importance in the matter is not lost.

Virum is a Latin word for husband; however, it is also the word for hero, person of courage, honor and nobility. Joseph is the hero of Mary. Were he "just a husband," the Latin word used here might have been conjugis or conubium, which simply translate to spouse or partner. Yet throughout scripture, when the husband is spoken of, it is a title of honor. The virum has duties, responsibilities, and a distinct role in the family and society.

This notion may prove a bit difficult for modern western culture where men have been largely emasculated under the guise of equality for women. In point of fact, a study published by the University of Sheffield in England revealed that women on birth control pills are more attracted to effeminate men. They in essence begin to want a male version of themselves. A cursory look at the pop stars of today reveals a decidedly androgynous bent in preference by the younger set, most of whom are on the pill. Bogart, Brando, and Gable wouldn't get very far with today's "modern" woman.

Yet the Hebrews of St. Matthew's day would have understood perfectly what it meant that Joseph was the virum of Mary. He was her protector; her champion; the leader of the family. That he had this position for the mother of Christ placed him in a status of high esteem and importance. He was much more than just a stepfather or ancillary character of the nativity story.

Finally there is this interesting word, natus. This word literally means to be produced spontaneously; to come into existence; to spring forth, grow and live. Mary, full of grace, was the chosen one to be the conduit for God incarnate, the Christ, to come into human history. How logical and appropriate that hers is the last human being's name mentioned in this line of succession detailed in Matthew's gospel. The last is first, indeed.

And do not consider this genealogy a small thing to hear: for truly it is a marvelous thing that God should descend to be born of a woman, and to have as His ancestors David and Abraham.

St. John Chrysostom

Three Questions

2009-10-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

St. Thomas Aquinas

What does one believe?

In AD 321, St. Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, convoked the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church to formulate a response to the heresy of Arius, who was attracting a significant following by stating that while Jesus was a nice guy, he was not equal to the God the Father, and thus not worthy of equal respect. In Arian view, Christ was created out of nothing to serve a specific purpose at a specific time. For the man in the street, that proved a far more understandable explanation of the mystery of Christ than the less comprehensible notion of a triune god.

The Nicene Creed was the document that came out of this council at it stands today as the creed professed by Catholic rites and a good many Protestant ecclesial communities. Christ is consubstantial with God and the Holy Spirit, that is to say, He is of one essence with them, or as the modern translation states, Christ is "one in being with the Father."

Take the time to reflect on each the of proclamations of the creed and honestly assess one's own belief. Try not to confuse belief with understanding for many things require looking through the eyes of faith. The creed stands as a pillar of what one ought to believe.

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What does one desire?

This is where the rubber meets the road. For while one may believe wholeheartedly in everything in the creed, one may still desire sin. St. Augustine once described the gates of hell as always being open. Souls in hell are free to leave. The true horror is that they never exercise that option. They prefer their misery.

That concept may seem hard to comprehend. How could anyone prefer such a total absence of God? Yet how often does one cling to a small set of particular sins. It's often the smaller venial sins that impede one's spiritual growth. One might not be addicted to pornography, but an occasional peek at impurity seems reasonable and forgivable. Does a little petty larceny make one a thief? And if one skips going to Sunday mass a few times a year, what's the harm?

All of these and a countless host of others indicate that one's desire is pointed at something other than God. Each of these desires serves as a brick in a wall between one and God. And this is not to pass judgment, but rather to point out the unfathomable need for the Savior.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God for those who trust in riches! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."

Mark 10:23-27

Take some time to honestly assess one's true desires. Where are they focused? Do they point to the here or the hereafter?

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What should one do?

With a belief in God and a desire for His salvation, what does one do about that? This is perhaps the juncture where Catholics and Protestants part ways. While Catholics and Protestants agree that one is saved by grace. It is the means of how that grace gets communicated that keeps apart the universal church that Christ so desired to be one.

The Catholic reads in scripture that faith and works are required by Christ. This so terribly often get misinterpreted to mean that Catholics believe they have to do good works to earn God's favor and thus earn their salvation. Not so. Man merits zilch on his own.

Works are viewed more accurately as obedience to Christ and His Gospel. Works are how we follow the example and the command given by Christ. Reflect upon this beautiful passage:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 5:7-10

What a tragic disservice Martin Luther committed when he added the words "alone" and "only" as he addressed the issue of faith in his German translation of St. Paul's letters. There really is no other way to present it. Luther added text to change the meaning of sacred scripture. He had to in order make his theology work along with eliminating books from the bible that potentially contradicted his teachings.

As scripture states, Christ is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Obedience is not a passive thing. It requires work, submission, repentance, and often a genuine dying to self. That far transcends a simple profession of faith, thus the reason Catholics do not a agree with the Protestant assertion that man is saved by faith alone.

What is one's faith?
What is one's will?
What is one's course of action based on questions one and two?

Three simple questions to continuously ponder in one's journey to God.

Major Renovation

2009-09-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

The central idea is that of the renovation of man, now under the power of Satan and Death, which are undone in Christ, the risen Savior, who is "our true Life," and endows us with immortality. This is by virtue of His Divinity in union with His perfect Manhood. He is the only utterance of God the "unlying mouth by which the Father spake."

St. Athanasius
Doctor of the Church

Athanaisus, widely held as the father of orthodoxy, wrote the above in his discussion on the Council of Nicea and the common beliefs of the Apostolic church fathers. In three sentences he captures the answer to a most basic question that plagues the human heart on many occassion as one looks at the travails of one's life:

What's going on?

This early father of the Church, who lived in the mid 300s, basically describes the epic battle that ranges on Earth and has raged since the fall of man. For any battle to happen there has to be at least two opposing forces. It may seem obvious that the battle waged resides in the struggle between God and Satan, good versus evil, right? In point of fact, the real fray is between man and Satan.

The Devil could never defeat God. Satan and God are not of equal strength. God simply has infinitely more power than this fallen angel. And while the evil one may have created his own diametrically opposed position to his creator, the matter of ultimate good was never up for debate for The Almighty.

Man on the other hand is a different matter. The devil does have the power to tempt, lure, and suggest to man to use the gift of free will for an infinite number of permutations on what is "good" that pervert the true good of God's creation. He can't make one turn from God against one's own will, but he can propose a path, or perhaps better stated a wide avenue, that leads away from God.

Here's a little exercise to demonstrate the power of temptation. Don't click here unless you want to see an image of hell. Do click here if you want to see an image of good. By now you're at least a little bit curious as to what image of hell might be only a mouse click away. Why do you want to see hell? With that one has entered into the Devil's playground.

Satan's aim is not to win one's heart but rather to encourage one to lose one's way. He has no practical use for souls. Most likely his perverted joy is in the hunt versus the capture. No self-promotion gets used. Satan prefers that one not even believe he exists. In that respect, he has been very successful. For most, he is a mythological creation or simply a convenient literary device used in scripture. The idea that a being exists who simply wants one's destruction proves too improbable a concept for modern man's temporal reason.

Given that, it should come as no surprise the arrogance imbued in a report released by the London School of Economics (LSE) which boldly proclaims that contraception proves way cheaper than conventional green technologies in combating global warming. Were satirist Jonathan Swift alive, today, one might conclude that he had written a sequel to his famous A Modest Proposal where he suggested the Irish eat their babies to combat famine. The LSE proposes that the way to reduce carbon footprint is to, well, reduce the number of footprints that are allowed to exist, especially in that pesky third world where all those burdensome poor people live.

Stop creating souls.
Stop creating souls.
Stop creating souls.

The devil gently whispers that message continously into the psyche of the culture. Contraception, abortion, and even gay marriage to a large degree are centered around an anti-procreation mentality. Because this line of thought is so contrary to God's natural law, one has to seriously consider the diabolic origen of such thinking.

Praise be to God that He loves His children so much that He sent Christ to undo the damage and perform a rennovation of the soul of mankind. One simply has to open one's heart to the grace available from Jesus.

Consider that Satan rules the temporal world. All of this is his until the last day. His powers are limited. He cannot create, only distort that which God has already created. After one finishes this life, any distortion is gone and the fullness of truth is revealed. Yet one does not have to die to embrace that truth which one will enjoy for eternity. Christ came to show mankind that even in this mucked up world truth can overcome the evil one's deceptive ways. Christ is the light in the darkness.

The devil is a deconstructionist. Christ is the carpenter's son. He is the master renovator. Whose suggestions and propositions should one follow?

The Long Penance

2009-08-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

All I know about tomorrow is that God's providence will rise before the sun.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

On March 16, 1968, a second lieutenant, nicknamed Rusty because of his red hair, led his platoon into a remote Vietnamese village. At five feet, four inches in height, Rusty didn't have a towering presence over his troops. Many didn't like him. The young man was far from home, and his life had undergone dramatic change over the last few years. He was a high school dropout. Before he found himself in the jungles of Southeast Asia, he had worked a variety of odd jobs. Eventually Selective Service caught up with him and he was drafted as young men were during that era. Despite his poor academic record he managed to get into Officers Candidacy School and had been commissioned only one year earlier.

His Captain had ordered Rusty into the village code named "Pinkville" that was suspected to harbor Viet Cong terrorists. What happened next depends upon who one believes, but what is certain is that at the end of the day approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, had been murdered by American soldiers. Many of the victims had been sexually abused and mutilated.

This infamous sad chapter in American history is known as the My Lai Massacre (pronounced "me-lie"), and Rusty is Second Lieutenant William Calley, the only person ever convicted of murder in the incident. It's likely that Calley is telling the truth when he states that he just followed the orders of his commanding officer. The Army did as best it could to cover up the incident. Twenty-six soldiers were eventually charged. All were acquitted except for Calley. He was the sacrificial lamb.

Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor, but President Nixon commuted the sentence to house arrest. The public, weary from a seemingly never ending war, viewed Calley more as victim of the system than a war criminal, and Nixon needed a win with the American public. After three years, Calley won a writ of habeous corpus and was soon after released. He never spoke to the press about the incident. Never granted an interview.

Forty years later at the urging of a good friend who had spoken for months with him about the events at My Lai, William Calley made his public confession for the first time at Kiwanis Club meeting in Columbus Georgia.

There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry....If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess.

Some will say that William Calley got off easy. True, he did not pay much for his crime from a juridical point of view. Three and a half years of house arrest for killing 500 innocent lives hardly brings justice for the victims. Yet one has to wonder what it's like to live a life with the knowledge of having committed so great an evil. Does he still see the faces of his victims? Can he hear the cry of innocent blood as it calls out to God from the ground where it was spilled?

Christ in his mercy, forgives. Christ in his love, forgets. No transgression is too big for redemption. But God does not change reality. The lasting consequences of sin endure. Remorse becomes the sackcloth and ash that adorns the soul. Without the grace of Christ, its weight can be overwhelming.

Thankfully, not everyone has the burden of William Calley to carry throughout their lives. Yet everyone can point to an event or maybe a series of events in their lives where they injured another. This author certainly knows that he has hurt at one time or another the very people who love him the most. And while like Christ they can forgive...those injured do not forget. The pain, disappointment, and other consequences of so many foolish, selfish, and prideful choices endures, and with that the knowledge of being the cause of such feelings ever haunts the soul hopefully to serve as a reminder of that which should never be repeated and an inspiration to repair what can be fixed.

It's interesting how many of the saints as they move closer to Christ gain such clarity of truth that their joy is mixed with lamentations over the time when they weren't so close. St. Augustine perhaps expressed it best in this beautiful prayer:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

For Augustine, knowing he had offended Christ during his sinful life filled him with the deepest remorse and appreciation for the gift of grace. It is the knowledge one has of having wronged a loved one that creates a life of long penance. It's not that one lives in constant sorrow or dismisses the joy of life. The outward wearing of sackcloth and ash is a thing of the distant past. Rather, it is the simple realization that no matter how good and holy one becomes, the reality of the injury one was responsible for never truly departs one's conscience. Remorse is a terminal condition.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:5

The Devil lied to Adam and Eve for God did not know evil in the classical Hebrew sense in which this scripture was written. But Satan did tell the truth when he let them know that they would know evil. They experienced it first hand. All do. The penance of remorse for having offended Love should be embraced for it serves as proof positive that one remains closer to the Almighty and more distant to the evil one. Praise be to God that He loves his children and continuously calls to them so that they can know, really know that which is good.

The Would Be King

2009-07-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

"It's good to be the King."

Mel Brooks, playing King Louis XVI, delivered that line in the 1981 comedy film History of the World Part I . Kingship as displayed in the film was one of a court full of beautiful, buxom women, gluttonous amounts of food, tons of money, sex, and supreme power over everyone. It was a life of leisure and only the cares in one's mind mattered.

The lure of power, a kingship over people or even just an individual, has always been a powerful temptation for man. It may even be his greatest tempter. Satan snagged Adam and Eve with the promise that they would be like God. Given where they were and the state of communion these first parents shared with God, the devil had no choice but to go for the jugular if we wanted to tempt them. They were in want of nothing material. They had it all, already. Yet Lucifer was able to convince them without trying all that hard that their situation could be better still.

Satan played this card again with Christ when he tempted Him in the desert. He offered Our Lord a kingship over all the world. That the offer was made indicates the depths to which the devil had fallen. Such pure arrogance to have shamelessly tempted one's own creator in this way. One wonders if it was the last instance of hope the evil one ever experienced? For failing here all he could do was attempt to destroy the physical incarnation of The Christ. The Lord's will and spirit were now proven impenetrable.

Christ is the incarnation of God, and along with that He brings the most supreme evidence of the humility of this Loving Father. That God willed to walk with humanity should be enough. Why is one not completely blown away and thunder struck with awe by the historical fact that Jesus, son of God, dwelt among mankind? That alone should be enough for one to ponder what Our Father is all about. If Christ had not said anything; if he had not told the parables; if he had not performed the miracles; if he had not healed the sick or raised the dead; if had just simply appeared and man was somehow able to experience the grace of faith that Jesus of Nazareth was the incarnate God, would not humanity still be asking the question, "What does it mean?"

Yet just as it proved insufficient for Adam and Eve, so it goes for their ancestors. But unlike the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Christ can back up His words when He proposes that it can be better still. The devil offers sovereignty over all temporal things in exchange for subjecting oneself to the many pleasures of the world. Christ offers communion, true oneness with God, and He offers this not as an exchange of goods but as a covenant of love. The pleasures then become a blessing of the covenant, in many ways ancillary in nature, versus a means to an end.

One gets offered diabolic kingship every day. The Seven Deadly Sins (pride, envy, gluttony, lust anger, greed, and sloth) are a good starting point to see when one has been invited to such a coronation. Some days, most days perhaps, one will say yes to the offer to be king even if it's in a little way. Often times one is king for a day or even a moment. Is one lustful or prideful or envious all of the time? Likely not.

The things that we love tell us what we are

St. Thomas Aquinas

What does one love? The answer to that question probably indicates what kind of king or servant one has become. The more one loves those things that are of God, the less of a king one soon realizes one has become.

The devil is, if nothing else, persistent. He continuously offers the blessings of God as the ultimate destination. It remains a subtle disordination of the gifts God bestows to humanity, and when one is tempted to be a would be king of this sort, Our Savior gives the best response.

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

John 6:15

They mystery of why God allows temptation to exist may very well be that it provides one the opportunity to move closer to Him. For temptation is simply a choice offered, and if one chooses The Almighty more often than not, then one quickly sees the folly of Mel Brooks' character. It's not good to be the king, rather as St. Paul might have said,

"It's good to be the slave!"

A Walk in Integrity

2009-07-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

As these United States celebrate being two hundred and thirty three years young, today, Psalm 26 seems most appropriate to reflect upon.

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. For thy steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to thee. I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers; I hate the company of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence, and go about thy altar, O LORD, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all thy wondrous deeds. O LORD, I love the habitation of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwells. Sweep me not away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, men in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the LORD.

Imagine a painting of Uncle Sam kneeling before a cross and praying the above prayer. Set aside for a moment that politically correct police who would castigate anyone who would dare link America with God, and imagine in principle, a nation committed to the entreaties of the psalmist. It would be a nation that recognized that indeed it is one nation under God. It would be a nation whose leaders recognized their culpability not to just the electorate; not just to the Constitution; but most of all to the Almighty, and they would govern accordingly.

A theocracy is not what is being desired here. They rarely work as man's propensity for a lust for power tends to pervert the original design on which a theocratic government might be established. Just take a look at Afghanistan before the Taliban were thrown out of power. Instead, what if the government was conceived on a foundation of justice, true justice as in the cardinal virtue, for all? Oh, that's right, it was.

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity...

Indeed, integrity seems like such a rare commodity in American politics and leadership these days. The firm adherence to any position, especially a moral code, proves difficult when constituents demand governance by popularity versus prudence. And having demoted God to the realm of possibility versus absolute truth, the politician soon finds no integral ground in which to plant his flag. The shifting sands of relativism form an ever shifting, tenuous base.

How interesting that while America celebrates her Independence from England on July 4th, that word, independence, finds no home in sacred scripture. Not once in the Old or New Testament does the word appear. Yet integrity is found over twenty times.

A cursory reading of the Declaration of Independence reveals a document so full of integral proclamations that it very easily could have been called the Declaration of Integrity. It speaks of self evident truths and unalienable rights. God, the One God, figures prominently as the one who bestowed these gifts. In point of fact, He is mentioned in the first two sentences, and there is zero mention of a separation of Church and state.

Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity...

Today, a kind of thinking espoused by Oprah Winfrey has gained some popularity. It's called by many names, but basically it is a perverted form of Sufism, the Islamic mystical practice of drawing close to the Divine in order to purify oneself. Oprah and her cadre of New Age gurus she promotes takes it a step further and dismisses God as a being. Instead all are God and the struggle to discover one's self is far more important than the worship of a single entity.

Under Oprah, when one is with a Muslim, one becomes a Muslim. When one is with a Buddhist, one becomes a Buddhist. When one is with a Hindu, one becomes a Hindu. And when one is with a Christian, well, out of charity for the poor soul stuck in naivete, one becomes an evangelist for enlightened self-interest.

This is germane to this look at integrity as it highlights the challenge the country faces. Bereft of a core set of values given by a just God, on what ground does this nation stand? Without God as the light, the walk in the clearly defined path of integrity turns into a wandering in the wilderness.

God bless America. Please, God, bless America.

The Envy of the Devil

2009-06-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying. For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.

Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24

This week the world said goodbye to three icons from the Baby Boomer generation, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. How each is remembered hinges very much on one's age.

The younger set sees McMahon as Mr. Publisher's Clearing House, while those who grew up with the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson fondly recall McMahon as the consummate sidekick announcer. He was the best friend to Carson. A test pilot during WWII, McMahon graduated from Catholic University and remained a strong supporter of the institution for the rest of his life. While he had his weaknesses with regard to women, he lived a life as a generous spirit. Most remember him as everyone's friend.

Fawcett was the Marylin Monroe of the Boomer generation. Every red-blooded, American teenage male either had one of her famous pin-up posters in his bedroom or wished he had. She defined sex appeal for many; yet that objective image she created was also redeemed in her dying days. For the image that this author will remember of Ms. Fawcett in years to come will not be of her provocative poses in the 70s and 80s, but rather of her praying the rosary in her hospital bed. She was a woman of faith. She received the healing sacraments of reconciliation, anointing, and Eucharist the day before she passed, and one can presume she left this life in a state of grace.

Michael Jackson was a troubled soul. At the height of his career, no one had ever mastered the genre of song and dance he performed. It was beautiful. The very fame he earned in the end scourged him the latter half of his career. It may very well be the case that Christ is the only one who truly knew him; for the rest of the world only knew the child star; the king of pop; and in the end, the freakish sideshow tabloid fodder. Somewhere behind all of that there was a soul created by a loving God in desperate need of simple dignity.

The death of these three American icons, and now the news of the death of Billy Mays, that ubiquitous pitchman who shouted to the heavens like a carny, has many once again recognizing the fragility of life and that one's temporal existence is indeed bound by time and circumstance. Yet scripture gives us hope that while Satan introduced death to the world through his envy, Our Heavenly Father still has the last word.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1Corinthians 15:22-26

All are born into a beautiful world created by a loving God; however, it is a world at war; a place where good and evil are continuously in a pitched battle; a place where angels often intervene, and where demons do prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Christ offers a safe haven yet here exists the paradox that troubles one's intellect. For the closer one gets to Christ, the more apparent the evil of this world becomes. A view of humanity through the eyes of Christ reveals the magnitude of His ultimate sacrifice. One soon wants this world less and Heaven more.

A hundred years from now it's doubtful Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, or Michael Jackson will be remembered much. This is not to disparage their character, it's simply the reality of entertainment history. It's very short lived. Yet the reality of Christ will endure. If one is seeking to understand the meaning of the death of a celebrity, then one should turn one's focus away from the temporal lives of Hollywood and zero in on the eternal life Christ has to offer from the cross. His passion, death, and resurrection have withstood the test of time, indeed, it has transcended history itself.

No wonder the devil is so envious.

The Ultimate Body

2009-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen

St. Ignatius of Loyola has been widely credited for composing this beautiful prayer known as the Amani Christi or "Soul of Christ." As Catholics recently celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, perhaps a little reflection on the Body of Christ is in order, especially in a culture where the body gets ascribed so much value in some ways...and so very little in others.

Let the eyes rest upon the crucifix and behold the man, the divine man who was born to die for the purpose of one's salvation. His feet were once bathed in the tears of a sinner, but now they are affixed to a beam with a nail. A touch of his hand could heal the sick or drive out demons, but now they too are fastened to wood. His head was once anointed with expensive perfume, but now a crown of thorns bloody his scalp. His body is a mess. It has been spat upon, scourged, beaten, and pierced with a spear.

Body of Christ save me?

It proves hard to imagine, especially for the non-believer, that this crucified Christ could save anyone at this point. Look at Him. He is utterly destroyed hanging up there upon the cross. He could not help himself let alone bring salvation to humanity. And yet, that remains the immutable truth of exactly what He did. By dying He destroyed death itself.

This likely explains why He and his believers are so reviled in this culture of death. How could anyone who strives for a life of unrestricted freedom to do whatever one wants revere a symbol of complete constraint? The truth of the cross radiates the authentic freedom those who languish in a sea of relativism so desperately seek. Sadly, without faith, without grace, they would prefer to drown then embrace this life raft that stays ever within their reach throughout their lives.

Body of Christ save me!

It is the perfect prayer for this era.

A few weeks ago in Beaverton, Oregon a woman, eight months pregnant, had the misfortune of encountering a woman possessed by pure evil. This woman lured her victim into her home, then as near as authorities can tell, stabbed the pregnant woman and proceeded to cut the unborn child from her womb. The mother and child died. This murderer then hid the slain mother's body in the crawl space of her home and called 911 pretending that the dead baby was hers and that she had just given birth. It didn't take long for doctors to piece together the lie and the woman now faces charges for murdering the mother, but not the baby.

Oregon does not have a law that considers the unborn as having life protected by the criminal code of law. The State Senate tried to right this injustice, but the Democrats blocked a parliamentary procedure that would have brought the bill out committee and onto the Senate floor for debate. This happened not a long time ago, but rather, today, a few weeks after this ghastly murder. So far, no Democratic State Senator has stepped forward to explain their reasons, but one can surmise that pro-abortion lobbyists were hard at work in this state that is a bastion for the culture of death. Republicans, who are distinct minority have an uphill climb to bring Oregon in line with Federal Law and thirty-six other states which make it a crime to harm a fetus.

Body of Christ save me!

It's such an intimate entreaty. It's poignant. Genuine urgency accompanies this prayer. For faced with the reality of one's sinful nature ever seeking to make one's way to Our Lord through the muck of a fallen world that presents endless man-inspired remedies for that which ails one, and knowing through lived experience that those solutions proposed by man are in the end, charlatanism, a desperate plea to the Savior remains all that is left.

One cannot save oneself in this world. Heroic measures are needed. The body of Christ on the cross loudly trumpets one to be not afraid for the cavalry from Calvary is on the way. This army of one body, one spirit in Christ came to save not to condemn, and salvation remains available for all; for the rich whose wealth has distracted them away from God; to the homeless living on the margins of society; to the lukewarm who dabble but fail to commit to Christ; to the mother and child murdered in Beaverton; and, yes, even to their murderer. All are invited. Mourn for those who refuse to accept.

Rest one's eyes upon the crucifix and weep tears of humble joy. Marvel in the irony that the ultimate beauty of the human experience is not found in the body of a super model or an Adonis, but rather in the divine body whose beauty was despoiled by the sins of man. What should have been an ugly event at Golgotha turned into a glorious eternity for all of humanity.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

American Idle

2009-06-06T05:41:00.001-07:00

Stage plays also captivated me, with their sights full of the images of my own miseries: fuel for my own fire. Now, why does a man like to be made sad by viewing doleful and tragic scenes, which he himself could not by any means endure? Yet, as a spectator, he wishes to experience from them a sense of grief, and in this very sense of grief his pleasure consists. What is this but wretched madness? For a man is more affected by these actions the more he is spuriously involved in these affections. Now, if he should suffer them in his own person, it is the custom to call this “misery.” But when he suffers with another, then it is called “compassion.” But what kind of compassion is it that arises from viewing fictitious and unreal sufferings? The spectator is not expected to aid the sufferer but merely to grieve for him. And the more he grieves the more he applauds the actor of these fictions.

The Confessions of St. Augustine
Book Three

The above passage is worth repeated reading. Read it again then read it a third time.

Back in AD 397 when Augustine wrote this there was, of course, no television or Internet. People entertained themselves with plays. Towns of any size usually had at least one amphitheater. Some of those better productions became the classics man celebrates, but there were no doubt thousands of other plays that simply came and went without ever gaining an audience much like a bad TV sitcom, today.

Going to watch these plays was a daily habit for many. It was an escape from the routine of life, but apparently even in Augustine's day, people invested great energy and emotion into the doings of these fictional characters. Who can say what the ancient version of Melrose Place or CSI might have looked like, but the fact that drama was important seems pretty clear.

Not much has changed today other than the amount of time Americans spend engrossing themselves as a spectator of life. According to the Nielson Company, the folks that do television ratings, the average American spends 161 hours per month watching TV. Considering that there are 720 hours in a 30-day month, that means that Americans are spending over one fifth of their time watching the tube. Put another way, divide 161 by 24. In any given month Americans spend nearly 7, full, 24-hour days watching televison.

Of course, television isn't the only spectator sport. According to Nielson, Americans are averaging an additional 36 hours a month surfing the Internet. It begs the question, what are they looking for? Entertainment? Escape? Connection? Guidance?

Even the so called "reality shows" are largely fiction. Jon and Kate Plus 8 is not real life though America is terribly interested in this couple. Notice how the children have become merely commodities of the story.

It's not that television or the Internet are intrinsically evil. In reality, both are morally neutral; however, the use of these mediums needs examination. For excessive use of any substance often indicates a need to fill a void. So what is lacking in the American experience that requires such a heavy dependence upon spending so much time watching and even caring about the lives of fictional characters? And if so much energy has been invested in this pursuit, at what point does the line between truth and fiction become indistinguishable?

Consider that in St. Augustine's day, a man was valued more by his ability to evoke emotion versus his ability to communicate the truth. Rhetoric was considered a high art. Is that any less true today? Case in point, is there not a tangible, scripted quality surrounding the Obama presidency to the point that even the news media finds it hard to deviate from the fairy tale it helped to spin during the election? The result is a country now led by a phantasm versus a president.

"Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going."
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.

John 14:1-6

This expenditure of time so many exhaust in front of the television; this form of devotion that might best be described as "idle worshiping"; in reality may be a search for Heaven. The void that America searches for, that all of humanity seeks, is an authentic encounter with the truth. This truth is not a fictional story, but the ultimate reality in the form of a divine person, Jesus Christ.

If upon reflection one comes to realize that one knows better the story of this year's American Idol than the Gospel of Christ, perhaps it's time to turn off the TV and pick up a Good Book.

Living History

2009-05-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed... And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

St. Augustine

Sometime in the late 200s early 300s an Egyptian priest from Alexandria named Arius put forward the heresy that Christ, while a good man and a great teacher, was no more divine than any other man. The Trinity did not exist as there was only one God in one distinct person. This line of thought picked up some traction and was later called Arianism.

In one sense, the existence of this heresy serves as proof of a much larger and significant historical event. It seems that whenever something rises to the level of fantastic a movement of one form or another emerges to try to lesson its grandeur. Case in point, when man landed on the moon, soon after a conspiracy theory began to circulate that the event didn't really happen and that NASA had actually used a Hollywood sound stage to fabricate those now famous scenes of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface. The theory even inspired a movie starring Elliot Gould and O.J. Simpson called Capricorn One.

More recently, one need only do a casual search of the Internet to find a following for the idea that the World Trade Center Twin Towers were actually taken down by a controlled demolition orchestrated by President George Bush versus the actual terrorist of 9/11. These theorists ignore the harsh realities of physics, architecture, and geopolitics in favor of attaching this great evil to a president whom they hated.

Something extraordinary happened a couple of hundred years before Arius' day that continued to reverberate through the culture then and still gets felt today with perhaps equal fervor some two thousand years later. It was so incredible that many must have had a difficult time getting their minds around it. Returning to 9/11, remember those first few hours, even days, after it happened how difficult it was to come to terms with the enormity of it all? On an equal if not greater scale, many of the ancients were grappling with a reality that must have seemed impossible to imagine.

For what Arius could never come to understand, and what many, today, find too incredible to be true, was the historical fact that God manifested Himself on Earth as a human being; that He allowed Himself to be tortured and executed; that He died, and that He rose from the dead.

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

St. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter in about A.D. 61. He was in Rome and in Emperor Nero's prison, which meant he knew that his execution was very likely. Yet the reality that the true nature of Jesus Christ was a divine person; that the Word which he so vigorously defended had indeed become flesh; and that God had definitively proven His love for His creation was so real that Paul could not help but continue to proclaim the Gospel even when his own death was not far away.

It's far easier not to believe that this event of God becoming man ever happened for if one accepts this truth at face value then one's life suddenly falls under a more intense self examination. First of all there's the confirmation that God exists. Second, if God came to man, human in appearance, He must have had something very important in mind. Suddenly this God is no longer a distant being in the cosmos with little interest in the day to day doings of man, but He is a "hands-on" kind of God. Third, this human manifestation of God had a consistent message of love and its practice which may very well run counter to one's current, modern-day interpretation.

To accept this truth means conversion. It means a change in lifestyle. It means living counter to the culture. For many, that's too big of a leap to make. It's easier and more comfortable to keep The Christ in the realm of possibility, myth, or theory.

For if one believes in Christ from a true historical perspective, then one has no choice but to follow the historical trail of what happened after His assumption into Heaven. And that trail undeniably leads directly to the Apostles and the Catholic Church. Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom to Peter, who passed them on to Linus, then to Anacletus, then to Clement I, then to Evaristus, and so on until one arrives to Pope Benedict XVI, the 266th keeper of these keys. Of course these are not actual, physical keys, but rather the Pope is the shepherd of the simple truth which Paul so eloquently proclaimed in his letter mentioned above.

So while Dan Brown, Tom Hanks and Opie will make their millions spreading lies about Catholicism; while Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden practice their own cafeteria style of faith; the truth does not change. The reality of Jesus remains ever constant.

And if one discovers that one simply cannot handle the truth right now, take heart in the reality that this Jesus of Nazareth; this God made man, is a patient, loving, and merciful Father. Keep searching for Him with a contrite heart, and He will reveal to one His undeniable existence and infinite love. For the Savior exists not simply in yesterday, but today, and forever.

Amas Me?

2009-04-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

John 21:15-17

During the early stages of any romantic relationship, there usually exists a period of time where the issue of love gets heavily discerned. There comes a point where one finally lets one's guard down to profess to the other, "I love you." It's a risky and profound proclamation for if one does not receive in return an "I love you, too," the entire relationship can get thrown into question.

How interesting that in all of scripture, there is only one instance where this intimate use of the expression "I love you" gets used. And it happens between Christ and the rock upon which he would build His church, Simon, son of John. Unfortunately, the nuance of this exchange gets a bit watered down in the English translation so a look at the Latin is in order.

To give this some context, those who are familiar with Spanish know the way one says "I love you" in that language is te amo. It's a very strong and passionate expression usually reserved for couples in love. By contrast, if one were tell one's mother that he loves her, he would likely use the expression te quiero. It's still a term of endearment, but without the connotation of romantic love.

In Latin, to say I love you as those in love would do one would say amo te. This is exactly what Peter answered to Christ as recorded in the Latin Vulgate each time Jesus asked the question, Simon son of John do you love me? However, the first two times Jesus asked this question of Peter, he used a different form the word love. Instead of amo, Christ uses the phrase diligis me?, which would be more of a friend asking another friend of his esteem for him. It's much milder than amo.

Notice that the first time Jesus asks Peter of his love for him He asks, do you love me more than these? In essence Christ is asking Peter if he holds him in higher regard than the disciples who happen to be sitting around the campfire eating breakfast. In simplest terms, He might have very easily asked Peter, "Am I your bestfriend?" Peter's feelings for Jesus were far deeper than just loving a friend. He was ready to really give his all to Christ, his entire being, only now he possessed the fortitude he lacked in the courtyard of the temple where he denied Jesus three times.

Knowing that Christ knew of his love for Him, it must have been difficult for Peter to hear Jesus ask him this question in this way. And when he answers Jesus with the adoration of amo te, Christ doesn't say, "I love you, too," but instead asks him a second time with the less ardent, diligis me? Our Lord could have easily asked him, "do you love me like you love your brother, Andrew?" Knowing Peter's impetuous nature, one can easily imagine this simple fisherman near tears and full of passion when he answers the Savior's question with amo te.

And then, Jesus asks the question Peter longs to hear and yet that question grieves him deeply.

Amas me?

Christ is not asking Peter if he loves Him in the fraternal vein anymore, but rather there has been a shift in the conversation. Now He asks in the deeper and more intimate way. Why would this cause Peter so much sadness? Should it not have brought him joy that at last Jesus was connecting with him on the same level in this matter of love?

Perhaps the question brought home to Peter the horror of what he did when he denied Christ at the temple. If Christ had asked him before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsamane, "do you love me?" most certainly Peter would have answered with amo te. His love didn't change. But instead of his heart being governed by fear as it was on Good Friday, now it was infused with grace, and that gift just might have allowed him to realize the full gravity of his offense. Any spouse who has ever severely wounded the feelings of his or her mate due to selfishness gains empathy for what Peter must have felt.

Jesus gave Peter absolution. After this famous exchange His command to Peter was simple, "Follow me." It was a command directed not just to Peter but to all of humanity. For the fact remains that wherever and in whomever one finds Christ, His question to one is not diligis me? Jesus calls for a greater commitment. Pray for the grace to hear the Our Lord asking His bride,

Amas me?

Why is This Night Different?

2009-04-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

"When your son asks you in time to come, `What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the LORD our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, `We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes; and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swore to give to our fathers.

Deuteronomy 6: 20-23

This week, God's chosen people celebrate the beautiful festival of Pesach, one of the Shalosh R'galim, and commonly referred to as the Passover. While the festival celebrates the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, its primary importance serves to bring forward the event of the Jews exodus from Egypt. During the Sedar meal, the youngest child sitting at the supper table will recite from the Haggadah a simple question,

Why is this night different from all other nights?

It's a good question for Christians to ponder entering into the Easter Triduum. For Christ, who entered into a Jerusalem as hero this last Palm Sunday now enters into His final hours of his encounter with humanity as one of them. The word made flesh that dwelt among us now gets to experience the utter cruelty of Adam's descendants. Yet before He consummates this relationship with man by a horrific death on the cross, he gives mankind the most extraordinary gift, his very body, blood, soul, and divinity. He gives humanity the Eucharist.

And while such a gift came into the world in a vessel full of grace, Mary, Christ does the most humble of things and entrusts the perpetuation of the gift into the hands of sinners. Peter, mere hours after having received communion for the first time at the Last Supper and even a shorter amount of time after witnessing Christ heal Malchus whose ear he had lopped off in the Garden of Gethsemane; the man whom Christ gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, denies Our Lord.

And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 26:75

How many of times does one weep bitterly over denying Our Lord? How often does one experience such profound sorrow for having offended God, not because one fears for the salvation of one's soul, but rather out of having disappointed a loved one so deeply? Does one bring a laundry list of sins into the confessional that get efficiently rattled off to the priest behind the screen, or does one bring one's wounded and sorrowful heart to Jesus for healing?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

The genius of God so often gets discovered in His use of opposites. For while Pesach celebrates the night God so intimately communes with the Jews in exile in Egypt, Good Friday reminds Christians of the day the incarnate God, Jesus, died for all of humanity. While every other night of the year, Christ in the Eucharist is found in the Church, on Good Friday the tabernacle is empty, the adoration chapel is closed. This night is different because Our Lord is not there.

For the believer, there exists a genuine sense of loss on this day. There remains a bit of sadness. True, Christ chose to die to redeem humanity. He didn't have to. God could have simply snapped His fingers and accomplished the goal. The goodness of this Friday perhaps lies in the realization of a Heavenly Father willing to humble himself to the point of death on the cross. That is not only good. It's beautiful.

Take some time Good Friday to realize the gift that has been given...the price that has been paid. And if one examines one's interior and discovers that one truly is not worthy of such profound love as demonstrated by Christ, do not distress, but rather rejoice. Christ was born to die for one's imperfections. Strive to repent out of love for His perfect act of love and know that His grace and mercy is ever true.

Beyond Synthesis

2009-03-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Much ado has been rightfully made of the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to act as commencement speaker for this year's graduation. Because this university has served as an icon in America symbolizing the best in Catholic education, it seems very much out of sorts for it to now invite the man who is leading the charge in the unfettered killing of the citizens he purports to lead at a rate of over a million per year.

On the other hand, Notre Dame has long since fallen victim to the phenomenon of symbolism over substance. The university actively supports the gay and lesbian lifestyle, and recent polling data shows its student body supported Mr. Obama in the election by a majority and that abortion was not an issue for them. So the fact the Mr. Obama will soon appear in the midst of this fallen institution perhaps waxes more emblematic of cultural Catholicism in America, today.

And while the University's president, Reverend John Jenkins, has stated that the university does not support Mr. Obama's views, his profession that it's important to "engage in conversation" seems terribly weak. What conversation needs to be had? Abortion is murder. That's an absolute, and the good Reverend Jenkins knows this. All the conversation in the world will not change that fact any more than conversation will alter the course of the sun. How dreadfully insincere to position this as an act of reaching out to form or reform Mr. Obama's conscience.

Perhaps Notre Dame should pay all due respect to the President of the United States. In fact, given Obama's messianic allure, including to many Catholics, perhaps instead of using the introduction of, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States," Reverend Jenkins should open his scripture and proclaim from John's Gospel the words of Pontius Pilate, "Ecce Homo!" or "Behold the man!" With that, the affront to Christ's church in this sad situation would be complete.

Seen in Notre Dame's decision to engage Mr. Obama is the perpetuation of the philosophy that originated in Germany in the late 1700s and remains popular in academia. A triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis became an accepted way of coming to discover the relative truth in just about any philosophical debate. One would propose a thesis; another would propose an opposing view called the antithesis; and blending the two opposing views one would arrive at a synthesis, which very well could turn into another thesis, antithesis, synthesis...and so it goes.

The problem with that line of thinking rests in the fact that it completely falls apart when dealing with absolutes; yet man persists to varying degrees to pursue this method of understanding his world. So God, who is absolute, gets pitted against an array of antithesis which cannot ever be equal to the Almighty in the first place, and the synthesis which emerges always falls short of the truth. After centuries of this kind of flawed thinking, man now finds himself in a world of abject relativism.

"Quid est varitas? What is truth?"

Perhaps this question asked to Christ by Pilate is the question Notre Dame students, faculty, and administration should be asking themselves. For in the face of moral absolutes, opposing opinion brings only obtuse intellectualism.

If Reverend Jenkins truly wants to engage President Obama, would it not be more loving and pastoral to do be a doer of the word and deny Mr. Obama the honor attributed to the respected commencement duty and Honorary Law Degree the Reverend proposes to install upon The President, and instead take him into his office and minister to him?

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Matthew 18: 15-17

Notre Dame has chosen to allow the unrepentant tax collector to address her students. How ironic that such an institution whose motto is Vita, Dulcedo, Spes (Life, Sweetness, Hope) has entrusted a leader to address her graduating class of 2009 whose policies find no sanctity in human life, no sweetness in the miracle of creation, and no hope for the unborn should they be conceived in less than subjective ideal conditions.

Our Lady (Notre Dame) of the Americas...Pray for us.

Act of Oblation to God's Merciful Love

2009-03-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

That my life may be one act of perfect love, I offer myself in total surrender to your Merciful Love, humbly imploring you to consume me unceasingly, and to allow floods of infinite tenderness gathered up in you to overflow into my soul, that so I may become a martyr of your love.

O my God, may this martyrdom one day release me from my earthly prison, and after having prepared me to appear before you, may my soul take its flight without delay into the eternal embrace of your Merciful Love.

O my Beloved, I desire at every beat of my heart, to renew this oblation an infinite number of times, till the shadows fade away, and for all eternity, I can tell you of my love face to face.

Amen.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus

How often does one take the time to sit down and write a love letter to Christ? St. Thérèse de Lisieux wrote the above on the eve of her entering into the Carmelite order. This Lent, take the time to write one's own letter of affection to Christ.

Citizens of Heaven

2009-03-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:23-24

God's supreme act of mercy with Adam and Eve often gets missed in the sad reality of man getting the boot from Eden. It sometimes proves difficult to realize that getting cast out of the abode of the Blessed was really the kindest thing. Imagine living with the knowledge of good and evil, not for just a lifetime of say eighty to a hundred years, but instead, forever. Ponder a life lived, eternally, in an existence where the works of the flesh are the alpha and the omega.

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

A gander at the morning paper finds plenty of stories where any of the above has led to news fit to print. Is it any wonder that suicide rates in America are on the increase, especially in middle-aged people? Yes, the Baby Boom generation that shed God in exchange for a fuller communion with the fallen world has discovered that it turned out to be a bad deal, and sadly many having lost all hope are offing themselves.

Consider this excerpt from a study co-authored by Susan P Baker MPH; released in October of 2008; and conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Injury Research and Policy.

The reasons for the increase in the suicide rate are not fully understood. "While it would be straightforward to attribute the results to a rise in so-called mid-life crises, recent studies find that middle age is mostly a time of relative security and emotional well being," said Baker. "Further research is warranted to explore societal changes that may be disproportionably affecting the middle-aged in this country."

Not sure disproportionably is a word, but setting the grammar aside, perhaps the scientific community should take a serious look at the simple loss of faith in America as a root cause to this loss of hope which leads to the ultimate fatal solution. For many, perhaps most, a higher dose of Cymbalta could be replaced with a lower dose of faith. Science spends its days trying to make living in the fallen world more pallatable and peaceful. It will never succeed.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:22-24

Despite man's exile on Earth, he is a citizen of Heaven. And while he soujourns here he can take the attitude of "when in Rome do as the Romans do." God gave him free will to do so. Yet, he can also choose to act as an expatriot of the his state of origin, Paradise. He can set aside his knowledge of evil and instead choose to share his knowledge of good with those seeking home, even if they don't realize they are lost. For all are invited to be members of a Trinitarian communion of love offered freely by a loving Father.

While the Seraphim guards the East entrance to Paradise with flaming sword, are there not three other directions one can approach Heaven? Not North, South and West...but rather Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? God so loved the world that he planted a new tree of life upon the fallen Earth, and He adorned it with His only son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, arms stretched out to welcome all who want to partake of its fruit.

Driven by the Spirit

2009-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.

Mark 1:12-13

St. Mark uses a very active verb to describe what happened to Christ after his baptism in the Jordan. While Matthew and Luke describe Jesus as being led into the wilderness, Mark states "The Spirit immediately drove Him," almost as if Christ went against His will. This was certainly not the case as Jesus always maintained his free will.

A little investigation reveals that the Latin Vulgate uses the verb expellit which subsequently was translated into drove. This particular use of this verb is found only two other times in sacred scripture; both times in the Book of Sirach:

timor Dei expellit peccatum - the fear of the Lord drives out sin - Sirach 1:27
illius quoniam expellit a se timorem Dei - for such a man's fear driveth him from the fear of God - Sirach 23:27

When scripture talks about the fear of God, it refers to a profound reverence, respect, and love for God vesus anything to do with fright. So perhaps the gospel writer wanted to show that Christ went to the wilderness out of His own love for His father. Having been baptised to fulfill the law, suddenly the Trinity manifests itself to the temporal world in the form of God the Father heard as a voice from the Heavens; God the Son present in the flesh standing in the Jordan River; and God the Holy Spirit descending upon the Son like a dove.

It's tempting to visualize Christ wandering in the desert like some kind of ancient version of the television show, Survivor Man, dodging the lions and tigers and bears, oh my, while angels helped him along the way. Of key importance is the fact that scripture denotes that He spent forty days in the wilderness, the number forty nearly always referring to preparation of a much larger event, which in this case, was indeed the most important event in human history. It seems a bit out of sorts to imagine part of that preparation required a physical endurance test.

Consider this. Christ, the New Adam, was driven by the Spirit away from humanity to commune with God in direct opposite of the old Adam who was driven out of Eden to live outside of that communion. Notice that Christ is described as living with the wild beasts and ministered to by angels. Surely these wild beasts posed no threat to their creator. Does it not make more sense that Christ lived in harmony with God's creation? Was this a return to Eden to prepare for man's redemption?

And just as Adam and Eve were tempted in Eden, this new Adam also gets approached by Satan. Jesus must have presented a most irresistible target for the devil. The only way he could top his evil of turning God's very good creation of man would be to cause the fall of God's divine incarnation. That would have been the crème de la crème. It was not to be. Christ demonstrates how powerless the devil is against the truth, and after Satan's attempt to lure Christ by a crafty interpretation of scripture, the Word that became flesh summarily dismisses him, Vade Satanas - Begone Satan!

Lent presents a time when Christians are called to imitate Christ and the forty days He spent in the wilderness. Allow the Spirit to drive one away from one's fallen nature to a place where one resides in communion with the Trinity. During this time one should let go of reliance upon self and be open to the ministry of angels. Pray, fast, and perhaps be an angel to the poor through alms giving.

Christ emerged from the wilderness and began His ministry. Let all use this time leading up to Easter to be driven by the Spirit to recharge, restore, and renew so one can better serve Our Lord and his children.

Opting In

2009-02-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Faith needs a generous and vigorous soul, and one rising above all things of sense, and passing beyond the weakness of human reasonings. For it is not possible to become a believer, otherwise than by raising one’s self above the common customs of the world.

St. John Chrysostom
Homily XXII

No one cares to spend much time with the notion that one's own reasoning might possess weakness. To do so leaves one vulnerable as a cursory examination of self reveals that, yes, indeed one does not know all the answers and that a good many beliefs might find their basis in mere feelings. Salesmen, the good ones, make their living subtly playing to the feelings of their customers who then reason within themselves to make an otherwise unnecessary purchase.

Today's financial mess has its roots firmly set in the exploitation of feelings. The American dream of home ownership was presented as attainable to those who previously had been excluded for what turned out to be some very good reasons. Statistics had proven that a certain profile of borrower was risky. Legislators may have reasoned that if they forced the banks to offer more loans to this group, then the mean old underwriter's and loan officer's cold, hard-hearted criteria would be proved wrong. Weak reasoning indeed as history and current day events have demonstrated.

Yet let not all the blame fall to the bankers. Consumers engaged in a catastrophic lack of prudence. Their decision to dive into interest only loans and other like products was wanting in strong reasoning. The feeling of grasping a higher rung on the success ladder as defined by this capitalistic culture was too good to pass up. Never mind that home values have never appreciated at the pace of a hot IPO stock.

President Obama's Keynesian strategy to spend his way out of recession likely will fail for the simple reason that it does nothing to address the weakness of human reasoning that brought the country to this point in history in the first place. Given the absence of faith in his life, it may actually be impossible for him to see that. And while there are those who posit a broader conspiracy to socialize the nation, and therin lies the duplicitous goal of the Obama recovery plan, the hard reality exists that the United States of America has been enslaved for a good many years as she has turned her back on the authentic freedom of God and embraced the license of humanism.

And yet a way out of this economic morass does exist. As weak and limiting as human reason must be, does it not stand to reason that continuing in the common customs of the day can only bring more of the same? What if one were to rise above it? Instead of taking one's cues from the culture what if one simply took God at His word?

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Matthew 6:19-20

Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

Matthew 19:21-22

The President, the bankers, the media all try to convince the population at large that the treasure resides in the material possession of the house, the car, the image. Yet God's message clearly indicates that what is of most value is not the debt that is paid to Citi, Bank of America, or any number of lendors who now find themselves on the brink of collapse. Rather, the most prized treasure is the debt that has been already paid for by the incarnate sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ and one's response to that gift.

The fact of the matter remains that America and nearly all of the world needs not a bail out but an opting in. That "in" is no less than the faith in the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There one finds far more than the American dream. There one encounters the Almighty's reality, which has infinite, glorious appreciation.

Keeping HIS Word

2009-02-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

Our own curiosity often hindereth us in reading of the Scriptures, when we desire to understand and discuss that which we should rather without more ado pass over. If thou desire to reap profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faithfulness; nor ever desire the reputation of learning. Enquire willingly, and hear with silence the words of holy men: let not the proverbs of the elders displease thee, for they are not recounted without cause.

Thomas A. Kempis
The Imitation of Christ

An incredible event happens every hour of every day inside a Catholic Church somewhere in the world. At mass, the word of God gets proclaimed. Even as one reads this sentence, somewhere in the world God's words are exhalted in the celebration of the sacred mysteries.

Is it not incredible that God has given humanity His word to encounter? And yet most people put more stock in the dimestore philosophy displayed on a Starbucks coffee cup than in sacred scripture. The Bible seems to reside in the category of something one should have, but to actually read it requires a bit more commitment than most are willing to afford.

What is more important than the word of God?

Interestingly enough, over the centuries 6.7 billion copies of the Bible have been produced. Right now there are about 6.7 billion people on planet Earth. A very distant second is Quotations from Chairman Mao written by Mao Tse-Tung. There are 900 million copies of that book which is to serve the 1.3 billion Chinese. And while 1.5 billion people practice Islam, only 800 million copies of The Qur’an exist.

For Western culture, which tends to put all of its eggs in the basket of empirical science, scripture presents a challenge. To accept anything on faith alone bucks the message from the culture that every truth has a corresponding proof. Many take the position of needing so much evidence that the Bible is the word of God. For many it's a passive denial. Case in point, how many Christian homes does one walk into where a copy of the Bible is kept in some place of honor? Sadly, too few. Mostly one finds it on a bookshelf equal in status to Harry Potter or perhaps Websters Dictionary if one organizes one's books by fiction versus non-fiction.

Yet if one believes in The Almighty, how can one not be in awe that this loving God chose to communicate with His creation in a way that could be read or heard? And that being the case, should not His sacred scripture be honored and reverenced even if one does not gain full understanding of His word? Perhaps if one approached scripture more as a great work of art versus a John Grisham novel, then one would be more inclined to accept the elements beyond one's current day comprehension. For scripture speaks a language that is best understood with the heart and its infinite capacity for love versus the finite limitations of human intellect.

When the lector finishes his reading at mass and proclaims to the congregation, "The word of The Lord," what does that mean? If one is offering a perfunctory, monotone mumbling of "Thanks be to God," then perhaps one should examine the sincerity of one's presence at this sacred meal. God's word, not man's, has just been spoken. There exists no more important words that one will encounter that day.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

John 1:14

God's word proclaimed in the mass is second only to God's word becoming flesh in the Eucharist. For in this sacrament all of the senses; sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste are engaged in the reception of Our Lord's body, blood, soul, and divinity. One reads of this encounter in scripture, and then one experiences it, first hand, in communion.

One will hear or read a lot of words in any given day. Take the time, make the time to lend an ear towards the ones that originate from Our Heavenly Father. For scripture is perhaps best regarded as a heart to heart dialogue between Father and child.

The Great Escape

2009-01-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.
For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

2Peter(RSV) 3-7

The City of Portland Oregon awaits to learn the decision of its mayor, Sam Adams, as to whether he will resign from office over the revelation of his homosexual affair with a young intern. The fact that the mayor is gay does not shock anyone as he has always been open about that. What has landed Mayor Adams into hot water is that during his campaign he lied about a tryst with an eighteen-year-old student. The mayor is forty-five, and all indications seem to point to the fact that he courted the boy for a couple of years while he was still a minor, and, best case, waited until the lad turned of legal age before making his move.

Adams was not able to escape the corruption of the world brought on by his concupiscence. It's interesting that somewhere in his conscience he knew that what he was doing was wrong. Had he been completely comfortable with the situation he would have boldly proclaimed during his election bid that he had this consensual affair with a person of legal age and that the press should mind its own business. Oddly enough, Portlanders would have respected that. The fact that the mayor bordered on being a pedophile is okay, but that he lied about it is really bad.

Only in Portland.

In modern society, there seems to exist a notion that the proper way to express one's sexuality lies somewhere between hedonism and puritanism. The struggle is finding that right balance between those extreme standards. This may explain why so many struggle in this area. The scale itself is weighing the wrong thing. While everyone has the license to express their sexuality wherever, whenever, and with whomever one wishes, their exists the reality that not everyone has the authentic freedom to do so.

What if one examined the gift of sexuality from the standpoint of vocation? Each person is called in life to a specific state of being. For most it is married life; for some single; and a select few are called into the priesthood or consecrated religious life. What is the purpose of sex in each of those vocations?

The answer for the married and the religious is pretty obvious, but for the single person living in this modern world where family friendly check stands at the grocery store are created so little Suzie does not read the cover of Cosmo and a host of other womens' magazines which try to lure readers with headlines on their covers promising how to be a better slut, it can get a bit confusing. The inculcation of the message that sex outside the covenant of marriage is normal and acceptable has permeated nearly every aspect of modern life, save the Church.

This is not a new struggle. Scripture and even history is replete with examples of people led astray by their abandoning of virtue in favor of vice. It never ends well. Cultures that turn sex into a consumable item neglecting its true purpose don't endure. There exists a real lack of sustainability or moral progress when the very dignity of the human experience wanders too far from the Divine's design.

Sex is not a vocation, an entitlement, or even a passion to be repressed. It is a gift given by a loving God for a specific purpose within a specific calling. One can break the cycle. One can escape the corruption. The Catholic Church's first pope, Peter, reminds all that Christ is the way back to the authentic relationship with God and humanity where one finds true peace.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are. Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."

1 Corinthians (RSV) 3:16-20

St. Paul wrote the words to the Corinthians who whose culture in their day makes modern day Las Vegas look like Vatican City. Note that one doesn't encounter Corinthians, today. Their way of life did not endure and faded into history, but the Church has thrived and her values and virtues have withstood the test of time as their genesis resides with God.

The great escape is then lies in the fleeing to the virtues leaving the vices to the fallen world.

Sins That Cry to Heaven

2009-01-17T12:23:00.000-08:00

In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men.

Pope Leo XIII
Rerum Novarum, 3
May 15, 1891

When Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi, aka Pope Leo XIII, penned these words, little could he have known that his encyclical on the condition of labor in the world could easily be adapted to many of the problems facing the world today. With the Industrial Revolution still reverberating throughout the world and the seeds of communism and socialism beginning to germinate, the common, everyday man found himself caught in the crossfire of intellectualism and capitalism. Man's suffering was the impetus for the Pope's letter to the world.

Fast forward a century and some odd years, and what has really changed? Have not public institutions and laws distanced themselves even further from God and religion? Have employers become anymore compassionate? And what better term than rapacious usary describes the practice of creditors who charge interest rates of over thirty percent when a borrower falls behind regardless of the circumstances surrounding the delinquency?

It's hard to find a time in history when so many of the sins that cry to heaven as identified by the catechetical tradition outlined in the the Catechism of the Catholic Church have been so amplified. These sins are as follows: the blood of Abel, which represents the murder of the innocent; the sin of the Sodomites, which represents the perversion of human, sexual love; the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, which represents those held in human bondage; the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan; and the injustice to the wage earner.

What proves disheartening is that so many of these sins have been declared as normal by a culture that has distanced itself from God. For example, if one were to count the number of people living in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, one would still be about four million people shy of the number of American citizens murdered by abortion since Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal in all fifty states. Fifty million souls is the best estimation of that number, and that will likely accelerate when President Elect Obama signs into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which effectively removes nearly all restrictions at the state level on this civil act of murder.

The sin of the Sodomites comes into focus with the proliferation of not only laws that legitimize disordered sexual behavior but also in the media that attempts to normalize its practice. Where once gay couples were featured in prime time shows as way to show the program's sophistication and also to simply titillate the audience, now one can hardly find a program that does not introduce the gay theme into the plot. Even home improvement shows that feature couples trying to fix up a house have their token gay couple fixing up a bungalow.

There are more human beings in slavery, today, than at any other time in human history. That fact doesn't make the nightly news because it happens in places far removed from Western culture to people in the third world. Were slavery happening in Nebraska versus India, a loud hue and cry would ring out across the land. God sees this injustice even if the West ignores it.

Yet the West does embrace another form of slavery. One of the many factors that has led to the economic downturn has been the culture's enslavement to materialism. The line between want and need has all but disappeared. If one wants it then one must need it and even be entitled to it. This is a form of human bondage that keeps one away from the authentic freedom found in the Gospel.

"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: `The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. "`I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:14-20

Laodicea was an early Christian community which got its name from Antiochus II when he colonized this area of modern day Turkey around 260 B.C. He named the city after his wife. More importantly is the fact that the sin of Laodicea was simple ambivalence. Such is the exact condition that America finds herself in, today, with regard to faith. Her faith is neither hot nor cold but rather secondary to the secular whims of the day. The fruit of this mystery will place his hand on Sacred Scripture as he is inaugurated as President of the United States this week.

And while the Evil One likely is reveling in the hypocrisy of the spectacle about to unfold, perhaps the best Christian response for now is the simple prayer prayed at a mass somewhere in the world every hour of every day...

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

Engendering Truth

2008-12-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

The human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth has personal problems and difficulties, but challenges to growth, strengths, talents and gifts as well. Today, the Church provides a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she refuses to consider the person as a "heterosexual" or a "homosexual" and insists that every person has a fundamental Identity: the creature of God, and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1986

Pope Benedict XVI penned the above statement in a letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church over twenty years ago when he was Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith. At that time, gay marriage was not yet a civil reality, but the pressure on the Church and government authorities to define same sex attraction as a protected class was growing both in the United States and in Europe. One can read the Cardinal's entire letter here.

For two generations, the gay community supported by a liberal media, the entertainment industry, a goofy psychological profession, and an ever politically correct public education system, has attempted to force feed the idea that acting upon same sex attraction is not only perfectly normal, but actually worthy of protected class status. Anyone who dares to oppose such a notion quickly gets branded as ignorant and xenophobic at the least or gets labeled as a homophobic bigot. Such is the defensive language of intolerance to promote the "gay agenda" that ironically seeks tolerance for its subscribers.

The Catholic Church does not consider same sex attraction as a sin in and of itself. The Church rather goes deeper and looks at the dignity of the person and the deposit of truth so clearly defined in sacred scripture and tradition. Despite the culture's preference which ebbs and flows from one century to the next, the Church in her wisdom recognizes that the truth does not change. How can any faith claim authenticity when it allows itself to be ruled by the whimsies of current day public opinion?

There simply exists no getting around the truth revealed in sacred scripture. In Genesis, one reads about the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction the befell them because of their embracing homosexual behavior. Leviticus states clearly that those who engage in homosexual behavior are excluded from the People of God. St. Paul in his letters to the Corinthians and the Romans uses homosexuality as an example of moral excess that has blinded humanity. Christ himself defines in Mark's Gospel the things that defile a man. Included in His laundry list are fornication, which covers the heterosexual crowd, and licentiousness, which includes homosexual activity.

So when the Church takes a stand against what has been so clearly revealed as a disordered use of the gift of sexuality, it does so not from a throne from which condemnation is heaped down upon the sinner, but rather as an act of love and concern that all may experience the grace of Christ to enter into the beatific vision of God.

It was in this spirit that the Pope addressed the Roman Curia. The following excerpt (his entire address can be read here) has evoked a vitriolic response from the gay community.

Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Credo, the Church cannot and should not confine itself to passing on the message of salvation alone. It has a responsibility for the created order and ought to make this responsibility prevail, even in public. And in so doing, it ought to safeguard not only the earth, water, and air as gifts of creation, belonging to everyone. It ought also to protect man against the destruction of himself. What is necessary is a kind of ecology of man, understood in the correct sense. When the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman and asks that this order of creation be respected, it is not the result of an outdated metaphysic. It is a question here of faith in the Creator and of listening to the language of creation, the devaluation of which leads to the self-destruction of man and therefore to the destruction of the same work of God. That which is often expressed and understood by the term “gender”, results finally in the self-emancipation of man from creation and from the Creator. Man wishes to act alone and to dispose ever and exclusively of that alone which concerns him. But in this way he is living contrary to the truth, he is living contrary to the Spirit Creator. The tropical forests are deserving, yes, of our protection, but man merits no less than the creature, in which there is written a message which does not mean a contradiction of our liberty, but its condition. The great Scholastic theologians have characterised matrimony, the life-long bond between man and woman, as a sacrament of creation, instituted by the Creator himself and which Christ – without modifying the message of creation – has incorporated into the history of his covenant with mankind. This forms part of the message that the Church must recover the witness in favour of the Spirit Creator present in nature in its entirety and in a particular way in the nature of man, created in the image of God. Beginning from this perspective, it would be beneficial to read again the Encyclical Humanae Vitae: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against sexuality as a consumer entity, the future as opposed to the exclusive pretext of the present, and the nature of man against its manipulation.

Pope Benedict XVI
Address to Roman Curia, December 2008

Pope accused of stoking homophobia after he equates homosexuality to climate change!

That was the headline of the London Times. Prodded by gay activists, this paper and many others in the mainstream media completely overlooked the entire address made by the Pope in favor of promoting "the agenda." That the Pope dared to touch on the new religion of secular humanity, global warming, was doubly sinful. What the paper fails to mention is that not once did the Pope refer specifically to homosexuals, gays, lesbians, or transgenders. He simply stated the truth and the gay community drew its own conclusions as the Pope's message conflicted with the reality of their own lives.

Christ hung out with the sinner, but He did not revel in their sins. He did not condone it, nor did he condemn. Rather he sacrificed himself so that all may have the opportunity to repent of their disordered and often evil ways that do come from man, and to be with Him in Heaven, the state where one spends nearly all of eternity, save the seven to ten decades one lives upon the earth.

Which should the Pope and Church be more concerned with; the expression of an ultimately self-indulgent behavior that has a limited life-span, or encouraging all of humanity to seek the ultimate fulfillment of one's purpose which is to spend an eternity with a loving God?

For the Love of Christ

2008-12-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

2 Corinthians (RSV) 5,14

This passage of St. Paul loses some of its punch in the modern English translations of sacred scripture. Looking at that word control in the Latin Vulgate the word used here is urget, which means to press or to bear hard down. So Christ's love does not manipulate as many in modern culture interpret that word control, but rather Paul is so keenly aware of this love, this charity of Our Lord; it is so plainly obvious that it traverses continuously in his soul, and he is compelled to act upon it.

For the love of Christ!

These days if one hears that phrase proclaimed it's usually done in anger. There stands good reason to believe that the person uttering it has found himself in a state of frustration and exasperation. And while it borders on taking Our Lord's name in vain, it does prove interesting that when one uses that expression they're often thinking, "What in the world compelled you to do that?!" What spurred one on to do what was likely a very foolish thing? What was so danged urget?

Either through faith, reason, or physical evidence, one believes in the love of Our Lord. But perhaps as one enters this final week of Advent the question to meditate upon is does one really love Christ? When one says one loves Jesus, what does that really mean?

For many, Christ remains an intellectual exercise. They agree with what He teaches and consider His story a good one to reflect upon and even draw upon; however, some of it seems a little impractical for modern living. Ask this person if he loves Christ, and he more likely gives an answer that reflect he loves the idea of Christ versus actual divine person.

Others love Christ for what he did for them. An evangelical Christian for example might love Our Lord for having gained him salvation under the philosophy of once saved always saved. This person would certainly say he loved Christ, but in a sense has his gaze more towards the future heavenly encounter with this savior of the past.

For the Catholic Christian, to love Christ is to love Him in the present moment. Jesus is not just some ancient historical figure or someone one meets only in the hereafter. He is the divine, incarnate person of the Trinity whom one encounters in the now. At mass the mystery of faith proclaimed is "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." Notice the past, present and future of that statement, particularly that Christ is risen. It's not "Christ died, Christ rose" as if one is remembering a lesson of theological history. The proclamation stands as a statement of fact that remains ever present.

The ultimate, most intimate encounter with Christ in the present gets reserved for the Holy Eucharist when one physically encounters the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord. As one approaches Christ in this sacrament, one should truly examine just what kind of relationship one has with Jesus. Is it similar to that of a close friend, or is it distant? Does one extend the reverence and respect one might have when approaching a benevolent king, or does one go through the motions as if one was in line at the supermarket?

Beyond the mass as one speaks to Our Lord in prayer is the conversation one-sided? Does one cultivate silence to give Jesus a chance to get a word in, or has prayer become a routine with only slightly more importance than brushing one's teeth every day? When reading sacred scripture, does one read the word of God like a bride reading a love letter from her husband, hanging on every thought and revelation, or does one spend more time in an academic exercise of exegesis?

What does one mean when one says one loves Jesus?

Imagine if a wife's conversations with her spouse were all one-sided; that when she wrote him a note or letter he spent more time reading between the lines than experiencing the sentiments and meaning contained within; that when the two became one flesh, it was treated as a casual or perfunctory affair no more meaningful than taking out the garbage. Would anyone look at that and call it a healthy, loving relationship? And yet the above often describes exactly many believer's approach their relationship with The Christ.

As the celebration of the birth of Jesus approaches, let all take a few moments each day to examine what stage one finds oneself in one's relationship with Him. And upon reflection if one discovers, as no doubt all especially this author will, an area where love for Jesus is lacking, perhaps one can start with the basics.

Imagine one's disposition in holding a newborn baby. There is a unique joy and sense of wonder in cradling a baby in one's arms. Now imagine the child one so carefully rocks in one's arms is Baby Jesus. Savor the moment...and let the love grow from there.

Humility. It Still Works

2008-12-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

1 John (RSV) 2:16-17

The headlines of the day reflect a world largely ignoring St. John's statement of fact from sacred scripture. The translation of this passage sometimes gets a bit misconstrued in our sex-centric culture. That word "lust" has taken a near exclusive carnal definition in American vernacular; however, John had a much broader definition in mind. In point of fact, the Latin of this passage uses the word concupiscentia, meaning to desire ardently or to long for. This could mean any material thing.

The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich (aka Blago) certainly had his eye on the earthly prize of money and punted his career and his life as he knew it. So blinded by the arrogance that so often manifests itself among people of power, it's doubful he ever paused to consider that pride comes before the fall. (Proverbs 16:18) Even by Chicago standards, Blago and his coconspiritors sunk to a new low.

Then there is the case of prominent Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff, who built a very successful, legitimate investment firm but remained unsatisfied by the blessings of the Almighty. He had respect among his family and peers until yesterday when it was revealed that his latest venture was actually a 50-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Interestingly enough, it was his sons who turned dad in. Perhaps equally fascinating, Madoff's victims, completely ignored the imprudent practices and red flags of his firm. Only concerned with their returns, they never stopped to ponder just how they were generated. Lust of the eyes indeed.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler have made thier imperfect act of contrition to Congress as they seek absolution from the American tax payer. After years of making cars that they wanted to make versus what the consumer market desired, they are now all flirting with bankruptcy. The failure of these corporations would hurt the economy and prove devastating to the millions of workers connected to the industry. And yet, despite the poor decisions at the top, the rank and file of the UAW must shoulder an equal share of the blame. An unwillingness to accept a more realistic compensation and benefit package meant that America's trinity of automakers was less able to compete with foreign competitors.

As sensational as these news stories have become, they do to a large extent reflect the reality that a culture that turns its back upon God and the love of Christ simply is not sustainable. Left to his own devices, his own fallen concupiscentia, man destroys himself. And it does not take a great effort to follow the way of Our Lord. Consider if in the three scenarios above one simple element had been added from the start. It is a quality that defines God's own step into humanity. It's called humility.

A good dose of humility and Blogo and Madoff are free, rich men, and the Big Three automakers are not bothering the taxpayer to bail them out. The challenge remains that everyone, especially powerful men, have a real problem with humiliation. They fail to see that real power lies not in one's ability to exert it, but rather in one's will to set it aside and humble oneself as a servant. Jesus saved a world doing that.

St. Augustin once said that Mary conceived Christ in her heart, mind, and soul before she conceived Him in her body. As one prepares for the final two weeks of Advent, let all prepare the way of the Lord by discovering the power of humility which proves a potent antidote to the deadly sin of pride.

The Triumph of Good

2008-11-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

No being is said to be evil, considered as being, but only so far as it lacks being. Thus a man is said to be evil because he lacks the being of virtue; and an eye is said to be evil because it lacks the power to see well.

St. Thomas Aquinas
On Goodness in General - Summa Theologia

Evil is a word that freely gets bandied about in the popular discourse. The definition of evil seems to ebb and flow with the same relativity as its antonym, good. George Bush, Barack Obama, and Osama Bin Laden have all been labeled as evil by one group or another, but does there exist a true equivalency in stature here? Does one represent true evil better than the other? The answer largely rests with whom one asks. Surely the conservative sees the evil in Mr. Obama with equal clarity as the liberal perceives such evil in Mr. Bush; while nearly all conclude that Bin Laden fits the bill as the personification of evil.

It begs the question that if evil can be so subjective, how can good be absolute? It stands as a legitimate question that left unanswered allows one to traipse down the path of situational ethics. Traveling in this vein allows one to find, given the right circumstance, a seemingly legitimate reason to break any one of God's covenental, Ten Commandments.

The answer lies within the fact that God is good, and that which He creates is good, and as Genesis proclaims, when He created man it was very good. Such exists the wonderous simplicity of Our Heavenly Father's plan. For God did not create evil to accompany good, but rather gifted free will to accept good or not.

The lower discipline of science provides good examples of this within the physical world. For example, one cannot create dark in and of itself. For darkness exists only when one devoids a space of light. Similarly, one cannot create cold. Such a state merely conveniently describes a condition where heat has been removed.

Evil functions in much the same way. For as Aquinas points out in the above passage, a being, meaning a soul, does not possess evil, but rather it lacks virtue. And it is not as if such virtue is unavailable to the soul. Indeed, the soul chooses the virtuous path or not.

For the believer, these virtues are clearly defined in sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and the successors of St. Peter, but even the non-believer has an indelible sense within his being of what is right and wrong at the most primitive level. The Bushmen of the Kalahari in Southern Africa, keenly described in Michener's book The Covenant and nicely juxtaposed to modern society in the classic film The God's Must Be Crazy, have existed in a state of peace for perhaps as long as 20,000 years, largely by retaining the good that God has given them and their propensity to give that good to each other.

This people, who perhaps exist as a living icon as to how man should live with his neighbor, most likely lack the ability to comprehend why Jdi Mytai D'Amour had to die, yesterday. Mr. D' Amour was a 34-year old stock clerk at a Long Island, New York Wal-Mart. He was trampled to death when a herd of Black Friday shoppers stampeded through the doors of the store where he worked in their frenzy to save a few bucks on some meaningless material things. Consider that ten years from now, probably less, nearly every item purchased at that store will be either in the landfill or taking up space in a basement or attic; that nothing sought after by these mad consumers will appreciate in value. Set against the value of a single human life, one struggles to wrap one's mind around the mentality that places the temporal material item over the life of a man.

Good was not chosen in this event at the Wal-Mart leaving evil to fill the space. The fruit of this poverty was that a man had to die.

Yet one should not despair that this world is an evil place. The world is good, and that good has incredible power over evil. For while good and evil are opposites, they are not equal in weight. Evil does not self-generate, it simply resides where good is lacking. Good, on the other hand, builds upon itself and always triumphs over evil. Not that one gets spared suffering and even some defeats along the way, but with perseverance, good always defeats evil as light defeats the darkness; as the love of God incarnated in His son Our Lord Jesus Christ defeated death by giving his life.

As the believer enters into Advent, let all find the simple ways to inject more good into the every day situations and allow the light of that Christmas star shine all the more bright.

The Higher Things

2008-11-22T07:10:00.001-08:00

It may well happen that what is in itself the more certain may seem to us the less certain because of the weakness of our intellect, which is dazzled by the clearest objects of nature; as the owl is dazzled by the light of the sun. Hence the fact that some happen to doubt about the articles of faith is not due to the uncertain nature of the truths, but to the weakness of the human intellect; yet the slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained by the lowest things as said in "De Animalibus."

St. Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologiae

Aquinas quotes Aristotle's famous psychological treatise regarding the nature of things to help bring home the point that one's doubts are in essence a poor defense against a reality one does not understand. Such was the case when Aristotle pondered the matter in the mid-300s BC; endured when Aquinas expounded upon it a thousand years later; and today, in the twenty-first century, it holds true.

And while this great doctor of Church was writing about whether sacred scripture is nobler than other sciences; a point which he wonderfully proves true, the concept easily works for any number of circumstances or issues. How often the most certain path gets chosen for no other reason than it offers the way of least resistance or greatest comfort even if the truth gets denied in the process.

The abortion debate proves a good example of this. Science has proven that human life begins at conception. Once sperm and egg unite to become one cell, if left to its own devices, a human being becomes visible to all some nine months later. Yet there exists a window of 270 days when said human stays concealed in her mother's womb, and during this period that individual faces the greatest risk of dying an unnatural death than any other time in her earthly life. This can be said. One in four pregnancies in America is ended by force. The chief cause of death being that what is not seen must not be real and therefor subjected to the weakness of human intellect which would choose fear of inconvenience in its many manifestations over the reality that life, human life, gets terminated by abortion.

The reality of Christ provides another proof to examine. Countless interpretations of Our Lord exist to form the basis of thousands of protestant faiths. As Pope Benedict reflected in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, most of these interpretations are reflections of one's personal bias versus the reality of who the Christ really is. The true Christ, the risen Christ as revealed in the Gospels and the mass gets substituted for lessor versions that conform with one's personal preferences. For some, Christ was a great man like Buddha or Gandhi but certainly not the actual son of God. Others view Christ as the oppressor of freedom laying down all kinds of moral standards impossible for any one person to follow. Then there flourishes the Christ as the nice guy who takes an anything goes attitude towards life. The human intellect prefers to shape Christ to fit its needs versus doing the work to consider and meditate upon the infinitely more beautiful reality of God entering into humanity.

Even a cursory examination of the current day's economic crisis reveals that man chased after that which dazzled versus that which proved real. Ethics declined and markets collapsed. A reality that the Bloomberg Press reported to have been a prophecy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger back in 1985.

The lower things that Aquinas speaks of are easy to know for more often than not, they are those very things that require the least amount of effort and thought. To choose the higher things such as faith, hope, love, and the self-sacrifice that accompanies each of those things one is called to abide within requires a dependence upon something that transcends human reason. It requires an openness to the will and the true love of God who created and ensouled each and every human being.

To experience this requires not the depth of insight achieved by St. Thomas Aquinas, but rather as Aristotle suggested merely the slenderest of knowledge of those higher purposes. With that, our Heavenly Father can and does work with.

The "E" Word

2008-11-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

As the dust begins to settle from the election and one takes a look at how Catholics in large numbers supported Mr. Obama, the temptation to despair looms large. The fact that 54% of Catholics chose the Democrat is troubling; however, it should be of little surprise. Catholic in America proves very much the adjective versus a lived reality. This is not unique to Catholics. Religion in general in these United States largely skews more towards the hypothetical. Jesus has been diluted to a self-styled philosophy no more or no less important than the new age philosophy prescribed by Oprah.

Perhaps what has been so disconcerting for many devout Catholic believers hinges on the rude wake up call announcing that the barrier that separates the unbeliever from the truth has grown so thick and seemingly impermeable. How could any thinking, rational person not see the lie? Something must be shielding one from that which is real to follow that which is simply good marketing.

What is that something?

Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to state what that something is not. It is not of God. It might be diabolic, but the hard reality might just be that it is simply the fruit of the mystery of a culture that has turned its back upon Our Father for so long and turned its front towards reliance upon fallen man. And this is not to disparage the character of the President-elect. All of humanity is fallen by default. So to place one's hope for salvation in any man's hands, even a seemingly holy man, which Mr. Obama certainly is not, is a recipe for failure.

Just as the Germans of the 1930s had lost all hope and therefor gave a relatively unknown Austrian the chance to fix their ailing nation, America has chosen a similar path with a relatively unknown Kenyan. The Germans could have placed their hope in God. They didn't and the consequences were nothing less than catastrophic. Adolf Hitler created a special police force called the Gestapo to help enforce his policies. Obama proposes the creation of a civilian national security force to carry out his vision. Hitler believed Jews to be inferior and the cause of many of society's ills and thus engaged his final solution. Obama longs to sign the Freedom of Choice Act which would treat any human being in womb as inferior.

The disadvantage Mr. Obama faces in his quest to foist his liberal agenda to "change" the culture rests in the fact that one, he will likely not gain the support of the military as Hitler was able to do. Two, while the economy is poor and in recession, America is far from the economic depression and fear that allowed many a good German to look the other way. Three, while Hitler had complete control of the media, Obama does not have that ability. True, the mainstream media loves him today; however, there is no guarantee that love will continue after the bloom falls from the rose. Finally, the American attention span remains rather short. With the election over and the yard signs tossed in the trash, the country will soon focus its attention on Christmas, the Super Bowl, or the latest episode of the hit TV show of the day.

Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body. Thus he who had just been thinking that he could command the waves of the sea, in his superhuman arrogance, and imagining that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance, was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.

2Maccabees 9:7,8

Antiochus, the "he" in the above passage of scripture, learned the hard way that God is merciful and just. Our Lord never ceases giving one the opportunity for conversion. He could have simply blasted this enemy of the Jews out of existence. Instead he let him fall out of his rushing chariot. It took a series of misfortunes before this king who vowed to destroy the Jews finally repented and turned to God in his dying days.

America, under the command of President Elect Obama, is poised to rush in her chariot towards a false hope that excludes God as the center of life. In many respects, Mr. Obma is simply taking the reigns and changing direction using the same busted moral compass that has guided this country for too many years, and like his predecessors, it seems unlikely that he can find true north. This may explain why America may fall from her chariot, and fall hard.

So what is a Catholic (the noun not the adjective) to do? Perhaps it remains as simple as rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and give to God everything else. Mr. Obama will exit the stage of history in due course, but God is eternal. His reign never ends.

Part of this giving to God includes the "e" word that scares many into complacency...evangelization. More than half the Catholics in America supported the candidate who supports the murder of the most innocent and vulnerable members of society. If one seeks a place to start, perhaps one's own backyard should be the first stop in one's missionary journey. Many bishops are leading the way in their vow to oppose those laws that promote the destruction of life. A priest in South Carolina recently advised his parishoners to refrain from taking communion if they voted for Mr. Obama until they reconciled themselves with the Church. The clergy in many ways is beginning to step up. The laity needs to do the same, each according to his gifts.

"God bless America."

More than ever this simple prayer is needed. May all pray it in earnest.

An Extraordinary Life

2008-11-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

Life is extraordinary.

According to Merriam Webster's on-line dictionary, for something to be extraordinary it most go beyond what is usual, regular, and customary. As the Church celebrates All Saints Day and All Souls Day this weekend, the believer once again gets reminded that his current state of living passes away. In the grand scheme of eternity, this mortal manner of being measures as a flash of light when juxtaposed to the rest of one's existence.

Normalcy must find its residence in communion with the Trinity. Only there does one find his true purpose. To see that reality proves difficult. When Adam and Eve made that fateful decision to step outside of Paradise they stepped into an extraordinary world; the one where death, pain, suffering, and the like intermingled with beatitude. How does one make sense of that kind of world? And yet much of life revolves around doing just that. It stands as the great deception that pulls one away from looking towards Heaven.

God's first people, the Jews, made the best of this world by living as closely as they could to the law which God gave to them. Today, the Halakhah, which translates to "the path that one walks," contains 613 mitzvot or commandments. There are 248 positive mitzvot, one for each bone and organ of the male body, and there are 365 negative mitzvot, one for each day of the solar year. All of these are found in the Torah, which comprises the first five books of the bible, today.

It's not that God's law was imperfect. People are. No matter how many laws God gave, man would find ways to break it. Christ even affirmed that it really only came down to two laws:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."

Luke (RSV) 10:25-28

Even this was not good enough for the lawyer who insisted on getting some clarification as to just who the heck qualifies as his neighbor. Jesus instructs the lawyer with his parable of the Good Samaritan.

Once in awhile it seems humanity gets a glimpse of Heaven in the most extraordinary circumstances. Zenit.org recently published an essay by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, the Potifical Preacher, in which he included a letter that was found in the pocket of Aleksander Zacepa, a Russian soldier killed in battle during World War II.

Hear me, oh God! In my lifetime, I have not spoken with you even once, but today I have the desire to celebrate. Since I was little, they have always told me that you don't exist. And I, like an idiot, believed it. I have never contemplated your works, but tonight I have seen from the crater of a grenade the sky full of stars, and I have been fascinated by their splendor. In that instant I have understood how terrible is the deception. I don't know, oh God, if you will give me your hand, but I say to you that you understand me … Is it not strange that in the middle of a frightful hell, light has appeared to me, and I have discovered you? I have nothing more to tell you. I feel happy, because I have known you. At midnight, we have to attack, but I am not afraid. You see us. They have given the signal. I have to go. How good it was to be with you! I want to tell you, and you know, that the battle will be difficult: Perhaps this night, I will go to knock on your door. And if up to now, I have not been your friend, when I go, will you allow me to enter? But, what's happening to me? I cry? My God, look at what has happened to me. Only now, I have begun to see with clarity. My God, I go. It will be difficult to return. How strange, now, death does not make me afraid.

Life is extraordinary. In the most extreme of circumstances this young Russian soldier who until hours earlier had been an atheist suddenly, by God's grace, discovered that there exists no meaning to existence without God.

From conception each human being matters. Made in the image and likeness of God, each is given an eternal nature. The small stretch of time, perhaps seventy-five to one hundred years, that man ordinarily lives incarnate in this world, in its most primitive explanation, serves as a time to refine the gold for for man's ultimate purpose, which is no less than an eternal state of ultimate bliss within the triumphant mystical body of Christ.

An Act of Suffrage

2008-10-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Suffrage is not a word that comes up in regular every day speak. It seems to surface every four years in line with the election. Before the U.S. Treasury minted an annoying little dollar coin with her image, Susan B. Anthony was once better known as a pioneer for the suffrage for women in the 19th Century. Today, it seems more comfortable to say one has a right to vote than to say one has suffrage which if one did not know better might be confused with some kind of disease.

In some parts of the world, voting is not an option, it's compulsory. For example if one lives in Singapore, then it is the responsibility as a citizen to vote in any presidential or parliamentary election. To fail to do so removes one's name from the list of certified voters and bans one from holding public office. And while one can reapply to be eligible to vote again, one had better have a pretty good excuse for not previously voting such as being out the country or in the midst of delivering a baby in order get any kind of consideration to participate in the country's democratic process.

The Catholic Church has its own use of this word, suffrage. From the Latin suffragium, a suffrage is a series of short intercessory prayers. Throughout the Middle Ages and the Reformation the word evolved and got redefined to mean asking for assistance then later to assistance via voting for a higher purpose. The word was smartly hijacked in a sense by the right-to-vote-women of the 19th Century because the word naturally evokes the totally unrelated word suffer, which many women at that time felt they were forced to do by not having the right to fully participate in the electoral process.

How fitting that The Church celebrates All Saints Day and All Souls Day a few days before the election when the original meaning of this word suffrage gets more properly exercised. For it is on these holy days that the faithful especially ask their triumphant brothers and sisters in Christ, the ones whom are known to share in the beatific vision of Our Lord, for their assistance on this trek to Heaven.

Catholics believe in the eternal nature of the being. One gets created by God at conception, and from that second on one begins the eternal journey. And the Catholic does not go it alone. From her earliest days, the Church has taught that the mystical body of Christ included those who have gone before. The teaching was affirmed in 1964 when Pope Paul VI promulgated the dogmatic constitution on the Chruch:

Fully conscious of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead, and "because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins", also offers suffrages for them. The Church has always believed that the apostles and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are closely joined with us in Christ, and she has always venerated them with special devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels. The Church has piously implored the aid of their intercession. To these were soon added also those who had more closely imitated Christ's virginity and poverty, and finally others whom the outstanding practice of the Christian virtues and the divine charisms recommended to the pious devotion and imitation of the faithful.

- Lumen Gentium

As America prepares to hopefully, peaceably elect a new President, perhaps more important than one's vote on November 4th is the daily suffrage to the saints to implore them to ask Christ for His Divine Mercy on America. The votive candle shown here that bears Barack Obama's image as a Catholic Saint, while incredibly offensive to the believer, does demonstrate how desperate this nation thirsts for salvation, and how easily led astry its citizens have become.

Vote on November 4th, but pray unceasingly for the conversion of hearts away from those who promulgate the culture of death under the guise of a savior.

License for Freedom

2008-10-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Americans are having a difficult time these days finding the lines that define virtuous living. In this country if one professed that one was striving to live a virtuous life others might label one as a prude or even a bigot. Citizens of the United State so do cherish their freedom as they have come to understand it. But what if their understanding of freedom has been lost in translation from one generation to the next? Could not the freedom the founding fathers envisioned have transformed into something that even a liberal of that era, Thomas Jefferson, would no longer recognize?

And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."

Mark (RSV) 7:18-23

The Savior has provided a nice pick list for one to examine the culture as a whole. The first striking thing? The things that defiled man in Christ's day have not changed in the modern era. Anyone who seeks happiness in any of the above sins only ultimately fails in that pursuit. Generations from now, historians will scratch their heads and playwrights will author tragic comedies about the Baby Boom generation that sought to license every human passion. A generation that truly believed its shallow, puny intellect could change the natural law defined by God.

Confusion between freedom and license leads many astray. One has a license to drive a car and the freedom to drive drunk. True, drunk driving is against the law, but if one chooses to break the law, the freedom is there to do it. An electrician has a license to practice his trade and the freedom to ignore the building code. True, there are hefty fines for violating such codes, but the freedom to violate remains. A stock broker has the license to trade securities and the freedom to recklessly transact his client's money. A doctor has the license to practice medicine, and the freedom to kill the baby in the womb at his patient's behest. A couple has a license to marry and the freedom to step out on it.

Through the sacraments, Christ has given humanity a license to be one with the Trinity. This license had been revoked by our first parents in the Garden of Eden when they exercised their freedom and violated its privileges. And even then, this loving God did not throw the lot of humanity into perdition, but rather engaged in a continuous struggle to bring man back to Him, and ultimately sending His only son to pay the fine for everyone's benefit.

Returning to Our Lord's list of things that defile humanity. How many of those sins have been trumpeted as protected rights and in some cases even codified? For example, in America and most of the West, fornication is the expected norm. In all fifty states of America, murder is legal provided the victim has not yet been born, though the law gets a bit fuzzy. A woman can legally have her child killed from conception to birth; however, if the child dies during the commission of a crime against her, then the perpetrator can be charged with murder. Huh?

Licentiousness comes from the Latin word impudicitia, which translates into sexual impurity most often related to homosexuality. It seems nearly every television drama or sit-com has its token episode that celebrates a gay or lesbian couple which only fuels the liberal agenda to legitimize these relationships as equal to marriage under natural law.

The question must be asked, have a majority of Americans truly rejected God's natural law or have they been deceived? Hope remains that it must be the latter. For if it is the former, then the prospects for longevity as a nation are gloomy. Deception is fixable, but a firmness of will proves more unlikely to change, and history has borne out that cultures, even non-Christian cultures, who stray from God's natural law do not last. How many Romans, Aztecs, or Tartars has one run into lately?

God's law is a license to love. One has the freedom to exercise that license or not. As America prepares to once again decide who best represents and reflects her ideals, pray that the person elected strives to protect the true freedom that the country's founding fathers envisioned.

Personal Property

2008-10-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

''We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing. All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary. Only God's words are a solid reality''.

Pope Benedict XVI addressing Synod of Bishops - October 2008

The news is awash with stories about the economic crisis that has sent world stock markets into a nose dive, frozen up credit, and crippled banks. If one attempts to understand it all, one quickly starts to become familiar with a new set of terms and phrases like, "breaking the buck," "credit default swaps," "leverage and hedging." Such is the language of those serving mammon.

What is of true value?

As one looks around at the material possessions one has acquired over the years, it proves a humbling exercise to examine each object and ponder its relevance in the grand scheme of things. Certainly a dollar value can be set upon the car, the jewelry, or a work of art, but even that is subjective. A dent in the car, a flaw in the diamond, or a tear in the canvas suddenly diminish their value. Nevertheless, regardless of condition a price can be affixed to one's personal property.

Prior to the Civil War in America, human beings from Africa were bought and sold as personal property to wealthy plantation owners or really anyone who wanted someone else to do the hard labor or menial tasks. And while the war between the states ended slavery in these United States, there are currently, today, approximately twenty-million people in human bondage in places like Sudan, India, Haiti, and Pakistan. Life is cheap in these places. For about $15 one can purchase a slave in southern Sudan. It costs more to have a pizza delivered to one's home in America.

A sense of outrage should resonate within the heart at the thought of human life as personal property to be bargained to the highest bidder. And yet the smaller and more innocent the life is, the greater probability it has of being treated as less than human. A vast majority of slaves, today, are children.

In the state of Oregon, human life as personal property has extended into the womb. Dr. Laura Dahl a pediatrician and her now ex-husband, Dr. Darrell Angle, an orthodontist, engaged in a custody battle over the disposition of six frozen embryos they had produced for in vitro fertilization. According to an Associated Press news article, Dr. Angle wanted to donate the embryos to another couple; however, Dr. Dahl objected to this because she did not want anyone else to raise her child and she feared that one or more of six might one day try to contact her son who was naturally conceived. Her choice was to destroy the embryos as was her right under the contract she had with Dr. Angle.

Presiding Judge Rex Armstrong of the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that there was a contractual right to determine the fate of the embryos as personal property. Assuming the case does not get appealed further, these six human beings, innocent, vulnerable, and signifcant, will be unceremoniously destroyed.

What is of true value?

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

Luke 12:24

How ironic that were one to find a birdsnest with six eggs, one would likely take care to leave it be and allow those chicks to hatch; yet human life get summarily extinguished. Small wonder that a culture who cannot figure out that which has true value has such a difficult time handling its finances, which as our Holy Father so adeptly pointed out, is of no value at all.

Put in the vernacular of Wall Street, human life is subject to being sold short.

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2008-10-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

From CatholicVote.com

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To my fellow 4th Degree Knights...

...Vivat Jesu!

An Issue or an Evil?

2008-10-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today, O.J. Simpson was found guilty on all charges surrounding an armed robbery he participated in to get back some sports memorabilia that very well may have been rightfully his. Instead of letting the authorities handle the matter, Mr. Simpson took a pistol and some armed thugs with him and tried to enforce his will upon the situation. How ironic that that he will likely spend the bulk of the rest of his life in prison for a two-bit robbery. Robbing two people of their lives as he so famously did so many years ago earned him infamy but no jail time. The legal system supported him in murder, but not robbery.

Only in America.

Respect for life exists as a fundamental tenet of Catholic teaching. Catholics believe that life begins at conception and has a natural end determined by God. A sad and interesting phenomena has emerged over the years as abortion has become so common place in the culture which now conveniently chooses to terminate one in four pregnancies via this method. In an attempt to justify voting for a political candidate who supports abortion, many Catholics have diluted the horror by delineating "respect for life" as an all inclusive category that takes into consideration not just abortion, but also health care, looking after the poor, feeding the hungry, and the proper use of military force.

On the surface, the association with these other peace and justice categories seems quite logical. Certainly anyone who respects life would want to examine all of those categories. The danger, however, lies in the inequality of the gravity of the issues at hand. While striving to ensure that all Americans have adequate access to health care is a noble cause, does the hard reality that some members of her society will fall through the health care system cracks rise to the same level of importance as the fact that every day four thousand of her citizens will be summarily killed in the womb? While one may disagree over the prudent use of military force in places like Iraq, are the war dead whom we can see on the nightly news more precious than the over one million innocent lives that are snuffed out every year in the privacy of the abortion clinic?

The argument often gets made that one should not decide how to choose one's choice for public office based on a single issue. Okay, ponder this. If the candidate for president of the United States professed that he had a plan that would guarantee low cost and high quality universal health care; and that he would end homelessness; and that he would lower taxes for everyone; and that we would rarely if ever put the country's military sons and daughters in harm's way; and that he would work to build consensus among the parties; and that he would even allow that nativity scene to be brought back to the public square at Christmas time; but he strongly supported legalizing slavery for black people again...would one ignore the moral evil in exchange for potentially realizing the promises made by the politician?

No?

So why does one make an exception for abortion which is an even greater moral evil than slavery?

Archbishop Raymond Burke was recently named by Pope Benedict XVI to be the Prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Court of Apostolic Signature which is the highest Canon Law court in the Church. Recently in an interview with an Italian newspaper, he lamented about the Democratic Party in America as “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” Abortion would certainly be one of these issues.

Perhaps it is that word "issue" that leads many otherwise well intended Catholics astray. Abortion is many things far more horrific than an issue. It's a reality, and one that inflicts infinitely more harm upon society as a whole than all other issues combined. For how can one anticipate achieving peace or justice within the society if one overlooks the leader's proclivity for protecting the right to kill the culture's most vulnerable and innocent members?

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me;

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Pray for the conversion of Catholics who would support a candidate who supports abortion.

The Bubble

2008-09-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but every one who is hasty comes only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

Proverbs 21:5-6

The current financial crisis in America and elsewhere exists as a complicated tangle of events nearly too difficult to explain. If one has about ten minutes of time, this smart video portrays as good an explanation as any as to how the world suddenly got itself into this fine mess. Skip the political message towards the end, but do check out the facts.

In a very real sense, this "crisis" simply reveals the fruits of secular materialism. Everyone has a desire to get ahead in this world, but few stop to ponder what awaits at the front of the line. Financial security may bring a sense of peace of mind, but it does little to bring comfort to one's heart. Christ did not die a rich man. Even his tomb was borrowed yet the riches He brought to the world transcend anything man could remotely begin to offer.

The word greed has been diluted to the word bubble in modern vernacular. Instead of saying, Americans got greedy about the acquisition of material wealth and got burned, one sugar coats the situation to say Americans are victims of a housing bubble. No personal responsibility gets applied. It was just something unfortunate that happened. Heaven forbid the requirement of any introspection over one's actions.

What is the purpose of a house? In 1923, Kahil Gibran published his wonderful book, The Prophet, where the main character, who is a metaphore for Christ, is asked by the people of the mythical city of Orphalese to speak on a variety of topics such as love, marriage, children and the like. One of the people in the crowd, a mason, asks the Prophet, "Speak to us of houses." Below is the key message of his response.

And tell me, People of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?

Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet

Did purchasing that McMansion really help one's family if both Mom and Dad had to work in order to pay its mortgage while Junior was warehoused at daycare? And why does that $2,800 television screen need to be so big and highly defined when what gets broadcast remains so small in value and nebulous in virtue?

America wrings her hands as the stock market teeters on losing up to a third of its value lest her government bail it out with an infusion of tax payer cash. And while the popping of the housing bubble may appear to be big news, to much of the world it exists as a non-event. Some 60,000 Catholic families in Orissa India are homeless and hiding in the jungle due to Hindus who have burned their churches and their homes while chanting to their warrior god, Jai Shri Ram. This is far more of a true housing crisis which the western media has completely ignored.

One can hope that the current economic downturn might lead to an awakening of sorts for the American culture on what is of true value. For Our Lord and Savior, Heaven was not found in the material possession of a house.

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."
Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

Matthew 8:18-21

Perhaps Christ has given man in this passage of scripture the best summary of what is going on in the financial world, today. The dead, those who put money over all else, are indeed burying their own kind. For if one has Christ in his heart, then all the financial turmoil in the world matters little, and he has found not a temporary bubble, but rather an ocean of hope and peace.

A Statement of God

2008-09-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Father Jim Brand, a regular commentator on Vatican Radio, made a beautiful observation recently that gives one cause to stop and reflect. He put forward the idea that each and every human being exists as a statement of God. The Almighty spoke all into existence.

In this political season the airwaves and written media are awash in statements. Perhaps at no time in America has the nation been so tragically polarized across so many different directions. With the speed of one's Internet connection, newer statements supplant recent statements before one has time to fully digest the information given. The news cycle has morphed into a news continuum that never sleeps or contemplates.

In this environment truth does not exist. If bogus information gets released, no worries. One simply issues a revised statement to clarify things. The gravity of bearing false witness against one's neighbor has been lost. How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by one party or the other in their quest to issue statements intended to manipulate, castigate, or simply engage in self-promotion?

It proves difficult not to see a diabolic influence contained within this sea of mass confusion. For in the process of sorting and sifting through the cacophony of statements flying into one's head, often lost is the only statement that really matters; that one's very being truly is a statement of God, and that statement results in proof positive that God exists.

Imagine if the culture suddenly was able to see through the haze of information and came to the realization that God is not an opinion, not a theory, not a punchline, but rather that He actually exists. And not only that, but that His purpose in creating everyone was an infinitely supreme act of love.

Breaking news! God exists and He loves everyone!

What other statement can man make that matters more? If one truly embraces that reality, should not the next course of action be to stop whatever one is doing and pay attention to the implications? Are not a myriad of deep and important questions about the meaning of one's existence suddenly answered? For if each has been created by God out of love, then by default one has to recognize that one exists in a community of souls with a common creator. And it is in this very commonality that one must then find the very texture of compassion. Love of neighbor no longer becomes a commandment, but rather a calling.

The logical response to the above could be life altering, but hard reality maintains that one will compartmentalize this statement with perhaps a little greater or even a little less importance than the daily news. How much time does one spend in prayer versus the time used for catching up on world events?

Yet the truth remains regardless of how difficult to understand or grasp. One's existence still stands as a testament of love by Our Father. For centuries He reached out to His people with the message that He was there to love them. And when they did not hear, His word became flesh and did indeed dwell among humanity. Into human history stepped Our Lord, Jesus Christ to be with humanity, intimately, body, blood, soul, and divinity until the end of the age.

"Give me a sign, O Lord."

That lamentation gets answered each and every time one gazes into the mirror. God's statement of love gets eloquently orated in the recognition of the gift of self to the communion of souls that comprise the mystical body of Christ. One's purpose in this existence entails the joyful cooperation with grace to let His statement speak for itself from within oneself; all for His glory.

Identity Theft

2008-09-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

St. Augustin

The human experience seems to hold in store for nearly everyone a period of time where one ponders the questions, "Why am I here, and what is my purpose?" These complex questions come with remarkably simple answers. One exists because out of love God spoke one into creation, and one's purpose primarily becomes a lifelong attempt to love his Creator with all of one's very being.

It tests one's faith to embrace this. Surely there must be more? But what? And with those two questions firmly in hand, man embarks upon a fruitless journey to find himself. His identity as a child of God simply does not cut it. Though his identity has been clearly stamped into his heart, his human intellect still falls prey to the serpent's pick up line in the Garden of Eden, "...you will be like God." In a certain sense, sin could be defined as a foolhardy attempt to change one's identity from a child of God to a creator of self.

Modern living includes a good deal of caution in protecting one's identity from thieves who would like nothing more than to rob a bank or department store from the comfort of their laptop computer by using someone else's vital credit data. As a result most folks have learned to become very careful of who gets to know what in this regard. Our culture now communicates via a series of passwords and PINs and security verification questions such as "What is the name of your favorite pet?"

How interesting that so much less care gets employed to protect one's true identity as a child of God. In point of fact, man readily gives this identity away in exchange for a substitute. The father of modern rationalism, René Descartes, coined the phrase "I think therefore I am," back in the early 1600s, and modern man has flocked to this notion that he some how has a say in his very existence. Oh sure, he might concede that God may have done the heavy lifting to get things started, but ultimately man remains the master of his domain.

At the other extreme sits the one who sees God as the tyrant searching for an opportunity to damn one to Hell. Fear becomes the primary motivator for this person who genuinely wants to love his creator but struggles with exactly how to do that when this deity might very well judge one as forever unfit for Paradise. One's identity as a child of God gets pilfered by one's fear of eternal consequence. Some how the fact that the word "love" is used over 800 times in sacred scripture compared to the dozen or so times hell is referenced gets lost, and the loving Father's identity gets replaced by a sad counterfeit.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us.

1 John (RSV) 14-19

Love defines humanity's identity; a love that radiates out. Finding oneself in the modern sense remains an exercise in chasing one's shadow. Only when man accepts the proposition of Augustin that the heart must rest in his loving Father does he truly come to know his true identity. And with that knowledge, one's purpose in life shifts to one of service to God and neighbor with little regard to twenty-first century's quest for self-fulfillment.

A Real Catholic

2008-08-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, has delighted the conservative base of the Republican Party and will likely aid in attracting many of the disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who were less than enthusiastic by the Obama bin Biden ticket. Catholics especially should rejoice for Palin, a mother of five, appears to be at the very least in communion with the teachings of the Church on life issues. Given the sad history of Catholic politicians such as Rudolf Giuliani, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, all of whom have created scandal by their decidedly anti-Church positions on a variety of issues, there is a somewhat satisfactory temptation to exclaim:

"At last, a real Christian is running for office."

While the statement seems true it is a bit perilous because it can lead one down the path of pure judgment while neglecting a dire need for love. Christ outlined a due process for dealing with those who have fallen away:

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

Matthew (RSV) 18:15-17

In the case of the politician, at least two of the three of the steps outlined by Our Lord have been followed. Surely several souls have informed the errant public figures mentioned above that their positions on life issues are sinful. Certainly many have complained to the bishops of their respective diocese. The challenge may very well lie in the listening to the church, which specifically on the local level has been silent.

True, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops and several bishops around the country recently issued strong statements against Speaker Pelosi for her misrepresentation of Catholic doctrine, but the correction from the bishop of her diocese, Archbishop George Niederaur has been slow in coming. Rumor has it that he plans to publish a response in the local Catholic newspaper in San Francisco next month.

There has never been any public statement by Cardinal Egan of New York correcting the former Mayor Guiliani whose multiple marriages and public pro-choice stance are indications of his being outside of communion with the Church. And yet when Pope Benedict celebrated mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rudy received communion.

John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have received a lot of flack from many over their pro-abortion stance while still professing to be in full communion with the Church; however, the shepherd in their Boston diocese, Archbishop Sean P O'Malley has kept a safe distance speaking in generalities.

Joe Biden has not been so sheltered. Bishop Michael Saltarelli has publicly stated in direct response to Biden's pro-abortion stand that politicians who promote abortion should refrain from receiving communion. He also forbade Catholic schools in his diocese to allow Biden to speak at their school. Saltarelli submitted his resignation when he turned age 75 as is custom, and one only prays that his successor, the Most Reverend W. Francis Malooly will join with Saltarelli in this cause.

It is not out of judgment that bishops, clergy, and even the laity should dare to correct the wandering politician, but rather out of love. Each of those mentioned above has been given the gift of leadership and thus have become culpable for the example that their public lives display. By taking a position against the Church on such a non-negotiable issue as the sanctity and dignity of human life, one has to genuinely fear for the politician's very soul.

What is more, love of neighbor should inspire a loud hue and cry protesting the misrepresentation by the politician of the Church and her teachings. For if the light of truth does not shine on the lie put forward by the politician, then there will be those who will be led astray by the lie.

Oh how the choirs of angels would rejoice were Pelosi, Guilianai, Kerry, Kennedy, and Biden to publicly state that they have been in error on their support of abortion. As Catholics we must not only stand firm in our correction of these leaders, but pray in earnest for their conversion. Ultimately what is at stake transcends the rhetoric and discourse of the culture. Each and every time a Catholic politician openly defies the Church, one is witnessing a soul that is perishing.

As Christ instructs, they should be regarded as the tax collector or gentile. That is to say, they have by their own actions placed themselves outside of the communion with Christ. To follow them or more bluntly to vote for them cooperates in that stepping outside of unity with the mystical body. Would one give an alcoholic a drink? Would one give a heroine addict money for drugs? Why then would one give his vote to support the continued fallen path of the heretical politician?

Christ's mercy is infinite. Any of the anti-life leaders can repent, convert, and come home at anytime. The door to forgiveness stays ever open. Let all Catholics pray for the return of all leaders who have been lured by power, pride, and a false sense of importance that they may one day leave the culture of death and join in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

+++

Postscript. September 7th, 2008. Here is a link to the letter published, today, by Archbishop George Niederaur. Pray that Ms. Pelosi agrees to meet with her pastor.

Here We Go Again

2008-08-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Now that Mr. Obama has selected his running mate, Senator Joe Biden from Deleware, Catholics are once again confronted with another political leader who claims to be in full communion with Rome in words yet the legislation he has supported indicates him to be in direct opposition to the Church.

For example, on the issue of when life begins, Mr. Biden says:
"I am prepared to accept my church's view. I think it's a tough one. I have to accept that on faith."

Meet the Press interview, 2007

Notice he didn't say life begins at conception, but rather he was prepared to accept such a notion. It seems to be a theoretical proposition for Mr. Biden versus a statement of fact. Juxtapose that comment with his thinking on Roe Vs Wade:
"I strongly support Roe v. Wade. I wouldn't have a specific question but I would make sure that the people I sent to be nominated for the Supreme Court shared my values; and understood that there is a right to privacy in the United States Constitution."

South Carolina Democratic Primary Debate, 2007

So life begins at conception, but if you choose to kill it that's your business.

According to Mr. Biden new life growing in the mother's womb should also not be eligible for health benefits from the government that is perfectly willing to fund its termination. As recently as March of 2008 he voted no on allowing benefits to cover the unborn of the poor under the SCHIP program.

Mr. Biden also believes that a minor should be allowed to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion if the state said minor lives in requires parental involvement in the decision to abort. He voted no in March of this year on a bill that would have prohibited such activity. He also voted no on a bill that would require parents to be notified when their child sneaked across state lines to have an abortion. Such actions earned him a rating of 0% from NARAL, which is their odd way of saying that a politician is in their camp. By contrast John McCain has a 75% rating which indicates a mixed record on the abortion issue while someone like Sam Brownback has a 100% pro-life rating by NARAL.

Life begins at conception? That's a definite maybe for Mr. Biden. He supports expanding embryonic stem cell research which involves taking a created life, killing it, and harvesting its stem cells. The Catholic Church is opposed to this as well.

The Catholic Church is crystal clear on its position that contraception is gravely immoral; however, in 2005 Mr. Biden voted yes on a $100 million to expand the distribution of contraceptives including emergency contraception, which is a euphemism for the morning after pill.

Ask a Protestant brethren what exactly he protests about the Catholic faith. In most circumstances, he is not really sure. He simply grew up Protestant and that is the faith he knows. Mr. Biden cannot make such a claim. He is Catholic protesting the teachings of the Church on some very fundamental matters. He does not deserve the vote of any Catholic; however, all Catholics should pray for his conversion.

Happy Birthday Dad

2008-08-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Dad,

Today is your birthday, and as usual, I'm behind in my sending of gifts. I was never very good at remembering that kind of thing and as I get older I seem to be only getting worse. On this special occasion, however, I'm not sure what gift I could send that would be adequate. Oh, I could have sent the traditional golf item or perhaps a book I thought you might like. And I know you appreciate everything we kids send you.

You do realize you're a man who is hard to shop for don't you? That probably amazes you as you are a person of simple wants in life. Near as I can tell, you pretty much want what you already have, which is a fine way of achieving happiness, but also puts you in the category of shopping for the man who has everything he wants.

Seventy-five years. I wish I could be there with you, today. I really do. This is a special day, and while two timezones stand between us along with my new job, on this day I wanted to give you my talent which I strive to multiply as the parable in sacred scripture encourages. God gifted me with the ability to string a few sentences together, and it is with this gift I wish to express my thoughts and sentiments in a way no box of golf balls ever could.

First and foremost, I am proud to be your son. You've taught me many thing over the years. As a kid, you taught me how to fish, which, today, I actually do pretty well. You also taught me how to play golf, which, today, I totally stink at, but that's not your fault. Come on, it's golf. Actually, I think it's pretty wonderful that a man who is seventy-five can beat his forty-four-year-old son in any sport.

You've given me an example of patience and how to treat others in this world. I don't think I've ever seen you just totally lose your temper, and I've always admired that about you. No matter what the situation, you always seem to somehow maintain a calmness about you. That's a characteristic I've been able to emulate in the work place which has served me well. I've been told by bosses and coworkers that one of the things they really like about working with me is that I always keep my cool in stressful situations. I credit you with that gift.

I wish I could say that I've been equally successful at home in that regard, but remember half of me comes from Mom and I have good dose of Latin passion. Apparently I've also acquired a number of habits that you have that drive Mom nuts and irritate my wife was well. But you know, Dad, if we didn't have these peccadilloes they would probably find us terribly boring. I might pay for that statement when my wife reads this, but what the heck.

Growing up, every Sunday you and Mom got us kids to church. Small wonder that, today, all three of your kids, and all of your grandkids, love Our Lord Jesus Christ with a passion. Even those many years when I strayed from the faith and lived my life as a secular man in this secular culture, I always knew deep down where home really was, and I am glad you got to see me come home to Christ.

As I write this, I'm sipping my morning coffee. Some of my fondest memories as a kid was sitting at the breakfast table with you reading the paper before you went to work. It as a quiet time, and to this day I cherish the quiet of the morning. It is in the early hours of the day that I sometimes picture you sitting in the breeze way of your house; reading your paper; drinking your coffee, and sharing this simple pleasure with me.

Seventy-five years and some nine months ago, God gazed upon the Earth and saw that it was good, but that something was missing. In a flash of divine inspiration He created you. Mom, us kids, and your grandkids all celebrate Our Father's decision that day.

Happy 75th Birthday Dad!

I love you.

David

The Illusion

2008-08-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion: He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

1 Timothy (RSV) 3:16

St. Augustine once said that if anyone claimed to understand God, that person had created an idol for himself. God is a mystery. He is beautiful, powerful, loving, merciful, omniscient, and omnipotent, and yet none of those adjectives do justice to describing who He really is. No matter how poetic or primitive the description, the fact remains that God is a mystery.

Modern living has a tendency to lull one into a belief that by the simple virtue of living several hundred or even thousands of years later one has greater wisdom than the ancients. Certainly humanity has gained more scientific knowledge. Man knows more facts about things in this world. Aristotle would likely not make it very far in Jeff Foxworthy's popular game show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

The question must be asked. Does knowledge of all of the intricacies of a fallen world that is passing away really matter? If man were somehow able to explain everything about his temporal world from the grandiose to the subatomic, is he all the better for it, or has he simply immersed himself into a grand illusion of self-reliance that finds no need for God?

And yet the things of this world do matter. They were created by God to serve a purpose. What if instead of studying simply how things worked one instead focussed upon how things glorified God? True, this would not be an exact science. There would be many areas of subjectivity. One scientist in this field might argue that a tree glorifies God because it provides shade and comfort to man while a second scientist might posit that the tree's greater glory rests in its production of life-giving oxygen. The primary conclusion for both would be that the tree praises the Almighty. How it does it becomes secondary.

For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists, nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world. If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them. And if men were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much more powerful is he who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.

Wisdom (RSV) 13:1-5

It was a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, about 100 years before Christ, who by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, committed these words to parchment. He wrote it in Greek. His name has been swallowed up by history and likely will never be known, but the word of God he scribed lives into today. It is clear that all created things are intended to point to God.

And humanity, especially humanity, gets included in that created list of things that give a corresponding perception of the Creator. No clearer could that fact be than the reality that a century after the Book of Wisdom was written, God stepped directly into human history in the form of a man whose nature was divine, our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Follow me."

That was the simple command of Our Savior over and over again. He didn't say to Phillip, "study me." His words to Peter were not "dissect me." Matthew wasn't asked to understand the origin of things. Each of these apostles and a few disciples were simply asked by Jesus to follow Him.

God is a mystery, a truth one can never fully understand; yet the mysterious can be embraced. One hardly understands why a parent's first sight of a newborn child infuses such instant love into their hearts; and yet that love is real even if and especially since it transcends the bonds of quantification.

The Mission

2008-07-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

“By its nature, relativism fails to see the whole picture. It ignores the very principles which enable us to live and flourish in unity, order and harmony. Unity is the essence of the Church; it is a gift we must recognize and cherish.”

Pope Benedict XVI - World Youth Day

Does one take one's values from the contemporary culture, or does one apply one's values to the contemporary culture?

Most children at some point will hear a parent advise them not to go along with the crowd just because. "If you're friends jumped off a cliff would you jump off a cliff too?" or some variation of that no doubt at one one time or another was the imparted wisdom of mom and dad. It was good advice, but like so many of the smart things parents try to teach, often children simply do not listen. In the child's mind he can't imagine his friend wanting to jump off a cliff, but they do want to try beer which seems, comparatively, way safer.

As one enters adulthood and discovers that one is now on his own to decide what is right and wrong, how easy it becomes to just go along with the crowd. If everyone is doing it then it must be a good thing since no one wants to be unhappy. Television shows like Friends, Seinfeld, and Sex in the City have become the new synoptic gospels for the American culture. How many people does one know who could quote a favorite one liner from one of those programs but would struggle to come up with a favorite verse from sacred scripture?

Does one take one's values from the contemporary culture, or does one apply one's values to the contemporary culture?

Two men are on a mission right now. Barack Hussein Obama is on a globe trotting campaign trip to try to enhance his worldly credibility with the electorate. In Mr. Obama, the world can see first hand the incarnation of contemporary American culture. This junior senator from Illinois has positioned himself as the one who best represents what the people of these United States really stand for. And he may very well be right. Popularity seems to be the core value these days and not much else. The war in Iraq is tragic; the right to kill the unborn is paramount; God is optional; and George Bush is an idiot. If one can speak those populous messages with eloquence, many Americans have decided one need no further qualifications to lead.

The other man on a mission is Pope Benedict XVI who has traveled to Australia to bring the Gospel to Generation Hope who have gathered down under for World Youth Day in Sydney. The Pope has his own message of change for the world's young people that runs counter to the contemporary culture. This Holy Father really does know best as he calls on all not to follow the path of secular relativism but rather to simply seek the truth. He gives himself totally, faithfully, freely and fruitfully, not for his own advancement or benefit, but rather for the eternal salvation of the children, over one billion of them and growing, that Christ entrusted into his care.

Does one take one's values from the contemporary culture, or does one apply one's values to the contemporary culture?

Obama embodies the first part of the question, Pope Benedict espouses the second. It is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who offers the change one can believe in.

Whether a Catholic should vote for Barack Obama or John McCain is not the point of this article. History has proven that the cultural Catholic vote follows very closely with the popular vote, and Catholics who actually practice their faith make up only about ten percent of the electorate. As one weighs who to vote for an examination of conscience must take place and part of that exercise should include an honest inventory of where one has derived one's values.

If one discovers areas of belief that have been shaped by the contemporary culture, then one should take a step back and examine if such beliefs are in line with Christ. If they are not, then who greater than Him has taken His place in the formation of one's core set of values? If the answer is Barack Obama, John McCain, or one's coworkers at the office water cooler, then perhaps one needs to embark on one's own mission. Not a quest for change, but rather a mission for conversion.

I'll Be Back

2008-07-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

John (RSV) 20:6-7

Why did Christ bother to set aside the napkin that covered His head? He could have just tossed it in the same pile with his other burial clothes. Scripture is very specific in this matter. He took the napkin that covered His head and did something very deliberate with it. The Latin Vulgate uses the phrase unum locum to describe this. It's one of those nuances that easily gets lost in translation to English because that word locum translates to "seat," "rank," or "position."

While it may seem a mystery to us why Our Lord was so tidy. For a Jew living 2,000 years ago, the meaning of this gesture would have been very clear. The custom of the day held that that when the master of the house was dining at table, his servant would wait just out of sight for him to finish. It would be considered terribly rude for the servant to clear the table before the master was done. When the master finished eating, he would rise, clean his fingers and beard with the napkin, and then wad it up an throw it on the table. This meant that he did not plan to return and it was time for the servant to clean up.

On the other hand, if the master was not finished eating, but for whatever reason needed to leave the table, he would neatly roll his napkin and place it beside his plate. This let the servant know that the master would return and that he should hold off on cleaning up.

So when Christ takes the napkin that covered His head and neatly rolls it up and puts it in a specific position apart from His other burial clothes, by that gesture he lets his apostles know that He is not finished. He will be back. Upon seeing this, Peter and John in their joy rushed back to tell the others. Had they waited around they might have seen Him sooner. The very next verse in this scripture describes how Mary Magdalene stayed behind at the tomb, and Christ appears to her.

This tradition of neatly folding the napkin continues on today in the mass. At the conclusion of communion when the priest purifies the vessels that were used, notice that he doesn't simply wad up the corporal, that linen cloth on which the eucharistic elements are placed, but rather he neatly folds it in a deliberate and specific way and sets in on the chalice in a specific position. It is a sign that the Eucharistic meal never really ends.

The Master will return.

Not in My Neighborhood

2008-07-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood.

Matthew (RSV) 8:34

It's interesting to ponder why the citizens of Gadara asked The Christ to leave their land after he had healed the demoniacs. This passage from Matthew's Gospel concludes the famous scripture where Christ confronts the two possessed people who had terrorized the countryside to the point that no one even dared to venture down the road in front of the caves where they roamed. The demons ask to be allowed to go into the herd of swine, which Christ allows, and then that very herd rushes into the sea and drowns itself.

First one must understand that the Gardarenes were mostly gentiles, Greeks who settled in the area after Alexander the Great's exploits. Jews would never herd swine. So when Christ expelled the demons into the swine who then killed themselves, there were probably some less than enchanted swine herdsmen who now had to explain to their boss what happened to his property. Oh to have been able to listen in on that conversation. In modern vernacular it might have sounded something like,

"There was this dude who like drove your pigs nuts and they totally went off the cliff."

It's not easy bringing Christ into foreign territory, whether that be a country or a secular culture. God has always maintained a system of free will. One can accept His reality or not. Had Christ approached the herdsmen and asked their permission to sacrifice their livelihood in exchange for the curing of the two demoniacs, it's highly likely they would have driven Our Lord and His disciples into the sea right then and there.

To truly be the follower of Our Lord means to be willing to give up everything of earthly value for the Kingdom of Heaven. That's not just a tall order for the non-believer, the faithful struggle with this day in and day out.

How often does one pick and choose the Christ he allows into his neighborhood. The loving Christ; the comforting Christ; the giving Christ; the forgiving Christ are all welcomed; however, when the suffering Christ; the tortured Christ; or Christ dead in tomb makes it into one's world, how easy it is to ask this Christ to leave.

Like the Gardarenes, one doesn't understand the good these less than pleasant manifestations of Christ bring. The homeless person living on the margins begging for change gets not just casually overlooked, but consciously ignored as one pretends one didn't see this person who is not just a fellow human being, but a soul where Jesus also lives.

Every non-believer either consciously or unconsciously asks the same question posed by the demoniacs, "What have you to do with me, O Son of God?" though not out of fear of eternal punishment as the demons who knew their ultimate destination of perdition but rather out of a seeking to answer the nagging question of what is this Christ? Yet how often does one reach out to this person with self-righteousness, lectures or indifference instead of love and tolerance?

And when Christ comes with the burden of a heavy cross, how often does one wish this Christ would leave and take the burden with Him. Instead of embracing the wood, one bitterly drags the weight of the matter angered by being chosen.

And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

Matthew (RSV) 9:1

Christ didn't argue with the people. He didn't try to explain what He had just done for the poor souls whom He had freed from their possession by the demons. And scripture doesn't reveal if those cured followed Him. He doesn't boast of his authority over the evil one. He simply leaves as they requested.

The love of Jesus is everlasting. One never loses that. Yet if one chooses to send Him away, He will give one the space desired. Perhaps becoming more one with Christ lies in the choice to accept into one's neighborhood The Christ in whatever form He enters. Herein awaits the true conforming of one's heart to that of the Savior.

Planes, Trains, and Strangers

2008-06-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:36

There's an interesting experience one sometimes encounters when stepping onto a crowded bus, train, or plane. Gazing at the crowd of strangers of various backgrounds, origins and ethnicities, and knowing that each is related to one by a common creator yet separated by a fallen history, there exists a tendency to question in one's mind which of these souls might share a common baptism in Christ. This is done not in a judgmental fashion, but rather approximates the empathy with Our Lord when he saw the crowds and thirsted for their salvation.

Granted, not every one has this experience. One who has no knowledge of Jesus, or who has immersed himself into the fantastical belief of a non-communal, purely individualistic, personal relationship with Christ likely does not ponder this thought. For the believer who has been given the treasure of faith, the drive to share this treasure can often lead one to venture into a desire to proclaim the Gospel yet prudence dictates a more reserved response. Suddenly bursting into preaching likely would get one tossed under the bus or escorted off the plane by Homeland Security officials.

So the only resource left, which is highly underrated, remains prayer. A simple prayer that all those strangers within one's midst might one day share in the wedding feast. This prayer is not made with arrogance like the Pharisee in the parable who engaged in a prayer of self-puffery and then thanked God that he wasn't like the tax collector who had come into the temple to pray. It is a humble prayer of hope that at the very least one might have the opportunity impart what one has come to believe because the truth is so mysteriously awesome.

What proves more wondrous is when one walks into a Catholic church away from one's own home parish. Here, too, are a group of strangers, but the sense of being alone quickly evaporates as more brothers and sisters in communion gather to encounter the mass. One might be a distant relative, but no matter what parish church a Catholic Christian finds his way into, a sense of being home exists.

The question, today, is when Christ catches sight of the crowd with whom does His pity rest? It's tempting to conclude that it must be with that crowd of non-believers that one might presume occupy the majority of seats on the plane. In point of fact, the possibility must be considered that His pity finds its way to the priestly people who are supposed to take his word to the masses, but choose not to do so.

Consider for a moment that the uninformed maintain a degree of innocence by virtue of ignorance. Those who have heard the good news but rejected it have had their fair shake. But those who have accepted the Gospel, but then choose to keep it to themselves or at the most keep it within the confines of the walls of their church are perhaps the ones in most need of Christ's mercy. God gives few exclusive gifts to the individual. Most are given for the benefit of others, and the soul that has had faith leavened by grace has indeed experienced a windfall of wealth that must flow to the community at large.

The form of this sharing corresponds to the gifts one has been given. For some it might be simply living the Christian life for others to witness. Some are called to teach and still others to preach, but regardless, the talents must be multiplied for the glory of God.

Just a thought to ponder the next time one steps onto the plane, bus or train.

Divine Right of Kings

2008-06-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good.

Romans (RSV) 13:1-4

St. Paul asked the Roman Christians to not worry about the pagan rulers of the day but rather he implored the early believers to have a little faith that God had the situation under control to the point of advancing the idea that even the pagan ruler was a result of the will of God. That was likely a hard pill to swallow for the early Church. Today, that same message might prove a little more difficult to choke down. How many Republicans would concede that Bill Clinton was president for eight years because of the will of God? Probably only slightly fewer than the number of Democrats who would boldly proclaim that George W. Bush is President today for the same reason.

And yet, St. Augustine took this concept and ran with it in his twenty-two volume, De civitate Dei (The City of God) when he emphasized that while the aims of man often run against the Divine, nevertheless, the person placed into a position of authority over man gains his authority solely to serve the ultimate will of God. No matter how rapacious for power or personal gain the day's politician might be; no matter how inept; or no matter how downright evil; whomever gains the throne owes his rise to the Almighty even if the ruler is too blind or corrupt to see it.

These are hard words indeed. For taken to the next level, if one believes that the ruler gains authority from God, then on what basis can one question the authority of said ruler? For to do so questions the very will of God. Such was the argument of many a monarch born during and shortly after the Reformation. Borrowing from Augustine, and slightly twisting his meaning, they interpreted sacred scripture to mean that God not only gives authority to the ruler but literally ordains him, too. The king answers to God and God alone and as such his wisdom must also be considered of heavenly origin and certainly not questioned.

Of course St. Paul never had in mind this wishful thinking by these kings who often exercised their Divine Right in spectacularly sinful ways. Nowhere does he suggest that one should follow a bad leader into immorality. Were that the case, Heaven would be occupied by far fewer martyrs. No, the message clearly reminds the reader that the authority for man to be ruled by kings, presidents, and the like is a gift from God, but it falls on the shoulders of person gifted with this position to conform with God's will. If he doesn't, those subjected to him might indeed suffer and might even die, but that ruler possesses no power over them greater than the love of Christ.

This should be a warning to those who seek leadership over people. For if one finds oneself in a position of authority, one has a huge responsibility to do the will of God which as Christ demonstrated is a ministry of service and gift of self. The Church's first Pope, St. Peter, also reveals the special place authorities have when he writes:

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

1 Peter(RSV) 3:21-22

The leaders of a nation are subject to Christ which ultimately means they answer to Him. They have been given more by being placed in a position of power, and more is expected. To abuse such power may endanger more than their electability. Indeed, their very souls stand at risk.

Let all pray that the people who have been given the gift of public service be open to the grace that comes with such high levels of responsibility. Let them truly be as St. Paul proclaims, God's servants for good.

A Simple Voice of Hope

2008-05-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Saint Michael the Archangel Parish is a small, historic, Catholic church on Fourth Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon. Within its hundred-plus-year-old, red brick walls one finds a beautiful place to worship. And while her predominantly Italian congregation strives to raise the money to renovate her interior which has aged for the most part gracefully, her mission of serving the homeless and the poor a simple meal at lunch remains a mainstay that keeps the spirit of this church renewed.

When time allows, I attend the 12:05pm mass during my lunch hour as do many of the office workers of downtown. This is one of the few parishes in Portland, perhaps the only one, that offers the sacrament of reconciliation every day from 11:30am to Noon. At Noon, the old bell tolls to call all to mass, and those gathered inside already rise and pray the Angeles together concluding with the prayer to St. Michael.

At the end of mass, father greets the faithful outside the front doors to wish them a good day. As one descends the curved stairs that take one to the sidewalk of Fourth Street, one has to briefly walk amidst some of the very people who need the love and service mentioned during the concluding rite of mass when father commands, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord."

Some sit, some stand, many lean. They are the least of our brothers, and those who have just received the body or Christ are suddenly juxtaposed with those who will soon receive the love of Christ from the volunteers of St. Michael's who feed them a lunch time meal. It's nearly impossible not to feel a little unworthy to have so recently received such a blessed gift of Eucharist, and then nonchalantly stride past these souls who appear to be in more need of what one has just received. Knowing that the angels of St. Michael's parish will feed them eases the conscience but does not dim the reality.

Mostly, the only communication between these poor and the nourished exiting mass are kind glances and an occasional smile. Rarely do any of those waiting in line for meal beg the mass goers for money. It seems to be some kind of unwritten rule.

The other day as I was coming down those stairs, I overheard part of conversation between two homeless women sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the doors of the lunch room to open. The one talking looked to be in her mid-forties. Something she said with a slight optimistic lilt in her voice has haunted me these last few days.

"The only thing that gives me hope is that this can't go on forever. One day I will die and this will all be over."

There are volumes of catechesis in her simple statement. This life cannot go on forever. No matter how good it is or how desperate, eventually it does end. I don't know where in her faith journey this woman was, but it sounded like she at the very least knew it would be better on the other side. Her simple voice of hope proclaimed that the ultimate answer to life would not be found in this existence, and at that moment, I believe she was closer to Christ then me and good many of the daily communicants who walked past her and returned to their offices.

Blessed are the poor.

Change

2008-05-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

This blogger largely tries to stay away from politics for the simple reason that if he directed his attention for a very long period of time there what appeared on the screen might appear to be less than charitable and certainly give him cause to frequent the confessional more often than he already does. Nevertheless, as Mr. Obama now appears to have the Democratic nomination well in hand, it seems appropriate to address one of the cornerstones of his message because it reflects an interesting phenomena in the American culture.

Change is what this relatively young man calls for. And he's not just looking for three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel. No, Obama has firmly planted his flag in the heart of the American psyche that knows deep down that something is not as it should be. Secular America hungers for a savior. And one must say secular for though a large number of her citizenry lays claim to Christianity as their religion their values definitely stray a good distance from Christ and His Church.

For one to effectively change then one needs to know exactly what one is leaving behind. That important element is something few Americans have really given much thought to. They simply believe that anything would be better than what the status quo is today. Were he to be elected, Mr. Obama would be the least experienced President of these United States ever elected to office. How willing is America to roll the dice on a candidate whose best quality is scripted oration? The fact that he has been able to lure so many speaks loudly of a nation that starves for salvation or at the very least a genuine purpose for existence.

This is a dangerous time in the nation's history. In the 1930's, an Austrian immigrant to Germany convinced enough people that the Aryan race was the master race of all mankind. He caught the masses imagination at just the right time for having been beaten and downtrodden by World War I the people of Germany were ready for wholesale change. Something, anything, would have been better than what they were experiencing. Germans were suffering from real material poverty and Hitler seemed to have a solution; though few clearly understood his final solution.

Now this is not to say that Mr. Obama is anywhere near in the same league of an Adolf Hitler. Being a smooth talker likely is as harmful as he will ever be. However, it is interesting how a desire to be lifted out of poverty moves people in a singular direction. America does not suffer a poverty of material wealth. In some ways it might be easier to understand if she did. True, the economy is stumbling, but the result of this will likely be a curbing of excess versus real pain.

No, America's destitution lies within her very soul. Unlike her European brethren countries who have suffered from their loss of Christian thought but maintained their national identity, America is quickly losing sight of who she is for her identity was founded upon the principles established by her founding fathers which included above all a belief in a loving and just Creator. Having moved out from under God, America struggles to find a core set of values that serve this one nation.

The Devil is not named George Bush. He's simply a man whose made some good decisions and some bad ones. The Messiah is not named Barack Obama. He's simply a man with a gift for public speaking. Should he win in November he, too, will have a slate of decisions to make and some will be good and some will be flawed. No president ever escapes that.

Truly it is not change that America yearns for but rather a return, or better still, a redemption. The only one who can provide that is the one who possesses the human face of God and the divine face of man...Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

America, Welcome to the Real World

2008-05-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

According to the The World Fact Book, published online by the CIA, the ever growing population of India is about 1,147,995,898. That's billion with a "B." Of those souls, 25% live below the poverty line, which translates to a number that equals about 95% of the total population of the United States. Poverty flourishes in India. So it should come as no surprise that her government took great umbrage at President Bush's comments that seemed to imply that India and her increased consumption of food as that third world economy begins to emerge was partially to blame for the soaring food prices in the USA.

Consumption of resources borders on gluttonous in America. Data from the United Nations Agricultural Organization reveals that the average American consumes about 3,770 calories per day, the highest of any country in the world. A well fed citizen in India will eat about 2,440 calories per day. India, whose population is nearly four times that of the US, consumes less than a million barrels of oil per day compared to the nearly 21 million barrels burned by America.

And while 12% of Americans live below the poverty line, her poorest of the poor pale in comparison to the desperately impoverished whom Mother Theresa served. People literally starve to death in India. Hospital emergency rooms do not serve as adjunct free health care clinics for the poor as they do in the US. If a poor person gets sick in India, he is on his own. And while the "homeless" of Portland, Oregon recently found the energy and resources to organize themselves and stage a protest in front of City Hall by camping out on the sidewalk in front of the mayor's office, in India homelessness is not a lifestyle choice.

And lest anyone believe that India stands out at as shining city on the hill, one should remember that this country of a billion people has its share of sins as well. Life is cheap here. Human trafficking, especially in the flesh trades, is a real problem. Women are definitely considered the inferior sex to the point that a cottage industry of mobile ultrasound businesses has grown up to help couples determine the sex of the child inutero. If the baby in the womb is a girl, her life often gets terminated via abortion.

Clearly all countries have their problems in a fallen world.

When America awakes from her recession, she may very well find that she has become the synthesis of who she once was yesterday and who India is today. She may discover that recession was more of a hangover from the indulgent party she enjoyed for so many years, and now that the binge is over, its time to take a step forward into the real world. She may by God's mercy discover that there is way more to life than material wealth. Therein may exist the hope that she turns back to God in thought and in action.

Virtues Gone Wild

2008-04-26T14:24:00.001-07:00

The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are , indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage.

C.K. Chesterton - Orthodoxy

It's tempting to blame the ills of society on a single generation. This author stands guilty as charged as he doesn't blanch at his professed disappointment with his own Baby Boom generation. And for good cause. How many of the advances in science, technology, and social constructs trumpeted by this demographic of free love actually moved people closer to God compared to steering souls towards a lifestyle of introversion where nearly all attention gets focused on giving to self versus actually making a gift of self?

And while Tom Brokaw affixed the label of "Greatest Generation" to those who did indeed sacrifice and ultimately triumphed during the depression and World War II, clearly Chesterton's observation written in the early 1900's brings to light that the parents and grandparents of the Boomers were already showing the signs of wear and tear brought on by the fractioning of Christianity some 300 years earlier.

Saints Ambrose, Augustine, and Aquinas drew upon Plato to champion the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. That word cardinal comes from the Latin and means hinge. Thus morality hinges or pivots upon these four primary virtues. Today, very few could tell one what any of those words really mean. They have largely faded into obscurity in the modern vernacular save justice which has taken upon a different definition more closely related to law and order.

In the spirit of it's never too late to learn...

Prudence: Most assume that this word has to do with chastity as in, "Mom is such a prude!" In reality prudence deals with the ability to distinguish between what is virtuous and what is wicked. This applies not just to the big ticket items such as breaking any of the Ten Commandments but equally important to the everyday pragmatic decisions such has how much money should one spend on lunch?

The challenge, today, lies in the reality that modern man has redefined previously thought of wickedness into acceptable norms. Divorce, abortion, co-habitation, pornography, are a mere sampling of the more recent acceptable virtues in the American culture. Given the right circumstance and intent, any virtue's antithesis becomes acceptable and those who attempt to cry foul are labeled as intolerant. The resulting confusion breeds a host of victimized classes of people all demanding recompense from the society at large.

Perhaps the greatest blow to society as a result of the loss of prudence is that nothing really matters anymore beyond one's own personal opinion. A perverse equality of ideas has developed where the only qualifications for credibility are a pulse and the ability to communicate. As such truth does not exist and therefor prudence as a virtue has an unsteady and shifting foundation for one to discern good and evil.

Temperance: This is simply the practice of moderation in all things. This is classical Greek philosophy and was intended to help individuals govern the passions instead of being governed by them. In modern culture great liberties have been taken with temperance to the point that few things are wrong as long as one doesn't do too much of it. And this mindset has been applied to things that are not of the passions, for example, religion. It's okay for one to go to church on Sunday, but one is discouraged from expressing one's faith in mixed company.

In this year's presidential election candidates have all moved so far to the position of moderate that one can hardly distinguish one party from the next. The phenomena of temperance in attitude lest anyone be offended leaves one starving for true leadership that none of the candidates seem able to muster.

Sacred scripture gives one of the best examples of termperance as this cardinal virtue was intended.

Do not aim to be valiant over wine, for wine has destroyed many. Fire and water prove the temper of steel, so wine tests hearts in the strife of the proud. Wine is like life to men, if you drink it in moderation. What is life to a man who is without wine? It has been created to make men glad. Wine drunk in season and temperately is rejoicing of heart and gladness of soul. Wine drunk to excess is bitterness of soul, with provocation and stumbling. Drunkenness increases the anger of a fool to his injury, reducing his strength and adding wounds.

Sirach (RSV) 31:25-30

Fortitude: "Moral courage" gives a good description of this gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the grace to hold fast to the abosolutes whose foundations are in Christ and His teachings. In other words, the ability to choose to take a hit from the culture at large for adhering to what is good and right in the eyes of God even to the point of martyrdom. Fortitude can be active or passive.

Modern culture confuses fortitude with intolerance. Often the righteous man gets pressured by society to accept all points of view regardless of their moral good. To bravely take a stand means risking reproach by the masses who adhere to a philosophy of equality regardless of the evil that may be propogated. As a result a person without fortitude can quickly find one's moral compass unable to find true north.

A classic example of this might be the pro-choice camp's proposition that abortion is a personal decision. The more compassionate advocate of abortion might very well agree that killing a baby in the womb is indeed evil, but counter that reality with the justification that every person should have the right to choose whether to do that evil or not. The freedom to choose to kill has become the greater good in this person's mind. Were fortitude present, the person would realize that murder is never a moral choice a culture should support.

Justice: This virtue frequently gets a juridical quality applied to it when in point of fact, charity is the closer cousin. Justice involves making sure that everyone receives that which belongs to him, especially with regard to human dignity and moral order. This goes beyond the modern obsessive preoccupation with individual rights. Philosopher Peter Kreeft describes justice this way:

"Virtue is simply health of soul. Justice, the overall virtue, is the harmony of the soul, as health is the harmony of the body. Justice is not just paying your debts, not just an external relationship between two or more people, but also and first of all the internal relationship within each individual among the parts of the soul."

“Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation:
The Four Cardinal Virtues”

While justice begins with the individual its reach is communal. To be just involves an ever congnizant awareness of the needs of the members of the community, both sinners and saints, and a recognition that not all needs of people are necessarily equal. Some need less and some need more. It is probably the most important of the cardinal virtues as without justice, the other virtues have a difficult time standing. How can one exercise moderation if one is unaware of one's needs? Fortitude without knowing the needs of society is the breeding ground for tyranny or simply dumb management. Prudence without justice is virtually impossible for without knowing the needs of the culture or individual how can one possibly distinguish between what is wicked and what is good?

Finally, it must be pointed out that while the grace to practice the virtues comes from the Holy Spirit, they are fruitless unless put into practice. Some Christian faiths would have it that these gifts of the Spirit are in and of themselves sufficient and in a sense supplementary since in their understanding one is saved by faith alone, and if one practices the virtues it is simply proof positive that one has been given grace; however Catholic Christians hold fast to the reality that salvation is a combination of God's infinite mercy, justification by faith, and the good works which hinge upon these cardinal virtues.

At the risk of sounding terribly intolerant, any other design could only lead to a moral system based in relativism...which is precisely where much of Western Christendom finds itself, today.

Charisma or Charism

2008-04-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

"My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers; its influence grew - infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion - before it was fully recognized for the monster it was. It banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good."

Pope Benedict XVI
Address to Seminarians & Young People

When Pope Benedict spoke these words at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York, yesterday, he may have been recalling his own lived experience under Nazism; however, he also very well described to a large degree the condition of the American culture. One need only look at how God has been banished from schools and civic bodies under the auspices of diversity and political correctness to see not a monster as in the form of Adolf Hitler, but rather a cancer in the form of relativism.

If lawmakers and justices abandon their consideration of right and wrong using a mindset of Christian or at the very least theocentric thought, with what will they use as their moral compass? Physical science does little to handle the questions of morality. Public opinion is fickle and prone to being swayed by simple dramatic oratory so one can't rely on that. Tradition is also out for up until recent decades the American tradition was steeped in a God-centered mind.

The simple answer is that absent of faith in a higher power, man is left with his own limited capacity to govern. The end result can only be the rise of figures who ascend to power with charisma versus serve the people with a charism. The masses become enamored by the magic of the dynamic man and lose sight of the Almighty. In such a scheme, governance turns inward upon itself and the people its supposed to serve simply suffer or as in the case of America, they simply drift.

The Pope's visit to America will soon fade in the headlines as the Presidential election moves to center stage, but perhaps the Holy Father will have made enough of an impression, that Americans will begin to see that a very large chasm separates where the people want to be and where their leaders are attempting to take them. For Benedict XVI radiates the light of Christ wherever he goes and the human heart cannot help but be drawn to it, even if the mind does not understand the soul's attraction.

The reason the politician's pontification for change resonates with the electorate may very well be that Americans recognize in their hearts that the soul of the nation is off track, but not because of simply failed policy of the current regime as the candidates would have one believe, but rather because of something deeper and infinitely more personal. One swept into the culture of the day soon realizes that the current carries one away from God, his loving Father and creator.

Hope remains that the authenticity that effuses from Benedict juxtaposed to the obvious pursuit of personal agendas portrayed by the politician will give the American pause as he considers just what kind of person he wants to govern his culture; one who serves with a moral foundation based in the love of Christ, or one who serves with an arrogant belief that he or his party has all of the answers. Given that kind of examination, hope remains that America will realize that its savior rests not with a political party, but with the Divine Person that is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Hope and Horror

2008-04-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass in a packed baseball stadium in front of 46,000 faithful Catholics. He brought with him a message of hope, charity, and reconciliation. He encouraged those in his care to go out and be a light for the world to see the love of Christ. Benedict's visit to the United States thus far has been a wonderful success. He has been greeted with love and respect everywhere he has gone.

Security for the Pope rivals that of any other world leader. This man of peace has enemies, particularly in the radical Islamic community. And as the head of the only Church Christ gave to humanity, Satan certainly stands to take great joy if something bad were to happen to Peter's successor.

Yet any evil act against this ultimate humanitarian that is Pope Benedict likely will not come from a bomb or a bullet directed at him, but rather emerge in the form of an awakening by the masses to the reality of the state in which they live. Not far from where the Pope is visiting in the city of New Haven, Connecticut home to one of America's more liberal institutions, Yale University, a tragic reminder to how deeply evil has permeated the culture is about to be put on display.

Meet art student, Aliza Shvarts. This senior at Yale is getting ready to put on display perhaps the most vile and repugnant show, all with university approval. Over the last year, Shvarts has artificially inseminated herself as many times as possible while taking a cocktail of abortifacient drugs to purposefully induce as many miscarriages as possible. She has saved the blood from these miscarriages and plans to mix the blood with petroleum jelly to keep the blood from drying; then smear the blood on clear plastic sheeting which she will then use to wrap around a large cube. On each side of the cube she will play videos that she took of herself having her miscarriages in her bathtub.

This is art at Yale University.

"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts said. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."

How many souls Shvarts murdered in the name of art is anyone's guess. She is not willing to reveal that information. And while according to Shvarts art should not be a commodity, apparently human life already is. Then, too, this could all be a terribly sick and disgusting joke on her part or on the part of Yale's newspaper which published the story, today.

Out of such horror hope can still arise. For while this woman whose conscious has been shamefully deformed by her culture, her professors, and perhaps even her parents, the love of Christ remains available to her. The mercy of Christ can cover even this horrific disregard and profanation of Our Heavenly Father's greatest gift, the gift of life. Pray for the conversion of Aliza Shvarts.

Still another hope remains. Perhaps news of this barbarism towards life will make its way into the mainstream media, and thousands will be inspired to re-examine their own views on the value of life. In this way, maybe God can turn this purely evil showcase of Shvarts to the good of future generations.

+++

I have now learned that this was a hoax by the student. Very sick and a pretty weak explanation from Yale. Here is a link to the story.

Richard C. Levin is the President of Yale, and todate as expressed no opposition to Shvarts work. His contact information is:

Email: presidents.office@yale.edu
Telephone: (203) 432-2550
Fax: (203) 432-7105

Incongruity of Freedom

2008-04-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

Freedom isn't easy.

The media, politicians, and pundits have marked the macabre milestone of 4,000 American troops dead in Iraq with predictable castigation of President and policy. The troops went to a foreign land with the idea of protecting American freedom from terrorism and maybe giving an oppressed people a little freedom of their own. The troops are all volunteers who freely chose the military as a career, a calling, or a simple means to an end.

For the Catholic in America, the Pope has settled the question of whether this is a just war. It's not. Nonetheless, American men and women are there, now, and at the very minimum deserve the support and prayers of the very people they freely give their lives to protect regardless of one's opinion on policy.

It took five years to lose 4,000 troops. Armed with the best armor and most sophisticated weapons, evil still found a way to take their lives. Each is mourned by family and friends, and most Americans sincerely wish the killing could end. All hope for the day when the last soldier finally comes home and the last chapter of history telling of America's experiment in nation building can be completed.

Freedom isn't easy.

While it took five years for evil to end the lives of 4,000 of America's strongest and most protected, it takes only twenty-four hours for it to end an equal number of America's most vulnerable. For the umbrella of freedom American soldiers fight for casts a very large shadow that includes the freedom to kill a child who should be safe in its mother's womb. Every day in America, 4,000 Americans are lost to abortion.

Al Quida and the abortionist have a like minded goal of killing Americans simply because they exist. In point of fact when one examines the teachings of Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger; her drive to create a superior race by eliminating African Americans; the disabled; and even those who simply had a lower IQ, she seems on par with the evil of Islamic extremism that would snuff out infidels to please Allah.

And yet the incongruity of freedom imposes upon the American the funding of Planned Parenthood with her tax dollars while Uncle Sam chases another evil that actually kills a much smaller fraction of his citizens. Americans have decided that women should have the freedom to kill their babies in their wombs. It is a freedom driven by choice; a freedom to choose to undo a series of bad choices that led up to a decision that had to be made to end a baby's life. Women want this freedom so their lives won't be interrupted. Men want this freedom so they won't be held any more accountable.

For it is God's will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

1Peter2:13-17

Freedom isn't easy.

The ignorance of foolish men Christ's first pope speaks of seems ever abundant. The use of freedom as a pretext for evil seems more and more common place in a culture that no longer really fears God or honors its leaders and certainly does not strive to serve God. As America propels itself down the path of choosing a new President, perhaps the prayer should be that its next leader will take a step back from the dark abyss of bad choices freely chosen by leaders past and instead take a step forward towards the true freedom that is the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Cleopas in Us

2008-03-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

One of the more moving passages of scripture that gets recalled this time of year is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. For readers of the King James Bible, this village has little meaning other than a specific destination for Cleopas and his companion who were leaving Jerusalem dazed and confused after the death of Christ. In point of fact, Luke's Gospel is the second time Emmaus is mentioned in sacred scripture. It was here that an outnumbered and lightly armed army of Judas Machabeus defeated the gentile forces of Gorgias as recounted in 1 Maccabees. Today, the village has long since taken its exit from the stage of history, though some claim a Muslim village called 'Am'was might be the Emmaus from the Gospel.

Regardless of its location, every Christian at some point in his journey, or more than likely many times, takes a walk on the road to Emmaus. It happens in those difficult moments when it appears that Christ has abandoned one. Like the disciples, one grumbles along thinking that one walks alone. Disappointed about whatever is going on in one's life at the time it becomes nearly impossible to see Christ even when He manifests himself and walks with one.

And he said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"

(Luke (RSV) 24:25-26)

It is one's unwillingness to embrace one's faith and one's suffering that prevents a seeking of the love of The Christ in moments of distress. What is desired is Jesus the problem solver more than the Savior. An urgent petition gets offered up, but when the desired answer doesn't just as readily get returned, one's uniting with Our Lord's suffering ends with "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalms (RSV) 22) And with that lament, one embarks onto that fateful road to Emmaus convinced that Christ has not risen to the occasion.

Roads play an important role in salvation history, especially when that road leads away from Jerusalem. It was on a road from Jerusalem to Damascus where Saul got knocked down and had his conversion. In Acts we read about Philip being instructed by an angel to go down a particular desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza where he meets an Ethiopian thirsting to understand sacred scripture and upon being instructed insists upon being baptized with the nearest water available. The Good Samaritan parable has the traveler set upon by robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. And of course Cleopas and his friend were leaving Jerusalem headed for Emmaus after the death of Christ.

But why Jerusalem? Step for a moment into the mind of an ancient Jew. The Talmud speaks of God giving Jerusalem its name so by default the city was considered a holy city. In Hebrew scripture Jerusalem is represented as Yira Shalem. Yira means to see. Shalem means peace. So each of the characters in the above stories had left the holy city of peace. Paul left on a mission of self righteousness to cure the world of what he saw as heresy against Judaism. Unable to see peace, Christ blinded him. The Ethiopian unable to see peace in the scripture he didn't understand left in need of being catechized. The traveler may have wanted to see peace, but misfortune came upon him in the form of violence. And Cloepas and company had seen peace in The Christ, but left in despair upon the Savior's death.

How often does one leave Christ out of righteousness, pride, ignorance, misfortune, or despair? It is precisely when one finds oneself on a road that leads away from this place of peace which is Jesus that one needs to do an about face and return to him. And lest one forgets where to find Christ, Our Lord gave us a way, a physical manifestation witnessed by the the disciples from Emmaus that allows us to come home to Him.

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?"
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

(Luke (RSV) 24:30-35)

The mass is where to find Our Lord and return to the peace one seeks. Here scripture gets opened and Christ gets revealed in the consecration of the bread and wine. No matter what troubles may weigh upon one's heart, comfort is found in the knowing that the Lord has risen and one has joined with him in the Eucharistic meal. One must then know that no matter how lonely the road may seem, with Christ, one never travels it alone.

Judgement, It's a Good Thing

2008-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man.

(Genesis (RSV) 9:5)

The practice of judgment has taken on a very negative connotation in the western, moral-relativistic culture of the twenty-first century. Perhaps the struggle has to do with the reconciling of right and wrong when the mindset of justice has shifted from community to individualism. Time was when people's actions were guided by Judæo-Christian thought. There was a very clear understanding of what was morally acceptable.

That all began to change in the 1600s with the Reformation and subsequent Age of Enlightenment when reason, human reason, began to devolve the primary basis of thought, and faith started to become an option. The cascading effect of this period one hopes touched bottom in the late 1960's when Thomas A. Harris published his book on transactional analysis, (aka TA) entitled, "I'm okay, You're okay." It was a work that captured the mindset of the Boomer generation. In essence there's not really right or wrong only competing versions of the truth, and the path to happiness lies in one's ability to accept the other person as they are without their reality threating one's own.

Huh?

Today, TA, has largely faded out of vogue, but the acceptance of an absolute truth still seems illusive. Christians of all denominations are often seen by the unbeliever as taking the stand of "I'm okay, you're not," which doesn't go very far in winning friends and an influencing people, especially when the culture fears a violation of diversity and acceptance. Then too, certitude of one's righteousness rarely comes without the cost of one's humility. A fine line must be walked between expressing tolerance versus acceptance of the sinner.

At the other extreme resides atheism which holds fast to the impossibility of their being a God with so much injustice in the world. Man must create the justice he seeks on his own. Communism, Nazism, and host of totalitarian regimes contested the existence of God and put the burden of justice solely on man, often a particular individual. Small wonder the word justice is hardly associated with Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, and whole cast of destructive characters of history.

Still, humanity yearns for some way to make sense of all of the injustices it inflicts upon itself. How many different systems for government have come along, absent of God, that attempted to cure the ills of man? Karl Marx would have the state be the ultimate authority; Machiavelli considered a benevolent dictatorship to be the answer; and Adam Smith championed a system of natural liberty, which today gets named capitalism, as the best path to social order. None of these systems reach the heart of the justice man truly desires.

It's tempting to want to infuse the Church into the state. Perhaps what man-made governmental systems need is the absoluteness of God. For if one used Christ and his teachings as a foundation, any of the economic systems above could prove to be a good platform to work from; however, man being man, makes such a system subject to the corruption of power. The Church leaned that early in her history. Be that as it may, where can one hope to find justice if not from the state?

The one true justice that man can count on is faith in an eternal life in communion with God. Man cannot possibly right all of the wrongs that seem inherent with his Earthly existence, but Our Lord gave us a hope that this life represents a mere fraction of our eternal destiny with Him. Pope Benedict brings this message home in his encyclical Spe Salvi,

God has given himself an “image”: in Christ who was made man. In him who was crucified, the denial of false images of God is taken to an extreme. God now reveals his true face in the figure of the sufferer who shares man's God-forsaken condition by taking it upon himself. This innocent sufferer has attained the certitude of hope: there is a God, and God can create justice in a way that we cannot conceive, yet we can begin to grasp it through faith. Yes, there is a resurrection of the flesh. There is justice. There is an “undoing” of past suffering, a reparation that sets things aright. For this reason, faith in the Last Judgement is first and foremost hope—the need for which was made abundantly clear in the upheavals of recent centuries. I am convinced that the question of justice constitutes the essential argument, or in any case the strongest argument, in favour of faith in eternal life. The purely individual need for a fulfillment that is denied to us in this life, for an everlasting love that we await, is certainly an important motive for believing that man was made for eternity; but only in connection with the impossibility that the injustice of history should be the final word does the necessity for Christ's return and for new life become fully convincing.

- Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

There will be an accounting for, a reckoning of one's life on Earth. Grace does not cover up the iniquities of one's temporal experience as the reformers argued in their justifications designed to lure people away from The Church. It is not the great equalizer that magically levels the playing field for everyone. In might be easier if it were, but that simply is not so. What one does here matters. The Pope references a passage from Plato that expresses the fact that in the end souls stand naked before the judge, and it no longer matters what they once were in history, but only what they are in truth.

Benedict continues:

With death, our life-choice becomes definitive—our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell. On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbours—people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfilment what they already are.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

As this author ends his Lenten walk with Benedict's encyclical on hope, let every Christian strive for a greater embracing of the way, the truth, and the life that is Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Left to his own designs, man's systems of justice will always fail someone. The love of God never fails anyone.

Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God's time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.

-Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

May God bless our Holy Father Pope Benedict.

Suffering with Convenience

2008-03-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

As the Bride of Christ prepares to enter into the final week of Lent, the most holy week of the year, it seems appropriate to now turn the attention on a section of the Holy Father's papal letter, Spe Salvi, that deals with suffering. For Catholics, the passion of The Christ, His suffering and death, represents a place of importance in heart of the believer that remains on par with the resurrection. In point of fact, Catholics do not typically speak of one without the other. Passion, death, and resurrection take on a kind of trinitarian quality in describing the meaning of Christ's gift to humanity.

This thinking defines a very real demarcation between Catholics and her separated brethren. Nearly all Protestant Christian faiths delimit the death of Christ as an unpleasant evil that had to take place in order for Him to rise from the dead. To memorialize and give a lot of attention to that event seems odd for them, and many Protestants even consider the display of crucifix to be a form of idol worship. If they were to wear a symbol of Christ, it would be something that represents the empty tomb, which in a sense is the meaning of the cross without the corpus.

In some Protestant ecclesial communities and in far too many Catholic churches one often sees the risen Christ upon the cross. This is an image created completely by man. Christ gave humanity the image of Himself crucified, and when He was taken down there was the image of the empty cross, but never did He offer humanity the image of hovering upon a cross risen from the dead. It is perhaps the weakest of Christian symbols as it portrays man's desire for the risen Christ without the incarnation and true meaning of His suffering. With only His spirit portrayed, the risen Christ on the cross is perfectly acceptable for the gnostic who sees Christ as pure spirit.

The removal of the corpus from the cross is an understandable reaction to the truth. No one should want to look at suffering, especially when the one in distress is one's savior. Yet as undesirable as it may be, one has to come to grips with the reality that in a fallen world some things must be endured. The challenge then becomes how one copes with the suffering.

We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it. It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater. It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

In this modern age, consider the link between suffering and convenience. It seems that the more technologically advanced the society becomes, the lower the bar for what gets defined as suffering becomes. Hunger, disease, and overt oppression have all but been eliminated in much of Western society. Many of the ailments common to the culture are self-inflicted, even many forms of cancer. No one starves to death in America like they do in Darfur. While pockets of racism still exist, the West doesn't see such atrocities such as ethnic cleansing or forced genocide.

In America, suffering often gets linked to money, material wealth, and convenience. Imagine if the money spent on cell phones was suddenly allocated for feeding the poor? Would one dare to give up the convenience of a cell phone if it meant one more person would have a chance at survival? Sadly, that answer has already been made, and the answer is no. Consider what would happen if the money Americans spent on bottled water was used to supply water to drought stricken regions. Again, the choice has already been made in favor of the convenience of the bottled water. There are a multitude of examples where man has chosen making his life easier in this life at the expense of his "out of sight out of mind," distant brother.

Returning to our Holy Father:

...the capacity to accept suffering for the sake of goodness, truth and justice is an essential criterion of humanity, because if my own well-being and safety are ultimately more important than truth and justice, then the power of the stronger prevails, then violence and untruth reign supreme. Truth and justice must stand above my comfort and physical well-being, or else my life itself becomes a lie. In the end, even the “yes” to love is a source of suffering, because love always requires expropriations of my “I”, in which I allow myself to be pruned and wounded. Love simply cannot exist without this painful renunciation of myself, for otherwise it becomes pure selfishness and thereby ceases to be love.

- Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi

Christ on the cross is an ever present reminder of how far man still needs to go to live out the message the Redeemer has given. Perhaps that is one reason the image proves difficult for many to behold. But look one must. Let every Christian gaze upon the crucified Christ and draw the needed inspiration to let go of self and give all to neighbor. This life long calling to abandon self seems impossible at times, especially in the modern world of convenience. But every convenience indulged in is a freely-willed choice, an opportunity to say yes to Christ.

Pray for the grace to always say yes.

An Exercise of Desire

2008-03-08T05:54:00.001-08:00

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.

(Romans (RSV) 8:25-27)

Often, the call to prayer presents one of the greater challenges of the Christian life. This exercise in talking to God routinely takes on the characteristics of just another daily task, and like so many of life's burdens that seem to yield little if any fruit, it becomes easy to slowly lose interest and perhaps even resist spending precious time that could be used for so many other seemingly more pressing matters. God will just have to wait.

...we do not know how to pray as we ought...

Prayer is a manifestation of hope which leads to a deeper, more intimate communion with God and with His Mystical Body of Christ. To pray is to supplicate oneself and allow the Spirit to soften one's heart which has been hardened by this fallen, temporal existence. Through one's entreaty to God one begins the process of emptying self and allowing the grace of Christ to fill in the empty space created. The technique employed varies given one's circumstance at the time of entering into prayer. A simple Our Father is no less efficacious than a lengthy session of lectio divina. In fact, one's prayer life should be a mixture of public prayer, such as in the mass, and private prayer that might be offered in the quiet of the day.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks directly about this intimate prayer experience in his encyclical Spe Salvi as he writes:

It is only by becoming children of God, that we can be with our common Father. To pray is not to step outside history and withdraw to our own private corner of happiness. When we pray properly we undergo a process of inner purification which opens us up to God and thus to our fellow human beings as well. In prayer we must learn what we can truly ask of God—what is worthy of God. We must learn that we cannot pray against others. We must learn that we cannot ask for the superficial and comfortable things that we desire at this moment—that meagre, misplaced hope that leads us away from God. We must learn to purify our desires and our hopes. We must free ourselves from the hidden lies with which we deceive ourselves. God sees through them, and when we come before God, we too are forced to recognize them. “But who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults” prays the Psalmist (Ps 19:12 [18:13]). Failure to recognize my guilt, the illusion of my innocence, does not justify me and does not save me, because I am culpable for the numbness of my conscience and my incapacity to recognize the evil in me for what it is. If God does not exist, perhaps I have to seek refuge in these lies, because there is no one who can forgive me; no one who is the true criterion. Yet my encounter with God awakens my conscience in such a way that it no longer aims at self-justification, and is no longer a mere reflection of me and those of my contemporaries who shape my thinking, but it becomes a capacity for listening to the Good itself.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Numbness of conscience plagues modern man. The twenty-first century reveals a time when the thought of humanity has largely been shaped by erudition and the political agendas of those who have arrogantly compartmentalized and reduced God to one's personal belief. Faith, hope, and love are nice sentiments, but hardly a basis for structuring one's life in this world of knowledge and perceived mastery of nature.

Is it any surprise then that prayer becomes stridently difficult amidst the myriad of voices that compete for one's attention, even for the faithful believer? One can hardly find a moment when a television, radio, telephone, Internet connection, or even a loud speaker is out of earshot. Each medium broadcasts a voice with an opinion on a wide range of topics from politics to the best bath tissue. Information in general, even the most mundane, has taken on a false sense of urgency, and God has gotten lost in the mix or conveniently scheduled to the confines of a Sunday morning activity.

And when one does find the time to pray, how often is that prayer one of petition for some form of material comfort instead of an intimate conversation with the Almighty? How often does one allow God to get a word in edgewise amidst the persistent requests for things? A lot of time gets spent asking, thanking, praising...but very little time is taken for simply listening. There's too much noise and seemingly not enough hours in the day for such things.

The Pope points out one more very important fact to describe the close relationship between prayer and hope that so easily gets neglected in the day to day rat race:

Saint Augustine, in a homily on the First Letter of John, describes very beautifully the intimate relationship between prayer and hope. He defines prayer as an exercise of desire. Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched. “By delaying [his gift], God strengthens our desire; through desire he enlarges our soul and by expanding it he increases its capacity [for receiving him]”.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

As the Lenten journey continues, let all humanity take time to listen for the voice of God and come to realize the greatness for which they have indeed been created.

Never Again, We Hope

2008-03-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

"Denying historical facts, especially on such an important subject as the Holocaust, is just not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable to call for the elimination of any State or people. I would like to see this fundamental principle respected both in rhetoric and in practice by all the members of the international community."

Secretary-General-Designate Ban Ki-moon,
Press Conference SG/2120, 14 December 2006

"Never again, never again" was the mantra of post World War Two after humanity learned of just how evil Adolf Hitler and his implementers of the final solution were. Millions of people, predominantly Jews and including a good number of Catholics and anyone else who fell out of favor with the Third Reich met a systematic and horrific end in the Nazi concentration camps. The world was sickened, saddened, and outraged...but it didn't last.

Since WWII, Russia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Iraq, and many others have experienced the wholesale killing of groups of people based on nothing more than their very existence. The foundations of Islamic extremism call for the elimination of the infidel which means just about anyone reading these words right now.

And lest the American should start to feel high and mighty and sleep well at night knowing that such atrocities would never happen on her soil, one should not leave out of that list of countries these United States where 40,000,000 have been killed since the Roe vs. Wade decision largely because they came into existence at an inopportune time. An inconvenient truth indeed. These aborted babies were not killed because of race, color, or creed. They were terminated simply because they could be. It's legal in all 50 states. It's legal up to the ninth month in all the states of this land of the free.

How confusing that a world so technologically advanced could still have such insanity as genocide. If humanity has found the enlightenment to do such marvelous things with science, why does she still fall into such barbaric behavior?

In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI gives the human race a reminder that advances in science cannot guarantee advances in ethics:

Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man's freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Christ gave humanity a proposition for freedom. When the incarnate God came into the world He asked humanity to consider and accept two simple fundamental tenets of being:

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

(Mark (RSV) 12:28-31)

God gave man free will to say yes to true freedom or yes to the enslavement of his own designs. That choice cannot be forced. One of the criticisms of Catholicism is that the Church imposes morality upon her members. In point of fact, the Church does nothing of the sort. What she does do is remind humanity that despite the tides of history, there exists certain moral absolutes. Those absolutes define what it means to be in communion with God.

Modern man has seemingly forgotten or simply rejected this relationship with his creator. Instead he has chosen a path of self-sufficiency and placed his faith solely in his own ingenuity. He has mistakenly presumed that his progress in science will translate to advances in social living by means of convenience and that naturally morality will fall into place. The trouble lies in the fact that in a system of relativism, a core set of values, a bulwark structure to protect the common good, is simply vaporous. A shift in opinion can change everything.

Returning to Spe Salvi:

It is not science that redeems man: man is redeemed by love. This applies even in terms of this present world. When someone has the experience of a great love in his life, this is a moment of “redemption” which gives a new meaning to his life. But soon he will also realize that the love bestowed upon him cannot by itself resolve the question of his life. It is a love that remains fragile. It can be destroyed by death. The human being needs unconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38- 39). If this absolute love exists, with its absolute certainty, then—only then—is man “redeemed”, whatever should happen to him in his particular circumstances.

Pope Benedict XVI - Spe Salvi

British philosopher Edmund Burke made famous the saying that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it; however, as the Holy Father points out, it's not just knowledge of things that comes into play. There has to be either an acceptance or rejection of good or evil. The way of Christ ultimately defines the way of good which each generation must choose.

"Never again" should be the mantra of the Christian. His hope should be that never again should he return to sin. Never again should he reject the way of the cross but rather embrace it. Never again should he fail to hope in the love or our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Journey Back to Eden

2008-02-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

"In the beginning..."

These first three words of sacred scripture describe a time, a place, and even a state of being where man earnestly desires to return. It's interesting to imagine the lives of Adam and Eve post Eden. Did God in His mercy erase their memories of what it was like to be in perfect harmony with Him, or did they live out their lives with full awareness of Paradise lost? A case can be made that humanity's first parents did indeed retain some memory of their original innocence as the drive to find a way back to God seems to get passed down from generation to generation as an ever present characteristic of man's very nature. Much of his lived experience centers on acting upon this constant yearning.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

(Genesis (RSV) 1:26-28)

That word "dominion" is a tricky one. For many it implies a possessive meaning. The idea that God gave man the Earth to conquer, control, and have absolute authority over nature. And He very well may have intended that, but what gets subtly lost in the telling of the account of creation is the very fact that when Adam and Eve lost Paradise, they lost their dominion over the Earth right along with it. In their fallen nature, how could they, or their descendants for that matter, be entrusted as good shepherds of the planet. The fish of the sea, birds of the air, and every living thing were not the ones that became less. They did not fall from grace nor was their nature changed. A fish is still a fish.

Man did fall. His tumble from grace ontologically changed him. And while he still maintains a moral obligation to respect the world God created for him, he has a far reduced dominative role to play despite what Al Gore says. Man didn't become evil by the fall as the Calvinist would suggest. He simply became wounded. The desire to repair that wound drives him in many ways to seek his creator. In his mercy, God gave man a way back home. Faith, hope, and love in concert with the gift of His only son, Our Lord Jesus Christ was the remedy for the injury to man's fallen nature. And before Christ, a belief in God served as the moral compass of man.

That all began to change a few hundred years ago, which in this instant information age of this high-speed Internet world seems like the distant past but in reality is relatively recent. It was at this time, in the 1700s, that man began to look at his world through the eyes of science discounting the disciplines of philosophy and most important theology. For a masterful summation of this event in history one should refer to Pope Benedict's Spe Salvi, sections 16-23. In short, technology advanced to a point where man could start explaining more of the mechanics of his physical world and his fascination with these discoveries led him to begin to believe that he could indeed achieve dominion over his world once again. Redemption via faith began to be supplanted by knowledge gained through the scientific process.

Now, this “redemption”, the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope...If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man's ethical formation, in man's inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

This crisis of hope the Pope speaks of manifests itself in very real ways. Recently the Centers for Disease Control released a study indicating that the suicide rate among Baby Boomers had increased 20% since 1999. The study reveals that of the approximately 32,000 suicides that happened in 2004, about 7,000 were Boomers. Put another way. If one hears of a person committing suicide there's a better than one in five chance that person was born between 1944 and and 1964. That's a higher percentage than teenagers and the elderly who used to dominate this macabre statistic.

So what happened?

This generation was the first that in large numbers displaced God as a purely optional, private matter. Instead they put their faith in enlightened self-interest and in the technological progress of man. What is interesting is that most of this generation did not live the stereotypical life identified with the Sixties. Most did not march in the streets, burn their bras, or become hippies. Their protest was much more passive and private. In their attempt to conform to what the media and their peers portrayed as "my generation," they discarded the faith of their fathers and pursued something else or in most cases believed in nothing at all except their own abilities. Small wonder that as some approach the last third of their lives, they see no hope and lose their will to endure and meet an unnatural end.

The Holy Father references the philosopher Immanuel Kant to describe this unnatural end:

Now Kant considers the possibility that as well as the natural end of all things there may be another that is unnatural, a perverse end. He writes in this connection: “If Christianity should one day cease to be worthy of love ... then the prevailing mode in human thought would be rejection and opposition to it; and the Antichrist ... would begin his—albeit short—regime (presumably based on fear and self-interest); but then, because Christianity, though destined to be the world religion, would not in fact be favoured by destiny to become so, then, in a moral respect, this could lead to the (perverted) end of all things.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

The good news is that one who has been on the path of hopelessness can change course. Christ, entered human history to give humanity a way out of its fallen existence. And if one missed the message in one's youth, adolescence, and young adulthood, so what? The truth remains ready for one's embrace. There exists a hope far beyond the banality and limitations of physical science. The politician, the eco-warrior, the television pundit may all be screaming that the sky is falling; however, they miss the mark entirely. The Heavens have not fallen. It is man who has.

"Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."

(John (RSV) 14:1-6)

This journey back to Eden, back to harmony with God, begins with a walk with Christ. All other paths no matter how interesting and alluring lead to dead ends, but Christ leads to eternal life.

The Protestant Prison of the "I"

2008-02-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

“Should I have found joy? No ... only my joy, and that is something wildly different ... The joy of Jesus can be personal. It can belong to a single man and he is saved. He is at peace ... now and always, but he is alone. The isolation of this joy does not trouble him. On the contrary: he is the chosen one! In his blessedness he passes through the battlefields with a rose in his hand”

Henri de Lubac, Catholicisme. Aspects sociaux du dogme, 1983

Our Holy Father uses the above passage in Spe Salvi to highlight the tendency for many to abandon the communal nature of salvation and cling to a terribly isolated understanding of the Christian experience. While the Pope does not specifically single out any one particular group, the hard reality exists that this realm of thinking frames nearly all of Protestant theology. For those separated from the one Church Christ gave to humanity, man has a direct, one on one, relationship with the Savior that supersedes anything that might be offered by the community at large and certainly trumps any kind of perceived, man-inspired authority. In essence each human is an island unto himself and while he may share Jesus as a focal point with his Christian brother, there can be no room for any sort of communal relationship.

Hope then becomes greatly watered down under this system of belief. Saved by faith alone in an individualistic relationship with Christ, hope gets diluted by certainty. So sure of one's salvation by the proclamation of faith, hope may be seen as little more than wishful thinking. Political entertainer Rush Limbaugh made this point the other day on his radio program when he unabashedly proclaimed that hope never did anything for anyone as he quoted Frederick Nietzche who asserted that "Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man." The idea being that man wastes his time sitting around hoping in things when he could be going about the business of solving his problems. Limbaugh likely expresses the sentiment of many a cultural Christian who having solved the problem of salvation by her one time acceptance of Jesus as "Lord and personal savior" now must get down to the business of running one's life with Christ as a neatly compartmentalized character trait.

This kind of thinking reflects a soul where faith remains unleavened. For true hope is not an aimless desire for something. It is not a sitting around waiting for something to happen. Hope must be coupled with action and a very real expectation and even anticipation that the thing desired will be firmly grasped. For the Catholic, hope, this theological virtue, persists as a longing for God and the assurance of His company through His only son, our Lord Jesus Christ. No better realization of this hope is found then in the communal, Eucharistic meal shared by Catholics in the mass.

This company with our creator is not an individualistic phenomena. As Pope Benedict writes in Spe Salvi:

...salvation has always been considered a “social” reality. Indeed, the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of a “city” (cf. 11:10, 16; 12:22; 13:14) and therefore of communal salvation. Consistently with this view, sin is understood by the Fathers as the destruction of the unity of the human race, as fragmentation and division. Babel, the place where languages were confused, the place of separation, is seen to be an expression of what sin fundamentally is. Hence “redemption” appears as the reestablishment of unity, in which we come together once more in a union that begins to take shape in the world community of believers.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Salvation as a social reality presents more than a leap of faith for the Protestant believer; it requires a swim across the Tiber leaving behind the lonely walk with self and joining the mystical communion of the saints. It means a proactive effort on the individual to rejoin with that which man fractured by his ego, frustration, and most often benign ignorance.

Continuing in this vein, the Holy Father writes:

This real life, towards which we try to reach out again and again, is linked to a lived union with a “people”, and for each individual it can only be attained within this “we”. It presupposes that we escape from the prison of our “I”, because only in the openness of this universal subject does our gaze open out to the source of joy, to love itself—to God.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

As the Lenten journey continues, let each Catholic realize the joy that awaits one who continuously donates self to the mystical Body of Christ, and in the spirit of ecumenism, reach out those who walk in a self-imposed solitude yet earnestly desire the higher gifts of Our Lord. The more excellent way that St. Paul describes (1Corinthians (RSV) 12:31) is not found in the many members of many bodies of many ecclesial communities, but rather in the the one body with many members that comprises the Bride of Christ...His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

From Eternity to Here

2008-02-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

- 1John (RSV) 3:1-2

Continuing this series of reflections based upon Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Spe Salvi, it is time to turn to a compelling proposition presented by the Holy Father concerning "eternal life." The Pope reflects:

But then the question arises: do we really want this—to live eternally? Perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment. To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable.

- Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

There exists a drive within each human being to strive for something better then what he has, today, but for the non-believer whom the Pope addresses in this passage, what exactly one works for remains disturbingly intangible. Man then turns to that which can be touched and felt and thus the accumulation of material goods becomes the apparent highway to happiness. More is better. In fact "more" defines success within the culture, especially in Western society and most notably in America. More has no limits and it remains insatiable. More money, more power, more sex, more drugs, more fame. And as Hollywood has proven, more is a dead end road. A simple skimming of the day's entertainment headlines is full of celebrities gone insane, gone to prison, or assumed room temperature over the fact that the pursuit of "more" was not all it was presented to be, and the despair that "more" turned out to be an existential lie.

And the lie is repeated and trumpeted incessantly to the point that one may find it difficult not to believe in it. How many television game shows are sold on the concept that one could win vast sums of money and one's problems would be solved? Even programs that portend the virtue of charity, such as Extreme Makeover Home Addition, send a message that life's most difficult problems are largely ameliorated with vast material goods. One interesting element of that show is the fact that each individual family member is given an oasis in the form of a highly customized bedroom within the home away from not only the world but even including an escape from the family.

Given this reality of the culture, the Pope's question regarding the potential lack of desire for eternal life proves perfectly reasonable. What possible motivation could one have to live forever in an existence that mirrors one's present life in a fallen world? There has to be something more. This hunger for the answer; this yearning to know; this instinctual grasping to understand perhaps begins to define the very texture of hope.

And because God is merciful, one does not have to wait for death to encounter true life. Yes, this temporal life represents an exile from the ultimate eternal glory that awaits the believer; however, this is not wasted time. So often the focus on the hereafter distorts the clarity of the here and now. For God created one as an eternal being from the moment of one's conception. Life, everlasting life, becomes the choice that gets made by the sojourning body through this state of existence. And if the choice is life, then the choice is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, today.

It is a choice. One has the free will to choose the way of the fallen world. A world full of many pleasures; many experiences; many good feeling; and many freedoms. Yet as alluring as the world may be, it is finite, limited, and fleeting. The pursuit of her happiness does not lead to hope but rather to a perpetual state of nonfulfillment and a struggle for inner peace. This struggle is not an illogical one as the Pope describes:

In some way we want life itself, true life, untouched even by death; yet at the same time we do not know the thing towards which we feel driven. We cannot stop reaching out for it, and yet we know that all we can experience or accomplish is not what we yearn for. This unknown “thing” is the true “hope” which drives us, and at the same time the fact that it is unknown is the cause of all forms of despair and also of all efforts, whether positive or destructive, directed towards worldly authenticity and human authenticity. The term “eternal life” is intended to give a name to this known “unknown”. Inevitably it is an inadequate term that creates confusion. “Eternal”, in fact, suggests to us the idea of something interminable, and this frightens us; “life” makes us think of the life that we know and love and do not want to lose, even though very often it brings more toil than satisfaction, so that while on the one hand we desire it, on the other hand we do not want it.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Maybe where hope truly resides lies in the death to self as Christ so often proclaimed in the Gospel and so perfectly demonstrated at Golgotha. Jesus could have had all the world had to offer. Satan offered him that very thing at the beginning of his ministry, and Christ rejected it. For while the world does have many beautiful things, its greatest attribute are the very souls who inhabit her. Notice the devil didn't dare offer Our Lord a claim on all the souls of the world for that would have left him with nothing but meaningless, empty things. Perhaps this realization fuels the devil's hatred of God and His creation. For even his rule of the Earth is limited. Eventually he loses everything and is left with only himself and the fallen angels and souls who follow him to perdition.

Christ rejected the riches of the world to claim those whom His Heavenly Father had fashioned in His image. Even the smallest amount of belief should give rise to faith. The joy of the here and now lies in the recognition of one's eternal nature; the continuous outreach and communion of Christ to His bride; and the hope that life, true life, continues on an even grander reality in the eternity now veiled from one's vision.

The Substance of Faith

2008-02-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Describing faith tends to lend itself to the use of subjective thinking. No where does this prove truer than when one examines the reason behind the existence of some 40,000 Protestant denominations who have separated themselves from the Church Christ gave to humanity. Each has fashioned its own take on what faith in Christ really means. The two more common tenets of course are found in the once saved always saved soteriology and the notion that all of God's revelation is found in the King James version of sacred scripture, though interpretation of said scripture waxes on the side of personal opinion of the pastor in charge of whatever ecclesial community he or she leads.

The very notion of a magisterium has no place in a community which holds to an individualistic philosophy on one's relationship with Jesus. There really cannot be a communion as each of its members functions as islands unto themselves with regard to their personal relationships to Our Lord. So their sect of Protestantism functions more as a collective of believers who may share like interests, but still each of her members functions on a fiercely independent basis.

The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.

(John (RSV) 17:22-23)

Perfectly one. These words from The Christ do not point to a world of 40,000 different opinions. The Savior did not pray that He have an independent relationship with each individual apostle. He asked God for not just unity, but communion itself. The entirety of John 17 cries out for this union between Church and Christ. There remains no room for subjectivity in His desire so eloquently expressed in this perfect prayer for His disciples.

Consider the reality that faith is not just a feeling, an opinion, or a body of knowledge, but actually part of one's very essence with a divine origin. What if faith is not subjective but rather very objective?

In Pope Benedict's Encyclical, Spe Salvi, the Holy Father brings this issue to light by examining the definition of faith as presented in Hebrews 11:1, which translated into English perhaps loses much of its original meaning:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews (RSV) 11:1)

Regarding this passage Pope Benedict teaches:

For the time being I shall leave this central word untranslated. The sentence therefore reads as follows: “Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen”. For the Fathers and for the theologians of the Middle Ages, it was clear that the Greek word hypostasis was to be rendered in Latin with the term substantia. The Latin translation of the text produced at the time of the early Church therefore reads: Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium—faith is the “substance” of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen.

Pope Benedict XVI - Spe Salvi

Substance. Proof. Those two solid nouns leave little room for subjectivity. Aristotle spent a good amount of time (he didn't have the Internet, television, or video games as distractions) looking into the nature of things. A fundamental building block of his philosophy states that a substance exists in its own right in its natural state. For example a rock is, well, a rock. It doesn't exist as anything else. It might be used to make a wall, but it never stops being a rock.

So when St. Paul states that faith is the hypostasis/substance of things hoped for suddenly this faith takes on a more solid meaning. It loses its subjectiveness that the men of the Reformation tried to give to it, and it takes on a more tangible and even absolute quality. After all, this faith is a gift from God.

The Pope continues:

Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.

Pope Benedict XVI - Spe Salvi

From this one sees that the substance of faith has an eternal nature. Faith far transcends a simple default position to explain the unobservable or that which proves difficult to understand. For the Protestant thinker, Christ gets neatly packaged into a past event that one can learn from to apply to today. It even comes with it's own instruction manual, the bible. The hope is that one day He will emerge again and that if one accepts the action of Christ in the past one gains salvation in the future regardless of one's present condition. Jesus in the "now" exists mostly as a symbol of what was or what is to come. Oh, the spirit of Christ might be felt, but as to Our Lord's physical presence among His people, that is reserved for an "on that day."

The Catholic's faith might well be described as the embracing of the continuum of love exchanged between God and his people. It began at the creation of man; it is ever present; and it lasts forever. God became man to suffer with man and take on his sins. He remains ever present in body, blood, soul, and divinity; however a physical vision of Him is veiled by our unglorified and sinful state yet Catholics know that Christ remains actually, physically present through the sacraments He gave to the Apostles.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

(1Corinthians (RSV) 13:12)

So faith is not wishful thinking, but rather an objective understanding of one's own existence in accepting one's communion in the reality of the mystical body of Christ yesterday, today, and forever. Communion with Christ is all that one hopes for. Proof of Him is found in the sacraments of His Church. It is an experience to be lived in the here and now.

Giving the Holy Father the last word:

Thus the word indicates a lived hope, a life based on the certainty of hope. In the New Testament this expectation of God, this standing with God, takes on a new significance: in Christ, God has revealed himself. He has already communicated to us the “substance” of things to come, and thus the expectation of God acquires a new certainty. It is the expectation of things to come from the perspective of a present that is already given. It is a looking-forward in Christ's presence, with Christ who is present, to the perfecting of his Body, to his definitive coming.

Pope Benedict XIV - Spe Salvi

Imagine

2008-02-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

"How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing."

Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical, Spe Salvi, draws attention to this epitaph common during the days of St. Paul to point out the lack of real hope that marked the people who had not yet seen the great light of Christ. Today is Ash Wednesday, a holy day of obligation when millions of Catholics begin their Lenten journey with an act of humility. At mass, today, they will approach the alter and the priest will take the ashes created from the burning of the palms used in the last Palm Sunday mass and mark a sign of the cross on their foreheads speaking words similar to that ancient dark commemoration:

"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."

Cultural icon of the sixties, John Lennon, encouraged his followers to imagine that there was no Heaven and a host of other things he deemed as distractions to happiness. It was a call from the leader of The Beatles to abandon the notion of a God and focus solely on the here and now. His slightly melancholy lamentation promised the possibility to live in a utopia where God, seen as the ultimate potentate of the establishment, would no longer be necessary. And many who had been swept up into the cultural revolution followed Lennon's advice. They chased after a world of enlightened self-interest where "I'm okay, you're okay" defined its creed, and they discovered this new world inadequate so they filled it with drugs, casual sex, abortion, divorce, and a myriad of false religions and egocentric philosophies that ushered in what historians may one day label the post Christian Era.

The Baby Boom generation made an unconscious-conscious effort to return to the days that St. Paul lived; that time when people had no hope in anything greater than themselves. And while it will take several generations to undo the damage done to the culture since many of their beliefs have been codified into civil law and embedded into the minds of their children, hope remains that one's distant progeny will one day study this period of time, scratch their heads in amused disbelief and ponder, "What were they thinking?"

"But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope." (1Thessalonians (RSV) 4:13)

Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing.

- Spe Salvi - Pope Benedict XVI

A positive reality. Good news. Performative. Makes things happen. Life-changing. It is for these very aspects that many have fallen in love with the only church Christ gave to humanity; a love that manifests itself in ways that the unbeliever finds difficult to embrace. For at the core of this perfect model established by Our Lord lies this concept of communion where self becomes a gift to the mystical body of Christ versus self being one's most valued possession. The payoff is not the aggrandizement of the individual but rather a humble, eternal exchange of love between man, his Creator, and His creation.

How many earthly versions of utopia will man entertain before he surrenders to the love of Christ? Lennon dreamed of unbridled socialism. Lenin proposed a system of communism. At the other extreme many see the answer in pure capitalism, and the scientist seeks a universe governed by empiricism.

Perhaps Christ viewed all of these systems of distraction during his agony in the garden yet He never lost hope for humanity. Rather he moved forward and embraced His cross and gave rise to the eternal hope available to all who open their hearts to His love and to His Church. It is not a communal love one needs to dreamingly imagine. It lives in the here and now and simply waits for one's embrace.

Natural Law and the CIA

2008-02-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

Today, U.S District Judge Michael Mosman removed the injunction that he had placed on a new law in the State of Oregon that allows gay couples to register as domestic partners. The new law gives gay couples similar rights as married people. Such laws are common in many liberal states and the only real surprise is that Oregon was not the first to enact such legislation, Vermont beat it to the punch. Washington and California already have like provisions in their code of law so the addition of The Beaver State (no, that has nothing to do with, well, oh never mind) means that every state on the left coast now considers the natural law not good enough but rather in need of amending.

Natural law does not necessarily equate to the dictates of the passions. For the gay community, same sex attraction feels like it is a part of nature. Many a gay person will tell you his experience is one where he has an inexplicable attraction to members of his sex. Thus, it seems normal though it is in conflict with the rest of society. The rational conclusion then is if feels natural it must be as nature intended, and the whole of society just does not understand. Choice cannot be involved here as that would negate the argument for a distinct need for a protected class of society. And if nature intended it, God must be alright with it, too. So natural law is based on little more than how something feels, with pleasure and happiness as its ultimate end.

This becomes a bit problematic for the laws of nature are explained and interpreted by the subjective nature and limited knowledge of man. Such laws once held that the sun orbited the Earth which was flat. There can be no absolutes in this system of belief for all of its laws are subjected to being debunked by newer science or even simple public opinion. The whole man-made global warming panic presents a supreme example of this phenomena. Western society expends vast amounts of resources and energy on a theory and its appeal to the human psyche which wants to control the environment and indeed be its master.

Catholics look at natural law as immutable. St. Thomas Aquinas described the natural law as "nothing else than the rational creature's participation in the eternal law." That word participation is an important one for it implies that one does have a choice in the matter. One can choose communion with God's design, His eternal law, or one can follow a different path. Often times it is far easier to allow one's feelings to dictate a particular act rather than allow Our Lord to lead one to respond to circumstances using moral absolutes.

The Ten Commandments are perhaps the best road map to God's eternal law. If one is struggling with a particular moral issue, one should examine which of the Ten Commandments that issue could be linked to. Hardly a modern moral issue is found that does not have a corresponding reference in this ancient, divine Decalogue.

The culture of the day struggles largely in part because it has a distorted understanding of the CIA, that being circumstance, intent, and act. Common rationalization in a society grounded in relativism is that given the right circumstance and good intent, an act which would be otherwise evil can be made good. Case in point, abortion. While the natural law holds that murder is wrong, the relativist will argue given a circumstance such as rape, and an intent such as avoiding the scandal faced by the victim, murdering the child in the womb is perfectly acceptable.

Another more common evil practiced by far too many Catholics is contraception. The circumstance being the desire to have sex, the intent to have that sex whenever one wants, justifies the act of purposefully changing God's intent for the marital act by interrupting it or simply rendering oneself temporarily or even permanently sterile. True, there certainly exists more seemingly noble intents such as not wanting to transmit a genetic disease; however, the good intent does not trump the evil act. This is not to say that people who practice contraception or have had themselves sterilized are evil and destined to the lake of fire. God's mercy remains more than bountiful enough to forgive and accept one into His kingdom. But if one is Catholic, and understands the teaching of the faith, and willfully disregards it to follow his own path, unrepentant, one must give pause to consider the potentially grave consequences for one's soul.

Catholics hold to the absolutes of God's natural law. An evil act can never be made good by circumstance or intent. The book of Revelation identifies the characters who commit these evil acts that challenged humanity 2,000 years ago and still do today:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death." (Revelation (RSV) 21:8)

As Lent begins let Catholics offer their prayers and even engage in redemptive suffering for the souls who have been led by the culture into the abyss of relativism where solid ground proves illusive and the practices that appear to appease the passions, in the end, result in sorrow, distress, and calamity.

I Did Not Know Him

2008-01-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel."

(John (RSV) 1:29-31)

How did John The Baptist not know Jesus?

Twice in this reading from last Sunday's Gospel John says, “I myself did not know him.” How can that be? After all they were cousins were they not?

During Advent we heard the story of Mary visiting her kinswoman, Elizabeth. The exact relationship of Elizabeth to Mary remains a bit of mystery. She might have been a cousin, or an aunt. No one really knows for sure, and the Greek and Latin words used in Luke 1:36 do not really specify an exact relationship though some translations including the King James Version have taken the liberty to call her a cousin. What we do know is that she was some how related to Mary and that when Blessed Mother approached...John recognized The Christ.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb;

(Luke (RSV) 1:41)

That babe, of course, was John. It seems logical that Jesus and John must have known each other growing up, right? Well remember that the Holy Family left the area and went to Bethlehem, where Christ was born, and then escaped to Egypt to avoid Herod’s slaughter of all male children under the age of two. When they returned from Egypt, they settled in Nazareth. Scripture doesn’t tell us where John was, but we do know that eventually John took off to live as a hermit in the desert, and many scholars have him living with the Essenes, that devout sect of Judaism who collected what we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

So when Christ approached him, the way that he knew Our Lord as the Messiah was when he saw the Holy Spirit descend like a dove and rest upon Jesus. How interesting to ponder whether John ever knew of his familial relation to Christ. He never addresses Him as his kinsman. Rather John refers to himself as a friend of the bridegroom and even continues to baptize people in the old Jewish tradition after Christ has left him, though he tells his followers that his mission has been fulfilled and the he must decrease while Christ increases.

Perhaps one act of his decreasing came after his arrest when he sent his disciples to Christ:

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me."

(Matthew (RSV) 11:2-6)

Meditate upon the following:

If you were to see Christ approaching you, what emotions would be stirred? If you looked across the room; across the coffee shop; across the office, wherever you are right now reading this, and there was Christ walking towards you...what do you feel?

Fear?
A sense of unworthiness?
A desire or need to prostrate yourself?
Absolute joy?
Doubt of the authenticity of the encounter?
Do you do the equivalent of throwing yourself out of the boat and swimming to greet Him as Peter did in the last chapter of John?

Would you even know Christ if you saw Him?

One common characteristic of many of the saints was their ability to see Christ in all those who approached them. One easily finds The Christ in the believer, the friend, the relative, the spouse, the child, and even the poor. Christ can be seen in every human being, even the most ardent non-believer. Carryll Houselander authored a beautiful book titled The Reed of God in which she describes in one chapter the many ways one sees Christ in others. Perhaps most compelling was her referencing that Christ is visible even in the soul of the one who is in mortal sin. In this person the risen Christ is not seen; nor the suffering Christ; nor the healing Christ. For this person what is seen is Christ dead in the tomb.

Does this not depict an icon for the twenty-first century culture? The body of Christ waiting to be resurrected. As annoying as news of Britney Spears can be, is there not a hope that Christ will be resurrected in her heart and she stop her self-destructive behavior? As horrifying as the abortionist who takes a blasé approach to killing can be, does not hope exist that Christ will rise from within him and convert him from the evil that he does? As frightening as the Islamic terrorist might be, does not the hope exist that Christ will ascend from the darkness of his heart and turn him towards the way of truth and life? Christ dead in the tomb describes these characters and many more who are players in this culture of death.

And yet Christ lives. He approaches us and we approach Him. Think again about your response to Our Lord should He walk in your direction. Now consider that most beautiful, perfect moment in your day or week when you approach His body, blood, soul, and divinity...freely and without reservation or fear. That moment you gaze upon Him and exclaim in your heart as Thomas did in awe, "My Lord and my God."

"Behold the lamb of God!" were John's words that the Catholic priest today proclaims as he elevates the consecrated host. John may not have known the man, but he knew The Christ. John didn't know in what person the Messiah would come to him, only that he would indeed come. Is not modern man in the same boat? For one does not know where or in whom Christ will approach one, but it takes only a little faith, a mustard seed-sized amount, to know that one will indeed be approached.

How will you respond to that event?

What Exactly Do They Protest?

2008-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

"Therefore let us embrace Christ, who was delivered for us, and His righteousness; but let us regard our righteousness as dung, so that we, having died to sins, may live to God alone"

- Martin Luther [LW 30:294].

One of the key differences between the Church, which Christ gave to humanity, and Protestant philosophy centers around the notion of justification by faith alone. Legend has it that Martin Luther described man as heaps of dung covered by snow, the snow symbolizing the sanctifying grace of Christ. The idea that man remains corrupt, but the efficacy of Christ's grace makes that corruption hidden from view. While such an analogy might be germane to many of Luther's writings, the actual comparison in point of fact appears to be hearsay even if it serves as a good description of the basis of his heresy.

"Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ more strongly, who triumphed over sin, death, and the world; as long as we live here, we must sin."

- Martin Luther letter to Phillip Melancthon, 1521

Certainly Luther was not encouraging folks to go out and sin with abandon, but his teachings reveal the thinking of many protestant believers that conversion is an event more than a life-long journey. A fatalistic approach to sin dominates this philosophy. Sin becomes as banal as beautiful white teeth. One might wish to have a set of pearly whites to brighten the smile, but if a lifetime of coffee and cola has stained the teeth, not to worry, the teeth still work to chew food. In a similar sense, for the once saved always saved believer, sin is simply the coffee stain on the soul and is inconsequential provided one has at some point in one's life accepted Christ as his Savior.

Most non-Catholic Christian faiths hold to this notion of justification by faith alone to one degree or another. Never mind that the only place in sacred scripture where the reference to being saved by faith alone appears to state quite the opposite:

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

James 2:24

This sort of throws a monkey wrench into the whole sola scriptura (scripture alone as the source of knowing God) approach to salvation as it puts sacred scripture into the position of contradicting itself. Why would the Divine do that?

Calvin managed to combine antinomianism with a form of legalism and came up with the notion that sacred tradition or any existence of a deposit of faith was meaningless to his abstract arguments on scripture. For the Calvinist, man is so depraved that he cannot unselfishly love God; that God chooses those who will go to heaven and hell regardless of their work upon the earth or even desire to follow Christ, and thus Christ only died for a select few versus all of humanity; that those who are chosen cannot resist His grace even if they willed to do so; and that we can know those who are chosen as they are the ones who persevere to the end of their lives.

Catholics believe that God is love, and it is a love far beyond the understanding of mere human intellect. Christ did not come down to earth and hand out copies of the New Testament and say,

"Read this. Interpret it as you like, and all who claim me as their personal lord and savior will be saved."

For one thing the term "personal lord" appears no where in the Bible. The word personal only appears twice, both times in the Old Testament book of Judith. The term "Lord and Savior" appears only in Second Peter in the New Testament and in each use our first Pope refers to "our Lord and Savior" as a communal title for The Christ, versus an individualistic instrument.

God so loved every human being He has created and will ever create, that He humbled himself to be with us in a form we could understand. He came into the world as a man, divine in nature, yet human in physicality. He came to offer a way home to Heaven after man lost his way in the fallen world gifted to him by his first parents. And He came to show the way to be one with Him, today, not just after one dies, but in the very here and now, even if our beatific vision is trammeled by sin. And he came to die for those very sins that would block our way. It was a death, a sacrifice for all of humanity, not just a select few.

Our Father who art in Heaven does not look upon His creation as piles of dung needing to be covered up. He looks upon humanity as His beloved children in need of His love. A love so ardent that He entrusted the keys to Kingdom not to an angel, not to a cherubim, not to any other of His creations, but rather to a simple fisherman named Simon Bar-Jona.

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Matthew 16:15-19

"I will build my church."

There can be no other credible interpretation other than that Christ intended to establish one Church upon the Earth. And it wasn't something to be built some day. Jesus clearly identifies who the foundation of His earthly church will be. Additionally He summarily imparts authority to this man from Lake Gennes'aret. Later He gives Peter and the Apostles their marching orders not to go hand out New Testaments, but to bring the Gospel, to live the Gospel, to spread the Gospel to the entire Earth and to teach what He taught them and continue the mystery of the Eucharist established at the Last Supper. It is a mystery founded in the love and service to neighbor.

Sacred scripture was assembled by the early Church, for the Church to use in liturgy. The early Church fathers never intended for the Bible to supplant the sacred tradition handed down directly from the Apostles. They never imagined the Bible to be the soul source of inspiration or to supplant the authority of the Church that Christ gave her. And they certainly would not have seen as credible that a disgruntled German monk could suddenly decide that certain books of the Bible were no longer legitimate.

Christ earnestly desires that the Church be one with Him. That's not conjecture. It's directly from scripture. Let all Catholics pray for the conversion of the separated brothers and sisters whom are united with His Church in baptism, but due to a lack of clear understanding or willful misdirection, have chosen a path outside of full communion.

Innocent

2007-12-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

Thus says the LORD:
"A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not."

Jer 31:15

King Herod fulfilled this prophesy when upon being frustrated by not finding the Christ child, he ordered the murder of all males ages two and under. The Catholic Church remembers these first Saints to be martyred for Jesus. Friday, December 28th, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It seemed appropriate to share this poem written by Alison Townsend.

What I Never Told You About the Abortion
That it hurt, despite the anesthetic,
which they administered with a long needle, shot straight into the womb.
That they hit the vagus nerve the first time and I fell down when I tried to stand.
That after the second shot my legs snapped shut--instinctively as any wild mother protecting chick, kit, cub.
That I held the hand of a young Hispanic nurse and wept when she said, "You know hon, you don't have to do this."
That I believed that I did, though I nearly got up and left.
That the doctor was crude, saying (when he saw me conscious), "It's always the ones who want to be awake who should be put out.
That dilation and curettage is exactly what it sounds like: opening, scraping, digging out a scrap of tissue that clings.
That mothers both create and take life.
That I crossed a picket line to get into the clinic.
That I wanted to come back another day but knew if I left then I wouldn't return.
That my mind was not, as I let you believe, made up that night at Planned Parenthood, the positive lab slip shining in my hand like a ticket to Heaven.
That this was where the deep root of sadness began to take hold.
That I stood in our bedroom a few days before the "procedure," my blouse open and bra undone, looking at my breasts, marveling at the way they swelled, even at eight weeks, like fruit I'd never seen.
Remembering the rise and fall of my mother's body as she nursed my sister.
That I felt inhabited then.
Incarnate, the cells of my skin glowing, bright and scared.
That I wished we were married, though it seemed uncool.
That I wished you'd said "A baby? Let's do it!"
instead of "It's your body. You decide."
That it was all surgical and neat, not even any blood afterward on the Kotex that made me feel fourteen.
That I dreamed of it for weeks.
That we married years later, that dream torn between us.
That I had wanted to feel the hard bowl of my belly.
That I believed it was practical -- you in grad school, no health insurance, me the one with a job.
That the table I lay on was cold.
That there was a poster of a kitten dangling from a tree limb, with the word "Hang in there, baby" on the ceiling above me.
That I turned names over and over in my head like bright stones: Caitlin, Phoebe, Rebecca, Siobhan.
That the nurse wept with me, like some twentieth-century Southern California fate, midwife to death in her uniform printed with flowers.
That she wrapped my hand in her navy blue sweater.
That I described the thumb-size embryo inside me in all the obvious ways--shrimp, peanut, little-bud-wanting-to-open.
But not baby, never baby.
That I saved the paperwork as proof I'd been admitted to the college of mothers.
That I told you a good story; letting you believe I believed I might not be able to write with a child, that this was the beginning of the end of us.
That though we are kind now, and always cordial when we meet, a decade after our divorce, it is the one thing I cannot forgive you.
That it has taken me twenty years to find words for this story.
That no matter how many thats I write, there are not--will never be enough.

+++

It's normal to recoil and wince at the thought of a soldier driving his short sword into the soft body of a baby while his mother screams in terror and his father fights in futility. How many babies were killed nearly 2,000 years ago is debatable. Some say just a few, others say hundreds. Whatever the number, one was too many, and yet juxtaposed to the more than 4,000 babies killed in these United States by abortion, every day, Herod was an amateur.

It is the great sin of omission that stains the consciousness of the American psyche. We kill our unborn. That's what we do. We the people in order to form a more perfect union have decided that part of being perfect involves the right to kill the the unseen, the inconvenient, the most vulnerable. It is in the American will, and it is this very will that needs conversion.

God bless America? Given the reality of our soul that seems a bit arrogant. Perhaps we should pray, God have mercy on America.

May the Saints of Bethlehem who died in the name of Christ pray for the people of the United States that they may one day stop the killing of her innocent.

The Pearl of China Town

2007-12-22T10:01:00.000-08:00

Vietnam has been described as the Pearl of the Orient. This S-shaped country about the size of New Mexico is home to some of the most beautiful rain forests, flowers, and beaches anywhere in the world. Even more, the people of Vietnam have an indomitable spirit and while nearly 80% of her 85-million inhabitants profess no religion, the spirit of Christ can often be seen in their loving nature and strong family values. All of this despite a history of being conquered and dominated by a variety of its neighbors and for awhile even the French.

Today, it is a communist state. After the United States lost its political will in the early 1970s to continue to support the South Vietnamese government, the North quickly moved in and united the country under an oppressive regime. Most of the violations of human dignity are forgotten today, though they still continue. Since America has divested herself from the region, Vietnam has become little more than a political punchline in this country's stream of consciousness.

About twenty years ago, a young medical school student named Lan decided that she and her husband and two children needed to flee the only home they ever knew. Somehow they had fallen out of favor with the local communist government for reasons to this day she is still unsure of. Survival of her family seemed more certain by moving to the United States versus staying home. Since they did not have the money for all four to leave at once, she and her husband decided that she and her daughter would go first with her husband and son to follow later.

Escaping by sea was the least risky way. Thailand was the safe harbor. From there one could arrange passage to the United States. Cutting across Laos or Cambodia proved far too dangerous when one weighed the threat of corrupt police, soldiers, and drug runners. So Lan and her toddler daughter joined the ranks of hundreds of thousands of souls who have fled the beauty of their homeland now corrupted by the stain of totalitarianism.

When asked about her family, Lan will say, "I not very lucky." For while she and her daughter did make it to the United States, her husband and son did not. Details are sketchy at best, but what is known is that the other half of her family perished at sea. Some relatives told her that they were killed by the Vietnamese Navy. Others said that there wasn't enough food or water on the boat and that they had starved to death. Neither provides a comforting mental picture of a loved one dying in the South China Sea. This was not a peaceful death.

That was twenty years ago.

Today, Lan owns a beauty salon in Portland's China Town District. This area is the skid row of the City of Roses. The homeless, addicted, and the abandoned mentally ill filter in and out of this section also called Old Town. Two large entities, the local natural gas utility and the Oregon Department of Transportation, maintain a couple of large office buildings which keeps the area from falling into total dilapidation. For the most part, the employees and homeless have struck up a peaceful coexistence. The employees own the day while the street people own the night.

Lan's salon is right across the street from the gas company on Northwest Second Avenue. Every day a few customers from the utility cross the street and are greeted by Lan's warm smile and her patented, "Hello, handsome man!" One sits in a barber chair staring into a mirror bordered by snapshots, mostly of her beautiful daughter, and then is treated to a good haircut and even better company. Lan has an infectiously good spirit and always has a smile on her face, laughter in her voice, and sage advice if one asks.

Recently, the photos on her mirror include a picture of her and the Mayor of the City of Portland at a dinner honoring her for her contribution to China Town's community. In addition to clipping the hair of gas company employees, Lan opens her business and her heart to the homeless. Each night, two or three homeless sleep in the doorway leading to her salon. Instead of shewing them away in the morning when she comes to work, she greets and welcomes them. She talks to them as equals and lets them use her place to clean up a little before they make their way into the world.

If a poor person has a job interview, Lan offers them a free haircut so they can make a good impression. She laughs as she says,

"It just good business. I cut hair so they get job, then they come back and be my customer."

A few months ago, Lan closed her shop for the day so she could attend the graduation ceremony of one of her homeless customers she talked into going into drug rehab. This wasn't the first person she has helped this way.

"When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

Mathew 25:31-36

This little Vietnamese saint practices no formal religion, and yet it's hard to imagine Christ being anything but pleased with her. She evangelizes the Gospel more than most by how she lives her simple life. And while this author, and frequent customer of Lan, prays for her conversion, at the same time he is painfully aware that the charity she extends to the homeless of China Town far exceeds his pitiful occasional reluctant gift of spare change to a panhandler or a quick drive by drop-off of surplus clothing at a supermarket Salvation Army station. In this respect, Lan lives the gospel this writer professes but in practice he only conveniently dabbles in.

The great Pearl of the Orient released one of her children to the world where she drifted until she found her home among a culture where her beauty would shine the brightest. Lan is the Pearl of China Town.