Catholic Metaphysical Musings from the Heartland

Eternal Time: Reflections upon the works of the Catholic composer Olivier Messiaen

2010-08-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

“What comes from the organ is invisible music, propelled by wind, yet whose instrument gives no sign of activity, and whose player normally cannot be seen. Organ music symbolizes and makes real the contact between the mundane and the eternal.Indeed it makes a sacrament of all the world.” - Olivier Messiaen

“With Messiaen, all is prayer.” - Charles Tournemire, French composer and organist

“Paul Dukas always told me to listen to the birds.” – Olivier Messiaen

The Miracle of Stalag 8A – A Beauty Beyond the Horror:
Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time
by John William McMullen

In January 2009 while searching for organ works by Bach at the downtown Evansville library, I came across a collection of organ works by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (10 December 1908 - 27 April 1992).

I had heard a piece by him in the past, but I really didn’t know much about him. I then began to explore more of his musical world and soon discovered that he loved birds and composed for and played the pipe organ. Immediately upon listening to his Apparition de l'église éternelle, Vision of the Eternal Church, I knew I had met a kindred spirit.

Speaking for myself, music was always a part of my life as I grew up; from my parents playing the radio or listening to albums to the good Sisters of Providence getting us to sing every morning at Mass. Yet I can attribute my initial interest in classical music to a performance by the IU Music Department at Vincennes on the occasion of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 300th birthday, March 25, 1985. I am forever indebted to my Philosophy professor, Dr. Verkamp, and his insight into encouraging me to attend the concert. Bach’s music opened a door to another world and he has been a constant companion ever since. Father Columba Kelly, O.S.B., of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, a Gregorian Chant scholar and musicologist, then deepened my love for music while I was a student in his Music Appreciation class at Saint Meinrad in 1986.

Ever since my youth, however, I have had a love for the pipe organ. It all began with hearing our church organist playing the works of J.S. Bach, Charles-Marie Widor, César Franck, Marcel Dupré, and Maurice Duruflé on the pipe organ at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana. Over the years the works of Francis Poulenc, Felix Alexandre Guilmant, Josef Rheinberger, John Tavener and John Rutter have enriched my life.

From hearing the pipe organ at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana and Saint Meinrad, Indiana, and later attending recitals in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.; Westminster Cathedral in London, England; Notre Dame in Paris, France; and the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence, Italy; or from listening to Pipe Dreams on Public Radio, my love for the instrument has not diminished.

In April of 2009 my wife and I attended an organ recital at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana and one of the pieces played was the organ work L’Ascension by Olivier Messiaen. The weather was beautiful and the monks had opened the abbey church’s windows. Interestingly as the Messiaen piece began I noticed an unusual number of birds singing and chirping: sparrows, crows, a Mockingbird, but in particular there was a Blue Jay that must have been perched on one of the ledges of the windowsills. He seemed intent on making his voice heard. I wondered if perhaps Olivier Messiaen was smiling upon us, for he loved bird songs very much.

As for L’Ascension, regardless of one’s religious sentiments, I was immediately caught up Messiaen’s his sonorous harmony and subtle theological reflections upon Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven, especially the last movement which rises to the heavens and the sounds seemingly evaporate into the clouds. Messiaen wrote, “What comes from the organ is invisible music, propelled by wind, yet whose instrument gives no sign of activity, and whose player normally cannot be seen. Organ music symbolizes and makes real the contact between the mundane and the eternal. Indeed it makes a sacrament of all the world.”

My wife and I sat next to Father Columba Kelly, O.S.B. at this recital. A renowned Gregorian Chant scholar and humble musical genius, he was also my former music professor while a student at Saint Meinrad College. It was indeed Father Columba who deepened my love for music. After the performance he gave us an impromptu exposition on the piece and further enlightened us on the genius of Messiaen.

The more I read on Messiaen’s life, the more intriguing his life and work became. I soon began collecting his works and found myself returning to them often, meditating upon them. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1919-30) with Paul and Marcel Dupré and taught there (1941-78) while also serving as organist of the Church of La Trinité in Paris.

Yet Messiaen was an enigma to the world: an avant-garde composer and also a devout Catholic. However, most of the musical world remembers Messiaen for his Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), a work composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in a German Stalag. I soon obtained a copy of the Quartet for the End of Time and learned of the unique story behind its composition.

The story of Olivier Messiaen, French composer, organist, ornithologist, and devout Catholic drafted into the French army on the eve of Hitler's blitzkrieg is an amazing tale.

Rebecca Rischin’s work, For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet (Cornell University Press, 2003; 2006), chronicles the composition well. Messiaen, who served in the French army, was captured at Verdun by the Germans and sent to Stalag 8A in Gorlitz, Germany, where he composed the great work, Quotor pour la fin du temps, creating musical history in the most unlikely of places.

“Certainly, there are many reasons that Messiaen thought fit to compose a piece for the end of time,” MIT graduate student Sudeep Agawala writes. “Messiaen’s musical narrative takes place at the end of a social and political era—World War II was ushering in a world of economic hardship for the national leaders of the free world; Nazi persecution, torture, and mass murders were re-defining the image of humanity and the regard for human life in terrifying new ways; scientific developments magnified human power over nature to previously unthinkable levels and revolutionized its perception of reality. The ways in which the old regimes were changing were not necessarily exciting or hopeful. In fact, many of the recent developments seemed the opposite. However, written in a German war camp, about the end of the world, the end of time, Messiaen’s piece, steely in its portrayal of God and the Apocalypse still manages optimism. Messiaen’s end is not one of fire, inhumanity and mass destruction. His world saw the end in praise of eternal comfort and glory.”

Throughout his imprisonment, Messiaen suffered numerous hardships, including starvation and freezing temperatures, yet he remained true to his music.

Messiaen had a love for the scripture, especially the Book of the Apocalypse, The Revelation of St. John, with its description of the end of Time. It foretells that Christ’s death and resurrection would ultimately redeem the world. (This is certainly not the typical take on the book of Revelation which, for many, is still about cataclysmic death and destruction).

When Messiaen read the Book of the Apocalypse, or Revelation, he was intrigued by the tenth chapter: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. In his hand he held a small scroll that had been opened. He then set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the land.…
Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them, ‘There shall be no more Time….”

The three musicians and Messiaen represent the religious, philosophical, and political viewpoints of their contemporaries of the early 20th century. Nonetheless, these four very different men collaborated as a harmonious quartet to create musical history in the most unlikely of places. The Quartet for the End of Time is hailed as one of the most sublime pieces of chamber music composed in the 20th Century.

“There is no doubt that time stood still while these four prisoners played,” Graham Pellettieri wrote, “bringing warmth and light to so many who desperately needed it, during one of the coldest and darkest times in human history. The uncertainty of both the prison environment and the outcome of the war created a ‘timeless’ effect for the prisoners.”

“By 1941, this composer [Messiaen] no longer wanted to hear time being beaten out by a drum—one, two, three, four; he had had enough of that in the war,” writes Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker Magazine. “Instead, he devised rhythms that expanded, contracted, stopped in their tracks, and rolled back in symmetrical patterns…This is the music of one who expects paradise not only in a single awesome hereafter but also in the happenstance epiphanies of daily life. In the face of hate, this honestly Christian man did not ask, ‘Why, O Lord?’ He said, ‘I love you’.”

Messiaen reminds me of the caged bird who sings despite its captivity. In Maya Angelou’s famous poem, I know why the Caged Bird Sings, I believe she captures the spirit of Messiaen as he composed and sang during his captivity.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

In the words of Messiaen scholar, Rebecca Rischin, Associate Professor at Ohio University School of Music: “The Quartet stands as Messiaen’s triumph over time. On 15 January 1941, Messiaen realized his dream of the bird. Where all around him men were making war, Messiaen, like a bird, was making music.”

“The first performance of the Quartet for the End of Time at the Stalag in January 1941 has, together with the premiere of The Rite of Spring, become one of the great stories of twentieth-century music,” wrote Paul Griffiths in his 1985 book, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time.

The four men who comprise the quartet represent the philosophical, political, and theological complexity of the twentieth century. And I believe that Messiaen’s work is important, not only for contribution to music history, but in the way Messiaen faced adversity. Particularly important is the relationship between the members of the quartet. Messiaen and his three companions become the famous quartet of Stalag 8A. These four very different men collaborated to create musical history in the most unlikely of places.

“While the musical world interprets the miracle of Stalag 8A as the perfect performance of the ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ in inhuman conditions by musicians suffering from cold and slow starvation,” Writes Dr. Philip Pierpont, Former Academic Dean of Vincennes University, “I regard the coming together as one the four musicians: Messiaen, the faithful-Catholic and mystic composer; Pasquier, the agnostic cellist; le Boulaire, the atheist violinist; and the irrepressible Akoka, warrior Trotskyite Jew and master of the clarinet, as yet another miracle.”

Messiaen’s music marks the end of the World War I era and the beginning of World War II. In the face of the economically distressed world, Nazism and Communism were on the rise, and redefining humanity, diplomacy, and warfare. Messiaen’s Quartet, composed in a Stalag, transforms man’s inhumanity to man with hope.

Yet to the avant-garde, Messiaen was too traditional and too religious; to the traditionalists and religious, he was too avant-garde. As a result he will always stand somewhere outside of Time. In the words of Messiaen: Eternity is not a long period of time; it is no time at all.

Rebecca Rischin put it well when she wrote: “On 15 January 1941, in a German prison camp in Silesia, music triumphed over Time, breaking free of rhythm and liberating a quartet of French prisoners and their listeners from the horrors of their time. The Quartet for the End of Time… its musical beauty, at once terrifying and sublime, exalts listeners and performers alike, and the story of its creators stands as a testament to the powers of music and human will to transcend the most terrible of times.”

Messiaen’s Quartet transforms man’s inhumanity to man with hope. In the words of Messiaen: “The future may seem black, but the flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining, and the birds are singing.”

In the words of Messiaen scholar, Rebecca Rischin: “The Quartet stands as Messiaen’s triumph over time. On 15 January 1941, Messiaen realized his dream of the bird. Where all around him men were making war, Messiaen, like a bird, was making music.”
To the avant-garde, he was too traditional and too religious; to the traditionalists and religious, he was too avant-garde. As a result he will always stand somewhere outside of Time. In the words of Messiaen: Eternity is not a long period of time; it is no time at all.

“It would be the highest compliment to me as a composer, Messiaen said, “if you had a spiritual experience because of hearing my music.”

John William McMullen is a Permanent Deacon, Theology Instructor at Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Indiana, and has taught philosophy and ethics at the University of Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Community College. He is the author of several books: The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death; Roman; Poor Souls; and Utopia Revisited. His latest work is entitled: THE MIRACLE OF STALAG 8A - Beauty Beyond the Horror: Olivier Messiaen and the Quartet for the End of Time. (Bird Brain Publishing). McMullen resides in Evansville, Indiana, with his wife and children.

The Promise of Christ: Fear Not! Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

2010-08-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 8 August 2010 Deacon John McMullen

Readings
Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 & Luke 12.32-33

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

1) My wife and I and the kids recently went camping – I know – in July? It was as humid as… well… It was My wife’s idea. But I had time to really reflect on things as I spent time in the woods, in a hot, humid, and wet tent. One question I came home with was: “What is the one thing necessary?” “What really matters?” My wife said a dry bed and air-conditioning would be a start.

Seriously, every morning the birds woke us with their beautiful songs. Let’s face it. The birds have no worries. The first thing they do each morning is wake and sing. They praise God and then go look for food.

2) Today we heard about the Hebrew patriarch Abraham knew what it was like to live in a tent. Abraham, at the age of 75, abandoned all he knew and he and his beloved wife Sarah left home in search of a land God promised He would show him!
He and Sarah were on the camping trail with God. Think of Abraham’s faith. He’s a 75 year old man who was open to the Word of God. He should have been retiring and moving into a condo – certainly not living in a tent!

There is no question that his peers – and his father and brother - likely considered him to be acting like a teenager or thought he was having a late mid-life crisis. Sort of like when my wife said we’re going camping in July and I agreed. But oftentimes God speaks to us through those around us, even our wives, children, friends – and even our enemies!

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. He just started walking to the land God promised to show him...No maps, no GPS, nothing, no evidence except faith in a promise!

Oftentimes it is the very old and the very young who can see the clearest, such as the young Virgin Mary, Juan Diego, or Blessed Pope John XXIII when he dared to call the Second Vatican Council!

3) On the second day of our camping trip we decided to go hiking. The adults in our group were well equipped with water bottles, maps, cell phones, hiking boots, backpacks, even an umbrella, etc.

But the kids with us just took off into the woods, with no water, no map, nothing… all they knew was that there was a trail and there was a lake at the end of the trail. That’s all they had to go on and then they were gone. The kids had complete trust and in their youthful enthusiasm they ran off like they knew what they were doing!

As the kids quickly went out of sight – the adults trudged on. Then the horror stories began about those who have gotten lost in the woods and were stranded for days or actually died, whose skeletal remains were not discovered until much later. The talk then turned even more morbid, recounting other notorious camping trips gone horribly wrong.

One of the adults said, “If we’ve lost the kids, we can notify the park rangers.” But this did not make my wife feel any better. Trust me.

Mind you, that’s when the clouds began to grow dark and then thunder followed. It soon began to rain and rain – and RAIN. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled even more loudly. And still no sign of our children on the trail.

That’s when the mothers of our group began to get really worried. We called to the kids, but no answer. I ran ahead and soon found myself entangled in spider webs across the trail path, which was a sure sign that no one had been on this trail in a while. My son did not answer his cell phone and the rain was a steady downpour as the storm grew worse.

We adults were now deep, deep in the forest. I had a feeling that the kids were fine, but that didn’t allay the mamas’ fears. We adults were the ones who were lost. With all of our sophisticated equipment, we were clueless on the trail in the forest.

4) Have any of you ever felt lost in the woods of life? Haven’t we all at one time or another felt lost in the woods of life – the loss of a job, the death of a spouse, being in a dead end job? Or even just the terrible feeling of loneliness and being all alone?

Jesus told his disciples BE NOT AFRAID any longer, little flock. Just as the birds trust completely in their makers’ care, Jesus assures us that not even one of them is neglected by God. Even their feathers have been counted! Jesus says “Your heavenly Father is pleased to give you the kingdom!” He is pleased to give you the kingdom!

5) As we continued to hike the trail that day, we, the adults, with all our maps, flashlights, and electronic devices, we were powerless. We needed to keep faith. We needed to trust!

As the lightning decreased and the thunder began to subside; the sun broke through the clouds, revealing a blue sky. Then my wife’s cell phone rang. It was our oldest son back at the van, wanting to know what was taking us so long. It turns out the kids had it right.

Like Abraham who trusted in God completely and walked in faith, knowing that the Lord would lead him, the young people with us on our hike that day had faith and hope in the unseen.

The kids had blazed a trail of faith and reminded us of Abraham and Sarah who had obeyed God’s call and made a leap of faith.
In the woods that day, the kids had faith in us adults completely. The kids showed us the kind of faith that Abraham had, the kind of faith Jesus was talking about, when they put their trust in us, knowing that we were going to look out for them and care for them.

We should be the same way with God – trusting in Jesus’ words: “No longer be afraid!”

Be assured, that there will be storms, we will sometimes seem to be lost, and we will be frightened, but we must fear not! For our Heavenly Father is pleased to give us the kingdom! Nothing can separate us from the Love of God that comes through Jesus Christ!

Happy the people God has chosen as his own, for he travels with us on the path of life!

DEPENDENCE DAY 14th Sunday Year C

2010-07-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE

What a way to begin Independence Day. “I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals. Eat what is placed before you.” What? So much for Good News!

And these words of Jesus are especially bothersome today for they come to us on Independence Day! Yet these words imply a radical dependence! A total reliance on God and one another, for he sends the disciples out two by two.

But I ask are we really independent or do we recognize our dependence upon God? Are we Americans first, then followers of the Gospel? Which messengers are we following? FOX, MSNBC, the National Enquirer or Cosmopolitan – or Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John?

The world says that the more we have, then the better off we are! The world says to consume and use whatever we can to make a name for ourselves. If I can just get that new car or a bigger house or whatever it is, then I’ll be somebody! Advertisers spend billions of dollars every year telling us that we need their products to make us acceptable and help us achieve more! Right? Isn’t that right?

But Jesus tells us today to live simply and not be weighed down with all that extra stuff and not allow our possessions to possess us! So maybe that’s the whole point of the gospel message – that we have become so independent-minded, that we are actually too dependent upon the wrong things and not dependent enough on God.
Christ commands us to live radically simple lives, relying less on things, and relying more on Him and one another; not asserting so much our independence as our interdependence upon one another.

This means that we cannot live just as Americans or citizens of the U.S., though that we are, but our worldview must be focused on the Cross of Christ! Christ’s worldview turns the world’s view upside down.

So I ask are we Catholics first, then Americans, or have we allowed American values to dictate what parts of the gospel we like and discard what doesn’t seem to fit our political agenda?

Christ calls all people to himself. And so has the United States in her history.
Can we imagine what it would be to leave everything we know, leaving our native land and immigrating here with a different language? The people that made the journey to the United States often had little more than a dream in their heart and a hole in their pocket. Many were literally penniless, having sold all they had to simply purchase the ticket to sail on the boat, and with no real guarantee they would be granted entry or survive in the New World. And these exiles, arriving here tattered and torn, with a few words of English, set out to begin a new life. Many of these exiles had nothing to speak of, no money bag, no extra pair of shoes, but only the clothes on their backs. And for many the first sight they beheld upon arriving here was the Statue of liberty.

The image that comes to mind for many of us on this Independence Day weekend is the Statue of Liberty, a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
The bronze plaque on the Statue of Liberty’s giant pedestal calls her the Mother of Exiles.

How many souls long to belong, long for welcome in this world of ours, and imagine all those who journeyed here to the U.S., whose first sight was the Mother of Exiles, Lady Liberty.

The plaque reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!

Interestingly, the name "Mother of Exiles" was never taken up as the Statue of Liberty’s name, even though it is engraved in bronze. Yet as Catholics our Blessed Mother and Mother Church herself have both been called “Mother of Exiles”. And isn’t this the hope of all exiles, that they will find welcome and rest and a home?

Yet in a way, as Catholics, we are exiles in this world. If we live by gospel values, we may well be exiled by our neighbors or even our friends. Some may say of us that we’ve gone too far with our faith in Jesus business, that we are unpatriotic to the point where we place gospel values above American values. It is certainly an interesting thought to imagine that the Statue of Liberty is calling us to be better Americans and in the process better Christian, better Catholics.

So if we are marked by the sign of the cross, then we can expect suffering, rejections, and crucifixion. Not everyone can or will accept the gospel cross. We will be judged as fools for Christ. We will be going against the popular opinion. Yet we recognize that Only in God is our soul at rest; our true fulfillment will not be in any party, except the party of Christ. Our independence day is celebrated on Good Friday. St. Paul encourages us to fnd our freedom in the cross of Christ.

Finding rest in Christ, recognizing His Mother as our Mother, and knowing that the Church herself is the Mother of Exiles, is truly liberating! The irony of today is that our true independence is found in our dependence upon God, Christ, Mary, the Church, indeed our dependence upon one another.

There is no such thing as a lone Christian. We are in this together. And just as Jesus instructed his disciples, he continues to instruct us that we must trust in God for our defense and depend upon the hospitality of others for our well being. And this is what we celebrate today: our Dependence upon God and dependence upon one another. God alone is enough.

But if God alone is too much for our neighbors or family to handle, if believing in Christ and following the gospel somehow makes us less patriotic than other Americans, then let us repeat the words of Patrick Henry: “If this be treason, let us make the most of it!”

THE UNTOUCHABLES (11th Sunday Year C)

2010-06-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Joe was a college student who, every day, passed by a bag lady as she pushed a shopping cart. But one day Joe got stopped in traffic and decided to pull into a gas station. The lady smiled at him and came up beside his car pushing her cart full of collected treasures. Some people stared, with the look that said, “What’s that college kid doing with that bag lady?” As Joe filled his gas tank, he asked her name and she told him it was Wilhelmina. She told him her sad story and how she was all alone in the world.

As Joe finished pumping his gas and prepared to leave, he started his engine, rolled his window down, and waved goodbye. However, soft jazz from his radio filled the air. Wilhelmina said, “Oh, I like this music – let’s dance!” Joe was taken aback at first, but then he turned his music up, opened the car windows, and got out of his car. Wilhelmina reached for Joe’s hand and the two touched. Her skin was rough to the touch, but her face brightened with a smile as she and Joe danced and he turned her around a time or two.

Just then a police officer pulled into the parking lot and looked hard at the two with an expression that said, “what the___”

Wilhelmina clung to Joe’s arm and gave the cop a look that said, “We’re together.” Joe nodded and said, “It’s okay. She’s with me.”

The cop just looked at Joe and shook his head in disbelief that this college kid would even touch Wilhelmina. He drove away shaking his head at Joe’s poor judgment.
*****

Joe is a lot like Jesus. Jesus touched all the wrong people. And he allowed the wrong people to touch him. Which brings us to another woman in today’s gospel.

Jesus turns to Simon the Pharisee and asks: “Do you see this woman?” Do you see this woman? * Simon doesn’t see her, or at least does not see her as a real human being, worthy of redemption. And he never answers the question. He could only see outward appearances, he could only see rules and laws that had been broken. And he could not see the woman.

There are still many who only follow the Commandments and the rules of the Church out of a fear of God, rather than trusting in God and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us love others with whom we come face to face.

You see, forgiveness and love weren’t even on Simon the Pharisee’s mind. His religion was about being right, and judging others as either sinful or righteous. The law for the Jewish Pharisees was very, very strict. However, the problem with the Pharisees was that they only followed the letter of the law and forgot the purpose behind the law.

The Pharisees truly thought they were honoring God by their strict rules yet it made life very uncomfortable and difficult for most people, that many people gave up trying. In the Pharisee’s world, that there were only two types of people: the good and the bad.

Do we see this woman?

What we have here is a woman who recognized the presence of God’s love poured out in Jesus. She forgot all the rules of respectable society because she only knew one thing: Jesus. She completely abandoned herself to Divine Providence and gave all she could, her tears, her kisses, her hair, and her costly perfume because Jesus was present to her.

The problem with Simon is that he had already judged this woman as sinful – forever a sinner.

Yet her sin is no longer important – what is important is that she is a forgiven and changed woman! In fact, Jesus does not mention the woman’s sin at all, but instead proclaims her acts of kindness and hospitality as signs of her great love!

Jesus chastises Simon the Pharisee for his sins of omission, and loving too little! His failure to exercise hospitality, failure to tend to the needs of others, and failure to recognize the dignity of even the most sinful. Simon loved too little.

So what is the first thing we see in others?

Haven’t we all been like the Pharisees by keeping certain people in categories or even considering others as hopeless or unredeemable?

How do we see others? What about the poor person at the Dollar General Store we think is on meth? What about that nasty mouthed person at the gas station or the ball field? What about that inept cashier or incompetent waiter or waitress? ……….. You know what I’m talking about.

This is a difficulty for many of us. Indeed it is a cross. We have to die to our neat and orderly worlds where we put people in categories; we must crucify all within us that would seek to diminish or deny the human dignity of even one person, regardless whether he or she is a sinner or not.

Being a Christian is not about trying to live only by the law. Being a legalist can’t give you life. If one could achieve righteousness by following the law, then Jesus’ mission was meaningless. We are called to relationship with Christ and others.

With the woman, Jesus breaks the law and reaches out and touches the "untouchable." We too are called to break out of the neat little boxes society has created for us to live in. The woman only saw Jesus because she knew she was loved and forgiven by Him.

Therefore, no matter how difficult or different others may be, may we see them in our midst as calling us to mercy and compassion; not running from them or casting stones at them, but allowing them to help us be witnesses of Christ’s unconditional love.

May we have the courage to love as Jesus loved and the faith to always give thanks to God for his mercy.

Just like Joe and Wilhelmina, the people in my story, Wilhelmina saw Joe and found in him a friend. Joe in turn saw Wilhelmina as a person and stopped worrying about what others might think and became so forgetful of himself that he was willing to dance with her in public – even in the presence of a police officer who likely knew Wilhelmina’s past and her sins.

As Joe reached out to Wilhelmina, Jesus reaches out to those from whom all others draw back. Jesus showed us that Christianity is about reaching out to the untouchables so that God’s love will be real to those most in need of His mercy!

Joe was changed that day. On his drive to school, he knew in his heart that Wilhelmina was more than just a bag lady with lots of baggage – but a human being, a person, who longed to love and be loved.

ASCENSION THURSDAY (ON SUNDAY)

2010-05-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

I can recall very clearly my first day of school when my mother and father took me to school and left me there. I watched them as they walked back to their car and drove away. I remember crying great tears of sadness.

It happened again when my parents drove me to college and left me there…I recall watching them drive away…as I carried my luggage to my dorm room. There were both tears of joy and sorrow.

Or what about those of us here who have lost loved ones and when we are at the cemetery and they lower the casket into the ground and after the final prayers the funeral directors announce that “this concludes our service…. you may return to your cars.” Those tears may stream for days or years.

In these situations of transition, moving from one phase of our lives to another, we feel all alone and vulnerable, and ask: “Now what?”

I believe that may indeed have been what the disciples experienced on the day of the Lord’s Ascension into Heaven.

The crucifixion didn’t make sense to the disciples. The resurrection was unbelievable as well when they first heard the news, and were doubly astounded when they witnessed him alive again! And just as they were getting used to him being with them, he informs them that he must ascend to the Father.

The disciples lament: “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.” And the disciples asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples were thick headed. Can you imagine it…the disciples are worried about whether Jesus is going to restore the kingdom of Israel to its former glory! They were still stuck in the old mindset that religion is about power and that the Kingdom is about material wealth or fame.

“Oh, how foolish you are,” Jesus says in Luke’s account. The disciples we’re hoping that he would restore the good ol’ days. Yet is that really what Christ came to do? And can we ever truly recover the good ol’ days? And what are the good ol’ days? And were the good ol’ days all that good?

So on the day of his Ascension, Jesus gathered his scattered flock together and led them out as far as Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived – perhaps he wanted to bid his dear friends farewell, along with the rest of the Apostles and disciples. I imagine His mother was there as well.

And as He Ascends into Heaven the disciples are still a bit clueless because they are staring at the sky until two angels inform them that they ought to move along. They might as well have said to them: “this concludes our service…. you may return to your cars.”

Now what? In one respect we cannot remain fixated on the clouds above and ignore the plight of our fellow human beings! On the other hand, we cannot allow our entire focus to be here below. We must seek that fine balance of being centered in Christ, with the eyes of our hearts fixed on the things of heaven, yet also our eyes seeking Christ in our neighbor and our ears being open to the cry of the poor and our hands outstretched to all those in need!

The early church community could not remain hidden away living a private religion in the upper room. They could not live in the past, but had to move forward into the future! We have to recognize now more than ever the urgency of the gospel message and that it must be proclaimed!

So the Ascension was a new beginning. The disciples were no longer downhearted but rather full of joy, assured that Christ could no longer be separated from them.
As I attended the college graduation ceremony for my sister-in-law, I was once again reminded of those first days when I was left alone on the campus of college as well as the day of graduation.

I spoke with my sister-in-law, and other graduates about their experience of their first days of college and their graduation. We found that both events brought joy mixed with uncertainty.

In a way we had all been at similar crossroads as were the first disciples and asked: “Now what? “

The graduates have walked across the stage, received their diploma and heard those glorious words: “Graduates: By virtue of the authority and power granted to me, I now confer on you all the "rights, privileges, and responsibilities to which you are entitled."

So “Now what? A graduate can’t let those words go to his head. These “rights, privileges, and responsibilities” are words of great consequence. In the words of Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility!

And just as graduates receive their degrees, all of us as disciples will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill our mission as Church!
But let’s face it, coming down the mountain after experiencing Christ’s Ascension is hard, and living the faith, day in, day out, is going to be hard.

It’s tough for children as they adapt to new surroundings in a new school. It’s difficult for college graduates to adapt to a new way of life in the working world. And for us too, it is a great challenge to constantly adapt to the changing circumstances that call us to embrace our faith anew. But this is what we are called to on this feast of the Ascension.

Just as the disciples realize that they could not dwell on the past, we too must work to bring about the kingdom now! The urgent call to repentance must echo through our world. Forgiveness must be extended to all! And tidings of great joy have to be spread far and wide!

We are assured that Christ is seated at the right Hand of the Glory of God. We have a heavenly intercessor in Heaven who hears our prayer as we head back to school or work or home each day.

Now What? When we walk out of here, will be dumbly looking to the sky, - or will we get on with the job of spreading the word? We cannot live in the past, but must move forward into the future, by being clothed from the power from on high, the Holy Spirit!

And on the Last Day we too will ascend to Heaven and hear the Words of Christ: “By virtue of the authority and power granted to me, I now confer on you all the "rights, privileges, and responsibilities to which you are entitled as my disciples. Come into the presence of my Father where there will be great joy, where every tear will be wiped away.”

PALM SUNDAY YEAR C 2010

2010-03-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a foreshadowing of his coming again in glory. But first there must be the Cross.

The humility of Jesus riding a donkey also reminds us of his mother birth in Bethlehem…
Even the song of the crowd reminds us of the angels’ song at Jesus’ nativity –

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

At the Passover meal, Jesus said to his disciples: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.” Then an argument broke out among them
about which of them should be regarded as the greatest.

The disciples then encouraged Jesus to put up a fight:
“Look, here are two swords!”

Jesus said. “Enough of this!” They had missed his message of mercy completely.

When Jesus asked his disciples to pray, they fell asleep.

When Judas came with the cohort, his disciples asked,
“Lord, shall we strike with a sword?” but before Jesus could answer, one of them struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear.
But Jesus touched the servant’s ear and healed him.

Peter abandons Jesus and warms himself by a lesser light, then he denies he even knew him, then the Lord turned and looked at Peter….

(Pause)

We know how fickle public opinion can be. The same crowds hailing Jesus as the messiah on Palm Sunday, are against him on Good Friday.

Jesus was too political for Rome and too religious for the Jews.

The crowds chanted “away with this man,” release Barabbas!
Pontius Pilate found Jesus innocent, but to placate the crowds allowed him to be crucified anyway.

As they led Jesus away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian; and made him carry the cross behind Jesus. (The chief Apostle Simon-Peter was nowhere to be found)

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. But Jesus comforted them in their grief and sorrow.

As Jesus was crucified he prayed: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” In fact, theologians agree that Jesus likely prayed this prayer over and over, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.”
In his death upon the cross Christ puts an end to all human sacrifice. He does not demand a pound of flesh for our sins! Christ is the final sacrifice that saves us from sin! His task was to save the world, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son….”
(pause)

One of the criminals hanging next to our Lord said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

(pause)

The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent beyond doubt.”

Meanwhile all his acquaintances stood at a distance.

(Pause)

Jesus always gives, reassures, heals, and calms others – even in the midst of his own pain and suffering.

Where do we see ourselves in the gospel story today? [pause]

I imagine that all the disciples needed the Sabbath rest to pause and reflect upon such a shocking end to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, but more importantly they needed the Sabbath rest in order to prepare for the greatest shock the world has ever experienced! The empty tomb on the Third Day!

[pause]

What will be our Easter response?

WIPE AWAY OUR TEARS AND OUR FEARS - 3rd sunday of Lent Year C

2010-03-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

In Luke’s gospel account today, a recent act of violence and death is on the crowds’ mind. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, had killed some Galilean worshipers upon the very altar that they had offered their sacrifices upon. Jesus himself then reminds the crowd about a recent tragedy in the village of Siloam – a water tower had collapsed, crushing eighteen men to death.

The people of Jesus' day had an easy explanation for the horrific deaths of the Galileans and the eighteen men under the tower: they were "worse sinners" and "more guilty" than those who were not killed.

This idea of God smiting humans for their sins was popular theology in Jesus’ day, so it was plausible for the crowd and the disciples to think that God had smote the Galileans and the villagers of Siloam.

This was a harsh teaching that Jesus rejected. We know that some of the greatest saints have suffered and human experience shows us that bad things can happen and do happen to good people; Jesus is the greatest example.

Jesus is challenging his hearers to think about their image of God. His words challenge us to think of our image of God as well.

I recall after the deadly tornado 6 November 2005, there were some Christians who claimed it was God’s punishment upon the States of Indiana and Kentucky for allowing everything from casino gambling and horse-racing to homosexuality and abortion. In some ways it may be tempting to believe such things.

And there are still Christians who think that God is angry at us and even say that God cursed the poor people of Haiti with an earthquake. This philosophy of believing that human suffering is always caused by sin is a dangerous theology.

On the problem of evil, Thomas Aquinas wrote, [God does not directly will evil, but] "God allows or permits evil” and can draw forth some greater good out of suffering and death.

But often tragedy, earthquake, disaster, illness, and disease can cause us to question our faith in God’s mercy.

* * * * *

In John’s gospel when Jesus met the man blind from birth, the disciples ask Jesus: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? That he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. (John 9:2).

In Luke’s gospel James and John were upset that a particular group of Samaritans had not accepted Jesus’ message, so James and John ask Jesus if they can call fire down from heaven to consume those Samaritans (which would have undoubtedly killed them), but Jesus turns and reprimands the disciples for even having such intentions.
Jesus does not wish for us to talk or think this way. If we do we are in the wrong state of mind; we are living in the state of sin and the kingdom of fear, not the kingdom of God.

God’s love is not the kind that says “I’ll love you if you’re good”; or “I’ll love you if you prove what a great person you are”; or “I’ll love you as long as you don’t disappoint me.”

This image of God is based on dread and fear that God is more apt to curse than forgive. Yet we know that true love casts out all fear!

For our God is NOT in heaven at his computer screen ready to delete us with the first sign of disobedience. We know that Christ came to forgive us and call us to act with mercy, compassion, love, and service. This was Jesus’ Mission, his Message, His Person.

In his death upon the cross Christ puts an end to all human sacrifice. He does not demand a pound of flesh for our sins! Christ is the final sacrifice that saves us from sin! His task was to save the world, “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son….”

Nothing we can do can make God love us! He already loves us! That is why God sent His son! And God is so madly in love with each one of us that he longs for us to share that love with whomsoever we meet! And all our works, our prayers, our acts of love and charity are all done in response to God’s gracious love and mercy!! So we rejoice in the mercy of our God! Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! Jesus is our Mercy!
THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS!!! We can never repeat it enough!

* * * * *

Yet many of us do have fears of failure or rejection, fears of violence or not meeting other peoples’ expectations of us, fears of being used or taken advantage of, or even fear of natural disasters or war.

Perhaps our fear is not of anything specific – just an overall dread, a feeling that life could fall apart on us at any moment and we wouldn’t be able to cope.
But the good news is that we can respond to our fears with a deepened trust in the love of God – whether it is a fear of violence or a tragic accident such as the stories in today’s gospel.

Saint Paul wrote that we, as children of God, “did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” but that we are “joint heirs with Christ,” and if we unite our sufferings with His we will “also be glorified with him.” For the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Rom 8.14-18).

The example of Jesus shows us that when we do suffer we can suffer redemptively; suffering can be transformed into new life. And the foundation of our Christian hope is our belief in the Resurrection of Christ!

Then as we who grow closer to Christ, we come to trust God more deeply over time. Little by little the fears that grip our hearts lose their power over us. We can let go of fear because we know that God is with us – in and through suffering, death, and destruction, and that despite it all, new Life CAN come forth - for not even suffering and death can crush us completely or destroy God’s love for us!
Again, Saint Paul wrote: “If God is for us, who can be against us? What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish or distress or persecution or disaster? No!” he says, “[f]or I am convinced that neither death, nor life… nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:31, 35-38).

God will raise us up, turning our “little crucifixions”, rejections, failures, and losses into new life.

Then, whenever the time of our physical death comes, we will not be caught by surprise or locked in the grip of fear, but we will be living the Kingdom message;
God will give us new life, life in union with Him, a life beyond anything we could ever dream of or ever imagine, where He will wipe away every tear – and every fear –!

WHO YOU GONNA LOVE?

2010-02-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C Deacon John McMullen

From a personal point of view, if anyone wants to know the secret to our marriage, here’s what works for us.

Once a week we take time to go to a nice restaurant where we can be alone: a Candlelight dinner, soft music, and a slow drive home. (pause). I go on Tuesdays, MG goes on Thursdays.

Last year I asked MG, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary?"
She said, "Somewhere I haven’t been in a while."
I answered, "How about the kitchen?"
I wound up in the emergency room.

During our engagement Mary Grace and I got into a tiff on our way to Cincinnati about her driving skills. I was being helpful and she thought otherwise. We had gone about 100 miles and neither one of us had said a word. As we passed a farm I saw some pigs, and I asked her, "Are those relatives of yours?" "Yes," she replied. "I’m marrying into the family."]

Seriously, this weekend we are given plenty to reflect upon on how we live our lives; how we love; what we love; who we love, and who we are going to love.
For those of us old enough to remember Telly Salvales’ character in the old TV show KOJAK, you will recall that he used to say, “Who loves ya, baby?”
Well, today I ask all of you, “Who do you love?”

Our scripture readings this week make it clear there are really only two ways to live your life: a blessing of life to others or a woe-full curse of death unto oneself.

In two of the earliest Christian writings, called The Didache, the teachings of the Twelve Apostles, and The Epistle of Barnabas, both writers begin their texts much in the same way of today’s first reading and psalm.

The Didache begins: There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways.

The way of death consists of: greediness, arrogance; persecuting the good, hating truth… Those on this path lack meekness, patience, and kindness and pursue revenge;
Barnabas adds that: the way of death is crooked, and full of cursing; for it is the way of eternal death… and especially evil are those who do not attend to the needs of the widow and orphan, who do not care for the needy and do not pity the poor, who oppress the afflicted, who are only advocates of the rich, who are unjust, failing to come to the aid of the heavily-burdened and turn away those in want of necessities, and who are in every respect utterly sunk in sin. This is the way of Death.

Yet the way of Life leads to eternal life. The Didache reads: The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. Love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy.

If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed it was never yours in the first place. Give to everyone who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that all should be given of our blessings. Happy are they who give according to this commandment.

You shall bear no grudge. You shall not hate anyone…and do not murmur. Be patient, compassionate, gentle, and good. And in all prayer you shall acknowledge your sins, and you shall not come near to God in prayer or to the altar as long as you bear ill will in your conscience.

Barnabas reiterates this theme. You shall be simple in heart, and rich in spirit. You shall be meek and peaceable. Love your neighbor more than yourself.
Thou shall share in all things with your neighbor; you shall not call things your own; for if we all partake of the incorruptible, eternal things in common, then how much more should we share in earthly things which are corruptible!

Be always ready to stretch forth your hands to give. Do not hesitate to give, nor murmur when you give. "Give to every one that ask of you," and great shall be your reward. Do not be the cause of a rift among believers or be the cause of schism. This is the way of light.

Wow! Talk about a strange way to live Christianity! Or is it the way things ought to be? What does the Gospel teach us? Better yet, what does Jesus command? Today’s Beatitudes from Luke are often called the Sermon on the Plain….Plain and simple – the gospel is meant to lift the lowly and bring down the high and mighty arrogant.

* * * * *

One of my favorite Saints is Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. In his marvelous Spiritual Exercises –which he wrote while dwelling among the Benedictine Monastery at Montserrat - in the second week of meditations he asks the retreatant to ponder the two ways of the Kingdom and calls them the TWO STANDARDS.
The one is Christ, our Commander-in-chief and Lord; the other is Lucifer, the mortal enemy of our human nature.

Christ calls and wants all under His standard, his flag of allegiance; and Lucifer, on the contrary, wants us under his.

Ignatius has us imagine seeing the place; a great field of all that region of Jerusalem, where the supreme Commander-in-chief of the good is Christ our Lord; another field in the region of Babylon, where the chief of the enemy is Lucifer. (if we have ever been on a high mountain or even a great hillside one can see the valley below for miles in either direction . This is the idea.

On one side we can see the chief of the enemy army seated in that great field of Babylon, as in a great chair of fire and smoke, horrible and terrifying.

He then issues a summons to innumerable demons and scatters them, some to one city and others to another, and so through all the world, not omitting any places, states, or any person.

He tells them to cast out nets and chains; that they have first to tempt with a longing for riches - as he is accustomed to do in most cases -that humans may more easily come to vain honor of the world, and then to vast pride. So that the first step shall be that of riches and worldly goods; the second, that of honor and fame; the third, that of power and pride; and from these three steps he draws on to all the other vices.

Then we behold the supreme and true Captain, Who is Christ our Lord at the other end of the valley. Our Lord puts Himself in a great field of that region of Jerusalem, in lowly place, beautiful and attractive. He then chooses so many persons - Apostles, Disciples, teachers, care-givers, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children – and sends them through all the world spreading His sacred doctrine through all states and conditions of persons.

Christ our Lord then asks all of His servants and friends whom He sends on this expedition, to want to help all people.

By having them embrace spiritual poverty, disregard for worldly honor, and humility against pride. And from these three all the other virtues flow.

We are in that valley. The battle is raging – who standard will we choose?

* * * * * *

Finally, in the Book of Revelation, the Lord speaks to the Church Community at Ephesus: "I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.”

In other words, the church community of Ephesus knows the truth of God, they know the faith, they understand the doctrine, they have it clear in their minds, and they have suffered for being faithful to the gospel message and the truths of the faith, BUT – and this is an important conjunction - after praising them for their faith, he then says: “Yet I hold this against you: you have lost your first love!”
And who is the first love? Is it not Christ Jesus Himself?! And not only must we love truth in the mind, but we must love with the heart. We must love the truth with our minds, but love the Person of Christ with all of our heart, and serve Christ by serving one another with our hands.

We still read letters today written by St. Paul to the Ephesians, but sadly, the Church community at Ephesus faltered in its faith and did not hearken to the words of Christ or of Saint Paul, for there is no church at Ephesus today.

We are about to embark upon the Penitential Season of Lent, the desert of abandonment when we fast and pray. What will we learn to fast from? Whatever keeps us away from God and serving – and communicating with – our neighbor. TV, I-pod, cell phone, halo, guitar hero? Whatever it is –whatever we spend most of our time and money on can become our god.

Yet the greatest commandment is the same yesterday, today, and forever: Love God with all our mind, all our heart, all our soul, and with all our strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

* * * * *

May we, the Church of Nativity, aye, the Church of the Diocese of Evansville, and indeed all Catholics and Christians everywhere, never forget our first love.
And take the path of Light, Life, and Blessing!

[Who are you going to love?]

Who ya gonna love?

WHERE IS THE LOVE?

2010-01-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Deacon McMullen Jan 30-31, 2010

Where is the Love?

[The homily begins with me hitting a trash can lid with a ball bat. After which I ask:

Where’s the love? [pause]

Imagine that week after week at Mass, the preacher, in order to not offend anyone, really says nothing of substance. He doesn’t proclaim the Word of God and allow it to challenge the congregation to grow in faith or develop a more personal relationship with the Lord nor does he call the people to look within themselves and see where God is calling them to share their time and talents.

Instead, the preacher continually encourages the people to keep their religion to themselves, reinforcing the old saw that only Catholics go to heaven, women shouldn’t be allowed in the sanctuary, and that everyone ought to focus on their sinfulness and faults, and never stop repeating to themselves how unworthy they are of God’s love!

Unfortunately, there are those who have embraced a warped, frustrated view of Catholicism that I have just described.

But what a completely upside down disturbing view of the gospel message! Yet that is sort of the kind of a mentality Jesus was confronted with when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth.

Jesus proclaims a passage of the prophet Isaiah and announces: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Nazareth crowd initially responds positively to him and his words. But then they begin to question him and his authority. Isn’t this the son of Joseph? He was a stonecutter, a mere carpenter. Who does he think he is? Once again, there is no room at the inn for Jesus, even in his hometown!

I’m sure Jesus could have asked: Where’s the love? Where’s the love!

Jesus recognizes that he is being rejected – but he knew it would be this way – you and I know that the good news of the gospel is often shunned in favor of the bad news of gossip, people’s personal failures, and the latest scandal.

Jesus jogs their memory and rekindles the story of Elijah who went to the widow of Zarapheth rather than any of the widows of Israel; he also recalls the story of Naaman the Syrian who was the only leper cleansed by the Prophet Elisha. God will not be outdone in generosity nor will he be confined to our ridiculous boundary lines. But the people did not want to hear how God loved their enemies, so Jesus is rejected! Jesus’ God was bigger than what they were used to, greater than what they could accept, so he is rejected!
They wanted a god who was only on their side, so he is rejected!

And by his rejection he is letting us know that we can expect rejection as well. In fact, it seems to be a calling card for Catholics and Christians around the world, even now.

We too will encounter opposition and a lack of faith – even among our fellow believers – people with preconceived notions of God that limit grace - but we must not allow their cynicism and doubt to crush our faith!

The Nazareth crowd was filled with religious intolerance and holy anger – often the worst kind! And they sought to kill Jesus by throwing him off a cliff headfirst!

But Jesus passed through their midst and went away. He went away!!! He went away. Where did he go?

He went to those who have open hearts and willing minds to embrace his vision of the kingdom! Do we see him in our midst? What are going to do with Jesus and his message, his mission, and his vision of the kingdom?

Should we beat a trash can lid, telling people what great Christians we are? Where is the Love in that? Or should we live the love?

Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus all knew their God to be bigger than any of our ridiculous categories or boxes in which we want to keep God. But God cannot be contained. God cannot be limited. God’s love is overflowing.

Being sent to your own people and telling them something that might be hard for them to accept can get you into hot water just like the kind of trouble Jesus got into! Those who think they know all there is to know about the faith are often the scariest people to deal with. Those who should know that we are forever on a journey with and to the Lord are often the least interested in truly hearing the Word of God!

Yet if we take the gospel seriously, we are also called to be prophets! Not to foretell the future, but to speak and do God’s Word in our World! Jesus calls us all to be prophets, speaking the Word of God in and out of season and putting it into action!

As prophets, you and I have business outside these walls of worship. These walls are never to confine God’s Word or action in the world!

So, how can we be prophets today? Saint Paul describes our role very well in today’s epistle. We are to love. And what does love look like?

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, love is not pompous…” and all that…

We are the love in the world. And if we are not love to the world, then we are hypocrites, actors dressed as Christians.

Paraphrasing Saint Paul, if I have the tongues of angels and human and have no love, then I am nothing more than a trash can lid being hammered with a ball bat.

If I had the faith to move a mountain but do not put that faith into practice through acts of love and mercy, then I am as useless as an earthmover without a shovel!

These are strong words. Yet the gospel is strong medicine for a disease ridden world!

Therefore what should move us more than anything is what happens to us when we hear the Word proclaimed and then gather around this altar! When we comprehend the Word of God with our minds and receive the Word into our hearts, we are transformed; then as we approach the altar and receive the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, then we become the very Body of Christ, the Church!

So what happens to us once we hear the words, “Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord!”?
Are those merely words? Or do we not realize that we are given a command! We are to boldly go forth as prophets to the nations! We become the sanctuary to the world! We are the Church and we take Christ to the world! We are God’s bread given as manna to the needy! We are God’s love poured out to a thirsty world!

What would the world be like if we practiced the virtues of patience, kindness, hope & love?!

[Ball bat on trash can lid again.] Where’s the love? Where is the Love? Where is our love? Where is the Lord?

EPIPHANY ANYONE?

2010-01-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

There is a fairly forgettable film with Will Farrell called Talladega Nights, - trust me, I am not recommending the film – though I am sure many of you have already seen it – but four years ago one of my freshmen students placed the DVD box in my hand, so I watched it. It took me three nights to get all the way through the banal attempt at humor.

However there was one very telling scene where Will Farrell’s character Ricky decides to lead a prayer before a meal and he prays to the Baby Jesus because, in his words, “I like the Baby Jesus best.”

On this solemn feast of Epiphany and as we continue to celebrate the Christmas Season - while the rest of the world forgot about Christ 10 days ago – we savor the sweetness of the Savior’s birth.

However, we do not remain fixated upon the infant in the manger. We cannot. In fact, in Matthew’s gospel the Magi do not visit Jesus in a manger. Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus are dwelling in a house by the time the magi arrive. Jesus does not stay in one place for long. So if we only recognize Christ in the manger, then our faith would never grow beyond that of the likes of a Ricky Bobby.

Could it be that the reason some people may be more comfortable with the Baby Jesus is because they only come to Mass on Christmas? Then the next time these folks show up for church is on Easter Sunday after all the hard work has been done and the tomb is empty! But Catholics or Christians who treat their faith that way miss the whole story!

Many people do want Jesus in their own image… and for Ricky Bobby, Jesus is a little 8lb 6 oz., perfect newborn baby Jesus, in perfect golden-fleece diapers…”

He is the Jesus of his own imagination. He fashions Jesus according to an image that he prefers and is comfortable with and then pictures Jesus showering him with money, success, and power. But is this the true Jesus?

Ricky Bobby was so immature that the only way he could relate to Jesus was on the level of baby and God was the great gumball machine in the sky ready to grant his every desire.

We know that Jesus grew to manhood and began his public ministry. But even in the midst of Christmas we sing: “What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? The king of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him. And then the next verse reads: Nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you; Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary!”

So even in the manger the shadow of the cross is there. Jesus is born in Bethlehem which means “little house of bread” and is placed in a manger – a wooden feeding trough for animals; then in his ministry he proclaims that he is “The Bread of Life” and gives his flesh as “our daily bread” and is eventually placed on the wood of the cross, nailed to it and lifted on high.

Therefore , note that the feast of epiphany is threefold – yes, we recall the Magi, the strange visitors from the east who come to worship the Christ child and offer gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh;

But we also recall the adult Jesus’ baptism where he begins his public ministry where God the Father announces, “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

And thirdly we recall Jesus first public miracle where he changes the water into wine at the wedding at Cana.

No child stays a child forever. Ask any parent or grandparent and they will all agree – they grow up so fast. So it was with Jesus! He didn’t just come as a sweet baby but as a sweet Savior!

He grows up and in his public ministry he challenges us in many ways.

Being a Christian is not for wimps. Jesus calls us to show mercy even when no one else is showing mercy; he calls us to be peacemakers even in the midst of war and oppression; he calls us to forgive one another if we desire God to forgive us. He calls us to love others as God loves each of us. This is an epiphany for many – perhaps even some of us here this morning.

Epiphany is a moveable feast – in more ways than one. Every day we are called to experience epiphany.

May we experience the epiphany of recognition that Christ comes to transform our ordinary existence into extraordinary grace-filled lives; that the same Father calls to us in the silence of our hearts that we are God’s Beloved Sons and Daughters!

May our celebration of epiphany leads us to the epiphany that we are God’s beloved children and we are to be Christ to one another.

Now imagine how glorious, how awesome our celebration of Christmas will be now that we know the rest of the story?!!!

GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY

2009-12-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

"In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God's wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind. And so at the birth of our Lord the ang...els sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth!

"So good Christian, remember your dignity, that you share in God's own nature; through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ." - Pope Leo the Great (Pope from 440-461 A.D.)

Blessed Are We Who Believe What Is Spoken To Us By The Lord Will Be Fulfilled!

2009-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

How Odd for God to choose the Jews…. So wrote Hilary Belloc.

It just doesn’t make any sense! Why would God do thing this way? I mean – really – Bethlehem? You’ve got to be kidding? Okay, I’ll admit that King David was born in Bethlehem, but come on; lightning does not strike twice in the same place, at least not in the Middle East. What are the odds?

The evangelist Luke begins his gospel with pregnant women and unborn babies. Women in those days had nothing of significance to say and children had no say whatsoever!

All of this it is nonsense to a world that is ever so sophisticated!

Mary has just received the incredible news that the Archangel Gabriel delivers to her. She is to be the Mother of our Savior, the Mother of the Son of God, the Mother of the Eternal Word of the Father, the Word who made the universe! She will bear the King of Israel and the King of Peace!

Mary- young Mary – a teenage girl – consents to God the Holy Spirit and now carries within her womb Jesus the fetus! She is no more than a few days pregnant and yet she dares to risk all and make haste to visit her relative Elizabeth in Judea, far south of Galilee in Judea.

This was not an easy journey nor is it safe by any imagining!. Mary had to travel down into unfriendly Samaria before likely crossing the Jordan River into gentile territory before crossing again to enter Judea n the south.

Imagine the questions Mary had as she journeyed south, yet imagine with what faith and expectation she traveled in the joy of the Holy Spirit!

So it is with us – once we get it, once we get the word of God in our souls, once we get pregnant with the Word of God, there is no stopping us! We must proceed in haste to announce the good news and do the works of faith!

When Mary finally arrived at the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, her mere greeting, her simple hello to Elizabeth causes a paradigm shift and history is changed forever.

For when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb - the infant, of course, was the baby John the Baptizer, and then Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit – all at the word of Mary – and it was because of whom Mary was carrying within her womb!

Elizabeth cried out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

BUT – and this is an important conjunction – Elizabeth says “BUT how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

Here we are literally days – or if you are a child – you are counting the hours – 120hours or less- until we celebrate Christmas!

What can we learn from these two pregnant women and these two unborn baby boys?

Imagine the joy! Think about it - if so much joy was shared and expressed before Jesus’ birth, before his teachings, his miracles, and his resurrection from the dead, then how glorious, how awesome will our own celebration of Christmas be now that we know the rest of the story!?

For this infant Jesus is the refulgence of the Father’s glory; the one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times! The same Jesus that will fully mature, accept Baptism, and begin his public ministry to teach us, to heal us, to save us and to redeem us, for He Is the Eternal Word of the Father come down to earth!

Blessed are we who believe what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled!

Let us set out in haste to come to the altar! Let us set out in haste to our community and families to fulfill the Word of God! Let us set out in haste to love and serve our Lord and our neighbor!

And wouldn’t it be a wonderful Christmas gift if those we care for and visit and work with said to us:

“But who am I that the servant of the Lord should come to me? For the moment you first came into my life, my soul rejoiced in the love of God, for your mere presence brought peace and joy into my life!

Blessed are we who believe what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled!

Living the Gospel of Life in a Culture of Death

2009-12-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

Mark 3: 1-6
[Jesus] entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up here before us." Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

*****************************
Respect for Human Life and Human Dignity

The man with the withered hand could have been content to remain that way for the rest of his life, but he heard the word of Christ and risked persecution by stepping forward.

Being a person of life, promoting a culture of life and civility in our culture of death, is undeniably countercultural. We too must stretch forth our withered hands in prayer and compassion to our neighbors.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a "Gospel of life." It invites all persons to a new life lived abundantly in respect for human dignity. We proclaim that human life is a precious gift from God; and that society, must protect and nurture human life at every stage of its existence.

A culture of life begins with our refusal to destroy someone through gossip, ridicule, discrimination, deceit, disrespect, or any type of violence; and being pro-life requires a personal decision to respect the dignity of others, seeking to affirm and safeguard the gift of human sexuality and the gift of procreation; and to uphold the dignity of marriage.

But being pro-life means standing in solidarity with all of human life, not simply opposing abortion. As Christians, Jesus challenges us with these words: “Whatsover you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.”

We are called to be neighbors to everyone, and to "show special favor to those who are poorest, most alone, and most in need of mercy. In helping the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the homeless, the sick, the unwanted, or the imprisoned, we serve Christ Jesus.

The Christian disciple therefore not only avoids evil, he or she does not even think or wish another person any harm – even the most wretched or vicious, for "The measure of forgiveness that you measure out to others will be measured out to you." Christ's words of mercy are clear: "Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy," and the prophet Ezekiel spoke God’s word: "God does not desire the death of the sinner."

*****

There are those who criticize the Church for her pro-life stance just as there were those who criticized Jesus for eating with sinners and forgiving sin. Jesus lived the pro-life gospel by insisting that no person should be abandoned or regarded as hopeless.

We are all lost sheep from time to time; our hands are at times clenched tight, withered shut, keeping God’s mercy only for ourselves. Yet there are no lost sheep in God’s Kingdom! There are no expendable children – born or unborn! There are no worthless human beings! There are no useless persons! There is no one beyond the reach of God’s mercy! For every drop of blood that Christ Jesus shed was shed for you and me and every other sinner.

We are all called to be prophets that stand on the side of life and witness to the burning love of God in an often cold, cruel world, through our forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. In one of the Catholic prayers associated with the rosary, we pray, “...lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most in need of mercy.”

If we love God and long for God, then we will truly come to love the things that God loves, and love the people God loves. And if we long for union with Christ, then we must have the mind and the heart of Christ! And to practice what he taught! How impossible this seems - yet it is possible with God’s grace, and so we pray for his Grace – even now in the eleventh hour.

The Church holds a belief in the unique worth and dignity of each person from the moment of conception, made in the image and likeness of God - even those who have taken life must be treated with dignity – yes, even those who may show no sign of remorse or contrition. As St. Paul wrote, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5.8). Christ’s blood was shed even for the sins of murderers.

“Our witness to respect for life shines most brightly when we demand respect for each and every human life, including the lives of those who fail to show that respect for others”! (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 22).

Christ taught us that we must love our enemies, not that it would be a good idea, but that we must love them. The gospel message is this: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk. 19.10) Is it not our task to carry on the work of the Lord? Christ did not give us an exception to the rule ‘love thy neighbor.’ Otherwise, the Good Shepherd would have remained with the loyal ninety-nine sheep and let the lost sheep plummet over the edge of the cliff to its death.

Therefore, let us cast away our fear of loving the unlovable and step forward like the man in the gospel. Let us abandon ourselves to mercy and seek to love as God loves by stretching forth our withered hands.

We are here tonight to pray for an increased respect for human life due to a tragedy that occurred in 1994: the killing of three beautiful people: Debra Jean Wrinkles, Mark "Tony" Fulkerson, and Natalie "Chris" Fulkerson. But those who seek vengeance against the perpetrator of the crime only reduce themselves to the very thing they seek to destroy and merely perpetuate the culture of killing.

Capital Punishment can neither restore the victims’ lives nor uplift the survivors or lessen their grief and pain. Only mercy, love, and forgiveness can do that.
We must stand with victims of crime –including the children of those who are incarcerated, but State-sanctioned killing affects us all because it diminishes the value of all human life.

Bishop Gettelfinger wrote of Mary Winnecke (the mother of Natalie Fulkerson) as “an extraordinary example who lives up to the pro-life ideal. Her daughter, her daughter’s husband and her husband’s sister were wantonly slaughtered by Eric Wrinkles. Mary continues to grieve the loss of her family. Nonetheless, Mary has not only forgiven Eric Wrinkles, she urges that the State of Indiana not kill him. It solves nothing nor will it bring peace to her or others suffering from his heinous crimes. She prays for Eric Wrinkles.”

And from her example, so do we.

Yet we here tonight also pray for Mary and all the family and survivors who were victims of this unspeakable crime and have experienced great anguish and pain.

Yet St. Paul wrote: “Where sin abounds, God’s grace more and more abounds.” We have faith that no matter how horrible the sin or the tragedy of sin, God’s grace is even greater. God creates each of us as his children. God never abandons us. Human beings may believe the worst about other human beings, but God is LOVE. Humans may hate; but God is love. This is our hope and hope does not disappoint. Our sins cannot overshadow God’s love; nothing can separate us from the love of God!

*****

There are two stories I want to share with you.

The year is 1375. A particular Italian Dominican Sister was asked to visit Nicolo di Toldo, an angry prisoner, who refused to see a priest and would not reconcile himself to Christ. He was going to be executed for committing a capital crime while under the influence of alcohol. The woman listened to him in his pain and fear, gently assuring him of Jesus' great love for him. When her attempts to commute his sentence to imprisonment failed, Niccolo asked her to accompany him to his execution.

She wrote: "I waited for him at the place of execution, and I kept praying…Before he arrived, I lay down and stretched out my head on the block, and begged the Blessed Virgin Mary for the grace I wanted, namely, that I might give him light and peace of heart at the moment of death…Then he arrived, like a meek lamb, and when he saw me he asked me to make the sign of the cross over him…

She caressed his head as it lay on the block and bent down to him, reminding him of the blood of the Lamb. His lips kept murmuring only "Jesus," and he was still murmuring when she received his head into her hands, the executioner fulfilling his function.

She wrote: “My soul rested in peace and quiet, in such a way that I couldn’t bear to wash away his blood that had splashed upon me.”

Through her, Christ was present to Niccolo, assuring him, “You are not alone. I am with you.” This woman knew that we love God by loving our neighbor.

The woman was Saint Catherine of Siena – a doctor of the Church. Catherine of Siena was like the merchant in search of a pearl of great price. She sought the pearl of Niccolo di Toldo among the slimy oysters of her day and was left with his blood smeared upon her religious habit.

*****

Another young woman was moved by God’s Grace. The year was 1888. She was fourteen years old at the time. She heard of an unrepentant murderer name Henri Pranzini. He had murdered three people and was to be put to death by guillotine in France. She determined to try to save him through her prayer.

She wrote: "I heard talk of a great criminal condemned to death for some horrible crimes; everything pointed to the fact that he would die unrepentant. I felt in the depths of my heart the desire to pray for all sinners. I told God I was sure He would pardon the poor, unfortunate Pranzini; that I'd believe this even if he went to his death without any signs of repentance or without having gone to confession. I was absolutely confident in the mercy of Jesus.”

She prayed and sacrificed for Pranzini, desiring his complete conversion to Jesus, even though he was judged guilty and condemned to death.

“The day after his execution I found the newspaper,” she wrote. “I opened it quickly and what did I see? Ah! Pranzini had not gone to confession, but he had mounted the scaffold and was preparing to place his head in the opening, when suddenly he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times!

“My prayer was answered." Though she would never be a mother physically, she called him her first child, and dedicated herself even more to praying for souls. Today she is one of the most popular saints and some people may be surprised to know that this young woman was St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, and that her first spiritual child was a murderer.

No one is beyond the mercy of God.

No One.

For who are we to dictate to God who should be saved or damned?

Therese stumbled upon the news story of Henri Pranzini. How often when we stumble across a story of a criminal in the news is our first thought to pray for his conversion or his salvation?

*****

These stories teach us respect for life. These saints challenge us and call us to ask ourselves the question: Do we love others the way God loves us? God’s mercy is boundless, and no sinner, no matter how great his offenses, should have reason to despair of mercy!

Just as Jesus called the man to stretch forth his withered hand, we too are called to stretch forth our hands in prayer and compassion to all. Who knows whom we may snatch up from the depths of despair?

So tonight we may be chastised for praying for a condemned murderer. Tomorrow we may be ridiculed for ministering to those with AIDS. Next week we may be ignored because we passed up a cocktail party to work the soup kitchen . Next month we may be snubbed because of our stance against abortion. But we are in the good company of Christ and the Saints.

“Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you all because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” Mt 5

It is time to abolish the use of the death penalty.

It is time to cast away our fear of loving the unlovable and abandon ourselves to God’s mercy and love as God loves.

Let us pursue justice without vengeance or violence and build a culture of life, indeed a civilization of love, where we will be so committed to the dignity of human life that as a people, we will no longer sanction the killing of any human person for any reason, be they unborn, newborn, deformed, handicapped, elderly, terminally ill, or imprisoned – even those on death row.

May God, through our witness to the dignity of human life, change us and through us change the world so that the gift of human life will be cherished as the greatest of gifts.

Amen.

*****************
[Two other stories excluded from the actual homily due to time constraints follow:

Father Stephen Theodore Badin – a priest who escaped the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror (which employed the guillotine without restraint) was the first priest ordained in the United States by Archbishop Carroll. Badin served in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan for most of his life and told this story that took place in the years 1830-1840.

“A young farmer killed another man in a fight over a barmaid at a Bardstown, Kentucky tavern. At his trial, he was found guilty and condemned to death. I spent the night in jail with him before he was put to death. He wasn’t pious by any means, and he wasn’t Catholic, so I couldn’t hear his confession, but when the hangman came for him in the morning, he began to express remorse over his mortal sin as I accompanied him to the gallows.

“When the hangman placed the rope around his neck, he asked God to forgive him. Those were his last words. I went down and stood at the foot of the platform, holding his mother and praying with her as the trap door was sprung, killing her son.

“The whole affair illustrates the uselessness of killing a murderer. The Lord Jesus said, did he not, ‘Forgive as I have forgiven you. If you do not forgive others their offenses committed against you, I will not forgive you your offenses against me’? No man, by killing another, can restore the deceased to life, nor bring about any happiness in this world or the next; only an injustice and an assault upon the law of charity is done by adding sorrow to sorrow and tears upon tears.”

*****

Another tale that occurred in southern Michigan north of South Bend involved Father Badin and his catechist Angelique Campeau, a half Canadian and half Algonquin woman . In June of 1832, Topenebe, a twenty-five-year-old Potawatomi chief under the influence of alcohol, killed a young brave Nananko at Chief Pokagon’s village.

A council was held where Topenebe surrendered himself. The family of the murdered man produced their knives and tomahawks and, according to tribal custom, Topenebe fell prostrate in their presence and waited for death.

Chief Pokagon delivered a speech hoping to spare the tribe of another death, but those ready to avenge Nananko heard nothing. As they were about to execute justice, the female interpreter,

Angelique Campeau, stepped forward and said in their native tongue, “Kill me instead and be satisfied.”

All were shocked. None of the Indians expected such an offer, especially an offer from a woman.

Father Badin rose in response to his companion’s offer. He stepped forward and spoke in the Potawatomi tongue.

“To all the chiefs, indeed all my children of the Potawatomi Nation, my brethren in Christ, I am your father, the old French priest, one of the last blackrobes. You know how we French blackrobes have always been the friends of the Indians. Listen to me. I wish for all of you to be happy. What I say I say in truth. Love one another, and forgive, if you wish God to forgive you, who has often been offended by your drinking whiskey and in many other ways.

“If you do not forgive others their offenses against you, God will not forgive your offenses against Him. My children, Jesus, the Son of God, became man and was put to death by wicked men. When they were crucifying him he was praying to God for them. He did not wish for revenge and their deaths. He said, ‘Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.’ If we do as Jesus has done, we will be happy with him and with God, the Father of all men—red and white.

“My children, I speak to you as a father speaks to his beloved children. What I tell you is truth. God has sent me to instruct you; he has commanded me to teach you what His son Jesus Christ taught. Be assured that my heart cherishes you all equally, the least no less than the great. God shows no partiality. I have already spoken too long, but I must say one word more. Open your ears. Open your hearts. No man, by killing Chief Topenebe, can restore Nananko to life nor give happiness to his soul in the other world; only great harm would be done by adding sorrow to sorrow and tears to tears.

“My Potawatomi children, I, as your father, am confident that all wise men among you—indeed all men—will agree that what I have said to you is right and true.”

According to reports, Father Badin sighed and looked around at the assemblage before taking his seat again. His eyes were still on Angelique Campeau, standing in the center of the circle next to Topenebe. Topenebe had remained prostrate before the mother, brothers, and friends of the victim, Nananko.

Finally the mother of Nananko stood and called for the elders of the tribe. In their conference, the Indians conceded that it would be best to spare Topenebe’s life and refuse Angelique’s offer.]

ODD NUMBERS by M. Grace Bernardin

2009-11-13T22:40:00.000-08:00

Evansville native M. Grace Bernardin's novel is set in the southern Indiana town of Lamasco, with a metaphysical twist and the innate longing for belonging.

Mike Whicker, author of the bestseller, Invitation to Valhalla, says of ODD NUMBERS: “Touching, clever, and at times delightfully off the wall, Odd Numbers is a gulp of fresh air... Readers will be hard pressed to remain at arm’s length from Vicky, Allison, and Frank, because, after all, they are like us—flawed but hopeful. Odd Numbers is a finely crafted story of the human heart.”

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? [32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B]

2009-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Reading from 1 Kgs 17:10-16
Elijah the prophet went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance of the city, a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her, "Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink." She left to get it, and he called out after her, "Please bring along a bit of bread." She answered, "As the LORD, your God, lives, I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die." Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'" She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well; the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.

HOMILY FOLLOWS
EXCUSE ME? Who exactly does this Jewish Elijah guy think he is? Now, my mother always practices hospitality. Water, yes; but the last of our bread? He can’t be serious! We were down to the last lump of sugar, the final grains of salt, and a handful of flour! My mother tried to explain to him that she had nothing baked; but he said, "Be not afraid. Go make me a little cake and bring it to me.”

What! Was this a joke? That was asking too much!

This unshaven, tattered man appeared and claimed that his God instructed him to make his way here to Zarephath and stay with us, saying that his Lord had appointed my widowed mother to provide for him. Why’d he come to us? Why my mother?

Who is he to her? And who is she to him? But she started giving away all of our stuff to this stranger – even though she just told me we were going to die…
“But it’s all we have,” I pleaded with her, but she repeated the prophet’s words: Be Not Afraid!

I told her there’s no way! It’s impossible! But Not My Mother So you can imagine my disbelief when my mother obeyed him!

She gave it all away to this Elijah simply because he was a prophet of the Most High God! Elijah the Tishbite. I don’t even know any Tishbites. Tishbite, fishbite!
But why would a Jewish prophet be sent to my mother, a poor widow, and a Gentile? Whereas before, my widowed mother had felt as if there was no purpose to life, now my mother’s faith in God’s love and grace was stronger than her fear of death!
My Mother said, “Look, what do we have to lose? We’re hopeless. We’re already good as dead, why not trust the Word of Elijah? God has cared for him so far, so why wouldn’t his God care for us as well? Why not throw caution to the wind and risk all my faith on the Hebrew God?”

I’m still not sure what got into her, but ever since then we’ve had enough food for each day!

Now it wasn’t like we suddenly had a pantry full of a three years supply of food like he just came back from Sam’s Club, but every morning there was just enough oil and meal in the jars for the three of us.

Each day my mother acted in faith to make a cake first for Elijah, and then she would fix a cake for the two of us.

He called it his DAILY BREAD. TRUST ME. I CHECKED THAT JAR EVERY NIGHT. THERE WERE NIGHTS I WENT TO BED convinced THAT there’d be no bread the next day.

But not my mother. She slept in peace, knowing that the same God who had saved us from hunger would do it again. So since Elijah appeared we were living on a prayer, relying on the higher power of the Hebrew God; and I wasn’t sure how to take it.

Now here’s where my story becomes interesting. Elijah told us that he was a fugitive. My mother, the widow, with no support, no rights, was now harboring a criminal, an illegal alien, a Jew among Gentiles. I tried to explain to her the risks involved. “He speaks Hebrew, he doesn’t have a passport or a green card, and he’s wanted by the highest authorities in his homeland. What about roundups! This could become an issue between our two countries” and here we were – me and my widowed mama - right smack dab in the middle of a political situation that would likely make it to FOX and CNN.

My mother didn’t seem to realize the danger she was putting herself in – not to mention me – by trusting in Elijah’s God over our territorial god Baal! I pleaded that her Hospitality was putting us at great risk.

But Not My Mother. She maintained that the risk of not exercising hospitality was far worse! Hospitality is a sacred duty and the sharing of food together established a covenant.

And when the Word of the Lord came to her, she took a leap of faith and risked it all – including arrest and a sentence of death for harboring the Jewish criminal Elijah, plus the added danger of angering Baal and incurring his blazing wrath. Yet she totally surrendered to the Lord of heaven and Earth.
Her Hospitality was borne of trust and gave birth to faith. I would have told old Elijah to take a hike.

But not my mother. She took this hospitality thing seriously. And in offering hospitality to a stranger she received the comforting, reassuring Word of God!
She abandoned her fear of death and the whole notion of death! She trusted that The Lord would provide. She had the certainty of faith that the Lord, the Hebrew God, would provide for her even though she was not a Jew but a resident of Zarapheth, in Sidon, a long-time enemy of Israel, just like Iran or Syria.

My mother put her trust in God and not in her cupboard, not in her pantry, not in her stock options, and not in her portfolio; Elijah said that His God had chosen my mother for the task of welcoming him. The God of the Chosen People chose my Mother, to be one of his chosen people even though she wasn’t one of the chosen people!

She believed even when Elijah asked for the first little cake.

She taught me that the Lord asks of our essence, not simply our surplus. Religious faith isn’t a hobby – it’s a way of being. A covenant with God is a way of life!
So who are the widows and widowers in our midst? Who are those who feel as if God died and left them widowed? Who are those in our midst who feel as if God has left them standing alone at the altar? Who are the widows already in our midst?

We don’t have to look far to recognize our own brokenness and widowhood. What about all the single mothers out there who are basically living a widow’s existence, living from paycheck to paycheck, or no paycheck at all? Those women whose lovers have abandoned them once a child entered the picture? Children without fathers, mothers without husbands, mothers without support from biological fathers; husbands and fathers who are widowed, left behind as single parents. What of those valiant women who never married but have willingly adopted children? Or the faithful women and men who risk all to make room in their lives for strangers? These are the faithful widows and widowers of Zarapheth.

The divorcee, unwed single mothers, or the work-widow - many women know the anxieties, fear, desperation, and busyness of being left alone to care for a home and children – while their husbands are out doing whatever they want with whomever they want. There’s a lot of hurt out there.

Yet just as Elijah called out to my widowed mother, she responded with generous hospitality - and the Lord will not be outdone in generosity!

And I can now confidently say, “Trust in the Lord when all seems hopeless and death imminent! For the jar of flour will not go empty or the jug of oil run dry!”

Trust me – I checked those jars. They were good and empty. But not my mother.
She knew that God would fill those jars every night.

So if we are out gathering sticks and whining how our lives makes no sense, engaging in a pity-party, and a stranger approaches us and asks us for our last loaf of bread, what will our response be? [Pause]

There are times when we all feel that our jar is empty, that we have no more to give, because we feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day to sit down with the Lord so he can fill our emptiness. When Elijah asked for bread, my mother cried out in despair, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing left." That's how some of us feel sometimes at the end of a long day – feeling as if God is no longer on our side.

It can be easy to forget that God continues to fill the void, the fears, the disappointments. Some people might even go to bed wishing they’d die in their sleep.
Sometimes it takes a prophet to call us back to faith and trust! Do we miss the prophets in our lives because we think we are being pulled and squeezed from every direction?! My widowed mother had the faith and strength to trust and respond. And she taught me to do the same, though I am not anywhere near where her faith led her.

Yet Elijah’s God calls all of us to be prophets of His Promise!

How will we respond to the Word of God?

Will we be a prophet to someone this week and call him or her to recognize the Lord in his or her life?

Let us pray that we too can be open to those persons that God sends into our lives.

Let us pray for the gift of hospitality and trust.

With trust in God we realize that even when we have nothing to give, God can take our nothingness and transform it into abundant life.

TWO QUESTIONS FOR 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER 2009

2009-10-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have two questions for you this morning that I hope we can answer by the end of my homily:

Where do we want to sit in this world?
And What do we get excited about?

In the children’s book Yertle the Turtle and other stories by Dr. Seuss, Yertle the turtle is king of the pond, but he decides that his kingdom was too small. He plan was to stand on the backs of the other turtles. He manages to bully the other turtles into allowing him to stand on them. Finally he can claim to be king of all that he can see. That is until Mack, (an Irish turtle, of course,) has enough of Yertle’s dictatorship and Mack burps, causing all the turtles to tumble and Yertle comes down last of all and sinks deep into the mud. Yertle realizes that his glory cannot be rooted in the injustice of oppressing his fellow turtles!

This tale, no doubt, conveys a truth about humanity that many of us would like to deny about ourselves. (pause) Like Yertle, we all want to sit in glory. We want people to notice us, see us; we need attention, be popular and be successful – and for some people that even means stepping on others to get there.

But once you have the glitz and glamour and a million hits on your youtube account, website, or accumulate 3000 friends on facebook, or have thousands following your twitter, then what? Where does being number one lead? To what purpose? Where does this worldly success lead?

You know, for the past several weeks we have been learning that there was ambition and jealousy among the disciples. They keep fretting over trivial matter while Christ keeps speaking of his impending crucifixion, and explaining how dying to selfishness must be the pattern for all of his disciples’ lives.

Today JAMES AND JOHN approach Jesus with a mundane request. "Teacher, grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."

It all seemed like such an innocent request, but was it coming from selfish motives and a sense of self-importance? As followers of JESUS of NAZARETH they may have sense they shared his power.

Jesus replied: “You do not know what you are asking.” Can you drink the cup that I drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"

They said to him, "We can." WE CAN?

You are thinking as human beings, not as God thinks. You HAVE NO IDEA WHAT you are TALKING ABOUT and do not know what you are saying, but you will drink of my cup of suffering, and you will be baptized into my death.

THE OTHER TEN APOSTLES BECOME INDIGNANT – perhaps because they feel that James and John have one-upped them. They likely recalled Peter’s words from last week, "Lord, we have given up everything and followed you." And Jesus promised them eternal life! What more did James and John want? Greedy sons of thunder!

Jesus said to his disciples, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers lord it over their subjects! Their great ones make their authority over others known! But it shall not be so among you. Not among you. It shall not be so among you.

The American idea of success, so deeply ingrained in us, is based on the need to prove that “I am better than you.” Even relationships are sometimes based on competition, and the need to win at fights or arguments, or dominate others through verbiage or violence. The idea of being last in order to win is an absurd idea according to our world.

But Jesus knows that if we only seek to finish first we won’t have any time to serve others, people who are slower than us or who cannot even walk.
Unlike Yertle the Turtle, Jesus’ vision for us as a community is not one where the rich, powerful, and privileged step on the poor, weak, and powerless. Jesus calls us to be His Body, the Church, the Body of Christ, where the weak support the strong, and the strong support the weak! Jesus breaks down the walls of separation that keep people apart and brings them together where they will sit together and feast at the same table!

But the poor often resent the wealthy and the wealthy fear the poor and hide behind delusions of power or importance. Yet Jesus invites all to sit at his table – and every seat is a throne of honor! This is the body of Christ, this is the meaning of Church!

Jesus acknowledges that his teaching is revolutionary. Following Jesus' example of sacrificial love continues to be countercultural in our day as well. But the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many! Now we are invited to do the same! He will be with us! He will be in us! We might take this opportunity to examine our own exercise of authority. On whose example do we model our leadership?

To be first and the greatest according to Christ is to serve the needs of others. Jesus’ challenge is a call for us to “servant leadership”.

A great example of a servant leader and someone I truly respected, was the late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw Michigan. After his ordination as bishop in 1980 he greeted an assembly at the Saginaw Civic Center with the words: “Hello, I'm Ken, and I will be your servant.” Shortly thereafter he sold the bishop's residence. From then on, he would stay in one the parish rectories of the diocese, living with the parish priest for weeks or months at a time. As Archbishop Quinn said at his funeral Mass, “Bishop Ken did not simply say great things. He lived them.”

What an example for us – all us are called to be that servant leader; to give of ourselves as a ransom for many.

And That’s how we wind up seated next to Jesus!

That’s how we wind up enthroned at his heavenly banquet!

That’s how we achieve greatness! - In our leastness! In our serving!
In our faithful love and care!

I know, I know, it all sounds so ordinary, but that’s the mystery of the kingdom. The ordinary IS extraordinary!

Now that’s something we can get excited about!

Something better than facebook,

better than American idol,

better than youtube.

better than being seated next to our favorite celebrity,- even if it is Scarlet Johannson or Brad Pitt.

and certainly better than being enthroned on the backs of our fellow turtles.

The seats of glory in our world are many, yet the greatest seat of glory is being seated next to Christ, where we will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come share your master’s joy! Inherit the kingdom, sit and eat and drink at my table!

Have we found that seat?

Look for an open seat next to someone and serve him, serve her. I assure you that many of those empty chairs will become for us our thrones of glory!

Of course, we will only fully realize in the next life that as we sat and served the least among us that it was Christ we were seated next to all along.

RESPECT LIFE SUNDAY

2009-10-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Jesus loves Children. In the past few weeks’ Sunday gospels he has challenged his disciples to be child-like. I did a little research on children and found several sayings of children.

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth. Billy age 4

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs. Chrissie age 6

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and just listen. Bobby, 7

Along the lines of the gospel message today, young little Claire was showing some difficulty in grasping the concept of marriage. Robert, her father, thought the best way to teach her was to show her his wedding photo album believing that visual images would help Claire's understanding.

One page after another, he pointed out photographs of the bride arriving at the church, the entrance, the actual wedding ceremony, the signing of the license and the reception afterwards.

'Now do you understand, darling?' Robert enquired smiling.

'I think so,' responded Claire dutifully, 'and is that when mummy came to work for us?'

Children have much to teach us about our attitudes and our being open to the kingdom.
Jesus’ words today present a strong picture of his emphasis on the importance of family. God intended for women and men to be joined together in a COVENANT of marriage. Among the purposes of marriage is the education of and raising of children. By welcoming children and fostering their relationship with God, parents and families bear witness to the Kingdom of God. The people were trying to justify divorce.

Marriage is the building block of society. The Church continues to uphold Jesus’ teaching that God intends for a man and woman to make a lifelong commitment to one another in the Sacrament of Marriage. Jesus teaches that we should be like children before God, trusting God's promise to care for us and asking for his help to keep our commitments to love and care for others.

At the end of today's Gospel, the people were bringing their children to Jesus, and again Jesus' disciples show that they just don't get it. Recall that in the Gospel for each of the past two Sundays, Jesus has taught his disciples the value and importance of these “little ones” in the Kingdom of God. Jesus offers children as an example of the kind of complete trust and dependence upon God that ought to be the attitude of all believers

Today Jesus’ disciples were trying to prevent the children from going to Jesus. The people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Children are deeply affected by divorce, even if the divorce is the best thing for a married couple, the children are still deeply affected. I wonder if some of the children who were trying to see Jesus were children affected by the divorce of their parents? Just a speculative thought.

Psychologists and researchers have confirmed that babies and children who are held, hugged, and kissed, develop a healthier emotional life than those who are deprived physical contact. Likewise, as children grow up- even into their teenage years – they still need affirming hugs, pats on the shoulders, wrestling matches, tickle fests, winks, and the like.

The children who do not receive physical touch from their parents may know that their parents love them, but they will not feel that love. Many children and teenagers who get involved in drugs or criminal behavior report that they did not feel loved by their parents, and many report that the only physical touch between them and their parents was negative as in discipline or outright abuse. Sadly, some parents only touch their children in acts of aggression or anger. Even eye contact is so essential for children’s well being and sometimes the only time a child is given eye contact with his or her parent is when the parent gives them the evil eye or glares at them in anger. These kind of memories are touched into a child’s heart and psyche for the rest of his or her life.

My paternal grandmother & grandfather always kissed us. After grandma died, my grandfather would always wink at me when he came to Mass when I was serving Mass. That simple twinkle in his eye and wink meant more to me than anything.

My own father-in-law never ceased to kiss his sons. Even if the sons were in public and had lunch with him, he and his sons would hug and kiss each other as they went their own ways. When I married his daughter, I then became as one of his sons and he would always hug and kiss me goodbye. On his deathbed he kissed each of us goodbye. It is something I will always remember. Both my grandfather and father-in-law were loving men who were images of Jesus to me.

It was not until I had children that I began to have an inkling of how much God loves us! I recall holding my son in my arms and just loving him for being. He would often fall asleep on my chest as an infant and the joy I experienced would bring me to tears. This is the kind of love and joy Jesus has for each of us! It is so incredible, yet so real!

As the boys have aged, they still love tickle fights and to have their backs rubbed. Physical touch for boys can become rough, but it is a real language that speaks love.

I am amazed at how communicative my boys are when I spend quality time with them, by just being with them, even if it is on a bike ride, a walk through the woods, shooting hoops in the backyard, reading a story to them, singing a song with them, sharing different music with them, watching a movie with them, or praying evening prayers together. My sons have both taken turns announcing that it’s time for a family hug and we all have to hug and give each other a kiss.

Jesus is the Word of God in the Flesh. He was and is fully human. Jesus makes it very clear that children are the true images of his disciples: “Let them come to me.” In today’s Gospel, the disciples who rebuked the children who wanted to approach Jesus display the attitude of many today. Jesus said: “‘Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.’ By welcoming children or adopting a child or children, people receive Jesus.

Every child is a precious gem. With their simplicity, openness, and love, children show us the path to salvation, bringing Christ into the world and leading us back to him.

Christ Jesus has empowered you and me to be his presence in this world! We are the one who are to stand up to injustice, to feed the hungry at our door, to welcome and protect the stranger, to raise up the fallen, those down on their luck, or exiled from family or country, the fatherless and widow!

All we have to do is look around to see the need! All the fatherless children, who will father them? God is their Father, this we know, but Christ came to set us free that we might be mother to the motherless, father to the fatherless, sister, brother, and friend to the friendless!

In the words of little Billy, let’s always remember that when someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth. Jesus says to each of us, come to me! Let us as His children come to Him.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 20 September 2009

2009-09-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

I wonder if too many Americans have been inoculated with Christianity, and the vaccination has prevented us from ever coming down with the real thing? Perhaps this has something to do with how much of God people really want.

Wilbur Rees illustrates this point by writing: "I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please - not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of God to make me love a black man or a foreigner or pick beans with a migrant worker or work with an immigrant at a chicken farm. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of a womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I'd only like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”

In today’s gospel, it is hard to imagine jealousy, ambition, and envy among the disciples of Jesus - and yet here we have it! Jesus has just returned from an exhausting journey through the Gentile territories, healing the sick, preaching the good news, and spending time with all the wrong people – according to the religious and political authorities.

Jesus goes away from the crowds to be alone with his disciples, those closest to him. He then reveals the deepest concerns of his heart. He was going to go to Jerusalem and be rejected and be crucified. But the disciples did not understand him, and were afraid to ask questions. Perhaps they were thinking, “Crosses are reserved for those who receive the death penalty. Crosses are not in our future, Lord. Only chairs of glory!”

And rather than asking for clarification, the disciples began to argue among themselves about who was the greatest disciple of them all. If it weren’t all true it would be downright comical. How many of us want to be God, rather than letting God be God?

Now, we as disciples of Christ today, rather than being so ambitious for power, trying to manipulate people and situations, and worrying about who is the greatest of us all, if we take up our Cross and follow Christ in the climb of humility, we will truly rise to the heights of holiness.

Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he or she shall be the last of all and be the servant of all.” So Jesus transforms ambition into something good that can serve the kingdom. What are the ambitions of our faith? What can we be ambitious for? What can we become ambitious about?

You know, our culture doesn’t deal well with the sick or needy or the broken. Pregnancies with children with deformities are now routinely terminated. What does that say to the handicapped or disabled who are alive?

Some of the people we visit in hospitals or institutions have families who have given up on them.

What about those in jail and prison? There are prisoners there whose families have disowned them; in a way they are dead, they no longer exist. Who will take the time to continue to see them as human beings created in the image of God, no matter what wrong they have committed – even if they have no remorse for killing another human being?

Many will argue that they dug the hole themselves and fell in it, so just leave them there where they belong, out of sight, out of mind. Some even pray for their violent end and rejoice when murderers are executed. But is any of this the gospel message?

And what about patients in nursing homes or lonely widows and widowers? We Americans tend to only prefer the strong, sleek, slender and sexy. Anyone who does not match that description is either ignored or rendered irrelevant!

Who will care for these least ones among us? Many of them are like children, helpless and reduced to dependency? Do we not have a responsibility to them? Did not Jesus say: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people….that you do to me”?

How can we claim to recognize Christ in the humble elements of the Eucharist, but fail to recognize him in the most brittle of human lives?!!

When Jesus said “The poor you will always have with you, he did not mean that it is something we just have to accept and not worry about…no, he meant the Poor you will always have with you! Meaning that we will always walk with the poor, stand with the poor, be on the side of the poor!

Jesus’ response to his disciples’ misguided notions of greatness was to tells us all that we must receive others as children receive others. A child, you see, has no influence. A child must have things done for him, a child receives. If we become like little children then we will welcome the poor and those who have no influence, no wealth, no political power, those who are dependent, and in doing so we are welcoming and receiving Christ. We must seek out those who need our assistance, and not simply lament their condition or pity them as we watch our TV.

It is easy to want to be friends of those who are wealthy, influential or politically powerful, or seek to ingratiate ourselves with those who can do things for us or be useful to us.

It is also easy to avoid the poor, those who need our help, and to neglect the simple and needy.
But Jesus is saying to us that we ought not to seek out those who can do things for us, but to seek out those for whom we can do things for…

This is particularly important in our own time when many people have lost their jobs, lost their savings, no longer have health insurance – or never had it in the first place - and simply have no way to care for themselves adequately.

Yet how many of our Christian friends have fallen for the rugged individualistic lie that says we can go it alone, that it’s every man for himself, and that we really do not have any responsibility for the have nots?

It’s really very sad how selfish some of our fellow Christians, fellow Americans have become.

Think about it: Everything is a gift. We are all children. Our very existence is a gift. None of us worked our way into being. We received all from God. Yet I still hear it said, “The poor just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” Well, that would be nice – but many of them don’t even have boots, let alone straps!

It seems that some people have wrapped Jesus in an American flag, made him a border patrol agent and armed him with a machine gun.

As Catholics “We teach that health care is a basic human right, an essential safeguard of human life and human dignity. Health care reform especially needs to protect those at the beginning of life and at its end - the most vulnerable and the voiceless.” (Archbishop Wuerl)

We must be Catholic Christians first, all the rest is noise!
So how are we going to reach out to the least of these? How ambitious are we prepared to be for Christ? How much of God do we really want?
In the movie MOONSTRUCK, there is a line from Nicholas Cage’s character Ronny Cammareri. Ronny is in love with Loretta Castorini, played by Cher. Loretta wants to play it safe in life, and fall in love with a financially secure, predictable man. She fears that if she lets go of this idea, and loves someone different, she’ll lose herself.

After a night at the opera with Loretta, Ronny passionately announces on a New York street:

“Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die.”

Isn’t it often in the dying to self that we find the greatest joy by serving others? It isn’t even our love to begin with; it is God’s love that we are called to share. For God loved us first and now we have the opportunity to love others in return.

St. Tereasa of Avila wrote: “The only treasure we will have in heaven is that which we gave away while we were here on earth.”

But the Resurrected life is not limited only to our heavenly afterlife, but the newly resurrected life begins now! Our faith affects our life here and NOW! If we could only let go of our fears and concerns and allow ourselves to experience the joy that comes from living in union with Christ!
So, rather than only wanting $3 worth of God, let us pray for true transformation and desire for a new birth of our faith in Christ. The difference is eternal life!
So how much of God do we really want? How ambitious are we prepared to be for Christ?
May we echo the words of Saint Paul who wrote, we must be fools for Christ, accounting all else as rubbish in the light of Christ. Pray that we ruin ourselves for Christ, break our hearts for Christ, and love the wrong people through Christ and die in Christ! Then – and only then can we truly rise to new life.

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B

2009-07-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

Gospel
Jn 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”
...Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

We never have enough time. We never have enough patience. We never have enough money. We never have enough of anything.

Today Jesus asks the disciples a natural, material question: “Where can we buy enough food for the people to eat?”

Saint Philip answers him in a very natural, material way: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.”

Saint Andrew asks Jesus a question in a natural, material way. “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”

Jesus answers him in a natural, material way: “Have the people recline.” Reclining meant freedom, freedom to eat, freedom to live.

But Jesus responds to the entire situation by performing a supernatural deed; he took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them.
Notice the order in which he performs this supernatural miracle. He took the bread. He Gave Thanks. Then he distributed the loaves and fish to the crowd.

The crucial part is that he gives God thanks and praise. He does not begin by asking! He begins by giving thanks and praise to God in the current situation. His disciples came to him and asked about feeding the crowd, out of a genuine concern for the people who had been following him for several day, so Jesus, as our intercessor and Lord, grants the disciples request –but first and foremost he gives thanks and praise. Our lesson for today is to always give thanks and praise to God, in all situations.

Then Jesus withdrew to pray alone and the disciples gathered 12 hampers of leftovers. What did they do with the leftovers? They fed each other, they cared for one another. So should we. So should we.

Even when we think we do not have enough time, enough patience, or enough of anything, let us approach the throne of God’s grace where he is the eternal source of life and love and grace! He will supply our every need!

Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B

2009-05-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

"God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him."

Peter’s words are as applicable today as they were then. God shows no partiality. God’s ways are not our ways. “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so far are God’s ways from our ways.” “‘For My ways are not your ways,’ says the Lord….”

We can judge others so quickly and condemn others harshly and hastily, can't we?
Yet Jesus reveals to us that the way to the heart of God is through loving service to one another - regardless.

And what is the loving thing to do? Recall that God is love; we never read that God is hate. In fact, Saint John tells us in the second epistle today that God is love. Not that love is God – but that God is love itself.

Therefore, he tells us, “Beloved, let us love one another…. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”

As Jesus said: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.

This joy that Jesus promises us comes to us as we learn to love others, even those who we have the greatest difficulty loving, let alone liking.

Yet we are chosen by Christ, chosen and blessed, in his love. We are IN his love!
Before we even called out to Him or came to Him in faith, he was there loving us, calling to us, “For it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you! You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”

He says REMAIN in my love, unselfishly reaching out to others. And if we dare to live in his love, and loving as he did, seeking the happiness of others rather than our only our own happiness, we will find the joy of Christ.

There are those who claim that our acts of charity are but single drops of water in the vast ocean. Yet Mother Teresa held that no matter how small, our small drops add to the ocean – for the ocean is made up of many, many drops of water and each drop makes the ocean what it is.

Pope Benedict wrote in his encyclical Deus caritas est: [Christian] “love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support." In the end, some claim that…[our] works of charity [are] redundant [and even unnecessary]. Yet does this not betray “a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live ‘by bread alone’.”

Some in our world reject charity and attack it “as a means of preserving the status quo. What we have here, though, is really an inhuman philosophy…. One does not make the world more human by refusing to act humanely here and now. We contribute to a better world only by personally doing good now, with full commitment and wherever we have the opportunity” regardless of politics. “The Christian's program...of the Good Samaritan, the program of Jesus, is ‘a heart which sees’.

The pope continues with this sobering thought: “Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God.” Yet “a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love. A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak. He knows that God is love and that God's presence is felt at the very time when the only thing we do is to love.”

Allow me to leave you with a story. There was once a woman who was filled with love for God. She was known to be quite religious and devout. Every morning she walked several city blocks to daily Mass at her parish church. As she walked children would sometimes call to her for a kind word, and the hungry and homeless would plead for help, bu the woman was so immersed in her prayer and in her love for God that she really didn’t pay much attention to the children and the hungry homeless.

One day she approached the church for morning Mass, passed a couple of children, and climbed the steps passing by a few homeless men and women; some were sleeping while others were staring blankly. As she opened the church door and walked in, expecting to see the long aisle and rows of pews and the high altar at the other end of the church, she was amazed that as she walked through the door what she thought was the inside of the church was instead a mirror image of the outside world she had just left. She turned and looked out through the open door of the church and saw that the outside world that she had just left behind was the same as the church inside. She stood at the top of the steps, looking down at the same needy children and homeless people she had passed by on her way to church.

She walked into the Church where the life-size crucifix hung suspended from the ceiling. Christ spoke: "Did you not see my Body – the Body of Christ – on the way to Church? Everyday, I have been waiting for you—not just in the church, but all around you – especially in all those who need your love. For whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto Me."

May we put the love of Christ in action today and every day.

For the Love of Notre Dame

2009-05-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

Why has President Barack Obama’s approaching visit to Notre Dame caused such an uproar? Why won’t these stubborn pro-life Catholics just give way and accept the fact that Obama is the president and is honoring Notre Dame by his mere presence? Why don’t those who oppose abortion just accept the fact that abortion is legal, (the Supreme Court has ruled on it), quit forcing their religious beliefs and imposing their morality on the rest of us, and focus on the lives of those who are already born? Can’t we all agree to disagree? Jesus ate with all those who would hear him, so it is quite appropriate for Notre Dame to invite Obama. Besides, abortion will not be won or lost in the political arena. The sooner the pro-life movement comes to terms with this reality, the better.

At first glance the above arguments seem plausible, even preferable. However, one can recall such statements made regarding slavery. “Why don’t those who oppose slavery just accept the fact that slavery is legal, (the Supreme Court has ruled on it), quit forcing their religious beliefs on the rest of us, and focus on the lives of those who are free? Slavery will not be won or lost in the political arena. The sooner the abolitionist’s movement comes to terms with this reality, the better.”

During the Civil Rights struggle there were those who argued against it in the same fashion. Perhaps the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. will jar our collective conscience: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” But do we ever accuse Martin Luther King, Jr. of imposing his beliefs upon an unwilling southern majority when he demanded that the African-Americans Americans be treated the same as white Americans all because of his belief that the dignity of human beings was rooted in the fact that they were created in the image of God?

Doesn’t the Declaration of Independence impose a belief? “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Did President Lincoln “force” his religious and political beliefs on an entire nation when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation?

Is there an analogy to the abortion issue? What of the civil rights of unborn persons? Medical science has shown conclusively that human life begins at conception. Yet the real debate now is whether pre-born human life constitutes human personhood. Is the right to life an inborn, innate given at human conception?

The argument goes that they – the unborn, the embryonic humans – are not human persons, but merely potential humans, and as such they have no rights. The unborn are even treated as disposable biological material because they are not human persons. Yet if there is no objective truth regarding the human personhood of human beings, then the objective truth of the dignity of each and every human person is lost.

A society that affirms the dignity of the person but then also permits fetal experimentation or abortion is denying equality before the law. And when a law denies an entire category of human beings the status as human persons, are not the very foundations of law and civilization weakened? Is it possible to advance the cause of human dignity without recognizing and defending the right to life of all human beings – born and unborn? All other rights are founded on and flow from this most basic of rights. Is not democracy false when it fails to recognize and affirm every person’s dignity and his or her subsequent rights – regardless of age or size?
Suppose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez invited Obama to Caracas where he honored him with an honorary doctorate in Democracy? Wouldn’t that seem hypocritical?

And as for the argument that Jesus ate with anyone who would listen to him, the issue is not over the invite to Obama as much as it is in his being honored with a Doctorate in Law from the prestigious Catholic University of Notre Dame. And usually during or after such dinners with Jesus the said sinners turned from their former path and followed the Truth. And does not law flow from the truth?

As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from his jail cell in Birmingham: “There are two types of laws: just and unjust…. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws.” We should have great respect for human law; while at the same time recognize valid situations that justify civil disobedience.

As St. Augustine wrote: “An unjust law is no law at all.” “Now what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the Moral Law or the Law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the Moral Law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

Permissive abortion laws are degrading to human dignity, deny the personality of the unborn, and are unjust in the eyes of God. Law exists in order to protect individuals in society and to ensure social order and justice. The old adage “one’s rights end where another person’s rights begin” is ever true. Laws were never intended to allow another person to dominate another or give someone permission to injure another. Laws are passed in order to promote mutual welfare in society and to encourage persons to strive for what is good.

Just as segregation laws were unjust and deprived an entire category of human beings their natural rights, so it is with the abortion laws that deprive the pre-born of their status as human beings and deny them their rights as human persons. In the case of abortion, plain and simple, the unborn child’s rights are violated.

And that is why there is opposition to President Obama’s Notre Dame Commencement address and reception of an honorary Doctorate of Law at Notre Dame. For God is the Eternal Source of all Law, the same God who said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). The Psalmist attests to this truth: “[O Lord] You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb” (Ps 139:13).

Perchance, a century from now, the former supporters of abortion rights and deniers of the humanity of the unborn child will be making a new accusation: They will blame the Church for allowing abortion (just like some blame the church for slavery and the Holocaust). Unfortunately, they will have a point. They will name the prominent Catholics and Christians who supported abortion in our day and hence judge the Church by their actions - or inaction.

Fifth Sunday of Easter Year B

2009-05-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

You can imagine the disciples fearing for their lives. This is the Saul of Tarsus who was opposed to all that Christ stood for, opposed to all that the Church taught and proclaimed.

But note that Barnabas took charge of Saul and brought him to the apostles, and he reported to them how Saul had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.

It took a Barnabas to bring the disciples to Saul or Paul as he was now called. Barnabas’ real name was Joseph, but he was nicknamed Bar-nabas – a name which means “son of encouragement”. Each of us are called to be encouragers, encouraging one another in the faith, in love, in charity, in hope!

As Saint John mentions in his epistle of today’s second reading, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.”

Saint John records Jesus’ words: "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing…. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Think of the glorious call we have received. We are called to be in Christ – for he says, “Apart from me you can do nothing!” If we allow God to keep us in Christ, we will bear much fruit! If we unite our lives with the life of Jesus Christ, we will become like Him. We are called to encourage one another, especially in this Easter season, to live the resurrection message of hope and faith.

Yet it is not easy to be a Catholic these days. There are even some Catholics who somehow think that one does not have to live by the teachings of the Church and they can still somehow still be good Catholics.

For instance, Marriage is up for grabs. There are those who think that marriage can be redefined. Yet Marriage is the Sacrament of God whereby the husband and wife in the covenant of love co-create with God new human life. Yet many today have rejected marriage as created by God in the Garden of Eden and have reduced it to nothing special and think that it can be redefined by a governor or a popular vote.

And human life is no longer a right for many of our pre-born brothers and sisters. Yet we believe in the dignity of each and every human being, human beings created in the image of God! Yet many in the world do not believe this. Human life is no longer recognized by some as actual human life.

Human beings are no longer called human persons until after they are born and only then if they are healthy or wanted. Yet Christ said “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.”

Today we do well to call to mind that Jesus himself was an unborn child in Mary’s womb! He was the Lord from the moment of his conception. He united himself with us in all things and in all ways. All human life is human life! No exceptions. In dignifying the Virgin Mary’s womb by his presence, he has dignified all unborn human life as fully human. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.”

When Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus to round up more Christians and arrest them and likely have some put to death, Christ appeared to Paul and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

He did not say “Why are you persecuting the church?” No, what he said was: “Why are you persecuting me?” For what is done to Christ’s Church is done to Christ Jesus himself.

So, today, let us be encouraged that we are found worthy to be ridiculed and mocked for our faith in Jesus Christ.

And know this that if we are in Christ, then we too may experience our own crucifixion. Yet we too will experience the resurrection of the body as well.

Jesus says clearly: “I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

This is our hope! This is the faith of our Church. Let us never become discouraged – even in the face of ridicule and persecution – knowing that Christ will give you strength to endure and promises you eternal life.

May we never allow any sadness to overshadow the joy of the resurrection of Christ! For He is our life.

The Beauty of Married Love and the Fruits Thereof

2009-05-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Marriage unites the spouses and is procreative. Sound radical? Sexual intercourse and having children are intimately connected. Sexual intercourse implies a great commitment, and children are an inherent part of that commitment, and both commitment and children are wonderful gifts to family and society.

Sexual intercourse leads to the begetting of children, but our culture has adopted such a contraceptive mentality that many people do not recognize that they may likely become parents someday; neither do they realize how important it will be to parent and educate their children. The church has always taught that one’s youth is to be spent growing in virtue, yet contemporary culture distracts our youth from doing so. And little or no thought is given to the future, especially forethought in learning how to discern the qualities found in a good spouse and the development of the skills necessary in becoming a good spouse and a good parent.

Contraception violates the procreative meaning of the sexual act but it also violates the unitive meaning of the sexual act and, in the philosophy of Pope John Paul, it violates the "language of the body." Contraceptives convey the message that while sexual intercourse is desired, there is no desire for a permanent bond with the other person, such as a child entails.

Unfortunately, the contraceptive mentality has reduced sexual intercourse to nothing but a pleasurable physical act to enjoy and secondarily to show affection towards another person or persons. The marital act is not given the dignity as the very act whereby spouses co-create with God a new human being. Nearly 70% of children born in the U.S. are either born outside of marriage or into families that will break up through divorce.

Women oftentimes point out that when they are using artificial birth control they have little or no reason to refuse their husbands sexual pleasure. Many men have come to expect sex-on-demand, hence reducing the sexual act to one of self–pleasure rather than self-giving and self-donation.

Human love between a man and a woman is an expression of their whole beings. The ends of marriage are begetting and raising children and the mutual aid of the spouses. Objectively the sexual act is by nature intended for procreation and the education of children. Secondarily it serves to unite the couple in a mutual self-giving love.

So while some may argue that the unitive purpose of sex has priority, children are still one of the goods of marriage. So the two aspects – unitive and procreative – are not mutually exclusive, but are both essential results of mutual love and self-giving. It is in the act of mutual self-giving that unity and procreation take place. Even if the woman is infertile, the couple must still be mindful that that their mutual act of self-giving love is open to children and will bring union between the two. The characteristics of marriage are totality, unity, indissolubility, and faithfulness. For marriage is a covenant, not a contract.

Suffice it to say that children born to parents who are self-controlled, faithful to one another, are open to children and involved in their lives are better off than those born to single parents and those divorced.

You’re going the wrong way!

2009-04-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

25 April 2009
Saint Mark’s Day

You’re going the wrong way! One of my favorite movies is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. There is a very funny scene where Del Griffith, played by John Candy, is very distracted listening to his music and smoking cigarettes. At one point he realizes that he is very warm with his winter parka on, but instead of pulling over to remove his coat, he tries to remove it while driving. To make a long story short he nearly wrecks the car and finds himself on an exit ramp. As he returns to the highway, he does not realize he is going in the opposite direction. His passenger, Neal Page, played by Steve Martin, is asleep through it all.

Soon a man and woman in the other lane attempt to warn him that he is going the wrong direction. Instead of listening to them he ignores them and says that they’re drunk. “How would they know where we’re going?” He continues laughing with glee that the couple was trying to tell him the direction that he should go. I won’t spoil the film for those who have not seen it, but it is a wonderful film about metanoia, turning around, indeed turning from a selfish, self-centered way of life to an other centered, unselfish, thoughtful, altruistic way of life – or at least embarking upon that path.

How does this scene have to do with today’s Catholic? Everything. There are many Catholics – indeed Christians – who think that they are going in the right direction. Are we going in the right direction? As individuals? As families? As a school community? As a parish? As a Church?

Catholicism is the oldest Christian expression of faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that within Catholicism the fullness of God’s Revelation is made known to us; His Word and His Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist

All of the disciplines in the building have rules. For instance in English one cannot just create his own spelling rules or grammar rules; in math 2+2 cannot equal 3.764 just because Uncle Jimmy says it is so. The athletic department has to abide by rules and all sports have specific rules for fair play. So it is with the faith of the Church.

I strive to share with the students (and parents) the Tradition of the Church that comes to us from Christ and the Apostles and the early church. I cannot change the mission of Catholic education.

An example of what I am speaking of can be given with polls. There have been many polls where Catholics deny the importance of regularly Sunday worship, the respect for the gift of human sexuality, the life of the unborn or elderly, the integrity of the human body and even the bodily resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead and his promise to return again in glory.

What this boils down to is that many Catholics claim to believe, but by their lives they are practical atheists, or worse, nihilists. Pope Benedict XVI speaks of those who live their Christian life as if God does not matter, or as if life itself does not matter or mean anything (nihilism). I believe he is on to something. There are people who claim to love Christ, but believe and do almost the exact opposite of what he taught and what he lived. I have much more respect for a sincere atheist than the nominal Christian who is really a nihilist. At least the atheists are honest. And no wonder so many people have become atheists. The reason? The poor example of those who claim to be Christians or Catholics.

G.K. Chesterton said “Christianity has not been tried and found lacking; it has been found difficult and not tried.” Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when asked, “Though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you reject becoming his follower?" Ghandi replied, "I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Are we being Christ to the World? Are we truly the Body of Christ? Do we believe what Christ said? Are we truly being formed into the image of Christ? Are we merely minimally informed about Jesus or are we allowing Christ to form us, are we being formed into the image of Christ? And are we helping to form the world into the Kingdom of God?

Now we are faced with an empty tomb. If the tomb is empty, then how must we live? If we wish to follow Christ, then we must take up our Cross and follow Him.

As a parent of a teenage myself, I am concerned for the faith of our young people. I realize adolescence is a time for great questioning, but educators across the country are seeing more and more students who are opposed to any intellectual challenge and seem to have all the answers. Yes, I realize Plato had the same complaint against some of his students in Athens in 400 B.C., but do hear me out.

In our culture there is this idea held by some that one can claim to be a good Christian or a good Catholic and not abide by the Commandments or the teachings of Christ and the Church and somehow we all going to somehow stumble into heaven on judgment day, no questions asked. If that is true, then why did Christ go through his agony and die on the cross? What was he saving us from is there is no possibility of losing eternal life in heaven?

C.S. Lewis spoke about those who want all the comforts of a loving God, but don’t want to bother with any of that bothersome morality or changing of behavior that makes us begin to look like a Christian follower of Christ.

In our culture, many people who fall into this category in the words of St. Paul, “they make a pretense of religion, but deny its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). Since many people do not practice their faith, they do not live the faith. They not only do not know their faith, they do not pray. Nor they do not pray with the church. Allow me to explain. Some will pray, sure, but their prayers rise to an image of god that is the bubblegum machine god in the sky, above the world, who has no real connection to the human condition, but a god no less. However, this god is not the God of Jesus Christ.

The god they believe in is really ignorant of most things – especially their personal lives and obnoxious and sinful behaviors – and as such this god is much like them. This god, therefore, excuses their every indiscretion, moral lapse, or sin as just a part of being “human”, or better yet, this god has no moral code at all and as such is unconcerned about so-called “correct” behavior. This god is therefore really only “there” to serve their needs – when they call upon him. Again, St. Paul’s words come to mind: “They make a pretense of religion, but deny its power.”

So, the humans are really in charge of this god, or consider him a talisman to ward off the opposing team’s efforts to beat them in athletic competition. This god is fashioned in their own image and likeness, and he – or “it”, more appropriately – is at their disposal and whim. Usually such prayers addressed to this god are for things and are primarily focused on personal needs. As such, the talk of a personal savior is copiously employed here. Again, the “relationship with god” resembles their own personal relationships.

Pope Benedict refers to such an appropriation of God to be merely for some type of psychological comfort, rather than an intimate and growing relationship with the Transcendent, though imminent, God: the God of Jesus Christ, who humbles himself to share in our humanity. This god is merely “a slob like one of us.” He is not the God that raises up a fallen humanity and calls us to reach for the heights of the kingdom, a kingdom where we are to bring God’s kingdom to the present world: on earth as it is in heaven.

St. Paul taught us to proclaim the truth of the gospel in season and out of season. I have always striven to do that in my 20+ years of teaching adolescents. In paragraph 1666 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we are reminded that “The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.”

On the Third Sunday of Easter this year the Second Reading is from 1 John 2. “The way we may be sure that we know [Christ] him is to keep his commandments. Those who say, "I know him," but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them… This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live (just) as he lived” (1 John 2.3-6).

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says. “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:19)

Jesus said: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19.17). “You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother’” (Mk 10.19). "If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14.19) “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” (Jn 14.21).

Jesus said: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15: 10, 12, 14, 17).

In 1 Tim. 1:9-10, Paul writes Timothy to clearly inform him and the church what it means to NOT be a disciple of the Lord. Namely those who are: “lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, the unchaste, practicing homosexuals, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching.”

In 2 Tim. 3:2-5, Paul continues: “People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power.”

In 1 Cor. 6:9-11, “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

In 1 Cor. 6:15-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ's members and make them the members of a prostitute? * Of course not! (Or) do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For "the two," it says, "will become one flesh." But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.”

Finally, the very definition of Marriage itself is up for grabs in our culture. Allow me to remind us all of what marriage is. From the Catechism of the Church:
1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."
1660 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament (cf. CIC, can. 1055 § 1; cf. GS 48 § 1).
1661 The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1799).
1664 Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of marriage; divorce separates what God has joined together; the refusal of fertility turns married life away from the gift of a child (GS 50 § 1).
1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.
Also, chastity is challenged today and many of our youth have been so infected with the sins of our culture, that they no longer regard the practice of sexual expression outside of marriage as a sin. The Catechism assists us in teaching about Chastity.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery (self-discipline) which is training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.126 "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."127
2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of a self-discipline…, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer.
2342 Self-mastery (self-discipline) is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.129 The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.
2343 Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth."130
2347 The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate Christ who has chosen us as his friends, who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divinity. Chastity is a promise of immortality.
2348 All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ,"135 the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.
2350 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.
Finally, the Christian identity is formed through personal prayer and communal prayer. The Liturgy, particularly the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, forms us as Church. We are formed by Word and Sacrament. When we gather as community in Christ we form the Body of Christ in a special way. When we receive the Eucharist, that is, the Body of Christ, we most fully become the Church, that is, the Body of Christ.
I use this analogy in class: if we don’t regularly attend practice for sports we won’t be able to play in the game. If we cannot follow the rules of the game, we won’t be allowed to play either. So if we don’t practice our faith or abide by the teachings of faith, then how can we claim to be Christians? Sunday Mass attendance (I am slow to use that word because, hopefully, we participate in Mass and not simply punch our ticket) is essential for church. In our culture “faith” or church attendance is nothing more that eternal fire insurance. I pray it is a lifestyle choice for you and your family.

Is it an important measure of a Catholic school’s effectiveness whether its Catholic students, past and present, attend Mass regularly?

Vatican II (Gravissimum Educationis par 2) emphasized that the development of a personal spirituality and participation in the Eucharist are included not just as aims, but as the principal aims of a Catholic school: "Such an education [Christian education] does not merely strive to foster in the human person the maturity already described. Rather, its principal aims are these: that as the baptized person is gradually introduced into a knowledge of the mystery of salvation, he may daily grow more conscious of the gift of faith which he has received; that he may learn to adore God the Father in spirit and in truth (cf. Jn. 4:23), especially through liturgical worship."

Parents have a serious moral obligation to educate their children. Therefore, it is for Christian parents particularly to take care of the Christian education of their children according to the doctrine handed on by the Church. As such, the Resurrection of Jesus is the fundamental event upon which Christian faith rests (cf. 1 Cor 15:14). It is an astonishing reality, fully grasped in the light of faith, yet we commemorate the day of Christ's Resurrection not just once a year but every Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation. Saint Jerome said: "Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, it is the day of Christians, it is our day".(3) For Christians, Sunday is "the fundamental feast day.

As Pope John Paul II taught in a 1998 apostolic letter, Dies Domini, the obligation of celebrating the Sunday Eucharist is not an arbitrary law imposed by the Church but "an indispensable element of our Christian identity". Do we want many teachers and students in Catholic schools to be left with the impression that, practically speaking, participation in the Sunday Eucharist is not required for authentic Catholic or Christian faith? Do we want teachers and their students to be implicitly taught that, in an institution aiming to form Christians, participation in the Sunday Eucharist is at best of minor importance or cannot be expected? If so, then the expectations of Catholic schools will be seriously diminished.

The values learned implicitly from students’ teachers can be flawed. Any lack of appreciation of the Eucharist is likely to be absorbed by students whose teachers are significant adults in their lives. Students influence one another, and a climate can be created in which students are taught – both verbally and by implication, that attending Mass is irrelevant and unnecessary. Research demonstrates that even the verbally unexpressed attitudes of teachers powerfully influence students. And it is well known how strongly adolescent behavior is also influenced by that of their peers.

Surely drastic and difficult decisions need to be taken to ensure that, first of all administrators, teachers and parents, understand and appreciate the place of the Eucharist in the Church or the Christian life. If these adults do not participate in the Eucharist fully, consciously and actively, the downward spiraling rejection of the great gift of the Eucharist by young Catholics is likely to continue. What then of the future of Catholic schools and the Catholic Church in America?

Most Rev. Robert J. Carlson, Bishop of Sioux Falls, writes, “We need to be clear in our expectations and call young people to be faithful. Parents need to be partners with us, and if they are the ones who are irresponsible, then they have to be called to the faith witness which is expected of them. Attending Mass on Sunday is a serious moral issue. In a Sunday Eucharist, we participate in the paschal mystery. The mystery of the church is made present.”

Sunday Mass attendance used to be a “given.” Practicing Catholics understood the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Church as requiring attendance at Sunday Mass. Unfortunately here in the United States, attendance levels have been declining with an average of around 40% attendance, and even now that percentage seems to be declining.

The Pope himself as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking for a special effort on the part of all Catholics to sustain and improve Sunday Mass attendance. We are each called to evangelize on this issue.

St. Paul wrote to the Romans: “I urge you therefore, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect… For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another.”

What are the signs of our Christian community? Does a shared community here truly exist? Or have we fallen for the cultural lie of self-sufficiency and rugged individualism which allows us to be off in our own world with our own set of values and code of behavior, rules which can be vicious and completely alien to the mission and vision of the Gospel, Church, and school.

Parents have the duty and responsibility to educate their children in the faith; students who come to a Catholic school should expect a solid, Catholic education. But today the importance of sports and social life is the top priority for some students in the Catholic school. The devotion of athletes and their parents, and the near worship of athletic success, is, by all definitions religious in zeal and, indeed, the athletes and their parents are missionaries with an evangelical zeal.

Therefore, if the concept of a Catholic high school is simply a private-school with fine athletic teams where many people admit that the idea that the Catholic faith is first and foremost among faculty, students, and parents is really only a myth, then are we perpetuating this myth of Catholic education? And why?

Again, if the Catholic School is no longer where the Catholic Christian faith is the primary reason for the school’s existence, then should the church not question whether to continue funding a Catholic high school?

Consider how much local parishes support the schools. As a member of a parish myself, I know that a certain percentage of my weekly donation to the collection goes to further Catholic education. If I am no longer certain of the Catholicity of a Catholic high school, then the situation becomes an issue of injustice, not only to the students and teachers, but to the families and donors who are actually supporting the mission of Catholic high schools.

Are the best days of Catholic education schools indeed behind us?

When Catholics routinely no longer believe in the existence of God, miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, the Virgin Birth, or hearken to Church Teaching concerning the power of prayer, the inviolable dignity of each and every human life from conception to natural death, the dignity of human sexuality and marriage, weekly church attendance and participation, the requirements of social justice, pursuing the common good, and belief in the afterlife, and instead believe that the Church has perpetuated a lie or a myth that has deceived millions throughout history, this seems to be a situation that must be addressed in every Catholic home, not simply in the classroom.

It is – without a doubt – a struggle for the very soul of the Church and our faith in Christ. Our Catholic high schools were established to further the commitment to the faith. May we continue to nurture the faith of our ancestors – many who came here to the United States as unwanted pilgrim immigrants and established Catholic communities with their blood, sweat and tears.

Do we ever accuse Martin Luther King, Jr. of imposing his religious beliefs upon an unwilling southern majority?

2009-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

A fellow Catholic and Christian recently wrote in our local paper that “The pro-life movement…has politicized” itself “to the detriment of society by attempting to force its religious beliefs on the rest of America…. The war on abortion will not be won or lost in the political arena. The sooner the pro-life movement comes to terms with this reality, the better and more effective it will be in promoting a culture of life that all Americans can embrace.” At first glance his argument seems plausible, even preferable.

However, as a student of history, one can recall such statements made regarding slavery. “The war on slavery will not be won or lost in the political arena. The sooner the abolitionist’s movement comes to terms with this reality, the better and more effective it will be in promoting a culture of life that all Americans can embrace ….” Need I go on in drawing the analogy to the Civil Rights struggle?

The words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. come to mind: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Was not Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement rooted in religion? Do we ever accuse Martin Luther King, Jr. of imposing his religious beliefs upon an unwilling southern majority when he demanded that the black Americans be treated the same as white Americans? And all because of his belief that the dignity of human beings was rooted in the fact that human beings were created in the image of God and by Christ becoming fully human therefore all human beings are brothers and sisters in the Lord?

If the pro-life cause were to suddenly compromise on its principles to placate the pro-choice side, and have peace in our time, then should we have also compromised on slavery? Compromised on Nazism? Or compromised on Civil Rights?

Doesn’t the Declaration of Independence impose a religious belief? “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Englishman William Wilberforce was opposed for his stance on slavery, yet time has proven he was a political prophet. No one in their right – or left – mind would attempt to justify slavery today, yet pro-slavery forces argued that Wilberforce was forcing his religious conviction on the populace.

Was Mr. Lincoln a Republican who “forced” his religious and political beliefs on an entire nation when he issued his Emancipation Proclamation? He violated the pro-choice southerners and their choice to own slaves.

Did the Allies force their religious beliefs on the Nazis when they liberated the death camps, i.e., “Relocation Centers”, like Auschwitz and then arrested the Germans who ran the camps and tried them at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity?
What of Bishop Desmund Tutu who strove against Apartheid utilizing his Christian religious tradition? And did not the Quakers and other Christians who vigorously opposed slavery do so from a religious argument based in the belief of innate human dignity?

Ought we now – in the name of tolerance – accommodate for other opinions as varied as strident pro-slavery or pro-Nazi sentiments? Ought we have compromised on slavery, civil rights, or even Nazism? Perhaps the allies should have allowed the concentration camps that were in German hands to remain open?

Would we – could we “tolerate” religious beliefs that demanded human sacrifice every New Year’s Eve to ensure that the year would be prosperous? If we tried to prevent this, would their argument not be stated thus: Who are you to impose your morality on us? Why are you imposing your religious beliefs (that life is inviolable) on us? This is an extreme example, but the case has been made that this type of argument leads to relativism.

Medical science has already shown conclusively that human life begins at conception. Yet the real debate now is whether nascent human life constitutes human personhood. Until our laws catch up with the scientific, biological reality that human life – indeed human personhood – begins at conception, the dilemma of abortion will forever remain with us.

No one makes a gut wrenching decision over removing an appendix or a tumor. An unborn child is its own person. If it were not, then none of us would be persons; we would still be parts of our mother's bodies. The right to life does not depend upon someone giving someone the right. It is an inborn, innate given at human conception.

Without any fixed morality for social and political existence, truth becomes a relative term and the dignity of the human person and the right to life and liberty becomes subject to political power or dominant philosophical thought. Again, if there is no truth to the innate dignity of human beings, then the concept of human dignity has collapsed.

Unfortunately, slavery was justified by denying the human personhood of human beings of African descent. The Nazis justified the death camps and anti-Semitism by claiming that the Jewish humans were not fully human.

This proclivity to deny human dignity is made especially clear now in the popular movement to create human beings in laboratories in order to harvest their valuable biological material, i.e., stem cells, in hopes of treating diseases afflicting human persons. The argument goes that they – the unborn, the embryonic humans – are not human persons, but merely potential humans, and as such they have no rights. The unborn are treated as disposable biological material with the argument that they are not fully human because they are not human persons. The objective truth of the humanity of human beings has been displaced with subjective norms. Yet if there is no objective truth regarding the humanity of human beings, then the objective truth of the dignity of each and every human person is lost.

A society that affirms the dignity of the person but then also permits fetal experimentation, abortion, or euthanasia is denying equality before the law. Showing respect for human life may also require the exercise of conscientious objection not only in relation to war, but also to procured fetal experimentation and abortion. Medical research, which has great potential for human progress and service, must also respect the integrity of the human person from the first moment of conception.

Therefore all human experimentation or research that disregards the inviolable dignity of the human being must be avoided. When a law denies an entire category of human beings the status as human persons, the very foundations of law and civilization are weakened. It is impossible to advance the cause of human dignity without recognizing and defending the right to life. All other rights are founded on and flow from this most basic of rights.

Democracy is false when it fails to recognize and affirm every person’s dignity and his or her subsequent rights. Violence toward others and self is not life giving, but death dealing. Nothing but an unconditional respect for human life can be the foundation of a truly renewed culture and civilization.

Of course, abortion is a mere symptom of a deeper moral problem, but many Americans have already turned against the slaughter of abortion. A century from now, the pro-choice opponents of those who hold that preborn human life is human life will be making a new accusation: They will blame the Church for abortion (just like some blame the church for slavery and the Nazi Holocaust). Unfortunately, they will have a point. They will name the prominent Catholics and Christians who supported abortion in our day and hence judge the Church by their actions - or inaction.

HOLY EASTER

2009-04-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Some of you have lost loved ones, indeed parents, brothers, or sisters, and even children.

We can then imagine the disciples utter horror of seeing Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, stripped of his garments and dignity, and then to be crucified.

When Jesus was crucified he was harshly treated and, as the scripture reads, “…so marred was his look beyond that of resembling a human being; he was pierced for our offenses…like a lamb led to the slaughter…and who would have thought any more of his destiny?”

Dead men don’t rise. The Romans had death down to an art. They knew how to kill people. Crucifixion was the most dishonorable death imaginable. Crucifixion was typically carried out by a team of five men: a chief centurion and four soldiers. The victim was usually stripped naked and the soldiers would gamble for the condemned man’s garments.

Crucifixion was considered a most shameful and degrading way to die. The Jewish historian Josephus writes that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions as they tormented the condemned.

The goal of Roman crucifixion was not simply to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonor the body of the condemned. In the ancient world, an honorable death required a proper burial.

So now you can understand why the Resurrection of Jesus was so unexpected. He was dead. Very dead. His Mother Mary, Saint John, and St. Mary Magdalene were at the foot of the cross when he died. It wasn’t a pretty sight. And yet now the disciples were witnessing the risen Christ Jesus in their midst. It just didn’t add up.

And today we hear about Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb. What a saint! Faithful to the end while the other disciples – except John – ran for cover.

She was weeping because she thought Jesus' body had been removed. Mary has not yet imagined the possibility of the resurrection. She assumed that Jesus' body had been stolen. This shows that resurrection faith did not come easily to Mary or Peter or the other disciples.

Their reaction both to Jesus' death and to the empty tomb was despair. Even when she saw Jesus she did not recognize him. She was not expecting to see him alive. What is clouding our eyes from recognizing Christ in our midst?

In Mary’s case her tears were no doubt blurring her vision. Have you ever cried so much that you can’t see straight? Mary was in that state. Her Lord was missing!
Even when we don't recognize or see Jesus, our lives can be changed. When Jesus called Mary by name she recognized him.

The early church turned the world upside down because they were overjoyed by the resurrection. They believed because they experienced the Risen Lord.

The resurrection is not just a matter of formal doctrine or church teaching that you have to believe in to be a good Christian. It is what makes us Christians. We don’t believe in the resurrection because it’s in the gospels; we believe in the gospels because of the Resurrection of Christ!

There are many people who call themselves Christian yet they merely go through the motions. Others have been honest enough to admit that they no longer believe.

But let’s examine the details again before we ignore the empty tomb.

If the Resurrection of Jesus was just a story made up by the early church, then why did so many of the members of the church endure horrible martyrdoms for a lie?

And if the church members were telling a lie, then they certainly wouldn’t have had written that women were the first witnesses to the Resurrection! In all the gospel accounts the women were the first to witness the resurrected Christ.

Furthermore, why would hundreds of followers who had scattered in fear and trembling after Jesus’ torturous death begin to boldly confess and profess their faith in a Risen Jesus and call Him Lord and Savior, risking all their worldly possessions as well as their very lives?

Many early Christians willingly accepted death rather than deny their faith in Jesus Christ!

Can you say Simon–Peter? What gave this scaredy-cat, sword-bearing, rooster-fearing fisherman the guts to stand up in front of thousands and proclaim the Kingdom of Christ?! Luke tells us it was the Holy Spirit and as a result 3000 people were baptized on the day of Pentecost – 50 days after Easter!

Jesus is as controversial today as He was when He walked the earth. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome. I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and your souls will find rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11 28-30). With such a statement, then either Jesus was an egomaniac or God in the flesh. As for those who claim Jesus was merely a good moral teacher or only a social reformer, His own words betray Him. He did not come simply to teach. He came to save that which was lost.

Just think about it: A carpenter from nowhere Nazareth becomes a Jewish rabbi and preacher – then gets in trouble with the Romans – nothing new there – and he is crucified. So what? Sometimes hundreds were crucified under Roman rule. Why should one more cross be any different than the rest? Yet the story goes out that this Nazarene has resurrected bodily from his tomb three days after his burial. And this good news turned an empire upside down and eventually the Emperor Constantine would accept baptism and outlaw crucifixion and legalize Christianity. That in itself is astounding! Some would say that this is further evidence that he is indeed Risen from the dead.

Jesus' command to Mary Magdalene teaches us that the resurrection is not simply the end of sorrow and separation but the beginning of ministry. She is to go to the disciples and proclaim the resurrection to them. Mary is the Apostle to the Apostles, for the word apostle means: “one who is sent.”

Mary is told not to cling to Jesus because the Risen Lord is not a possession for us to grasp only for ourselves, but a message, a person, to be shared with the world.
Neither is His Resurrection something nice or just for us to recall once a year along with the Easter bunny so we can think happy thoughts as we eat dyed and boiled eggs, munch on those godforsaken yellow marshmallow peeps, and bite off the heads of chocolate rabbits.

No, Jesus’ Resurrection is much more than an Easter basket full of sugar and plastic eggs. Jesus is the real deal. All that He has, he shares with us: His Father, His mother, His Holy Spirit, His body & blood, soul, and divinity, and even His risen life. And we can begin to share in this Life now, experiencing his life in our souls and bodies. We have access to it in many ways, but especially in the Word of God and in the Eucharist.

So, if the tomb is empty, everything is changed. Today has to be different from last Friday. Either he is raised from the dead or his tattered corpse rotted away on some Palestinian dung heap where it was pecked at by vultures and wolves.

We must be willing to show people the way of justice even if this means we risk losing friends and so-called friends, even if it means we may be labeled out of touch with modernity or opposing what is popular or expedient or politically correct.

Standing up for what is true and right will often cost us something – it may even cost us our lives – yet we know that death does not have the final word.

We know that even the worst suffering imaginable can bring forth life in abundance! Our response to our own crucifixions and deaths is to have a deepened trust in God; for just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, so too will we be raised to new life on the resurrection of the Last Day.

So, if the tomb is empty, everything is changed. Either He has been raised from the dead and everything he taught is true, or else we have duped by one of the most elaborate hoaxes ever to deceive humanity! There really is no middle way. Either Jesus is who He claimed to be, namely the Lord, or else he was a liar or a lunatic.
The tomb was empty, that was for certain. But how was it emptied?

Our faith tells us that He is Risen. Jesus’ first command to us in the gospel of John was: “Come and see.”

May we have the courage to follow him so that we might truly believe that He is our Lord.

THE PASSION OF CHRIST

2009-04-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Holy Saturday Morning:

Here's an article I wrote that appeared during Lent 2004 on CATHOLIC EXCHANGE. It dealt with film: The PASSION of the Christ, but ultimately dealt with Christianity in general. It may be apropos today since Christianity has taken a few lumps lately from God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Speaking recently in Spain, at the University of Valencia, Dawkins said that Pope Benedict is "stupid, ignorant or dim."

Yet as Gerald Warner, columnist with The London Telegraph, wrote: "Not even Pope Benedict XVI's worst enemies have ever accused him of being stupid. The pontiff's awesome intellect and academic record have discouraged his most disparaging critics from pursuing that line of attack. Now, however, the man [Dawkins] possessing the mother of all intellects has expressed his contempt for the Pope's cerebral limitations."

At any rate, here's the article:
http://catholicexchange.com/2004/02/13/93695/

The Passion of The Christ: A Different View February 13th, 2004 by John W. McMullen

Seeing how everyone seems to have an opinion concerning Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ, even before it has been officially released, I thought I would add my drop of reflections to the accumulating ocean of verbiage.

Is This All a Fiction?

There have many critics — even some Catholic critics — of the film, but most have not experienced the film. I have not seen the film either, but my thoughts will deal with the criticisms themselves.

One of the major criticisms hurled against Gibson, as well as all Christians — indeed against the gospel itself — is that the gospel accounts do not portray a historical passion. In other words, these critics — even some theologians — question the veracity of the passion narratives themselves. The critics argue that the gospel texts were not written to portray history; therefore, the entire birth, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are called into question.

However, these same scholars will point out that Saul of Tarsus — the notable Pharisee and ardent opponent of the gospel message of Jesus who oversaw the martyrdom of Saint Stephen — wrote his epistles 30-plus years before the first gospel was penned. In reading St. Paul's texts, however, one reads of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. Therefore their own scholarship appears to betray their argument against the historicity of the gospel passion accounts.

In the early Church the memory of Jesus' suffering and death was the focus of our redemption. An entire third of the Gospel of Mark is devoted to the passion and death of Christ. The early Christian writings also portray the passion as an actual event. Even non-biblical writers at the time, such as
Flavius Josephus, chronicled the crucifixion and death of Jesus. The testimony of the early church community is clear. This Jesus was crucified — and rose again. How else does one explain the Christian sect's continued existence, born from the life and teaching and death of an obscure rabbi, condemned by Rome and put to death upon a cross? The story of Jesus' resurrection and its effect upon world culture is undeniable.

A Different Jesus?

It is in the death of Jesus that believers experience salvation since He took our sins upon Himself. If this belief is what is in question, then perhaps we are thinking of a different Jesus than the Jesus Christ of our historical faith — one of the critics' own construction.

To those critics, especially Catholic, who doubt the historicity of Jesus' salvific death upon the Cross, I really don't know what to say. Saint Paul himself railed against Jesus until Jesus appeared to Him on the road to Damascus. The rest is history.

Yet the same critics claim that the Gospels are tainted with the virus of anti-Semitism. If the Gibson film is anti-Semitic, then Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan were tainted with anti-German hatred and should have likewise been condemned.

When I was a younger man, and the movie Jesus of Nazareth aired every holy week, I didn't so much get the idea that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death. If anything, I was concerned that viewers might draw a parallel between the religious leaders of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and those of the Catholic hierarchy and clergy.

I am curious why films such as Dogma and Stigmata which challenged not only Catholicism, but the entire Christian faith, went noticeably unchallenged, while a film that depicts the heart of the Christian faith and the heart of the liturgical year — the paschal mystery and the holy triduum — has been so vilified?

If the gospel accounts do not truly represent an historical reality, namely, the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, then, in the words of Saint Paul, we are to be pitied indeed.
All of Christendom Witnesses to This

What of the millions of Christians throughout history who have meditated upon the Via Crucis, the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross? Were they duped into believing a myth? What of the millions of devout Catholics and others who have prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary which follow Christ in His final hours of agony to procure for us our salvation? Was it all one great campaign of propaganda propagated by Constantine and his meddlesome mother, Helena? If we can no longer rely upon the truth of the Gospels, are we now to abandon them? And with them, Jesus Himself? I think not. And with me stands all of Christendom.

The witness of the martyrs and their blood is the seed of our faith. In the words of Gamaliel, a Pharisee and rabbi at the time of Jesus, when speaking about the entire Jesus movement: Be careful what you are about to do. for if this endeavor is or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it is of God, you will not be able to destroy it; in fact, you may even find yourself at war with God (see Acts 5: 33-39).

A Nazarene carpenter turned preacher who was crucified by the Roman government should have never been remembered. Yet He is the man most depicted in the history of art (and His mother is the most depicted woman), and His life had such an effect upon the world scene that time was literally divided in two. What is it about this man that requires of us to make a decision? In the words of many, either He is the Lord, a liar, or a lunatic. We each must decide who He is.

Jesus is as controversial today as He was when He walked the earth. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome. I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and your souls will find rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11 28-30). With such a statement, then either Jesus was an egomaniac or God in the flesh. As for those who claim Jesus was merely a good moral teacher or only a social reformer, His own words betray Him. He did not come simply to teach. He came to save that which was lost. The very name Jesus in Hebrew is rendered “Yahweh Saves.” No wonder He is called Savior.

May His passion be ours as we both evangelize and wait in joyful hope for His coming again in
Glory.

Feticide versus Aborticide

2009-04-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Indiana legislation would lengthen prison terms for those who murder or attempt to murder a pregnant woman and cause the death of her unborn child. The House Public Policy Committee approved the bill which was motivated by the shooting of an Indianapolis bank teller, Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant when she was shot during a robbery in 2008. Shuffield survived the shooting, but the twin girls she was expecting did not. Current Indiana law allows prosecutors to file murder charges in cases where a fetus dies, but only if the mother is at least seven months pregnant.

I wonder how many lawyers would argue that since abortion is legal, there can be no charges against anyone for killing an unborn child – if we are to be consistent in our laws? Until our laws catch up with the scientific, biological reality that human life – indeed human personhood – begins at conception, the dilemma of abortion will forever remain with us. In other words, why is it wrong to kill an unborn baby, but abortion is defended as appropriate and maintained as legal?

Some people will argue, "It is the Mother's right and only the mother's right to choose if she will keep her baby, because at that point it is a part of her body." This is the fallacy. If the pregnant woman is murdered, the point of this new law will be that two persons were murdered. And many pro-choicers are very uncomfortable with this new legislation. The ones who are not should be.

No one makes a gut wrenching decision over removing an appendix or a tumor. An unborn child is its own person. If it were not, then none of us would be persons; we would still be parts of our mother's bodies. If we use the (il)logic of those who say: "It's a child if she wants it, but not a child is she wants to abort it." Think for just a moment about what they are saying.

Would anyone object to me saying, "Personally I am opposed to aborting unborn Jews and blacks, but if you don't believe they are persons, then go ahead - they're not persons according to you"? The right to life does not depend upon someone giving someone the right. It is an inborn, innate given at human conception.

We would do well to remember when Lori Schultz, age 21, of Elk Point, S.D., threw her newborn baby away in a garbage bag rather than keep the child because she feared her boyfriend's reaction to the new addition in their relationship. However, she was charged with second degree manslaughter and could face ten years of prison for the act. Had Lori secured the services of a reputable abortionist none of us would have ever heard of her story and she would not be facing a prison term.

William Wilberforce was opposed for his stance on slavery, yet time has proven he was a political prophet. No one in their right – or left – mind would attempt to justify slavery today.

Of course, abortion is a mere symptom of a deeper moral problem, but many Americans have already turned against the slaughter of abortion. A century from now, the pro-choice opponents of those who hold that preborn human life is human life will be making a new accusation: They will blame the Church for abortion (just like some blame the church for slavery and the Nazi Holocaust). Unfortunately, they will have a point. They will name the prominent Catholics and Christians who supported abortion in our day and hence judge the Church by the actions of the spineless.

Moral Relativism’s Effect Upon Democracy and Education

2009-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

We are mortified to learn that some students have not learned of the horrors of Auschwitz or the Nazi regime; still other children now question whether it was right for the world to criticize Nazi beliefs.

To show the effects of relativism upon education, (and putting aside the whole question of the morality of war), one recent poll indicated that a disturbingly high percentage of American students called into question the Allies’ declaration of war against Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II. Some of the students asked: “Who were we to tell the Nazis they were wrong?” This might be summed up in the common mantra: “We all have our own truths. What’s true for you may not be true for me.” If this philosophy is true, then why should we prefer democracy over totalitarianism?

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, days before his election as Pope Benedict XVI, declared that we live in an era of a “tyranny of relativism.” Such a “dictatorship of relativism does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

There is a risk of equating democracy with moral relativism. Without any fixed morality for social and political existence, truth becomes a relative term and the dignity of the human person and the right to life and liberty becomes subject to political power or dominant philosophical thought. Again, if there is no truth to the innate dignity of human beings, then the concept of human dignity has collapsed.

In our own times, relativism has infected education. Monsignor Luigi Giussani, the late founder of the Communion and Liberation Movement writes in his book, The Risk of Education: Never before has society – understood as a general mental climate and life-style – had so many tyrannical tools to invade our consciousness. Today, more than ever, society is the sovereign educator or perhaps more correctly, mis-educator. In this climate, the educational crisis appears first as a lack of awareness in which teachers themselves become unknowing promoters of society’s flaws. It also appears in a lifeless approach to teaching, in which teachers lack the energy to wage war against a pervasive negativity…1

According to the Jesuit theologian Josef Jungmann, education is an introduction to reality. The word “reality” is to the word “education” like destination is to a journey. The whole meaning of the human journey lies in its destination, and the destination is present not only in the actual moment that the journey ends, but along each step of the way… Clearly, then, the value of an education is measured by how closely and obediently it follows reality.2

As a child matures, his character begins to develop. And character development entails a growing awareness of self and of the total meaning of the reality that surrounds him. This will develop into his worldview. A child derives his worldview in large measure from his parents or from his teachers.

Parents, the givers of life, bring their children into a certain worldview, a stream of thought and civilization. Their authority is inescapable and is given together with a responsibility even if they refuse to accept it. In the life of the [child] they represent the permanent coherence of his origin, a steady dependence on a total sense of reality. Clearly, the school also has a position of authority
insofar as it claims to develop and carry on the education received at home.3

An educational approach that begins with the supposition that things do not have meaning will leave a child to wander aimlessly, like a man with a quiver full of arrows, but no target for which to aim.

Such aimlessness or purposelessness induces uncertainty and fear, and “the result will be indifference or alienation, a lack of commitment to reality.”4 This might explain why many teenagers and adults react with the post-modernist sneer of sarcasm, skepticism, cynicism, or disdain for tradition and commitment, and exhibit “a bitter detachment from all serious offers of commitment.”5 Nonetheless, “An existential commitment is a necessary condition for a genuine experience of truth, and therefore for the conviction to exist. We cannot understand reality unless we are in it.”6

Yet many people have grown up implicitly taught that the universe has no meaning. And if the universe has no meaning, then neither do they have meaning. And if there is no purpose to existence, then why bother with anything? Therefore, pursuing a life of pleasure may well become the end of all things.

Such lack of character building has led to our current socio-political situation of rigid rhetoric, polarizing polemics, and divisive diatribe. But the deep-seated human desire and need for commitment is such that:

[People] will be attracted to clear-cut proposals…. In recent years, the phenomenon of [young] people who embrace political extremism has shown us the depth of this need. It has also shown that political ideology, which claims to explain all of reality, in fact seriously constricts this need.7 As it is, political ideologies often attempt to reduce the whole of reality into partial worldviews and “the need to confront reality is forced into a narrow ideology that cannot contain it. The gulf separating the depth of reality and political ideologies is well supported by the anxiety many politically active young people feel when they repeatedly question their own experiences….”8

Secular teaching today does not really help the student to form a unified explanatory hypothesis [a unified worldview]. The excessive analytical quality of the curricula leaves the student at the mercy of a myriad of data and contradictory solutions which lead them to feel disconcerted and saddened by uncertainty. This situation is not improved by new guidelines that aim to counteract the situation by correcting the most visible phenomena such as teaching by rote or the fragmentary nature of the curricula.9

The standards-based, standards-alignment approaches to education or teaching-to-the-test techniques are also insufficient means to the end of education. None of these approaches teach the young how to think because they neither give them a framework, or a “tradition,” if you will, in which to think out of, nor a philosophy of thought in which to think with. Technology is another tool for learning, but unfortunately is regarded by some as the most important science in and of itself to the neglect of language, history, math, science, and especially the arts and humanities. Technology for technology’s sake.

Such fragmentation reveals an emptiness and the student is like a child who finds a large clock in a room. Smart and curious, he picks up the clock and slowly takes it apart. In the end, he has fifty or one hundred pieces before him. He was really clever, but now he feels lost and begins to cry, for the clock is all there, but it’s no longer there: he lacks the unifying idea that would allow him to put it all together.”10

There is a conception today that the ideal school is an agnostic11 or “values neutral” school uninterested in proposing a unified worldview to the student. Yet skepticism and cynicism robs the heart of its gift of enthusiasm, the soul of passion, and the mind of intellectual curiosity; the student then has no firm footing and his education is built on sand. Students believe that they are made to study an assortment of things but they are not helped to understand what these things mean. Sadly, many students today not only do not want to study or go to school, but they don’t know why they are required to study or go to school.

Sometimes, when the absurdity and impossibility of such an [educational] system becomes obvious, the solution is to expose the student to the widest possible range of conflicting authorities in the belief he will spontaneously and maturely select what is best. I believe this is the “dis-educational” method par excellence. It eliminates coherence from education, making authority – and therefore nature – useless, with the result that the student’s very development is literally de-natured…. The result is irrationality and anarchy.12

A fundamental aim of education must be to assist the young in drawing connections between the tradition that he has received and the life he has experienced. Lacking this ability new experiences will lead him to adopt one of the following three attitudes: indifference, where he will feel abstracted from everything that does not directly touch him; traditionalism, where…people hide behind rigid beliefs to avoid being threatened in their faith from the outside world; or hostility, because an abstract God is certainly an enemy [to personal freedom], someone who at the very least is a waste of time.13

Unless the young are taught about the past and tradition, they will have on which to base their emerging worldview, and neither will they have the necessary intellectual tools be able to choose one worldview over another. They will either invent ones or remain forever cynical.14

One must also be willing to question and examine his worldview. In the classical sense this is called criticism. And unless one is able to critique his worldview, then whatever one is taught “will either be irrationally rejected or irrationally kept, but will never mature.”15

Unfortunately criticism is viewed as…negative. Students sometimes fear to critique their faith for fear they will be rejected by the teacher or peers…but faith that is not questioned is not faith, but blind adherence. 16

Unfortunately, at present, if one questions the motives of his government, he may be accused of lacking patriotism or treason. This is true for the Peace of the Program in 2084. Under the rule of pax romana, the world was “governed by the distance among individuals and by the law of violence in varying degrees.”17

To educate means to develop the child’s self-consciousness, the feeling he has of being responsible in the face of something greater than he is. In turn, to be responsible means to be answerable to something. Not, however, as contemporary culture believes, to be answerable [only] to ourselves…for this leads to ambiguity and even alienation. What I am trying to say is that the educator must be able to promote the unfolding of an ideal, of something which is ultimate and greater than us, so that whatever we do is not done for our self: this is the abolition of selfishness.18

Education must urge the young to take on personal responsibility and independence. However, the independence cannot be an unbridled rugged individualism. Each individual must serve the common good of the human family.

What can a family do against a society that dominates its children through television? …What can the family do to counteract the barrage of advertising? How can it stem the influence of what we hear on all sides, the trite repetition of the same arguments, some of whose tragic aspects are the lack of respect for the unborn child, and the casualness of sex, marriage, and divorce? By itself, the family is powerless! An intelligent family will come out of its complacent, comfortable position and create relationships, a social fabric, in opposition to the dominant social fabric.19

It is through a mature, free association with other individuals who share the same fundamental concerns that we can resist the dominant influences. We can do all of this provided that we understand – and maybe we are compelled to such a step out of love for our children – that this concerns not only them but us as well. Having children to educate is one of the greatest occasions God has given us for reawakening our faith.20

T.S. Eliot, the great poet, wrote that, “Where there is no temple, there shall be no homes…” meaning that where there is no religious sense, there are no homes, only “shelters and institutions”.21 A community is a deep union born from a life shared together, which arises from the recognition of a common structure. In our organizational fixation, we tend to confuse associations with communities…. A community is a sharing of life in its very essence…an inner dimension at the source of our thoughts and actions.22

The so-called neutral school, because it is not interested in proposing a unified worldview, is also unable to generate real communities and thus deprives the student of a structure that is crucial to his personal quest.23 The communal dimension is part of any true educational undertaking.24 One must have companions on the journey of life. Indeed, education is a community effort and one of the tasks of community.25The family…is the first and most influential educating community.26

Ultimately, education must take place within the context of family and community. For Christians, especially Catholics, this requires each believer to become an active member of the Church, the Body of Christ. The church is the continuing presence of Christ in the world. In the words of the ancients, as the soul is to a body, so is the Church to the world.27

Democracy is threatened when so much economic and political power is controlled by an oligarchy.28 With technology and mass production, large corporations continue to put smaller firms out of business and citizens are reduced to subjects. The subjects then lose their personal individuality to the impersonality of a mass of consumers.

Many people today simply seek entertainment and when not being entertained they have no feeling of self-worth or dignity. For many people, their meaning for existence seems to depend upon pleasure, drugs, or television or the entertainment industry itself.29

Perhaps the ultimate era of totalitarianism is already upon us. Imagine a ruling oligarchy that not only has control of the political process but is also in charge of all the major corporations, industry, financial institutions, energy companies, oil companies, mass media communications, entertainment, and the arts. What then becomes of the individual in our mass-marketed culture? Humans have been reduced to consumers. The corporations produce the need for consumer goods and then produce them for the consumer to consume. Adolph Hitler wrote that all effective propaganda must be confined to a few formulas (or slogans) and those must be constantly repeated to imprint the idea in the mind of the masses. The method is simple: create a need and fulfill the desire or pacify the fear.

Endnotes

1 Luigi Giussani, The Risk of Education (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001) 73-74

2 Ibid., pp. 50-51.

3 Ibid., pp. 65-66.

4 Ibid., pp. 55-56

5 Ibid., p. 56.

6 Ibid., pp. 68-69.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., p. 57.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., pp. 58-59.

11 Here I use the term “agnostic” in its classical sense; from the Greek a (not) and gignoskein (to know). T.H. Huxley coined the word agnosticism to express his position of suspended belief. He believed that beyond knowable facts, satisfactory evidence concerning the nature of the universe was not available; he used the term agnosticism to apply to any proposition for which the evidence was insufficient for belief. Nowadays agnosticism principally refers to suspension of belief with respect to God. Guissani implies that there is a school of thought that does not believe there is a meaning to existence and in the final analysis, no ultimate meaning to education or the process of learning.

12 Guissani, pp. 66-67.

13 Ibid., p. 72.

14 Here one might emphasize the importance of learning from history and its mistakes so as to not repeat them. One is also concerned to hear that some students have not learned of the horrors of Auschwitz or the Nazi regime; still other children have been taught that the Shoah never happened. To show the effects of relativism upon education, (and putting aside the whole question of the morality of war), one recent poll indicated that a disturbingly high percentage of American students called into question the Allies’ declaration of war against Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II. One student replied: “Who were we to tell the Nazis they were wrong?” A prevailing attitude today is that one idea is just as good as another. It might be summed up in a common mantra: “We all have our own truths. What’s true for you may not be true for me.” If this philosophy is true, then why should we prefer Democracy over Totalitarianism? This is but one example of the tyranny of relativism.

15 Giussani, p. 9.

16 Ibid., p. 10.

17 Ibid., p. 27

18 Ibid., p. 129.

19 Ibid., pp. 130-31.

20 Ibid., p. 131.

21 Ibid., p. 127.

22 Ibid., p. 74.

23 Ibid., p. 75.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., p. 9.

26 Ibid., p. 75.

27 Here I would be remiss not to recommend The Religious Sense, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and Why the Church? books by Luigi Giussani.

28 Oligarchy – government by the few or a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt or selfish purposes. The word can also refer to the group exercising the control. In 2084 the Media is an oligarchy controlling the masses with Technocracy, a bastardization of the democratic
process.

29 While it may seem that certain prescription drugs are over prescribed, in no way do I suggest that those with legitimate health problems – physical or psychological – should be denied medication. The drugs of 2084 are more along the lines of methamphetamines, recreational use of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, or others. However, in recent years certain drugs have also been introduced that increase the libido or sexual function; with these there is a risk that the biological act of intercourse may become an end in itself. If so, the act reserved for marriage may be reduced to simply an instrument for pleasure, the persons involved rendered mere sexual objects, and the only concern being placed on physical performance. Instead of the couple giving themselves over freely, gifting each other with their total persons, the sexual act becomes
individualistic, self-focused, and only a matter of what one individual is getting from the other.

30 Gaudium et Spes, section 76.

31 Ibid.

32 Notable & Quotable”, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 9, 1978. Cardinal Wojtyla was elected Pope in 1978 and chose the name John Paul II.

33 Catechism of the Catholic Church, (CCC), paragraph 2273

34 Matt. 19.26

35 1 Pt. 4:4.

36 Hebrews 11:36-38.

37 Rev.12:4.

38 Genesis 4:1-16.

39 Isaiah 5:2.

40 Psalm 11:3.

41 Isaiah 2:4.

42 Psalm 27:14.

Pontius Pilate is Alive and Well and Living in Washington D.C.

2009-04-04T07:46:00.000-07:00

On Good Friday we hear Pontius Pilate ask Jesus "What is Truth?" In many ways Pilate is the patron saint of relativists and many political candidates today.

One of the most commonly held convictions today is that there is no real right or wrong, nothing is true or right. The prevailing attitude is that one idea is just as good as another and none are better or worse than another. (The irony is, of course, if you challenge this belief the person is likely to say you are wrong, hence destroying their very idea that all ideas are equally true). However, if we carry this idea out and hold that all moral systems are equal and there is no hierarchy of values, then perhaps Republicanism is no better than Nazism as a form of government. If one set of ideas is no better or worse than another, then being an American would be no better than being a Nazi. As it is, we do believe that some moralities are better than others. Yet if there is no such thing as truth, then how can anyone claim that as a true statement? If the universe is devoid of objective truth, then how can we know that objectively? If freedom is to be regarded as a complete break with tradition and objective truth, then good and evil are determined only by variable opinions among individuals.

Without any fixed morality for social and political existence, truth becomes a relative term and the dignity of the human person and the right to life and liberty becomes subject to political power or dominant philosophical thought. Again, if there is no truth to the innate dignity of human beings, then the concept of human dignity has collapsed.

Many people have grown up believing that the universe has no meaning. And if the universe has no meaning, then neither do they have meaning. And if there is no purpose to existence, then why bother with anything? Therefore, pursuing a life of pleasure (i.e. addiction) may well become the end of all things.

We are mortified to learn that some students have not learned of the horrors of Auschwitz or the Nazi regime; still other children now question whether it was right for the world to criticize Nazi beliefs. To show the effects of relativism upon education, (and putting aside the whole question of the morality of war), one recent poll indicated that a disturbingly high percentage of American students called into question the Allies’ declaration of war against Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II. Some of the students asked: “Who were we to tell the Nazis they were wrong?” This might be summed up in the common mantra: “We all have our own truths. What’s true for you may not be true for me.” If this philosophy is true, then why should we prefer democracy over totalitarianism?

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, days before his election as Pope Benedict XVI, declared that we live in an era of a “tyranny of relativism.” Such a “dictatorship of relativism does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” Today these questions are being raised: “What exactly qualifies for human personality? What constitutes human personhood? What does it mean to be human?” There are college professors who now advocate that human personhood must be earned by a human being meeting certain criteria determined by the intellectually and physically fit. Perhaps a child has earned personhood by the time she is two years of age. Some say as late as seven years of age. The argument is that a human being is not necessarily a human person.

Yet recall the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life…” Unfortunately, slavery was justified by denying the human personhood of human beings of African descent. The Nazis justified the death camps and anti-Semitism by claiming that the Jewish humans were not fully human.

This proclivity to deny human dignity is made especially clear now in the popular movement to create human beings in laboratories in order to harvest their valuable biological material, i.e., stem cells, in hopes of treating diseases afflicting human persons. The argument goes that they – the unborn, the embryonic humans – are not human persons, but merely potential humans, and as such they have no rights. The unborn are treated as disposable biological material with the argument that they are not fully human because they are not human persons. The objective truth of the humanity of human beings has been displaced with subjective norms. Yet if there is no objective truth regarding the humanity of human beings, then the objective truth of the dignity of each and every human person is lost.

A society that affirms the dignity of the person but then also permits fetal experimentation, abortion, or euthanasia is denying equality before the law. Showing respect for human life may also require the exercise of conscientious objection not only in relation to war, but also to procured fetal experimentation and abortion. Medical research, which has great potential for human progress and service, must also respect the integrity of the human person from the first moment of conception. Therefore all human experimentation or research that disregards the inviolable dignity of the human being must be avoided. When a law denies an entire category of human beings the status as human persons, the very foundations of law and civilization are weakened. It is impossible to advance the cause of human dignity without recognizing and defending the right to life. All other rights are founded on and flow from this most basic of rights.

Democracy is false when it fails to recognize and affirm every person’s dignity and his or her subsequent rights. Violence toward others and self is not life giving, but death dealing. Nothing but an unconditional respect for human life can be the foundation of a truly renewed culture and civilization.

Pope John Paul repeatedly warned of anti-life forces and movements, and called upon all peoples of good will to build a culture of life based on a civilization of truth and love. Charity calls us to love one another as God has loved us. In a sense we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We are responsible for the welfare of others. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be neighbor to everyone, especially those who are most in need: the poor and lonely. In helping the disenfranchised, the hungry, the foreigner, the sick and imprisoned, we serve Christ Jesus. “Whatsoever you did to the least of my people, that you did to me.”

The Christian is called to live out the love God has already given us in Jesus, for He first loved us. The Christian leads a moral life not to earn God’s Grace or favor; rather, a Christian leads a moral life in response to the Grace of God already given.

For the Christian, Jesus challenges us to action. “When I was hungry you gave me to eat; when I was a stranger, you welcomed me; when I was sick you cared for me; and when I was in prison, you visited me.” He did not say: “When I was hungry you starved me; when I was a stranger you exiled me; when I was sick you euthanized me; when I was in prison you executed me, when I was an embryo you harvested me, or when I was unborn you aborted me.”

Human civilization has its roots in marriage and family. Human dignity is rooted in the Revelation that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. To truly understand the nature of married love, one must understand the nature of human personhood. God instituted marriage in the beginning when he created the first man and the first woman. Marriage is a pillar of civilization and married love is a covenantal bond, a life-long sacramental union of a man and a woman sustained by the fidelity of conjugal friendship and the procreation and education of children. Such a covenant and communion cannot be closed in upon itself; rather it is fruitful in its love and service to the communion of society.

However, a society is only as good as its individual domestic society, the family. The procreation and education of children is a participation in God’s creative act. The family as the domestic church is called to proclaim the gospel of Christ through the example of charity. The family is where a child first learns the virtues of life and love and truth. Parents are their children’s first teachers. The family is called to serve human life through a stable environment. The work of parenting and educating children is not an option for spouses. If parents fail their children in this responsibility, then the family fails society; if the family fails in this responsibility, then the entire human family fails and with it all of society. Indeed, married love’s great work is parenthood. For this reason, the future of humanity hinges upon marriage and family.

The institution of Marriage cannot be reduced to nothing more than a disposable contract with conditions and pre-nuptial agreements or be redefined by the parties involved as a mere transitory union of two persons. The choice to enter into the marital covenant is a choice to remain faithful and united as husband and wife through sorrow and joy and sickness and health. The spouses can endure in the valleys of emotional dryness and celebrate on the mountaintops of exhilarating happiness; it is to be open to new life; and the spouses promise to remain faithful to one another all the days of their lives together.

Marriage builds up society through love and service to one another within the family. The sacrament of marriage can be a visible sign of invisible grace because God’s love can be experienced through each other. Therefore Marriage is a cooperation with and participation in God’s grace, and as such it will endure, for “With God all things are possible.”34

The future of marriage, the family, and respect for human life will determine the future of our culture and civilization; the pursuit of social justice, protecting the rights and the dignity of the human person, and fostering the common good of the human family must be the concern of every person and every human institution.

With the ever increasing bombardment of mass communication and powerful media conglomerates, how can the integrity and value of the human person be defended and reaffirmed? Or is it too late to ask the question?

Father Peter Cameron on "FAITH AND THE HUMAN DRAMA"

2009-03-15T15:09:00.003-07:00

FAITH AND THE HUMAN DRAMA

One reason why man lives bereft of the meaning of life is because he has nothing to inspire him to search the depths of his self so as to discover the truth of his human ‘I.’ To a great degree, this is the responsibility of the theatre in the Church.

By Peter John Cameron, O.P.

Twenty-four hour television on one thousand and thirty-four different channels... a dozen new movies every month offered by way of the local cineplex... thousands of movies available on video cassette, DVD, pay-per-view, or via the Internet...

Yet Broadway tickets that cost one hundred dollars or more still are sometimes impossible to get.

Why has the art known as theatre never gone out of existence? What is it about the theatre—so integral to human experience since the dawn of history—that keeps it from becoming extinct? Why is it that theatre manages to reach the human heart in an indispensable and indefatigable way?

According to John Paul II, ‘The basic human drama is the failure to perceive the meaning of life, to live without a meaning.’
According to Pope John Paul II, "the basic human drama is the failure to perceive the meaning of life, to live without a meaning." In other words, for so many the sense of destiny has not been awakened in them. One main reason why the human being lives bereft of the meaning of life is because he has nothing to inspire him to search the depths of his self so as to discover the truth of his human "I." For the person who confronts the evidence of his own existence comes face to face with three key truths about the human "I": first, I didn't make myself; second, I have desires that I did not give myself and that I cannot delete which are infinite in their scope; and third, I live with the expectation that I will be happy—the certainty that I have been promised meaning and fulfillment in my life.

This awareness of the fundamental facts of my existence provokes three correlative and urgent questions in my soul:

1) If I did not make myself then who made me? I say "who" because my awakened self-awareness summons up in me a certainty that my Maker is in some way like me and that I am in relationship with my Maker, that is, my Maker had a reason for making me.

2) Because of my desires there is something about me which is infinite, which leads me to ask: Is there some One who is infinite who gave me these desires and who wills to satisfy these otherwise insatiable desires?

3) Who can meet my expectations for happiness? Every attempt on my part falls short and leaves me disappointed. If I am sure that I have been promised fulfillment, who put that promise in me in the first place? Because I am convinced that the One who made that promise alone can make it come true.

These three questions combine to form the one great and Ultimate Question, namely, What is the meaning of life? At the point that this question is posed, reason begins to operate at its most optimal level. The "I", animated, aware, and perhaps even anguished shares in the Passion of the dying Christ on the cross who cries out: "I thirst!" The human "I" itself is thirst... thirsting to know its meaning, its mission, its purpose, its destiny. The zenith of reason's power is an awareness of its own limitations. Yet, while reason cannot provide an adequate answer to the ultimate question that it raises, reason does arrive at the perception of a Mystery beyond itself... a Mystery that is a Presence that corresponds to the most urgent longings of the human heart.

This surmising, this judgment on the part of reason is an act of imagination that calls out for imagination. And this is where theatre comes in.

In his five volume work entitled Theodramatic, Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote:

The task of the stage is to make the drama of existence explicit so that we may view it... Where existence is directly interpreted as theatre, the 'I' must be understood as the role...It continually delivers man from the sense of being trapped and from the temptation to regard existence as something closed in upon itself. Through the theatre, man acquires the habit of looking for meaning at a higher and less obvious level... Theatre's intrinsic function [is] to be a place where man can look in a mirror in order to recollect himself and remember who he is....In the theatre man attempts a kind of transcendence, endeavoring both to observe and to judge his own truth, in virtue of a transformation... by which he tries to gain clarity about himself... Theatre is no sinful illusion but the necessity of, and pleasure in, seeing oneself portrayed by another; in this 'mask' the 'person' both loses and finds himself. (17, 173, 20, 86, 12, 122)"

In some concrete way, the act of coming together as an audience tears out of us the nothingness that afflicts all people.
So we can say that the human heart craves the theatre because the human heart lives waiting for something that will reveal the meaning of being human. For some reason, something deeply rooted in the human soul compels it to look to the "imitation of human beings in action"—which is how Aristotle defines tragic drama in the Poetics—in order to discover a clue about its destiny. Theatre in the service of the New Evangelization seeks to engage reason on this level.

Of course, the great challenge to theatre committed to such a mission is how to stir people out of their anesthetized lives... how to motivate people to break through the crust they have allowed to form over their day to day existence. To do this, theatre must penetrate to the precise core of what people care about. It must respond to a lived question. It must attract and compel on the deepest level of meaning. It must interact with others at the point in which life begins to spark and flame. Otherwise, theatre remains at best merely an irrelevant distraction.

For this reason, according to the great novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder, the author of the beautiful American classic play Our Town, the best strategy for creating compelling theatre is to represent dramatically original sin. Wilder wrote:

Gazing deeply into the problem of mankind's agonized straining under the problem of original sin [one should place] on the stage not a discussion of original sin but a living, suffering example of original sin. That's what the theatre's for. That's what the theatre is. It has a far more glorious function than the lecture hall and the discussion forum: it is where you show the human situation. (The Enthusiast: A Life of Thornton Wilder, p. 313)

Because what is original sin? Original sin is the claim that we can identify the total meaning of life with something that we can comprehend and control... something we can measure, manage, and manipulate. Original sin attempts to identify God with some idol by choosing something that we ourselves understand. The impulse of original sin is to attempt to identify the answer to the ultimate question of life with a particular aspect of our self.

Thornton Wilder insists that a "discussion" of original sin will not suffice; what is needed is a dramatic experience of original sin. Because "showing" the human situation in turn perfects the human situation.

Theatre's Connection with Culture

In this respect, the integral link between culture and theatre becomes clear. Gaudium et Spes tells us that the human person "can achieve true and full humanity only by means of culture." But what is the key to a Gospel understanding of "culture?" One theologian who dedicated his long priestly ministry to generating the Church's notion of culture was Monsignor Luigi Giussani. Monsignor Giussani was the founder of the ecclesial Movement Communion and Liberation. An outstanding hallmark of the charism of Communion and Liberation is its devotion to culture. Giussani writes:

We define culture as the critical, systematic development of an experience. An experience is an event that opens us to the totality of reality: experience always implies a comparison between what one feels and what one believes to be the ultimate ideal or meaning. Culture works to unfold this implication of wholeness and totality which is part of every human experience. (The Risk of Education, 133) Culture is that from which man draws... inspiration for his way of behaving... in the affirmation of the ultimate aim of what he does, that is to say, his destiny. (1998, p. 14)

Theatre is an event in which experience thrives, for as Giussani writes, "true experience throws us into the rhythms of the real, drawing us irresistibly toward our union with the ultimate aspect of things and their true definitive meaning" (Risk, 99). Authentic theatre yearns for nothing less.

One of the most influential modern theorists of theatre whose ideas revolutionized theatre—ideas that continue to hold sway in the theatre to this day—was the French actor and playwright Antonin Artaud. Although Artaud had little use for faith or religion, he nevertheless professed:

The true purpose of theatre... is to express life in its immense, universal aspect, and from that life to extract images in which we find pleasure in discovering ourselves... When we speak the word 'life,' it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from its surface of fact, but to that fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach... [The object of theatre is] to express objectively certain secret truths, to bring into the light of day by means of active gestures certain aspects of truth that have been buried under forms in their encounters with Becoming... The public is greedy for mystery.

Theatre in the service of the evangelization of culture aims to be an experience in this fullest sense.

The Encounter with the Actor

The best strategy for creating compelling theatre is to represent dramatically original sin.
Why is the theatre an appropriate way and place to propose original sin? The simple and most compelling answer is because of the presence of the actors. I have always been struck by the fact that in John Paul II's first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, in the very first paragraph of that document, he wrote, "God entered the history of humanity and, as a man, became an actor in that history." Since the pope was himself once a theatre actor, I cannot help but to think that the Holy Father chose that term consciously and deliberately, fully mindful of all its implications.

Several years ago, the pope wrote these words: "Man never stops seeking: both when he is marked by the drama of violence, loneliness, and insignificance, and when he lives in serenity and joy, he continues to seek. The only answer which can satisfy him and appease this search of his comes from the encounter with the One who is at the source of his being and his action." Or to put it in other words, the only thing adequate enough to shake us out of our self-satisfaction by which we measure and manipulate reality according to some self-appointed, self-referential idol is a Presence: the Presence of Jesus Christ the actor in history.

As Giussani expresses it, "That for which the 'I' is made and for which it does everything is a Presence... It is for a Presence—through which the human being is made, and by which he feels made, and is aware of being made: the presence of Christ...—that he lives and does everything (Risk, 1999, p. 32). The Italian theologian Father Stephano Alberto adds:

All the delusion of our limitation, all the apparent non-keeping of the promise in our fleshly existence, all the desire that decays into utopia and censures the hope because of the burden of our limitation and our pain, finds an answer: it is a Presence, a human Presence. God did not answer the demand for meaning with words, but with a presence.

Look at it this way. When you go to a Broadway play, and you sit down in your seat and open up your playbill, what is the one thing that you dread the most? You dread one of those little square pieces of paper falling out of it. Why? Because those little paper inserts indicate that an understudy is going to be substituting for an actor at that performance. And we're disappointed. But why? The role is still going to be portrayed. Yes, but we came to the theatre not only with the hope of encountering this character but also this specific actor. Because somehow we are convinced that the flesh and blood presence of this particular actor has the power to give life to a given dramatic role in a way that effects an incomparable encounter. We go to the theatre to experience an encounter—not an encounter only with an "idea", but an encounter with a personal presence that corresponds to something primal and vital in the human soul.

In the words of von Balthasar, "the analogy between God's action and the world drama is no mere metaphor but has an ontological ground: the two dramas are not utterly unconnected; there is an inner link between them" (p. 19). Theatre in the service of the evangelization of culture recognizes and takes full advantage of the "sacredness" of acting as a participation in God's chosen method of salvation—the Father sent Jesus Christ the actor into human history.

Von Balthasar notes that "theatre owes its very existence substantially to man's need to recognize himself as playing a role." And Christ, who reveals man to himself, as actor reveals the contours of the role of the human "I" in the human drama.

For me, one of the seminal writings on the theatre is an essay by the late, great American playwright Arthur Miller entitled Tragedy and the Common Man which he wrote as a foreword to his classic play Death of a Salesman. I find the essay monumental because of the innovative and unflinching way that Miller accords the noble status of the tragic hero to the common, ordinary human being. This was something unthinkable in the opinion of Aristotle and others of his ilk for whom only kings and the high born could be apt tragic heroes. Arthur Miller observes something that gets definitively confirmed in the coming of the Son of God at the Incarnation.

Arthur Miller observes something that gets definitively confirmed in the coming of the Son of God at the Incarnation.
The human condition in many respects resembles tragedy formally understood. What is it that fuels tragedy? Miller posits that it is "the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world. Among us today this fear is as strong, and perhaps stronger, than it ever was. In fact, it is the common man who knows this fear best." This fact is what makes the common man "as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were." For, he says, "tragedy is the consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly." In the process, "tragedy enlightens—and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts."

Miller well understands that the only thing that can loose the hold original sin has on us—what makes us fearful of being torn from our chosen image of who we are in the world—is a heroic presence. He says, "The tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing—his sense of personal dignity." In this perspective, the celebrated "tragic flaw" of the tragic hero is not so much a defect as it is a conviction that results in dire consequences. Miller says that "the 'tragic flaw" is the hero's "inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status."

Through the exceptional presence of a talented actor who portrays the human compulsion to evaluate himself justly, we the audience can face the presence of the tragic hero in ourselves and, with great courage, take up that role in freedom. Theatre in the service of the evangelization of culture seeks to promote tragic heroes of just this sort.

Language: the Medium of Theatre

What is the medium that theatre employs in order to accomplish its end? The medium of the theatre is language. Christ comes into the world when the Father speaks the Word. In a removed but real way, theatre acts to carry on that Trinitarian utterance. Before all else, plays are meant to be heard. In a unique way, language is ideally suited both to divine self-communication and to theatrical catharsis. For as Cardinal Ratzinger noted, "the conversation between people only comes into its own when they are no longer trying to express something, but to express themselves, when dialogue becomes communication." Or as Giussani puts it, "the true motive of communication is affection."

As a young man actively involved in a drama project known at the Rhapsodic Theatre, Karol Wojtyla clearly understood and embraced this dimension of language and strove to reconceive theatre according to it. He wrote:

The fundamental element of dramatic art is the living human word. It is also the nucleus of drama, a leaven through which human deeds pass, and from which they derive their proper dynamics... Drama fulfills its social function not so much by demonstrating action as by demonstrating it slowed down, by demonstrating the paths on which it matures in human thought and down which it departs from that thought to express itself externally.

As part of his reflection on his Golden Anniversary of priestly ordination, Pope John Paul II wrote that "the word... is present in human history as a fundamental dimension of man's spiritual experience. Ultimately, the mystery of language brings us back to the inscrutable mystery of God himself." Theatre in the service of the evangelization of culture recognizes this crucial truth about language and harnesses it to its fullest effect.

Presence and the Audience

There is something else absolutely indispensable to theatre that we have to consider, and that is the presence of the audience. Movies can play in an empty movie house to the detriment of no one (except maybe the owner of the movie house!). But the performance of a play in a theatre with an absent audience would cause great sadness to the actors; in fact, it would probably be impossible. For there is a symbiosis between audience and actors that is integral to the theatre experience. But the presence of the actors to the audience is just as vital as its inverse. Why?

Christ, who reveals man to himself, as actor reveals the contours of the role of the human "I" in the human drama.
As Giussani observes, "Meaning is a connection that you establish when you step out of yourself, move out from the instant, and place yourself in a relationship" (RS, p. 118). There is something wondrous, maybe even mildly miraculous, about an audience leaving the comfort of their own homes to come to a theatre. And I cannot help but believe that one reason why they are willing to make the sacrifice to come to the theatre is because of this dynamic identified by Giussani. Becoming an audience is a little way of experiencing belonging. I think deep down we know that we need to step out of ourselves in order to establish meaning. I think deep down we are convinced that we need to place ourselves in a relationship—even as one as fleeting as the performance of a play—in order to gain the connection which is meaning.

In some concrete way, the act of coming together as an audience tears out of us the nothingness that afflicts all people—what von Balthasar describes as "the sense of being trapped and closed in upon ourselves." Why else would we happily consent to sit in the dark with so many strangers and there "willingly suspend disbelief"—to use Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous phrase—toward what is played out in front of us? And the answer is because the event of theatre is not about make-believe but rather about belief-making.

Conclusion

In his Letter to Artists, Pope John Paul II wrote:

In situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience... Art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery. Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the universal desire for redemption... The Church is especially... keen that in our own time there be a new alliance with artists... I appeal to you, artists of the written and spoken word, of the theatre and music... I appeal especially to you, Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.

John Paul II reminds us that "unless faith becomes culture it has not been really welcomed, fully lived, humanly rethought." To a great degree, this is the responsibility of the theatre in the Church.

May 26, 2005

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PETER JOHN CAMERON, O.P. is a Dominican priest, Editor-in-Chief of "Magnificat", and the founder and director of the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre. He is an award-winning author of more than a dozen plays.

Blackfriars Repertory Theatre is a revival of Blackfriars Theatre, a theatrical apostolate founded by Dominican Fathers Urban Nagle and Thomas Carey in 1940. Fathers Nagle and Carey together ran the only rofessional level theatre sponsored by a Catholic organization in the United States, and the first religious theatre ever tried in New York City. The stated mission of Blackfriars Theatre was to produce “plays of artistic merit which reflect the spiritual nature of man and his eternal destiny.” Blackfriars Theatre closed in 1972, and it is regarded as the American stage’s “oldest continuous Off-Broadway theatre.”

© 2005, Peter John Cameron, O.P. All rights reserved.

The Drama of the Paschal Mystery: The Source and Summit of the Holy Triduum

2009-03-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Drama of the Paschal Mystery: The Source and Summit of the Holy Triduum

Imagine if we had the opportunity to share the bread and wine that Jesus shared with his apostles on the night before he died? An article in our local newspaper on Good Friday seemed to beg such a question. Accompanying the article was a photograph of an annual Last Supper pageant where actors dressed as apostles were seated around a table while one of the actors portrayed Christ. In the course of the rehearsals those in charge of the annual drama had a revolutionary idea to have the actor portraying Christ not only distribute the bread to the “apostles” but also the entire congregation. Imagine that? And by so doing, some believers may have actually thought they were encountering Christ in a uniquely special way, having the opportunity to receive the actual body and blood of Christ during worship.

Interestingly throughout Christian America this past Holy Week and Easter Season the media reported on many churches where innovative Biblical pageants were performed for various congregations. One might critique these staged quasi-worship productions and point out that the Paschal Mystery is not simply about the distant reality that Jesus suffered and died and rose long ago, but allow us to momentarily reflect upon them as such.

In one such drama called “the living last supper” the audience (as one reporter [erroneously or correctly] called the congregation) was allowed to come forward and receive “communion” from the actor portraying Jesus. In what was regarded as unusual, the audience participated through ritual movement and singing. One of those in attendance at this living last supper said, after witnessing the drama, that through the show they learned that Jesus had instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion at the Last Supper.

In light of this comment, one of the pastors said serving communion in such fashion is a great means of involving the audience in the drama, yet he was adamant in pointing out that he and his congregations certainly do not recognize Jesus himself in it [the communion bread]. Those involved admit it is an interesting experiment of sorts, especially for the one portraying Christ, and claim that the drama of it all “does what words cannot do.”

But isn’t this what liturgy is supposed to do? Isn’t that the understanding of sacrament? Through the sacramental liturgical ritual the past is made present and we actually encounter the risen Christ. In a word, the liturgy does what mere words cannot do.

On some Good Friday pageant services worshippers come forward and dedicate themselves to the Lord in front of the actor portraying Christ crucified on the cross. On Easter Sunday more churches stage productions to mark the holiday [holyday?] and afterwards parents bring their children up on stage to have their pictures taken with “Jesus.” Isn’t there something terribly shallow in all of this? Have we cheapened Jesus to breakfast with the Easter Bunny? And doesn’t this risk reducing worship to a mere stage production?

The evidence seems to show that those who are either deprived of the Liturgy and ritual or reject them altogether will eventually create their own. Unfortunately what has replaced liturgy is often a weak imitation of authentic worship. Granted, many of the actors take their roles seriously, and prepare by prayer and fasting in preparation for Holy Week, but then again, all Catholics, for millennia have been encouraged to fast and pray to mark the Lenten Season.

What I find fascinating about all these accounts is that what is being described comes close to traditional Catholic devotions such as the rosary and the Stations of the Cross and the liturgical celebrations long associated with Holy Week, Holy Triduum, and the Mass. In several of these pageants, Jesus’ mother Mary is being portrayed even if not all the scenes are explicitly Biblical. Yet many of these denominations decry personal Catholic devotions and the formal public worship of the Catholic Liturgy.

So how do these nice remembrances where we have to blow our nose and wipe our eyes apply to us now? Do they truly transform us or do we simply recall a past event and leave it at that? What is the practical application of such performances or productions in the world? Or do these productions – although unintended – merely entertain and draw us ever more in upon ourselves? Have we reduced worship to only a matter of what we are getting rather than to whom it is we are offering our sacrifice of praise and worship?

For Catholics, the heart of the entire liturgical year is the Holy Triduum whereby we plunge ourselves into the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, but the purpose of these events is to propel us forward in service to all. There must be a connection between the Christ event and our lives here and now; the Paschal Mystery is to be lived not simply viewed or observed. If we follow Christ, we too will experience passion, suffering, sorrow, and death itself. Experiencing the Paschal mystery allows us to live the questions of faith, rather than requiring faith to answer all the questions of life.

During the mass we share the story of salvation and gather around the altar and do once more what Christ did the night before he died. Together we do not simply piously recall the events of the past, but instead we participate in them, renew our covenant with God, stand in his presence and share in his Spirit and give thanks; hence the term “Eucharist.”

In the Second Vatican Council’s document Sacrosanctum concilium, the bishops declared, “At the Last Supper…our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood…in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us’”(SC 47). As Lumen Gentium of the same council reminds us: The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” Indeed, as the Catechism states, “by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all” (CCC 1326). Sacrosanctum concilium reiterated that of utmost importance in the celebration of the liturgy, “full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit” (SC 14).

It could well be argued that the faithful’s communal celebration through word and ritual brings about the sacramental reality. We believe that liturgy teaches us theology. In the words of the theologians, this is Lex orandi, lex credendi: the way we pray is the way we believe.

Sociologists who study ritual tell us that ritual reveals (makes present), orients (directs us toward the revealed reality), and unites (all are oriented toward the revealed reality together). It would seem that Catholic Liturgy does exactly that: it reveals God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, orients us toward Christ and his kingdom vision, and unites fellow believers into the Church for a common purpose, namely the furthering of the kingdom.

On the other hand, the Easter pageants in question appear to fall short of their purpose. Jesus did not say “act” like me in a “staged” way; rather he called upon us to be authentic disciples. “Do the will of my Father,” “If you love me, keep my commandments,” “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him,” “I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you,” “Remain in me, as I remain in you,” “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,” “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father,” “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” and “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother,” are some passages that immediately come to mind.

By participating in the Holy Week services of the Triduum, we do not attempt to go back in time for Christ makes himself present to us now! Our task is not to lose ourselves in first century Palestine, but rather immerse ourselves in our own broken world. How are we to wash one another’s feet today, how might we recognize the bruised, stripped and crucified body of Christ in my immigrant neighbor, a homeless stranger, Iraqi refugee or the forgotten peoples of Darfur?

On Holy Thursday we abide by the Lord’s command of “Take this and eat, this is my body, we obey His command of “love one another as I have loved you”, vow to wash the feet of our neighbors, and we keep watch with Him in his hour of agony; on Good Friday we see the Son of Man lifted up from the earth to draw all men and women to Himself and behold the heart which so loved the world, his pierced side pouring forth water and blood revealing the portal to the Church; and on the Easter Vigil we are warmed by the new fire, illuminated by the light of Christ, enlightened by the Word of the Father, regenerated in the baptismal waters, strengthened in the anointing of holy chrism, nourished in the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and sent forth on mission in the power of the Holy Spirit to restore all things in Christ, bringing order to the chaos of our world. This is no mere stage show; no, this is drama in its highest form.

So on Easter morning we don’t merely pose for a picture with a theatrically sweetened Jesus, but rather we partake in communion with Him, in Him, and through Him, and as such are drawn into the heart of God, called upon to serve others, united to his suffering, plunged into his death through the waters of baptism, and resurrected through the Word and Sacrament, efficaciously surrendering ourselves to a mystical communion with all believers and abandoning ourselves to Divine Providence.

Imagine the dramatic possibilities now. That’s the kind of Easter I’m talking about.

Resurrection of the Body key to Christian Belief

2009-03-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

In the past year there were several reports that polls claimed that a majority of Christians do not believe in the "resurrection of the body" on the Last Day. For the Christians who may have forgotten the teaching of the scriptures and the Apostles' Creed, the "resurrection of the body (flesh)" means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our mortal body will come to life again.

St. Augustine said in the fourth century, "On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body." However, many people today focus only on the spiritual life of the human person after death. But the Christian faith believes that the mortal body will rise to everlasting life on the Last Day. In John 5:28-29, Jesus says, "Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation."

In John 11:25, Jesus declares, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live." Then Jesus restored Lazarus to a physical life.
After the Resurrection, Jesus physically appeared to his disciples in this manner (as recorded in Luke 24:24-43): "(The disciples) were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, 'Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.'" And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. "Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have."

St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:13-17, wrote: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. ... And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also blasphemers, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins." Finally, as if there is still any doubt, Paul, in Romans 8:11, reiterated, "The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies."

So, contrary to popular opinion, Christ has been raised, and we, too, await that day with certain hope that, together with all who have died in Christ; we, too, will rise with him on the Last Day. Christians believe – or used to believe – that what happened to Jesus in his Resurrection from the dead will also happen to them in the resurrection on the Last Day.

HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B 2009

2009-03-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B 2009

We typically do not see holy cards, paintings, statues, or stained glass windows depicting Jesus armed with a whip of cords, flipping over tables, and releasing sheep and oxen while cleansing the temple. In fact, the whole scene makes some people very uncomfortable. We have this image in our minds that religion must be nice and polite, that Jesus must never offend anyone and be sweet and well-mannered.

Many Christians certainly can’t allow for Jesus to experience any human emotion. But this is not true to the gospel, is it? Jesus was fully human. He knew love, joy, anger, sadness, and even betrayal and the pain of death.

Yet when it comes to religion, or more properly, the exercise of our Christian call –making real our baptismal promises and living our faith in Jesus - well, now, for some, that’s a bit much.

Yes, there is something dreadfully jarring about the gospel – we are called to reach out to the loveless and to confront hypocrisy. Jesus jolts us out of our complacency and calls us to pray for our enemies and do good to those who hate us. His Word compels us to disturb the status quo that allows the least among us to barely survive.

There is something aggressive about Lent. We fast, we give alms, we pray more fervently. We are called to live more simply as we reflect on the reality that many others simply live from day to day. The Lenten fast is often a battle, indeed a struggle – and we know that Lent began with Jesus being tempted by Satan in the dry wilderness of the Desert.

There is something terribly excessive, surprising, startling about Jesus. His words of "Do not think I have come to bring peace" and "Your enemies will be those in your own household."

The Passion and death of Jesus are violent. His arrest, his scourging, the crowning with thorns, his carrying the cross, his falling under the weight of the cross, his crucifixion, being nailed through his hands and his feet, and being pierced through his heart are all very violent acts. Yet in this startling violence is our peace.

As St. Paul wrote: “Christ crucified, is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” A crucifix is a startling image. Jesus states: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?

If we allow the words of Christ to change our lives, that might render a holy, but violent upheaval in our lives. When Jesus cleansed the Temple somewhere someone began sawing the lumber for his cross.

What tables of hypocrisy or self-righteousness might we overturn if we seek to include the outsiders? Or what trouble might we “whip up” if we dare to love our enemies? What release will we provide for the poor and downtrodden if we proclaim and live the message that the “least among us are the greatest.”

Jesus built a church based on the faith of His disciples. He promises to Simon Peter that “The gates of the hell shall not prevail against it.” We as Christians, living the kingdom of God, should be pounding down the gates of hell’s demonic kingdom with our prayers, our sacrifices, our alms. We must be on the offense – again called to a holy fervor. We cannot sit idly by while Satan does his business. We are called to be a people of justice.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus condemns those who are lukewarm. Just as the violent in our world commit violence with great fervor and sometimes glee, we must pursue justice and act with mercy mightily with the same amount of vigor and enthusiasm for good.

And how might we flip the cultural tables and clean the secular temples of our society today? Try following the Ten Commandments. Wow! Talk about messing with a system!

Honoring one God? Not multiple idols? Keeping God’s name and Jesus’ name Holy?! Honoring and keeping Sunday Holy? Committing to at least weekly community prayer? Some non-Catholic churches have even canceled Christmas and Easter services because many people are too busy to come to church on that day.

Thou shall not kill? We are called to respect all of human life? Consider the unborn human persons? Consider the elderly worthy of respect? Care for the poor and less fortunate? Comfort those in prison? Those in hospitals or those with terminal illnesses?

Honor the gift of human sexuality? Cherish marriage as a lifelong union between one man and one woman? Welcome the gift of children lovingly? And not regard children as mere products or pieces of property considered a right for anyone to have or own?

No stealing? Lying? Swearing falsely? No coveting others and coveting others successes or belongings?

People may think that the truth of orthodoxy is either completely wrong or completely safe. But it is neither wrong nor safe. One may call the truth politically incorrect or call it dangerous, but don’t call it safe or boring.

There never was anything so dangerous or exciting as the truth of orthodoxy. To say that the Eucharist is the body of Christ is too much for the world, yet Jesus said: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man you will have no life within you.”

The Church has never taken the lame course of saying or doing the popular. The church, for instance, is not going to change its teaching on what makes Christian marriage or suddenly change its stance on the dignity of all human life – born and unborn.

In fact, being a disciple of Jesus is not respectable in our culture. Oh, being a Christian on the side is okay. The acceptable kind of Christianity that some embrace is one that never allows Jesus’ teaching to actually change his or her lifestyle or behavior. There are Christian churches today that bribe their people to come to church with pizza, games, prizes. How pathetic. They even teach a personal Jesus that does not claim anything as true – only what is true for each believer is true. How convenient.

It’s always easy to go along with the crowd, to just give in to the cry of the mob. Today there are those who reject sound doctrine for teachings that “tickle their ears,” in St. Paul’s words. Today we can imagine those who want to redefine marriage or even redefine what a human being is or debate when a human being becomes a human person.

Yet Jesus calls us to a sacrificial lifestyle that gives God the glory. We must abandon our own ideas that excuse our sinful behaviors or attitudes.

Yet today many Christians only come to church to worship – if they will even call it that – if it is convenient or if it makes them feel good or if they get something out of it. What they call worship is often cheap entertainment. One must agree that’s a lot easier than actually committing oneself to the lifelong task of continual conversion and growing into the image of Christ.

As an example, we can recall that slavery was once fashionable throughout the world. So was the idea that certain groups of human persons were inferior and had a duty to the rest of humanity to stop having children. And just sixty years ago many Germans systematically set out to eliminate the entire Jewish population. In our own time, there have been certain tribes in Africa that have slaughtered their neighbors simply because they spoke a different language and had different facial features.

One day – I pray – future generations will look back on our own time and judge us harshly for the way that the unborn are considered nothing – even though medical science proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that human life – human personhood – begins at the moment of conception.

The difficult thing is to be true to the orthodox teachings of Christ. And we might have to upturn a few tables of the self-righteous or worldly-wise. We may be called to clear out the disastrous thinking of those who want to tone down the teachings of Christ or render the Ten Commandments merely the ten suggestions and call them multiple choice, or worse, making the teachings of the church optional, nothing more than a cafeteria offering of a little of this and that.

May we allow Christ Jesus access into our hearts, into our lives, into our temples. May he cleanse us from our sins, release us from all distractions, whip our rebellious attitudes, and run out the tempters and temptations that lead us away from the Cross of Christ; for we know that the Cross is the way to the Resurrection and Life. Amen.

Ash Wednesday Lenten Message

2009-03-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ash Wednesday Gospel: Matthew 6:1-18.

On this first day of Lent, we hear Jesus exhort his followers to give alms and do deeds of mercy, pray – both personally and communally, and to fast.

The gospel passage we heard tonight is from the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew recollected the body of Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and gives a beautiful summary of the teachings of the Kingdom of God.

I might note that after His teachings in chapters 5, 6, and 7, he then goes on to detail many of Jesus’ miracles – the Signs of God’s Kingdom in our midst (Healings and life restoring miracles; miracles of nature; inclusion of outsiders and society’s throwaway people; love of enemies; confronting hypocrisy and religious legalism; and emphasizing that the Least are the Greatest). Then in Chapter 10 Jesus calls his disciples – as well as us – to go and do likewise!

But for tonight we will focus on Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus comments on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. You will immediately notice that Jesus does not say “if you give alms” “If you pray” or “If you fast”; but he says “when you give alms” “when you pray” “when you fast.” It is not an option. These are required perquisites of the Christian life.

What is it to give alms? Besides giving monetary gifts to the needy and poor as well as to the church, we can give our time and talents to others. In fact, there are some – even here – who may be hungering and thirsting, but not for food or water, but rather instead they are hungering and thirsting for kindness, compassion, companionship!

As for prayer – Jesus tells us to go to our inner room. Wherever that might be – here in our room, or in the chapel, or deep in our heart, we are alone with God with our personal prayer. Yet Jesus then gives us a community prayer as well: the “Our Father”. We also need to worship together as community.

We need to ask ourselves how we have communicated to God. In our lives, we know that we need to communicate with others. If we fail to communicate with our friends, then our friendship will likely die. So it is with God. We must pray. And if Jesus himself prayed, He who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, then certainly we frail human beings need to pray. And we pray personally and communally.

Finally – fasting. What is fasting? What does it mean to fast? In most accounts, it is to abstain from food or to eat very little or abstain from certain foods, especially as a religious discipline. But in a deeper religious sense, it is the act or practice of abstaining from certain things that might keep us from God; and the period of such abstention or self-denial is called a fast.

Then we ought to ask ourselves: what is keeping each of us from Christ? It could be a number of things: television, radio, music, gambling, computer games, food, drink, or whatever else blocks our relationship with God. Therefore we ought to fast from those things as well if they are indeed keeping us from a deep relationship with Christ.

As Pope Benedict XVI said: “Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: “Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.”

Appropriately, allow me to close with the words of Pope Benedict XVI given to us for this Lenten Season: “Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God. May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent.

“May the Blessed Virgin Mary, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.”

the mystical nature of the Liturgy: entering into the Paschal Mystery

2008-09-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekends of May it is common to be invited to a first communion liturgy. My own son’s first communion was held at a special 2 pm mass on the first Sunday of May. My nephew Joseph’s first communion, however, was scheduled to take place in the context of the regular Sunday morning liturgy at his parish. The church is also undergoing some major renovation so all of the pews have been removed and the church can only seat about half of its normal capacity. Suffice it to say that when we arrived about fifteen minutes before mass time the church was abuzz with conversation, family members trying to find grandma and grandpa, the choir practicing, and the clanking of folding chairs and babies crying.

I imagined that some of the gathered visitors were wondering whether the congregation would ever quiet down and settle itself to enter into the holy and celebrate the sacred mysteries.

Nevertheless, when the cantor announced the gathering hymn and the congregation stood and began to sing along the Easter hymn, the assembled body took on a different demeanor. With the procession of the cross, candles, gospel book, first communicant class, gospel book, and presider, the gathered body soon began to take shape as “church”. Despite the peculiar acoustics and the awkward seating, the priest intoned the greeting in song, “The Lord be with you” and we responded with a resounding “and also with you.” The pastor welcomed everyone and made note of the first communicants.

This was then followed by the Gloria; the cantor intoned the ancient hymn and the congregation sang the refrain. Besides piano and guitar a nice addition was the sound of bongo drums. Unlike some parishes where only the cantor sings the verses, seemingly the entire church was singing the hymn.

While the Gloria was sung, the pastor, accompanied by one of the servers bearing a holy water pail, went throughout the church sprinkling holy water on all gathered.

By the last lines of the Gloria: For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. The entire church was alive with a fervor not found in every parish. The concluding refrain of Glory to God in the Highest and peace to His people on earth echoed through the nave and reverberated for a second or two before the priest intoned the “Let us pray….”

A reverent silence filled the space as it seemed every eye, ear, and heart was attuned to prayer. After the opening prayer another amen sounded forth as the people quietly seated themselves.

Gracefully and without fanfare a young man seated in the middle of the church stood and made his way to the ambo where he beautifully proclaimed the first reading. Afterwards he left the sanctuary and returned to his seat. A reverent silence followed. Then one of the choir members came to the ambo and chanted the refrain of the responsorial psalm; the congregation repeated the verse at his invitation. After the psalm, another period for silent reflection followed. Then a woman near the front of the church stood and walked to the sanctuary where she proclaimed the second reading with great reverence. After she returned to her seat the holy silence reigned until the deacon stood and bowed before the priest for a blessing. The cantor intoned the alleluia and the congregation stood. The deacon, now accompanied by two candle bearers walked to the main altar where the gospel book stood. He picked it up and held it high for all to see as he walked around the altar and down to the front of the sanctuary before ascending the sanctuary steps. The alleluia verses continued for some time and the deacon deliberately took his time reaching the ambo. With the congregation on its feet the alleluia came to a flourishing conclusion. The deacon proclaimed the Gospel and when complete he once again held the book aloft for all to see as the cantor intoned the alleluia once more.

The homily followed whereby the congregation received an exhortation to go forth and live the message of Christ, called to be the Body of Christ in a hungry world. All were encouraged to recall the close connection between baptism and first communion.

After a renewal of our baptismal promises and the intercessory prayers, the Liturgy of the Word had come to a close and the Liturgy of the Eucharist was about to begin.

We were all invited to come forward with our gifts and place them before the altar. The choir led the church in song as the assembled came forward to the altar. Though there was some noise from the metal folding chairs, it was the sound of a church in procession, a pilgrim people moving forward toward Christ. While this act was taking place the altar was being prepared for the Eucharistic Prayer.

The gifts of bread and wine were brought forth at the presentation of the gifts by the fist communicants and they then gathered about the altar. The presider then invited all to stand. Then he began to sing the mass, “The Lord be with you,” and all sang in reply: And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God. It is right to give him thanks and praise.

If we truly believe that lex orandi, lex credendi, then truly this liturgical experience was proof of that axiom for as soon as the priest and congregation began the liturgical dialogue of the Eucharistic prayer something began to happen: something mystical, something holy. The fact that the priest sang the entire Eucharistic prayer is of great significance. Indeed the way we pray does something to us, indeed prayer changes us. Though I was at prayer during mass it was difficult for me to not observe the change that was occurring to those gathered for mass – including myself.

Lord, you are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness. Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I am not convinced that as the priest prays this prayer not only are the bread and wine changed, but we are changed as well, so as to become his body here on earth.

Before he was given up to death, a death he freely accepted, he took bread and gave you thanks, He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and eat it; this is my body which will be given up for you.

When the supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and drink from it; this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.

The memorial acclamation was sung heartily by all: When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.

While Father continued to sing the Eucharistic prayer the choir began to sing. Their voices started in low but continued to build into Lord hear us, Lord hear our prayer.

In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you, Father, this life-giving bread, this saving cup. We thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you. May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.

At this father paused and the cantor and choir led the congregation in the chant of lord hear us, Lord hear our prayer.

Father continued:

Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with {Benedict} our Pope, {name of local bishop}, our bishop, and all the clergy.

Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again; bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence. Have mercy on us all; make us worthy to share eternal life with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with the apostles, and with all the saints who have done your will throughout the ages. May we praise you in union with them, and give you glory through your Son, Jesus Christ.

Again the refrain of “Lord hear us, Lord hear our prayer” resounded through the
church.
Through him, with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen!

Happily the great amen was undeniably great for the assembled believers had all just taken part in one great act of prayer. Though Eucharistic Prayer II is the shortest of all Eucharistic prayers there was no lack of grace present in the church this morning. By the end of the prayer I felt a unity with all those gathered, as if we had all together encountered something unique and holy. We had been plunged into the paschal Mystery of the dying and rising of Christ, we had united our lives to that of Christ and he who shared in our humanity had allowed us to share in his divinity.

If it is true that our prayer determines our belief and event he way we live then the celebration of the Eucharist has confirmed this beautifully.

The “Our Father” was then prayed by all in unison with one voice, symbolizing the unity that had been brought about by the liturgy. At the Communion Rite the church, that is the Body of Christ, approached the Eucharistic ministers so as to receive the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, so as to most fully become the Body of Christ, and to truly become what we receive.

Now why do I go into such detail describing the Sunday Mass? Perhaps because some Catholics have yet to experience the beauty and grace of the liturgy properly executed.

In no way shape or form am I speaking disparaging of the Tridentine Liturgy or the faith of those who were very attached to the old mass. What I am concerned about are those who seem to be clamoring for the Latin Mass but have no recollection of it from the past but seem to desire the Tridentine Rite for personal reasons.

There is a romantic concept that with the reintroduction of the Latin Mass, people will be more spiritual and reverent and more people will return to church. The problems and challenges the Church faces today will not single-handedly be corrected with the celebration of the Latin Mass.

Theological musings can be found in Henri De Lubac’s Méditation sur l’Eglise written nearly a decade before the Second Vatican Council convened:

“The Church is a mystery of faith” and as such “it follows that we cannot run away whenever we feel like it into another age – not even if we don’t actually intend a negative attitude in doing so. We cannot avoid the problems of our own day, any more than we can excuse ourselves from its tasks or run away from its battles. If we are to live in the Church (for we are the Church as Pope Pius XIII has reminded us in Mystici Corporis Christi), then we have to become involved in with the problems she faces now, and the assent of our intelligence is owed to her doctrine as we find it set out today. It would be a big mistake for us to think that we could ever rediscover the faith of the past in its exact tenor and all its richness, at the expense of all that has been clarified since…for time cannot be reversed; even error and revolt, however complete their overthrow, impose a new lifestyle and a different emphasis on the life of faith, as on the expression of truth” (The Splendor of the Church, pp 20-21, Henri De Lubac, Ignatius Press, San Francisco: 1986).

How does one reconcile the traditional church position regarding the death penalty with John Paul II’s argument in Evangelium Vitae?

2008-09-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

How does one reconcile the traditional church position regarding the death penalty with John Paul II’s argument in Evangelium Vitae? What do St. Augustine and St. Thomas say about the death penalty? What positions do contemporary moral theologians take? What has Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, said about the death penalty? Is the Church’s current teaching teaching on capital punishment a contradiction or a repudiation of its past support?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains capital punishment in these words: “The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people’s rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense.

Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When the guilty party willingly accepts it, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people’s safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.[1]

The catechism continues: “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor [i.e., the convicted murderer], authority [should] limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.[2]

“Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity ‘are very rare, if not practically nonexistent’.”[3]
In John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, (The Gospel of Life), he stated that “the nature and extent of the punishment [for capital crimes] must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity; in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements to the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”[4]

The paragraph in the second (1997) edition of the Catechism reads: “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor” (2267). This replaces the first (1992) edition, which said: “the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty”[5] (Emphasis mine). This change in the second edition of the Catechism was clearly influenced by the pope’s 1995 encyclical.

John Paul further elaborated on his opposition to the death penalty in a pastoral visit to the U.S. “The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of Life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently…for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”[6]

Many who oppose the death penalty place it alongside abortion and euthanasia as to be equally condemned. However, in 1983 Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, in his Consistent Ethic of Life, made it clear that capital punishment should not be equated with the crimes of abortion and euthanasia.[7] And as recently as 2004, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, wrote: “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia…. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”[8] (Emphasis mine).

According to the Catechism, in situations where the death penalty is morally permissible,[9] it is left to those who have public responsibility to make such a decision whether the conditions in a particular case justifies execution. When John Paul wrote: “such cases [of executing the criminal] are very rare, if not practically non-existent” (EV no. 56), it is important to note that the phrase “very rare” and “practically non-existent” does not translate as non-existent.
It may seem that Church teaching is ambiguous concerning capital punishment, especially in light of Pope John Paul’s encyclical and Cardinal Ratzinger’s memo where he wrote “a legitimate diversity of opinion” regarding capital punishment may exist. How do (we as) theologians interpret such diversity?

Scripture is often mentioned in support of the death penalty. The passage from Exodus: “An eye for eye,” is most often cited. Opponents quote Ezekiel (33:11): “As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live.” In fact, there are many more offenses that were capital crimes, such as adultery or striking or cursing a parent. Nevertheless, there seems to be a progression of mercy, such as is in Ezekiel and in the New Testament’s Sermon on the Mount where Jesus focuses on mercy and reconciliation, rather than the stringent requirements of capital justice.

In the early Church Christians refused to participate in war and capital punishment, but when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, opposition to the death penalty declined. “Tertullian argued that Christians should refrain from participation in civil government, because, among other things, it would entail the condemnation and execution of criminals…” and “Saint Ambrose, in a letter written to a magistrate concerning capital punishment, Ambrose instructed that the example of Jesus and the adulteress should be followed as a model.”[10]

Augustine and Thomas Aquinas argued in favor of the death penalty because, as he believed, it would deter the wicked and protect society. St. Augustine wrote in the fifth century A.D.: The same divine law which forbids the killing of a human being allows certain exceptions as when God authorizes...the representatives of the State’s authority to put criminals to death, according to law...[11] St. Thomas Aquinas responded in part: We observe that if the health of the whole body demands the excision of a member, through its being decayed or infectious to the other members, it will be both praiseworthy and advantageous to have it cut away…the good incur no danger, but rather are protected and saved by the slaying of the wicked, then the latter may be lawfully put to death’ for the sake of the common good.[12]

In the Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent, commenting on the Fifth Commandment, it states: “The prohibition does not apply to the civil magistrate, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which he punishes the guilty and protects the innocent. The just use of the civil sword, when wielded by the hand of justice, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment that prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence.[13]

Recently it has been argued that, “It is nearly the unanimous opinion of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church that the death penalty is morally licit, and the teaching of past popes and numerous catechisms is that this penalty is essentially just (and even that its validity is not subject to cultural variation).

Most recently, Avery Cardinal Dulles says both Scripture and tradition agree, ‘The State has authority to administer appropriate punishment to those judged guilty of crimes and that this punishment may, in serious cases, include the sentence of death’.”[14]

Yet even Augustine was willing to make exceptions. While he supports the right of the state to use capital punishment, he urged: “Do not have a person put to death, and you will have someone who can be reformed.”[15] “This is mirrored in Evangelium Vitae in paragraph 27, to seek to render “criminals harmless without definitively denying them the chance to reform.”

For those who claim that there is no precedence for a pope to question the legitimacy of capital punishment, the ninth-century Pope St. Nicholas I taught: “Without hesitation and in every possible circumstance, save the life of the body and soul of each individual. You should save from death not only the innocent but also criminals, because Christ has saved you from the death of the soul (emphasis mine).”[16] So Pope John Paul II was not completely breaking from tradition.

Also consider that in American society the death penalty is often pursued as a method of retaliation rather than divine justice; hence John Paul’s critique of such application. John Paul, in his encyclical and many other speeches and homilies was principally concerned that capital punishment further eroded the respect for the dignity of human life.

I further agree with Professor David Smolin when he states: “The death penalty should generally not be employed, he (Pope John Paul) seems to imply, both because it is no longer necessary to the protective function of the state, and also because its use (particularly when unnecessary to protect human life) has the inadvertent cultural impact of furthering the culture of death represented by practices such as abortion and euthanasia”(emphasis mine). However, in spite of the attractiveness of that argument, I, like Smolin, can also agree with [Supreme Court] Justice Scalia when he suggests that “the popularity of the death penalty in the United States is a sign that Americans still discern God’s authority over and behind the state; from this perspective maintenance of the death penalty is a helpful antidote to the democratic tendency to forget that God’s authority (rather than the people’s authority) is the ultimate foundation of state authority.”[17]

It does seem a paradox that one can appreciate both the pope’s belief that the death penalty seemingly perpetuates the culture of death and others’ argument, [like Justice Scalia’s], that considers the death penalty a tangible sign of God’s ultimate authority over human life.

However, Professor Steven Long argues, as long as “wrongful homicide” [abortion] is “legally affirmed and protected as a right” then the “primary medicinal end of the death penalty” is obstructed from view due to the “radical [cultural] devaluation of life.”[18]

I would agree that the application of the death penalty does, in reality, add to the killing of our culture of death; instead of fostering justice for the common good, as St. Thomas argued, justice is actually hampered due to a lack of an understanding of the dignity of human life. In other words, capital punishment may still be biblically and theologically valid, but “the prudence of its application is affected by the culture of death.”[19] Pope John Paul II taught that justice could only be found when and where every human life is “respected, protected, loved, and served.” He asked, “How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? (EV no. 20)”[20]

What, I believe, John Paul II was emphasizing in Evangelium Vitae was the intrinsic dignity of the human person, especially in our modern culture that has compromised human dignity, particularly through abortion and euthanasia. Therefore, I argue, as do others, that in order to redress the harm – indeed the injustice and evil – wrought by abortion and euthanasia, we ought not impose the death penalty so as to emphasize that all human life is sacred – guilty and non-guilty.

Yet, it is important for the critics of the death penalty to recall what Avery Cardinal Dulles of Fordham University said: “The Catholic Magisterium does not, and never has, advocated unqualified abolition of the death penalty.”[21]
One could argue that the death penalty does more harm than good given our current cultural situation where there is such an unparalleled contempt for human life. In Evangelium Vitae John Paul II argues that the use of capital punishment will not improve our society due to its widespread acceptance of abortion and the mentality of a culture of death. In fact, “the death penalty may in fact reinforce our worst instincts, so that it is more medicinal not to inflict such punishment” because the death penalty reinforces “a notion that life is expendable.”[22]

Consequently, this would explain why the teaching of the Catechism maintains that refraining from the death penalty is more in keeping with the current societal conditions of the common good. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger explained the current teaching along similar lines: “Clearly, the Holy Father has not altered the doctrinal principles which pertain to this issue [the death penalty] as they are presented in the Catechism, but has simply deepened the application of such principles in the context of present-day historical circumstances.”[23]

This clearly underlines John Paul’s assertion that “If such great care must be taken to respect every life, even that of criminals and unjust aggressors, the commandment ‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value when it refers to the innocent person.”[24] (Italics mine). Therefore if the state withholds execution of those who deserve death, this act will drive home the sanctity of each and every human life, especially the unborn – those who are innocent of a crime and have done nothing to merit death.

Although this teaching is not taught infallibly, Catholics should still seek religious submission of mind and will to the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra.[25]
There are those who argue for the application of capital punishment with recourse to the right and duty of legitimate public authority to safeguard human dignity and promote the common good; others argue against capital punishment on grounds of human dignity and the common good.

Abortion and euthanasia both take innocent lives; capital punishment takes the lives of convicted murderers. Therefore there is an amount of toleration for diversity of opinion concerning capital punishment. However, Pope John Paul wrote in Evangelium Vitae that the cases where the executions of the convicted criminal are necessary are very rare, if practically non-existent. Nevertheless, others maintain that they are not completely non-existent.

I believe the best argument against capital punishment relates to its application in light of the culture of death. The intrinsic worth of the human person as created in the image of God is obscured by the cultural diminishment of the value of human life. It follows then that by applying capital punishment, the intended desire, namely to show honor and respect for the human life of the slain, is not achieved; rather human life is further devalued by the exacting of another human life, even though biblically and theological it can be argued to be just and equitable.

When justice is limited to bloodless means of punishment, the good of all human life is respected and the momentum of a nefarious mentality that views human life as disposable decreases.

Due to the contempt for human life described in Evangelium Vitae, the application of capital punishment is not fostering the common good, but is actually harmful. Using St. Thomas’ reasoning, in today’s situation the death penalty may lead to the commission of more numerous, grievous sins by strengthening and encouraging the idea that human life is dispensable.

Therefore, Pope John Paul’s acknowledgment of the state’s right to employ the death penalty, while insisting on its limited use, is not a contradiction of Catholic tradition nor does it mean that that “a development of doctrine has occurred.”[26]

Therefore it would seem clear that Catholicism and the death penalty are not mutually exclusive. Both the Catechism and the pope’s encyclical do not necessarily contradict the principle that the state has the right to employ capital punishment; they do, nevertheless, seem to signify a shift in understanding, as I have shown and described in the above paragraphs.
However, Catholic social teaching is built upon two equal foundations: the innate dignity of the human person and the common good. “Moreover, for John Paul II, the punishment of any crime should not only seek to redress wrong and protect society. It should also encourage the possibility of repentance, restitution and rehabilitation on the part of the criminal.”[27]

Unfortunately our society looks to violence for quick solutions to multifaceted human problems. Opposition to capital punishment is a clear expression of our belief in the matchless worth and dignity of each human being from the moment of his or her conception, as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. The pope’s teaching is evident: even those who have taken human life are to be treated with the utmost dignity.

In John’s gospel when Jesus refuses to condemn the woman caught in the act of adultery, his words and actions make us acutely aware of the dignity of human life.[28]

As I have stated above St. Augustine asked that the death penalty not be used on anyone, not even on those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Augustine’s argument was based on his claim that the human dignity of being made in the “image of God” can be obscured but never erased.

St. Thomas Aquinas justified the use of the death penalty when used for the sake of preserving the common good of society. At the same time, however, he also argued that if a convicted criminal could be imprisoned and kept from being a danger to society, hence removing his threat to the common good, the state would not be justified in killing such a criminal.

Since Vatican Council II, especially in its document, Gaudium et Spes, the inviolable right to life has come to the fore: “There is an ever growing awareness of the sublime dignity of the human person, who stands above all things and whose rights and duties are universal… The social order and its developments must constantly yield to the good of the person, since the order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons and not the other way around.”[29] The document continues: “everyone must consider his every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity… The teaching of Christ even requires that we forgive injustices, and extend the law of love to include every enemy, according to the command of the New Law…”[30]

In conclusion I reiterate that the Church is consistent in upholding the dignity and sacredness of human life from the moment of conception until natural death.

In “Confronting a Culture of Violence,” the U.S. bishops state: “A consistent ethic of life remains the surest foundation of our life together.” As we become more aware of the Gospel challenges of our Christian vocation through theological reflection to daily achieve greater union with Christ, we will envision a culture of life and a civilization of love that will no longer include the death penalty. Pope John Paul seemingly places the dignity of the human person at the heart of the Church’s mission. “To rediscover and make others rediscover the inviolable dignity of every human person makes up an essential task, in a certain sense, the central and unifying task of the service which the Church and the lay faithful in her are called to render to the human family.”[31]

Archbishop Charles Chaput helps us to understand that, “The Church’s critique of capital punishment is not an evasion of justice. Victims and their survivors have a right to redress, and the state has a right to enforce that redress and impose grave punishment for grave crimes. It is not an absolute rejection of lethal force by the state. The death penalty is not intrinsically evil. Both Scripture and long Christian tradition acknowledge the legitimacy of capital punishment under certain circumstances. The Church cannot repudiate that without repudiating her own identity.”[32]

Consequently, rather than claiming that capital punishment is unjust, the pope was arguing for the promotion of Gospel values. For the pope (and bishops) it seems that abolition of capital punishment would reiterate the belief in the unique worth and dignity of every human being from the moment of conception, as creatures made in the image and likeness of the God who is indeed the Lord of all life. Therefore, to bring about the culture of life, Christians must proclaim the truth of the human person: a steadfast affirmation of the value and sanctity of all human life.

According to the Catechism, the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish criminals in cases of extreme gravity with the death penalty. Nonetheless Pope John Paul exhorted us not to impose the death penalty so as to emphasize that all human life is sacred, in hopes of reversing the dangerous precedent of the prevailing culture of death that has cheapened life and rendered it disposable.

In analyzing John Paul II’s encyclical and the Catechism, the punishment of crimes should both seek to redress wrong and protect society. It has long been part of our tradition to leave open the possibility of repentance, restitution and rehabilitation on the part of the criminal. In America many hold the death penalty to be the best way to deal with capital crime. However, the Church holds a belief in the unique worth and dignity of each person from the moment of conception, creatures made in the image and likeness of God - even those who have taken life must be treated with dignity.

It would seem that the growing number of opponents to capital punishment and the traditional adherents of the church teaching that permits capital punishment will continue to coexist in tension for years to come. Though Evangelium Vitae was not a repudiation of past teachings, there does, however, seem to be some evolution in the understanding of the application of capital punishment.

Therefore, in light of the current cultural situation, withholding the employment of capital punishment will actually serve to promote the value of life as opposed to the former support of capital punishment. The pope, in his wisdom, has directed the Church in a new direction without rejecting, contradicting, or repudiating its past support of capital punishment.

THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

At the death of Pope John Paul II accolades for his teaching and his ministry were legion. Many leading Christian leaders, including Evangelicals, extolled his memory. As a Catholic I was encouraged by this unity among Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike. One of the main reasons for such high praise for Pope John Paul II was his constant and consistent teaching on the dignity of all human life and his challenge to the Culture of Death.

But what about his condemnation of the death penalty? Attempting to weave the seamless garment of a consistent life ethic is difficult business among our Christian neighbors – and even Catholics. One can quote Pope John Paul II on any subject and many Catholics will get teary-eyed, but quote his Saint Louis speech or Evangelium Vitae, which, for all practical purposes, called for an end to the death penalty, and your Christian friends may suddenly look at you as if you are speaking Latin.

I have heard “good Christians” give citations of Genesis 9:6, “... If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,” and from Deuteronomy, “If a man guilty of a capital offense he is to be put to death.”(Dt. 21:22) Even many Catholics hold this view, and although they often do not cite scripture, they do convey the same idea.

Of course, there are other passages in Exodus that can be cited which call for the death penalty. “Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death” (EX 21:15); “Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.” (EX 21:17). “If a man has a stubborn and unruly son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not obey them even though they chastise him, his father and mother shall have him apprehended and brought out to the elders at the gate of his home city, where they shall say to those city elders, ‘This son of ours is a stubborn and unruly fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel, on hearing of it, shall fear.” (Exodus 21:18-21) I’d say. Many of us would have been stoned to death years ago.

There are others like it. “You must keep the Sabbath as something sacred. Whoever desecrates it shall be put to death. (EX 31:14). Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.(EX 35:2) According to these strictures, death row should be extremely crowded - or empty. Are there Christians who would seriously consider applying these Scriptures today? I doubt it.

Even if Pope John Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church had not called for a moratorium on the death penalty, the Word of God ought to challenge Christians. St. Paul wrote, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them...do not repay anyone evil for evil... Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink...do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good” (Rom. 12.20). “Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13.9 10). If there can be any justice in exacting pain upon the criminal it ought to be done by our overflowing graciousness and hospitality.

Many Catholics are sincere in their beliefs, but Catholics are not the only ones slow to take up the protest – so are our Bible-Christian brothers and sisters as well. Clearly the punishment of wrongdoers is justified in the Catholic and Christian Tradition, but punishment should also have a medicinal, redemptive purpose. Therefore, must we offer the convicted murderer upon the altar of American justice? How much more ought Christians to love the notorious sinners, those most in need of the Lord’s mercy – and ours? Is not the call of the gospel to love the loveless? Are we not all loveless? St. Paul wrote, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5.8). Therefore, what gives us the right to cast stones? Did not Christ himself say, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone?” (Jn. 8.7)

Many Christians who legitimize their stance on the death penalty also claim as a tenet of their faith that no one is good, “all have fallen short of the glory of God” even the newborn is stained with the effects of Adam’s sin. Therefore those who claim that the convicted murderer deserves death betray an inconsistency in their theology. Christ came to call the sinner – even the most wretched. Was not Christ’s blood enough to cover the sins of murderers?

There is another great irony in this owing to the fact that for many years Protestants condemned the Catholic Church for its complicity in the Inquisition. How many people were put to death for heresy, not to mention other crimes, is still debated. However, as we entered the new millennium, the Pope called upon all Catholics to ask for forgiveness for the sins of the members of the Body of Christ throughout history. He has also asked us to work for the abolishment of the death penalty. As any student of history knows, or should know, the post-

Reformation violence and bloodshed in England, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, did not discriminate between Protestants and Catholics, and those executioners and mercenaries who dealt the lethal blows were Protestant and Catholic alike.
The New Catechism of the Catholic Church, in referring to the death penalty, calls the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity very rare, if not practically non-existent. The U.S. Bishops have called capital punishment “cruel and unnecessary punishment.”

There will be those who argue that in the letters of Saint Paul one will find legitimate authority given to the Christians to execute the criminal in such verses as Romans “Let everyone be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.

Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves,” (13:1-2) or “For it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.”(Rom.13:4). Had we literally obeyed that then perhaps slavery would never have been abolished and abortion would never be opposed since both were legally sanctioned.

However, the passage from Paul continues: “Whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”(Rom. 13:9-10). Or previously in Chapter 12, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.... Do not repay anyone evil for evil.” (Vss 14 and17a). Christ said, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt. 9:13)

Is not the call of the gospel to love the loveless? In the words of the hymn My Song is Love Unknown written by Samuel Grossman in the 1600's, the message of the gospel is clear. My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me, love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be. O who am I that for my sake My Lord shall take frail flesh and die? Are we not all loveless? Dare we claim for ourselves moral and spiritual superiority and condone the state sanctioned killing of yet another citizen?

Catholics maintain that we are born in a state of original sin, inherent to each individual, yet Catholics do not claim that human nature is totally corrupted. Suffice it to say my reason for delineating these points of reference is to challenge the position of some pro-lifers who distinguish between innocent life and guilty life. Catholics are called to be pro-life across the board, from the moment of conception until natural death, be it innocent or guilty life.
Christian pro-lifers who claim that the babies eliminated by choice are innocent and the convicted murderers are guilty, deserving of death, betray an inconsistency in their own theology. Christ came to call the sinner – even the most wretched. Was not Christ’s blood enough to cover the sins of murderers?

However, the execution of the guilty party removes his opportunity for conversion and repentance, or in the least, cuts the time short. And the decision to execute belies the tenet of faith that holds that no one is beyond the scope of God’s mercy.

I have been told “sin is sin” when I have tried to differentiate between venial and mortal sin. Yet if sin is sin, then why are some sins so grave that we must call for the death of the sinner? Did not God say in Ezekiel “I do not desire the death of the sinner”? Why then do we?

Christ came to call the sinner, even the most wretched! Christ Jesus was pro-guilty life, thank God! Christ Jesus was for Barabbas, who, though guilty, He took the guilty man’s place. Of course, we recognize ourselves in Barabbas.
During his ministry, how did Jesus respond to those who were guilty of a capital crime? One of his opening salvos in the Sermon on the Mount, was Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. We must show mercy to even the worst sinner, even ourselves. Later in the same chapter, (5:21-22, 25-26) "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,'...and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.”

Christ taught us that we must love our enemies, not that it would be a good idea, but that we must love them. It is a mandate from the Lord himself. It is a difficult one to hear let alone heed. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-48).

In the Hebrew Scriptures, When Cain slew Abel, the LORD asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" The LORD then said: "What have you done! Listen: your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil.... You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the LORD: "My punishment is too great to bear...anyone may kill me at sight." "Not so!" the LORD said to him. "If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold." (Genesis 4:9-15)

The Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, “As I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live.” (EZ. 33:11)

Returning then to the New Testament, in Matthew, “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”(Mt. 6:14-15). Or "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” (Mt 7:1-2)
The gospel of Luke offers the same words, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”(Lk. 6:36-37). We must recall that “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk. 19.10) Is it not our task to carry on the work of the Lord? Did not Christ say that we are to raise the dead, not add to the killing?

Jesus said, "Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful," and "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." What about the good shepherd of Matthew 18? Christ did not give us an exception to the rule ‘love thy neighbor.’ Otherwise, the Good Shepherd would have remained with the loyal ninety-nine sheep and let the one lost one plummet over the edge of the cliff to its death.
What about forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation? The Christian journey teaches us to love those especially difficult to love. In one of the Catholic prayers associated with the rosary, one of the lines reads, “...lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most in need of mercy.” What better example than those who have taken the life of another.

The Lord Jesus said, ‘forgive as I have forgiven you. If you do not forgive others their offenses committed against you, I will not forgive you your offenses against me?’ No man, by killing another, can restore the deceased to life, nor bring about any happiness in this world or the next; only an injustice and an assault upon the law of charity.

Mother Teresa said and wrote that we are called to love those in the world, those in our midst who is the most unlovable. In another of her famous quotes, she reminded us that it hurt Jesus to love us. Therefore we must also love our neighbor until it hurts. As Christians, we ought to apply these teachings of Christ to our understanding of capital punishment. The prisoners upon death row, both the guilty and the wrongly convicted, must be afforded the dignity of a human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

Until now we have yet to see Christ face to face with someone guilty of a crime punishable by death. In John 8. 3-11, the famous story dealing with the Woman Caught in the very act of Adultery places us there. “The scribes brought a woman to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” When Jesus answered them he said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” In response, they went away one by one. Left alone with the woman, Jesus did not condemn her, but told her: “Go, and sin no more.” Jesus dismisses the woman and He is caught in the very act of mercy.

In Luke’s Passion narrative, Jesus himself is a victim to the state-sanctioned death penalty. Archbishop Fulton Sheen referred to the so-called “good thief” to Christ’s right as the thief who stole paradise. He is the only person in all of the gospels promised paradise on the spot. Imagine it: a convicted felon, dying upon the gibbet of the cross – the equivalent of the electric chair under the Roman Empire – is the first person to be promised paradise, and all on his execution day! What does this say to us as we whisk the inmates off hogtied to a gurney dispatching them to the netherworld?

Finally, let us recall the last parable Christ spoke in the Gospel of Matthew 25, “…the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by 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, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me… Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least ones of mine, you did for me.' (Mt. 25.31-46) Jesus did not say “when I was in prison you executed me!” Jesus did not say, “Deprive the prisoner of his life because of his heinous crime and the exorbitant costs of maintaining him as an inmate.” Jesus said when I was in prison, you visited me. Christ’s words should be enough, but no treatise on this issue would be complete without consulting the Apostle Paul, he himself executed by the state for his subversive views, and Saint John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos for his. ( St. Paul’s letter to the Romans was quoted above).

In John’s first epistle, “Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness”(1 Jn 2:9). “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another....There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 Jn. 4:9-11, 18-20).

In conclusion, therefore, let us cast away our fear of loving the unlovable. Let us abandon ourselves to mercy and seek to love as God loves. May all faithful Catholics and faithful Christians, work to abolish the death penalty in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace! Let us remember that the merciful are blessed and whatsoever we do to the least ones in our midst, we do to Christ!
The Christian journey teaches us to love and forgive those especially difficult to love. Even murderers must be afforded the dignity of human beings created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God.

However, the execution of the guilty party removes or shortens his opportunity for conversion and repentance, or in the least, it cuts the time short. Execution also seems to deny that God is capable of forgiving all sin. And Capital Punishment can neither restore the victim’s life nor lessen the grief and pain of the survivors. Only mercy and love can uplift and assuage grief. We must stand with victims of crime –including the children of those who are incarcerated. “We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals…The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life” (US Bishops 1999).

As the US bishops have written, “The antidote to violence is love, not more violence.” Pope John Paul II wrote, “…a sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform” (Evangelium Vitae, 27).

Jesus said, love your enemies not execute your enemies. We must challenge political thinking in order to change hearts. The scaffold is still dripping blood and the scarlet blade is still poised to execute justice. For those who quote the Hebrew Scriptures in support of the death penalty, the Lord is clear in Ezekiel, "As I live, I do not desire the death of the sinner but that he turn back to me and live. Do I derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live? (Ezek. 18.23,32)."

The United States is the only Western industrialized nation today that utilizes capital punishment. Increasingly the bishops have spoken out against its use, and Pope John Paul II and individual bishops have sought clemency for persons scheduled to be executed. There are forceful reasons for opposing capital punishment—its utter inhumanity and its complete irreversibility, as well as concern about its discriminatory use and an imperfect legal system that has sentenced innocent people to death. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “If...non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person” (CCC 2267). Executing the guilty does not honor victims, nor does it uplift the living or even assuage their pain – only love and forgiveness can do that. State-sanctioned killing affects us all because it diminishes the value of all human life. Capital punishment also cuts short the guilty person's opportunity for spiritual conversion and repentance. The consequences of widespread loss of respect for the dignity of human life—seen in pervasive violence, toleration of abortion, and increasingly vocal support for assisted suicide and research that destroys human embryos—make it all the more urgent to reject lethal punishment and uphold the inviolability of every human life. “Our witness to respect for life shines most brightly when we demand respect for each and every human life, including the lives of those who fail to show that respect for others” (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 22). Thus we are called to extend God's love to all human beings created in his image, including those convicted of serious crimes. In so doing, we can help to make "unconditional respect for life the foundation of a new society" (The Gospel of Life, no. 77).

The author, Victor Hugo, an avid abolitionist of the death penalty in the Nineteenth Century, wrote the following words in his novel Les Misérables concerning a convicted murderer placed upon the scaffold of the guillotine.
“He whom man kills God restores to life. He whom his brothers drive away finds the Father....We may be indifferent to the death penalty and not declare ourselves either way so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes. But when we do, the shock is violent, and we are compelled to choose sides, for or against. Some admire it, others loathe it. The guillotine is the law made concrete; it is called the Avenger. It is not neutral and does not permit you to remain neutral....I didn't believe it could be so monstrous...Death belongs to God alone.
By what right do men touch that unknown thing?”

Hugo prayed that one day criminals “that were once scourged with anger shall be bathed with love. The Cross shall replace the gallows.” Let us pray. It is time to abolish the death penalty. Let us pursue justice without vengeance, and build a culture of life where we will be so committed to the dignity of human life that we will not sanction the killing of any human person for any reason.

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph no. 2266. (The Catechism will be denoted as CCC).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II’s encyclical letter, 25 March 1995, paragraph no. 56.
[5] 1992 version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph no. 2266.
[6] Pope John Paul II’s homily, January 27, 1999, St. Louis, MO.
[7] Avery Cardinal Dulles, Catholicism & Capital Punishment, FIRST THINGS, vol. 112, April 2001, pp. 30-35.
[8] Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion — General Principles, memorandum of Cardinal Ratzinger to Cardinal McCarrick, first made public in July 2004.
[9] CCC 2267.
[10] “He Beareth not the Sword in Vain: the Church, the Courts, and Capital Punishment,” by Patrick M. Laurence. Ave Maria Law Review, Spring 2003.
[11] Augustine, City of God, Book 1, chapter 21.
[12] Summa Theologiae, Part II-II, Q. 64, art. 2
[13] Roman Catechism, Council of Trent, Part III, paragraph II.
[14] “Evangelium Vitae, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Death Penalty” by Steven A. Long. The Thomist, 1999, pp. 511-52.
[15]Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 13, paragraph no. 8.
[16] Robert Fastiggi, in “Antonin Scalia and His Critics: The Church, the Courts, and the Death Penalty,” First Things, vol. 126 (October 2002): 8-18
[17] David Smolin, in “Antonin Scalia and His Critics: The Church, the Courts, and the Death Penalty,” First Things, vol. 126 (October 2002): 8-18
[18] Steven Long, in “Antonin Scalia and His Critics: The Church, the Courts, and the Death Penalty,” First Things, vol. 126 (October 2002): 8-18.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Judie Brown, in “Antonin Scalia and His Critics: The Church, the Courts, and the Death Penalty,” First Things, vol. 126 (October 2002): 8-18
[21] Avery Cardinal Dulles, “Catholicism and Capital Punishment,” First Things vol. 112, pp. 30-35.
[22] Laurence, He Beareth the Sword Not in Vain.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium [Dogmatic Constitution on the Church] no. 25 (1964).
[26] Laurence, He Beareth Not the Sword in Vain.
[27] Ibid.
[28] John 8:1-11
[29] Gaudium et spes, No. 26.
[30] Ibid., Nos. 27-28.
[31] Evangelium Vitae, No. 45.
[32] Justice, Mercy, and Capital Punishment By the Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., March 2005, USCC.

The Moral Treatment of Returning Warriors in Early Medieval and Modern Times by Bernard J. Verkamp

2008-09-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.amazon.com/Treatment-Returning-Warriors-Medieval-Modern/dp/158966129X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220715470&sr=1-6

The Moral Treatment of Returning Warriors in Early Medieval and Modern Times by Bernard J. Verkamp. Paperback: 195 pages Publisher: University of Scranton Press; New Ed edition (December 15, 2006).

Bernard J. Verkamp’s The Moral Treatment of Returning Warriors (University of Scranton Press) is a tour de force of research on the practice of the imposition of penances upon warriors returning from war. The author has compiled hundreds of resources into a dense though easily read narrative. In a seamless manner he methodically analyzes how soldiers returning from war have been treated morally. He then takes his readers on a journey into the past in hopes of retrieving the sanity for present, and future, soldiers who will return from the madness of war.

From a reading of Returning Warriors one could rightly lament that western civilization has gone down the dead end road of war for far too long. One might ask whether it is even possible – or advisable – to turn around and return to an attitude of an earlier time in all its exactness.

[1]
The premise of Dr. Verkamp’s book is that in our modern time we have come to accept war as not only a necessary evil but as inconsequential to those involved in the killing. The author attributes this to the therapeutic society whereby “what were once described as wrongdoings and shortcomings are now often extolled as indicative of a liberated ego or dismissed as sickness and social maladjustment. Moral pain or feelings of guilt or shame, which were once considered the natural, interior complements of virtuous behavior are either ridicule, or reduced to psychic difficulties.”

Verkamp argues convincingly that soldiers returning from war today have experienced an “uneasy conscience” with the blood of fellow human beings on their hands. Without calling for an unrealistic return to an idealized Christendom, he discredits the modern therapeutic notion that the moral guilt and shame experienced by returning warriors can be treated and cured like any other neuroses and shows how specific elements of the ancient ritual of penance can be incorporated and assimilated in both secular and religious ways to assist returning warriors to return to society today.

In the first millennia of Christianity penances of one sort or another came to be imposed upon warriors returning from just wars as well as unjust. Though not truly universal in its application, the imposition of penances for killing in a just war could and did often mean something other than the imputation of guilt, namely that of shame; there was great shame associated with the killing of a fellow human being.

As such in the past it was assumed that soldiers returning from battle would feel guilt and be ashamed for their wartime killing and other behaviors associated with the ignoble tasks and abuses of war. The returning warrior was encouraged to work through such feelings through “rituals of purification, expiation, and reconciliation.” Unfortunately in the modern era today feelings of guilt and shame associated with war are either denied or classified simply as post-traumatic stress or survivor guilt.

Even if the war was just and the soldier had only done his duty by killing the enemy, it was believed that he was still in need of purification in that he had shed the blood of a fellow member of the human family. The guilt and shame associated with the horror sanguinis was taken seriously. Verkamp quotes the ninth-century Pseudo-Theodore Penitential that stated even if a soldier had not committed sin by repelling and killing an enemy, he was still expected to fast and be purified due to his shedding of human blood.

Returning warriors oftentimes received penances owing to the dubious nature of a war or conflict, whether it was just or unjust. Verkamp points out that “even a war that was deemed just could become an occasion for sin” since the “motives and dispositions of those fighting might be less than good…Warriors engaged in a just war had to examine their consciences about their motives for fighting and the traits of character, or lack thereof, they displayed in battle. The battlefields could become an occasion for sins of cowardice, anger, pride, avarice, sloth, or any of the other vices.”[2]

The author takes the time to delineate the difference between guilt and shame: “guilt is aroused by the transgression of boundaries set by the conscience and is accompanied by fear of reprisal, shame occurs when an idealized goal is not reached and carries with it the threat of abandonment. The experience of shame, therefore, is relative to what one is, to one’s plan of life, to what one aspires to do, and to those persons with whom one aspires to associate.” He adds: “Relief from shame will be sought by any kind of good work that will restore confidence in the excellence of one’s person, or in other words, purify one by returning him to that mode of being...most in keeping with the paramount ideal of the culture to which he belongs.”

Transgressions which gave rise to a sense of sin and guilt might also have generated a sense of shame, in that the soldier might have been mortified and disgraced by his sinful deeds.” Yet a soldier might experience shame but not experience guilt. One might have engaged in a just cause, but still feel shame due to his act against the sanctity of life and the Christian call to love one’s enemy. There is evidence to suggest that many a warrior had “frequent misgivings about the killing he was doing on the battlefield.” Some “retired from fighting…perhaps motivated…to some extent by feelings of shame over the killing they had done in battle.” Those who fasted or gave alms “may very well have been trying to prove to themselves, and to their Christian fellows…their continued capacity to do good.”

With the crusades “came the concept of war that was spiritually beneficial to those” involved. In modern times there have been those who, as in the past, have taken delight in war and its spoils, but there are far more warriors who “feel guilty and ashamed of the killing” and other acts of atrocities they have done during combat. Sometimes the guilt is brought on because of “doubts about one’s worthiness to survive when others did not.” It is commonly called “survivor’s guilt”. Many soldiers believe that even if it is necessary to kill they still believe it is wrong to kill a fellow human being, no matter how noble the cause of the war. This has shattered many a soldier’s ideals, leaving him “disillusioned, disoriented, empty, and aimless, no longer capable of sustaining the will to achieve any goal, least of all a lasting relationship of love….they feel bitter, desolate, polluted and defeated—all symptoms of what is meant by the feeling of shame.” Regrettably, the moral feelings of current returning soldiers have by and large not been taken seriously.

Verkamp argues that due to “the triumph of the therapeutic modern society has found it difficult to deal with the returning soldier’s pangs of conscience. Some of the material is reminiscent of Dave Grossman’s book On Killing that details how soldiers are trained to kill and come to consider it just a part of the job.[3] Many of the soldiers who have negative feelings are encouraged to forget about it, and those who do not or cannot are diagnosed as sick with “shell shock” “battle exhaustion” and post-traumatic stress disorder” and psychiatric care is utilized to cure them of their guilt and shame, besides their anxiety, grief, irritability, depression, withdrawal, insomnia, nightmares, and startle reaction. This approach tended to ignore the “profound moral pain” and reduce all symptoms to stress or as neurosis. Those who express feelings of guilt or disturbances of conscience are told that such feelings are inappropriate.

Even religious leaders may attempt to smooth over the concerns with assurances that God is on our side and the war was just. The author points out that returning soldiers “might have very good reason to feel guilt or shame, or at least a sense of regret and tragedy, depending upon how they judge the deeds they have done over against one or another set of religious or secularist principles.”

It would seem that even if war is necessary it is still a tragic event, and the effects of war should elicit at least regret, if not remorse and sorrow. From the example of the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima and Nagasaki those who ordered the bombing ought to at least feel ashamed of the deed if not guilty.[4]

Verkamp calls for us to go beyond a therapeutic approach by stating “soldiers returning from modern warfare might stand to gain considerably from the kind of examination of conscience,” namely a “moral evaluation of the soldiers’ past deeds on and off the battlefield.” This has to be a lot more than just swapping “war stories” which is often a way of avoiding painful memories or personal feelings connected to the experience of war. This must “’involve a deeper probing’ than psychotherapy is capable of by challenging the returning soldier to objectively “evaluate” their personal actions with reference to “the dictates of the just-war theory” and assess the consequences of their behavior in relationship to others.

The secular and religious benefits of such an examination of conscience might reveal that “’deeply held convictions’ have indeed been personally violated, with terribly ‘real and permanent’ consequences, like the death or maiming of innocent noncombatants, or the destruction of whole villages” and he may identify himself with a military force that was “mechanically ruthless” and share in its heedless “dedication to violence.”

Verkamp suggests, with other scholars, that the returning soldier might benefit from the penitential practice of contritio cordis; such heartfelt contrition is not a self-loathing or self-flagellation, but rather compunction of heart “meant to be an expression of regret over the pain that one’s deeds have caused others.” If a soldier recognizes that his behavior or complicity in war has caused unnecessary loss of life and wanton destruction, then would he not weep with grief?

And soldiers who examine their consciences and humble themselves in contrition can turn from death to “live in the future that makes sense of the past” by paying their debt to the dead by bearing life and peace to the living. They may then profit from confession, if by that it is understood that confession is “a plea for forgiveness from others—from God, but also from one’s fellow human beings” in that they have an obligation to seek forgiveness from those offended.

Keeping with the medieval structure of the rite of penance, absolution would then follow confession. But what could that mean in a secular world? “The absolution conferred…was understood to be in the name of all the members of the corpus Christianum, both living and dead, including those who had been wronged.” As such, the four-step process of penance allowed for “reintegration or reconciliation of the penitents with the rest of mankind,” especially their seeking forgiveness from those against whom they have offended and with whom they want to be at peace.”

The fruit of penance is restitution, an expression of resignation whereby penitents “begin to repair some of the negative consequences of sin to themselves, their fellow human beings, and the world at large. Understood in such wise, the performance of penances by returning soldiers might still make some sense if by such acts they can give something back to the world against which they have sinned” and that the absolution “in the final analysis be a process of reconciliation.”

Though the author is not calling for a return to a twelfth century socio-political framework, he is urging our secular culture to revisit certain features of the religious ritual of penance. Certainly an alternative approach accommodating modern advances in psychiatric care could accommodate the age old ritual of penance.

Through their guilt and shame the returning warriors can be reincorporated into the body of the human community. The only questions: will the soldiers recognize their moral pangs of guilt or shame? And if so, will the community take their moral pain serious?

Verkamp states in his introduction, “I very much have in mind to say something about our present situation.” Indeed he does. In our pluralistic culture secularists and religionists alike have much to glean from this well-conceived treatise on the abandoned practice of the imposition of penance upon the returning warrior, especially when one begins to enumerate the implications it holds for our own time and the current unstable state of world affairs.

[1] Henri De Lubac reminds us in his Méditation sur l’Eglise that “it would be a big mistake for us to think that we could ever rediscover the [faith of the] past in its exact tenor and all its richness, at the expense of all that has been clarified since” nor can we “run away whenever we feel like it into another age – not even if we don’t actually intend a negative attitude in doing so…for time cannot be reversed; even error and revolt, however complete their overthrow, impose a new lifestyle…” Prophetically he declared: “we must also remember that we are a long way off from having either fully listed or completely explored the wealth [of theology] laid down for us throughout the past” for nothing should put “an end to discussion and reflection alike” or discourage “the raising of new questions” (The Splendor of the Church, pp 20-21, 27, Henri De Lubac, Ignatius Press, San Francisco: 1986).

[2] According to a 2004 study conducted by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 2004), 1 in 8 soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan experience anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic syndrome. Providing counseling to servicemen and service women should be utilized to help soldiers readjust to civilian life, yet an obstacle for many soldiers receiving care has been the stigma of shame that they fear in admitting they are troubled by their war actions. Unfortunately this reflects the popular sentiment that seeking mental health services is only for the “mentally ill.”

[3] Human beings are innately reluctant to take human life and the military techniques developed to overcome that aversion are examined in his book. “We are reaching that stage of desensitization at which the infliction of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment: vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. We are learning to kill, and we are learning to like it,” Grossman writes.
[4] Nearly 700,000 Iraqi civilians have died since combat operations began in March 2003. It is estimated that 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, and 1.6 million have been displaced internally, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.

The Catholicity of Johnny Cash

2008-09-06T08:22:00.001-07:00

The Catholicity of Johnny Cash

Here these days one cannot escape Christian music. It’s everywhere. I’m talking about the sweetly syrupy sappy lyrics that focus on “me and Jesus” and remind us that once saved you’re free, the struggle’s over, the rapture’s at hand, and thank God I’m no longer enslaved to tradition, religion, ritual – especially the long dark arm of Catholicism.
I’m sure I am doing many Christian artists an injustice, but so much of the music has no connection to daily life whatsoever. Listening to some of the songs, one imagines a separate ethereal world where charity and love prevail while the rest of sinful humanity is just waiting to be left behind in a world completely devoid of grace or glory.
In 2003 at the death of Johnny Cash, there was much ado about his musical career. Later I saw the film Walk The Line in early 2006 and that summer our family traveled to Tennessee and North Carolina. In the process I immersed myself in the music of Johnny Cash. I was no stranger to Cash for both my grandfather and dad usually had radios set to the local country station, so there was a certain romanticism associated with the songs. In the process I sought to listen to every recording Johnny Cash ever made. I prefer classical music, Gregorian chant, and Rock and Roll, yet there is something to a lot of the traditional country music and their ballads.
The reason I feel compelled to write this article is due to the effect of listening to his music. I dare say Johnny Cash was a Catholic – even if a lower case catholic. Allow me to explain. One of my favorite songs, found on his album Personal File released posthumously, is “No earthly good.” The song begins:

“Don’t brag about standing or you’ll surely fall …
you’re shining your light, and shine it you should,
but you’re so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good.

If you’re holding heaven, then spread it around.
There’s hungry hands reaching up here from the ground.
Move over and share the high ground where you stood…
so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good.

The gospel ain’t gospel until it is spread
but how can you share it where you got your head?
There’s hands that reach out for a hand if you would…”

What an indictment against some Christians’ ministry which is solely focused upon getting people saved so they can keep a running tally of the number of salvations as they eagerly await the rapture and the destruction of the world.
Another song with a similar theme worth mentioning is “A Half a Mile a Day.” It is written from the perspective of a man who visits a church one evening where several members are witnessing to their salvation. One man reports,

“I’m going to heaven as fast as I can go
like an arrow from a bow.”
Another says,
“I’m sailing into heaven…on a sea of blue,”
Yet another announces,
“I’m flying into the portals of heaven on silver wings!
Sailing over all the troubles and trials down below straight on in.”

Obviously Johnny did not subscribe to this point of view because the last person to stand is a little old lady who claims that she’s making it to heaven about a half a mile a day. The woman admits the difficulties, her stumbling, the way to heaven is not rapid transit. Instead she says

“I believe that if I’ll heed the things he had to say
even I might get to heaven at a half a mile a day.”

No talk of rapture here. She’s too busy living the kingdom. She continues,

“Lord, when I let you lead, I don’t make any speed
because I have to stop and touch the ones who need so much
and then sometimes others pull me off of your narrow way,
and by my mistakes I barely make a half a mile a day.”

Powerful imagery of a Christian concerned for justice and peace.

A poignant scene from Walk the Line involved Johnny’s recording agent and the officials from the record company. The men are concerned that Johnny’s audience – which was, according to the men, predominantly good Christians – would be scandalized by his recording of an album from Folsom Prison. Johnny replied, “Well, then, maybe they’re not really Christian.” Whether or not he actually said it, I do not know, but it would seem to represent his feelings and beliefs for the lost and forsaken of this world.
His signature song Man in Black embodies his credo.

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down.
Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town…
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
but is there because he’s the victim of the times….

“Well were doing mighty fine, I do suppose
in our streak of lighting cars and fancy clothes,
but just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
up front there ought to be a man in black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old.
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold.
I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could’ve been
each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And I wear it for the thousands who have died believing that the Lord was on their side.
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
believing that we all were on their side….”

In “Life is Like a Mountain Railway” he sings,

“Life is like a mountain railway
with an engineer that’s brave.
We must make the run successful
from the cradle to the grave;
heed the curves and watch the tunnels,
never falter, never fail.
Keep your hand upon the throttle
and your hand upon the rail.”

The earthiness of his songs are sacramental encounters with a God who is not far away or just waiting in the wings waiting to swoop down and take the “raptured elect” while the rest of us sorry suckers are left behind to suffer the chaos of tribulation.
In his popular song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” a man awakens after an all night drunk. On his walk home he sings,

“In the park I saw a daddy with a laughing little girl that he was swinging
and I stopped beside a Sunday school and listened to the songs they were singing…

then I headed down the street and somewhere far away
a lonely bell was ringing
and it echoed through the canyons of my disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk I’m wishing Lord that I was stoned
‘cause there’s something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothing short of dying that’s half as lonesome as the sound
of the sleeping city sidewalk and Sunday morning comin’ down.”

The song “What on earth will you do for heaven’s sake?” Johnny asks,

“Did you turn a frown with a smile?
Did you lift a lowly heart about to break?
Would you also give your cloak
to one who took away your coat?
What on earth will you do for heaven’s sake?

Did you feed the poor in spirit and befriend the prosecuted?
Will you show the bound that all the chains can break?
Will you be one of the meek,
did you turn the other cheek,
would you give a little more than you would take?
Did you shine your little light upon the children of the night?
What on earth will you do for heaven sake?”

There are many songs with these themes, but of particular interest to Cash seemed to be the plight of the imprisoned. In “Give My Love To Rose” a man recently released from a San Francisco prison is found lying nearly dead along the railroad tracks. The former prisoner asks the passerby to give his love to his wife Rose and his son. I find the version from his American IV: The Man Comes Around album. His voice had aged and the way he sings the song has so much more feeling than from his earlier crooner days.
Other songs such as “Another man done gone”; “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang”; “I Hung My Head”; “I Got Stripes:’ “Busted”; “Don’t Take Your Guns To Town”; “Sam Hall”; “25 Minutes To Go”; Joe Bean; and “Greystone Chapel” all deal with men in prison or men awaiting their execution.
In his American III: Solitary Man he includes the song “Mercy Seat”. The song is about a death row inmate pondering his fate on the very day of his execution. The man claims,
“Well it all began when they took me from my home
and put me on death row –
a crime for which I’m totally innocent, you know.”

The man rambles on and on as his contorted conscience begins to get the best of him.
“…in a way I’m yearning to be done
with all of this weighing of the truth,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway I told the truth
and I’m not afraid to die.

“I hear stories from the chamber.
Christ was born into a manger
and like some ragged stranger
he died upon the cross,
might I say it seems so fitting in its way
he was a carpenter by trade,

or at least that’s what I’m told...
In heaven his throne is made of gold
The ark of his testament is stowed a throne of which I’m told
all history does unfold…

“It’s made of wood and wire
and my body is on fire
and God is never far away….

into the mercy seat I climb,
my head is shaved my head is wired
and like the moth that tries to enter the bright light,
I go shuffling out of life
just to hide in death awhile
and anyway I never lied.
And the mercy seat is waiting
and I think my head is burning…

“And the mercy seat is burning
and I think my head is glowing,
and in a way I’m hoping to be done
with all of this twisting of the truth,
an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway there was no proof,
and I’m not afraid to die.

“And the mercy seat is glowing,
and I think my head is smoking,
and in a way I’m a hoping to be done
with all these looks of disbelief,
a life for a life and a truth for a truth,
and I’ve got nothing left to lose
and I’m not afraid to die.

“And the mercy seat is smoking
and I think my head is melting,
and in a way that’s helping
to be done with all this twisting
of the truth, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth,
and anyway I told the truth but I’m afraid I told a lie.”

Regardless of where one stands on the issue of capital punishment, the song truly rouses the listener’s conscience.
The song “The Green, Green Grass of Home,” affirms the goodness of creation and the human longing for home, as told through the eyes of a condemned man within his cell.
Johnny Cash’s music is rooted in the good earth and embodies an Incarnational theology that echoes John’s gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
Cash even sang the popular tune Paradise.

“Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muehlenberg County,
down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
‘I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in asking.
Mr. Peabody’s coal train done hauled it away.”
“The coal company came with the world’s largest shovel,
stripped all the timber and tortured the land.
They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken,
wrote it all down to the progress of Man.”

Such lyrics certainly evince an attitude of reverence for the earth and natural resources, especially the tongue in cheek reference to “the progress of man” and the overt adjective of torture.
A.P. Carter’s song “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life,” encourages us that good will conquer evil. There is no need for despair or hopelessness. The paschal mystery of Christ promises life, hope, and goodness. The words continue:

“Though we meet with the darkness and strife,
the sunny side we may also view.
Let us greet with a song of hope each day,
though the moments be cloudy or fair,
let us trust that our savior always
will keep us everyone in his care.”

“Oh, the storm in its fury broke today,
crushing hopes that I cherish so dear,
storms and clouds will in time pass away
and the sun again will shine bright and clear.”

We hear a man singing about a God who loves all of his creation, as charged with his grandeur. But this is no Pollyanna approach to life, neither is it an escapist theology based upon the preaching of prosperity and a promise of rapture when the going gets tough.

Cash’s music is pious-free and Catholic friendly. Even two of his last songs, “The Man Comes Around” – which seems to be influenced by all the talk of rapture – and the traditional “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” both deserve to be listened to for within them contain ageless truths.
Johnny admits in the liner notes that the song The Man Comes Around was a difficult song and it took him a long time to write; it is about Christ’s Second Coming. In one line he asks,

“Will you partake of that last offered cup
or disappear into the potter’s ground,
when the Man comes around?”

In this I hear a Eucharistic theme – intended or not. In the Book of Revelation Jesus speaks:
“I stand at your door and knock. If you open the door I will come in and sup with him and him with me.”
In John’s Gospel Jesus says,
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst…Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (Jn 6:35, 53-55, italics mine).
Christ is with us, and throughout Johnny Cash’s career his songs challenged the status quo and called us to see the worth of every human being, even the men in prison, the men on death row, those killed on both sides of war or the tragic end of the native American Ira Hayes (one of the marines who lifted the flag at Iwo Jima).
“God’s gonna cut you down” may seem harsh to Catholic ears, but the truth is that one day we will all die and render an account to God for the gift of our life. As Saint Benedict wrote; Keep death ever before you.

“You can run on for a long time…
sooner of later God’ll cut you down.

Go tell that long-tongue liar,
go and tell that midnight rider,
the rambler, the gambler,
the back-biter,
tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down.”

Is this not the hound of heaven? It is written in Ezekiel 33 that if we fail to call the sinner to repentance we will be held accountable for his sinfulness. As the song says, “What is done in the dark will be brought to the light…” We are our brother and sister’s keepers. We must foster the common good and pursue peace through justice.
I would have liked for Johnny Cash to have sung a few traditional Catholic hymns before his death, but, alas, we will have to be content knowing that he is now singing them in heaven. Imagine Johnny singing “Whatsoever you do,” “We are the light of the World,” Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” or “I Am the Bread of Life.”

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do to unto me.”

The hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, weary, anxious, imprisoned, soldiers, war veterans, orphaned, abandoned, aged, insulted, and lonely took heart in Johnny’s songs. It was to the poor in spirit, the meek and humble, those mourning in sorrow, those hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted that Johnny sang for. Sowing love in place of hatred, preaching pardon and peace in the face of injury and war, hope and joy in place of despair and sadness, and self-giving and faith rather than selfishness or doubt were his messages. And he took all of these themes from the gospel message.
Hence the catholicity of Johnny Cash’s music comes through in the sense of God’s sacramental presence in the world around us, the commitment to both faith and human reason, an emphasis upon the communal aspect of our baptismal call and a love for the saints – and sinners.
May we all keep on the sunny side of life, greeting each and every day with a song of hope, knowing that through the storms of life Christ is with us. And when Christ comes to raise our mortal bodies, may we awaken in the sweet by and by of the peaceful valley of paradise, meeting on that beautiful shore of the banks of Jordan our loved ones and the communion of saints with whom we have journeyed unaware.