The Ying-Yang of Happiness

One of my Chinese business colleagues was in town for a visit this weekend. She was out to dinner last night at one of Knoxville's most authentic Chinese restaurants with another workmate, and relayed this story to me.

Apparently, it was the birthday of one of the waiters, who was perhaps a University of Tennessee student. The manager brought him a big bowl of noodles - a Chinese custom, because noodles are very long, which symbolizes a long life.

The young man said he didn't want it because he didn't want to live a long life.

So the manager then said he would bring out the birthday cake. The young man then said he didn't like birthday cake.

Talk about the arrogance, cowardliness - though ultimately, ignorance - of today's lost & self-serving youth!

I mean, who doesn't like birthday cake!

A word on "Active Participation" by St. Pius X...

"The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the Sacrifice, dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the Altar. If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with your eye, heart and mouth all that happens at the Altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens on the Altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass."

In the Beginning by Joseph Ratzinger, Homily 1, Part II

However, because God is the true author of the Scriptures, we can understand the spiritual meanings of them when we read them in the light of Christ, who is their true object, as the human authors of the New Testament well understood. Thus, St. John’s 1st Letter & his Gospel open with words that mirror the first verses of Genesis. We now see that Scripture is not closed in on itself, because God’s revelation of himself in Christ, & his people’s understanding of it & their reflecting it in their writings, unfolds throughout history. So we must not read the Genesis test complete by itself & purely within itself – we must look toward its end, which is Christ. Ratzinger says, “Christ frees us from the slavery of the letter, & precisely thus does he give back to us, renewed, the truth of the images (p.16).”

Only recently was this dynamic forgotten, that all Scripture is a living unity. Scholars seemed far more interested in researching Scripture like a puzzle to solve with an eye toward “explaining” it rather than understanding it with a view toward Christ. Ratzinger says that they became obsessed with the “particulars, but meanwhile it forgot the Bible as a whole. [They] no longer read the texts forward but backward – that is, with a view not to Christ but to the probably origins of the text…(p.17).” Thus began the altogether unnecessary - & ultimately false - enmity between faith & science.

In conclusion of his first homily, Ratzinger argues that faith in creation as a gift of God is reasonable, in fact, the better hypothesis. The very reasonableness of the universe confirms the God who is Reason, Truth, & Love. In God’s freedom as Creator, creation itself becomes a gift for man, a sharing with him of God’s own freedom, reason, & love. In responding to this gift in faith, man is able to call upon God in prayer.

Church attack in Baghdad

Please read this aticle on the attack on the Syriac Catholic cathedral of Baghdad & pray for the souls of the dead, comfort for their families, & healing for the wounded. Pray for Christ's peace to rest upon both the victims & the attackers.

You may also want to pray for the intercession of some of the martyr-saints that surely comprised this congregation for the conversion of hearts to Christ & peace in the region.

Here is a comment on the tragedy from Pope Benedict.

Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.
...
P.S.: Various updates & links to other sources can be found at New Advent.

In The Beginning by Joseph Ratzinger, Homily 1, Part 1

About 30 years ago now, the future Pope Benedict XVI wrote a very important book, a collection of 4 homilies given in Our Lady's Church in Munich, Germany on the meanings of the opening chapters of Genesis in light of the discoveries of science, & how we can reclaim our own Christian heritage in these words.

It is one of those books where, when you wish to highlight the important passages, you end up highlighting nearly every line. What follows is a kind of "book report," where I try bring out some of the key points. I have broken the 1st homily into 2 pieces.

This short book, authored by one of the world's great Scripture scholars, is not only profound exegetical search into the truths that God has inspired in the Genesis story, but also a great model of Catholic Scripture scholarship. It is a must read.


Homily 1, Part I

“In the beginning…” These opening words of the Scriptures are beautiful & profound, stirring in our hearts an awe of the mystery of creation & its Creator. Yet modern man has largely dismissed these words of Scripture as a myth or perhaps a fairy tale. Recent catechesis, too, has largely ignored or side-stepped the Church’s teaching of creation, overwhelmed & silenced by the alternative creation story proposed by modern science. The question arises: If we cannot accept the truth of the Scriptures regarding creation, then perhaps we cannot trust them regarding other articles of faith, even perhaps the Resurrection. Further, if Catholics disbelieve their own Scriptures, how can we expect others to be convinced of the Faith?

While Ratzinger affirms the Church's position that the message of the creation narrative is primarily a religious one not intended to give a scientific account of how the universe arose – a message that God created all that is out of His love for man, freeing him from the gods, demons, & other hostile powers that ruled ancient belief so that he may know & live toward God - he also says that is not enough; we must rediscover the truths in the text itself if we are to affirm our belief in creation &, further, the other articles of our Faith.

Following Dei Verbum, Ratzinger sees the unity of Scripture from beginning to end as the interpretive key. First, we must see that there are many other Old Testament texts that speak of creation: Job 38-39, Psalm 104, Isaiah 40, etc. Even chapter 2 of Genesis gives an alternative account of creation. Scholars now recognize that Chapter 1 of Genesis was not written first; in fact, it may have been written as late as the return from Exile in Babylon in 528 B.C. Understanding who wrote the creation account, when they wrote it, & under what circumstances helps us to grasp the literal meaning of the passage, that is, what the human author intended.

The Jews had lost their land, the people enslaved, & the Temple destroyed – all signs of the covenant between God & his people. God used these desperate circumstances of the Jews to begin a new revelation. The Jews in captivity would have witnessed the celebration of the Babylonian New Year, which recalled the victory of the god of light Marduk over the dragon of chaos Tiamat. Marduk would go on to build the cosmos of the dragon’s body & build man from the dragon’s blood. The Jewish scribes would reject this false, sinister picture of the nature of man & the universe & reaffirm in the Genesis text the origin of man & the cosmos in God’s acts of loving Reason. From here, God could reveal to the Jews something new: He was not just the God of the Hebrews, but of every people & nation.

Confucius says...

"I have no hopes of meeting a sage. I would be content if I met someone who is a gentleman.

I have no hopes of meeting a good man. I would be content if I met someone who has constancy.

It is hard for a man to have constancy who claims to have when he is wanting, to be full when he is empty and to be comfortable when he is in straitened circumstances."

- Book VII, 26.

And now a few words on "Active Participation"

"In order to join in Holy Communion rightly, you must give heed to several things:

In the beginning, and before the priest goes up to the Altar, make your preparation with his - placing yourself in God's Presence, confessing your unworthiness, and asking for forgiveness;

Until the Gospel, dwell upon the Coming and the Life of our Lord in this world;

From the Gospel to the end of the Creed, dwell upon our Dear Lord's teaching, and renew your resolution to live and die in the faith of the Holy Catholic Church;

From thence, fix you heart on the mysteries of the Word, and unite yourself to the Death and Passion of our Redeemer, now actually and essentially set forth in this Holy Sacrifice, which, together with the Priest and all the congregation, you offer to God the Father, to His Glory and your own salvation;

Up to the moment of communicating, offer all the longings and desires of your heart, above all desiring most earnestly to be united forever to our Saviour by His Eternal Love;

From the time of Communion to the end, thank His Gracious Majesty for His Incarnation, His Life, Death, Passion, and the Love which He set forth in this Holy Sacrifice, entreating through it His favor for yourself, your relations and friends, and the whole Church; and humbling yourself sincerely, devoutly receive the blessing which our Dear Lord give you through the channel of His Minister."

- St. Fracis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Ch. XIV, 5.