Short Thoughts on 2011

Into Great Silence

I spent New Year’s Eve watching the documentary about the Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery while fireworks boomed off in the distance. It was wonderful. Other than singing the chants of the liturgy, the monks are only allowed to talk during the occasional outdoor recreation. They were discussing a hand washing routine, and some were questioning whether it was of any use. After some debate, one monk said that their entire way of life was a symbol; if there seemed to be a problem, they should examine themselves, not the symbols. Prayer is the pathway to God, and noise & distraction obscure the path. Silence is not a lack of noise, but rather something positive, an unlimited potential that connects us directly to God. Noise is not a possibility at all, but a limitation to something constricting & useless; it is the deprivation of silence. I want more silence in my life. Maybe this will become a tradition.


Monks with Brooms

Those cats were Kung Fu fighting. Not really fast as lightning, though. I’m surprised the whole place wasn’t struck by divine wrath & burnt to the ground. I don’t know anything about the relationship between the Armenians & the Greeks, but I don’t have to. This sort of thing should be impossible for anyone calling themselves a disciple of Jesus Christ. Msgr. Charles Pope has a good discussion of this & his personal experiences with the Greeks at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem here. In my discussions with non-believers, I find that the worldly, sinful, & scandalous behavior of Christians is at or near the top of the list of reasons they give for not believing. The hatred that was and continues to be promulgated at the Church of the Nativity was not of God.

Kim Kardashian’s Not-a-Wedding

Just another log on the funeral pyre of marriage as instituted by God and upheld by natural law, at least in the West. If a validly-contracted marriage between one man & one woman isn’t permanent & exclusive, there’s no need to bother with it at all, other than as a facade for whatever personal meanings people wish to fill its empty husk. Unfortunately, this is not a “you-do-what-you-want-&-I’ll-do-what-I-want” sort of thing: marriage & the family are the building blocks of society. As marriage goes, society goes. Is going? Gone? Maybe not completely just yet. We often forget the carnage done to families & the individual souls that are at stake. The Church has the burden to remind humanity the forgotten truths of the marriage vow, despite individual Catholics’ own complicity in this crime of humanity. I feel a terrible burden to teaching these hard truths to my 6th grade kids; I know that failed marriages & fatherless families are already a part of their lives. I wish they could see how evil & destructive all of this is & that they would be the generation to finally stand & say, “Not us!”

Pro life Victories

Somehow, despite the utter moral failing of America (see above), there seems to be an increase in the understanding that babies in the womb are still babies, therefore deserving of love & care due any child. I think science has helped us here – images of children in the womb show them as little persons with fingers & toes, not the “blobs of tissue” that we’ve been told they were for so long by the abortion establishment. Did you know a baby’s heart begin beating after just 21 days or so? That’s incredible! I think most of us would say something with a beating heart of its own was a living being. And most intelligent people would note that this being is not a developing toaster, or an ostrich, or a Tonka truck, but a human being. The science speaks for itself; the abortion community has itself conceded this point, & shifted the argument to that the rights of the mother to be unencumbered as mothers trump those of their unborn children.

There have been a great number of pro-life victories around the country in state legislatures this past year: implementing high(er) information & medical standards on facilities, closing down those that don’t comply, & even prosecuting negligent & abusive abortionists (what a statement!). This is wonderful, because it isn’t just an elite few that have forced its view on the masses - which is how the permissive laws were enacted originally - but a real grassroots movement of ordinary people who believe that babies are good & it isn’t right to kill them; nor is there a dreamed-up right to kill them. Be aware, though, that there is already a rising tide of back lash amongst the “reproductive rights” brigade, and we are in for a lengthy legal & cultural battle which will demand our stamina & resources. These groups are viciously determined & have deep pockets. We already see this with the health insurance mandates that seem purpose designed to stab at the heart of Catholic institutions. We also need to be on the lookout for flank attacks by some wacky strains of environmentalist for whom humans are as lice on the beautiful head of mother earth – the fewer the better. But the good news is that every human being by the fact of being alive themselves innately knows the value of human life, and this, ultimately, will win the day. Unlike “reproductive rights,” the right to live is not granted or repealed by presidents, legislators, courts, or public opinion, but by God.

Wishing all a blessed 2012!

The 7 Pillars of Catholic Spirituality by Matthew Kelley: Fasting

No.5: Fasting

Everyone’s on a diet, but no one wants to fast. 

I sometimes wonder about the judgment on a nation that wastes so much food & spends so much money on diets, cosmetic surgery, tanning beds, Hummers, & other vanities while western society implodes from lack of Faith & the world’s destitute quietly starve to death.  Let’s look at a few things from which we should consider fasting, shall we?

Vanity & Self-indulgence.  Tertullian upbraided the women of his day for dying their hair, trying to look younger than they were, as if they would remain young forever (though he also screeched that their blue gowns were from the devil, unnatural as they were, because God had never made a blue sheep).  I’m pretty vain myself, especially now that I’m old(er) & something new isn’t working right nearly every day I wake up.  I’m not sure St. Francis worried too much about hair loss or maintaining his manly physique.  As far as self-indulgence, well, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself according to your station in life.  Keep in mind that a Lexus is just a nice Toyota + another $20,000 dollars.  What good could be done with $20,000?  Let’s consider how we could redirect the gifts we’ve been given to more positive ends.

Gossip & Scandal.  We all need to fast from about 97% of the $#!t on TV.  If you really are keeping up with the Kardashians, well, that’s just pathetic.  I know a lot of people that walk into a room & immediately turn on the TV; not to watch anything in particular, but just to have background noise & distraction.  Now, television has amazing potential for good.  I mean, Abp. Sheen was a TV star!  Also, think all the good stuff EWTN has put forth.  Aside from these rare exceptions, it’s almost sickening how fast & far most TV programming has sunk.  I read a Psalm commentary from St. Augustine recently where he mentions curiosity as a dangerous path.  I think he means our disordered fascination with evil.  We become the things with which we fill ourselves, so if you don’t want that stuff to become a part of you, then turn it off.  It really is in our power to do so - I know that’s a radical notion, but it’s true.  Also, we must be careful to avoid spreading gossip, making detractions, or giving ear to either in our own interactions with others.

Food.  Regard the proper object of fasting, we ought, on occasion, to greatly reduce our intake or forego it all together, either to meet the requirements of the Church or as a free offering.  Fasting is praying with our whole being, body & soul.  It humbles us & puts us in touch with those who do without food from necessity rather than choice.  Of what we do eat, we should make healthy choices & proceed moderately.  Our bodies are a gift from God to be used for our own good, our neighbors benefit, & God’s glory.  I admit that I’m not very good at either fasting or eating healthy myself, but I do know that a little bodily mortification goes a long ways.  It frees us up from focusing on ourselves & fosters the discipline to make our bodies a living sacrifice for God in charitable service to others.  

But aside from these, there’s a whole litany of things to fast from.  Think about the things we continuously indulge in that spring from & feed the seven deadly sins: pride, anger, envy, lust, covetousness, gluttony, sloth.  If you dare, take an inventory of your life & note things that consume your time, your energy, or your money.  Honestly assess whether these things are more about indulging yourself or building up the kingdom of God.  Be prepared to make corrections.  That’s called conversion.

Fasting always sounds like a downer, but it’s actually a pathway to God through union with the poor man of Nazareth, who was born in a barn & had nowhere to rest his head.  I’ve been told that the abstinence aspect of fasting in the Eastern Christian tradition is about a return to man’s original state of grace, when our first parents were given to eat of all the fruits of the trees in the garden.  Jesus said prayer, fasting, & almsgiving would be the way of his disciples.  Sounds like a good enough reason to give it a go. 

Maybe we could all start by offering up a breakfast once a week or giving up meat on Fridays again.  How about turning off the idiot box for a while - or forever.  Whatever it is, figure it out, & fast!

The 7 Pillars of Catholic Spirituality by Matthew Kelley: The Scriptures

No.4: The Scriptures – There are 27 books of the New Testament & 46 books of the Old Testament.  This is the story of God revealing himself to his chosen people, to whom you belong through your baptism.  You need to know this story, because it is your story.  Mr. West is right that the readings from Mass are not enough – you have to do your homework away from Mass to get much out of the readings during Mass.  His first suggestion is good: start by reading the Gospels over & over (I recommend Mark or Matthew first, save John for last!), because you do need to “work out who Jesus was.” But I would say next read Genesis & Exodus, because you need to know the set up of the story to understand the ending.  From there you will be well enough equipped to go where you like. 

You will need to know about Abraham & the patriarchs, because this is God’s first calling together of a people in whom all the nations of earth will be blessed.  You need to know about Moses & the events of the Exodus.  You need to know the stories of King David because Jesus is his promised heir.  You need to know the prophecies & events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem & the Jews’ exile in Babylon, because from this destruction & restoration, God would promise to achieve a definite victory & restoration.  You need to know the stories of the apostles & the early Church, because the Church is the New Jerusalem, the promised kingdom of God on earth.  Pray the Psalms continuously throughout.  Memorize Psalm 1.  The Scriptures are powerful, even God’s word to man, so be very familiar with them, at least in their major parts & themes. 

But you don’t have to go it alone. I would say that going it alone is a sure way to end in error.  The Church gave the world the Scriptures (yes, it inherited the Jewish Scriptures), & through its living memory of Jesus Christ, it is authorized to interpret them correctly.  So you have a trustworthy guide.  The Church has given us a great number of tools to understand the Scriptures; these are found in the Vatican II Constitution Dei Verbum (The Word of God), as well as in the Catechism (esp. paragraphs 50-141).  Armed with these tools, humility, & prayer,  Christians can connect to their living history in a profound way & can grow in unity with Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh, who speaks to his people anew in every age through the proclamation of his word.

The 7 Pillars of Catholic Spirituality by Matthew Kelly: The Mass

No.3: The Mass – I agree with Mr. West that the liturgy is the primary Catholic experience of God & of the Body of Christ. I agree that the vast number of Catholics do not get much out of the liturgy (i.e., “it’s boring”), because they come ignorant, ill-prepared, & with the wrong expectations of what’s wrong with the liturgy is in our heads & hearts. However, it is not true that every expression of the liturgy we encounter is a true one. The Church is not silent on the matter. While she permits a great many options, she has pastorally taught for decades what is the proper way to celebrate Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Why? Because when properly celebrated, the dignity, beauty, & solemnity of the Roman Rite is compelling to people & facilitates the necessary spiritual dispositions for an encounter with the mystery of God.

Fathers, if you are in the habit of opening Mass with, “Hi! How is everybody doing today?” or even “Good Morning” instead of, “In nomine Patris...”, er, “In the name of…” then you are not fulfilling your responsibility to lead your people in worship of God, to raise their hearts & minds up to the heavenly. In mixing the sacred with the profane, you are sending mixed signals to your flock & sowing confusion. I can’t imagine a pastor that is worried that his parishioners show up for Mass too early, that church decorum is observed too well, that people are too attentive to the readings, that their devotion to Christ in the Eucharist is too great. Isn’t it rather the casualness & profane-ity of the masses at Mass & the resulting lack of receptivity that grieves our pastors? The “world” doesn’t take God, his Christ, or the Mass seriously at all. Don’t let it have a voice in the sacred liturgy by lending it yours. Do the Red, Say the Black, & everything will be fine.

As for the people, this is simple: dress appropriately, observe the fast, arrive on time, pay attention, follow along with what’s being said, read, sung, chanted, & prayed, give your share to the collection basket, & receive the Eucharist reverently if you possess the necessary dispositions to do so. You are in the presence of God: you are in the Upper Room, you are in the garden, you are at the trial, you are at the foot of the cross, you are at the empty tomb. You should take this seriously, because the liturgy speaks of the ultimate things of what it means to be a human being. Beware of shallow notions of “full, conscience, & active participation.” Your actuosa participatio should be primarily interior. To paraphrase St. Pope Pius X, when you carefully follow the actions on the altar & join your prayers to those of the priest, then you have prayed holy Mass.

Mr. West’s idea of being open to the one thing God is trying to say to you is a good one, whether you write it down or not. Even when it’s obscured by clumsy human action, the presence of Christ Jesus subsists in every part & action of the Mass. It is he as the Head joined to his Body that offers worship to God the Father. This is why you have to actually come to Mass & not just stay home & say prayers by yourself. We are called to physical unity as the assembled Body of Christ, just as we are called to physical union with Christ individually in the Eucharist (which you have to be present at Mass to receive). Of course, Christ’s presence in the Eucharist is quite special, but he is also really present in the proclaiming of the Scriptures, especially the Gospel, where Jesus addresses us anew in his own words, calling us to further conversion & showing us the way to Kingdom of God.

If you don’t get much out of Mass, maybe that’s because we’re not primarily there to receive anything. We are there first because God is God, & thus worthy of worship. Everything else flows from the sheer magnanimous generosity of God. If you leave Mass & go back to your normal life without a shadow of change, the problem isn’t with God or religion or the Mass, it’s with you. You have put an obstacle in the path of the Holy Spirit, which is how God works in your world, both exterior & interior. Examine your conscience & motivations, then go back to the top of the paragraph & start again. We all have a fearsome power over God – we can either welcome him, usually involving a measure of humility & suffering, or we can turn him away. He cannot compel your heart. Hopefully, we all have another whole week to work on it.

The 7 Pillars of Catholic Spirituality by Matthew Kelly: Contemplation

2. Contemplation – It is true that human thought is creative, though Mr. Kelly's examples might be a little flawed; but it is definitely true that what we think, we become.  If the goal of human existence is to become partakers in the divine nature, seems we should spend more than a little time contemplating the divine.  Maybe there exist those who can ponder their innermost thoughts & attain to the divine essence whilst working at their desk with the phone ringing, or in line at the grocery store or in traffic, but the rest of us need silence. 

The enemy hates silence, so he fills our lives with as much noise & distraction & activity as possible.  Therefore, unless you decide to change the pattern of your life & say, “I will spend W hours in prayer every Xday & Yday at Z 0’clock, & I will cull these things out of my life, because they're really just noisy & empty distractions," I doubt you will ever really find that time; there’s always something to crowd it out.  We are habitual creatures.  Our habits – the actions that reflect our priorities & our world view – are the activiites for which we regularly give our time.  It is largely through our habits that we create ourselves.  If our habits are for good, we grow in virtue; if for bad, we grow in vice.  There is no neutral ground here; we are either climbing the mountain of God or falling back down. 

Another consideration is receptivity.  Even if we could dwell in the most remote desert cave, the silence would do little good if we make it only a monologue about ourselves - it must be a dialogue.  Christians call this loving exchange prayer.  God converses with us in the silence, but he is the only one who really has anything interesting to say, so we must be prepared to listen.  But don’t be fooled.  This is no ordinary, empty silence; it is a very active waiting, full of the power of God &, therefore, full of every possibility.  It was in this silence that Mary received the angel & gave her fiat.  Make it a habit to spend time with God in silence.

In the Beginning by J. Ratzinger - Homily 4, Part 1

Point of Order - in an all-too-common moment of confusion, I managed to post the 2nd part of Ratzinger's homily first.  So perhaps you should read this, then skip back to the other part.  Cheers.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger begins his 4^th & last homily on the biblical accounts of Genesis by recalling a comment made by a fellow bishop: today we have cut the Gospel in half!  Many people speak about the Good News of Christianity in attractive & palatable ways, but no one dares today to speak the first part of Jesus’ prophetic message: Repent!  That is, to acknowledge the reality of sin.  Ratzinger says that to repent is “to acknowledge our sinfulness, to do penance, & to become other than what we are (p.61).” 

But sin is a very old-fashioned notion these days when many people reject moral norms as the residue of a backward & less-enlightened era.  Of this Ratzinger says, “…the whole idea of the moral has… been generally been abandoned.  This is a logical development if there is no standard for human beings to use as a model – something not discovered by us but coming from the inner goodness of creation.  With this we have arrived at the real heart of the matter.  People today know of no standard; to be sure, they do not want to know of any because they see standards as threats to their freedom (p.62).”  Here we see that sin & freedom are intrinsically connected together.  Man, however, was not given an absolute & boundless freedom; it is subject to the limitations of the one who grants it him.

Ratzinger then considers the two great images of the biblical account: the Garden & the Snake.  In the Garden, God establishes man as co-owner & co-creator; together as creature & creator in harmony, man’s life finds fulfillment.  The Garden is a place of peace, beauty, & plenty; the very image of God’s plan for man.  Indeed, God created man to be one with Himself.  Creation, then, is “a gift & a sign of the saving & unifying goodness of God (p.65).”  The snake, on the other hand, was a prominent figure in Eastern fertility cults & a great temptation for Israel to abandon its covenant with God & join the milieu of its time.  For the Israelites during the dark time of captivity in Babylon, & for us today, the snake sows doubt in God’s power & goodness, even his very existence.  Here we must ask, why did God create man in such a way so he would fall?  Love must be perfectly free or it is not love.  God gave man the power to choose Him or something else.  While the choice is free, the consequences are not.  Ratzinger notes, “man decides to not accept the limitations of his existence (p.67).”

Today, we clearly see that technology has advanced rapidly & has made life quite luxurious for those that can afford it, but it changes so rapidly as to be disorienting.  Art, too, no longer seeks to image the heavenly, but often becomes a putrid image of the fallen instead.  In the uniquely human fields of art & science, the only guiding principle is that whatever can be done must be done; but when separated from the beautiful, the good, & the moral, they quickly become monsters.  Ratzinger says, “the measure of human beings is what they can do & not what they are, not what is good or bad.  What they can do they may do… (p.68).” 

Much like the Israelites in captivity who began to forget God & turned toward their captor’s idolatrous ways, it is a trick of Satan today that “we look on [technology] nowadays with incomprehension & ultimately with helplessness…  [Men] do not free themselves, but place themselves in opposition to the truth. And that means that they are destroying themselves & the world (p.69).”  We think of ourselves as quite advanced today, but only a miniscule few of us actually know how all the electronic devices upon which we rely actually work.  Likewise, art has degraded into entertainment, whose goal seems increasingly to be the peddling of smut.  In his slavery to technology, Ratzinger notes that men “do not make themselves gods… but rather caricatures, pseudo-gods, slaves of their own abilities… (p.70).”

We end with man enslaved to the idols of his own creation; but next time we will see the response of the New Testament.

The 7 Pillars of Catholic Spirituality by Matthew Kelly: Confession

Everybody loves a list, so the CD “The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality” has been making the rounds & getting some attention in my parish. It’s pretty good; he gets straight to the heart of the modern Catholic malaise & responds with sound advice, amusing stories, & orthodox teaching. Plus, anyone with a foreign accent seems to have immediate credibility with Americans, so hopefully people will tune in long enough to actually consider his propositions & make some God-oriented changes in their lives.

I do think it is funny/sad that people will pay a speaker to come tell them what anyone who takes the holy Faith seriously could tell them if asked. Admitting my daily failure to live according to the teachings of Christ, I must say that I have tried to press the importance of a few of these items in my catechism & Scripture classes, & in reply usually I just get blank stares with crickets chirping in the background.

With that intro, here’s my point-by-point take on the Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality, 1 or 2 points at a time…

Pillar No. 1: Confession – It is true that the world has lost its sense of sin in general, but among Christians who still have a sense of right & wrong many will say they just “take it Jesus.” Apart from setting aside Scripture on the matter of confession, being such masters of self-deception as we humans are, our desire to “just take it Jesus” quickly devolves into, “I’ll take it to Jesus as soon as I have something serious to confess, which, I mean, really isn’t that often is it? I mean, virtually never; because when I said those things to that person, they really deserved it; & when I took that stuff, I really needed it; & when I slept with so-n-so, I was just loving my neighbor like we’re supposed to; & when I did this or that, it’s because I can justify anything whatsoever to myself. Nope, I don’t really ever have anything to take to Jesus. He loves me just as I am & he forgives everything I do.”

Sure he loves you, but he is also calling you to something far greater, & refusal to seriously acknowledge one's wrong-doings is refusal to enter into the heavenly banquet (Mt 22). Did you notice that the king's open invitation to his son's wedding banquet came down rather suddenly? Remember the poor sap that was thrown out because he didn’t have his clean, white wedding garment ready? Don’t be that guy!

This is pretty easy: just on the human level we need to spend time examining our thoughts, words, & deeds, & then we have to own our sins before someone else so as to get the poison out of our system by actually saying them aloud to a confident. Think of all the money paid to psyhiatrists who ask us, "And how does that make you feel?"  What people really want to hear is, "My child, your sins are forgiven. Now go & sin no more."  So, on the supernatural level, the sacrament brings grace that helps us to overcome those things that plague us & restores the joy & peace proper to children of God & restores harmony with others. I assure you, Satan hates Confession.  So get in the box. You’ll be glad you did.