John Paul II on the New Evangelization

Karol Wojtyla, on canoe trip w youth

John Paul II referred to himself as a "pilgrim pope of evangelization, walking down the roads  of the world, bringing to all people the message of salvation." (Mexico City, May 6, 1990).  I found this quote in a collection of essays edited by Ralph Martin entitled John Paul II and the New Evangelization. It is in an essay by Avery Dulles. It goes well with the chapter on the new evangelization in Crossing the Threshold of Hope. The last sentence in that chapter reads: "There exists today the clear need for a new evangelization. There is the need for a proclamation of the Gospel capable of accompanying man on his pilgrim way, capable of walking alongside the younger generation." John Paul II had a special concern for the youth, stemming from the early days of his ministry when he would gp on canoe trips with the youth of his parish so as to get out of earshot of the communists authorities and freely talk about Christianity.

The concern for the young must be a part of  the process because "in its ever renewed encounter with man, evangelization is linked to generational change. Generations come and go which have distanced themselves from Christ and the Church, which have accepted a secular model of thinking and living or upon which such a model has been imposed. Meanwhile, the Church is always looking toward the future. She constantly goes out to meet new generations. And new generations clearly seem to be accepting with enthusiasm what their elders seemed to have rejected."

Evangelization is closely linked to education. We have refined the mission statement of the Pope John Paul II Forum for the Church in the Modern World. Its mission is: "to promote the understanding of the thought of Pope John Paul II and to develop his legacy as it forms and equips the Church for the new evangelization." The mission places the academic character of the Forum more solidly in the context of the mission of the Church. Through its educational opportunities the Forum serves the Church in its evangelization.

Against the spirit of the world, the Church takes up anew each day a struggle that is none other than the struggle for the world's soul. If in fact, on the one hand, the Gospel and evangelization are present in this world, on the other, there is also present a powerful anti-evangelization which is well organized and has the means to vigorously oppose the Gospel and evangelization. The struggle for the soul of the contemporary world is at its height where the spirit of this world seems strongest. In this sense the encyclical Redemptoris Missio speaks of modern Areopagi. Today these Areopagi are the worlds of science, culture, and media; these are the worlds of writers and artists, the worlds where the intellectual elite are formed.

As John Paul II said, it is a struggle for the world's soul. I suspect that many people who work at Catholic universities are not even aware of the powerful forces of "anti-evangelization" that impinge upon our culture and well up from within our very institutions. Scientific reductionism, the dictatorship of relativism, secularism, and religious indifferentism in the culture at large but also setting the climate within the very Catholic universities themselves militate against a clear explanation of the gospel or the teaching of Catholic culture.

But John Paul II was hopeful.

Christ is forever young. The Holy Spirit is incessantly at work. Christ's words are striking: "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work" (Jn 5:17). The Father and the Son are at work in the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, and truth does not cease to fascinate man, especially the hearts of the young. Therefore we should not consider statistics alone. For Christ, works of charity are important. Despite all of the losses the Church has suffered, it does not cease to look toward the future with hope. Such hope is a sign of the power of the Spirit.

The John Paul II Forum will strive to build communities of "joy in truth" through prayer, study and dialogue and "walk alongside the younger generation."

A Newman Sermon on Advent: "Worship, a Preparation for Christ's Coming

Many people are now noticing how early the Christmas lights come out to decorate the shopping malls and the Christmas music is cranked up on the radio. We skip Advent. We can no longer wait. Many Christians embrace the idea that "Jesus is the reason for the [Christmas] season" but the Advent season is all but lost on our culture today, drowned in ersatz holiday cheer. I think we need a dose of Newman. Newman looked peaceful but certainly not "jazzed up" as if on grande lattes and shopping sprees, as the picture here testifies.

I would like to offer a brief summary and meditation upon one of his four advent sermons from the fifth volume of the Parochial and Plain Sermons, "Worship, a Preparation for Christ's Coming." (Read it here) It is one of four powerful sermons for Advent, three of which begin with this epigram from Isaiah: "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." Isaiah xxxiii. 17. He reminds us that we are still in via, on the pilgrimage, in the mode of faith, not sight, aspiring after a far off land; and yet we hope in the destination and the vision.

As is typical in his sermons, Newman begins with building up an impression through layers of observation and reflection. We do not begin with the holiday cheer, but rather its gloom. "The very frost and cold, rain and gloom, which now befall us, forebode the last dreary days of the world, and in religious hearts raise the thought of them. The year is worn out: spring, summer, autumn, each in turn, have brought their gifts and done their utmost; but they are over, and the end is come. All is past and gone, all has failed, all has sated; we are tired of the past; we would not have the seasons longer; and the austere weather which succeeds, though ungrateful to the body, is in tone with our feelings, and acceptable. Such is the frame of mind which befits the end of the year; and such the frame of mind which comes alike on good and bad at the end of life. The days have come in which they have no pleasure; yet they would hardly be young again, could they be so by wishing it. Life is well enough in its way; but it does not satisfy."  Newman was not an "old man" when he delivered this sermon, but he lived an ascetical life and had had his fill of ambition and worldly wisdom enough to see its emptiness. Advent must begin from the dark, from the emptiness, so as to make room for the anticipation of the good things to come.

By a natural disposition of experience and season, the glimmer of advent settles into our soul:

Thus the soul is cast forward upon the future, and in proportion as its conscience is clear and its perception keen and true, does it rejoice solemnly that "the night is far spent, the day is at hand," that there are "new heavens and a new earth" to come, though the former are failing; nay, rather that, because they are failing, it will "soon see the King in His beauty," and "behold the land which is very far off." These are feelings for holy men in winter and in age, waiting, in some dejection perhaps, but with comfort on the whole, and calmly though earnestly, for the Advent of Christ.

That phrase almost seems to describe Newman as pictured above -- "waiting, in some dejection perhaps, but with comfort on the whole, and calmly though earnestly." But here is the gist of his sermon, put out front, in the first paragraph, before the rustling of the congregation could even quiet down. Newman is a master of this form.

The rest of the sermon burrows deeper into the earnestness and dejection required by this world, and rouses the high hope of vision and glory of the next.

Prayer is fueled by faith and sacrifice.  In the early morning devotions the "penitents and mourners, watchers and pilgrims" can grasp the measure of advent -- "More dear to them that loneliness, more cheerful that severity, and more bright that gloom, than all those aids and appliances of luxury by which men nowadays attempt to make prayer less disagreeable to them. True faith does not covet comforts."

For what are we waiting? For who are we waiting? The Judge of all souls, "whose eyes are as a flame of fire." "Our maker and Lord." "The Lawgiver Himself in person."  "His righteous Presence." Verily, "the Son of man sitting on the right hand of glory."

Do we really want to see such a thing? Are ready to see such a one? We are sleepy in our routines of work and play. "At present we are in a world of shadows. What we see is not substantial. Suddenly it will be rent in twain and vanish away, and our Maker will appear. And then, I say, that first appearance will be nothing less than a personal intercourse between the Creator and every creature. He will look on us, while we look on Him." Thus is Advent, the coming of the Lord.

But the brilliance of the sermon continues. Must we then simply strive to improve our moral life and escape his judgement? Yes, but that is not all; we must learn how to approach him, and for that we are readied by worship.

Why is it not enough to be just, honest, sober, benevolent, and otherwise virtuous? Is not this the true and real worship of God? Is not activity in mind and conduct the most acceptable way of approaching Him? How can they please Him by submitting to certain religious forms, and taking part in certain religious acts? Or if they must do so, why may they not choose their own? Why must they come to church for them? Why must they be partakers in what the Church calls Sacraments? I answer, they must do so, first of all and especially, because God tells them so to do. But besides this, I observe that we see this plain reason why, that they are one day to change their state of being. They are not to be here for ever. Direct intercourse with God on their part now, prayer and the like, may be necessary to their meeting Him suitably hereafter: and direct intercourse on His part with them, or what we call sacramental communion, may be necessary in some incomprehensible way, even for preparing their very nature to bear the sight of Him.

Worship prepares us for advent, because it quite literally prepares us to meet the Lord, and "see the King in his beauty." If I am to one day "take possession of my inheritance," I had better become prepared to do so. "I would not see heaven yet, for I could not bear to see it."

No we must wait on the Christmas music and lights, the lattes and the brandy -- rather know that Advent is "a season for chastened hearts and religious eyes; for severe thoughts, and austere resolves, and charitable deeds; a season for remembering what we are and what we shall be."

Newman had an exquisite sense of the sacramental presence of the other world as it impinges upon our own. We great force and drama he reminds us in one his celebrated passages:

A thick black veil is spread between this world and the next. We mortal men range up and down it, to and fro, and see nothing. There is no access through it into the next world. In the Gospel this veil is not removed; it remains, but every now and then marvelous disclosures are made to us of what is behind it. At times we seem to catch a glimpse of a Form which we shall hereafter see face to face. We approach, and in spite of the darkness, our hands, or our head, or our brow, or our lips become, as it were, sensible of the contact of something more than earthly.  .  .  .  . we recollect a hand laid upon our heads, and surely it had the print of nails in it, and resembled His who with a touch gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. Or we have been eating and drinking; and it was not a dream surely, that One fed us from His wounded side, and renewed our nature by the heavenly meat He gave.

Thank you Blessed John Henry Newman for your love of God, love of the Church, and your gift of preaching. Truly was it said by Gladstone, of all people, a hundred years hence his parochial sermons will be read.

And after we read some Newman advent sermons, let us "watch for Him in the cold and dreariness which must one day have an end."

Pope John Paul II on the Dignity of Mentally Disabled Persons

H. Humphrey grandchild Victoria Solomonson (1960-2010)

We have learned from the late Holy Father that a spirituality of communion "means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as 'those who are a part of me.' This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship. A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a 'gift for me. A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to 'make room for our brothers and sisters, bearing 'each other's burdens.'"§ 43 And explicitly "we need to remember that no one can be excluded from our love, since 'through his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every person'." §49

Not to my surprise I discovered that near the end of his life John Paul gave a major speech to the participants in the International Symposium on The Dignity and Rights of the Mentally Disabled Person (find it here). I was reading the assignment that I made for the Honors Service Learning course at UST. I asked them to read a book by my former teacher, Stanley Hauerwas, co-written with Jean Vanier, Living Gently in a Violent World (InterVarsity ISBN 9780830834525). Jean Vanier the founder of L'Arche, an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities experience life together as human beings, writes an introductory essay on his experience of community. He says a key text for him is 1 Cor 12 that the weakest members of the body need to be honored. Yet he says society tries to hide them away or get rid of them. The answer is not, he says, finding them more autonomy, but it "comes back to belonging." It takes time to get to know each other. Jean Vanier says that his communities spend time eating together, praying together, and celebrating together. By celebrating he means "to laugh, to fool around, to have fun, and to give thanks together for life." He explains how much he has received from these communities. He then quotes John Paul's statement, a very prophetic statement in this speech:

There is no doubt that in revealing the fundamental frailty of the human condition, the disabled person becomes an expression of the tragedy of pain. In this world of ours that approves hedonism and is charmed by ephemeral and deceptive beauty, the difficulties of the disabled are often perceived as a shame or a provocation and their problems as burdens to be removed or resolved as quickly as possible. Disabled people are, instead, living icons of the crucified Son. They reveal the mysterious beauty of the One who emptied himself for our sake and made himself obedient unto death. They show us, over and above all appearances, that the ultimate foundation of human existence is Jesus Christ. It is said, justifiably so, that disabled people are humanity's privileged witnesses. They can teach everyone about the love that saves us; they can become heralds of a new world, no longer dominated by force, violence and aggression, but by love, solidarity and acceptance, a new world transfigured by the light of Christ, the Son of God who became incarnate, who was crucified and rose for us.

Vanier concludes from his experience, and the wisdom of St Paul and John Paul II, that  "We have to hear Jesus knocking at the door and then open the door and let him come in to be our friend. To become of Jesus is to become a friend of the excluded. As we learn to be a friend of the excluded, we enter into this amazing relationship that is friendship with God."

Conclusion to Novo Millennio Ineunte: A New Evangelization

The concluding two sections of Novo Millennio are entitled "Duc in altum," and John Paul II speaks about the new millennium as a "vast ocean" upon which we shall venture with the help of Christ. We must already be properly disposed to set out -- we need a "discerning eye" -- an eye of faith -- to even see Christ at work, and most of all we need a "generous heart" to be his instrument in this venture -- a heart of love.

Into this new millennium the Church carries her "missionary mandate" (Mt 28:19) and this mandate "urges us to share the enthusiasm of the very first Christians: we can count on the power of the same Spirit who was poured out at Pentecost and who impels us still today to start out anew." §58 John Paul had previously said with respect to grace that "in the presence of the mystery of grace, infinitely full of possibilities and implications for human life and history, the Church herself will never cease putting questions, trusting in the help of the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 14:17), whose task it is to guide her "into all the truth" (Jn 16:13) §56

The truth of Christ, the whole truth about man, will be the message of the new evangelization.  The deeper understanding of Christ and man will be found in the documents of Vatican II. 

What a treasure there is, dear brothers and sisters, in the guidelines offered to us by the Second Vatican Council! For this reason I asked the Church, as a way of preparing for the Great Jubilee, to examine herself on the reception given to the Council.Has this been done? The Congress held here in the Vatican was such a moment of reflection, and I hope that similar efforts have been made in various ways in all the particular Churches. With the passing of the years, the Council documents have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition. Now that the Jubilee has ended, I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning. §57

To Mary he entrusts the task of the new evangelization and he names her the "star of the new evangelization," for mariners of faith must have a sure point of reference at sea. 

And for the final summary he returns to the theme of contemplation of the face of Christ:

The Risen Jesus accompanies us on our way and enables us to recognize him, as the disciples of Emmaus did, "in the breaking of the bread" (Lk 24:35). May he find us watchful, ready to recognize his face and run to our brothers and sisters with the good news: "We have seen the Lord!" (Jn 20:25).

The Preferential Option for the Poor in Novo Millennio

In Novo Millennio Ineunte the preferential option for the poor is essential to the witness of love and the building of a spirituality of communion. It is not a function of a political agenda nor a result of economic-political analysis in terms of class conflict. He says it is "a page of Christology which sheds a ray of light on the mystery of Christ." §49 It is motivated by the contemplation of the face of Christ -- "If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me" (Mt 25:35-37)

John Paul also sees the dedication to love in the decisive passage from Gaudium et spes: no one can be excluded from our love, since "through his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every person".

The preferential option for the poor should weigh heavily on Christians. He asks, "How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their heads?" He includes the commitment to the unborn, indeed, respect for the life of every human being, from conception until natural death. John Paul II acknowledges that the respect for life may put the Church in an unpopular light.  And he extends into newer patterns where human persons are abandoned or in need and crisis especially those "threatened by despair at the lack of meaning in their lives, by drug addiction, by fear of abandonment in old age or sickness, by marginalization or social discrimination." Larger global issues such as ecological crisis, war and peace, and suppression of human rights world wide are matters for Christian engagement in charity.

The witness of love is important for the new evangelization because the words are too easily lost or submerged in the noise -- "without this form of evangelization through charity  .  .  .  the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today's society of mass communications. The charity of works ensures an unmistakable efficacy to the charity of words." 


These words set the tone for the closing thoughts of the Letter: the proclamation of the Gospel is itself the prime form of charity.


This  evangelization is the primary posture of the Church in the modern world. The social doctrine of the Church, if properly or coherently articulated as the reason for social action, empowers that charity to "become [a] service to culture, politics, the economy and the family" because "the fundamental principles upon which depend the destiny of human beings and the future of civilization will be everywhere respected."

 

"Love encompassed all vocations" -- Part 4 of Novo millennio, on "Communio"

Pope John Paul II has a knack of stating the obvious with a freshness and a vigor; he expresses the simple but profound truths with an intensity and an encouragement to the reader. A good pastor. Part 4 of Novo Millennio is devoted to "Witness of Love." St. Paul said it in I Cor 13, the primacy of love. Here is John Paul II's gloss:

Love is truly the "heart" of the Church, as was well understood by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, whom I proclaimed a Doctor of the Church precisely because she is an expert in the scientia amoris: "I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was aflame with Love. I understood that Love alone stirred the members of the Church to act... I understood that Love encompassed all vocations, that Love was everything".

In the key section, on the spirituality of communion, John Paul II lays out a vision for the Church to become "the home and the school of communion." §43 The spirituality of communion must be made the "guiding principle of education" wherever individuals and Christians are formed .  .  . wherever families and communities are being built up.Although this responds to the deepest yearnings of the age, the reason for Christian community is not mere sentimentality, an imitation of social networking, an attempt at  corporate branding, or an effort at maximizing a greatest good for the greatest number. It derives from the life of Trinitarian prayer -- "the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us."

Some speak of an "apostolate of friendship." John Paul II does say Christians are enabled to share the joy and sufferings of others, "to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship." John Paul goes beyond an interpretation of friendship that would suggest simply one on one, or person to person relationship, as important as that is. There is a very important social dynamic he is suggesting that would make the Christian community counter cultural in the American context.

A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a "gift for me". A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to "make room" for our brothers and sisters, bearing "each other's burdens" (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy. 

These brief remarks break out of a bourgeois Catholicism, which may find apostolate only in "like to like" or in a quiet working away in the bowels of corporate America. John Paul II calls us beyond,  calls us to an openness throughout the communities and to cut across social, racial, professional lines, making room for the other and the outcast in the bounty of God's love.We see it in Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker and in some of the movements in the Church today, as well as in many humble Catholics throughout the land daily serving at hospitals, half way houses, and hospices.

The last sentence strikes at the heart of the university culture in America today, rife as it is with "competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy." I ask you, did the Holy Father have the university specifically in mind? The Catholic universities seem to be no better than their secular counterparts in this regard. It is heart breaking to see Christian groups within the same university give way to such petty jealousies and rivalries, engaging in gossip and calumny, destroying the inner vitals of community. 


John Paul hits very close to home when he says -- "let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, 'masks' of communion rather than its means of expression and growth."

We have now discovered two reasons why the Catholic university is so rare today, if it is at all existent -- where is the joy in truth? where is the spirituality of communion?


My friends, do I read the Holy Father correctly if I suggest that we must tear away the masks and resist the soulless mechanisms? 


Be not afraid, said the Holy Father.

Apropos Gilson: grace in Novo Millennio

Gilson says that the first duty of the Christian philosopher is to refuse to pay homage to the world. The world he defines as the refusal of the grace of God. "The ‘world’ is just this refusal to participate in grace which separates nature from God, and the intelligence itself is of the world insofar as it joins with it in rejecting grace.”

John Paul II devotes a brief section of the Letter to a reminder about the dependence upon grace:

If in the planning that awaits us we commit ourselves more confidently to a pastoral activity that gives personal and communal prayer its proper place, we shall be observing an essential principle of the Christian view of life: the primacy of grace. There is a temptation which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan. God of course asks us really to cooperate with his grace, and therefore invites us to invest all our resources of intelligence and energy in serving the cause of the Kingdom. But it is fatal to forget that "without Christ we can do nothing" (cf. Jn 15:5).

The recognition of grace is central to learning at the school of prayer. For "it is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness."

Gilson understood the root of a Catholic education is the orientation of the mind towards God and the higher truth. This leads me to think about the opening definition or characterization of a Catholic University in Ex corde as a community based upon joy in the truth. Joy. Why are the Catholic universities so often joyless in the pursuit of truth? Is it the absence of the orientation towards divine truth as mediated by the Church? Augustine spoke much about the joy in truth. Whence comes joy? From the grace of God poured out into our hearts, as he often quotes St Paul, Romans 5.5. In Spirit and Letter Augustine says, for example, “unless he also take delight in and a feel a love for it, he neither does his duty nor sets about it nor lives rightly. . . . God’s love is shed into our hearts." §5 Or he speaks of a delight that "grows from root of love." Spirit and Letter §26 In a man redeemed "a delight in holiness will prevail over every rival affection." Spirit and Letter §63 The old man, Adam, rules at Catholic universities, replete with such rival affections. Where is the new man, the man redeemed?
 
John Paul II will finish the Letter speaking about communio, and we will discuss this section in future posts. The communio is based upon the delight in the truth, a delight discovered in grace. As Peter Brown remarks: "Augustine came to view 'delight' as the mainspring of human action. Two things should be underlined in this very early explanation of human motivation. First, Augustine recognizes something of the role of feelings in the analysis of moral action: these affections occur in the will, not in some separate power, but they are not initially controllable by the moral agent. One may accept or reject their stimulation but he cannot initiate these flashes of delight. Some delights are produced within us by objects that appear attractive in our perceptions; others are the products of divine grace. In the second place, Augustine admitted in the Retractations that he did not fully realize, or explain, the importance of divine grace, in this early period (A.D. 388-395) but it is clear from the text that we have just read that he knew, even at this time, that high-minded delight is somehow sparked in man's consciousness by God's gift of faith and grace."


There is the missing key to the renewal of Catholic education. "High-minded delight is somehow sparked in man's consciousness by God's gift of faith and grace." To return to John Paul II's exhortation for the new millennium -- he says it is when we experience a "disheartening sense of frustration" as did the apostles when their nets were empty, "We have toiled all night and caught nothing" (Lk 5:5), then we may at last come to "the moment of faith, of prayer, of conversation with God, in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power: Duc in altum!" 

As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer.

Apropos Gilson: mysterium lunae in Novo Millennio

Gilson spoke about the turning of the mind to the higher things and about the recognition of grace in the life of the mind. John Paul inserts an interesting short section in Novo Millennio on the receptivity of the mind to the light from above:

A new century, a new millennium are opening in the light of Christ. But not everyone can see this light. Ours is the wonderful and demanding task of becoming its "reflection". This is the mysterium lunae, which was so much a part of the contemplation of the Fathers of the Church, who employed this image to show the Church's dependence on Christ, the Sun whose light she reflects.[Thus, for example, Saint Augustine: "Luna intellegitur Ecclesia, quod suum lumen non habeat, sed ab Unigenito Dei Filio, qui multis locis in Sanctis Scripturis allegorice sol appellatus est" The Church is called the moon because she does not have light from herself but from the Only-begotten Son of God, who is allegorically referred to as the Sun. from Enarrationes in Psalmos, 10, 3] It was a way of expressing what Christ himself said when he called himself the "light of the world" (Jn 8:12) and asked his disciples to be "the light of the world" (Mt 5:14).

This is a daunting task if we consider our human weakness, which so often renders us opaque and full of shadows. But it is a task which we can accomplish if we turn to the light of Christ and open ourselves to the grace which makes us a new creation.§54

The philosopher, and any scholar who has placed his intelligence in service of Christ the King, acknowledges that the light is not from himself, but from another. This holds for truths of reason no less than for truths of revelation. Pope Benedict in Caritas in veritate §34 also turns to Augustine to explain how truth itself is a reflection of something higher, indeed there is a gift like character of truth:

Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us. Truth — which is itself gift, in the same way as charity — is greater than we are, as Saint Augustine teaches.  (De libero arbitrio, II, 3, 8ff.). . . . [Augustine says that] Reason, realizing its transient and fallible nature, admits the existence of something eternal, higher than itself,something absolutely true and certain. The name that Saint Augustine gives to this interiortruth is at times the name of God (Confessions X, 24, 35; XII, 25, 35; De libero arbitrio II, 3, 8), more often that of Christ (De magistro 11:38; Confessions VII, 18, 24; XI, 2, 4).

Likewise the truth of ourselves, of our personal conscience, is first of all given to us. In every cognitive process, truth is not something that we produce, it is always found, or better, received. Truth, like love, “is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings” Deus Caritas Est, §3

We should note that Pope John Paul II stresses throughout Novo millennio ineunte that prior to all planning for new initiatives we must acknowledge our receptivity to the truth and love of God, especially in prayer. "It is important however that what we propose, with the help of God, should be profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer." §15

Christian philosophy is the sign and great aid in understanding the mysterium lunae. Why Christian philosophy? Maritain said that Christianity purifies the subjectivity of the knower, rendering the mind more limpid in its vision of the real. "One does not have to be a Christian to be convinced that our nature is weak or that the mere fact that wisdom is an arduous attainment is enough to account for the very high incidence of error in this area. But the Christian believes that grace changes man's state by elevating his nature to the supernatural plane and by divulging to him things which unaided reason would be unable to grasp. He also believes that if reason is to attain without admixture of error the highest truths that are naturally within its ken it requires assistance, either from within in the form of inner strengthening or from without in the form of an offering of objective data; and he believes that such assistance has in fact become so much an established part of things under the New Law that it has ushered in a new regimen for human intelligence." An Essay on Christian Philosophy

Pope John Paul II lays upon us the daunting task of being the light of the world, a task for the new millennium that especially calls for Christian philosophy along the lines envisioned by Gilson and Maritain. But John Paul expected to see all Catholics receive formation in the truth of their faith appropriate to their state in life.

Gilson on Intelligence in service to Christ the King

In 1939 Etienne Gilson published an essay entitled on "The Intelligence in the service of Christ the King." (found in Christianity and Philosophy, edited by Ralph McDonald, C.S.B. Sheed and Ward). It is one of the best essays on Christian philosophy because he explains the spiritual orientation of the philosopher. He relates philosophy to the issue of grace and theology.

He points out that the "world" won't let you leave it or renounce it, because it wants your homage, especially the homage of your mind. Because intelligence is highest, the world longs to arrogate its homage and subject it to itself alone. Thus Gilson asserts “to deny it homage is first duty of Christian.” Christ is King.

As Gilson put it, “the intelligence is good, but it is only so if, by it and in it, the whole nature turns toward its end, which is to conform itself to God.” But, he continued, “by taking itself as its own end, the intelligence has turned away from God, turning nature with it, and grace alone can aid both of them in returning to what is really their end, since it is their origin. The ‘world’ is just this refusal to participate in grace which separates nature from God, and the intelligence itself is of the world insofar as it joins with it in rejecting grace.”

The Catholic philosopher affirms nature and loves the intelligence -- but he says that we must distinguish two approaches to knowledge: we can develop the mind in order to turn its toward visible and transient things, to explain and master them (Descartes) or we can develop the mind in order to turn toward things invisible and eternal (Augustine).

The Catholic must be committed to excellence in science and fields of intellectual pursuit, for piety does not dispense with technique. “No one, nor anything,” Gilson observed, “obliges the Christian to busy himself with science, art, or philosophy, for other ways of serving God are not wanting; but if that is the way of serving God that he has chosen, the end itself, which he proposes for himself in studying them, binds him to excellence….That is the only way of becoming a good servant.”

So what then distinguishes the Catholic philosophy? He mentioned the orientation towards the eternal and higher truths. This turn is stabilized and made good through a knowledge of theology. Theology he calls the "technique of faith" and by it we can "link together the science they have acquired with the faith they have preserved." So it is impossible to be a Christian savant, philosopher of artist without having studied theology. Theology can no longer be the "privilege of some specialists devoted to its study by the religious state" (Gilson wrote this in 1939). "It is necessary that those who wish to work as Christians in the great work of science, philosophy or art, themselves know how to hear His voice, and not only be instructed in His principles, but also and above all be imbued in them." They can then direct science, art, philosophy towards God.

To restore in their fullness the theological values, to do so in such a way that they descend into the thought of the savant who calculates or who experiments, into the reason of the philosopher who meditates, into the inspiration of the artist who creates, is truly to place the intelligence in service of Christ the King, since it is to promote the coming of His reign, by aiding nature to be born again under the fruitful action of his grace and in light of His truth.

Gilson has nothing but scorn for the Catholics who would seek to hide their faith in order to get on in the world of the mind. "One of the gravest evils from which Catholicism suffers today is that Catholics are no longer proud enough of their faith." We need to listen to the Word and to refer to it "publicly when necessary." He counsels that "it does not depend upon us that it be believed, but we can do very much towards making it respected; and if it happens that those among us who are not ashamed of the Gospel fail to get others to follow them, those who are ashamed of it can be sure not even to get others to respect them."

On Education in Prayer

The high standard for ordinary Christian life demands a corresponding challenge in the art of prayer. Just as Vatican II insisted upon a universal call to holiness, so too, prayer should not be something only assigned to those who live a consecrated life: "it would be wrong to think that ordinary Christians can be content with a shallow prayer that is unable to fill their whole life. Especially in the face of the many trials to which today's world subjects faith, they would be not only mediocre Christians but 'Christians at risk.'" §34 John Paul II anticipates the "insiduous risk" of the undermining of faith and the embracing of substitutes, alternatives, and even superstitions in lieu of the truth faith. This is why I said earlier "bourgeois Catholicism" will not suffice. John Paul points out that Christendom is virtually gone -- "the reality of a 'Christian society' which, amid all the frailties which have always marked human life, measured itself explicitly on Gospel values, is now gone." §40 One must step forward with a personal faith, sustained by prayer.


He does not despair because of the power of prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about the rebirth of faith: "Learning this Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer and living it fully . .  . is the secret of a truly vital Christianity, which has no reason to fear the future, because it returns continually to the sources and finds in them new life." §32


The key point to all pastoral planning, therefore, is an education in prayer.


What is his account prayer? (I consult my notes from a talk by Ralph Martin at Orchard Lake, Mi. in August 2002 for this reading of Novo Millennio Ineunte. He has published a book with a detailed elaboration on the nature of prayer from the resources of the saints; the book is entitled The Fulfillment of All desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints, Emmaus, ISBN: 1931018383)


Prayer is a conversation with Christ, the classical formulation by the follower of St Theresa of Avila (See also the classic book by Father Peter Rohrbach, O.C.D., Conversation with Christ, reprinted by TAN). Conversation follows from a "face to face encounter" as John Paul showed in the previous part of Letter entitled "A Face to Contemplate". Conversation is a reciprocal activity; thus John Paul II emphasizes the reciprocity between Christ and the soul. He says quite emphatically that this reciprocity, this friendship, is the "substance and soul of the Christian life." --  "Abide in me and I in you" (Jn 15:4) And this reciprocity "opens us, through Christ and in Christ, to contemplation of the Father's face." The theme of A Face to Contemplate returns here, with the reference to the face of the Father. We must learn "Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer" and live it in the liturgy and in personal experience. The dimension of personal experience should be highlighted here. The various movements within the Church have brought home to many the experience of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is a gift of the Holy Spirit and must be nurtured in prayer.


Ralph Martin drew my attention to the crucial sentences in section §33 that provide us with a summary of the essential conditions of prayer:

It is a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications (the "dark night"). But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by the mystics as "nuptial union". 

• sustained by grace
• intense spiritual commitment
• painful purifications  
• ineffable joy
• mystical  "nuptial union"

Each one of these deserves our understanding, and I again refer you to Mr Martin's The Fulfillment of All desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints. John Paul II refers us to the great mystical tradition, especially John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila. 

But the three points to note in closing -- Pope John Paul II urges all Catholic groups to become "schools of prayer" and that we must seek "education in prayer." Prayer is more than an event in the day, a regular duty on a to-do list and so forth, but a journey in itself, a journey towards the "nuptial union" to be lived in joy and anticipation. The heart truly "falls in love," John paul II says. And third, from this we launch out to act and "shape history according to God's plan." §33

The high standard of ordinary Christian living

The face of sorrow, the bleeding face of Christ, "conceals the life of God," but in that paradox and in that mystery the contemplative is led to love. The contemplation of the Risen Christ confirms that discovery of love. John Paul II talks about Peter's response "You know that I love" (Jn 21:15-17) and St. Paul "For me to live is Christ." If it is the Risen Christ to Whom the Church now looks, our meditation on the events of the past hurtles us forward to the present -- "the Church relives them as if they happened today." There is even an eschatological hint in that the "Bride contemplates her treasure and her joy." Augustine also describes this memory of Christ as a source of joy: "And thus since the time I learned of thee, thou hast dwelt in my memory, and it is there that I find thee whenever I call thee to remembrance, and delight in thee. These are my holy delights, which thou hast bestowed on me in thy mercy, mindful of my poverty." So John Paul exclaims "'Dulcis Iesus memoria, dans vera cordis gaudia': how sweet is the memory of Jesus, the source of the heart's true joy!"

From this remarkable series of contemplative moments dwelling on the "face of Christ" John Paul II turns at last to the summons to new initiatives as is fitting for the new millennium. He ends section two with the image of the journey, which he picks up immediately at the outset of section 3, "Starting Afresh from Christ." If Christ is renewed in our hearts, that is, if we are "conscious of the risen Lord's presence among us," then we will gain a "new impetus in Christian living, making it the force which inspires our journey of faith." §29


On the one hand, he says we gain a "new" impetus and that we need "new" initiatives, but on the other hand he says we do not need to invent "new program," because the program or plan exists already, found in the gospel and in the living tradition of Church. Perhaps we should take from this we need to rediscover it. What must we rediscover in this living tradition? Holiness and Prayer. All initiative must be "set in relation to holiness" §30. Stressing holiness is the urgent task, he says. For this is the central point to rediscover in Vatican II -- the universal call to holiness (Lumen gentium chap 5). Not an embellishment, nor a  veneer, holiness is an "intrinsic and essential" aspect of the meaning of the Church. We belong to him who is the Holy One, the Church is the Bride of Christ. Holiness is a gift offered to all the baptized. And the "gift in turn becomes a task."


Why a task? John Paul II says that if baptism is a true entry into holiness then it would be a contradiction to settle for "mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and shallow religiosity." §31 Now John Paul II hits home and challenges bourgeois Catholicism, the religion of the well off, the complacency of those who do not wish to learn more and be more, the shallowness of those who accept a 1st grader's knowledge of the faith and the lukewarm or half-hearted effort to follow the Lord. For too long have we rationalized and pared down the stark challenge "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) What does this mean?

The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.

The high standard we would rather forget or forgo. Ralph Martin spoke about Novo Millennio Ineunte at Orchard Lake a few years back, and for our delight he read us a passage from Tolkein's "On Fairy Stories":

O see ye not yon narrow road
So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?
That is the path of Righteousness,
Though after it but few inquires.

And see ye not yon braid, braid road
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the path of Wickedness,
Though some call it the Road to Heaven.

The narrow and broad roads have always been properly named. John Paul II would have us inquire after the path of righteousness.

John Paul II on the Face of Sorrow

let us adore and fall down in prostration before God

If we follow Christ up to his last hour, Pope John Paul II says we will discover a paradox, "a mystery within the mystery." §25 If we look steadily at the face of Christ on the cross we will discover the truth about human existence, (Christ reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear) and be led to prayer -- "we cannot but prostrate ourselves in adoration."


The paradox is that Jesus experienced at one and the same time a "profound unity with the Father, by its very nature a source of joy and happiness, and an agony that goes all the way to his final cry of abandonment." §26 The paradox brings us back to the mystery insofar as "the simultaneous presence of these two seemingly irreconcilable aspects is rooted in the fathomless depths of the hypostatic union."

John Paul grapples with the paradox, and attempts to give expression to the mysterious depth when he says the cry of sorrow on the cross is "the prayer of the Son who offers his life to the Father in love, for the salvation of all." The mystery of faith is self-offering of the Son to the Father, the greatness of love that is stronger than sin and death. "At the very moment when he identifies with our sin, 'abandoned' by the Father, he 'abandons' himself into the hands of the Father. His eyes remain fixed on the Father."

 John Paul continues with the theme of contemplation of the face and moves us well beyond the frontier of filial awareness with its human face of "pity, peace, love, mercy" to the depth of the incarnation, the two natures of Christ. John Paul now speaks about the "face of the father," "the face of man," "the face of sin," all in rapid succession: "In order to bring man back to the Father's face, Jesus not only had to take on the face of man, but he had to burden himself with the 'face' of sin. 'For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Cor 5:21)."

Does it hold coherently together, this mirror of faces? I think it does. There is one face, the face of Jesus Christ, the face of the son is the face sorrow. Whence the "Face of the Father"? Well, the Jewish tradition made reference to the [hidden] face of God, which must be the face of the father. Men have turned from his face, and hid from his face -- and they prayed for his face (Psalms 27:8 and 67:1). Jesus brings us back before the face of God the Father, he fulfills the prayer of David. But how could any man, weak and sinful, come face to face with God? Man could only do so if the eternal son assumed the face of man, and turned to the face of the father. "He alone, who sees the Father and rejoices fully in him, can understand completely what it means to resist the Father's love by sin." The cry of great agony is the recognition by man of the true depth of sin. Jesus as man wore the face of sin and John Paul asks us "is it possible to imagine a greater agony, a more impenetrable darkness?" By coming before the cross and contemplating the face of Christ one is led to that recognition of the impenetrable darkness that is man, that is us, that is me, and this paradoxically is a salutary recognition. For I can repent, convert, turn back to the Father with Christ. And then "we cannot but prostrate ourselves in adoration."  The Dominican custom is to make a full prostration before the cross on Good Friday.

Fittingly, therefore, John Paul II turns to Dominican Saint Catherine of Siena for a confirmation of his meditation in the "lived theology of the saints." §27

In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, God the Father shows Catherine of Siena how joy and suffering can be present together in holy souls: "Thus the soul is blissful and afflicted: afflicted on account of the sins of its neighbour, blissful on account of the union and the affection of charity which it has inwardly received. These souls imitate the spotless Lamb, my Only-begotten Son, who on the Cross was both blissful and afflicted."

In a later section John Paul II encourages us to reconnect with the "great mystical tradition" of the Church to understand how to progress in prayer "as a genuine dialogue of love." §33 In such prayer we come to "filially within the Father's heart." There will be "painful purification," but by meeting with Christ in prayer of  "thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotions" the heart "falls in love."

Friends, I think I now see why Pope John Paul II has so emphasized the notion of contemplation of the face of Christ. It is the one thing needful because it is the one simple thing -- to fall in love with Christ. A true face to face encounter must lead to love, for fear or shame turns away from the face, and anger or hatred squints and blocks out a recognition of the face.

"For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face"

Rouault “Head of Christ" (Cleveland)

William Blake wrote:

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Pope John Paul II devotes part 2 of Novo millennio ineunte to "A Face to Contemplate." The face of Christ does indeed convey "mercy, pity, peace, and love" all upon the mystery of divine sonship.

Why the face? We know that John Paul II was influenced by the thought of Levinas; in Crossing the Threshold of Hope he says: “the human face and the commandment ‘Do not kill’ are ingeniously joined in Lévinas, and thus become a testimony for our age.”

Levinas himself said: "To begin with the face as a source from which all meaning appears, the face in its absolute nudity ... is to affirm that being is enacted in the relation between men, that Desire rather than need commands acts. Desire, an aspiration that does not proceed from a lack--metaphysics--is the desire of a person."

Contemplation of the face of Christ should help develop an aspiration to be in communion with him, to be like him. John Paul says the Church should reflect the light of Christ and "make his face shine before the generations of the new millenium." §16

What does the face of Christ reveal? Who is Christ? We gaze into the "depth of a mystery."

It is in the intimate and inseparable union of these two aspects that Christ's identity is to be found, in accordance with the classic formula of the Council of Chalcedon (451): "one person in two natures". The person is that, and that alone, of the Eternal Word, the Son of the Father. The two natures, without any confusion whatsoever, but also without any possible separation, are the divine and the human.

We know that our concepts and our words are limited. The formula, though always human, is nonetheless carefully measured in its doctrinal content, and it enables us, albeit with trepidation, to gaze in some way into the depths of the mystery. Yes, Jesus is true God and true man!

JP2 quotes the Psalms and he invokes his favorite passage of Gaudium et spes in order to explain why we should contemplate the face of Christ:

"Your face, O Lord, I seek" (Ps 27:8). The ancient longing of the Psalmist could receive no fulfilment greater and more surprising than the contemplation of the face of Christ. God has truly blessed us in him and has made "his face to shine upon us" (Ps 67:1). At the same time, God and man that he is, he reveals to us also the true face of man, "fully revealing man to man himself". §23

Because it is the face of mystery, there are multiple dimensions to behold in the face of Christ -- God, man, suffering, joy, mercy, righteousness . . .

John Paul II elaborates on three dimensions - the face of the Son, the face of suffering, and the face of the risen one.

The Son's face is said to be "the frontier zone of the mystery," (§24) I suppose because we enter into the mystery first through the very "self-awareness" of Christ as we encounter him in the Gospels. By the way he says that the gospels are a "precise historical testimony," a "trustworthy" passing on of the encounter §17; and thus "the face of the Nazorean emerges with a solid historical foundation" §18.

What then is the frontier to which they bid us to cross? His language "authoritatively expresses the depth of his own mystery." Such as -- "How is it you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's affairs?" (Lk 2:49). Or again see Mt 11:27 and Lk 10:22; but above read the Gospel of John, for in his self-awareness, Jesus has no doubts: "The Father is in me and I am in the Father" (Jn 10:38). I remember a Protestant apologist making an impression on me when I was a teenager -- he is a madman or he is the Son of God. John Paul reminds us that some took him seriously, oh too seriously, for they sought to kill him "because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God" (Jn 5:18).

It is in his suffering and death that the self-awareness as Son most shines through: "in Gethsemane and on Golgotha Jesus' human awareness will be put to the supreme test. But not even the drama of his Passion and Death will be able to shake his serene certainty of being the Son of the heavenly Father." §24 

The face of the Nazorean draws us (perhaps in his mercy, pity, peace or love) to the "frontier" of a mystery, and as we cross over and follow his beckoning words (of the truth of the Father) and deeds (his courage and his power to heal), we come out to a clearing in the depth of the woods and we must contemplate the face of suffering.

The "Core Legacy"

"One thing is needful . . .  Lk 10:41-42"

In 2002 a close assistant to Pope John Paul II told an audience at Orchard Lake, Michigan that Novo Millennio Ineunto should be a "veritable Vade mecum" (a book for ready reference, "go with me"). It is brief, but it has  depth. There are four parts to the Letter.

Introduction: The Incarnational context for the celebration
Part 1: Meeting Christ - the Legacy of the Great Jubilee
Part 2: A Face to Contemplate
Part 3: Starting Afresh from Christ
Part 4: Witnesses to Love
Conclusion: Duc in Altum

In a previous post I discussed the introduction, the Incarnational context for the celebration. It concerns the gathering of time in recollection, a remembrance of the past is also a prophecy for the future.

In part 1 the Pope surveys the rich memories of the previous years (he had written a Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente for a three year preparation for the event, the great Jubilee of the birth of Christ, the Incarnation).  They include deep impressions of the young visitors to Rome, the throngs of pilgrims, a Eucharistic Congress, ecumenical outreaches, a purification of memory through asking forgiveness, a pilgrimage to the Holy land, and a Jubilee call for debt forgiveness, as proclaimed by the prophets of old.

Here is how John Paul II summarizes the core legacy of the Jubilee celebrations, which may serve as a statement of the legacy of his papacy:

But if we ask what is the core of the great legacy it leaves us, I would not hesitate to describe it as the contemplation of the face of Christ: Christ considered in his historical features and in his mystery, Christ known through his manifold presence in the Church and in the world, and confessed as the meaning of history and the light of life's journey.

Christ in historical time, the center of time, a man who walked in Galilee, prayed in Jerusalem, and killed at the hands of those who could not tolerate the truth of the Father. But also Christ in mystery, the Christ encountered in prayer and sacrament. This Christ is known because of the Church -- through a "manifold presence" of word, and sacrament, and saint, and service. And then Christ as confessed, acknowledged in our hearts and before all men, "as the meaning of history", its fulcrum he will say, and the light of the journey, a welcome light in the darkness of the world and in the darkness of our own souls.

Yes, to contemplate the face of Christ is the simple act of faith and love, the "one thing necessary," he reminds the Marthas (Lk 10:41-42). Contemplating the face of Christ should  "inspire in us new energy, and impel us to invest in concrete initiatives." It should. As St Philip Neri would say -- "WELL! when shall we have a mind to begin to do good?"

The initiatives must arise from prayer, apostolate is overflow from interior life. As a good Thomist, John Paul II also reminds us that action follows on being (Actio sequitur esse).  We must be followers of Christ before we do many things. And we become disciples by sitting at his feet, listening to his words, and contemplating his face.

This leads to the profound and prayerful meditation of part 2, "A Face to Contemplate." John Paul II leads us in prayer, draws us into contemplation.

John Paul II and education for the new millennium

GK - minstrel of faith

I have always loved the passage from Book Eight of Aristotle's Politics on education  -  the statesman must assemble the people to hear the bard:

There remains, then, the use of music for intellectual enjoyment in leisure; which is in fact evidently the reason of its introduction, this being one of the ways in which it is thought that a freeman should pass his leisure; as Homer says, "But he who alone should be called to the pleasant feast," and afterwards he speaks of others whom he describes as inviting "The bard who would delight them all." And in another place Odysseus says there is no better way of passing life than when men's hearts are merry and "The banqueters in the hall, sitting in order, hear the voice of the minstrel." It is evident, then, that there is a sort of education in which parents should train their sons, not as being useful or necessary, but because it is liberal or noble.

The bard, the minstrel, sing the songs about the gods and heroes -- so there is no better way of spending ones time, indeed, than to hear such songs of old. After all, Aristotle begins the final book of the Politics, VIII, with the statement that “the legislator should make the education of the young his chief and foremost concern.” He notes that most regimes neglect education. But education is necessary at the very least for the perpetuation of the regime, let alone for the over all excellence of the members and the city.

What should be the place for making man's heart merry and what manner of minstrel should Christians honor? A Catholic university would be the place. And the bards of Catholic culture its minstrels. (I am told that Professor MacIntyre, at a recent meeting of the ACPA, said that Catholics who wish to engage modern culture must combine the gifts of Waugh, Chesterton and Aquinas!) It would then live up to that claim to be a place of discovering joy in truth, according to Ex corde. And how now  does one find such glad tidings?

Here is a try: have each student come to study "each of the various disciplines within the context of a vision of the human person and the world that is enlightened by the Gospel, and therefore by a faith in Christ, the Logos, as the center of creation and of human history." Ex corde §16 Enlightened by the gospel. Faith in the logos. Center of history. This demand requires a personal orientation and an existential commitment. Then we must be "aided by the specific contributions of philosophy and theology." The problem is that Ex corde is brief, but to the point. Erstwhile core reformers easily pass this one by, because it is very existential, very specific, and very creedal. It carries a wallop much harder than the vague reference some make to integration or ethics. This remark is but the sign of a deep account of Christian existence, as explained in Novo millennio or Fides et ratio or Newman or Maritain.

Philosophy and theology do more than serve as formal principles of integration, although they do in fact to that. They are expressions of an existential integration of man with God, and of time with eternity, as lived in liturgy and sacrament. Here we should recall the passages from Novo millennio ineunte about Christianity and history. 

•  Christ is true fulcrum of history, to which the mystery of the world's origin and its final destiny leads §35
• the Incarnation is the pulsating center of time . . . the seed destined to become a great tree §5
• the Resurrection is event set at the centre of the mystery of time, prefiguring the last day when Christ will return in glory

That would in turn require faculty who could teach within such a vision, and who dwell liturgically with the Church. The campus life as well its classroom and curriculum would be imbued by the liturgical life of the Church and the mystery of the Paschal mystery.

University teachers should seek to improve their competence and endeavour to set the content, objectives, methods, and results of research in an individual discipline within the framework of a coherent world vision. Christians among the teachers are called to be witnesses and educators of authentic Christian life, which evidences attained integration between faith and life, and between professional competence and Christian wisdom. §22

Integration has become no more than a new shibboleth for bourgeois Catholicism as it tries to lay hold again upon the sacred aims of Catholic education in a secularist society. I say this because while "integration" is incanted daily, faculty continue to live in a dual world of specialized professionalism and weak sentiments of faith, exercised once a week but not within the discipline or near the classroom. The task is shunted over to the theologians and philosophers to speak in splendid isolation. The curriculum still lumbers on within the orbit of the secularized disciplines. Where is Christian culture? Where is salvation history? Where the Redeemer of Man?

I propose that all Catholic universities and all core reform be given the "Fulcrum test."  How does this program, this course, this curriculum, this professor . .  weigh on the fulcrum of history, the mystery of Christ and the world's origin and destiny?


I remember many years ago when my brother and I were undergraduates at Notre Dame; we were on an elevator in the Hesburgh Library with theologian Stanley Hauerwas and a Jesuit scholar whose name I cannot recall. The Jesuit was explaining to Hauerwas the nature of his research on the Bhagavad Gita. As the elevator doors opened on the first floor Hauerwas blurted out "What the dickens (it may have been another word) does that have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ?" There is the fulcrum test. I believe that Waugh and Chesterton would pass the test.

John Paul II as the ancient bard

John Paul II invokes the past, present and future as the ancient bard of Blake's poem:

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who present, past, and future sees; 
Whose ears have heard 
The Holy Word, 
That walked among the ancient trees,

Christians celebrated the jubilee in a unique way, for while we looked back to the past and commemorated the life, deeds, words of Jesus Christ, we also enter a living mystery, an ever-present source of knowledge and love. Indeed, a major theme of the Letter is the contemplation of the face of Christ. And the future is open for the growth of the kingdom of God and its consummation at the end of time. It is not for us to know the day or hour, so John Paul II launches out into the deep of a new millennium. But we are certain of the mystery of Christ's life, death and resurrection such that every Sunday is a "Jubilee" recollection within the present, looking forward to the end. John Paul says that "by celebrating his Passover not just once a year but every Sunday, the Church will continue to show to every generation 'the true fulcrum of history, to which the mystery of the world's origin and its final destiny leads'." §35

He elaborates as following: "The truth of Christ's Resurrection is the original fact upon which Christian faith is based (cf. 1 Cor 15:14), an event set at the centre of the mystery of time, prefiguring the last day when Christ will return in glory. We do not know what the new millennium has in store for us, but we are certain that it is safe in the hands of Christ.

Thus the Jubilee did more than celebrate a proud event of temporal endurance, such as a bi-centennial for a political constitution, and promises more than the unveiling of a new master plan for the future or product line for the next generation (I think of Steve Jobs at an MacWorld Conference and Expo). Rather, the Jubilee was a commemoration of the very ground, the very center of history. We forget that the pagan world still languished in the endless cycles and had no history beyond the chronicles of war or power. They had the mythic accounts, but they were pre-history, imaginative stories that could serve the role of ungirding a regime or a psychic episode of self-discovery. So in the Letter John Paul II proclaims this truth:

Christianity is a religion rooted in history! It was in the soil of history that God chose to establish a covenant with Israel and so prepare the birth of the Son from the womb of Mary "in the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4). Understood in his divine and human mystery, Christ is the foundation and centre of history, he is its meaning and ultimate goal.

 The discovery of history through the revelation of creation and covenant, and then incarnation and resurrection has been suppressed by the rationalism of the age, which has tried its own substitutes for (sacred) history, either the totalitarian gnostic myths of a great millennial Reich or the advent of the classless society. Or we have the more limited, but no less soul-killing, myth of liberal progress and enlightenment, originating with Comte and Mill, and culminating with Rawlsian original position and rules for public discourse, and other such Epigones of Voltaire, Rousseau and Kant.  "Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau: Mock on, mock on, tis all in vain!"

What is the meaning of history? Utopia, Reich, liberal progress, "tis all in vain." But the Jubilee recalls us to a primal and living truth. Christ is the foundation and center of history, he is its meaning and ultimate goal. And this truth is not a dry abstract affirmation, nor is it a gnostic escape from time. With an even better metaphor John Paul speaks about the "pulsating heart" of time.

His incarnation, culminating in the Paschal Mystery and the gift of the Spirit, is the pulsating heart of time, the mysterious hour in which the Kingdom of God came to us (Mk 1:15), indeed took root in our history, as the seed destined to become a great tree (Mk 4:30-32). §5

Pope John Paul II, on the hand prayed for the purification of memory and the acknowledgment of the sins of the members of the Church and a need for repentance -- "during the course of the first two millennia, the Gospel spirit did not always shine forth" (§6); but on the other hand, he looked to the concrete signs of life -- to its martyrs and saints of the past (especially in the 20th century) and to the great flood of pilgrims to the Eternal City of Rome for the Jubilee.

As for the saints and martyrs he said:

Holiness, whether ascribed to Popes well-known to history or to humble lay and religious figures, from one continent to another of the globe, has emerged more clearly as the dimension which expresses best the mystery of the Church. Holiness, a message that convinces without the need for words, is the living reflection of the face of Christ. §7

As for the Pilgrims:

I have often stopped to look at the long queues of pilgrims waiting patiently to go through the Holy Door. In each of them I tried to imagine the story of a life, made up of joys, worries, sufferings; the story of someone whom Christ had met and who, in dialogue with him, was setting out again on a journey of hope. As I observed the continuous flow of pilgrims, I saw them as a kind of concrete image of the pilgrim Church, the Church placed, as Saint Augustine says, "amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God".

We are the pilgrims, my friend, upon whom the Pope looked with love; and we hope to be among the saints. If we only hearken to the voice of the Bard. I return to clear voice of Blake in the Songs of Experience, so as to appreciate the work of Pope John Paul II: 

Hear the voice of the Bard! 

Who present, past, and future sees; 

Whose ears have heard The Holy Word, 

That walked among the ancient trees, 

Calling the lapsed soul, 

And weeping in the evening dew; 

That might control The starry pole,

And fallen, fallen, light renew! 

"O Earth, O Earth, return! 

Arise from out the dewy grass; 

Night is worn, 

And the morn Rises from the slumberous mass. 

"Turn away no more; 

Why wilt thou turn away? 

The starry floor, The watery shore, 

Is given thee till the break of day

 
John Paul beheld the "starry floor" of the sky and discerned the heart of time and he stepped upon the watery shore and recalled those words of Christ: "Duc in altum."

John Paul II on the New Millennium

On the occasion of the visit of Fr. Ciardi, who will speak on "Development of Christian Spirituality Through the Millennia," I would like to offer some meditations upon the Apostolic Letter, Novo millennio ineunte, issued at the close of the Jubilee, January 6, 2001. Please see our website for details of his speech on December 1st at 730 pm in Cullen Hall.

Our speaker will speak about a text from that document. John Paul II foretold that the “spirituality of communion” would be a characterizing factor in the new millennium: “Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion.”  Novo millennio ineunte, § 43

Communion is to be a hallmark of Catholic faith. Fr Ciardi will explore the meaning of communion for the new spirituality. He proposes to consider the following: This prophecy offered by the Pope, following a deep and gradual study of the signs of the times, was echoed by leading theologians of our era. Why would the Holy Spirit compose this new spirituality for our day? What is its relationship with previous spiritualities? In what ways is it a continuation and yet bearer of something new? This lecture offers a new dimension in spiritual depth for those searching for the beauty, clarity and integrity intrinsic to going to God in unity.

The call for communion is placed in the context upon a profound meditation on the central mystery of faith -- the Incarnation. The Incarnation roots the Christian faith in time, in history. So there are are rich invocations of history and time at the outset.

For example,  John Paul II said that the Jubilee, of Christ's birth 2,000 years ago, was lived "not only as a remembrance of the past, but also as a prophecy of the future." §3 By looking back to the life of Christ we in someway are also drawn forward to a fulfillment of time.

Or again, he said at the very outset of the Letter, he says:

At the beginning of the new millennium, and at the close of the Great Jubilee during which we celebrated the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Jesus and a new stage of the Church's journey begins, our hearts ring out with the words of Jesus when one day, after speaking to the crowds from Simon's boat, he invited the Apostle to "put out into the deep" for a catch: "Duc in altum" (Lk 5:4). Peter and his first companions trusted Christ's words, and cast the nets. "When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish" (Lk 5:6).

Duc in altum! These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb 13:8).

If "Be not afraid," are a watchword for the papacy along its various points, "Put out into the deep" (Duc in altum) must be the watchword for the dynamism and legacy of his papacy.

John Paul II lived in a fullness of historical awareness --

"to remember the past with gratitude" -- as a son of Poland he had a great sense of piety and gratitude for his parents, his homeland, his Church and his very life. There were many dark lessons, but he learned most of all that "love is stronger than sin" and stronger than death, so he always looks back with gratitude.

"to live the present with enthusiasm"  -- he was always enthusiastic about the young people, about meeting new people and with love for human beings and their actions and words and personal presence.

"to look forward to the future with confidence" -- from the outset of his papacy he looked forward with confidence to the year 2000 and as he stood in St Peter's in January 2001 he looked far forward with the confidence of faith -- put out into the deep. "When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish" (Lk 5:6)

A confident of the Pope rightly shared with me his thought that this Apostolic Letter should become a "Vade Mecum" for every Christian in the Third Millennium. In the next few posts I hope to give some indications why this is so.