Myth and the recovery of truth

Inviolable Truth

Josef Pieper, in Platonic Myths, argues that Plato (Socrates) treats certain of the myths as containing truths essential to the quest for wisdom, to philosophy and philosophers. "Plato held that the meaning contained in the myths is inviolable truth."  He explains and defends this thesis quite admirably. He also reminds us of "the chaotic diversity of interpretation" of Plato on myth.  Some suggest, for example, that he is, as usual, ironic concerning these statements or any avowals of faith; or others say he is being prudential so as not to upset the orthodoxy of the city; and some even say that his words express a mockery of the ancient myths. 

As I reflect upon my education over the years I must admit  that I usually learned such accounts of Platonic myth. From Straussians, of course, the prudential option is often adopted, but they also will show an appreciation of the deeper symbolic meaning of the myth; usually in way that the philosopher assumes the role of the hero of the myth in enacting or performing the deed of the myth. Alan Bloom thus explains the Republic this way -- "I went down to the Piraeus yesterday" is an enactment of the descent into Hades. But most of the professors I have heard prefer the rationalist Plato, the Plato who purportedly criticizes the myths and replaces them with true knowledge.

  Pieper realizes that a reader of Platonic dialogue must sort through the stories, parables and myths. And thus he finds that certain myths about human origins and end, and cosmic origin, are affirmed for their deeper truth, often in contrast to the Homeric and Olympian stories. The Timaeus provides a case in point: the cosmos is produced by the activity of god; there is a "maker and father of all" -- "a procreating Father." The truth is that the world is a reproduction or image of the higher being;  “we want to state why the founder did found all that has come into being and the totality of the world: because he is good. But the good person knows no kind of malevolence because of anything or against anyone. So, free from any kind of jealousy, he wanted everything to be as like him as possible. This, above all, is the highest origin of the world and its becoming – just as wise men also call him the most understanding. Therefore, because God wanted everything, so far as possible, to be good and nothing to be bad, he brought everything out of disorder into order.”

Pieper explains that Socrates does not “revoke” the myths or "shatter the certainty of myth." He does test them and clarify them. And he will say that "Battle prize is glorious and there is hope; not exactly as I described; but this or something like this is the way it will be with our souls."  He affirms the truth of symbolic speech; it is true such that "one can dare to live or die by it." Pieper charges that it is "rationalistic narrowness to say it is fantasy." The myths need constant interpretation to arrive at a more exact or deeper understanding.

Pieper's grand conclusion is this -- the inclusion of the sacred tradition of myth as an element of philosophizing is perhaps the most critical act of the philosopher. (55) In Leisure: the Basis of Culture, he states: "philosophy gets its life and inward stimulus from its counterpoint relationship with theology. That is where it gets its spice, its 'existential' salt."
 
Pieper concludes the book by stating that there are "the Christian of today is no 'further on' than Plato." We still depend upon hearing the story; it is not through an “absolute truth of reason,” or through experience, thinking or verification, but through the narration of events and actions that we receive our orientation to the first things and we must return to what we have heard.
 
In Fides et ratio Pope John Paul II made a statement remarkably similar to what Pieper argues concerning Plato on myth. Here is JP2's remark:

Human beings are not made to live alone. They are born into a family and in a family they grow, eventually entering society through their activity. From birth, therefore, they are immersed in traditions which give them not only a language and a cultural formation but also a range of truths in which they believe almost instinctively. Yet personal growth and maturity imply that these same truths can be cast into doubt and evaluated through a process of critical enquiry. It may be that, after this time of transition, these truths are “recovered” as a result of the experience of life or by dint of further reasoning. Nonetheless, there are in the life of a human being many more truths which are simply believed than truths which are acquired by way of personal verification. Who, for instance, could assess critically the countless scientific findings upon which modern life is based? Who could personally examine the flow of information which comes day after day from all parts of the world and which is generally accepted as true? Who in the end could forge anew the paths of experience and thought which have yielded the treasures of human wisdom and religion? This means that the human being—the one who seeks the truth—is also the one who lives by belief. Fides et ratio §31

Peter Kreeft's Account of Thomistic Personalism

In a previous post I mentioned the direction suggested by Cardinal Dinardo regarding the work of the Pope John Paul II Forum -- that we should explore the theme of beauty and the relation of faith and beauty. The Cardinal also recommends that we explore the theme of Thomism and modern philosophy, particularly the personalism and the use of phenomenology by John Paul II.

In conjunction with the  Center for Thomistic Studies, we invited Dr. Peter Kreeft to the campus of the University of St. Thomas to speak on "Thomistic Personalism: A Marriage made in heaven, hell, or Harvard?" (Find it here; a video will soon be posted as well)

We were honored to have this speech given for the 30th annual Aquinas Lecture. I consider his speech to be one of the very best papers I have heard on this topic.

Nihil Amori Christi: to prefer nothing to the love of Christ

We are very blessed to have as the speaker for the John Paul II Forum in March (Saturday March 12, 830 am-11 am)  Dom Philip Anderson, Abbot of Clear Creek Monastery, Oklahoma.

The coat of arms for the Abbot teaches us about the Abbot and the monastery:

The blue (azure) background, besides being often seen as a Marian color, represents truth and loyalty. The six pointed, gold star has several meanings. It represents Christ Himself, who says in the book of the Apocalypse (22:16), “I am the root and stock of David, the bright and morning star”. It mainly represents in this blazon, however, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose name has often been interpreted by Christian Saints as “Star of the Sea”. Finally, it reminds us of Peter of the Star, the founder of Fontgombault Abbey in France, Mother house of Clear Creek Abbey.

We also are reminded by the star of the comment of Pope John Paul II on St. Benedict -- "In this black night of history, St Benedict was a luminous star." (see our July 11 post on St. Benedict)

The Motto: NIHIL AMORI CHRISTI

These are the first words of a phrase used by Saint Benedict in his Rule (Chapter 4, Instrument 21) that has been a central inspiration of the monastic life, going back to the earliest centuries of the Christian faith. “To prefer nothing to the love of Christ”. More excellent even than the moral virtues of humility and obedience, the love of Christ belongs to the theological virtue of charity. This is what the monk attains to after having climbed the ladder of humility (Chapter7).

The Abbot will present two spiritual conferences on "Paradise Lost: The Rugged Road of the Beatitudes." He will provide Lenten meditations on the gospel using the insights and teachings of St. Benedict and Pope John Paul II.

Abbot Anderson and the Prior, Father Bethel, both grew up in Kansas, and were students of the late John Senior at the University of Kansas, the program for Christian Culture. (On John Senior, see this link.)

A homily by the Abbot, as well as other texts pertaining to the history of the Abbey maybe found on their website, found here)

Josef Pieper on Myth and Mystery

Josef Pieper

A  translation of a wonderful book by Josef Pieper is due out very soon from St. Augustine Press. It is entitled The Platonic Myths. (Visit St Augustine press here)

Mr. Fingerhut of the St. Augustine Press graciously allowed me to get an advanced copy for use with students as we await its impending publication. It is vintage Pieper, with another great vintage writer providing the introduction, namely Fr. James Schall. Fr. Schall writes that the book is "something that I have been looking for all my life, but did not know what I was looking for." Shades of Meno and the Socratic refutation of the sophists -- we are already searching for the whole in any part that we touch. And Socrates/Plato would rely upon a "true" myth at critical junctures of his dialogues. The modern "myth" about myth is that myths are flat out false or but mere fabrication. Pieper explains how in the dialogues of Plato, there is a range of story that is held as true, in some way. Usually they pertain to "eschatology" or last things, the judgment of the soul after death.

Here are the elements of the strict definition of “myth” as Pieper identifies them in Plato: the story or narration is (1)  a report of an event occurring between the divine and human spheres; (2) it uses symbolic speech; (3) the narrator is not the author, it is rather reported as "heard" from another and believed in some manner appropriate to symbolic speech or parable.

As for the first he says "stories which are in the proper sense mythical are played out between 'here' and 'beyond,' between the realms of the divine and the human. They deal with the activity of the gods insofar as it affects human beings, and with the activity of human beings insofar as it engages with the gods. Is there nothing beyond death or prior to "big bang"? Yes it is true that philosophical reasoning can infer propositions into the realm of what is unseen and immaterial. But the attention to such things are primed by the mythic accounts that ready us to consider them. It would be apriori and dogmatic to dismiss such things.

So symbolic speech must be used. Pieper puts it this way: "You are right, he says, symbolic speech is a
makeshift. It is not the real way to express the truth. But what if the real way is not available to us? This is the situation we find ourselves in." For Socrates himself said  "It is difficult, my friend, to express higher things without recourse to sense images. In this we are like the person who knows everything in a dream and in waking no longer knows anything." Statesman 277d


And finally, the narrator is not author, i.e., not Socrates or Plato. They report what they have heard. No doubt we find Socrates often probing the stories and engaging them on a philosophical level. Pieper says that the myths or stories are encrusted with layers of fabrication and elaboration. Some of the stories Socrates clearly rejects (Olympian gods committing outrage), But he seriously considers and says he believes particularly what Pieper calls the eschatological narrations at the end of the dialogues Gorgias, Phaedo, and Republic. Socrates said to Callicles "This, Callicles, is what I have heard and what I believe to be the truth." Gorgias 524a8 f.


So who first told them? I will read on and finish the book soon. But it did lead me to recall reading about Aristotle's attitude toward the pagan myths about the gods and found in Metaphysics 12.8:

Our forefathers in the most remote ages have handed down to us their posterity a tradition, in the form of a myth, that these substances are gods and that the divine encloses the whole of nature. The rest of the tradition has been added later in mythical form with a view to the persuasion of the multitude and to its legal and utilitarian expediency; they say these gods are in the form of men or like some of the other animals, and they say other things consequent on and similar to these which we have mentioned. But if we were to separate the first point from these additions and take it alone--that they thought the first substances to be gods--we must regard this as an inspired utterance, and reflect that, while probably each art and science has often been developed as far as possible and has again perished, these opinions have been preserved like relics until the present. Only thus far, then, is the opinion of our ancestors and our earliest predecessors clear to us.

Aristotle also respects the tradition -- what is handed down through the ages -- although he thinks it has been encrusted by others for political reasons. But rejection of the fabulous stories and questioning the political use of theology does not erase the original truth. And such truth is "inspired." The narrations contain a precious relic that endured from the shrouded mystery of old. Philosophy, according to its great founders, is not a purely "autonomous" endeavor born out of pure reason -- it begins and ends in wonder, in great measure because it begins and ends in myth, properly understood -- symbolic speech about the first things somehow always beyond our strict reason and creative manipulation.

St. Francis de Sales and lay spirituality

St. Francis de Sales is the Apostle of Cheerfulness and Hope. "His words are full of holy optimism, and so replete with common sense that no one can read them without encouragement, and without experiencing some portion of that divine love and hope which are characteristic of this most amiable Saint." Golden Counsels of Saint Francis de Sales (1948).

I was given a little booklet on this Saint when I was at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia (I was in the second or third graduating class, 1970). The school was staffed by the Oblates of Francis de Sales. I received much from these Oblates and owe them a great debt of gratitude. They deeply embodied the kindness  and humanism of their founder. I shall never forget various Oblates in class reciting Shakespeare with playful wit (Fr. Dean), or reading the Bible with booming voice (Fr. Mellon), or sharing a passage from Faulkner, Eliot or Blake with careful diction (Fr. Norman). And countless more, who taught mathematics, biology, chemistry also with great joy and aplomb. They were extraordinarily generous and thoughtful men who served the Church so well during those forty years from the founding of the high school to their withdrawal in 2008, due to lack of vocations, I presume.

I was often drawn to this saying of the Saint in the front of the little book of counsels: "Be Patient with every one, but above with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections; always rise bravely from a fall. I am glad that daily you make a new beginning. There is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think we have done enough."

He is celebrated, of course, as the great advocate of lay holiness and lay apostolate, especially with his book Introduction to the Devout Life, which still ought to be read by every lay Catholic. Pope John Paul II mentions him specifically in Christifideles Laici (On the laity):

We can conclude by reading a beautiful passage taken from St. Francis de Sales, who promoted lay spirituality so well.  In speaking of "devotion" that is Christian perfection or "life according to the Spirit," he presents in a simple yet insightful way the vocation of all Christians to holiness while emphasizing the specific form with which individual Christians fulfill it: "In creation God commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits, each one after its kind. So does he command all Christians who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to his character and vocation. Devotion must be exercised in different ways by the gentleman, the workman, the servant, the prince, the widow, the maiden and the married woman. Not only this, but the practice of devotion must also be adapted to the strength, the employment, and the duties of each one in particular . . . . It is an error, or rather a heresy, to try to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the shop of the mechanic, the court of princes, or the home of married folk. It is true, Philothea, that a purely contemplative, monastic and religious devotion cannot be exercised in such ways of life. But besides these three kinds of devotion, there are several others adapted to bring to perfection those who live in the secular state."

For the gentle saint, what a strong statement -- "it is an error, or rather a heresy, to try to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the shop of the mechanic, the court of princes, or the home of married folk." The Fathers at Vatican II said that the split between faith and life is one of the gravest errors of our day; for many, the error stems from a lack of knowledge of the faith or a lack of awareness of positive models for sanctification of the everyday. I suppose that St. Francis de Sales would say it is a heresy if it stems from the doctrine or teaching that faith is irrelevant to everyday life, or more commonly, that the secular world by definition must exclude faith or the secular world is too corrupt to be transformed.


In his Letter to the Church in America, Pope John Paul II challenged us this way  – "On a continent marked by competition and aggressiveness, unbridled consumerism and corruption, lay people are called to embody deeply evangelical values such as mercy, forgiveness, honesty, transparency of heart and patience in difficult situations. What is expected from the laity is a great creative effort in activities and works demonstrating a life in harmony with the Gospel." Ecclesia in America #44

The counsels of Francis de Sales are appropriate for developing just such  evangelical values. Consider some of his "Little Virtues" and "Maxims."

"The good humored putting up with small acts of selfishness and injustice from others."

"An agreeable manner of answering those who speak disagreeably with us."

"Charity is ascending humility; and humility is descending charity."

"There is nothing small in the service of God."

So Pope John Paul II affirms this spirituality in Christifideles Laici when he continues the passage after quoting St Francis de Sales:

Along the same line the Second Vatican Council states: "This lay spirituality should take its particular character from the circumstances of one's state in life (married and family life, celibacy, widowhood), from one's state of health and from one's professional and social activity. All should not cease to develop earnestly the qualities and talents bestowed on them in accord with these conditions of life and should make use of the gifts which they have received from the Holy Spirit." What has been said about the spiritual vocation can also be said-- and to a certain degree with greater reason-- of the infinite number of ways through which all members of the Church are employed as laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, building up the Mystical Body of Christ. Indeed, as a person with a truly unique life story, each is called by name to make a special contribution to the coming of the Kingdom of God. No talent, no matter how small, is to be. hidden or left unused (cf. Mt 25:24-27).

The Oblates of Francis de Sales embody that spirit. I am thankful to have learned from them.

F. X. Rocca on JP2 in WSJ

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL JAN 21, 2011
link here

By FRANCIS X. ROCCA

Vatican City

When Pope Benedict XVI declares Pope John Paul II "blessed" on May 1, bestowing on his predecessor the Catholic Church's highest honor short of sainthood, millions will watch from St. Peter's Square, on television and on the Internet. John Paul's beatification, which was officially announced last week, will be an occasion for recalling his eventful reign, and it will inevitably inspire comparisons with the man who now sits in his place. In many eyes, those comparisons will not prove favorable to Benedict.

The current pope is low-key, as Americans discovered during his 2008 visit. For all his charm, he lacks the gregariousness, physical presence and gift for the dramatic gesture with which the former actor John Paul could win over crowds.

Although a clearer and more accessible writer than John Paul, Benedict is far less at home in the age of electronic communications. His reign has been marked by a chain of public-relations disasters, most recently the widespread confusion over his remarks about the morality of condom use.

John Paul was also a much more commanding leader than his successor. It is impossible to imagine the late pope giving an interview of the kind that Benedict granted the German journalist Peter Seewald last year, in which he repeatedly admitted personal error and suggested that he is largely impotent to enforce many of his own policies within the church.

Nor has Benedict matched his predecessor's popularity among non-Catholics. An enthusiastic participant in inter-religious dialogue of all kinds, John Paul appealed to Muslims and Jews with historic apologies for Christian anti-Semitism and the sins of Catholics during the Inquisition and the Crusades.

The current papacy has been marked by heightened tensions with Muslims and Jews. Benedict's 2006 address in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a medieval description of the teachings of Islam's prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," was followed by violent protests in several Muslim countries. Benedict has also irritated Jews by readmitting an ultra-traditionalist bishop who turned out to be a Holocaust denier, and by honoring Pope Pius XII, who critics say failed to do or say enough against the Nazi genocide.

In secular eyes, John Paul ranks as one of the principal heroes of the Cold War, identified with scenes of striking Polish workers and the fall of the Berlin Wall. By contrast, Benedict's campaign to reverse the tide of secularism in Europe strikes most observers as quixotic. Of course, the fall of the Soviet Union hardly seemed a realistic goal when John Paul assumed the papal throne in 1978, and Benedict is one who thinks in centuries. But for the moment, in the crude terms of our politics and pop culture, John Paul comes off as much more of a "winner."

There is one important area in which Benedict's reputation stands to gain from comparison with his predecessor: his record on clergy sex abuse. It was Benedict, when still a cardinal, who took the initiative to launch the church's first unified process for investigating and punishing pedophile priests. Facing strong resistance within the Vatican, he pursued the powerful Rev. Marcial Maciel, the late founder of the Legion of Christ, who abused numerous children over his career. He was disciplined only after Benedict was elected pope. Whereas John Paul never met with victims of clergy sex abuse, Benedict has done so five times and has offered repeated public apologies for the crimes they suffered.

Overall, Benedict has shown himself content to be overshadowed by John Paul. He has described himself as one of the "little popes," a "simple and humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord," in contrast to his "great predecessor."

Yet in his deference to John Paul one can see perhaps the most important difference between the two men. The celebrity aura that surrounds the modern papacy clearly makes Benedict uneasy. "Standing there as a glorious ruler is not part of being pope," he told Mr. Seewald. "Is it really right for someone to present himself again and again to the crowd in that way and allow oneself to be regarded as a star?"

Of course, Benedict has never repudiated the spectacular pastoral approach of John Paul. But his more modest style turns attention away from himself and toward the essence, as he sees it, of his role as pontiff, as nothing more or less than "the representative of the Holy One."

Mr. Rocca is the Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service

Why He is a Saint: Wojtyla as Pope (c 2, pt 2)

With this post I conclude my summaries of Msgr. Oder's book Why He is a Saint.

Wojtyla as Pope, chap 2, pt 2

John Paul II wondered whether he should step down at age 75 or not; he consulted with Cardinal Ratzinger. They agreed that resignation would not be an option. Msgr Oder comments: "The decision not to leave the throne of St. Peter found its roots in the spiritual abandonment of self to God and in the faith in Divine Providence and in the trusty assistance of the Madonna." (122) He expressed it this way to his doctor: "there is no place in the Church for a pope emeritus." If an infirmity would incapacitate him, that would be another matter; but putting aside that eventuality, he must perform "the duties to which Christ our Lord has assigned me, for as long as he, in the mysterious designs of his Providence, shall wish."

I recall that press speculation about his resignation, or even his impending death, began as early as 1996. He was confident the Lord wanted him to bring the Church into the new millennium. Thus in 2000, he passed the age of eighty, and he said: "I ask him to deign to call me to Himself whenever he wishes. 'If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, we are the Lord's' (see Romans 14.8) In the concise chronology at the end of the book, Msgr. Oder points out that John Paul II made his last two voyages in 2004 (pilgrimages to Lourdes and Loreto); it is the same year he announced the special celebration of the yea of the Eucharist. On January 30, 2005 he recites the Angelus for the last time in public. On February 1 he is hospitalized. March 30 was his last public appearance as he blessed the pilgrims.

 Msgr. Oder says "In that last month of his life, Karol Wojtyla manifested in all its transparent fullness the essence of a life spent under the auspices of 'Totus tuus.'" He identified his suffering with Christ. On the Thursday before he died he asked to be read a passage from Sign of Contradiction, concerning the passage "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me." The people in the room prayed a litany. A nun present noticed that he was moved by the phrase in the litany "priest and victim," and he raised his hand to acknowledge it.

On April 1 he spoke the words of consecration from his bedside. He asked again to hear the Via Crucis and the Gospel of John.

On April second, his last day, Monsignor Dziwisz concelebrated Mass at his bedside. Cardinal Jaworski administered the Sacrament of the Sick. Dziwisz placed a small spoon with a few drops of consecrated wine on his lips. John Paul II did not open his eyes again. The priests knelt in thanksgiving after Mass, and while they were kneeling Karol Wojtyla turned his head slightly to the right and expired. His face was serene.

At his death, Socrates asked for a sacrifice to be offered; and his disciples said "such was the end . . . of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best."

Wojtyla knew that he was the sacrifice, as a disciple of Christ. He affirmed daily the offering of his life, with "Totus tuus". And shall it be said "Such was the end . . . of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the best, because he was both wise and pious; and just and charitable; he is a saint."

Why He is a Saint: Wojtyla as Pope (c 2, pt 1)

Wojtyla as Pope (chap 2)

The middle chapter of Msgr. Oder's book, Why he is a Saint, pertains to the papacy of Karol Wojtyla as John Paul II. As a lead in to the chapter Msgr Oder quotes Cardinal Wyszynski, primate of Poland, prior to his election; "He is a mystic, a poet, a shepherd, a philosopher, a saint. . . . but he is a bad administrator." (71) That does serve in a way to indicate the character of his life and papacy, although we can forget how much he did accomplish in the administrative field. He produced two codes of Canon Law (Western, 1983; Eastern, 1990), the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) and the reorganization of the Roman Curia (1988). He appointed many great Bishops and curial directors.

His approach to administration was always personal and relational. He drew upon the aid of his Polish confreres and he made initial appointments of some great Churchmen: Macharski to replace him, Martini, Ratzinger, Ruini to other important posts. Like all the popes he had to rely upon the secretary of state and the Congregation for Bishops. He was sometimes disappointed. He once said after being criticized -- "it is not that easy to find the right people." (84)

To best get the feel for the spiritual quality of his papacy and its bearing on his sanctity one must look beyond the administrative decisions, the great historic events, and even the mound of writings to see the interior; he himself said "They try to understand me from without. But I can only be understood from within."

Taking a look within, drawing upon the materials about John Paul II's spirituality as described in chapter 3, Msgr. Oder divides the periods of the Wojtyla papacy, not along some strict chronology or by historic events, but in a very unusual and striking way:

1. the enthusiastic papacy, filled with travel and the opening of new paths
2. the assassination attempt, the slow recovery and the period of learning from suffering
3. The period when Wojtyla was immobilized and in a wheel chair
4. the time of his death, "which had a paschal dimension and was an integral part of his life." (76)

What a striking idea, but so apt, that death is integral to life, and all the more for a saint, as it was for Christ!

Wojtyla began his pontificate with a visit to a Polish friend who was in the hospital in Rome; he constantly sought out the redemptive aspects of the suffering of his friends, as well as his own. Bishop Deskur, president of Pontifical Council for Social Communications, suffered a stroke on October 13, 1978. Wojtyla would say about the patients he met: "I count greatly, very greatly, on them -- for their prayers and sufferings provide me with a special strength, so that I may perform in a less unworthy manner my serious duties." (78) Dr Wanda Poltawska, a Catholic partisan fighter in Cracow was captured and tortured by the Nazis. She later became a psychiatrist and a friend of Wojtyla. He said he believed she suffered in part for him. These little stories frame the papacy in an interesting way and make clear that it was a spiritual journey, not a political, bureaucratic, or academic assignment.

Msgr Oder speaks little about the first phase of the papacy -- in part because it has been so well chronicled (e.g., Weigel, Witness to Hope), but also for the reason mentioned above, the search for the "inner significance" of the role in the life of a saint. In response to the question -- does the pope travel too much (he spent 822 days on the road), he responded "in human terms they are right. But it is Providence that guides us, and sometimes it suggests that we do something per excessum." (103) It is sometimes not appreciated how many trips he took within Italy (see p 116). He made 146 apostolic journeys in Italy and 104 abroad; he visit 259 Italian localities and 131 nations. Per excessum? Undoubtedly. Providential? To be sure.

His name was John Paul. He saw himself as the successor to St Peter, but also the heir to St. Paul "who as we know very well, never stayed long in one place: he was always traveling." He traveled as a teacher of the faith, but also as one setting out to learn about his people and the travail of the world. He frequently encountered the mysterium iniquitatis, the mystery of evil, and was a witness to the literal and figurative crushing of the human person. "Humanity crushed," he said, "Humanity cannot be crushed because God was crushed in Christ. This is difficult to understand: God crushed! Not even Peter can understand it." (112) He stood up for justice, he was a witness for hope, an example of forgiving reconciliation. His influence derived from "insisting on the central role of the human being and defending the value of the individual." Gaudium et spes 22. Redemptor hominis.

Faith, forgiveness, reciprocity -- these are the inner  lines of development that do much to explain things for which he is sometimes criticized -- holding a prayer day at Assisi (Benedict continues the practice), kissing the Koran, reciting the creed sans filioque (the historic Creed of Constantinople), giving communion to Brother Roger of Taize. The actions are not always what they appear to be; the traditionalists pounced upon them and continue to fill the books, magazines and blogosphere with the most uncharitable interpretations; Msgr. Oder does much to illuminate them.

The assassination attempt deepened the principles of his Papacy. 1981 was a critical year. Cardinal Wyszynski, the great champion of the Church against the totalitarians, died; Pope John Paul II was near fatally shot; and General Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland. John Paul would thank our Lady of Fatima for giving him a second life; he deepened his appreciation of the role of suffering and the providential hand of God in all events. He remonstrated with Jaruselski; he forgave his assassin (an unpublished letter to Ali Agca is here).

This Vicar of Christ still has much to teach us. And his legacy will best be understood when we rightly revere him as a saint and come to better understand the spiritual and mystical basis of his life, words, and deeds.

Why he is a saint: Wojtyla the Mystic (c 3, pt 2)

The second half of chapter three in Msgr Oder's Why He is a Saint discusses his life of prayer, piety, and suffering.

The section begins with this summary: "The life of Karol Wojtyla was an impressive synthesis of prayer and action. It was from prayer that he derived the fertility and effectiveness of his actions. Those who were his confidants noted that John Paul II was well aware that 'the pope's first responsibility towards the Church and toward the world is to pray' and that 'from prayer he derived the capacity of speaking the truth without fear, since one who is alone before God has no fear of men.'" (147)

Msgr. Oder recounts the numerous situations when John Paul II would take recourse to prayer: before appointing bishops, during political events (martial rule in Poland), discussing and writing his encyclicals, walking in the woods, etc. If need be he would use a utility room, a bathroom, any place he could hide away to turn to God in prayer. And one close to him reports: "So many times I saw his face, after contemplation and adoration, visibly changed and happy. During prayer he seemed to be in continual conversation with God, like Moses who spoke to God face to face. During prayer, Wojtyla did not notice anything that happened around him. He seemed to lose all sense of time, to the extent that his secretary at a certain point would have to shake him out of this extraordinary sense of concentration because other commitments awaited him." (151) Yet most of us are distracted by the commitments that await us and lose our concentration in prayer; Wojtyla cultivated this gift of prayer.

Wojtyla would arise at 5am for prayer; he would attend Mass at 7am.  He carried with him at all times, a piece of paper with a prayer that ended "Totus tuus, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus." The paper was folded into the shape of scapular and carried with him at all times. (155) I am reminded of Pascal's (an intense Christian, but not declared a saint)  Memorial, the paper he sewed into his coat with his exclamation in prayer before God. He also prayed the Angelus daily, as well as compline. He also had a special prayer for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here it is:

Holy Spirit, I ask of you the gift of wisdom for a better understanding of you and of your divine perfection. I ask of you the gift of Intellect for a better understanding of the essence of the mysteries of the mysteries of the holy faith. Give me the gift of Knowledge so that I may know how to orient my life in accordance with the principles of faith. Give me the gift of Counsel so that in all things I can seek counsel from you and can always find it in you. Give me the gift of Strength so that no fear or earthly motivations can take me away from you. Give me the gift of Piety so that I can always serve your majesty with filial love. Give me the gift of the Fear of God so that no fear or earthly motivations can take me away from you. (155-156)

I consider this prayer in the following light -- not only does his heroic life of virtue indicate that he was free of the mortal sins that weigh down the souls in hell and purgatory, and in this life (namely, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy, pride), he actively sought to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. His teacher, Father Garrigou Lagrange had this to say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit:

according to the teaching of St. Thomas, who considers them permanent infused habits, which are in every just soul that it may receive the inspirations of the Holy Ghost with promptness and docility. According to the fathers of the Church, the gifts are in the just soul like the sails on a vessel; the boat may advance by rowing, which is a slow and painful way of making progress; this is the symbol of the work of the virtues. It may also advance because a favorable wind swells its sails, which dispose it to receive, as it should, the impulsion of the wind. This analogy was indicated in a way by Christ Himself when He said: "The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh and whither He goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit." The gifts of the Holy Ghost have also been compared to the different strings of a harp which, under the hand of a musician, give forth harmonious sounds. Lastly, the inspirations of the gifts have been likened to the seven flames of the seven-branch candelabrum used in the synagogue. The Three Ages of Interior Life, part 3 chap. 22, passage found here)

Indeed the life of Pope John Paul II had much sail, because of his docility to the Holy Spirit.

Msgr. Oder explains special interest in the divine mercy, so it is appropriate that the day of the beatification is on this day. In his homily of June 7, 1997, Pope John Paul II said "The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me. It is as if history has inscribed it in the tragic experience of the Second World War. In those difficult years it was a particular support and an inexhaustible source of hope, not only for the people of Crakow but for the entire nation. This was also my personal experience, which I took with me to the See of Peter and which in a sense forms the image of this pontificate." In 2003 he revealed that he truned to divine mercy prior to accepting the chair of Peter. His first two encyclicals explore the theme of divine mercy, especially the second, explicitly on the mercy of God (Dives in misercordia). And of course he died on the vigil of the Divine Mercy.

Wojtyla's devotion to Mary is legendary. A few new things Msgr Oder brings to light -- Pope John Paul II would not allow the medical team to remove his blood stained scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel during the surgery after he was shot; he promised Mary many pilgrimages on foot if she would bring more seminarians to the near empty seminary in Cracow; he would frequently delay his schedule by stops to Marian shrines; he said of the rosary: "Our hearts can enclose in these decades of the rosary all of the facts that make up the life of an individual, a family, the nation, the Church, and all mankind. Thus the simple prayer of the rosary beats the rhythm of human life." (167)

Finally, Msgr. Oder recalls his embrace of suffering as a way of union with God: his "distinct mystical inclination found full expression in the manner in which he lived and conceived suffering as a form of expiation and as a gift of himself to mankind." (170) He would thank God for all the suffering he endured, and his pontificate is marked by much suffering. Along with the stay after the shooting in 1981, the stays included 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 2005. Msgr Oder tells us he spent 164 days at Gemelli Polyclinic dubbing the clinic "Vatican Number 3."He said "I ask myself what God is trying to tell me with this disease." And in 1984 he issued Salvifici doloris (The Salvific Power of Pain). In 1997 he said pain receives a new light in Christ as it becomes a "positive collaboration in the project of salvation," and it is no longer wasted energy but "transformed by divine love." But pain must also generate "solidarity, dedication and generosity in all those who suffer and in all those who hear the summons to attend them and aid them in suffering." This evening a friend of mine suggested that Pope John Paul II would become a doctor of the Church. His teaching on suffering and mercy may well achieve that level.

Throughout his life John Paul II recited the stations of the cross every Friday; whether in his on chapel or on the road, without fail he would meditate on each station. One man reported seeing him do this on a helicopter during their travel. On the day before he died, no longer able to talk, he wrote down "Via crucis," and a nun read the stations out loud and the Holy Father traced a cross with his finger every time a station was read. He was truly a Holy Father.

Why he is a saint: Wojtyla the Mystic (c 3, pt 1)

Wojtyla as Mystic (chap 3)

This chapter is simply superb in opening up the character of Pope John Paul II. The second paragraph provides a very good summary:

"The existential path of Karol Wojtyla takes its light and its first principles from his full adherence to Christ, from his certainty of being in his hands and never being deprived of his love. It was a spirituality expressed with extraordinary intensity by the words of St Paul: "it is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20) and in it took root not only John Paul II's exercise of virtues to a heroic degree but also his ability to establish real relationships with others in keeping with Jesus' statement: 'I have called you friends' (John 15:15."

Msgr. Oder comments that Wojtyla was "completely willing to accept the gift that God was offering him." (135) His life was the "progressive discovery of the power and beauty of the word of God and its superiority to the words of men." I thought of his description in Fides et ratio of the project for philosophers as developing a philosophy "consonant with the word of God." How could a philosopher who has received the gift of faith aspire to anything less?

As mentioned in a previous post, Wojtyla's commitment to poverty was extraordinary. He gave away his coats, sweaters, shoes, cars, money, rings -- he was always willing to sacrifice for those in need. Msgr. Oder explains how this attitude was rooted in an inner liberty emblematic of his relationship to all of creation; a decisive sign of this liberty, I think, is found in this comment by Oder: poverty "was authentically experienced at an inner level, free of the slightest ambition to make a personal impression." (141) People blessed with gifts often succumb to the desire or ambition to make an impression, to receive validation from others, but Wojtyla rooted himself so deeply in Christ through prayer he was truly among "the poor in spirit."

Msgr. Oder says that his book A Sign of Contradition (1976) is the "symbolic apex of his ascetic progression." See Luke 2:35 on the prophetic statement about the Christ child as a sign of contradiction At the center of this retreat given to Pope Paul VI and the curia, Wojtyla says that we must return to Christ the hour in the garden when he was abandoned by his disciples:"The Church is incessantly summoned by its Lord to 'recover' in a certain sense that lost hour, by a vigil of prayer that joins it in the most profound way with the Savior who is on the verge of acheiving his mission of redemption." (144-145)

Msgr. Oder then summarizes the mounds of testimony to outline a spiritual profile of Wojtyla's life. It is as follows in an abbreviated form:

1. A constant awareness of the presence of God and a wholehearted love of God.

2. A fascination with the mystery of the human person and a solicitude for its salvation.

3. A strong sense of justice and devotion to those hurt or marginalized

4. Openness to dialogue and commitment to truth

5. Respect for diversity of vocations and collaboration with the laity

6. Authentic piety -- Trinitarian, Marian, veneration of saints

7. Love of the Church, committed to study of her doctrine (and documents of Vatican II)

8. Industriousness

9. Intellectual honesty

10. Refinement of culture

Why he is a saint: Wojtyla the Man (Chap. 1)

By L. S. Andrews (Painting at Franciscan University)

Msgr Oder begins his account, Why he is a saint, with a chapter on the man. He emphasizes Wojtyla's capacity for friendship. "he was a genuine and deeply human individual, and his life was filled with joy, enthusiasm, and generosity." (11) He lost his mother and brother at an early age; he heard his father exclaim over the coffin of his older brother, "Thy will be done." he was no stranger to suffering. But it made him more human and open to others. He had great talent as an actor and he aspired to become an actor. But he was also drawn deeply to spiritual life and service -- 'two demanding paths would confront him with a difficult choice." (20) He heard the call of Jesus Christ to enter the priesthood. 

It took an act of great courage; the Nazi occupation banned much of the Catholic practice; he made a pilgrimage to Jasna Gora, even though it was forbidden. The Nazi occupiers took over the seminary building fror their use. The seminarians studied in secret. They studied hard and prepared themselves for priesthood. One fellow seminarian recalled "above all his kindness, his benevolence, and his sense of comradeship. He conversed easily, did his best to understand . . . He spoke sparingly and listended more than he talked." (26)

He was devoted to prayer; adoration of the Eucharist; Marian devotions. He would spend large amounts of time as a parish priest before the sacrament sometimes on the frigid floor with his arms outstretched. He loved working with the young people in his parish. HE would teach them, hike with them, sing with them, stage mystery plays at Church.

He was intellectually very gifted; despite the oppression of his homeland and the press of Church duties he completed dissertations on John of the Cross and another on Max Scheler, indicating the breadth of his interests. He raised the academic standards of the diocesan seminaries. He was "a man of deep and vast cultural learning."

He defended his people against the many injustices of the communist regime.

He participated actively in Vatican II. Father Congar said "Wojtyla made a very strong impression. He personality is imposing. It radiates a magnetism, an attraction, a certain prophetic force, very calm but indisputable." (45)

He was a man who sought to establish solidarity among people; from his early friendships with Jews in Krakow, to his efforts to reconcile Poles and Germans, he was keen to "overcome the wounds of the past, to encourage reconciliation among peoples, and to look to the future with a new spirit." (50)

He considered dialogue fundamental. The atmosphere around Wojtyla was always "cordial, serene, fraternal" (51) In a later chapter MSgr Oder says a hallmark of his life was "openness to dialogue with everyone, a willingness to take into consideration all sincere criticism and every precious contribution from others, always joined with the firm determination to annouce and defend the truth: the whole truth, the unabridged truth, even when it is inconvenient and provokes opposition." (146)

He was always devoted to the poor, frequently giving the coat off his back to those in need. He supported women who needed assistance during pregnancy; he was a staunch defender of life and zealous minister to the sick.

He was courageous and calm under the pressures of communist oppression; his enemies reported that during official questioning he would be relaxed, confident, smiling, with "great freedom in his thinking. He was in no hurry to give answers, which were clear and logical." (63)

He was a great patriot who loved his country deeply, knowledgeable of its history, literature and traditions.

Why he is a saint

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, the leading advocate for John Paul II's sainthood cause published a book entitled "Why He is a Saint: The Life and Faith of Pope John Paul II and the Case for Canonization" (New York: Rizzoli, 2010) ISBN 978-0-8478-3631-4. I found a copy at Borders bookstore.


Msgr. Oder has sifted through the testimony of 114 persons, along with other documents and writings, amounting to thousands of pages of documentation about the life and thought of Pope John Paul II. These were condensed into four volumes of the "Posito" or the case for his canonization. The 189 page book published last year provides us with a brief over view of the "reputation for saintliness of John Paul II." I would like to make a few posts summarizing the summary of the book.


To provide the most simple answer to the question "why is he a saint?" the book provides this answer -- he was a man of constant prayer who lived the beatitudes. He suffered patiently; he sacrificed joyfully; he served gladly; he loved deeply; he spoke truthfully. He was a saint on earth, so too now in heaven.

Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday

Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. See Vatican announcement here.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te.  
Every day we thank Thee. 

See earlier post at Whispers in the Loggia here.

TE DEUM laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.	O GOD, we praise Thee: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.	Everlasting Father, all the earth doth worship Thee.
Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi Caeli et universae Potestates;	To Thee all the Angels, the Heavens and all the Powers,
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant:	all the Cherubim and Seraphim, unceasingly proclaim:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.	Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.	Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,	The glorious choir of the Apostles,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,	the wonderful company of Prophets,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.	the white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia,	Holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee:
Patrem immensae maiestatis:	the Father of infinite Majesty;
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;	Thy adorable, true and only Son;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.	and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.	O Christ, Thou art the King of glory!
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.	Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum.	Thou, having taken it upon Thyself to deliver man, didst not disdain the Virgin's womb.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.	Thou overcame the sting of death and hast opened to believers the Kingdom of Heaven.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.	Thou sitest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.	We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.	We beseech Thee, therefore, to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.	Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.
V. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.	V. Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thine inheritance!
R. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.	R. Govern them, and raise them up forever.
V. Per singulos dies benedicimus te.	V. Every day we thank Thee.
R. Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.	R. And we praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever.
V. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.	V. O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day.
R. Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri.	R. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.
V. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.	V. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee.
R. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.	R. O Lord, in Thee I have hoped; let me never be put to shame.

Dom Paul Delatte on the Order of St Benedict

Dom Delatte, Third Abbot of Solesmes

"We will survive as long as God is first in our lives: we shall abdicate any right to exist if we ever shelter ourselves behind any human pursuit whatever -- honor, reptation or learning -- in order to refuse God first place and encroach on the time consecrated to God's serice and honor." 1914

"The conventual life proper to the Order of St. Benedict can be summed up in one word: family life, a community life grouped around the fatherly authority of the abbot, the common life shared by the brethren.

All natural and supernatural things are carried out on the level of family, the domestic family, the family formed by the parish or the diocese, that immense family that is the Church in time and eternity. It is the most natural form of life, the most supernatural, the healthiest, the sweetest, the most continuous too, since it is the form of life in society in both time and eternity." Dom Paul Delatte, 1899

"Through the family passes the primary current of the civilization of love, which finds therein its social foundations." -- John Paul II Year of the Family, Letter to Families

"An excellent sign of a vocation to the contemplative life is described in the passage of Ecclesiasticus: Pulchritudinis studium habentes, pacificantes in domibus suis: The just men of old studied beauty, they caused peace and order in their houses. Study of beauty does not necessarily mean artistic taste or artistic talent; but it implies the habit of doing nothing by halves, of realizing perfect purity, and a delicacy of disposition that does not suffer the petty passions of the world we have renounced to enter our souls again under any disguise. Courtesy and refinement also, in our relations with God as with our brethren, flow from this love of beauty; as do likewise an intelligent love of the Divine Office, of its rites and of its chants." --   The Rule of St. Benedict: a Commentary by Right Rev. Dom Paul Delatte, OSB, third Abbot of Solesmes. Translated by Dom Justin McCann, OSB

A note: Jacques Maritain wrote, "After the greatest of our benefactors, he who engendered us to faith, our godfather Léon Bloy, we have a great debt of gratitude to many envoys of God who aided and counseled us spiritually, like Dom Delatte, Abbé of Solesmes."

What is Philosophy?

To understand the vocation of the Catholic philosopher one must first answer the question, "what is philosophy?" Maritain in Introduction to Philosophy, said: “Philosophy is the science which by the natural light of reason studies the first causes or highest principles of all things -- is in other words, the science of things in their first causes, in so far as these belong to the natural order.”

The shocking term in the above definition is the word "science." Philosophy is a science, according to Maritain. Obviously there is a certain equivocation if one has already reduced the scope of knowledge to the realm of that which is strictly observable and quantifiable. Maritain follows the tradition of Aristotle according to which the term science designates certain knowledge of a thing through its causes. What are the causes? Is purpose a cause, is form a cause? You see one must philosophize to even define philosophy, let alone science.

Maritain thought that the reduction of the meaning of science derives from a prior decision, a prior attitude, to becomes masters and owners of nature. Maritain feared that the emphasis upon efficacy and pragmatism obscured the fundamental principles of philosophy.C. S. Lewis also pointed out in the Abolition of Man that "when we understand a thing analytically and then dominate and use it for our own convenience, we reduce it to the level of 'Nature' in the sense that we suspend our judgements of value about it, ignore its final cause (if any), and treat it in terms of quantity." This attitude is extended all the way to include human beings, now also reduced analytically to mere matter in motion, hence the Abolition of Man.

This is why Maritain’s philosophical efforts must begin with his notion of the intuition of being. We must be able to recognize and affirm the wholeness and integrity of reality in its being. Things are substances with various capacities to act and be acted upon. Form and finality are crucial to what they are and to our understanding of what they are. Once we can affirm the being of things, the reality of the world with an integrity deeper than our reductionist science, we can come to acquire the habit of philosophical thinking. about man, God and the world. Maritain entitled one of his books "The Range of Reason" in order to signify the full sweep of philosophical achievement as it encompasses an approach to God, the soul, justice, and truth.

Science will try to extrapolate from science to create fables and myths to answer these questions, inevitably arising from the deeper yearning for a true philosophical approach to the big issues. The ever-recurring temptation of science is the one first initiated so well by Lucretius – the poeticizing of the mechanisms of the world. Edward Wilson consciously invokes this same muse. The great questions of meaning about man, God and the world must lie beyond the scope of positive or empirical science. But science will make its poetic attempt, often doing bad theology rather than doing none at all. Also he criticizes the forms of contemporary philosophy because they bracket the question of being. As forms of epistemological idealism they trap the thinker within his own mind and never experience the relish of true being. The great vision of Christian renewal of temporal structures, the true activation of the temporal mission of the lay Christian, requires a preparation in the order of philosophy and spirituality. Maritain says that it will require “a great and patient work of revitalizing in the order of intelligence and the order of spirituality.”

Pope John Paul II defines philosophy in his encyclical letter Fides et Ratio (On the Relationship between Faith and Reason, 1999).  Issued on the Feast Day of the Triumph of the Cross, the encyclical also criticizes the reductionism of modern thinking. The mystery of the cross plays a prominent role in the relationship between faith and reason – the cross is said to be a “reef” whose submerged mystery will either break up the relationship between faith and reason (actually he says that reason may come to grief on the shoals of its devising) or reason will be freed through the mystery of the cross to set forth upon a “boundless ocean of truth.” With such nautical metaphors, one thinks by way of contrast of both the timidity of a Locke and the temerity of a Nietzsche. Locke says at the outset of the Essay that we should avoid the "vast Ocean of Being" wherein a man has no sure  footing; he recommends that the mind rest content with its short tether, because if the  mind is not suited for metaphysical speculation, it is suited for practical  matters --  "convenience" and "virtue" he says. Nietzsche on the other hand launches his hopes for the unbounded sea after the death of God. For John Paul, the cross represents the mystery of love, which cannot be eliminated and which provides the “ultimate answer” reasons seeks. Neither Locke nor Nietzsche would be characterized as philosophers of love. Jacques Maritain, on the other hand, was often characterized thusly. He saw fit to include a text of Raissa in The Peasant of the Garonne, “The True Face of God, or Love and Law.” Thus the last line of his book is Raissa’s -- “Love creates trust.” So much for the myth of the bitter old man’s last testimony. Maritain was a philosopher who lived in the mystery of the cross. Maritain’s was a Christian philosophy, a "philosophical speculation conceived in dynamic union with faith" (#76). The debates about the meaning, coherence and desirability of Christian philosophy were a matter of much debate a generation ago. The Pope’s encyclical provides a new stimulation for revisiting those debates.

Pope John Paul II commends specific thinkers by name as examples of the proper relationship between faith and reason, Edith Stein, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Etienne Gilson, and Jacques Maritain. They exhibited the “indispensable requirements” for an authentic philosophy “consonant with the Word of God” (§80-84). The first thing that philosophy must do is "recover its sapiential dimension as a search for the ultimate and overarching meaning of life ...... this sapiential dimension is all the more necessary today, because the immense expansion of humanity's technical capability demands a renewed and sharpened sense of ultimate values" (ibid.)   This leads to the second requirement, viz., "that philosophy verify the human capacity to know the truth, to come to a knowledge which can reach objective truth by means of that adaequatio rei et intellectus to which the Scholastic Doctors referred .”(#82).  The first two requirements entail a third: "the need for a philosophy of genuinely metaphysical range, capable, that is, of transcending empirical data in order to attain something absolute, ultimate and foundational in its search for truth." (#83)   These three themes mark the work and achievement of Jacques Maritain, from beginning to end. They are the great themes of the work of any philosophy worthy of the name.

Vocation of Philosophy

The vocation of the Catholic philosopher today is tied to the meaning and import of the Vatican Council II. Does the position of the Church in the modern world require the abandonment of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas and the embrace of modern philosophy? Does respect for the autonomy and progress of the secular world require a separation from the guidance of doctrine and the formation of faith? Is it the fate of Catholic philosophers to be absorbed into the professional cadres of academia and fragmented into the rival ranks of secular philosophies? Must the great tradition of Catholic philosophy disappear with but a faint trace in the journals of the historically minded? Not according to the man who fermented Catholic intellectual life for decades prior to the council and was considered a mentor by Pope Paul VI, namely Jacques Maritain. And not according to the man who was present at the council and who worked to craft one of its key documents (The Church in the Modern World), and later became the Pope who steadied the Church in its post-conciliar waverings, namely Karol Wojtyla.

According to their lights, the Church and the world need the philosophy of St. Thomas now more than ever; the efforts of the laity to “build the earth” and discover the   excellence of the everyday calls for the aid of divine grace and the light of faith; Catholic philosophers and thinkers, however dispersed throughout the ranks of academia and wherever present in the deliberations of the councils of the world or engaged in dialogues in galleries and assemblies, must retain the strong flavor of the salt of the gospel. Neither giddy with the superficial hopes of the progressives nor embittered with the shrill despair of the traditionalists, Maritain and Wojtyla brought the strength of their philosophical character (habitus) to confront the many challenges that face the Church in the modern world.

In 1967 Maritain offered his book, The Peasant of the Garonne, as a corrective, a rebuke to extremes he playfully named the “sheep of panurge” and  “ruminators of holy alliance.” Maritain attempts to stabilize the core meanings of the council in light of history, spirituality, and philosophy. Pope John Paul II has accomplished the corrections and he has stabilized the core meanings much in the vein traced by Maritain in Peasant. But much still waits to be discovered. The call for renewal is still waiting for intelligent and generous response. Maritain’s account of the intellectual and spiritual conditions for a true renewal provide us with much to consider.  Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et ratio expands and deepens these considerations.

St. Francis de Sales

Saint Francis de Sales by Ola Wolpe 1977
Oil-tempera on board, 51 x 39.7 cm

St. Francis de Sales also understands the vocation of the artist to be fundamentally grounded in the vocation of offering thanksgiving for the beauty of creation:

This passage is from C. F. Kelley, The Spirit of Love (1953)

When St. Francois de Sales speaks of man's "rightful calling," a phrase he frequently uses, what does he mean? Perhaps his understanding of a "rightful calling," a rightful vocation, is one which is partially determined by a proper understanding of the word art. Unfortunately this word now tends to be restricted to aesthetics, to the production of pleasing objects. Though sixteenth and seventeenth century France was already witnessing the breakdown of its lawful meaning, the philosophy of St. Francois could only subscribe to a conception of art which only was reduced to theology, but which basically meant a rational control over some special phase of human life or environment. It is by art, by techne, to use the Greek equivalent, that man subordinate external nature (and his own nature) , so as to achieve his rational purpose in life which, for St. Francois meant "showing forth God's goodness." Without art, techne reduced to God, man would not exist. Environment and his own lower nature would overwhelm him. . . . If the result of one's art is useful it enables one to realize his own and mankind's rational end, then the vocation determined by that art and its resultant work is a rightful calling. "Union in distinction makes order; order produces agreement; and proportion and agreement in complete and finished things, make beauty." And beauty is the showing forth of God's goodness." . . . there is the vocation of thankfulness to God whereby one uses the things of God with gratitude, with a view toward creation for use and not for profit. In this calling the creator's work becomes the symbol of thanksgiving, the creator never forgetting that symbolism is the vision of the Infinite in the finite, that if it usurps the place of reality it becomes idolatry.

On artist Ola Wolpe (1902-1985) visit this link.

"Society Needs Artists"

Cyprian Norwid (1821-1883)

“Beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up”
-Cyprian Norwid

"He created the human being, the noblest fruit of his design, to whom he subjected the visible world as a vast field in which human inventiveness might assert itself."
 - John Paul II, Letter to Artists

The Philosopher Pope draws a very wide scope for the realm of art; it encompasses the whole of life. He begins with Genesis. God the creator endows his creature with the capacity for craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is an image of the creator, a pale but powerful image nevertheless. Human beings do not create from nothing, rather they fashion out of the givenness of things. John Paul II interprets the human dominion over the earth as a mandate for art. This notion soars beyond the idea of stewardship to something more noble:

God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman's task. Through his “artistic creativity” man appears more than ever “in the image of God”, and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous “material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion over the universe which surrounds him. §1

All humans receive this "spark" of creativity. But the "artist" more narrowly defined (fine art) has a special role to play, and it is essential, according to the Philosopher Pope, that their gift be transformed by religion. Why? They have a greater consciousness of their power, their gift --

That is why artists, the more conscious they are of their “gift”, are led all the more to see themselves and the whole of creation with eyes able to contemplate and give thanks, and to raise to God a hymn of praise. This is the only way for them to come to a full understanding of themselves, their vocation and their mission.

The abuse of human power stems from the failure to acknowledge the gift-like character of existence; artists, at times the greatest abusers of the gift, can rise to being one of the greatest witnesses to gift.So when John Paul II asserts that society "needs artists" he is not engaging in a sentimental attachment to "art for art's sake," nor is he endorsing some separate realm for an elite group of specialists or creative few.

Society needs artists, just as it needs scientists, technicians, workers, professional people, witnesses of the faith, teachers, fathers and mothers, who ensure the growth of the person and the development of the community by means of that supreme art form which is “the art of education”. Within the vast cultural panorama of each nation, artists have their unique place. Obedient to their inspiration in creating works both worthwhile and beautiful, they not only enrich the cultural heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but they also render an exceptional social service in favor of the common good.

John Paul understands art as a factor in the "growth of the person" and the development of the community. How does art accomplish this? It must be connected to the awareness of the gift-like character of the whole of existence, from materiality to social forms and cultural heritage. Art is essentially connected to love.

The particular vocation of individual artists decides the arena in which they serve and points as well to the tasks they must assume, the hard work they must endure and the responsibility they must accept. Artists who are conscious of all this know too that they must labor without allowing themselves to be driven by the search for empty glory or the craving for cheap popularity, and still less by the calculation of some possible profit for themselves. There is therefore an ethic, even a “spirituality” of artistic service, which contributes in its way to the life and renewal of a people. It is precisely this to which Cyprian Norwid seems to allude in declaring that “beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up”.

Is it possible for artists to develop such a spirituality of artistic service in a society in which fame and notoriety drapes its pall upon every endeavor and commercial interests gobble up whatever is popular or controversial.

Cyprian Norwid has a profound impact upon Karol Wojtyla. As Weigel notes, the work of this  Polish romantic poet was an effort "to probe the truth of things through art, and a deliberate rejection of 'art for art's sake'." (Witness to Hope, 35) He wrote extensively about the dignity of work and respect for the worker. "Work accepted with love is the highest manifestation of human freedom." What does Norwid mean -- how does beauty enthuse us for work? Is it that beauty makes work worthwhile after all, whatever it may be?  What kind of work will raise us up? Is it the integrity of work? The root must be love. Beauty rouses in us a love; so beauty can lead us to accept work with love. Love is primarily love of the person, love of people; but it must also include the love of the excellence of the work itself.

I think of the marvelous scene in One Day in the Life (Solzhenitsyn) in which the men build a brick wall and the main character is enthused for the work, even in sub-freezing temperature, even in the context of an absurd social situation, building a wall that is really for naught; yet the integrity of the work, the cooperation of the men -- it is a thing of beauty in the midst of degradation.

In the West, we have little such degradation; and yet "beauty enthused work" seems also rarer than it should be. So indeed, Weigel points out "Norwid criticized what he regarded as the crass materialism he found in the West . . . Technical progress was spiritually empty; a genuine civilization, a real history, could not be built on this basis alone." (35-36) And yet we still scorn the very idea of a "civilization of love." Conservatives thinks it lacks the stern stuff of their "realism" and they balk at the raised standard for judgment and action (e.g., universal destination of goods); liberals think it lacks the sweep of their "compassion" i.e., they balk at the stand on high principle which limits the calculations of utility for the greatest number.

But perhaps we misunderstand its meaning -- it is neither effete nor sentimental nor limiting nor inhumane but rather the civilization of love is firmly placed in the calloused hands of the laborer, the bleary nights and joyful days of family devotion, and the venerable hands of the priest at the altar, as well as the exquisite craftings of color, sound, and words more commonly called "art."

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece. It is important to recognize the distinction, but also the connection, between these two aspects of human activity. §2

Incarnation and Art

Chagal

from the "Christ window," 1970

Fraumunster, Zurich, Switzerland

At a recent meeting with Daniel Cardinal Dinardo (Archbishop, Galveston-Houston), some members of the Pope John Paul II Forum asked the Cardinal Archbishop what aspects of the legacy of Pope John Paul II he would most like us to pursue and highlight. He was emphatic in his statement that he thought it was the connection between faith and the love of beauty. Thus, I have been re-reading his Letter to Artists (1999) (found here) As the Christmas season comes to a close I offer some thoughts from Pope John Paul II on the great inspiration for beauty that flows from the mystery of the Incarnation. These passages are from his Letter to Artists (1999), §5.

The Law of the Old Testament explicitly forbids representation of the invisible and ineffable God by means of “graven or molten image” Dt 27:15), because God transcends every material representation: “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14). Yet in the mystery of the Incarnation, the Son of God becomes visible in person: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son born of woman” (Gal 4:4). God became man in Jesus Christ, who thus becomes “the central point of reference for an understanding of the enigma of human existence, the created world and God himself”. (See Fides et ratio §80)

Any understanding of images must respect both the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between the image and the original -- on the one hand, the image is NOT the original and so it must obscure or hide the reality behind it. Fittingly, therefore, would one refuse any image for God so as to emphasize the transcendence  of God and admit the poverty of the human capacity for seeing or understanding him. But an image also has a positive dimension, it betokens a presence as well as an absence. So an image is a way to the original, a refraction of the intelligible mystery that is. With Christ we enter into a totally new situation because he is the perfect image of the Father. Christ intensifies the mystery of existence as he serves as the "central point of reference" for all understanding of man, world, and God himself. Art and philosophy both will be drawn to the life of Christ to enter more deeply into the mystery or "enigma" of human existence and our relationship to God.

This prime epiphany of “God who is Mystery” is both an encouragement and a challenge to Christians, also at the level of artistic creativity. From it has come a flowering of beauty which has drawn its sap precisely from the mystery of the Incarnation. In becoming man, the Son of God has introduced into human history all the evangelical wealth of the true and the good, and with this he has also unveiled a new dimension of beauty, of which the Gospel message is filled to the brim.

This paragraph is very rich and memorable. Art itself is a kind of "epiphany" and Christ is the "prime epiphany" as Pope John Paul II writes. "God who is mystery" yet shows himself to us. Revelation. From the prime epiphany there has flowered forth a great array of beauty. Walk through any art gallery in this country (almost) to find the beauty of the prime epiphany. In the beauty of the lillies . . .  And this art is not a set of museum pieces. As the Incarnation is not a thing of the past, but a present reality, so too the art continues to radiate. John Paul II correctly notes that  "the Son of God has introduced into human history all the evangelical wealth of the true and the good," and a "new dimension of beauty." The Gospel is filled to the brim -- and it is an inexhaustible source for the beautiful. And this is true for the Bible as a whole --

Sacred Scripture has thus become a sort of “immense vocabulary” (Paul Claudel) and “iconographic atlas” (Marc Chagall), from which both Christian culture and art have drawn. The Old Testament, read in the light of the New, has provided endless streams of inspiration. From the stories of the Creation and sin, the Flood, the cycle of the Patriarchs, the events of the Exodus to so many other episodes and characters in the history of salvation, the biblical text has fired the imagination of painters, poets, musicians, playwrights and film-makers. A figure like Job, to take but one example, with his searing and ever relevant question of suffering, still arouses an interest which is not just philosophical but literary and artistic as well. And what should we say of the New Testament? From the Nativity to Golgotha, from the Transfiguration to the Resurrection, from the miracles to the teachings of Christ, and on to the events recounted in the Acts of the Apostles or foreseen by the Apocalypse in an eschatological key, on countless occasions the biblical word has become image, music and poetry, evoking the mystery of “the Word made flesh” in the language of art.

The historical intersection of religion and culture demands the public acknowledgment of faith and God. We cannot understand our own heritage, we cannot appreciate our own past approaches to the beautiful, without an understanding of theology and an appreciation of the historic creeds. Dante, Bach, Shakespeare, Mozart, Rembrandt, Milton et al -- unintelligible without this creed, still "filled to the brim" with terrible beauty  -- 

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipoténtem, factorem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium.

Et in unum Dóminum Iesum Christum, Fílium Dei unigénitum, et ex Patre natum, ante ómnia sæcula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lúmine, Deum verum de Deo vero, génitum, non factum, consubstantiálem Patri: per quem ómnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos hómines et propter nostram salútem descéndit de cælis. Et incarnátus est de Spíritu Sancto ex María Vírgine, et homo factus est. Crucifíxus étiam pro nobis sub Póntio Piláto; passus et sepúltus est, et resurréxit tértia die, secúndum Scriptúras, et ascéndit in cælum, sedet ad déxteram Patris. Et íterum ventúrus est cum glória, iudicáre vivos et mórtuos, cuius regni non erit finis.

Et in Spíritum Sanctum, Dóminum et vivificántem: qui ex Patre Filioque procédit. Qui cum Patre et Fílio simul adorátur, et conglorificátur: qui locútus est per Prophétas.

Et unam, sanctam, cathólicam et apostólicam Ecclésiam.

Confíteor unum baptísma in remissiónem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam ventúri sæculi. Amen.