Truth -- Superiority and Receptivity

Pope John Paul II says that a university, any university, should be characterized by the "joy of searching for, discovering and communicating truth in every field of knowledge." This exultation of truth -- "joy in truth" (gaudium de veritate) -- leads us to St. Augustine. Blessed John Paul II cites Augustine in the second footnote of Ex corde, specifically he refers to Confessions X.23: "In fact, the blessed life consists in the joy that comes from the truth, since this joy comes from you who are Truth, God my light, salvation of my face, my God."

The chapter in the Confessions is a very rich account of the meaning of joy in truth with many felicitous expressions of the same.  Augustine continues by saying "This is the happiness that all desire. All desire this, the only true state of happiness. All desire to rejoice in truth."

The truth in which we rejoice as scholars and teachers is far more abundant than the specialized truth of a discipline, or the arcane truth of the brilliant scholar. It is the truth of creation, or the truth of God. We can rejoice in the search for and discovery of truth because any truth is a sign of the divine presence. That is the nub of the Augustinian way to God. As we turn from the exterior world to the interior world of mind, we must also trace our way from the inferior level of sense and imagination to the superior realm of truth. Truth is superior to our mind -- it is unchanging and illuminating compared to our shifting and darkened imagination. So Truth is the first name of God in the Augustinian way of discovery.

For some readers the idea of a realm of truth above the mind, or a claim of truth to measure our judgment, sounds either dry or otiose. It is hard to fight the dictatorship of relativism on the flat ground of epistemology. We may need to look at our own disposition and method. Pope Benedict sheds a new light on the Augustinian way when he emphasizes the aspect of the gratuity of truth, that is the gift like character of truth. We must develop a receptive attitude and be ready to embrace what is given with joy. Here is Pope Benedict:

As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. 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. 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". Caritas in veritate §34

The joy of discovery itself should highlight the objectivity of truth. We are surprised by joy insofar as we are surprised by truth.

Here is the footnote Pope Benedict provides, note that we are returned to Confessions X:

Saint Augustine expounds this teaching in detail in his dialogue on free will (De libero arbitrio, II, 3, 8ff.). He indicates the existence within the human soul of an “internal sense”. This sense consists in an act that is fulfilled outside the normal functions of reason, an act that is not the result of reflection, but is almost instinctive, through which 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 interior truth 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). footnote §88

So if we turn to Confessions X.35 Augustine says: "For I found my God, who is truth itself, where I found truth." This is "my holy joy" he says.  Why is the quotidian truth so boring to us? Why is the scholar's truth so dry for them? Why is education so utilitarian? Why is liberal education not ardently championed as our first and highest love, as Augustine burned for wisdom when he first read Cicero as a young man ("My heart began to throb with a bewildering passion for the wisdom of eternal truth" III.4)

It must be for the reason pointed out by Pope Benedict -- we are activists and makers and we know not how to receive the gift. We must produce, consume, make, and earn. We do not look for the gift, we do not accept the gift, we do not acknowledge the gift. We are not receptive. To lack receptivity: "What a world of power unreported," Rilke wrote.

After we went over this section of the Confessions, a student shared with me a poem from Rilke. He startled me into this deeper recognition of the need for receptivity -- indeed, receptivity is the reverse side of superiority. Truth is superior to our mind, said Augustine. Receptivity unlocks a glorious world, Rilke echoes.

What a world of power unreported!
We, with our shows of violence, deceive.
Our lives are longer, but on, O, what plane
shall we at last grow open and receive?

(Sonnets To Orpheus Second Part, 5 (R. M. Rilke 1923) Translated J.B. Leishman. Here is the entire Sonnet:

Ever-opening anemone,
does that meadow-morning lap of yours
mean to catch the whole polyphony
that the singing light of heaven pours
on your starry flower, so distended
to receive as much as heaven gives,
that sometimes (such a fullness has descended),
sunset, with its mild imperatives,
almost fails to bend the too-retorted
edges of your petals back again?
What a world of power unreported!
We, with our shows of violence, deceive.
Our lives are longer, but on, O, what plane
shall we at last grow open and receive?

Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka

Cardinal Szoka, at Madonna University Chapel

Saturday evening I attended Mass at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Northville, Michigan. To my surprise, the Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Szoka. The Cardinal was the President of Vatican City from 2001-2006. I met the Cardinal when I taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and he was in residence there. He is now retired but ministering as a priest in Northville.

He gave a thoughtful homily on Matthew 21:28ff

"But how does it seem to you? A certain man had two sons. And approaching the first, he said: ‘Son, go out today to work in my vineyard.’ And responding, he said, ‘I am not willing.’ But afterwards, being moved by repentance, he went. And approaching the other, he spoke similarly. And answering, he said, ‘I am going, lord.’ And he did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them: “Amen I say to you, that tax collectors and prostitutes shall precede you, into the kingdom of God. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Yet even after seeing this, you did not repent, so as to believe him."

The Cardinal pointed out that both sons were not perfect; but at least one of them served. The good son would say Yes and go to the vineyard. He warned us of the danger of saying, "yes" but failing to really follow Jesus and following as we should. He said that he has only known maybe two people who said yes and really followed through daily in doing the will of the Father. I presume his Polish brother, Blessed John Paul II was one of them.

After Mass he greeted the members of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars who were in attendance. It was a privilege to be in the presence of this gracious man and wise priest, who assisted Blessed John Paul II for many years.

Szoka was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is a brief bio of the Cardinal:

Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka, Archbishop emeritus of Detroit (U.S.A.); President emeritus of the Governatorate of Vatican City; President emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, was born on 14 September 1927 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His parents are Casimir, a polish immigrant, and Mary Szoka. He did his primary studies at St. Michael school in Muskegon. He entered St. Joseph’s seminary in Grand Rapids and then St. John’s in Plymouth, always in Michigan. He was ordained a priest on 5 June 1954 in Marquette and served as an assistant priest in the parish of St. Francis in Manistique, Michigan. He accompanied Bishop Noa to the first session of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council. On 11 June 1971 he was elected Bishop of Gaylord in Michigan and was ordained on 20 July 1971.  On 21 March 1981 he was named Archbishop of Detroit. Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the Consistory of 28 June 1988, of the Title of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio (Sts. Andrew and Gregory at Monte Celio). He went to the Vatican in 1990 and served as President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, 22 January 1990 to 14 October 1997. He was named President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, 14 October 1997 to 15 September 2006. He was named President of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, 22 February 2001 to 15 September 2006.

Penance and The Mystery of Piety

Rembrandt, from Pilgrims at Emmaus

Blessed John Paul meditates on the term "mysterium pietatis," a term he found in St. Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, 3.15 ff. As if to emphasize the profound mission of the Church, the bulwark of truth, Paul exclaims “Great is the mystery of our religion.” Mystery is a notion that means something richer than a riddle or something needing to be solved. It signifies a reality which a person encounters and finds an inexhaustible source for good, (or evil as case of evil); we participate in the mystery, we must live it. Gabriel Marcel says that we are dominated by the mentality of “problem” and neglect mystery – problems can be solved and controlled. The mystery must be suffered and lived. The term mystery can also be translated as “sacrament.” It can only be signified by signs that convey it to us. So what is the mystery of piety? Piety is the latin term for a basic gratitude to parents and country, and it is extended to mean gratitude and right relationship towards God, It is part of what we call “religion” or the binding of the self to God. The Greek term is eusebia – it means to be well disposed towards something, with proper respect and awe, hence again it could mean religion.

So  how do we put this all together? St Paul does leave us in suspense – he says that Christ himself is the mystery of our religion – and he repeats a hymn to Christ -- whereby:

• He was made manifest in the reality of human flesh and was constituted by the Holy Spirit as the Just One who offers himself for the unjust.
• He appeared to the angels, having been made greater than them, and he was preached to the nations as the bearer of salvation. 
• He was believed in, in the world, as the one sent by the Father, and by the same Father assumed into heaven as Lord.

The mystery of Christ is the overwhelming reality of his presence and the awesomeness of his mission in redemption of mankind. But you see the idea of mystery invites response and participation. We cannot be neutral observers, the mystery of our religion is greater than “historical Jesus”. And we are not mere passive recipients of this grace, legal imputation fails utterly to capture the “mystery of our religion.” The Christian becomes what he loves -- the Christian accepts the mystery, contemplates it and draws from it the spiritual strength necessary for living according to the Gospel .

This mystery Blessed John Paul II says “penetrates to the roots our iniquity” and “evokes in the soul a movement of conversion.” The mystery of piety therefore also signifies the Christian response to God, the growth and transformation as adopted sons of God. And penance becomes a key sacrament – the conversion as the heart of our response. “Thus the word of Scripture, as it reveals to us the mystery of pietas, opens the intellect to conversion and reconciliation, understood not as lofty abstractions but as concrete Christian values to be achieved in our daily lives.” Yes we can live as faithful sons and daughters – but who could begin to do so, who grow and develop – without the sacrament of penance!?

We can be reconciled with God, within our self, with others – “The mystery of piety is the path opened by divine mercy to a reconciled life.” The great lie of sin is that we cannot overcome sin – that we cannot live as sons of God “in a way worthy of “the house of God.” The absence of grace – which must go together with the sense of sin, the strict demand of the gospel.. He repeats here – a distortion of post Vatican II theologians – that the pastoral is opposed to the doctrinal. This is utterly false according to John Paul II -- “Nor can pastoral action prescind from doctrinal content, from which in fact it draws its substance and real validity. Now if the church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth' and is placed in the world as mother and teacher, how could she neglect the task of teaching the truth which constitutes a path of life?”

This truth is repeated Crossing the Threshold of Hope  and Comments on Humanae Vitae. The denial of truth in the name of being "pastoral" is a sign of the crisis of faith. It is the failure to embrace the mysterium pietatis – accept, contemplate,and draw energy from the face of Christ.

I am shocked? The mystery of evil and penance

I am shocked. Gambling, here?   . . .

To evoke conversion and penance in man’s heart is the specific mission of the church, according to Blessed John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance.  St. Paul exclaimed – great is the mystery of our religion, great is the mystery of Christ, great is the mystery of the Church’s mission. 1 Tim 3:15

The Kingdom of God is like the sower, the mustard seed – the power of a secret fecundity, and power of growth. The Church, we faithful, are not and cannot be sterile. Think how sterile are so many noble visions and ventures to save the world, to help mankind, to rescue people. They run smack into the “mysterium inquitatis,” the mystery of evil. This is the flaw of so much liberal progressivism and idealism. They are ignorant of evil. They are shocked to find in the seeming irrecondite intractable fact of sin – in their ideal community, in the world they hope to save, in themselves!

Evil is found within the Church  – but we should not be shocked -- we should not be Captain Renauld, in Casablanca, who exclaimed to Rick: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" Nor should we despair of the power of the gospel. John Paul says so truly: ours “is not a mission which consists merely of a few theoretical statements and the putting forward of an ethical ideal unaccompanied by the energy with which to carry it out.” Ethical idealism is easy; we all can talk the talk – but we know how hard it is to walk the walk. From whence comes the energy to do good? From comes the energy to overcome evil? In vain do our schools search for the source of discipline, in vain does our military search for the springs of good character, in vain do our politicians search for the power of true compassion and even civility; and why do “the builders labor in vain?” Lest God build the house . . . And how would God build the house? We must look to the mysterium pietatis – Christ – who “though he was innocent chose the path of poverty, patience, austerity and one can say the penitential life.” (#26). And the Church finds the power for good in this mystery and therefore must “seek to express itself in precise ministerial functions directed toward a concrete practice of penance and reconciliation.”

So what is penance? We must return to the opening of the work on penance and reconciliation to capture the best statement of its essence and complexity; read section four – The term and the very concept of penance are very complex. If we link penance with the metanoia , to which the gospels refer, it means the inmost change of heart under the influence of the word of God and in the perspective of the kingdom. But penance also means changing one's life in harmony with the change of heart, and in this sense doing penance is completed by bringing forth fruits worthy of penance: It is one's whole existence that becomes penitential, that is to say, directed toward a continuous striving for what is better. But doing penance is something authentic and effective only if it is translated into deeds and acts of penance. In this sense penance means, in the Christian theological and spiritual vocabulary, asceticism, that is to say, the concrete daily effort of a person, supported by God's lose his or her own life for Christ as the only means of gaining it; an effort to put off the old man and put on the new; an effort to overcome in oneself what is of the flesh in order that what is spiritual may prevail; a continual effort to rise from the things of here below to the things of above, where Christ is. Penance is therefore a conversion that passes from the heart to deeds and then to the Christian's whole life. This teaching is repeated in section 26 in terms of three “values” contained in penance: conversion, repentance, and the doing of penance as an external manifestation of the interior change.
“To do penance means to re-establish the balance and harmony broken by sin, to change direction even at the cost of sacrifice.” We cannot do that from within our own power. Grace must prevail.

On Penance

Blessed John Paul II must surely rank among the greatest pastors in the history of the Church; for his travels, for his influence on events, for his witness of mercy and charity, and most of all for his firmness in truth. Blessed John Paul II has blazed the trail out of post-Vatican 2 confusions and set an agenda for centuries. That agenda is the building of a civilization of love on the ruined promises of the modern era. It is this combination of the doctrinal with the pastoral that so marks his approach to ministry. It is given to Blessed John Paul II to find that balance of the old and the new, like the good householder spoken of in the gospel. He is our sure guide to authentic renewal in the Church and thereby to authentic renewal in the world: send forth thy spirit and they shall be created, and thy shall renew the face of the earth. Penance may well be the best way to appreciate his mission and message. For Penance is one area where the Church has been subject to confusion and the practice of the sacrament of penance has declined, although there are sings of its growing renewal in the Church. Blessed John Paul II describes the lack of balance in our approach to the subject of sin and the need for penance:

some are inclined to replace exaggerated attitudes of the past with other exaggerations -- From seeing sin everywhere they pass to not recognizing it anywhere; from too much emphasis on the fear of eternal punishment they pass to preaching a love of God that excludes any punishment deserved by sin; from severity in trying to correct erroneous consciences they pass to a kind of respect for conscience which excludes the duty of telling the truth.

We need to attain the balance based on the truth of the gospel. Other post Vatican distortions are the separation of the pastoral from the doctrinal, and along with it the despair over the ability Penance, Blessed John Paul II says, is the only path to reconciliation; so he ends his apostolic exhortation with a prayer that Mary may assist us to “discover and travel he path of penance, the only path that can lead to full reconciliation.” Penance is the path of the Church because it is the path of Christ, that is the path of the cross. So penance must be linked with the great mystery of piety, Christ himself. And the basic message of Christ is penance, conversion, metanoia. Or a turning from sin. To understand this great opportunity for grace we should stop and reflect on these three aspects of – sin, piety, and penance. Blessed John Paul IIexplanation of penance turns on a fascinating juxtaposition of the mystery if sin, mysterium iniquitatis, and the mystery of piety, the mysterium pietatis. In the very center of the work Blessed John Paul II discusses “the love that is greater than sin.”

Photos of Episcopal Ordination of Karol Wojtyla

Episcopal ordination of Karol Wojtyla, Krakow 1958

I found these pictures on the web; they were part of a traditionalist website

Some people on that website assert that these pictures make it very difficult for them to understand how Wojtyla accepted the Novus ordo; one even goes so far as to say it is only understandable as one could understand denials of Peter and Judas. Oh my. Why do these Catholics not heed their shepherd Benedict XVI who speaks of the hermeneutic of continuity? or listen to Blessed John Paul II himself who says that Vatican II is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church? Bishops are still ordained as Bishops. Archbishop Chaput was ordained a Bishop in the new rite -- did it detract from him or lessen the charism of his office? That is absurd.

Harvest Time: You go too! John Paul II on Lay Apostolate

John Paul II at Iowa Living Farm, Oct 4, 1979 (Neil Leifer)

The gospel reading yesterday, Matthew 20:1-16, on the parable of the workers in the vineyard, served as an inspiration to Blessed John Paul II to explain the task and urgency of lay apostolate. It may seem late in the day, according to the two millenia of Church history, for the fathers of Vatican II to lay such emphasis upon the role of laity in the modern world. 

But it is time for the laity to hear the call -- the call to holiness and the call to evangelization. No doubt many homilies yesterday examined the issue of fairness and the gratuity of God's call and his grace and rewards -- good topics all. But John Paul II could not get beyond the first few pericopes -- you go now! why are you standing by idle?! John Paul II focused the message of Vatican II on this precise point -- oh lay faithful, all faithful -- you go now too! How can any heart on fire abide idleness and repose? Make haste to get up and set out -- now is the time of the visitation, as Mary, to make haste to serve.

Here is how John Paul II opens his great work Christifideles Laicis (On the Christian Faithful: ON THE VOCATION AND THE MISSION OF THE LAY FAITHFUL IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD, Post synodal Apostolic exhortation, 1988)

1. THE LAY MEMBERS of Christ's Faithful People (Christifideles Laici), whose "Vocation and Mission in the Church and in the World Twenty Years after the Second Vatican Council" was the topic of the 1987 Synod of Bishops, are those who form that part of the People of God which might be likened to the labourers in the vineyard mentioned in Matthew's Gospel: "For the Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard" (Mt 20:1-2). The gospel parable sets before our eyes the Lord's vast vineyard and the multitude of persons, both women and men, who are called and sent forth by him to labour in it. The vineyard is the whole world (cf. Mt 13:38), which is to be transformed according to the plan of God in view of the final coming of the Kingdom of God.

2. "And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too'" (Mt 20:3-4). From that distant day the call of the Lord Jesus "You go into my vineyard too" never fails to resound in the course of history: it is addressed to every person who comes into this world. In our times, the Church after Vatican II in a renewed outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost has come to a more lively awareness of her missionary nature and has listened again to the voice of her Lord who sends her forth into the world as "the universal sacrament of salvation".

You go too. The call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world. In preaching to the people Saint Gregory the Great recalls this fact and comments on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard: "Keep watch over your manner of life, dear people, and make sure that you are indeed the Lord's labourers. Each person should take into account what he does and consider if he is labouring in the vineyard of the Lord". . .

You go into my vineyard too. During the Synod of Bishops, held in Rome, 1-30 October 1987, these words were re-echoed in spirit once again. Following the path marked out by the Council and remaining open to the light of the experience of persons and communities from the whole Church, the Fathers, enriched by preceding Synods, treated in a specific and extensive manner the topic of the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world. . . .

The Pressing Needs of the World Today: "Why do you stand here idle all day?"

3. The basic meaning of this Synod and the most precious fruit desired as a result of it, is the lay faithful's hearkening to the call of Christ the Lord to work in his vineyard, to take an active, conscientious and responsible part in the mission of the Church in this great moment in history, made especially dramatic by occurring on the threshold of the Third Millennium.

A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle. We continue in our reading of the gospel parable: "And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'. They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us'. He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too'"( Mt 20:6-7).

Since the work that awaits everyone in the vineyard of the Lord is so great there is no place for idleness. With even greater urgency the "householder" repeats his invitation: "You go into my vineyard too". . . .

It is necessary, then, to keep a watchful eye on this our world, with its problems and values, its unrest and hopes, its defeats and triumphs: a world whose economic, social, political and cultural affairs pose problems and grave difficulties in light of the description provided by the Council in the Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes. This, then, is the vineyard; this is the field in which the faithful are called to fulfill their mission. Jesus wants them, as he wants all his disciples, to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world" (cf. Mt 5:13-14). But what is the actual state of affairs of the "earth" and the "world", for which Christians ought to be "salt" and "light"?

The variety of situations and problems that exist in our world is indeed great and rapidly changing. For this reason it is all the more necessary to guard against generalizations and unwarranted simplifications. It is possible, however, to highlight some trends that are emerging in present-day society. The gospel records that the weeds and the good grain grew together in the farmer's field. The same is true in history, where in everyday life there often exist contradictions in the exercise of human freedom, where there is found, side by side and at times closely intertwined, evil and good, injustice and justice, anguish and hope.

End of quote. This gospel passage and John Paul II's exegesis serve as a guiding impetus for the mission of the Pope John Paul Forum for the Church in the Modern World. "A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so."

For the entire text, see the Vatican website.

To see or purchase the above image of John Paul II visit <image source>

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan 1928-2002

Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan d. September 16, 2002

Pope John Paul II said of Cardinal Thuan, whom he chose to present the spiritual exercises for Lent 2000; see Testimony of Hope: the spiritual exercises of John Paul II (Boston: Pauline Books, 2000)
During the course of this Jubilee, I wanted to give a particular place to the witness of people who have suffered for their faith, paying with their blood for their fidelity to Christ and to the Church, or courageously facing interminable years of imprisonment and privations of every kind" (Incarnationis Mysterium, n 13). It is just such a witness that you have shared with warmth and emotion, showing that in the whole life of man, the merciful love of God, which transcends every human logic, is without measure, especially in moments of greatest anguish. You have brought us into contact with all of those who, in different places in the world, continue to pay dearly for their face in Christ.
In meditation 5, Cardinal Thuan shares the deep lesson he learned during nine long and tortuous years of solitary confinement in stark and degrading conditions - The One Thing Necessary - God and not the works of God.

"To rely on God alone, to choose God alone. This was the great experience of the patriarchs, the prophets, and of the first Christians. . . .  to choose God and not the works of God. This is the foundation of the Christian life in every age. At the same time, it is the truest response to the world of today. Through it, God's plans for us, for the Church, ad for humanity in our time are realized."


"Mary chose God. She abandoned her projects without fully understanding the mystery that was being accomplished in her body and in her destiny."


It took nine years of suffering for him to realize this truth; later when back to work as a pastor he would be tempted again to choose the work of God over God -- he was tempted to refuse to leave an assignment or desire a new one, thinking it was all about his work for God -- and not God, God working in him and throughout the Church and the world.

See also the biography The Miracle of Hope: Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace by Andre Nguyen Van Chau (Pauline Books, 2003), chap 21, especially p. 207, for the details of his ordeal. After solitary confinement, torture, starvation, and other indignities, "Thuan had finally grasped the truth that God was showing him. In all the years he had toiled in the Lord's vineyard, he believed he was doing God's work. But it was God who was doing the work, and Thuan was his instrument. Thuan had complained about not being able to do God's work when he should have been leaving the work in God's hands. Thuan had only to devote himself to loving God, not God's work. . . . Now his prison cell seem transformed: there, in that damp, filthy hole where had been almost completely broken, he saw another aspect of the face of Christ. . . . Thuan could envision love, and hope for whatever would be in the future even when he could not do God's work, or  spread the faith, or distribute goods to the poo and needy. Thuan grasped this new knowledge like a treasure to his heart."


And that treasure he would share with John Paul II almost 25 years later; here is a succinct formulation of the treasure from  his little book of prayers and meditations, Five Loaves, Two Fishes, in the chapter The Second Loaf, pp. 15-24. He said that after his arrest by the communist the Archbishop heard Jesus say in his heart:

You must learn to distinguish between God and the works of God. . .  All of these excellent works, they are God’s work but not God! If God wants you to leave all of these works, place them in God’s hands immediately and have confidence in him. So he asked himself “has the Lord asked me to follow him, or to follow this project or that person.” 

Choose God and not God’s works.