Reflections on the Philosopher Pope

Memory and Identity

2012-01-29T22:59:00.001-06:00

Memory and Identity is one of the last books Blessed John Paul II wrote. It represents some of the most profound meditations he offered on history, politics, evil, redemption, Vatican II, and modern philosophy. It echoes his homily from his first Papal visit to Warsaw. The ultimate root of evil is the exclusion of God from history and specifically the exclusion of Christ from history.

Pope John Paul II gave one of his most inspired and impassioned speeches during a homily at Victory Square in Warsaw when he returned to Poland as Pope in 1979. (The homily may be found here; a documentary may be found here.)

In Memory and Identity John Paul II references this homily (p. 15) as a statement of the fundamental and most important limit to evil, namely the presence of Christ. To exclude Christ is make ourselves vulnerable to the power of evil. John Paul II saw Christ excluded on a daily basis by totalitarian ideologies and he feared the creeping exclusion of Chris in the west by liberal ideology. Let's look at few passages from the important homily.

In this homily he said: "To Poland the Church brought Christ, the key to understanding that great and fundamental reality that is man. For man cannot be fully understood without Christ. Or rather, man is incapable of understanding himself fully without Christ. He cannot understand who he is, nor what his true dignity is, nor what his vocation is, nor what his final end is. He cannot understand any of this without Christ.

Therefore Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man. Without Christ it is impossible to understand the history of Poland, especially the history of the people who have passed or are passing through this land. The history of people. The history of the nation is above all the history of people. And the history of each person unfolds in Jesus Christ. In him it becomes the history of salvation."

"The history of the nation deserves to be adequately appraised in the light of its contribution to the development of man and humanity, to intellect, heart and conscience. This is the deepest stream of culture. It is culture's firmest support, its core, its strength. It is impossible without Christ to understand and appraise the contribution of the Polish nation to the development of man and his humanity in the past and its contribution today."

This homily serves as a very nice context and focus for a reading of the book.

Learning Love from St Francis de Sales

2012-01-24T23:37:00.000-06:00

St Francis de Sales, photo by Lawrence Lew, OP (Flickr Lawrence OP)

In 2002 Blessed John Paul II, in a letter to Bishop Yves Boivineau, said the following of St Francis de Sales:

"A man of great goodness and kindness, who knew how to express God's mercy and patience to those who came to speak with him, he taught an exacting but serene spirituality based on love, for loving God "is the sovereign happiness of the soul for this life and for eternity". With great simplicity he formed each person in contemplative prayer: "You must prostrate yourself before God and remain there at his feet: he will certainly understand by this humble attitude that you are his and that you want his help even before you can speak about it" He was concerned to lead souls to the heights of perfection, in his concern to unify the person around the heart of existence: a life of intimacy with the Lord, through which the human being can receive perfection and become better He was desirous of enabling each person to return to Christ and to set out anew from Christ to lead a good life, for God has given each one the government of his faculties, which he must rightly place under the direction of the will."

Francis de Sales was very practical, and thorough, in his teaching about living a holy life. In Introduction to the Devout Life, he puts before us the virtue of meekness. How hard meekness is; how telling anger is. He explains the difference between humility and meekness thusly: "Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men." He then famously uses figures of nature to indicate the spiritual virtues: "Balm, as I said before, sinking to the bottom of all liquids, is a figure of humility; and oil, floating as it does to the top, is a figure of gentleness and cheerfulness, rising above all things, and excelling all things, the very flower of Love, which, so says S. Bernard, comes to perfection when it is not merely patient, but gentle and cheerful."

Yet Francis de Sales warns how difficult it is to possess these virtues truly, especially when provoked or really tested. "Give heed," he says, "that you keep this mystic chrism of gentleness and humility in your heart, for it is a favourite device of the Enemy to make people content with a fair outside semblance of these graces, not examining their inner hearts, and so fancying themselves to be gentle and humble while they are far otherwise." He brings his teaching home with a penetrating look in the human heart with practical advice for improvement.

If, when stung by slander or ill-nature, we wax proud and swell with anger, it is a proof that our gentleness and humility are unreal, and mere artificial show. When the Patriarch Joseph sent his brethren back from Egypt to his father’s house, he only gave them one counsel, “See that ye fall not out by the way.” And so, my child, say I to you. This miserable life is but the road to a blessed life; do not let us fall out by the way one with another; let us go on with the company of our brethren gently, peacefully, and kindly. Most emphatically I say it, If possible, fall out with no one, and on no pretext whatever suffer your heart to admit anger and passion. S. James says, plainly and unreservedly, that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” . . .

Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head. . . .

Moreover, when there is nothing to stir your wrath, lay up a store of meekness and kindliness, speaking and acting in things great and small as gently as possible. Remember that the Bride of the Canticles is described as not merely dropping honey, and milk also, from her lips, but as having it “under her tongue;” that is to say, in her heart. So we must not only speak gently to our neighbour, but we must be filled, heart and soul, with gentleness; and we must not merely seek the sweetness of aromatic honey in courtesy and suavity with strangers, but also the sweetness of milk among those of our own household and our neighbours; a sweetness terribly lacking to some who are as angels abroad and devils at home!

Joan of Arc, born Jan 1412, a saint for our time

2012-01-22T17:29:00.001-06:00

Chapel at which St Joan prayed, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
(A donor acquired and moved the chapel to Marquette University in 1965)

This month marks the six hundredth birthday of Joan of Arc (Jan 6 1412). The figure of Joan of Arc continues to attract our attention and to inspire men and women of many nationalities and walks of life. Friedrich Schiller, Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain all wrote admiringly of her.

I continue to find the reflections of Jacques Maritain most insightful about the significance of this great saint. In his book, On the Church of Christ, Maritain considers a number of lessons from history, concluding with the life of Joan of Arc. (See link to the Jacques Maritain Center here) (Scroll down to section V, The Funeral Pile of Rouen, or "On, On, On, Daughter of God, On!") Of course, that was the voice she heard -- "On Daughter of God, we will help you." And she discoursed with St Catherine of Alexandria, St Margaret and St Michael. The supernatural burst forth in great glory in her life, challenging all reductionistic accounts of the world, of human nature, of politics. As Maritain reminds us, "The three who composed her 'counsel,' -- she saw them 'really and corporeally,' they were like us physically in space. St. Michael appeared for the great directives concerning her mission, the two saints each day. She untiringly repeated 'that her Voices came from God, that she heard them every day, several times a day, that she saw them with her eyes, heard them with her ears, "just as I see you, judges, believe me if you will!"' She knelt down before St. Catherine and St. Margaret, 'kissed them and embraced them, -- taking their knees between her arms; she smelt their good odor; felt their figure, which did not vanish at the touch.'" Smelt their good odor? This woman was insane, a tremendous liar, or . . . a holy saint of God for whom and through whom the the glory of God shone forth. The apparitions of heaven are a gift from God to our dreary lives and an inspiration to "go on, on" despite our grubby compromises with the world. Well, yes, such apparitions must be tested and set before the authority of the Church -- and Joan submitted, in truth and love.

Her life abounds with significance. Maritain considers her execution/martyrdom by officials of the Church to be a sign of the end of the medieval period and the beginning of a new era. Maritain says:

This blessed icon was that of an executed girl criminal, -- executed by priests of Christ: and the gift of Heaven brought also to earth a sign of the divine severity toward the blunders and the violences which so stained with blood medieval Christendom, -- especially toward that Inquisition of which the atrocious caricature exhibited by the trial of Rouen was signed with the wrath of God. Causae ad invicem sunt causae [Causes are the causes of one another (in different lines of causality)]. The end of medieval Christendom entailed the end of the medieval Inquisition; and the medieval Inquisition was one of the irreparable historical mistakes by which medieval Christendom was to perish. The adieu of the King of Heaven to medieval Christendom, -- the primordial aspect of the mission of Joan and of her passage upon earth, -- was at one and the same time an adieu of sublime gratitude and an adieu of inevitable chastisement.

From time to time I teach a course on medieval philosophy. The beginning and end of this period are murky and disputable. Josef Pieper (Scholasticism) marks the beginning in the year 529, the year in which we find the closing of Plato's Academy and the founding of Monte Casino and writing of Benedict's Rule. Of the end of the middle ages, he is not quite sure. Philosophically, the age just fades away or ends in quibbling. Not with a bang but a whimper. But Maritain may be right -- the era does end with a bang, that is to say, the age ends in 1431 with the fiery death of Joan of Arc. Neither the fires of Savanna Rolla nor the fires of the countless reformers of the 16th century burn with as bright a purity as the funeral-pile of Rouen. (Here is a picture of the spot of execution)

Maritain thinks that life of St Joan signifies not only the end of the medieval era but the beginning of the modern age, and begins the long rise of a laity formed and inspired to fight for the kingdom of God in temporal affairs. Hers is a pivotal life in history.

The key to her life is adherence to the truth of God. As Maritain explains -- she was asked: "Joan, do you submit to the Church? It is with this question that the judges of Rouen most harassed her." Joan "does not fail to add to her replies: I am ready to obey the Church, God first served,or if one does not command me anything impossible." God first served. That means -- Witness to truth before all else. Coherence and consistency of life -- or unity of faith and life. It also means -- holiness before all else. Purity of life -- or devotion in all walks of life. A remarkable thing emerges in her simple statement -- "God first served." It is the cry of all the saints. But to bring this into temporal affairs, to witness, "God first served," in all venues and paths of life -- we may say that St Joan is a patron saint of Vatican II. That is, Joan is the harbinger of unity of faith and life and the universal call to holiness; the sanctification of the everyday, at the crossroads of the world, by the laity.

Their weapons will now be prayer and faithful witness to the truth of God (this is what stands out in Joan's life after all). Thus Maritain leads us to the brilliant conclusion:

I think that Joan of Arc -- who failed, but not forever, in the secret mission of which it was a question above --is par excellence the saint and the patron of the temporal mission of the Christian; in other words the saint and the patron of the Christian laity: for this temporal mission is the affair of laymen, to be conducted under their initiative and at their risks and perils,-- on condition that in their collaboration with men of every belief and of every nation for a common temporal work they keep in their hearts a faith as pure, total, and absolute as that of Joan. (This is required not only by loyalty toward God, but also by the loyalty -- and for the efficacy -- of a true friendship with non-Catholics and non-Christians). Let us note that in the temporal work in question it is not a question of bringing about the happiness of man upon the earth. In a civilization more and more dehumanized by technocracy, it may be that this temporal work, of the necessity of which we have finally become conscious today, occurs quite precisely, in our historical age, to compensate the greater evils and to avoid the greater destructions which threaten the world. I think also that Joan is par excellence the saint of the last combats of the Church; and that it is by small flocks faithful to God first served that these combats will be conducted; and that from the supreme torments of the world, in the midst of which she herself will be assailed on all sides, the Church will emerge radiant and martyrized. It will be the hour of Joan.

May the small flocks keep feeding on the truth of faith and sacrament. God first served. Easier said than done. Six hundred years after the birth of Joan, we still can hear those voices echoing down through the centuries, "Va, va, va, fille de Dieu, va"*

On, On, On, Daughter of God, On!

*"Fille De, va, va, va, je serai a ton aide, va."

Newman on the special love of our Lord for St John

2011-12-27T23:46:00.000-06:00

Newman draws out some very fine lessons for the feast of St John the apostle and evangelist, entitled "Love of Relations and Friends." (II.5, found here).

As usual, he reviews the facts and texts about the life of St John. He was the special beloved of Jesus, sitting next to him at the last supper, head on his breast; he was entrusted with the care of Mary, the Mother of Jesus; he was granted a revelation of the mystery of heaven. St John was favored, apparently, more than Andrew, Peter or James, also special friends of our Lord.

Newman calls this a remarkable truth, because we may tend to think that God must love all equally, and that true social reformers would act only out of a pure love of humanity, above any particular attachment or love. Of course, Chesterton would later excoriate the man who loves humanity and hates concrete human beings. Newman puts this truth forward in a most exquisite manner, and with some profound if understated challenges to the prevalent philosophy of public life today, namely why should one be concerned about a politician's family life? Or we downplay the "charities of private life, while busy in schemes of an expansive benevolence." These schemes of "expansive benevolence" have wreaked their havoc throughout the twentieth century, and they gain their persuasion in liberal society today. We neglect what counts, Newman will caution us, real love. One must read and relish the long cadences of his prose. But here are a few of the finer passages.

After discussing why it is impossible to love all men and on a large scale, he says this:

The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore, must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends, by submitting to their wishes, though contrary to our own, by bearing with their infirmities, by overcoming their occasional waywardness by kindness, by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them, thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity, which, though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. The vain talkers about philanthropy, just spoken of, usually show the emptiness of their profession, by being morose and cruel in the private relations of life, which they seem to account as subjects beneath their notice.

Newman elaborates on this notion with a variation of the principle that grace builds upon nature, it does not destroy it. If we are to love, we must begin to love our family and friends, as they are right next to us. They are the ones who may annoy or irritate; they are the ones whose excellence we see and we may envy rather than praise. They are the ones who will reveal the tender mercies of God.

And again he exposes the fraudulent claims of the reformer or socialist:

A man, who would fain begin by a general love of all men, necessarily puts them all on a level, and, instead of being cautious, prudent, and sympathising in his benevolence, is hasty and rude; does harm, perhaps, when he means to do good, discourages the virtuous and well-meaning, and wounds the feelings of the gentle. Men of ambitious and ardent minds, for example, desirous of doing good on a large scale, are especially exposed to the temptation of sacrificing individual to general good in their plans of charity. Ill-instructed men, who have strong abstract notions about the necessity of showing generosity and candour towards opponents, often forget to take any thought of those who are associated with themselves; and commence their (so-called) liberal treatment of their enemies by an unkind desertion of their friends. This can hardly be the case, when men cultivate the private charities, as an introduction to more enlarged ones.

Newman then would have us see the truth that is now denied across our society and which contradicts a fundamental of liberalism : "private virtue is the only sure foundation of public virtue; and that no national good is to be expected (though it may now and then accrue), from men who have not the fear of God before their eyes."And so we mock the evangelical voter not just for his excess or hypocrisy, but for the very true principle that calls him forth. But it is not the point of Newman's sermon to vindicate or underwrite a political agenda , but to call his listener to holiness. So his fitting ending includes the following:

how large a portion of our duties lies at home. Should God call upon us to preach to the world, surely we must obey His call; but at present, let us do what lies before us. Little children, let us love one another. Let us be meek and gentle; let us think before we speak; let us try to improve our talents in private life; let us do good, not hoping for a return, and avoiding all display before men.

Newman on the Mystery of Christmas

2011-12-25T16:10:00.000-06:00

Stained glass, University Church of St Mary the Virgin

I remember when I first started reading Newman in earnest some ten years ago; I read a remark by Fr Ker that Catholics should most of all read the Parochial and Plain Sermons, written when was an Anglican divine, because of their focus upon the moral demands of the gospel and the call to holiness. I would liken the experience of reading each of these sermons to that of an encounter of a magnificent stained glass in a light filled chapel. As each piece sparkles with the light in a distinctive color or shape, so too does each sentence and each paragraph shine with its own peculiar meaning. The heart and mind are illuminated with every turn of the prose. Or better yet, each sermon requires a meditative turn of mind, but Newman's great gift of writing, and speaking, brings the listening soul along the path of prayer. He now composes a scene and fills out some spiritual consideration and then draws out a resolution for improvement.

The sermon on Christmas, The Mystery of Godliness (V.7, found here), is a fine example of the power of his sermons. As for the "mystery of godliness, which should be before our minds at all times, " Christmas is a special time for meditation upon the mystery for we see today that "the Most Holy took upon Him our flesh of 'a pure Virgin'." Newman first reminds us of the great holiness and majesty of the second person of the Trinity so that we understand the great condescension of his incarnation as man. He did not come out of the clouds, nor morph himself as some pagan divinity - rather he was born of a Virgin as announced in Isaiah. And as we read in the Gospel, "two separate Angels, one to Mary, one to Joseph, declare who the adorable Agent was, by whom this miracle was wrought." Newman reviews and states our creed. But then he begins to draw out the profound implications of the creed, for "This is the great Mystery which we are now celebrating, of which mercy is the beginning, and sanctity the end." With this sentence Newman frames his meditation -- Mercy, the beginning, and sanctity the end.

The end, the purpose of the Incarnation, is our redemption and sanctification -- "He who is all purity came to an impure race to raise them to His purity. He, the brightness of God's glory, came in a body of flesh, which was pure and holy as Himself, 'without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish;' and this He did for our sake, 'that we might be partakers of His holiness.'" It was "to make us partakers of the Divine nature; to sow the seed of eternal life in our hearts; and to raise us from 'the corruption that is in the world through lust,' to that immaculate purity and that fullness of grace which is in Him." Newman would not let us get caught up in sentimentality of the season, but recalls us to the purpose of our religion.

The mercy is to be found in the manner of Christ's life on earth -- his humble manner of life. This too is a mystery of the day. This passage carries us along from the image of this day, the humble birth in Bethlehem, to the ministry along the roads of Israel, so that we catch a glimpse of his great mercy:

He was born of a poor woman, who, when guests were numerous, was thrust aside, and gave birth to Him in a place for cattle. O wondrous mystery, early manifested, that even in birth He refused the world's welcome! He grew up as the carpenter's son, without education, so that when He began to teach, His neighbours wondered how one who had not learned letters, and was bred to a humble craft, should become a prophet. He was known as the kinsman and intimate of humble persons; so that the world pointed to them when He declared Himself, as if their insufficiency was the refutation of His claims. He was brought up in a town of low repute, so that even the better sort doubted whether good could come out of it. No; He would not be indebted to this world for comfort, aid, or credit; for "the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." He came to it as a benefactor, not as a guest; not to borrow from it, but to impart to it.

Newman suggests that the very shortness of Christ's life is a sign of merciful instruction: "He came into the world, and He speedily left the world; as if to teach us how little He Himself, how little we His followers, have to do with the world." Newman was drawn to the image of lightning as an apt one for the life of Christ. "He came and He went, before men knew that He had come, like the lightning shining from one side of heaven unto the other, as being the beginning of a new and invisible creation."

So what must be our resolution upon meditating upon the birth in Bethlehem? To abandon the worldly ambition and the natural but noble goal of the development of our natural faculties, physical, emotional, mental. "Let us come to the Sanctifier to be sanctified. Let us come to Him to learn our duty, and to receive grace to do it." As Bloy said -- there is but one sadness, not to be a saint.

Newman returns us to the signs of the season: "This is a time for innocence, and purity, and gentleness, and mildness, and contentment, and peace. It is a time in which the whole Church seems decked in white, in her baptismal robe, in the bright and glistering raiment which she wears upon the Holy Mount."

And he draws us to a conclusion, both simple and challenging before he descends from the pulpit: "May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him, who as at this time became a little child for our sake, more simple-minded, more humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God."

Ite ad Joseph

2011-12-24T18:51:00.005-06:00

From Rembrandt, The Nativity

From Pope John Paul II, Guardian of the Redeemer [Redemptoris custos] (1989):

Joseph was an eyewitness to this birth, which took place in conditions that,humanly speaking, were embarrassing-a first announcement of that "self-emptying"(cf. Phil 2:5-8) which Christ freely accepted for the forgiveness of sins.Joseph also witnessed the adoration of the shepherds who arrived at Jesus'birthplace after the angel had brought them the great and happy news (cf. Lk2:15- 16) . Later he also witnessed the homage of the magi who came from theEast (cf. Mt 2:11).§10

In Joseph, the apparent tension between the active and thecontemplative life finds an ideal harmony that is only possible for those whopossess the perfection of charity. Following St. Augustine's well-knowndistinction between the love of the truth (caritas veritatis) and the practicaldemands of love (necessitas caritatis), we can say that Joseph experiencedboth love of the truth-that pure contemplative love of the divine Truth whichradiated from the humanity of Christ-and the demands of love-that equally pureand selfless love required for his vocation to safeguard and develop thehumanity of Jesus, which was inseparably linked to his divinity.§27

[His] patronage must be invoked as ever necessary for the Church, notonly as a defense against all dangers, but also, and indeed primarily, as animpetus for her renewed commitment to evangelization in the world and tore-evangelization in those lands and nations where-as I wrote in the ApostolicExhortation Christideles Laici - "religion and the Christian life wereformerly flourishing and...are now put to a hard test." In order tobring the first proclamation of Christ, or to bring it anew wherever it has beenneglected or forgotten, the Church has need of special "power from on high"(cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8): a gift of the Spirit of the Lord, a gift which is notunrelated to the intercession and example of his saints. §29

One hundred years ago, Pope Leo XIII had already exhorted the Catholic worldto pray for the protection of St. Joseph, Patron of the whole Church. TheEncyclical Epistle Quamquam Pluries appealed to Joseph's "fatherlylove...for the child Jesus" and commended to him, as "the providentguardian of the divine Family," "the beloved inheritance which JesusChrist purchased by his blood." Since that time-as I recalled at thebeginning of this Exhortation -- the Church has implored the protection of St.Joseph on the basis of "that sacred bond of charity which united him to theImmaculate Virgin Mother of God," and the Church has commended to Josephall of her cares, including those dangers which threaten the human family. Even today we have many reasons to pray in a similar way:

"Most belovedfather, dispel the evil of falsehood and sin...graciously assist us from heavenin our struggle with the powers of darkness...and just as once you saved theChild Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God's holy Church from the snaresof her enemies and from all adversity."

Today we still have good reasonto commend everyone to St. Joseph. §31

Leon Bloy -- more on Mary and the meaning of Christ's birth

2011-12-23T18:25:00.000-06:00

Christ is come out of Mary just as Adam is come out the earthy Paradise, to obey and suffer. Mary is thus symbolized by the Garden of Delight "planted by God in the beginning." . . . This Garden, closed fast since the disobedience, hortus conclusus, to the tribulation or the despair of many billions of human beings, was the goal of "the generations of the heavens and the earth," according to the Holy Book's vastly mysterious language.

That was a marvelous garden in which it never rained. A fountain sprang from the earth to water everything, and a river older than all geographies flowed out of this paradise at once to branch into the four rivers, the names of which, according to learned interpreters, mean or seem to mean: Prudence, Temperance, Quickness of Spirit, Fecundity. We must believe that these four names enfold in a way no man can understand the vocation of Mary: Queen, Virgin, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mother of God. . . .

By means of the Immaculate Conception, God was able to place his foot upon earth. Here is the sole door through which He was able to escape from the Garden of Delight which is his Mother and whom a thousand centuries of blessedness could not enable us to understand.

You would have to knw what were Adam and Eve, what were the plants and animals in that Garden, what was the disobedience and what it cost. You would have sufficiently to wipe away everything men have thought for seventy or eighty centuries in order to make possible, I do not say the evidence or the distant mental image, still less the vague expectation, but a bare something resembling a heartbeat in the face of this fact: that with everything lost forever, as it is with the fallen angels, there all the same remained preserved a drop of divine Sap, just enough to save billions of worlds; and that in the end there blossomed that Flower more beautiful than Innocence. which Christians name, understanding nothing about it, the Immaculate Conception, Mary herself, the sublime Garden regained.

And yet shall I dare say this? nothing has yet been achieved. That Garden, closed so long by the Disobedience of the first Man, had first to open itself to eject the least of men, like a worm, who was to redeem all other men. For this Mary's obedience was not enough -- it frightens me to write it. There was needed, reabsorbed within Her, the impatience and sorrow of all the centuries.

Leon Bloy, Pilgrim of the Absolute, pp. 230-232

on Mary as a new Eve see John Henry Newman's reading of Church Fathers at this site

Leon Bloy - fingertips touching the dark

2011-12-22T09:29:00.002-06:00

Shepherd at watch, from Rembrandt
"I merely take this opportunity to beg you to be on the watch. Present-day events are certainly hideous, but their tendency has nothing commonplace about it. What is willed absolutely and everywhere is the end of the Church, which cannot end. But indeed it is a theological truth that should there remain but one single Catholic, the Church would live in him, together with all her mysteries, all her miracles, all her power, all her fecundity. . . . I therefore think, once again, that we are at the prologue of an unspeakable drama, the like of which has not been seen for twenty centuries; I invite you to a certain amount of recollection." -- Leon Bloy, from
Pilgrim of the Absolute, Selections by Raissa Maritain (Pantheon Books, 1947), p. 202

The Maritains took heed of the wild prophet of Paris. These last days of advent leading up to Christmas seem to be a good time to make a final watch. We pray to be such a Catholic, with the fecundity of the Church living in us -- awake to the truth of the Incarnation, reverent before the tremendous mystery of the real presence, and sincere in love. The culture and the politics keeps everyone buzzing with the "unreal words" against which Newman preached. We still sleep in our routines, we still let ourselves be drawn to the cheap baubles of gossip and opinion, we still study indifference and envy, even hatred. The sons of Adam are a doomed race. But for a New Adam. And of course, a New Eve.

Frank O'Malley, in "The Passion of Leon Bloy" (Review of Politics, 1948) pointed out a deep similarity between Bloy and Newman:

The years in which Bloy lived were, like Newman's or Dostoevski's, or our own, those in which science and invention, rationalism and materialism had accomplished their wondrous domination of the world -- and the bourgeois satisfaction with the status achieved was complete. The anti-Christian spirit had capitalized upon the spinelessness and spiritlessness of "Christendom." Scientific rationalism had concluded that it could explain everything, that there were no transcendent worlds beyond to reach. The world daily became more ready-to-hand, more easy to manipulate: the darkness of the unknown retreated before the advance of the new seers. Thus all sense of mystery, all sense of reverence, all sense of love -- the awesome and self-surrending spirit of the religion -- evaporated. But Bloy, no less than Newman and Dostoevski, deplored this wanton dissipation of the most enduring force in man's life, this spreading out of rationalism and materialism to encompass all that makes life meaningful. Bloy, like Newman, realized that the new and free thought lacked the "center of power", such a "first element" as was available to every Christian. The thought of Bloy was directed to unity in the personality of Christ, as the object and center towards which everything in creation is drawn -- in Claudel's words, the center and navel of the world. For Bloy, Christ was at the center of everything, taking upon himself all that man bears and suffers.

Bloy said of the little flocks of believers -- "when they stretch out their arms in prayer, the tips of their fingers touch the darkness." (Pilgrim of the Absolute, p. 216) They touch, yes, the darkness of night and early morning - the darkness of the watch -- but also the darkness of mystery. Newman began Advent in the dark and cold; Bloy continued the watch in prayer, finger-tips touching the dark, and filled with hope. Christ-mas is near.

Rembrandt, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1634

Havel and John Paul II on Witness to Truth

2011-12-20T07:17:00.002-06:00

John Paul II and Vaclav Havel both took a deep interest in theater; they were both called to act on the world stage; they both understood the vital importance of truth -- and the whole truth about man and God. Havel wrote an influential essay entitled "The Power of the Powerless" in which he explained the importance of truth and the rejection of the system of lies and the atmosphere of mendacity that surrounds the powerful bureaucrats. He spoke of a revolt consisting in "an attempt to live within the truth." Here is his description of one who refuses the slogans and the superficial explanations of the powerful bureaucrats:

He has exposed it as a mere game. He has shattered the world of appearances, the fundamental pillar of the system. He has upset the power structure by tearing apart what holds it together. He has demonstrated that living a lie is living a lie. He has broken through the exalted facade of the system and exposed the real, base foundations of power. He has said that the emperor is naked. And because the emperor is in fact naked, something extremely dangerous has happened: by his action, the greengrocer has addressed the world. He has enabled everyone to peer behind the curtain. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth. Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. The principle must embrace and permeate everything. There are no terms whatsoever on which it can co-exist with living within the truth, and therefore everyone who steps out of line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety. . . .

The original and most important sphere of activity, one that predetermines all the others, is simply an attempt to create and support the independent life of society as an articulated expression of living within the truth. In other words, serving truth consistently, purposefully, and articulately, and organizing this service. This is only natural, after all: if living within the truth is an elementary starting point for every attempt made by people to oppose the alienating pressure of the system, if it is the only meaningful basis of any independent act of political import, and if, ultimately, it is also the most intrinsic existential source of the "dissident" attitude, then it is difficult to imagine that even manifest "dissent" could have any other basis than the service of truth, the truthful life, and the attempt to make room for the genuine aims of life.

In his reflection on Pope John Paul II's critique of the culture of death, Fr James Schall said: "The role of Christianity in politics is a philosophic one. It is to maintain an accurate statement of the truth of things, of what is, even the truth of science when science will not stand up for itself. It is to perform this clarification even when the words we use, like 'choice,' do not accurately describe the fact to which they refer. We destroy millions of already begun human lives with no scruple and little compunction." (see his second essay, The Role of Christian Philosophy in Politics, at this site). John Paul said: "People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose, since life itself has a unique value which the State and the market must serve. Man remains above all a being who seeks the truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening his understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations." (Centesimus Annus, #50.)

Truth is a rare thing in a world of dictators, bureaucrats, and technicians. Searching for truth and speaking truth demands rare courage. That is why we celebrate the life and work of Blessed John Paul II and Vaclav Havel.

Advent 1999: John Paul II addressed Havel and Czech Pilgrims

2011-12-20T00:55:00.000-06:00

Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, left, speaks with Pope John Paul II during a private audience at the Vatican in Rome, Dec 18, 1999. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia died Sunday Dec. 18, 2011 in Prague. He was 75. (AP Photo/Massimo Sambucetti, File)

Vaclav Havel died on December 18, 2011. On that day twelve years ago he met with Pope John Paul II and joined pilgrims from the Czech republic in greeting the Pope. My friend Dr. John Le encourages me to seek in the liturgical calendar some light for understanding events of the day. This is particularly true of the life of Pope John Paul II. December 18th is a week from Christmas day; the antiphon of the day is: O Adonai: “O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (11:4-5); and “Indeed the Lord will be there with us, majestic; yes the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king, he it is who will save us.” (33:22). Mr Havel and Blessed John Paul spoke the truth by which they struck the ruthless Soviet system. (see next blog). On that day twelve years ago Pope John Paul spoke to the Czech pilgrims and thanked them for a special Christmas tree they brought as a gift. The lights on the tree remind us that truth is a light in the darkness and truth is the light of Christ: John Paul said: "He is, according to the Evangelist John, 'the true light that enlightens every man'1: 9. The lights sparkling on the Christmas tree symbolize this Light, to strengthen our knowledge of the great mystery: in Christ is the light that can change the human heart." Here is the Holy Father's address to the pilgrims from the Czech Republic on December 18, 1999:

Mr President, Your Eminence, Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Czech Republic,

1. With great joy I greet all of you who have come to present the fir tree which has arrived from the beloved Czech nation. This Christmas gift testifies to the sense of respect and esteem that the beloved Czech people has for the Holy See, and at the same time, it is a symbol of warm participation in the joy of the Christmas festivities being celebrated here in the Vatican, in keeping with the particular solemnity that the beginning of the Great Jubilee requires.Yesterday I was able to meet numerous representatives of the Czech Republic at the audience for those taking part in the International Convention on Jan Hus, an important moment of reflection on a sorrowful page in the religious and civil history of the nation. And now I have the joy of extending my cordial welcome to President Václav Havel of the Czech Republic and to his distinguished wife.Thank you, Mr President, for your noble words in which you drew attention to the Government's initiative in giving the Pope the beautiful Christmas tree, which rises majestically next to the crèche in St Peter's Square. . . . A special greeting to the "Valasský-vojvoda" band which has accompanied the joyful meeting for lighting the tree. Thanks to you the feast of the Lord's Birth, here in St Peter's Square, will certainly be more solemn.

2. This fir tree, which for several days now has stood pointing to heaven decorated with evocative lights, comes from Mount Beskydy in the region of Ostrava and Opava near Morávka. Along with this tree, you have been pleased to offer other small fir trees that will be put in various places in the Apostolic Palace and in the Curia, all decorated with handmade ornaments from that same region. In addition, you have also presented three figures, dressed in the traditional costumes of Valassko, which have been put beside those traditionally used in the crèche in St Peter's Square.The Christmas tree, with the crib, creates a typical Christmas atmosphere and can help us understand better the message of salvation that Christ came to bring us through his Incarnation.From the stable of Bethlehem to the Cross on Golgotha, with his whole life he bore witness to God's love for mankind. He is, according to the Evangelist John, "the true light that enlightens every man" (1: 9).The lights sparkling on the Christmas tree symbolize this Light, to strengthen our knowledge of the great mystery: in Christ is the light that can change the human heart.

3. Dear brothers and sisters, as I wholeheartedly thank you for this visit, I express to you all and to your loved ones my best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Joyful New Year in the warmth of your families.May the imminent Christmas festivities awaken and strengthen in everyone faith in the presence and love of God.With these sentiments, I willingly impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you, to your families and to your entire nation.

Bloy on Mary

2011-12-12T23:11:00.000-06:00

Leon Bloy 1846-1917
Godfather of Jacques and Raissa

De Maria Nunquam Satis -St. Louis De Montfort

"With Mary there is never enough"

Leon Bloy:

"Mary's glory and universal excellence defy hyperbole. She is that fire of Solomon which never says: "Enough!" She is the earthly paradise and the heavenly Jerusalem. She it is to whom God has given everything.If you think of her beauty, it would be mocking her to say She is Beauty itself, since she is infinitely above that praise. If you wish to extol her strength and power, you could do nothing better than to recognize that She is, in truth, the least of creatures, since She has been able to accomplish the inconceivable wonder of humbling herself lower than all the abysses before which She had already been conceived. If you wish to die, all those of good will who are dying lie in her arms. If you are asking to be born, the Milky Way will spout forth from her Breasts to feed you. If you were so good a poet that you could even astound the innocent couple beneath the plane trees of Paradise, you would seem to be selling the most rotten of goods, short weight, you would look like a slave trader or a slum landlord were you -- even in tears and on your knees -- so much as to dream of saying a word about her purity, which makes the sweat of the damned in the depths of hell look like droplets of dew that hang on a summer morning from the silver and opaline webs woven by engaging forest spiders." Leon Bloy: Pilgrim of the Absolute, selections by Raissa Maritain (New York: Pantheon Books, 1947), p. 241

"Imagine an earth abandoned to all the powers of darkness, a ravaged human race multiplying from day to day and perverting itself more and more with each generation. Despite this and throughout all this, a tiny little shining ray, a thread of light which nothing could destroy, the Immaculate Conception piercing the ages and the peoples until the miraculous hour, unknown to the greatest angels, when it would manifest itself in Mary full of grace, conceived without the stain of original sin under the Gate of Gold." Pilgrim of the Absolute, p. 232

For Gaudete Sunday -- Augustine on Joy

2011-12-11T22:59:00.000-06:00

Peter Brown says the following about Augustine's understanding of human nature and religious development:

"Delight is the only possible source of action, nothing else can move the will. Therefore, man can act only if he can mobilize his feelings, only if he is affected by the object of delight." Augustine of Hippo, pp. 154-155

"Augustine came to view delight as the mainspring of human action; but this delight escaped human control. Delight is discontinuous, startlingly erratic; Augustine now moves in a world of love at first sight, chance encounters,, and just as important, of sudden equally inexplicable patches of deadness: [Augustine wrote:] 'Who can embrace wholeheartedly what gives him no delight? But who can determine for himself that what will delight him should come his way, and when it comes, that it should, in fact, delight him?'" 155

I found these passages in Augustine's Spirit and Letter:

#5: We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man's being created with a free-will, and in addition to the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good God, even now while he is still walking by faith and not yet by sight;gift to him of the earnest, as it were, of the free gift, he may conceive an ardent desire to cleave to his Maker, and may burn to enter upon the participation in that true existence. A man's free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God's love is shed abroad in our hearts, not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. (Romans 5:5)

#26: For no fruit is good which does not grow from the root of love. If, however, that faith be present which works by love, (Galatians 5:6) then one begins to delight in the law of God after the inward man, (Romans 7:22) and this delight is the gift of the spirit, not of the letter;

#42: It is therefore apparent what difference there is between the old covenant and the new—that in the former the law is written on tables, while in the latter on hearts; so that what in the one alarms from without, in the other delights from within; and in the former man becomes a transgressor through the letter that kills, in the other a lover through the life-giving spirit. We must therefore avoid saying, that the way in which God assists us to work righteousness, and works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, Philippians 2:13 is by externally addressing to our faculties precepts of holiness; for He gives His increase internally, 1 Corinthians 3:7 by shedding love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. Romans 5:5

Romans 5.5 appears frequently in Augustine's writing -- the love is shed abroad in our hearts.
It is grace. So he will write: "The fact that those things that make for successful progress towards God should cause us delight is not acquired by our good intentions, earnestness and the value of our own good will -- but is dependent upon the inspiration granted us by God." (see Brown, p 155) So Brown notes this paradox: our self-determination depends on that which escapes self-determination (155 and 373-374): "The vital capacity to unite feeling and knowledge comes from an area outside man's power of self-determination. 'From a depth that we do not see, comes everything that you can see.'" Thus, "the idea that we depend for our ability to determine ourselves, on areas that we cannot ourselves determine, is central to Augustine's therapeutic attitude to the relation between grace and free will."

A fitting approach to understanding Gaudete Sunday -- concluding with this passage Brown finds in Augustine's commentary on John: "Give me a man in love; he knows what I mean. Give me one who yearns; give me one who is hungry; give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the eternal country. Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean. But if I speak to a cold man, he just does not know what I am talking about." (26.4)

Third Sunday in Advent.
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob." (Philippians 4:4–6; Psalm 85 (84):1).

Enrichment of Faith, pt. 2

2011-12-06T21:28:00.001-06:00

Mammoser continues the explanation of enrichment of faith with a discussion of Wojtyla's account of consciousness. Wojtyla blends the attention to human capacity, subjectivity, with an awareness of human transcendence. The enrichment of faith is an expanded consciousness or appropriation of awareness of God.

Consciousness is indispensable in the deepening of faith, but it has not been absolutized by Wojtyla. He is careful to point out that consciousness must come to grips with something exterior to the person, namely faith (faith in God is faith in the Supremely Real), but it does not ‘create’ faith. Consciousness does not ‘create’ God . . . indeed just the opposite is true. True interiority is in fact man’s response to God.

The first conclusion we can draw is that enrichment of faith and the evangelization of culture are not strictly human tasks to be implemented with ideas and effort. They cannot come about strictly from within – they first requires response because they come from without, through revelation and through grace. God is the protagonist in the consciousness that embraces faith….he must first ‘re-veal’ himself. And God will be the principal architect of cultural renewal, awaiting of course the genuine interiority and magnanimity of lay people.

Since God is [revealed as] Three Persons man finds his ‘basis’ and fully realizes his subjectivity not in self but in relationship, in the mystery of the life of the Trinity. Which is to say that man fully realizes himself only in communication (communio), in spiritual personhood, in relationship and in ‘gift of self’ analogous to the Trinitarian life itself. “Man resembles God not only because of the spiritual nature of his immortal soul but also by reason of his social nature, if by this we understand the fact that ‘he cannot realize himself fully except in an act of pure self-giving.’ (Sources, p. 61)

George Weigel calls this self-giving “the law of the gift,” whereby one’s interior orientation is fundamentally a prayerful, outward, centrifugal relationship towards God and others rather than to self. “In this way ‘union in truth and charity’ is the ultimate expression of the community of individuals. This union merits the name of communion (communio), which signifies more than community (communitas). The Latin communio denotes a relationship between persons that is proper to them alone; and it indicates the good that they do to one another, giving and receiving within that mutual relationship.” (Sources, p 61) Wojtyla continues: “Christ himself suggests to us this resemblance, or metaphysical analogy as we may call it, between God as person and community (i.e., the communion of Persons in the unity of the Godhead) on the one hand and, on the other, man as a person and his vocation toward the community ‘in truth and charity’ – a community founded on his right to realize himself through self-giving. How eloquent is the statement in Gaudium et Spes that ‘man is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake’, as an end and not a means!” (Sources, p. 62)

This right to realize oneself through self-giving explains why man is incomplete in solitude. (Gen. 2:18). He requires-- in all his subjectivity including that of his consciousness—to be in relationship. As person, he requires not only ‘something else,’ but ‘someone else.’ St. John’s gospel helps us understand who this ‘someone else’ is, and how to reach him. “Jesus said to his disciples: “if anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we shall come to him, and make our home with him.” (John 14:23-29) In other writings Wojtyla calls this ‘someone’ a ‘partner of the Absolute.’ In his general audience of Oct. 24, 1979, for example, in his catechesis on Genesis, 2:18, John Paul II notes that when God says “it is not good that man should be alone” he means not only that he needs a ‘helper’ which is provided in the creation of the first woman, but also, because he is constituted “in a unique, exclusive and unrepeatable relationship with God Himself, ” he needs a transcendent partner, a ‘partner of the Absolute.’

Maritain referred to Leon Bloy as a "pilgrim of the absolute." It is very interesting that Wojtyla speaks about man as a partner of the absolute." I also think of the Jeweler's Shop, once again, and the ending -- Theresa in speaking about young Christopher and Monica (and all couples) says they "reflect in some way the absolute Existence and Love."Adam had just previously said "love carries people away like an absolute, although it lacks absolute dimensions."The enrichment of faith opens us up to God, the absolute.

Wojtyla on the Enrichment of Faith

2011-12-05T12:56:00.001-06:00

Thomas L Mammoser

I recently received a very interesting paper on the evangelization of culture in the new millenium by Thomas L. Mammoser. He currently serves as Vice President and as a Board and Executive Committee member for Midtown Educational Foundation, Chicago; Co-founder and President of the Christian Culture Institute, Milwaukee. Mammoser is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame ('60) with a B.A. in Philosophy and he did graduate work at the University of Chicago and Loyola University. We both had the privilege of studying the philosophy of Maritain under Joseph Evans at ND. I wish to share a few excerpts from his paper on this blog for the next few days. The entire paper may be found here.

Mammoser compares Maritain and Wojtyla on the need for an inner renewal. Both emphasized the great task of Vatican II as the growth in the evangelical awareness of the members of the Church.

Mammoser writes as follows:

There is a fundamental and dynamic viewpoint from which to judge the reality of the Council and especially its implementation, says Wojytla. That viewpoint is what he calls the principle of the enrichment of faith. Sources of Renewal deals with Wojtyla calls the fundamental viewpoint from which to judge the reality of the Council and its implementation, namely “the principle of the enrichment of faith.” As he puts it: “Nothing determines more effectively the process of the Church’s self-realization than the reality of faith and its gradual enrichment. It is on this that we must concentrate above all… seeking in it the fundamental interpretation of the Council’s thought” as well as it implementation and genuine realization. (pp. 15-16).

The enrichment of faith, says Wojtyla, has a twofold dimension. As with all Councils it can be understood first in a doctrinal sense; all Councils deal in some way with the content of faith. In this sense we might see Vatican II as representing a qualitative enrichment—a deeper understanding and richer presentation of the truths of the Catholic faith in the broad context of the modern world. Not “the discovery of fresh truths not already contained in revelation, but merely the interpretation of revealed truth in relation to new historical exigencies…” (Note by Italian translator, Sources, p. 18) Thus enrichment of faith, at its origin, must come from above, from ‘the teacher of all things.’ This is what we might call its objective sense in that it is ‘from above and outside’ us. It is a supernatural gift of God –a grace -- which the Church as human community must seek to cooperate with and to enhance. This enrichment, in turn, constitutes a new stage in the Church’s ‘self-awareness’ in its advance towards the fullness of divine truth.

But growth in self-awareness, says Wojltya, helps us to realize that “it is impossible to treat the Church merely as an ‘object’: it has to be a ‘subject’ also. Because—especially given the personal, pastoral nature of this Council-- enrichment of faith “calls for that truth to be situated in the human consciousness and calls for a definition of the attitude, or rather the many attitudes, (emphasis added) that go to make the individual a believing member of the Church.” (ibid, pp. 17-18). This is the “subjective or interior side” of the enrichment of faith, where it enters into the human person and actually touches, influences and guides the man of faith. For it is “the transcendent character of the person, together with man’s responsibility to the truth” that defines the subjective range of the Church’s consciousness, in which the Church in a sense discovers itself.” (p. 36)

This “subjective sense’ of the Council—and specifically Wojytla’s notions of consciousness and attitude as they relate to the evangelization of culture-- are our focus here because an enlightened consciousness and a vigorous attitude are indispensable to bringing the “objective’ messages of the Council, which have yet so much to say to modern man, to life in contemporary culture. They are found in and orientate individual ‘subjects’ – knowing and believing persons; collectively the People of God. It is to these people that the messages of the Council are primarily directed and where the responsibility for the objective enrichment of faith and the evangelization of culture in the new millennium ultimately rests.

It is only the faith-based “interiority” of lay people – their contemplative spirit, their God-centered ‘subjectivity,’ their awareness of and commitment to Christ’s message-- that can fully engage and orient this new age of human history. As amply demonstrated in our times, attitudes of ignorance, complacency and superficiality are quite ineffective agents of cultural enrichment. For all its inherent power to bring about positive cultural and social change, Christianity is first and foremost a religion that must be lived to be effective. It is therefore only truly enriching – personally and culturally -- when it is ‘subjectivized’; that is, when it works from within, like leaven. This is so because, as Wojtyla has written elsewhere, “culture develops principally within this dimension, the dimension of self-determining subjects. Culture is basically oriented not so much toward the creation of human products as toward the creation of the human self, which then radiates out into the world of products.” (Person and Community, p. 265.)

John Paul II spoke of this lack of interiority and need for inner renewal to young people in Madrid in May, 2003. “The drama of contemporary culture,” he said, “is the lack of interiority, the absence of contemplation. Without interiority culture has no content; it is like a body that has not found its soul. What can humanity do without interiority? Unfortunately, we know the answer very well. When the contemplative spirit is missing, life is not protected and all that is human is denigrated. Without interiority, modern man puts his own integrity at risk.” (John Paul II, Meeting with Young People, Madrid, May 3, 2003, found here)

And as Maritain wrote in The Peasant of the Garonne: “The true new fire, the essential renewal (engendered by the Council), will be an inner renewal.” (p. 65).

I think that Mr. Mammoser has brought out an essential idea for understanding Vatican II, that of the enrichment of faith. A similar point was made by Dr. Waldstein's workshop, summarized in a blog from October of this year (see here and scroll down to October 1, 2011). I am also grateful for the reference to the statement to the young made in 2003. John Paul counsels us to go to Mary to discovery prayer: "Dear young people, I invite you to be part of the 'School of the Virgin Mary'. She is the incomparable model of contemplation and wonderful example of fruitful, joyful and enriching interiority. She will teach you never to separate action from contemplation."

His final exhortation is also very touching: "I give you my own witness: I was ordained a priest when I was 26 years old. Fifty-six years have passed since then. So how old is the Pope? Almost 83! A young man of 83! Looking back and remembering those years of my life, I can assure you thatit is worthwhile dedicating oneself to the cause of Christ and, out of love for him, devoting oneself to serving humanity. It is worthwhile to give one's life for the Gospel and for one's brothers and sisters!"

Advent -- Newman and Wojtyla

2011-11-27T20:09:00.001-06:00

Advent is upon us. Last year I reviewed a number of Newman's sermons during the Advent season (see first review here). Today, I returned to the sermons again. In mind's eye I see Newman climbing up into the pulpit and speaking his wisdom of the heart. As his contemporary William Lockhart said: "Newman's sermons came down like a new revelation. He had the wondrous, the supernatural power of raising the mind to God, and of rooting deeply in us a personal conviction of God, and a sense of presence."

As I read the sermon, "Worship a preparation for Christ's coming," (PPS V.1) I thought of our recent production of the Jeweler's Shop; through Newman's imagery we can find an advent dimension to Wojtyla's play.

Newman reminds us right at the beginning we should relish the opportunity to worship now, even in the damp and cold of a dark Advent morning -- because we believe we come before God. "They who realize that awful Day when they shall see Him face to face, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, will as little bargain to pray pleasantly now, as they will think of doing so then." Because his gaze is too hard to bear, Newman says, we must learn through our worship how to come into God's presence.

In the Jeweler's Shop, the figure of the jeweler represents judgment, and serves as a sign of the future judgment of God. The imagery used in the play emphasizes the eyes of the jeweler. He is watching (42, 52), his eyes are flashing (43), he acts on others with the "force of his eyes" (81). Andrew and Theresa could bear his gaze and learn from him, troubled though they were by the responsibility of the sweep of temporal existence. Anna was ashamed by his gaze and sought to avoid it. Christopher and Monica trivialized his gaze. Would they learn to bear it and learn from him? It is the standing question of the play. "what are you building, children?" Theresa asks them. She wants to follow them, but commends them to us, "they will come back, they will certainly come back."

Newman also uses the imagery of the Bridegroom: "Let us then take this view of religious service; it is 'going out to meet the Bridegroom,' who, if not seen 'in His beauty,' will appear in consuming fire. Besides its other momentous reasons, it is a preparation for an awful event, which shall one day be." We are not ready for meeting the bridegroom, but we can learn to watch for him through prayer and liturgy. "And what is true of the ordinary services of religion, public and private, holds in a still higher or rather in a special way, as regards the sacramental ordinances of the Church. In these is manifested in greater or less degree, according to the measure of each, that Incarnate Saviour, who is one day to be our Judge, and who is enabling us to bear His presence then, by imparting it to us in measure now."

Sacramental life points us beyond, towards "He, who is Judge to us, [and] prepares us to be judged,—He, who is to glorify us, prepares us to be glorified, that He may not take us unawares; but that when the voice of the Archangel sounds, and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we may be ready."

Adam uses the same imagery of the Bridegroom to direct Anna's gaze beyond the present and away from the temptation of the present desire for a substitute for love. He explains to her that most men live in a lethargy and verge on sleep. Anna must discover that "dormant space" in her soul and look beyond (63). She must wake up to the demands of love even if it means forgiveness and suffering: "to love means to give life through death." Anna by play's end has entered the path of love.

At the end of the play, Adam exclaims: "Human existence seems to short for love." (or love is too short or trivial for existence). The task for human existence is to "reflect in some way the absolute existence and love." As he calls forth each character by name, Adam says that such absolute love "is the ultimate sense of our lives."

We learn the same advent truth from Blake as well as Newman. Blake wrote: "And we are put on earth a little space//That we may learn to bear the beams of love." That little space is opened up by the Advent season to become a time to wake, to watch and to prepare.

Advent, Newman advises, is "a season for chastened hearts and religious eyes; for severe thoughts, and austere resolves, and charitable deeds; a season for remembering what we are and what we shall be." I take this to be the very thrust of The Jeweler's Shop -- Adam helps us remember who we are and the Jeweler chastens our hearts. Wojtyla opens our eyes.

Reading Newman we can return from the world of the stage and face the very coldness of the [December] day; he exhorts once again to "go out to meet Him with contrite and expectant hearts; and though He delays His coming, let us watch for Him in the cold and dreariness which must one day have an end."

The Descendants: Death and the tales told by idiots

2011-11-25T18:23:00.001-06:00

The Descendants is a well crafted movie about the drama of a small family as they learn to live with the impending death of the wife and mother who suffered a head trauma in a boating accident and is taken off life support. The husband, Matt King, played by George Clooney, must learn to deal with the disclosure of his wife's infidelity and his two daughters (ages 10 and 16) must now bond with a father who has been detached and only concerned with his work.

Here is Morgenstern from the WSJ: "Mr. Clooney is a star at the peak of his powers (though he never flaunts them), playing the sort of person we're seldom privileged to meet—a whole man, which is to say a flawed and foolish man who is basically good, and who gets a precious shot at being better."CBS News reports that many now think this movie will win the Oscar (see link here) The New York times also speaks highly of the movie (see link here). CBS reports that Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "If there's something fundamentally wrong with 'The Descendants,' I can't find it. What I see ranks high on the list of the year's best films." I agree that it is well paced, well directed, and emotionally satisfying. But perhaps the thing wrong with it may be found in another accolade, this one from the LA Times, that it straddles comedy and tragedy. Well perhaps it is neither, because there is no deep affirmation of the human condition (unless eating ice cream while watching TV counts) and there is no tragedy because there is no real evil in this world.

The most important conversations in this drama are silly, jumbled, or silenced. When the father confronts the man who had an affair with his wife, he takes consolation from the fact that he did not really love her (it was an affair of appetite). When the ten year old is informed about her mother's condition, the director shows a scene of the girl sitting with a counselor, and her father standing behind, and we hear nothing, not a word, of what they say. I suppose this is very symbolic of the post modern, post Christian world -- it does not matter what you say about death because there is nothing to be said about it. An after life is unthinkable; this life provides various means of coping, choose one or two. Marcus Aurelius provides a fitting epigraph for the movie: your doctrines should be few and fundamental, "sufficient to wash away all your pain and send you back free of resentment at what you must rejoin." This is a fine description of the catharsis offered by the movie -- to be free of pain and resentment, all around.

Marcus is remarkably relevant to the affect of this film: "And what is it you will resent? Human wickedness? Recall the conclusion that rational creatures are born for each other's sake, that toleration is a part of justice, that wrong doing is not deliberate. Consider the number of people who spent their lives in enmity, suspicion, hatred, war and were then laid out for burial or reduced to ashes. Stop, then." (Meditations 3.4.2)

The father is reduced to getting advice from a sweet but simple minded pot head, Sid, his daughter's boyfriend. The boy is wise because he knows how really laughable is all adult discourse in this world without meaning -- self-centered, appetite driven, rationalization. He justifies himself to the adult -- he can cook, play guitar, and roll a joint -- food, music, pot -- he has it all. What do adults have to offer him, anyway?

So Matt King and his older daughter do yell and express their anger at the comatose woman, wife and mother, because she has disappointed them. (At one point King calls his comatose wife a "corpse." Marcus Aurelius often referred to living bodies as corpses.) But the daughter is reconciled to the fact that she is her mother after all; the husband accepts that he failed to take an interest in in his wife and now she is no longer present for him. But this is mere "emoting," and known to be such -- their speech is not a narrative, a seed for potential dialogue, or the beginning of an attempt to understand a life, of spouse, mother, human being. At the end of the film, the wife of the man who carried on the affair visits the hospital room and rambles on about forgiveness, but George Clooney must interrupt her interminable babbling. Emote for a few minutes, whatever words may flow, and get over it. There is no rationale for forgiveness in this world. Stuff happens and we move on. There is no narrative of a life singly, or together.

In the penultimate scene the father and two daughters sprinkle and then dump her ashes into the ocean water along the beautiful coast of Hawaii.

The movie brings to our attention the grief of loss, the wounded character of most relationships, and the human yearning for love and community. George Clooney in this role is the man for our time; he is the consummate adult. Very composed, very human, willing to share his feelings. But he knows the truth expressed by Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach. The world (especially the Hawaii of the privileged) "seems/To lie before us like a land of dreams" and yet it "Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,/Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain." There is nothing to be said. He settles in with his two daughters with a bowl of ice cream and they watch the March of the Penguins on the TV. Here at last a narrative may be found: the march of penguins to ancestral breeding grounds to hatch and protect the chicks.

Cui bono? What to teach the young ones? What is the legacy?

Perhaps it is Matt King's stoic apatheia. He is after all king of himself; he triumphs over appetite, anger, grief. The sub plot about a land trust simply plays up this triumph. As the sole executor of the trust he chooses not to sell the vast holding on Kauai -- he defies the appetites and greed of his family and fellows. He is a descendant of King Kamehameha. He is Matt King; he is a modern day emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Stoic supreme.

He is also, we are told, a descendant of a missionary. But the missionary line is presumably swallowed up by greed (his business ancestor). That is the one sole reference to religion in the movie. There is no more reference to God, religion, ministers; no shots of churches or graveyards with crosses; no personal religious items; no one prays. No conversations. There are Hawaiian songs and long loving pans of sea and landscape. It celebrates pantheism and human (moral) puniness.

So Peter Travers's judgment is sound - there is nothing wrong with this movie; given our post-modern, post-Christian culture the Descendants gives aesthetic expression to the prospects for a moderate and humane existence in a world without God. The Clooney character plays out perfectly his part in a Graceless world.

Saith Marcus Aurelius at the end of the Meditations: "Mortal man . . . what matter if that life is five or fifty years. . . . It is like the comic actor dismissed from the stage. 'But I have not played my five acts but only three.' 'True, but in life three acts can be the whole play.' Go then in peace."

It is random. And it helps to be rich.

So the philosophy of Richard Rorty also suggests itself as the basis for this movie: “Now the things of this world are, for some lucky people, so welcome that they do not have to look beyond nature to the supernatural and beyond life to an afterlife, but only beyond the human past to the human future.”

Is it not remarkable that a movie about death can fail to even mention an after-life or God?

More pictures from recent production of the Jeweler's Shop

2011-11-25T17:25:00.001-06:00

Act 1: Andrew (John Strickland) and Theresa (Autumn Clack)

Act 2: Anna (Katy Burns)

Act 2: Chorus "You have not changed"

Act 3: Christopher (Alex Ozburn) & Monica (Leah Englund)

Chorus leaders: Left, Katherine Rinaldi; right, Sara Kumar; Leah Englund in center

Back: John Strickland (Andrew), John Hittinger (Producer), Jake Schaafs (Lights), Guy Schaafs (Director), Katherine Rinaldi (Chorus)
Front: Alex Ozburn (Christopher), Katy Burns (Anna), Autumn Clack (Theresa), Leah Englund (Monica), Sara Kumar (Chorus)
Upfront: Jonathon (Jeweler & Adam)

Introduction to Performance of Jeweler's Shop

2011-11-25T17:07:00.001-06:00

Anna (Katy Burns) and Adam (Jonathon Colunga) in the Jeweler's Shop

When Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope in 1978 the whole world became his stage. But he never strayed far from his roots in the Polish theater community. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, a group of actors, Wojtyla among them, met in basements and kitchens to rehearse long passages from great Polish literature. Thus was born the Rhapsodic Theater.

In his memoir, founder Kotlarczyk wrote "We held rehearsals in the dark kitchen of our catacomb, sometimes by candlelight when the power was turned off. Romantic rehearsals deepened our Polish consciousness, our resolution to survive and reach the shores of freedom, faithful to our ideal of theater." The Rhapsodic Theater presented 22 performances, and met for over 100 rehearsals or evening workshops in clandestine conditions

The Jeweler's shop was written in 1960 when he was Bishop of Krackow; it is subtitled: “A meditation on the sacrament of matrimony, passing on occasion into a drama.” It is a meditation born of his own human experience, conversations with friendship, and his priesthood. The drama, from his creative art. It reflects the ideals of the Rhapsodic Theater such as respect for the concrete human person, freedom, and community. These ideals permeate all of the writings of John Paul II.

That is why this play is being produced by the Pope John Paul II Forum; our mission is “to promote the understanding of the thought of Pope John Paul II.” The Forum will also sponsor a special event on Thursday evening next week, on the campus of the University of St. Thomas, an interpretation of the play by Professor Peter Casarella of De paul University. His talk is entitled “The Proper Weight of Love.”

The play runs for about 72 minutes; there will be no intermission. The restrooms are to my left, but be aware that actors and props are back there. Director Guy Schaafs has done a magnificent job in staging this play; and the cast has given their time, their dedication and their enthusiasm for the play. I see in the faces of the young cast a reflection of Karol Wojtyla, an actor who 60 years ago founded the Rhapsodic Theater. Actors are totally committed, "all in," dedicated to the craft, and love the beauty of the words and production.

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you -- The Jeweler's Shop

A portrait of the artist, Wojtyla, as young man

2011-11-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

As we finished our second showing of the Jeweler's Shop tonight, I started to get mesmerized by the magic of the theater and fancied that I could look into the mirror of the Jeweler's Shop window and see time bent to suit our vision -- and I saw young Karol in the faces of the actors performing at the Obsidian Art Space in Houston. Krackow 1941, Houston 2011. 70 years in a flash - there he is, performing for the Rhapsodic Theater. Devoted to the task of the play -- memorizing long lines of dialogue -- enthralled with the beauty of the verse and the color of the scene. Pope John Paul II continued to live the actor's life, not because he loved the limelight or he was good at hamming it up; but rather because he retained his youthful love of the beautiful, he stood in awe before the depth and passion of the human person, felt grief over human weakness and foible, and mastered the craft of an art. Actors are "all in" and give of themselves for a common good.

SO I look away from the mirror where I saw Karol's face and heard his voice, and turned to the Letter to Artists (found here on line) and I read:

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.

We need artists; we need more young people devoted to art; we need more young people memorizing their lines and working with a team to present the tragedies and comedies of our human life; we need more young people with palette and pencil tracing out the shadows and forms of things; we need more young people playing music and singing. They enrich us as no one else can. True wealth. The wealth of humanity. Beauty -- the wealth of God!

And young Karol - turned John Paul II -- would also remind us --

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”.

A spirituality of artistic service. Yes, art is based on a deep generosity and nobility of spirit. An ethic as well -- there is a justice to the text (or the canvas and color, the strings, or material), a cooperation with others, a courage to face the unknown and attempt the grand gesture, a restraint of ego for showing the face of the other.

So with good reason does John Paul II write this letter to artists and say "I feel closely linked [to you artists] by experiences reaching far back in time and which have indelibly marked my life." The portrait of Wojtyla as a young man; it is seen in the mirror of his own art.

Sibyls, Magi, Athenians -- On Assisi, part 2

2011-10-27T21:25:00.000-05:00

The Cumaean Sibyl

The Assisi initiative, as well as the Vatican II document that inspired it, rises out of an age old Catholic respect for the religiosity of man, however astray it may go, the heart is restless and seeks God. Respecting his learning and judgment, I queried my colleague Dr. Robert Fastiggi, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, about the Assisi initiative. He pulled together some texts on the fundamental respect for the human search for God.

The Church on Non-Christian Philosophy and Religion as a Preparation for the Gospel (outline by R. Fastiggi)

In Vatican II’s Lumen gentium, 16, we are told that, ”whatever good or truth is found among [non-Christians] is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.”

The following is a rough chronology of some views of the Catholic Church on this topic.

Mt 2:1 The Magi from the East [they might have been Persian Zoroastrian priests].

Acts 17:22-32 Paul at the Areopagus recognizes that the Athenians are “very respectful of the gods” (deisidaimonesterous) [trans. as “very religious” in RSV and NAB].

St. Justin Martyr (c.100- 165 affirms that the “seed of the Logos (sperma logou) is “implanted in every race of men” [Second Apology, chap. 8]. He also believes that the Non-Christian philosophies contain the “seminal Word” (logos spermatikos) [Second Apology, chap. 13]. Vatican II’s Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church (Ad gentes), no. 11 [1965], extends St. Justin’s metaphor to non-Christian religions, which contain “seeds of the Word” (semina Verbi). Pope Paul VI, in his 1975 Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi, 53, likewise states that non-Christian religions “are all impregnated with innumerable seeds of the Word (semina Verbi).

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) speaks of pagan philosophy as a “schoolmaster” to bring Greeks to Christ (Stromata I, 5).

Augustine (354-430); “The Truth, wherever it is found, is His [the Lord’s]” De doctrina Christina, book 2, 18, 28.

Pope Gregory VII, 1076, writes to the King of Morocco (Letters, book 3, n. 21 PL 148, 151: “We believe in and confess one God, though in a different manner, who, as Creator of the ages and Governor of the world, we praise and honor every day” (“unum Deum, licet diverso modo, credimus et confitemur, qui cum Creatorem saeculorum et gubernatorem huius mundi quotidie laudamus et veneramur..”) [cited in a footnote to Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non Christian Religions, Nostra aetate, 2 [1965]

Lateran IV (1215): “The Holy Spirit gave…the doctrine of salvation to the human race, first through Moses and the holy prophets and through his other servants” (Denz-H. 800).

Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) is called the theologian of the concordantia religionum because of his work, De pace fidei, seeking peaceful terms with all faiths. In Cribratio Alcorani I, 6: (the Sifting of the Qur’an), Nicholas writes: “If anything beautiful, true and clear is found in the Qur’an, by necessity, it is a ray of the most luminous Gospel.”

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1466)—believed that Platonism was, at least in part, divinely inspired because of its affirmation of the immortality of the soul.

The Sistine Chapel: Pope Sixtus IV (r.1471-1484), completed under Julius II (1503-13) shows sibyls pointing to Christ.

Matteo Ricci, S.J. (c. 1552- 1611), missionary to China, shows respect for Confucius and Chinese culture.

Roberto de Nobili, S.J.(1577-1656) – dressed as a Hindu ascetic and put on his forehead the sandalwood paste used by the Brahmins. His methods were defended by Pope Gregory XV (1621-23). Cf. Fr. John Laux, Church History (1945, reprinted 1989 by Tan Books), p. 469.

Yves de Paris, OFMCap. (1588-1678): “And even if some people are so criminal as to be carried to sacrilegious adorations, it must be admitted that they all have in their hearts this same impression of nature to adore God; and if the ways in themselves are profane, the first motive and initial impulse are holy” (La théologie naturelle. [TN] book 1, p. 3).

“God does not hold so much rigor against the infidel peoples; His goodness exceeds their demerits; and all the doctors remain in agreement that if the barbarians observe well the natural law, if they cooperate with the graces which the divine mercy offers them, then they will receive the particular instructions of the faith necessary to their salvation” (TN, book 4 p. 2)

Francois Noel, S.J. (1651-1729) –Missionary to China, writes a book on the fundamental harmony of Chinese and Christian philosophy.

John Henry Newman (1801-1890): “The Moral Governor of the world has scattered the seeds of truth far and wide…” (Essays Critical and Historical, sec. 9, p. 431).

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005; pope from 1978-2005) recognizes that “the fundamental questions which pervade human life” are found in the sacred writings of even non-Christian religions (cf. encyclical, Fides et ratio, 1 [1998]).

Addendum on 1 Cor 10:14-22: In this passage, Paul urges the Corinthians “to shun the worship of idols” (v. 14) because “what the pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” (v. 20). Some have used this passage to argue that all non-Christian worship (with the exception of Judaism) is directed towards the Devil or demons and not towards the true God. This passage, though, is concerned with “the worship of idols” connected to certain polytheistic, sacrificial religions in Corinth at that time. It is not proper to go from a particular condemnation to a universal application. While it might be true that demons are involved in some polytheistic cults of today, it is important to do an objective study of a non-Christian religion’s concept of God before applying Paul’s warning about idolatry found in 1 Cor 10:14-22. Moreover, it is important to balance 1 Cor 14:22 with other scriptural passages such as Rom 1:19-21 and Acts 17:22-28 where Paul states that the Gentiles have knowledge of the one true God.

Pope Benedict XVI at Assisi: Pilgrims of Truth, Pigrims of Peace

2011-10-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

Blessed John Paul II at Assisi 1986

Twenty five years ago Pope John Paul II gathered a group in Assisi to affirm the vital importance of the human quest for God. Pope Benedict XVI today confirms the fundamental thrust of Blessed John Paul II's initiative as he meets again with religious leaders from around the globe. The speech may be found here.

He opens with this passage:

Twenty-five years have passed since Blessed Pope John Paul II first invited representatives of the world’s religions to Assisi to pray for peace. What has happened in the meantime? What is the state of play with regard to peace today? At that time the great threat to world peace came from the division of the earth into two mutually opposed blocs. A conspicuous symbol of this division was the Berlin Wall which traced the border between two worlds right through the heart of the city. In 1989, three years after Assisi, the wall came down, without bloodshed. Suddenly the vast arsenals that stood behind the wall were no longer significant. They had lost their terror. The peoples’ will to freedom was stronger than the arsenals of violence. The question as to the causes of this dramatic change is complex and cannot be answered with simple formulae. But in addition to economic and political factors, the deepest reason for the event is a spiritual one: behind material might there were no longer any spiritual convictions.

John Paul II, in Centesimus annus, spoke of the folly of realism and the exaltation of force over reason and law. The downfall of the Soviet Union, he said, "was a struggle born of prayer, and it would have been unthinkable without immense trust in God, the Lord of history, who carries the human heart in his hands. It is by uniting his own sufferings for the sake of truth and freedom to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross that man is able to accomplish the miracle of peace and is in a position to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil and the violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse."

Pope Benedict, today, speaks of the absence of God as a cause of violence. "The absence of God leads to the decline of man and of humanity. But where is God? Do we know him, and can we show him anew to humanity, in order to build true peace? Let us first briefly summarize our considerations thus far. I said that there is a way of understanding and using religion so that it becomes a source of violence, while the rightly lived relationship of man to God is a force for peace. In this context I referred to the need for dialogue and I spoke of the constant need for purification of lived religion. On the other hand I said that the denial of God corrupts man, robs him of his criteria and leads him to violence."

The gathering of representatives of world religions does not point to a syncretic religion or a claim of world unity, but rather indicates the vital need for human beings to seek continual purification and to follow the light of conscience.

Even the agnostic can be a sign of the quest for God: "They suffer from his absence and yet are inwardly making their way towards him, inasmuch as they seek truth and goodness. They are 'pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace.' They ask questions of both sides. They take away from militant atheists the false certainty by which these claim to know that there is no God and they invite them to leave polemics aside and to become seekers who do not give up hope in the existence of truth and in the possibility and necessity of living by it. But they also challenge the followers of religions not to consider God as their own property, as if he belonged to them, in such a way that they feel vindicated in using force against others. "

Cardinal Newman said that "the moral governor of the world has scattered seeds of truth far and wide." In reverence, may every man follow the light of truth so firmly beckoning.

First Official Memorial in Honor of Blessed John Paul II, Houston Tx

2011-10-23T10:47:00.004-05:00


Oct 22, 2011 -- First official Memorial Mass for Blessed John Paul II

Rev Francois Pouliot, OP offers the sacrifice of the mass in honor of Blessed John Paul II on Saturday morning, 11:30 am, October 22, 2011 at the Dominican Priory in Houston; the memorial was observed across Poland, in Rome, and Washington, D.C.; the John Paul II Forum obtained the readings and prayers from Rev. Witold Kania (Poland), a regular visitor to Houston and St Vincent de Paul Parish. This was the first celebration of the official memorial inscribed in the Church calendar in honor of Blessed John Paul II. The U.S. Bishops will consider making this memorial a regular part of the US liturgical calendar. Due to the leap year in 2012, Blessed John Paul's memorial, October 22, will fall on Monday. We hope that parishes in Houston will celebrate the memorial next year as we anticipate his canonization.

Father Francois mentioned some aspects of the life of Blessed John Paul II. He was a man who was willing to take risks to spread the good news.

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the one bringing good news,
Announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, saying to Zion,
“Your God is King!”

He traveled the world; he reached out in love to Jews, Protestants, Moslems and secularists. He sought to show the human face of love and the Christian value of friendship.He continued to
explore the mountains, the country side and his love of beauty.

He lived his life in the love of Christ.

"When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

The life of Blessed John Paul II enacted and reflected the gospel in many ways.

First homily as Pope, October 22, 1978

2011-10-22T08:22:00.002-05:00

Installation as Pope, Oct 22, 1978

In the opening homily of his Pontificate, we can trace the themes that would characterize his preaching and writing. The dignity of the person due to spiritual capacity or powers of intellect and will; respect for conscience; appreciation for the depth or abyss of the person, against the reductionism of technology and tyranny; the search for meaning in a world of senseless violence and cold indifference; the illuminating power of the Word; the apostolate to culture and the modern world; the love of Jesus Christ; the relentless courage ("Be not afraid!"). Here are a few lines from the homily; they continue to inspire; they encourage us to prayerful study of his life and work:

The absolute and yet sweet and gentle power of the Lord responds to the whole depths of the human person, to his loftiest aspirations of intellect, will and heart. It does not speak the language of force but expresses itself in charity and truth. . . .

Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows "what is in man". He alone knows it.

So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life.

From Homily on October 22, 1978 (from Vatican website)

Memorial of Blessed John Paul II

2011-10-21T17:15:00.002-05:00

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

October 22 is the first time for the faithful to commemorate the memory of Blessed John Paul II. This is the day he was installed as the supreme pontiff in 1978 and assumed full official duties. On the liturgical calender this is the day for his memorial. April 2, the day of his death and birth into eternal life (dies natalis), would fall in Lent or on important Easter events and so that date is not really suitable for the memorial. He was elected to the papacy on October 16th 1978. The elected candidate becomes pope as soon as he accepts the office. October 16th is the memorial of St. Hedwig (1174-1243) of Silesia/Andachs, so that day is not the best. (Note: In 1997 John Paul II canonized St Hedwig, Queen of Poland, d. 1399; she was the patron of the School of Theology in Krakow). Thus, this day, October 22, the day of John Paul II's installation, we are given to commemorate the memorial of Blessed John Paul II.

Members of the John Paul II Forum will participate in a morning Mass in his honor at the Dominican Priory in Houston Texas. We will pray for the Church and all for all readers of this blog, supporters of the Forum and all the faithful who continue to learn from him and seek his assistance.

We should meditate on the readings for the day and offer thanks for the life and ministry of Blessed John Paul II. Here are the readings for Mass:

First reading: Is 52: 7-10

Psalm 96 (95)

Second reading: Ep 4:1-7, 11-13

Alleluia Jn 10:14

Gospel: John 21:15-17

Opening Prayer:

O God, who are rich in mercy and who willed that the Blessed John Paul II should preside as Pope over your universal Church, grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ, the sole Redeemer of mankind. Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Taborski on the role of the Jeweler

2011-10-11T19:38:00.000-05:00

The Jeweler seems to stand for Divine Providence, for the power of moral judgment. The wedding rings, which he does not so much sell as dispense and which he refuses to buy back, symbolize the obligations of marriage. That he does not appear on stage is consistent with Wojtyla's practice: as a rule, neither his plays nor his poetry call God by name or invoke Him directly; His presence is felt but not imposed. True, Andrew and Anna quote the Jeweler's words and describe his shop and his behavior, but for all we know he could be just an eccentric shopkeeper. In a realistic play this would certainly be the case, but not in this poetic mystery.

As with Adam, we cannot pinpoint this mysterious character with absolute (one is tempted to say physical) certainty. We do not see him-only the characters in the drama sometimes do. Thus another interpretation is possible. If Adam can be called a confessor, the Jeweler can be called the voice of conscience. A conscience is both innately human (all men should have one) and God-given. So the Jeweler's divine and human attributes do not contradict each other. One could say that Andrew and Teresa in Act I exchange their rings themselves and that Anna's struggle in Act 2 to get rid of her unwanted ring takes place within her. Bnt the characters act always in the sight of God.

The Polish title of the play, Przed sklepem jubilera, literally means "In front of the jeweler's shop." The jeweler sees our thoughts and actions through the shop window, which is also the window of our conscience. Through the Jeweler, as the other characters describe him and feel his presence, the play's theme is explained. After all, what God knows our consciences ought to know.

The Jeweler's monologue, quoted by Andrew, defines directly and precisely the contradiction between aspirations and weakness that makes man fall short of his full potential:

Ah, the proper weight of man!
This rift, this tangle, this ultimate depth --
this clinging when it is so hard
to unstick heart and thought.
And in all -- freedom,
a freedom and sometimes frenzy,
the frenzy of freedom trapped in this tangle.
And in all this-love,
which springs from freedom as water springs from an oblique rift in the earth.
This is man! He is not transparent,
not monumental,
not simple; in fact he is poor.
This is one man-and what about two people,
four, a hundred, a million?
Multiply all this
(multiply the greatness by the weakness),
and you will have the product of humanity,
the product of human life.

Those contradictions are most clearly discernible in love, the most intense sphere of interhuman relations.

Krzysztof Dybciak on the Jeweler's Shop (1980)

2011-10-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

Polish thinkers always have been willing to express themselves in literary forms of communication. Our greatest thinkers are writers: poets, novelists, essayists, authors of political works. . . the Polish philosophical style is literary: it is non-systematic; it is oriented toward the life experience of the individual; it is willing to use metaphors, symbols, fictional examples and artistic tales. Maybe this is above all a personalistic style, i.e., it focuses on the problems of a real, unique person, and its investigations are made in an individual, personal way.

. . . The poetic drama "In Front of the Jeweler's Shop " is the longest of the literary works which Karol Wojtyla has published to date. The linked destinies of three loving couples - the time is either the present or the immediate past - follow contrapuntal lines established by their declarations or by the declarations of others who are involved in the drama and who relate their actions. The reflections made by the characters mainly concern love. Is the subject of love a being who seems unable to grow from nature to the dimension of his calling by love? Andrzej's monologue dramatically shows the situation and the potentialities of man.

Here is man! He is not transparent
he is not monumental,
nor is he simple;
he is rather poor.
This is one man - two
four, a hundred, a million-
Multiply all of them
(and multiply this magnitude by weakness),
you obtain a number of people,
a number of human life (FJS, 1574)

The full meaning of the drama may be understood as a polemic between the basic conceptions of love that dominate our world: hedonistic and individualistic. Love, in Jawien’s conception, is an encounter of persons, a mutual gift of oneself to the other, a perfect unification. In this perspective, it must be the gift of man as a whole, in his biological, axiological and temporal dimensions. Love most certainly reveals itself in the form of the total and ultimate unification of two human beings. This direction of Wojtyla's thinking, while giving action its dynamics, agrees with the philosophical standpoint expressed in his "Appraisal of the Possibility of Building a Christian Ethics on the Philosophy of Max Scheler."

In the previous twenty years Karol Wojtyla took upon himself the task of establishing a philosophical position that would synthesize phenomenology and personalism. Starting with Scheler, he went in the direction of St. Thomas's personal-ism, while enriching his methodology with Husserl's phenomenology and with contemporary anthropo-sciences. The foundations of his new philosophy could not be, as with Scheler, emotion and experience, but ethical action. Man is considered in his totality as a subject capable of actions that bring empirically verifiable results. This constitutes an extremely important step in helping overcome the objective-subjective division which characterizes the philosophy of the last hundred years.

[Author's Note: In his essay "The Personalism of St. Thomas" Wojtyla writes about this process of contemporary thought: "We gradually observe in this philosophy a process which I would call the hypostasis of consciousness: consciousness becomes an independent subject of action and, indirectly, of existence; the latter emerges, so to speak, alongside the body, alongside its material structure submitted to the laws of nature. . . . This solution is radically different from that of St. Thomas. According to him, consciousness and self-consciousness are a derived product, something like the fruit of a thinking nature that would exist in man."]

In his literary endeavors Wojtyla constructed a worldview which we shall call active personalism, sometimes doing so even earlier than in his philosophical works.

Warsaw Translated from the Polish By Alice-Catherine Carls
Krzysztof Dybciak and Alice-Catherine Carls, “The Poetic Phenomenology of a Religious Man: About the Literary Creativity of Karol Wojtyła,” in World Literature Today, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Spring, 1980), pp. 223-229

Grol-Prokopczyk's Review of the Jeweler's Shop (1981)

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Besides satisfying the general curiosity about Pope JohnPaul II's (Karol Wojtyla's) play writing, "The JewelersShop," subtitled "A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony,Passing on Occasion into a Drama," will be of greatinterest to scholars interested in Polish literature and twentieth-century theatre. The noted critic Boleslaw Taborski,selected by a special papal commission to do the translation ofthe play, has acquitted himself of the task splendidly. Hisinformative introduction presents the Pope as a committedthespian and playwright and offers a solid analysis of thework. Taborski compares Wojtyla to such contemporarydramatists as T. S. Eliot and Pinter and establishes the rootsof his play in medieval mysteries, baroque allegories and theconventions of the Rhapsodic Theatre (an undergroundtheatre of which Wojtyla was a co-founder in 1941). Followingthe conventions, which minimize the visual aspects of performancesin favor of the spoken word and the meaning itimplies, The Jeweler s Shop is essentially a static play. Yet itis dramatically effective and astonishingly modern in its technique.Composed of loose scenes and monologues that onlytangentially converge to create the impression of a dialogue,the play is unified in a twofold way: thematically, in that allthree acts deal with various phases of marital love; and on amore superficial level, in terms of the locale through repeatedreminiscences of or references to the jeweler's shop.

Originally published in the Catholic journal Znak (Cracow,December 1960) under the pseudonym Andrej Jawieri (seeWLT 54:2, pp. 223-29 and 240-43), the play can be seen as aphenomenological exploration of love. Act one presents acouple at the proposal and wedding stage; act two showsanother couple and their growing estrangement; in act threechildren of the couples in the preceding acts are overcomingtheir anxieties on the threshold of marriage. Wojtyla writesas someone who has experienced the onus of human existence.He is extremely sensitive to the joys and the miseriesof relationships, including those between parents and children.Overall, the play is rather low-keyed in its impact.Love is never presented as a passionate outburst, nor are themessages overly didactic or moralizing.The play has metaphysical and even mythical dimensions.The first couple's attraction is manifested in terms of mysterious"signals." The Jeweler is presented as a sage, at times amagician, with insights into the future. Likewise Adam, themysterious stranger in act two, prophesies, sees more deeplythan others and ultimately - as the author's mouthpiece, nodoubt - declares that love must be found "in the dimensionsof God."

Wojtyla advocates a yearning for "the absoluteExistence and Love," yet mediated by other people. As oneof the numerous philosophizing lines informs us, "Love is aconstant challenge, thrown to us by God."The religious premises and overtones of the play are hardlysurprising. What astonishes and inspires one is Wojtyia'smost profound understanding of human nature reflected inthe play. The free-flowing blank verse of the original hasbeen very capably rendered into English.

Regina Grol-Prokopczyk,Empire State College

World Literature Today, Vol. 55, No. 2, Spring 1981 p. 345

Karol Wojtyla. The Jewelers Shop. Boleslaw Taborski, tr.New York. Random House. 1980. xix + 75 pages. $7.95.

Czerwinski's Review of The Jeweler's Shop (1988)

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Kotlarczyk's Rhapsodic Theater was the crucible where the future pope's beliefs were tested. Wojtyla championed the cause of the "theater of the Word," whose chief concern, as Boleslaw Taborski points out in his introduction, is "not so much with external events as with exploring man's soul; it is there that the 'action' often unfolds." It is also the reason for the static nature of Wojtyla's dramas, especially "Our God's Brother" and "Radiation of Fatherhood."

The message in each is in keeping with Christian thought: "Let yourself be molded by love" and "Go on searching." According to the young Wojtyla (1945-50), a revolution may come, but the life devoted to Christ is the greater reward and a "greater freedom."

The message is the same in The Jeweler's Shop, but it is more accessible to the reader-viewer. The theme of love is developed in a way that is fresh and original. It is a modern mystery play with all the ingredients of a psychological thriller: suspense, romance, interesting situations and characters, and imaginative plot twists. The voice of the seer is dominant, however: "The future depends on love." It is this statement that is repeated throughout the five plays. "Love, which springs from freedom" is a two-edged sword, for "you too, like me, must be liberated from freedom / through love." This thought is the key element in all the plays: "Love denies freedom of will to him who loves." It also happens to form the basis of Christian thought.

If there is an award that can be given to a translator and editor, Boleslaw Taborski should be its recipient. His English renditions are magnificent, and the introductions to the plays are perceptive and definitive. (On Wojtyla's plays, see also WLT 54:2, pp. 240-43.)

E. J. Czerwinski SUNY, Stony Brook in World Literature Today, Vol. 62, No. 3, (Summer,1988), pp. 477-478

John Paul II on Newman

2011-10-09T18:33:00.000-05:00

Newman's statue at the London Oratory

Today is the feast day of Blessed John Henry Newman.

Newman had a profound influence on Blessed John Paul II, whose approach to faith and reason is derived from Aquinas and Newman. On various occasions John Paul II offered his comments on Newman and we have much to glean from them. I would like to pull out a few comments for reflection.

In commemorating the centenary of Newman's death in 1990 Blessed John Paul II took two occasions for reflection on his great witness.

In a letter to the Archbishop of Birmingham, John Paul II linked Newman's work to the crisis of our times and the response of Vatican II:

He urges [us] to keep asking the deeper, more basic questions about the meaning of life and of all human history; not to be content with a partial response to the great mystery that is man himself; to have the intellectual honesty and moral courage to accept the light of truth, no matter what personal sacrifice it may involve. Above all, Newman is a magnificent guide for all those who perceive that the key, the focal point and the goal of all human history is to be found in Christ (Gaudium et Spes, 10) and in union with him in that community of faith, hope and charity, which is his holy Church, through which he communicates truth and grace to all (Lumen Gentium, 8).

The contemporary approaches to the human person and society tend to be reductionistic, reducing the human to the material and the external, denying freedom, and lowering the goal of human striving. We must preserve the mystery and depth of human existence, and in Newman's work we find a deep reverence for the human person. Indeed, the "prospects for genuine freedom" and the discovery of a solid foundation for the dignity of the person find a resonance in Newman.

Newman had a sharp eye for academic hypocrisy and sham. He was grieved by the flippant and arrogant approach the typical academic would take to the mystery of God and man; these academics and associated opinion makers would often opine about divine matters as if commenting upon cricket match or a plate of stew. Newman teaches us that a proper disposition must be cultivated to even approach the majesty of truth. Thus, John Paul II addressed a scholarly group dedicated to Newman (see address here) and spoke of the inspiration we receive from Newman as a "Pilgrim of Truth":

I would underline the inspiration that scholars and thoughtful readers of Newman continue to receive today from this pilgrim for truth. Your Symposium and other such celebrations during this centenary year offer the occasion for a deeper appreciation of Newman’s charism. Not least among his merits, he reminds us of the need for an interior disposition of loving obedience to God if contemporary society is to be successful in its quest for the full liberating truth which it urgently needs, and indeed knows itself to need.

Finally, John Paul II was drawn to Newman's personal holiness, so rooted in his loving abandonment to God. Newman suffered much disappointment, contradiction and pain and yet he never lost hope or a lively charity. On the occasion of the second centenary of Newman's birth, John Paul II wrote a letter and noted:

Newman’s search was shot through with pain. Once he had come to that unshakeable sense of the mission entrusted to him by God, he declared: "Therefore, I will trust Him... If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him... He does nothing in vain... He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me. Still, He knows what He is about" (Meditations and Devotions). All these trials he knew in his life; but rather than diminish or destroy him they paradoxically strengthened his faith in the God who had called him, and confirmed him in the conviction that God "does nothing in vain". In the end, therefore, what shines forth in Newman is the mystery of the Lord’s Cross: this was the heart of his mission, the absolute truth which he contemplated, the "kindly light" which led him on.

Act of Entrustment to Mary, Oct 8 2000

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On Sunday, October 8, 2000, at the conclusion of the Jubilee of the Bishops, Blessed Pope John Paul II and the bishops entrusted themselves and the Church in the new millennium to Mary. John Paul II's prayer of entrustment follows:
1. "Woman, behold your Son!" (Jn 19:26).
As we near the end of this Jubilee Year,
when you, O Mother, have offered us Jesus anew,
the blessed fruit of your womb most pure,
the Word made flesh, the world’s Redeemer,
we hear more clearly the sweet echo of his words
entrusting us to you, making you our Mother:
"Woman, behold your Son!"
When he entrusted to you the Apostle John,
and with him the children of the Church and all people,
Christ did not diminish but affirmed anew
the role which is his alone as the Saviour of the world.
You are the splendour which in no way dims the light of Christ,
for you exist in him and through him.
Everything in you is fiat: you are the Immaculate One,
through you there shines the fullness of grace.
Here, then, are your children, gathered before you
at the dawn of the new millennium.
The Church today, through the voice of the Successor of Peter,
in union with so many Pastors assembled here
from every corner of the world,
seeks refuge in your motherly protection
and trustingly begs your intercession
as she faces the challenges which lie hidden in the future.

2. In this year of grace, countless people have known
the overflowing joy of the mercy
which the Father has given us in Christ.
In the particular Churches throughout the world,
and still more in this centre of Christianity,
the widest array of people have accepted this gift.
Here the enthusiasm of the young rang out,
here the sick have lifted up their prayer.
Here have gathered priests and religious,
artists and journalists,
workers and people of learning,
children and adults,
and all have acknowledged in your beloved Son
the Word of God made flesh in your womb.
O Mother, intercede for us,
that the fruits of this Year will not be lost
and that the seeds of grace will grow
to the full measure of the holiness
to which we are all called.

3. Today we wish to entrust to you the future that awaits us,
and we ask you to be with us on our way.
We are the men and women of an extraordinary time,
exhilarating yet full of contradictions.
Humanity now has instruments of unprecedented power:
we can turn this world into a garden,
or reduce it to a pile of rubble.
We have devised the astounding capacity
to intervene in the very well-springs of life:
man can use this power for good, within the bounds of the moral law,
or he can succumb to the short-sighted pride
of a science which accepts no limits,
but tramples on the respect due to every human being.
Today as never before in the past,
humanity stands at a crossroads.
And once again, O Virgin Most Holy,
salvation lies fully and uniquely in Jesus, your Son.

4. Therefore, O Mother, like the Apostle John,
we wish to take you into our home (cf. Jn 19:27),
that we may learn from you to become like your Son.
"Woman, behold your son!"
Here we stand before you
to entrust to your maternal care
ourselves, the Church, the entire world.
Plead for us with your beloved Son
that he may give us in abundance the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of truth which is the fountain of life.
Receive the Spirit for us and with us,
as happened in the first community gathered round you
in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14).
May the Spirit open our hearts to justice and love,
and guide people and nations to mutual understanding
and a firm desire for peace.
We entrust to you all people, beginning with the weakest:
the babies yet unborn,
and those born into poverty and suffering,
the young in search of meaning,
the unemployed,
and those suffering hunger and disease.
We entrust to you all troubled families,
the elderly with no one to help them,
and all who are alone and without hope.

5. O Mother, you know the sufferings
and hopes of the Church and the world:
come to the aid of your children in the daily trials
which life brings to each one,
and grant that, thanks to the efforts of all,
the darkness will not prevail over the light.
To you, Dawn of Salvation, we commit
our journey through the new Millennium,
so that with you as guide
all people may know Christ,
the light of the world and its only Saviour,
who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Visit to White House by a Roman Pontiff, Oct 6 1979

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On October 6, 1979 Blessed John Paul II became the first Pope to step foot in the White House. Jimmy Carter extended the invitation to him.

At the White House John Paul II spoke of his Polish heritage and the importance of respect for the dignity of the person.

He said:

Divine Providence in its own designs has called me from my native Poland to be the Successor of Peter in the See of Rome and the leader of the Catholic Church. It gives me great joy to be the first Pope in history to come to the Capital of this nation, and I thank Almighty God for this blessing. In accepting your courteous invitation, Mr. President, I have also hoped that our meeting today would serve the cause of world peace, international understanding and the promotion of full respect for human rights everywhere. . . .

I come from a nation with a long tradition of deep Christian faith and with a national history marked by many upheavals; for more than a hundred years Poland was even erased from the political map of those values without which no society can prosper: love of freedom, cultural creativity, and the conviction that common endeavors for the good of society must be guided by a true moral sense. My own spiritual and religious mission impels me to be the messenger of peace and brotherhood, and to witness to the true greatness of every human person. This greatness derives from the love of God, who created us in his own likeness and gave us an eternal destiny. It is in this dignity of the human person that I see the meaning of history, and that I find the principle that gives sense to the role which every human being has to assume for his or her own advancement and for the well-being of the society to which he or she belongs.

Paprocki on Wojtyla as a model of courage in defending religious freedom

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Bishop Thomas John Paprocki

The Most Rev. Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield, Il. delivered the homily for the Red Mass in Houston Texas. He warns us of the aggressive form of secular ideology that is permeating our society, animating many politicians and cultural leaders to make every effort to reduce the Church's presence in the public sphere. He draws inspiration from the courage of Cardinals Wyszyński and Wojtyla. I reproduce that portion of his homily below. (Find the full homily here)

Perhaps the best antidote to profane secularism can be learned from the example of those who withstood and defeated godless communism. One of the staunchest defenders of the Church in communist Poland was the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. In May 1953, the communist regime ordered the implementation of a law by which it, not the Catholic Church, would appoint and remove pastors, vicars and bishops. The Church would become, de facto, a subsidiary of the state. In a powerful sermon at Warsaw’s St. John’s Cathedral, Cardinal Wyszyński drew the line, saying, “We teach that it is proper to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. But when Caesar sits himself on the altar, we respond curtly: he may not.”

Shortly afterwards Cardinal Wyszyński was arrested and began three years of internment. “By the end of the year, eight bishops and 900 priests were in prison for their faith. The numbers would increase to 2,000 over the next two years, while theological faculties were closed, parents threatened, religious education stopped in the schools, and onerous taxes [were] laid on the Church.” When unrest took hold of Poland in the form of workers’ demonstrations during a general strike in June 1956 that was crushed by tanks of the Red Army, the new communist leader realized that “only one man could calm the situation – Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński – and so he had him released from his interment, but only after Cardinal Wyszyński demanded and received other concessions from the communist authorities.

A young Bishop by the name of Karol Wojtyła would follow in the footsteps of Cardinal Wyszyński in defending religious freedom. Following World War II, the Polish government established a town called Nowa Huta in the industrial outskirts of Kraków. They intended it to be a model communist city without God, comprised of steel workers and other laborers, but in which there was to be no church building. The Polish Catholics of Nowa Huta and the local Auxiliary Bishop thought otherwise. On December 24, 1959, Bishop Wojtyła began celebrating Christmas Midnight Mass in a freezing open field in Nowa Huta during the years in which the communist regime refused a building permit. On October 13, 1967, the communist authorities finally gave permission to build a church, and the very next day, Wojtyła, who by then had become the Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków, “drove to Nowa Huta and turned the symbolic first spade of earth, preparing the ground for the cornerstone, which was donated by [Pope] Paul VI and taken from a fragment of Constantine’s ancient basilica of St. Peter in Rome.” The triumph of Cardinal Wojtyła was celebrated with his dedication of the new church in Nowa Huta on May 15, 1977.

Poland was blessed with some strong bishops during the years of communist persecution, especially Cardinal Wyszyński and Cardinal Wojtyła, but we should note that their eventual success was bolstered by a fervent and determined laity. Without the protests of the laity, Cardinal Wyszyński would not have been released from his confinement and Cardinal Wojtyła would never have dedicated a new church in Nowa Huta. People need to keep that in mind when they demand strong leadership from their bishops. Yes, the successors of the apostles must be willing to lay down their lives for the faith as did the first apostles, but bishops should also be able to count on the dedicated and zealous support of the lay Christian faithful.

Workshop 8: Vatican II and enrichment of faith

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In session 8 of the summer workshop, Waldstein spoke about Wojtyla's account of Vatican II in his book Sources of Renewal. Find Waldstein's chapter here.

"The implementation of the council consists first and foremost in enriching the faith." Wojtyla said enrichment does not mean adding explicit formulations of truths but receiving and realizing faith more richly in lived experience. As we noted previously, to lack receptivity: "What a world of power unreported," Rilke wrote.

Vatican II calls for the enrichment, or deepening, of the faith. Cardinal Wojtyla explained that the faithful must be formed in consciousness, that is, in awareness of faith, and in attitude, that is, the "Existential or moral aspect of a mature faith."

Waldstein explains that "as a supernatural gift to the human person, faith has its origin in God." The response to God is an act of self-abandonment. Thus "the notion of 'self-gift' is not far away." Yes we accept the truth of propositions of faith, but also one becomes "aware of one's vocation and meaning of ones existence."

Waldstein argues against the idea put forward by Rocco Buttiglione, in hs fine book, on Wojtyla, that the key to the council is religious freedom,or freedom of conscience. Waldstein agrees that Wojtyla speaks about the importance of subjectivity; but first, as the capacity for appropriation of faith. Here the influence of St John of the Cross is clear. "In his turn towards the subject, Wojtyla draws on a carmelite source that sprang up authentically from within the normative Catholic tradition. He reads Vatican II in light of this authentically Catholic attention to the lived experience of personal interiority and subjectivity unfolded by John of the Cross."

For example, here is a reference to consciousness in Redemptor hominis:

through the Church's consciousness, which the Council considerably developed, through all levels of this self-awareness, and through all the fields of activity in which the Church expresses, finds and confirms herself, we must constantly aim at him "who is the head", "through whom are all things and through whom we exist", who is both "the way, and the truth" §7

Obviously, consciousness is paired with response to faith and the truth of Christ, not freedom of conscience or religious freedom as such. There is no ambiguity about the truth of faith:

Our response must be: Our spirit is set in one direction, the only direction for our intellect, will and heart is-towards Christ our Redeemer, towards Christ, the Redeemer of man. We wish to look towards him -- because there is salvation in no one else but him, the Son of God.

As he learned from St. John of the Cross, Blessed John Paul II teaches us that "faith is to be personal, free and convinced, embraced with ones entire being, an ecclesial faith, confessed and celebrated in communion with the Church, a praying and adoring faith, matured through the experience of communion with God." (Letter of John of the Cross, 1990, §7)

Thus Blessed John Paul II says that John of the Cross shows us the way to the "adult faith which the Second Vatican Council asks of us." How mistaken it would be to think that an "adult faith" means the reduction of mystery so as to live more according to the standard of western consumerism and the facile reductionism of the intelligentsia. John of the Cross speaks of the dark night of intellect, affection and will, not of the endorsement of secular rationality, therapeutic satisfaction, or assertion of personal rights.

Truth -- Superiority and Receptivity

2011-09-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

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 (ConfessionsX, 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

2011-09-25T00:38:00.000-05:00

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

2011-09-24T22:59:00.001-05:00

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

2011-09-23T07:10:00.000-05:00

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

2011-09-22T06:18:00.000-05:00

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 abilityPenance, 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

2011-09-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

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

2011-09-19T09:56:00.005-05:00

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

2011-09-18T13:10:00.006-05:00

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.

On Boleslaw Taborski

2011-08-14T21:49:00.004-05:00

From London Times Dec 13 2011 Boleslaw - poet, essayist, translator and BBC World Service Polish Section radio journalist died in London on 6th December 2010, aged 83. A memorial mass will be held at 11.30am on 16th December at St. Andrew Bobola Church,

From the UK Guardian, a recollection by Zbigniew Pelczynski
see link here

Bolesław was born in Torun, Poland. Liberated from a German prisoner of war camp, he settled in Britain, where he took a degree in English literature and theatre studies at Bristol University. Between 1959 and 1989 he worked as an editor and presenter at the BBC World Service. With great enthusiasm, dedication and perception, he covered cultural events such as the Edinburgh festival and reviewed plays.
Bolesław lectured and wrote in English and Polish. He translated Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and the poems of Robert Graves and Robert Lowell into Polish. He also translated Polish studies of Shakespeare and Vladimir Maya- kovsky into English. One of his most notable achievements was translating and editing the collected plays of Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II. He later corresponded with the pope, discussed his plays with him in Rome and was moved that he read and commented on some of Bolesław's poems.
Bolesław published 18 volumes of poetry and six collections of his work, winning prizes in England, America and Poland. His style changed over the years, but certain themes recurred, such as classical music, literature and drama. The dominant tone of his poems is sombre, reflective and philosophical. Poetry for him was a way to make sense of human nature, of 20th-century history and of social and political reality.
He was immensely glad to see his Polish homeland, having endured decades of communist dictatorship, achieve freedom and democracy. In his last years he spent roughly half of his time in Poland, but he remained happily anchored in his adopted homeland.

See a fragment of being, about the life of Taborksi at You Tube, here

Taborski on Wojtyla's Drama

2011-08-14T21:41:00.003-05:00

Boleslaw Taborski 1927-2010

The definitive edition in English of Wojtyla's plays is still The Collected Plays and Writings on the Theater, translated and with introductions by Boleslaw Taborski (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987)

I found a remarkable passage in the editor's introduction to confirm the interpretation of the theater of the word along the lines of Augustinian philosophy of time.

Taborski says that Wojtyla's inner drama is unique, reaching beyond the bounds of the Rhapsodic Theater, because it "creates its own dramatic reality."

The world of external events is not so much expressed by the dramatist directly as absorbed into the "inner space" the psychological space, of the protagonist, where it exists timelessly, in projections into past or future (that is in the memory of the hero or in his prophecies), supported by the author's knowledge of history, or even theology. (p 16)

I started to say in my previous post that action is swallowed up, but chose not to say that because action remains in the theater of the word; but Taborski's "absorbed" is much better. Action is present, but absorbed into the word, suspended in its meaning. It is a different (truer) perspective on time and human action. Augustine got this right -- there is only present, and the soul's attention, through which passes memory (time past) and anticipation (time future). Time is not an external box into which we fix time or an apriori form onto which we fit actions, as school boys fuss over their time lines. No, time is a "distension of the soul." Aristotle had it partially right -- time is a measure of a before and after, and therefore time requires mind, an attentive awareness of change. But here is Augustine on time -- past and future do not exist as such, (the past is no longer and the future is not yet). So what then? Time is present, only present, even memory and anticipation:

Nor is it properly said, "there be three times, past, present, and to come": yet perchance it might be properly said, "there be three times; a present of things past, a present of things present, and a present of things future." For these three do exist in some sort, in the soul, but otherwhere do I not see them; present of things past, memory; present of things present, sight; present of things future, expectation. XI.28

The inner drama, the theater of the word, rolls time into the present, the inner space of the actor. Taborski had earlier explained that Wojtyla's dramatic works belong to the sphere of poetic drama . . he is not concerned so much with external events as with exploring man's soul; it is there that "action" often unfolds. (p. 15)

Taborski's overall assessment of Wojtyla's drama is quite generous:

To a remarkable extent the dramas of Karol Wojtyla, despite being written over a twenty five year period (1939-1964) and despite their stylistic differences, are in some respects monolithic, especially in their themes and their moral import, mature even in Wojtyla's work as a nineteen year old. They are coherent in what I call their inner form. In fact, from the beginning Wojtyla as a playwright was no debtor but consistently build his own vision of the drama of human existence: the vision of mans place on earth and in the divine plan of creation. In his plays he referred to the highest values in our culture, and at the same time, in the days when word and language were totally degraded and devalued by ideologies that demanded their subservience to shallow, often inhuman purposes, he aimed at the revaluation of words. With astounding consistency he developed a modern form of theater that is religious without being devotional. Even though the author of these works did not specifically aim at the theater at large, they are a proposition that the theater ought to seriously consider.

We owe a great debt to Taborski for his careful translations and his insightful comments on each play of Karol Wojtyla. Please see further posting on Taborski, who died less than a year ago.

"Rhapsodic theater" - how to suit action to word

2011-08-13T23:14:00.004-05:00

In 1961 Karol Wojtyla wrote The Jeweler's Shop; he was Archbishop of Krakow, but he continued to take an interest in theater and in creative expression of important issues, especially human love. We know from his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope that he always showed a profound respect for human love -- “As a young priest I learned to love human love. ... If one loves human love, there naturally arises the need to commit oneself completely to the service of ‘fair love,’ because love is fair; it is beautiful. After all, young people are always searching for the beauty in love.” Weigel reports that John Paul II wrote the Jeweler's Shop from his memory of friends and their relationships. So writing the play in 1961 is consistent with his office as Bishop.

But it is consistent in a more profound way with his life as a whole. If we reach back nine years to 1952 we find the priest, Father Karol Wojtyla writing a review of a performance of Shakespeare in the style of the Rhapsodic Theater. And of course, ten years previous to that Wojtyla was present at the founding of the Rhapsodic Theater, as a gesture of underground resistance to Nazi occupation, as the Polish nationals preserved their cultural identity through this medium. So what is the "Rhapsodic theater"? It is fascinating to read his understanding of the Theater of the Word" in this essay of 1952 (See his work on Theater of the Word here)

Wojtyla contrasts Rhapsodic Theater with Shakespeare; Rhapsodic theater is "far removed" from Shakespearean theater. Its action is more stylized, he says at the end of the essay, to give "sway to the word." Yet it is more than the recitation of poetry. How is this? He explains at the beginning: "As in life, the word can appear as an integral part of action, movement, and gesture, inseparable from all human practical activity; or it can appear as 'song' --- separate, independent, intended only to contain and express thought, to embrace and transmit a vision of the mind. In the latter aspect, or position, the word becomes 'rhapsodic,' and a theater based on such a concept of the word becomes a rhapsodic theater."

Rhapsodic theater gives more sway to word; but how can word become separate or independent of action? Would it not become simply philosophy or poetry? (Presuming even they could achieve such independence?) No, he will insist that it is theater - it requires acting, staging, drama. I think it is a way to open up the dimension of conscience and self reflection as an essential dimension of personal existence. So action must be suspended in the meaning of personal existence.

Wojtyla finds a passage from Shakespeare inviting an inquiry into the relation of word and action.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance: that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the fist and now, was and is to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. [Hamlet, III.iii. 16-23]

But is it not ironic that Wojtyla will quote a passage from Hamlet, the man for whom "words, words, words" displace action or render action null? It must be ironic, because Wojtyla is neither a nominalist nor a nihilist. His point may be that action continues to reverberate in conscience; so too action emerges from the heart; and action intensifies (or degrades) love. As I said, action must be suspended in the meaning of personal existence, a meaning continually open to meditation and inner dialogue. The Rhapsodic Theater captures that inner dialogue, as the true medium of action.

The Jeweler's Shop is a drama about love, marriage, divorce but the action is past or future; with Augustine we discovers that past and future are present as aspects of the soul (distension of the soul, Confessions 11:26-27). Memory and anticipation must be fed by present attention (present) and ultimately by prayer. So perhaps the Theater of the Word, the Rhapsodic Theater, is an Augustinian exploration of the person.

On the one hand, Rhapsodic theater will establish a different approach to both the content and form of theater, as we shall see; on the other hand, Wojtyla says that it is theater, and fulfills the vision for theater as propounded in Hamlet - the mirror held up to nature, showing virtue her own feature, etc. How does it do so? How does one suit action to word, and word to action? A profound question of philosophic and political import, as well as dramatic or aesthetic. Before continuing the Augustinian interpretation, we best return to Wojtyla's review and see his account of how the Rhapsodic Theater suits action to word.

Suit the action to the word . . .

St. Clare - divine love is a reality

2011-08-11T20:29:00.011-05:00

On the feast day of St. Clare I return from the summer break to take up the John Paul II Forum blog once again. I do this today to honor my friends, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, whose residence is St Clare Hall at the University of St. Thomas. These sisters have blessed us with many gifts -- their joy and generosity, their practicality, and their love of Christ. Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, they live the Eucharist, as Blessed John Paul II said of Clare and Francis: "In reality Clare's whole life was a eucharist because, like Francis, from her cloister she raised up a continual "thanksgiving" to God in her prayer, praise, supplication, intercession, weeping, offering and sacrifice. She accepted everything and offered it to the Father in union with the infinite 'thanks' of the only-begotten Son, the Child, the Crucified, the risen One, who lives at the right hand of the Father." See his letter for the Eighth Centenary of the Birth of St Clare. Any women who seek to live a call to the religious life would do very well to consider this community of beautiful Franciscan women, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist. See their website here.

In his book about St Thomas Aquinas (The Dumb Ox), Chesterton points out that the saint is an antidote, providing the age what it needs to counter a poison and they exaggerate whatever the world neglects. The world neglects reason today, so Thomas remains a saint for our time. The world neglects fair love; oh brothers and sisters, we see how they neglect fair love even more than they neglect reason, and yet their hearts still pine for a pure love, the love of Christ. Chesterton said of the roman empire that "it was no metaphor to say that these people needed a new heaven and a new earth; for they had really defiled their own earth and even their own heaven. How could their case be met by looking at the sky, when erotic legends were scrawled in stars across it." We too have defiled our surroundings; the media bringing us news and knowledge, sports and entertainment, have become choked with the weedy tendrils of disordered love and pornography. Thus, Francis and Clare are also very much saints for our day, bringing to us the newness of real love and the joy of self-giving. Chesterton has a fine passage about Francis and Clare, celebrating this love as a gift to the modern world:

There is no story about which even the most sympathetic critics of another creed have been more bewildered and misleading. For there is no story that more clearly turns on that simple test which I have taken as crucial throughout this criticism. I mean that what is the matter with these critics is that they will not believe that a heavenly love can be as real as an earthly love. The moment it is treated as real, like an earthly love, their whole riddle is easily resolved. A girl of seventeen, named Clare and belonging to one of the noble families of Assisi, was filled with an enthusiasm for the conventual life; and Francis helped her to escape from her home and to take up the conventual life. . . . he helped her to elope into the cloister, defying her parents as he had defied his father. Indeed the scene had many of the elements of a regular romantic elopement; for she escaped through a hole in the wall, fled through a wood and was received at midnight by the light of torches. . . .

If it had really been a romantic elopement and the girl had become a bride instead of a nun, practically the whole modern world would have made her a heroine. If the action of the Friar towards Clare had been the action of the Friar towards Juliet, everybody would be sympathising with her exactly as they sympathise with Juliet. . . . But the point for the moment is that modern romanticism entirely encourages such defiance of parents when it is done in the name of romantic love. For it knows that romantic love is a reality, but it does not know that divine love is a reality. . . . The fact is that as soon as we assume for a moment as a hypothesis, what Saint Francis and Saint Clare assumed all the time as an absolute, that there is a direct divine relation more glorious than any romance, the story of Saint Clare's elopement is simply a romance with a happy ending; and Saint Francis is the Saint George or knight-errant who gave it a happy ending. And seeing that some millions of men and women have lived and died treating this relation as a reality, a man is not much of a philosopher if he cannot even treat it as a hypothesis.

For the rest, we may at least assume that no friend of what is called the emancipation of women will regret the revolt of Saint Clare. She did most truly, in the modern jargon, live her own life, the life that she herself wanted to lead, as distinct from the life into which parental commands and conventional arrangements would have forced her. She became the foundress of a great feminine movement which still profoundly affects the world; and her place is with the powerful women of history. . . . I have often remarked that the mysteries of this story are best expressed symbolically in certain silent attitudes and actions. And I know no better symbol than that found by the felicity of popular legend, which says that one night the people of Assisi thought the trees and the holy house were on fire, and rushed up to extinguish the conflagration. But they found all quiet within, where Saint Francis broke bread with Saint Clare at one of their rare meetings, and talked of the love of God. It would be hard to find a more imaginative image, for some sort of utterly pure and disembodied passion, than that red halo round the unconscious figures on the hill; a flame feeding on nothing and setting the very air on fire.

So here is to St. Clare and to the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist who show us the reality of divine love and the beauty of Christ -- fresh shoots of divine love. With them, John Paul II points us to Christ in order to understand love: "love is greater than sin, than weakness, it is stronger than death; this revelation of love is described as mercy; and in man's history this revelation of love and mercy has taken a form and a name: that of Jesus Christ." (Redeemer of Man §9)

St Clare wrote: "Look upon him who became contemptible for you, and follow him, making yourself contemptible in this world for him. Your Spouse, though more beautiful than the children of men, became for your salvation the lowest of men, was despised, struck, scourged untold times throughout his entire body, and then died amid the suffering of the cross.... Gaze upon him, consider him, contemplate him, as you desire to imitate him. If you suffer with him, you shall rejoice with him; if you die with him on the cross of tribulation, you shall possess heavenly mansions in the splendour of the saints, and in the Book of Life your name shall be called glorious among men" (2LAg 19-22).

Workshop (7) A Primordial Sacrament - The Heart of the Matter

2011-07-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

In the seventh workshop Dr. Waldstein reached the goal, the heart of the matter, for understanding the theology of the body. It is the astounding and exhilarating idea that the human person, embodied as male and female, provides the primordial sacrament of God's good creation. Here is a key passage from the audience of February 20, 1980:

Thus, in this dimension, a primordial sacrament is constituted, understood as a sign that transmits effectively in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial. This is the mystery of truth and love, the mystery of divine life, in which man really participates. In the history of man, original innocence begins this participation and it is also a source of original happiness. The sacrament, as a visible sign, is constituted with man, as a body, by means of his visible masculinity and femininity. The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus be a sign of it.

Sacrament requires a physical sign; what could be more fundamental and more important than the human body, in its sexuality, as the visible sign of the invisible God. It is a sign of the gift of creation in a double sense because man receives existence as a gift and can participate in the giving of gift. "Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine gift, because he bears within him the interior dimension of the gift."

So the very sacramentality of creation, the sacramentality of the world was revealed in a way, in man created in the image of God. By means of his corporality, his masculinity and femininity, man becomes a visible sign of the economy of truth and love, which has its source in God himself and which was revealed already in the mystery of creation.

The economy of "truth and love," is that which makes the human distinctly human. The original source for the awareness and perfection of the human is the beauty of marriage. Waldstein explains that the economy of truth and love also refers to the economy of salvation in Christ and the Holy Spirit, as the two processions of the Son and Spirit. But the astounding notion here is that "the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God," is manifest originally in the embodied human being. John Paul ends this talk with the reaffirmation that the "consciousness of the meaning of his own body, man, as male and female," provides the primordial entry into "the world as a subject of truth and love." Perhaps we can readily understand the body as a sign of love, but truth also? It is the truth of the gift, the truth of creation, the primoridal truth denied by so many in the modern world of technology and reductionism.

He says that in "the original fullness of the experience of the nuptial meaning of the body" we encounter "a feast of humanity, which draws its origin from the divine sources of truth and love in the mystery of creation," a feast of celebration and joy over the truth and goodness of creation. But he ends with a warning: "the horizon of sin and death will be extended over that original feast (cf. Gn 3)." But we can continue to "draw a first hope, that is, that the fruit of the divine economy of truth and love," in the mystery of creation. We find in the creation of male and female, the "call to glory" (cf. Rom 8:30).

In his Letter to Families, John Paul II will explain how the horizon of sin and death press more tightly over modern consciousness because of the loss of the truth of creation (see section §19). The reduction of man to matter and the dualism of body and spirit raise the specter of a new Manichaeism. We have "given up the attempt to be a 'civilization of love'." We are alienated from God and ourselves:

The modern age has made great progress in understanding both the material world and human psychology, but with regard to his deepest, metaphysical dimension contemporary man remains to a great extent a being unknown to himself. Consequently the family too remains an unknown reality. Such is the result of estrangement from that "great mystery" spoken of by the Apostle.

With the the destruction of the integrity of marriage through contraception and divorce, and the very denial of marriage as between male and female, we stand on "the brink of a dreadful ethical defeat."
The theology of the body offers a ray of hope. John Paul II was fully inspired to develop the theology of the body through his meditation upon Gaudium et spes 22 and 24: "The richest source for knowledge of the body is the Word made flesh. Christ reveals man to himself. In a certain sense this statement of the Second Vatican Council is the reply, so long awaited, which the Church has given to modern rationalism."

Our Lady of Mt Carmel

2011-07-16T09:23:00.001-05:00

I am reposting a piece from last year, please click here for John Paul II on Mt Carmel

Workshop (6) c- The Freedom and Beauty of the Gift

2011-07-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

The thrid and last of the series on the spousal meaning of the body, selected by Dr Waldstein to display the heart of the teaching on the Theology of the Body is from the general audience of January 16 2008 and it may be found here.

First, the notion of gift preuspposes the freedom of the man and woman to give themselves; there must a measure of self-possession and self-restraint.

It can be said that, created by Love, endowed in their being with masculinity and femininity, they are both "naked" because they are free with the freedom of the gift. This freedom lies at the basis of the nuptial meaning of the body. The human body, with its sex, and its masculinity and femininity seen in the very mystery of creation, is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order. It includes right from the beginning the nuptial attribute, that is, the capacity of expressing love, that love in which the person becomes a gift and - by means of this gift - fulfills the meaning of his being and existence. . . . We mean here freedom especially as mastery of oneself (self control).

John Paul II also finds in this passage and in this phenomenon the truth about man as expressed in Gaudium et spes 24.3:

This truth about man, which the conciliar text states precisely in the words quoted above, has two main emphases. The first affirms that man is the only creature in the world that the Creator willed "for its own sake." The second consists in saying that this same mm, willed by the Creator in this way right from "the beginning," can find himself only in the disinterested giving of himself. Now, this truth about man, which seems in particular to grasp the original condition connected with the very beginning of man in the mystery of creation, can be reread in both directions, on the basis of the conciliar text.

The teaching also highlights the beauty of love and the importance of the uniqueness and unrepeatability of the person:

The human body, oriented interiorly by the sincere gift of the person, reveals not only its masculinity or femininity on the physical plane, but reveals also such a value and such a beauty as to go beyond the purely physical dimension of sexuality. In this manner awareness of the nuptial meaning of the body, connected with man's masculinity-femininity, is in a way completed. On the one hand, this meaning indicates a particular capacity of expressing love, in which man becomes a gift. On the other hand, the capacity and deep availability for the affirmation of the person corresponds to it. This is, literally, the capacity of living the fact that the other - the woman for the man and the man for the woman - is, by means of the body, someone willed by the Creator for his or her own sake. The person is unique and unrepeatable, someone chosen by eternal Love.

Workshop (6) b- The Spousal Meaning of the Body, con.

2011-07-09T22:48:00.001-05:00

John Paul II, at the audience of January 9, 198, said that he body is a "witness" to the the gift character of existence and to reciprocal giving:

This is the body - a witness to creation as a fundamental gift, and so a witness to Love as the source from which this same giving springs. Masculinity and femininity - namely, sex - is the original sign of a creative donation and an awareness on the part of man, male-female, of a gift lived in an original way. Such is the meaning with which sex enters the theology of the body.

(In the Waldstein edition see p. 182-183 the audience of January 9, 1980; on Vatican website look here).

Dr Waldstein put it very simply: upon seeing the body one should say, "Ah, gift." The body is for gift, that is for love. John Paul II sees this a the way the body appears in human experience, if not reduced or distorted through disordered appetite. And he sees this truth as a matter of original revelation. When scripture says that it is not good for man to be alone, and that he needs "a help" (and that the order of animal creation surrounding him does not complete his aloneness or provide the help to overcome that aloneness) . One must be "with" another person and "for"another person. The help is so as not to be alone.John Paul II says:

In this way, these two expressions, namely, the adjective "alone" and the noun "helper," seem to be the key to understand the essence of the gift at the level of man, as existential content contained in the truth of the "image of God." The gift reveals, so to speak, a particular characteristic of personal existence, or rather, of the essence of the person. When God-Yahweh said, "It is not good that man should be alone," (Gn 2:18) he affirmed that "alone," man does not completely realize this essence. He realizes it only by existing "with someone" - and even more deeply and completely - by existing "for someone."

John Paul II derives a "norm for existence" from this truth of the theology of the body.

This norm of existence as a person is shown in Genesis as characteristic of creation, precisely by means of the meaning of these two words: "alone" and "helper." These words indicate as fundamental and constitutive for man both the relationship and the communion of persons. The communion of persons means existing in a mutual "for," in a relationship of mutual gift. This relationship is precisely the fulfillment of "man's" original solitude.

The exclamation by Adam, "she is flesh from my flesh and bone from my bone," acknowledges the wonder of personal existence in its capacity for reciprocal gift; JP2 said: "Exclaiming in this way, he seems to say that here is a body that expresses the person." The alternative is to first approach sex without "person," without reciprocal gift. But that too would leave man in his solitude, alone, and with out a "helper."

Theology of the body is the alternative to reductionism. Waldtsein's translation is superior here: "This simultaneity [affirming sexuality and personhood] is essential. In fact, if we dealt with sex without the person, this would destroy the whole adequacy of the anthropology that we find in Genesis. Moreover, for our theological study, it would veil the essential light of the revelation of the body, which shines through these first statement with such great fullness."

Workshop (6) - The Spousal Meaning of the Body

2011-07-07T22:44:00.006-05:00

At long last we get to the theology of the body. Dr. Waldstein leads us to the basic concept of the spousal meaning of the body and the key passages in the talks given by Blessed John Paul II on January 2, 9 and 16 of 1980. In the Waldstein text (Man and Woman He Created Them) they are found of pages 178-189. On the Vatican website the first talk may be found here:
January 2, 1980

Look at paragraphs 7 and 8 of the Jan 2 talk:

par 7: The Bible texts contain the essential elements of this anthropology, which are manifested in the theological context of the "image of God." This concept conceals within it the root of the truth about man. This is revealed through that "beginning," which Christ referred to in the talk with the Pharisees (cf. Mt 19:3-9), when he treated of the creation of the human male and female. It must be recalled that all the analyses we make here are connected, at least indirectly, precisely with these words of his. Man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body "from the beginning." Man and woman constitute two different ways of the human "being a body" in the unity of that image.

Waldstein explained that the image of the Trinity stands at the back of this passage (Gaudium et spes 24:3) because the image of God imprinted in the body -- not just in the spiritual powers of man -- is the image of self-giving as signified in sexual differentiation and the recognition of the gift of existence and love. The body of the male and the body of the female are made for giving in love. Thus, par 8:

Now, it is opportune to turn again to those fundamental words which Christ used, that is, the word "created" and the subject "Creator." They introduce in the considerations made so far a new dimension, a new criterion of understanding and interpretation, which we will call "hermeneutics of the gift." The dimension of the gift decides the essential truth and depth of meaning of the original solitude, unity and nakedness. It is also at the heart of the mystery of creation, which enables us to construct the theology of the body "from the beginning," but demands, at the same time, that we should construct it in this way.

We cannot get around the gift character of existence as signified in our very bodies.We can live disembodied, or abstractly, in denial of our vocation to love. But the denial, nay the refusal of mystery, is the very definition of rationalism, as we learn from Newman. Waldstein insightfully links this passage on the hermeneutics of the gift with John Paul II's Letter to Families:

How far removed are some modern ideas from the profound understanding of masculinity and femininity found in Divine Revelation! Revelation leads us to discover in human sexuality a treasure proper to the person, who finds true fulfilment in the family but who can likewise express his profound calling in virginity and in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God.

Modern rationalism does not tolerate mystery. It does not accept the mystery of man as male and female, nor is it willing to admit that the full truth about man has been revealed in Jesus Christ. In particular, it does not accept the "great mystery" proclaimed in the Letter to the Ephesians, but radically opposes it. It may well acknowledge, in the context of a vague deism, the possibility and even the need for a supreme or divine Being, but it firmly rejects the idea of a God who became man in order to save man. For rationalism it is unthinkable that God should be the Redeemer, much less that he should be "the Bridegroom", the primordial and unique source of the human love between spouses. Rationalism provides a radically different way of looking at creation and the meaning of human existence. But once man begins to lose sight of a God who loves him, a God who calls man through Christ to live in him and with him, and once the family no longer has the possibility of sharing in the "great mystery", what is left except the mere temporal dimension of life? Earthly life becomes nothing more than the scenario of a battle for existence, of a desperate search for gain, and financial gain before all else.

In the mystery of life the gift of existence is a sure point of orientation; we may not be able to explain it adequately (our life or our love) but gratitude wells up as a response. Waldstein explains that the gift must be received and we must respond. Do not we respond one way or another? We respond either with thanks and blessing or with anger and curse. Is there really any other alternative? (I understand better now the message of Mary at LaSalette -- she warned us about the sinful habit of taking God's name in vain. Such is the refusal of the gift) But here is the concluding point -- we have the capacity to understand the gift character of existence (in reason and in faith I would say) and we must respond one way or another, with the language of gift and self-giving or with the language of self sufficiency and self-demand.

As the "image of God," man is capable of understanding the meaning of gift in the call from nothingness to existence. He is capable of answering the Creator with the language of this understanding. [the language of "gift"] Interpreting the narrative of creation with this language, it can be deduced from it that creation constitutes the fundamental and original gift. Man appears in creation as the one who received the world as a gift, and it can also be said that the world received man as a gift.

From this fundamental understanding of creation as gift AND the image of gift imprinted in the very body of man and woman we shall come to appreciate the full theology of the body.

Workshop (5) - Scheler's contribution

2011-07-04T22:38:00.005-05:00

John Paul II studied the thought of Max Scheler and from this study began his to develop his critique of Kant. Scheler used phenomenology and literature to criticize the formalism and individualism of Kantian ethics. As much as Wojtyla learned from Scheler, the outcome was limited by the phenomenological method. Experience of God is more important than the reality of God:

For the Phenomenologist, man is a theomorphic being only and exclusively by virtue of experiencing the idea of God. Scheler is not concerned with the real relation to God as an existing, positive and defined reality. He is concerned with experiencing the idea of God.

As a movement toward the things themselves, and as a way to see the expansiveness of experience, or to cherish the "lived experience" of human things, Wojtyla would benefit from his study of phenomenology. Later in his life Pope John Paul II said this:

Phenomenology is primarily a style of thought, a relationship of the mind with reality whose essential and constitutive features it aims to grasp, avoiding prejudice and schematisms. I mean that it is, as it were, an attitude of intellectual charity to the human being and the world, and for the believer, to God, the beginning and end of all things. To overcome the crisis of meaning which is characteristic of some sectors of modern thought, I insisted, in the Encyclical Fides et Ratio (cf. n. 83), on an openness to metaphysics, and phenomenology can make a significant contribution to this openness. JOHN PAUL II TO THE WORLD INSTITUTE OF PHENOMENOLOGY OF HANOVER

To develop the theology of the body John Paul II combined theology, philosophy of nature, metaphysics, scriptural theology and moral theology to better understand the human person as male and female and the significance of marriage. In the subsequent workshop sessions the key points of this theology were explained.

Some pages by Waldstein on Scheler can be found here

Coolidge on the Spiritual Roots of the Declaration

2011-07-04T22:10:00.003-05:00

In 1926 President Coolidge gave a speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of our founding. The speech was given at the newly constructed Sesqui-centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia. My grandparents were present at the event, as my grandfather was a Naval officer stationed at the Navy Ship Yard, adjacent the exposition park. I have their invitation to the formal opening on May 31, 1926, shown to the left. The speech by Coolidge is recommended by Leon Kass in the July 1 edition of the Wall Street Journal. (Find a copy Kass's column here; for the entire speech by Coolidge look here)

I am struck by similarities between Coolidge and John Paul II on the religious roots of freedom, and our Declaration.

Here is an excerpt from Coolidge:

A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause. . . .

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped."

Pope John Paul II made this statement to Ambassador Boggs:

Indeed, it may be asked whether the American democratic experiment would have been possible, or how well it will succeed in the future, without a deeply rooted vision of divine providence over the individual and over the fate of nations. As the Year 2000 draws near and Christians prepare to celebrate the bi-millennium of the birth of Christ, I have appealed for a serious examination of conscience regarding the shadows which darken our times (cf. Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 36). Nations and States too can make this a time of reflection on the spiritual and moral conditions of their success in promoting the integral good of their people. It would truly be a sad thing if the religious and moral convictions upon which the American experiment was founded could now somehow be considered a danger to free society, such that those who would bring these convictions to bear upon your nation's public life would be denied a voice in debating and resolving issues of public policy. The original separation of Church and State in the United States was certainly not an effort to ban all religious conviction from the public sphere, a kind of banishment of God from civil society. Indeed, the vast majority of Americans, regardless of their religious persuasion, are convinced that religious conviction and religiously informed moral argument have a vital role in public life. (Speech may be found here)

Pope John Paul II also warned of the danger of consumerism, what Coolidge called "pagan materialism," whose tide continues to rise and inundates the souls of our fellow citizens. In Centisimus annus he warned that the materialism of the west could be as devastating as Marxist materialism:

A given culture reveals its overall understanding of life through the choices it makes in production and consumption. It is here that the phenomenon of consumerism arises. In singling out new needs and new means to meet them, one must be guided by a comprehensive picture of man which respects all the dimensions of his being and which subordinates his material and instinctive dimensions to his interior and spiritual ones. If, on the contrary, a direct appeal is made to his instincts — while ignoring in various ways the reality of the person as intelligent and free — then consumer attitudes and life-styles can be created which are objectively improper and often damaging to his physical and spiritual health. Of itself, an economic system does not possess criteria for correctly distinguishing new and higher forms of satisfying human needs from artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality. Thus a great deal of educational and cultural work is urgently needed. §36

We must affirm the concluding remarks of Leon Kass, adding only that John Paul II would back both Tocqueville and Coolidge on this issue of religion and political life:

Coolidge was no religious fanatic. He appreciated our constitutional strictures against religious establishment and religious tests for office, limitations crucial to religious freedom and toleration, also principles unique to the American founding. But he understood that free institutions and economic prosperity rest on cultural grounds, which in turn rest on religious foundations.

Like Tocqueville, who attributed America's strength to its unique fusion of the spirit of liberty and the spirit of religion, Coolidge is rightly concerned about what will happen to the sturdy tree of liberty should its cultural roots decay. It is a question worth some attention as we eat our barbecue and watch the fireworks.

Workshop (4) - TOB as a "deadly blow" against Cartesianism

2011-07-02T07:16:00.008-05:00

"If God saw that everything was very good, goodness must really reside in things, which strikes a deadly blow into the very heart of the Cartesian philosophical presuppositions of modern science or vice versa." Michael Waldstein

In order to provide the context for the significance of the Pope's achievement in developing the theology of the body, Waldstein sets out the sources and principles of modern philosophy concerning the body.

First we must understand the influence of Francis Bacon. His nominalism denies that there is an intrinsic order to nature. He also redefines the purpose of science to be the mastery of nature.

The 3 points of logos are:
1. A radical openness to Being
2. Radical priority of the speculative over the practical
3. An appeal to the desire for the infinite, for God
Find pages on Greek logos here

The new science of nature denies all three points. Thus Waldstein explains the importance of rediscovering the integrity of the body and authentic love which modern science and modern philosophy have denied and degraded:

"This form of the fact-value and science-religion distinction, which has been widely accepted by Christians as part of the dominant culture of the West ever since Bacon and Descartes and the systematic elaboration of their principles by Kant, is not only bad philosophy, but it directly contradicts Scripture. 'God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good' (Gen 1:31). If God saw that everything was very good, goodness must really reside in things, which strikes a deadly blow into the very heart of the Cartesian philosophical presuppositions of modern science or vice versa. That being is good is a philosophical principle called for by Scripture itself.

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). This is why one can say with certainty that the first chapter of Genesis has formed an incontrovertible point of reference and solid basis of a metaphysics and also for an anthropology and an ethics according to which “ens et bonum convertuntur [being and good are convertible].” Of course, all this has its own significance for theology as well, and above all for the theology of the body (John Paul II, TOB 2:5)."

It is interesting to note that the “Majority Report” of John XXIII’s birth control commission adopted the Baconian-Cartesian view of nature. Waldstein explains, when it "proposed the moral legitimacy of contraception, [it] emphatically and unequivocally embraces the Baconian program." The report contains this idea -- "The story of God and of man, therefore, should be seen as a shared work. And it should be seen that man’s tremendous progress in control of matter by technical means and the universal and total 'intercommunication' that has been achieved, correspond entirely [omnino] to the divine decrees." (see Waldstein on the Birth Control Commission, and the moderns here, pp 271-272.)

Waldstein continues with the thought of Blessed John Paul II: "Compare this submissive allegiance to the Baconian program with John Paul II’s prophetic warning in Evangelium vitae. 'Nature itself, from being 'mater' (mother), is now reduced to being “matter”, and is subjected to every kind of manipulation. This is the direction in which a certain tech- nical and scientific way of thinking, prevalent in present-day culture, appears to be lead- ing when it rejects the very idea that there is a truth of creation which must be acknowledged, or a plan of God for life which must be respected." §22. This text shows that John Paul II sees the issues of Humanae vitae in the context of the Baconian program. He penetrates to the core of 'a certain technical and scientific thinking' and identifies the blindness of such thinking to the very notion of a divine plan. He shows that the subjection of matter to every kind of manipulation is not only an ethical problem; it determines the deep structures of seeing and understanding nature."

John Paul II frequently made references to Cartesianism as a challenge to Christian theology. See my article on Descartes, here

In the remaining lessons of the workshop, Waldstein shows how the theology of body provides a phenomenological and concrete refutation of Cartesianism dualism and opens the way to a restoration of authentic human dignity.

Workshop (3) - The Main Thesis of Theology of the Body

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Waldstein discusses the main thesis of the theology of the body on pages 204-206 of Logos and Glory. The beauty and the sacredness of the human body are deeply appreciated and given their true meaning and foundation in the theology of the body:
"The communion between man and woman completed by sexual union effectively signifies the union between Christ and the Church and, more deeply, the communion of persons in the Trinity. In accord with the double aspect of a sacrament as an efficacious sign of grace, the body not only signifies supernatural communion in the Holy Spirit, but effectively makes it present.

Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine act of giving, because he bears within himself the inner dimension of the gift. In this dimension, he brings into the world his particular likeness to God with which he transcends and also rules his “visibility” in the world, his bodylines, his masculinity or femininity, his nakedness. A reflection of this likeness is also the primordial awareness of the spousal meaning of the body pervaded by the mystery of original innocence. In this way, in this dimension [that is, the dimension of the gift], this most original sacrament [namely, marriage, as instituted in the creation of man and woman] is constituted. We understand a sacrament as a sign that efficaciously transmits in the visibility of the world the invisible mystery hidden in God from eternity. It is the mystery of Truth and Love [that is, the mystery of the Trinity, cf. Gaudium et spes 24:3], the mystery of divine life, in which man receives a real participation. In the history of man, original innocence realizes the very beginning of this participation and it is also the source of original happiness. The sacrament [marriage as the most original sacrament], as a visible sign, is constituted through man as a “body,” through the body’s “visible” masculinity and femininity. The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it (John Paul II, TOB 19:3-4).

Here is the main thesis statement of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Why did God create the human body? He created it to transfer into the visible world the mystery of the communion of persons in the Trinity in which human beings come to share through sacramental signs. The most original sacrament, which introduces the whole sacramental order, is the marriage instituted in Genesis 2 with the divine words: “they will be one flesh” (Gen 2:24). The total gift implied in spousal love reflects and communicates the eternal total gift in the Trinity."

Comments (JPH):
The main thesis of the theology of the body makes explicit what is contained in the notion of marriage as a sacrament ("For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:32) The human body, constituted as male or female, remains an original and profound sign of divine love. The culture, such as American culture, that encourages a distortion of sexuality -- by obscuring or degrading the beauty of the body, reducing persons to things, abusing the body in its wholesomeness and purity -- defaces and loses the sign character of love. Love disappears from the culture, replaced by a sham or pseudo togetherness that has no endurance (love endures all things). Sexuality is not about self-expression or self-gratification, but sexuality is about, that is, it signifies and enacts, personal self-giving. The authentic and lasting communion of persons is rooted in marriage. As Blessed John Paul II wrote in his Letter to Families:

Love then is not a utopia: it is given to mankind as a task to be carried out with the help of divine grace. It is entrusted to man and woman, in the Sacrament of Matrimony, as the basic principle of their "duty", and it becomes the foundation of their mutual responsibility: first as spouses, then as father and mother. In the celebration of the Sacrament, the spouses give and receive each other, declaring their willingness to welcome children and to educate them. On this hinges human civilization, which cannot be defined as anything other than a "civilization of love". The family is an expression and source of this love. Through the family passes the primary current of the civilization of love, which finds therein its "social foundations".

Modern eroticized culture is a short circuit. The theology of the body provides the key and the clue to the restoration of human dignity and human flourishing in the modern world.

[The three pages from Logos and Glory may be found here.]

Workshop (2) - On Logos and Glory

2011-06-27T22:31:00.003-05:00

Waldstein explained his method and purpose in the second session of the workshop. The purpose of his work on theology of the body brought to the workshop (and his book) is to help readers enter through the guiding themes of logos and glory more deeply into the marvel of Theology of the Body. He appeals to the light of reason (logos) and the splendor of love (glory). The word became flesh.

"The Logos became body/flesh and dwells among us and we have seen his glory, a glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of gift and truth (John 1:14)." Waldstein explained how Pope John Paul II uses this passage:

The Polish word for “body” (ciało) also means “flesh.” When the Logos became “flesh,” he also became “body.” Theology of the Body (teologia ciała) is also Theology of the Flesh. Logos became body/flesh and dwells among us and we have seen his glory, a glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of gift and truth (John 1:14). Accordingly, John Paul II comments, “Through the fact that God (Word) became body/flesh, the body/flesh entered theology—that is, the science about God—through the main door, I would say” (TOB 23:4). The celebration of the Great Jubilee of the Incarnation of the Logos in the year 2000 was “both the focal point and the center of [John Paul II’s] pontificate. Everything aimed at this and everything in a sense revolved around it,” including the Theology of the Body. Logos and glory: these two key terms in John 1:14, will serve as the two guiding concepts of this book. They are the two principal dimensions of John Paul II’s theological method, which is a “hermeneutics of the gift” (TOB 13:2), or a systematic interpretation of the logic of gift that runs from the Trinity through creation and redemption. They also correspond to the two main dimensions of the life of persons, truth and love, as resumed in Gaudium et Spes 24:3, which speaks of a “likeness between the union of divine persons and the union of God’s sons in Truth and Love.”

Dr Waldstein laid out seven reasons why the theme of logos and glory provides a way into the Theology of the Body; it provides

a deeper perception of Theology of the Body’s portrayal of the glory of Trinitarian love in the beauty of God’s plan for the human body: “a glory…full of gift and truth” (John 1:14)
a greater appreciation of the strength of Theology of the Body’s appeal to Greek philosophical logos (reason) as developed by Plato and Aristotle and furtherunfolded by the Greek and Latin Fathers as well as St. Thomas Aquinas;
a fuller realization of Theology of the Body’s ecumenical potential, especially in dialogue with Luther’s Scriptural spousal theology;
a firmer grasp of Theology of the Body’s depth in unfolding the teaching of Scripture about the male and female body in the divine plan, a plan in which the light of reason (logos) and the splendor of love (glory) are harmoniously united;
a clearer understanding of the rigorous and luminous structure of Theology of the Body’s argument;
a stronger conviction of Theology of the Body’s effectiveness in responding to contemporary questions about science, power, progress, the environment, and justice between men and women;
a more courageous strength in resisting the Baconian-Cartesian view of the body and of rationality (logos) in the dominant current of contemporary culture, shaped by mechanist natural science.

See the text here.

Workshop (1) - Gaudium et spes 24.3

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Throughout the workshop Dr. Waldstein humorously told the audience that he tells his class the answer to any question on the exam is "Gaudium et spes 24.3." Well, it is not an automatic "A" -- one must explain why GS 24.3 answers the question.

Here is the passage:

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself. (see Luke 17.33)

In this passage we find two key principles to Wojtyla's personalism and his teaching on Theology of the Body (TOB). Waldstein refers to his kind of personalism as "Trinitarian personalism of self-gift." (See previous post on talk at UST). The first principle is the "personalistic norm" -- the call to treat each person as an end in himself, and not a means. It sounds Kantian, but it is not. Waldstein explains this very well in his text from the manuscript for a new book, Logos and Glory. The pages in the manuscript can be found here. (Please note: this is a working manuscript; it is not complete and it has some gaps; use it for your study but do not distribute it or send it around to people)

Here is Waldstein's explanation of the difference between Wojtyla and Kant:

Wojtyła’s understanding of the personalistic norm is indeed “rather differ ent” from Kant’s. Being an end differs from having an end, being the highest good differs from being the beneficiary of the highest good, being God differs from having God. One is compatible with being a creature, the other is not. The cen- tral disagreement between Kant and Wojtyła lies here. It is closely connected with the question of the common good. According to John Paul II, the creat- ed person’s highest dignity consists in being able to participate in the goodness of God, supremely in the beatific vision. In this participation, the created per- son becomes “a sharer in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Sharing and partici- pation is separated by an infinite gulf from becoming simply identical with God and being able to claim the status of being the final end.

The second principle is the call to love (make a sincere gift of himself), the dynamic of self-donation or the "law of free giving."

Now it is interesting to see that the likeness to God is not the spiritual powers, the intellect and will, but it is the relational aspect, the unity of persons. The divine likeness contains both principles. Man finds himself through a gift of oneself, living in communion with another (spouse) with others (family). And the person as willed by God is not available for the mere use of another. (I add here even John Locke grasped a side of this truth -- we are God's workmanship, and therefore not for the use of another).

Waldstein recommended that we meditate on Luke 17:33-35 -- whosoever will save his life must lose it; and to lose your life is to find it. There is an obvious connection to the cross. Waldstein collected the following scripture passages for us to consider:

Matt 10:39: The one who finds his life will lose it, and the one who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matt 16:25: For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:35: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Luke 9:24: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Luke 17:33: Whoever seeks to make his life secure will lose it, but whoever loses it will make it live.

John 12:25: The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

The two principles of personal dignity and gift of self extends throughout Wojtyla's writings such as Love and Responsibility and Acting Person. The Theology of the Body will come into focus through an application of the principles to sexuality.

Waldstein's Workshop on Theology of the Body

2011-06-24T20:04:00.002-05:00

Last week Dr. Michael Waldstein conducted a workshop on Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. I would like to share a few of the highlights of the workshop.

Waldstein opened the workshop with a personal testimony about the transformation that he and wife experienced when they studied together the texts of the theology of the body. The Pope's writings about marriage touched them deeply. Many people have found his writings a source of personal growth and transformation.

Waldstein explained why this is so. John Paul II wrote from a solid philosophical and theological perspective. He was also guided by a keen sense of beauty and he enriched his writing through an appreciation of "lived experience." One could speak of phenomenological and aesthetic dimensions of his approach to reality, but this makes another abstraction. First of all, John Paul II took much from St John of the Cross, who himself combined a Thomistic education with an attention to experience and to the beauty of divine love.

But in addition, John Paul II, for this topic of marriage and family showed an appreciation of the beauty of human love and paid special attention to the experience of couples.Weigel reports that John Paul II wrote the Jeweler's Shop from his memory of friends and their relationships.

Waldstein told the audience to remember "1-2-3", that is in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 123, for the idea of the importance of approaching marriage and love through the appreciation of beauty. John Paul II said:

As a priest I realized this very early. I felt almost an inner call in this direction. It is necessary to prepare young people for marriage, it is necessary to teach them love. Love is not something that is learned, and yet there is nothing else as important to learn! As a young priest I learned to love human love. This has been one of the fundamental themes of my priesthood -- my ministry in the pulpit, in the confessional, and also in my writing. If one loves human love, there naturally arises the need to commit oneself completely to the service of "fair love," because love is fair, it is beautiful. After all, young people are always searching for the beauty in love. They want their love to be beautiful. If they give in to weakness, following models of behavior that can rightly be considered a "scandal in the contemporary world", in the depths of their hearts they still desire a beautiful and pure love. . . . As a young priest and pastor I came to this way of looking at young people and at youth, and it has remained constant all these years.

These remarks set a great tone for the workshop and the study of the theology of the body. This great theological work culminates in a defense of Humanae Vitae. But he perplexed the dissenters because he soars beyond the standard natural law argument and discloses the full human beauty of the teaching and the theological foundations in the mystery of the divine Trinity.

Prayer of Intercession

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O Blessed Trinity, we thank You for having graced the Church with Blessed John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of Your Fatherly care, the glory of the Cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Spirit of love, to shine through him. Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with You. Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among Your saints. Amen.

With ecclesiastical approval
AGOSTINO CARD. VALLINI
Vicar General of His Holiness
for the Diocese of Rome

For graces received, contact:
Postulazione della Causa di Canonizzazione
del Beato Giovanni Paolo II
Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano, 6/a - 00184 Rma

Marshall McLuhan on Thomas Aquinas

2011-06-21T10:33:00.007-05:00

Marshall McLuhan 1911-1980

This year marks a 100 years since the birth of Marshall McLuhan. See the article recently published in the Walrus, here. There is also a website devoted to a commemoration of his life and work, here.

At a used bookstore in Detroit (the amazing John King Books) I found a journal with a talk he gave at St. Louis University in 1943 on the liberal arts. (He was on the faculty at Saint Louis from 1937 - 1944; he then went to the Basilian, Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario, prior to going to the University of Toronto in 1946 where he was on the faculty until 1979)

In this talk, celebrating the liberal arts during a time of war, he said:

When a triumphant technology croons the sickly boasts of the advertising men, when the great vaults and vistas of the human soul are obscured by images of silken glamor, and when it is plain that men live not by bread alone but by toothpaste also, then we need the answer of St. Thomas. It is the answer of moral and intellectual discipline and ardor.

McLuhan then argues for liberal arts education as based in the trivium, in the acquisition of the habit of mind to read, think and speak well. The barbarians were at the gate, but he feared that we would succumb to the barbarian within -- "the barbarism of comfort and ease and slackness." And it is St Thomas, he notes, who "defines in himself the answer to the barbarian without and the barbarian within each one of us."

We must cherish eloquence as "the finest expression of man's existence." We need wisdom, prudence and mechanics. In this cry of the heart, McLuhan charges that "technology cannot bring in the century of common man. It can merely reduce man to his lowest common denominator as a consuming animal. If technology is to minister to free men, men must struggle to acquire the practical disciplines related to speech as they have never struggled before. For in acquiring speech men acquire the heritage of our entire civilization." And yet "demagogues rise up to speak the sickly and confused notions of their stunted spirits, and there are few to detect the fraud which they peddle." And of course, they now inhabit and manage the halls of academia, "and there are few to detect the fraud which they peddle."

In the darkness of those war-time years McLuhan arrives at a wise and happy conclusion: "The positive fact of St Thomas makes it possible for us to feel light-hearted about the errors of smaller men. As our age enters its dark night let us take hope from the fact that the luminous wisdom and clarity of St Thomas will shine more brightly for us. The confusion and negation around us may encourage us to a more intimate and lively knowledge of his thought than we could ever have attained in easier circumstances. And for the ultimate cause of civilization we need never despair so long as men anywhere can contemplate the order and clarity of his wisdom." We heartily concur. The Center for Thomistic Studies and the Pope John Paul II Forum aim at acquiring that "intimate and lively knowledge" of Thomas Aquinas.

Find the full text here (the journal was not in the best condition, with the war time paper etc.) An early fascinating talk by a great mind and writer of the century. The author of the Walrus article quotes from a letter in which McLuhan said: “One of the advantages of being a Catholic is that it confers a complete intellectual freedom to examine any and all phenomena with the absolute assurance of their intelligibility.” This is true in great measure because of the influence of the Angelic Doctor on Catholic intellectual culture.

Reflections on my father (post of October 2010)

2011-06-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

From a previous posting on fatherhood, look here.

Wojtyla: Reflections on Fatherhood

2011-06-19T10:08:00.001-05:00

From: "Reflections on Fatherhood" (1964), in The Collected Plays and Writings on the Theater (University of California, 1987), pp. 365-368:

Ex quo omnis paternitas in coelis
et in terra nominatur [Eph 3:15]
[translation from Jerusalem Bible: "This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name."]
. . .

After a long time I came to understand that You do not want me to be a father if I am not also a son. The son is wholly Yours; You always think "mine" about him. And You utter this word with absolute justification, with credibility. Without such credibility the word "mine" is a risk; love is a risk also. Why did you inflict on me the love that in me must be a risk? And now your Son takes on Himself all the risk of fatherly love in relation to everything outside of Himself. How much the word "mine" must hurt when what it describes turns out later not to be mine. I think with awe about the strain and toil of Your Son, about the magnitude of His love. How much did He take on Himself? . . .

How could I become a son? I did not want to be him. I did not want to accept the suffering caused by risking love. I thought I would not be equal to it. My eyes were too fixed on myself, on my ego and its possibilities alone. . . .

To absorb the radiation of fatherhood means not only to become a father but, much more, to become a child (become a son). Being the father of many, many people, I must be a child: the more I am father, the more I become a child.

Waldstein on Wojtyla's Personalism

2011-06-18T12:40:00.005-05:00

Dr Waldstein presented a talk at the University of St Thomas, for the John PAul II Forum, on the Personalism of Blessed John Paul II. Find it here. He compares the type of personalism developed by Blessed John Paul II, a "Trinitarian Personalism," with the personalisms of Kant and Scheler.

Waldstein explains that Wojtyla first came upon a notion of subjectivity and personal experience through the mystic, St John of the Cross, and this was a vision of the human person formed by the thought of Thomas Aquinas. In the paper he states: "He first encountered the thought of St. Thomas in the writings of St. John of the Cross rather than in Neo-Thomist manuals. St. John of the Cross offers a profoundly experiential and in this sense Personalist rereading of St. Thomas, focused on the spousal gift of self and its ultimate roots in the Trinity." (see PDF text, pp. 10-11, in link above)

During the week long workshop, and in his magnificent manuscript, Logos and Glory, Waldstein elaborates extensively on the crucial role of St John of the Cross in providing an alternative to Cartesian subjectivity. A major point that he makes is that Wojtyla did not seek to "synthesize" Kant and Thomas, or consciousness and being, as suggested by Buttiglione, in his book on Wojtyla:

What is at stake here is the whole relationship between Christianity and modernity and between the philosophy of being and the philosophy of consciousness…The integration of the philosophy of being and the philosophy of consciousness into a complete anthropology of the person seems to be…the only way to recognize in depth the novelty of the conciliar teaching and at the same time its solid anchor hold in the tradition (which is not the same as traditionalism). . . . [by bringing these two strands of philosophy together, Wojtyła produces] a new synthesis in which modern elements and traditional elements are harmoniously fused…At the same time, the contrast between modernity and Christianity disappears." Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II (Eerdmans 1997) pp. 180-184)

Waldstein counters -- there is no "synthesis" of modern consciousness and being because Wojtyla already developed a notion of consciousness from within the mysticism of John of the Cross. It is a consciousness of love, a consciousness of relatedness to God and others in love. Ken Schmitz made a very similar point in his book At the Center of the Human Drama (CUA, 1993):

This, then, is the genesis of the modern sense of subject as subjectivity. We might say that subjectivity is the self-defense by which consciousness fends off a world either hostile to its inhabitation or at least without companionate room for it, even while consciousness subverts the integrity of that world by its imperious demands. The modern shift gave to the human subject an absolute status precisely in its character qua consciousness; for human consciousness not only sets its own terms but the terms for reality itself.

Wojtyla begins with a different starting point for self-awareness. In a later document on John of the Cross, Blessed John Paul II said:

In it [that is, the dissertation on John of the Cross], I devoted special attention to an analytical discussion of the central affirmation of the Doctor Mysticus: Faith is the only proximate and proportionate means for communion with God. The Doctor Mysticus…through his example and doctrine, helps Christians to make their faith strong with the very basic qualities of an adult faith which the Second Vatican Council asks of us. This faith is to be personal, free and convinced, embraced with one’s entire being, an ecclesial faith, confessed and celebrated in communion with the Church, a praying and adoring faith, matured through the experience of communion with God.

Communion, with God and others, is fundamental to human consciousness and to the life of the person. How different from Kant and Scheler. Wojtyla came to modern philosophy of consciousness, Descartes and Kant, with a fully developed notion of the central role of personal existence and human subjectivity; but he did not leave being or God out of that experience. There was no need for him to "synthesize" two aspects of the life already joined together by way of the experience of love.

John Paul II on Vatican II, the Church and the Holy Spirit

2011-06-12T14:19:00.003-05:00

On the Feast of Pentecost we can appreciate the teaching about Vatican II from Pope John Paul II's Dominum et vivificantem: On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World. Pentecost is not a thing of the past, a distant memory, an old story. It is precisely a new story, a story about renewal, the ongoing renewal of the Church. John Paul II constantly urged the faithful to study the documents of Vatican II, because there is where we find "what the Spirit is saying to the Churches."

The Conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium tell us that the era of the Church began with the coming of the Holy Spirit. They also tell us that this era, the era of the Church, continues. It continues down the centuries and generations. In our own century, when humanity is already close to the end of the second Millennium after Christ, this era of the Church expressed itself in a special way through the Second Vatican Council, as the Council of our century. For we know that it was in a special way an "ecclesiological" Council: a Council on the theme of the Church. At the same time, the teaching of this Council is essentially "pneumatological": it is permeated by the truth about the Holy Spirit, as the soul of the Church. We can say that in its rich variety of teaching the Second Vatican Council contains precisely all that "the Spirit says to the Churches" with regard to the present phase of the history of salvation.

But obviously many of the faithful have claimed a warrent for distortions and exaggerations based on a presumption of "the spirit of the council." We need discernment today to follow the path of authentic renewal. The "prince of the world" comes forward espcially at such times to tempt the faithful to a love of power and false liberation. So Blessed John Paul II warned us and encouraged us to discern the true path:

Following the guidance of the Spirit of truth and bearing witness together with him, the Council has given a special confirmation of the presence of the Holy Spirit -- the Counselor. In a certain sense, the Council has made the Spirit newly "present" in our difficult age. In the light of this conviction one grasps more clearly the great importance of all the initiatives aimed at implementing the Second Vatican Council, its teaching and its pastoral and ecumenical thrust. . . . This work being done by the Church for the testing and bringing together of the salvific fruits of the Spirit bestowed in the Council is something indispensable. For this purpose one must learn how to "discern" them carefully from everything that may instead come originally from the "prince of this world." This discernment in implementing the Council's work is especially necessary in view of the fact that the Council opened itself widely to the contemporary world, as is clearly seen from the important Conciliar Constitutions Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium.

Blessed John Paul II was a man of great hope, urging us to cross the threshold of hope with him, because he had faith in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. He cited these passages from Gaudium et spes:

"For theirs (i.e., of the disciples of Christ) is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man. That is why this community realizes that it is truly and intimately linked with mankind and its history." (Gaudium et spes §1)

"The Church truly knows that only God, whom she serves, meets the deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied by what the world has to offer." (Gaudium et spes §41)

"God 's Spirit. . . with a marvelous providence directs the unfolding of time and renews the face of the earth." (Gaudium et spes §26)

The Holy Spirit as Gift

2011-06-12T14:11:00.001-05:00

In his intimate life, God "is love," the essential love shared by the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Therefore he "searches even the depths of God," as uncreated Love-Gift. It can be said that in the Holy Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an exchange of mutual love between the divine Persons and that through the Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this self-giving, of this being-love. He is Person- Love. He is Person-Gift Here we have an inexhaustible treasure of the reality and an inexpressible deepening of the concept of person in God, which only divine Revelation makes known to us.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Father and the Son in divinity, is love and uncreated gift from which derives as from its source (fons vivus) all giving of gifts vis-a-vis creatures (created gift): the gift of existence to all things through creation; the gift of grace to human beings through the whole economy of salvation. As the Apostle Paul writes: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."

Pope John Paul II,

Dominum et vivificantem: On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World §10

Education and persons

2011-06-10T23:59:00.003-05:00

"Education is a creative activity with persons as its only possible object -- only a person can be educated, an animal can only be trained -- and also one which uses entirely human material, all that is by nature present in the human being to be educated is material for the educators, materials which their love must find and mold. This material includes all that which God gives, by supernatural dispensation of his Grace. For he does not leave the work of education, which in a certain sense be called the continuous creation of personality, wholly and entirely to parents but Himself takes part in it, in His own person. For something more than the love of parents was present at the origin of a new person -- they were only co-creators; the love of the Creator decided that a new person would come into existence in the mother's womb. Grace is so to speak the continuation of this work. God himself takes the supreme part in the creation of the human person in the spiritual, moral, strictly supernatural sphere. The parents, though, if they are not to fail in their proper role, that of co-creators, must make their contribution here too." Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, p. 56