To be honest, I believe the topic of the unity of the person is a book-sized discussion. I have not-book-sized-space and not-book-sized-time, so therefore I hope this is not a disappointing reflection.
For what it's worth, consider metaphysics.
(Highly brief tutorial for those who haven't been taught certain terminology:)
Metaphysics - the branch of philosophy that considers the nature of being in the world.
Ontology - the study of being, of existence.
Cause - the principle or purpose of a thing.
Form - Aristotle's sense of animation that is given to matter to be a thing. Wood takes the form of a desk or the material of man takes the form of a person. More specifically, it is the form that is given and in-forms matter. In truth, Aristotle covers potentiality and actuality in this discussion, so that there is the potenial in the seed to become the tree, and the actuality is the taking up of that form or the form of the tree being revealed. There is much more to say but you'll need to read on your own.
Matter - The material that holds the potentiality that will be actualized by the form.
Substance - A combination of matter and form.
Esse - St. Thomas Aquinas explains esse as the existing of a thing, the being of a being. It is the to-be-ness. Essence is like the substance, the material, the creature itself, which is not animated or in existence until esse is given.
Essence - For St. Thomas Aquinas, this is the what-ness of a being, in a sense, the substance of a creature. Analogously, it would be similar to the material if analogously Esse is the form, though his way of understanding them is more complex and therefore these are only analogous and not the same.
Ens - The unity of esse and essence. The point that St. Thomas makes is that while essence is nothing without esse, likewise esse cannot make anything be without the essence. Therefore, both are a gift from God, and must happen together, as one great gift.
Tutorial ends here. If you are more confused than ever, that is what google is for. :)
The importance concerning the unity of the person is found in Aristotle and Aquinas' understanding of the interrelatedness between form and matter and essence and esse. Cognitively, we can separate the mind from the body. We can think of our bodies as functioning organic centers of nerve synapses and intercommunication taking place so that we are able to maintain proper homeostasis. We can likewise think of our consciousness or our spirits as not affected by the body or not affecting the body. Yet, simply because we can think of this separation does not mean that in any real sense the separation is experienced. At least not while living. In all honesty, when the soul leaves the body, or if these two were truly separable, you no longer have life present. Not to say that those who are unconscious for years are dead. Clearly they are not. Comatose does not mean that the two are separated, but that the manifestation of their relationship has changed. Death is the only real experience of separation of these two, and therefore, while living, our experience is of them in unity.
But what does this mean? What does it mean to say that there is a profound and specific unity of mind and body or body and soul that cannot be removed in the lived experience of being? What does this imply for us who live?
Primarily it must mean that what is interior will always inform and manifest in the exterior, and that what comes to the exterior will inform and affect the interior. This is, perhaps, more obvious than imagined. It is everyone's lived experience that when stressful situations occur, the body feels it. Knots in the back, loss of the voice, susceptibility to colds, nausea, nervousness, headaches... you name it. Whatever way you interiorize and exteriorize what goes on around you, there's certainly no denying that you feel it in both manners. Likewise, the opposite is also apparent. If you are relaxed, happy, enjoying yourself, free from certain burdens or responsibilities, on vacation or with those you love, you will be less tense, more prone to smile or laugh, more likely to be spontaneous, less agitated, more comfortable with plans changing or different circumstances, etc... Why? Because we one. We are not only a body or only a mind. No matter how dualistic of an upbringing our education may have been, life teaches us otherwise as we experience it everyday.
This unity should mean something very specific to the one who takes time to think. If you don't normally mull over things, consider it. Mull over the potential mulling over of life. Mull over what it might mean, what consequences might be anticipated, good and bad, from the total unity of the person. If you are so integrated, so united, so intrinsically bound, so inexorably one, how will this affect the way you live? Your decisions, your actions, your thoughts, your fears, your joys, your hopes, your injuries, your health, your relationships... all of these things will be directly impacted. Virtue, value, ethics or morals will all be a necessary component of considering this wholeness of being. One cannot exist as if things which are immoral or unethical or simply not good are ineffective. Nor can one live as if those things will not impact and affect him or her. In the same fashion, one cannot pretend that the good, beautiful, powerful, and true will not also affect them.
For example, the loss of a loved one. The sudden illness of a friend. The loss of a job by a family member. The gift of a new baby in a family. The success of a student who graduates with honors. The witness of grandparents who still love one another after fifty years of marriage. We are human and these things touch us. The proximity of the relationships and our own personal experiences change the power of the affects on us, but we do not live as rocks. Waves of life do not wash upon us and simply coat our harsh skin with some film. We do not have an outer shell, a bubble which allows our skin to tan or wrinkle or stretch or burn but not touch our souls. We are not souls trapped in bodily prisons and we are not mere animals who just happen to have rational souls. We are unique and beautiful precisely as creatures will intellect, reason, free will, a soul and a body. We are the unity and compilation of these, the whole and the totality. To say anything less to to lie to oneself and to sell our being short of its truth.
Therefore, I urge us all to meditate on this wholeness. Whether it is certain tendencies to some behavior that is not good for us, some evil or some sin or something that is simply making us ill (in mind, body or spirit), we need to reconsider our actions. Likewise, the habits of the mind, our tendencies to evaluate or judge or doubt or fear or be anxious...these too need to be dealt with. Sin, above all, is divisive. It will sink itself into the little cracks in your foundation, in your bedrock, until all it takes is one more tap on the head of the nail until the crack breaks the whole foundation apart. You will wonder how on earth you lost that close friend, or how your marriage is where it is, or why you suffer from guilt or why fear haunts you, or why you feel enslaved to something you know you should have power over... sin will convince you that it is trivial, a minor thing. Sin always wants to be hidden away, safe and sound. Sin wants you to be sure it is only a scratch on your arm, barely skin deep. Sin isn't a bruise welling up from deep in the muscle, it's just this little knick on the exterior. It won't really hurt you, or those you love. Yet this is the lie in its fullness, that you could be unmoved, unchanged, unhurt by what is evil. You cannot be. Just as those things which are beautiful and good, like prayer, service to those you love, charities, time at Mass or in adoration, reading the Scripture, laughter, activities that lighten the soul and bring thanks to your lips, also move you and change you and cannot go without affecting you.
Consider what it is to be a whole, an ens, to have received your essence and esse from God. Consider what it is to live in our world today as this unity as person.
Monday, May 23, 2011
What Matters
I want to take just a moment to reflect on what matters in life.
My cat needing to be fed is important, but my roommate needing to talk is more important.
My bathroom needing cleaned is important, but making food for my friend is more important.
My bills need to be paid, but a friend in need is more important.
My life may need to be organized or reordered, but that order must begin with prayer first.
What matters are these two things: relationship with God our Father, and relationship with all those we love.
Nothing ought to stand in the way of those as the order of our lives.
Recently I had a day that was not a day of proper ordering. I did not make it to mass as I had wanted, I did not remember to pray certain prayers I wanted to pray, and I did not make certain quiet time happen that I felt I needed. Likewise, I found that I was distant and irritable around those I love, especially my boyfriend, who so generously loved me that day, despite my failure.
Why is that? What is it that gets to us, that can attack from within? Christ himself told us that what defiles comes from within, from within a man's heart. ("But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile." Mk. 7:20-23) Why is it that when my heart was being offered so many blessings, I was unable to receive them? For, in not receiving them, I left myself unable to recognize the good things I had and unable to be thankful. And in that state of ingratitude, I had nothing to give to anyone else.
I find that to live a life where we love one another, where we lay down our lives and sacrifice in love for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, our families, and our Church, we must first and foremost know the love we have received. We cannot forget from whom we came from. We cannot forget that our existence is a gift! We cannot forget that our Father in heaven created us from nothing (ex nihilo). We must impress upon ourselves the truth of our state. We cannot call ourselves into being! We do not have the power over life and death. Before we are masters, we are servants. Before we are in control, we are at the mercy of the world. We have a God who is all Mercy, all Love, all Generosity, all Forgiveness. We have received an invitation to eternal life, to eternal participation in the mysterious joy that is the Love of the Trinity! Yet, we cannot accept this invitation unless we know, in all humility and truth, our littleness, our frailty, and in light of that, the totality of gift that the invitation is! It is not deserved. It was won for us by the sacrifice of the Life of the Son of God.
If we live this life with a prayer to know our state of being in truth, our being-as-gift, we will simultaneously recognize the depth, height, breadth and magnitude of God's mercy and love, and our own indebtedness which calls to us to participate in and imitate that same humble love. We ought to turn to our brothers and sisters, friends and coworkers, bosses and cab drivers, and place them first. Clearly, the heroism that Love requires is a grace given to us, and we must always pray to have it. Yet, we should not allow ourselves to be dis-ordered from the truth if we can help it. We should not let satan find ways of screwing up the order so that before God's gift and love comes our own power or our own weakness. How often men find themselves lost in their sin, unable to forgive themselves some flaw, even when others forgive them. Likewise, how often men are lost in their pride, unable to accept that they do not have the power in life they desire or think they have. How often we are wrapped up in our own little world, whether its self-pity or self-loathing or self-doubt, and are unable to see the person standing right in front of us.
Consider how often in Scriptures it is a blind man who reaches out to Christ saying, "Lord, I want to see." If only this could be our prayer. Jesus, help us to be un-blinded. To shake off the scales that cling to our eyes. It all comes back to the order of our lives. Who is first? Do we worship before we work? Is the credit of any good offered back to the giver of all good things? Do we adore before we desire to be adored? We will not learn how to serve one another unless we see we have already been served, by the one whose service is the greatest act of Love and Sacrifice the world has ever known.
My cat needing to be fed is important, but my roommate needing to talk is more important.
My bathroom needing cleaned is important, but making food for my friend is more important.
My bills need to be paid, but a friend in need is more important.
My life may need to be organized or reordered, but that order must begin with prayer first.
What matters are these two things: relationship with God our Father, and relationship with all those we love.
Nothing ought to stand in the way of those as the order of our lives.
Recently I had a day that was not a day of proper ordering. I did not make it to mass as I had wanted, I did not remember to pray certain prayers I wanted to pray, and I did not make certain quiet time happen that I felt I needed. Likewise, I found that I was distant and irritable around those I love, especially my boyfriend, who so generously loved me that day, despite my failure.
Why is that? What is it that gets to us, that can attack from within? Christ himself told us that what defiles comes from within, from within a man's heart. ("But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile." Mk. 7:20-23) Why is it that when my heart was being offered so many blessings, I was unable to receive them? For, in not receiving them, I left myself unable to recognize the good things I had and unable to be thankful. And in that state of ingratitude, I had nothing to give to anyone else.
I find that to live a life where we love one another, where we lay down our lives and sacrifice in love for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, our families, and our Church, we must first and foremost know the love we have received. We cannot forget from whom we came from. We cannot forget that our existence is a gift! We cannot forget that our Father in heaven created us from nothing (ex nihilo). We must impress upon ourselves the truth of our state. We cannot call ourselves into being! We do not have the power over life and death. Before we are masters, we are servants. Before we are in control, we are at the mercy of the world. We have a God who is all Mercy, all Love, all Generosity, all Forgiveness. We have received an invitation to eternal life, to eternal participation in the mysterious joy that is the Love of the Trinity! Yet, we cannot accept this invitation unless we know, in all humility and truth, our littleness, our frailty, and in light of that, the totality of gift that the invitation is! It is not deserved. It was won for us by the sacrifice of the Life of the Son of God.
If we live this life with a prayer to know our state of being in truth, our being-as-gift, we will simultaneously recognize the depth, height, breadth and magnitude of God's mercy and love, and our own indebtedness which calls to us to participate in and imitate that same humble love. We ought to turn to our brothers and sisters, friends and coworkers, bosses and cab drivers, and place them first. Clearly, the heroism that Love requires is a grace given to us, and we must always pray to have it. Yet, we should not allow ourselves to be dis-ordered from the truth if we can help it. We should not let satan find ways of screwing up the order so that before God's gift and love comes our own power or our own weakness. How often men find themselves lost in their sin, unable to forgive themselves some flaw, even when others forgive them. Likewise, how often men are lost in their pride, unable to accept that they do not have the power in life they desire or think they have. How often we are wrapped up in our own little world, whether its self-pity or self-loathing or self-doubt, and are unable to see the person standing right in front of us.
Consider how often in Scriptures it is a blind man who reaches out to Christ saying, "Lord, I want to see." If only this could be our prayer. Jesus, help us to be un-blinded. To shake off the scales that cling to our eyes. It all comes back to the order of our lives. Who is first? Do we worship before we work? Is the credit of any good offered back to the giver of all good things? Do we adore before we desire to be adored? We will not learn how to serve one another unless we see we have already been served, by the one whose service is the greatest act of Love and Sacrifice the world has ever known.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Empty and Beautiful
Of late I have been struck with the immense blessings in my life. Many things I have received undeserved and even unlooked for. I certainly have not merited some of the gifts that have been given.
I was praying during the graduation mass for my school in thanksgiving to the Lord for an accomplishment that I am still slightly in disbelief over, and I cannot explain the emptiness of my being. It was joyful, and free. It was an emptiness that began in sorrow but ended in life. It was a miniature death of the self. I recognized many things in a few moments of prayer about my own littleness. I felt, very dramatically, my mortality and all of its frailty. Simultaneously, I sensed the power that is God's presence in our lives. I knew His strength in a new way. I saw in the Eucharist the true Bread that is Life for the world. I sensed how absolutely in need of the food of God I was, above and beyond all other forms of nourishment. I understood that though my stomach might hunger, my soul hungered in a way that was stronger and louder. I do not know if I have ever sensed the same level of poverty within myself that I did at that mass.
I beg us to consider poverty anew. Poverty does not need to be a material state, although I believe very firmly that if one is in a material state of poverty it is easier to reach a spiritual state of poverty. Yet, what does it mean to be "poor in spirit"? The Lord said that those who were poor in spirit were "blessed" and that "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There is much to think on here. The Lord could easily mean both an earthly poverty and a spiritual one, and he could also easily have meant both an earthly experience of the Kingdom and the Heavenly one. For those who live a life here on this earth understanding their own meekness before the King, their indebtedness to their Father, will certainly be living a life that testifies to the Kingdom while on earth. Likewise, those who live that form of humility will most certainly be close to the Kingdom of Heaven when it is their time to depart from this life. We would not deny that this is what we receive in the Eucharist each day, and what the many readings surrounding the Eucharist during the Easter Season emphasize; we receive the Lord, the Giver of Life. We receive the Bread of Life.
St. John recounts the Bread of Life Discourse in Chapter 6, saying:
"So Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' So they said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'
Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst'" (6:32-35).
It seems so simple, I think many of us (especially in our contemporary culture) do not know how to receive such an invitation. Was this not the fault and crime of the pharisees of Christ's own time? They were blinded by their expectations, by what they were accustomed to. They could not bring themselves to learn a new way of life, to accept a new teaching. Yet, we have the invitation to let go of our former sight. We have the invitation to ask that we might be able to see, like the blind man who pursues Jesus until he is healed. We have the invitation to ask to be able to receive that which is being offered. Christ's own disciples said that his teaching was hard. Further into John's Gospel Christ informs them that his very flesh and blood is the life that he offers them:
"'I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.'
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?'
Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.'
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?'
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you?'" (6:48-61)
Where do we begin to consider this? Christ raises an immense challenge, and yet, a beautiful invitation. "Does this shock you?" Perhaps we can assume that after God has given so much to us, our very beings over to us, we should not be surprised that He would feed us with His own flesh. Yet, our natural sensibilities seem to be repulsed at the concept. Not only is the idea strange to us, but the fact that Jesus explains this gift while being alive, and neither His flesh nor His blood being poured out yet, make it hard to understand. Yet, consider his words! "The one who feeds on me will have life because of me."
This is the key to living in the Kingdom while still on earth! This is the secret to poverty of spirit, to being little and knowing our indebtedness. This is where we take up our cross of indentured servitude and simultaneously receive the adopted sonship given to us in Christ! It is feeding on Him, truly taking His life into ours, that enables us to see with true sight, and receive and understand all that the Lord gives to us while on earth.
This is why the joy of blessings in life must come hand in hand with the sorrows and pains. One cannot truly understand what a gift life itself is if he does not know the truth of death. Once we realize what we have been ransomed from, what true mercy it is that we have been preserved, we can truly rejoice. God's gift to his children is that simple. We have but to acknowledge our lowliness and be thankful for it all the same. We have but to offer thanks, to celebrate that we do not have to merit our salvation, this true life, for we could never do so. No, we have been purchased at a cost, the price of the Life of the Son of God. In Him we are set free, free to live in Him and love according to His love. This ought to be our strength and drive for every minor death to self or death to sin that we suffer throughout each day. To join in the kenosis, the self-emptying, the pouring out that Christ made on our behalf; this is to know what eternal life is like while still on earth!
I was praying during the graduation mass for my school in thanksgiving to the Lord for an accomplishment that I am still slightly in disbelief over, and I cannot explain the emptiness of my being. It was joyful, and free. It was an emptiness that began in sorrow but ended in life. It was a miniature death of the self. I recognized many things in a few moments of prayer about my own littleness. I felt, very dramatically, my mortality and all of its frailty. Simultaneously, I sensed the power that is God's presence in our lives. I knew His strength in a new way. I saw in the Eucharist the true Bread that is Life for the world. I sensed how absolutely in need of the food of God I was, above and beyond all other forms of nourishment. I understood that though my stomach might hunger, my soul hungered in a way that was stronger and louder. I do not know if I have ever sensed the same level of poverty within myself that I did at that mass.
I beg us to consider poverty anew. Poverty does not need to be a material state, although I believe very firmly that if one is in a material state of poverty it is easier to reach a spiritual state of poverty. Yet, what does it mean to be "poor in spirit"? The Lord said that those who were poor in spirit were "blessed" and that "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There is much to think on here. The Lord could easily mean both an earthly poverty and a spiritual one, and he could also easily have meant both an earthly experience of the Kingdom and the Heavenly one. For those who live a life here on this earth understanding their own meekness before the King, their indebtedness to their Father, will certainly be living a life that testifies to the Kingdom while on earth. Likewise, those who live that form of humility will most certainly be close to the Kingdom of Heaven when it is their time to depart from this life. We would not deny that this is what we receive in the Eucharist each day, and what the many readings surrounding the Eucharist during the Easter Season emphasize; we receive the Lord, the Giver of Life. We receive the Bread of Life.
St. John recounts the Bread of Life Discourse in Chapter 6, saying:
"So Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' So they said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'
Saturday, April 30, 2011
That We Would Love
Lord, make me merciful.
Teach me to take into myself that which is hurting, which is broken, which is dark and painful, even that which is sinful in my brothers and sisters and to bear it within my heart. Better me than them, Lord, if your grace would permit it. If you will love in me and through me, if I might love them with your love, with your heart, and see them only as you see them, I know I would grow in leaps and bounds in true love. Jesus, I want to be merciful, as my heavenly Father is merciful. Only there can I find the place where I will grow in perfection. Only there can I remain in peace. Only there will I be made whole and be made new. Only there will I be able to invite others to your love. Only there will I be able to bring healing, light, hope and the truth into the hearts and lives of my family.
Lord, you have given me only one mother, only one father, only one family to which I am meant to love and bear the Gospel message. Help me then, to lay all else aside for their sake. In this greater family of the Church whom you have generously supplied to me as a means and source of teaching in love and encouraging in love and binding in love, assist me always to remember that human love is good, but human love in and through you is miraculous. Let me not settle for my own strength, for it is simply not enough. May I never grow weary of loving, never grow tired of laying down my life.
Oh, if only I would remember how much more I rest and am free in the very act of laying down my life! If I would only recall how exhausted my soul is when I am selfish and refuse to place them first. It is true that only in the Cross do we find life, not because it is an abstract knowledge we may come to understand, but because it is real life, and lived life, and the only hope in a world where sin remains. Jesus, your triumph remains even beyond the sin. Your destruction of death has given us all that we need to endure every single death we must suffer in this life, and all the means to grace and mercy that will teach us how to truly live.
Lord, let my home be nowhere but your heart. Let me be as the disciple whom you loved, and rest on your chest even in the midst of trial, temptation, danger and sadness. Let nothing move me from your side. I know you shall never leave me. And Jesus, for every time I do leave, and I do hurt others, and I do bring pain and sorrow into the world by my sinfulness, never let me doubt your mercy! Mercy was given on the Cross, at the very last moments of the greatest act of love. Your consummation of the covenant was made along with the gift of the Church to your Mother and she to the Church, and the forgiveness of all of us who “do not know what we do.” Lord, let this always be our strength, and let us learn to be merciful even when we are most betrayed and most abused.
Jesus, in your innocence you remained as a child, even in the midst of great evil… allow us to also be of the same childlike spirit, and share in the Holy Spirit’s gifts so that we will be meek and humble of heart. Let us rejoice in the self-emptying, the kenosis of your sacrifice. This is the prayer of a heart always in need of greater humility, and always delighted that you never give up, and you never grow weary, and you always love with a depth and passion and might that is nearly unbelievable.
Oh, what gift is the Love of God!
Friday, April 15, 2011
News to Meet the Argument
Friends, I prefer to have resources and references when I make statements, and I realize the statements in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" would probably be more efficacious if there were some references. This is an article from ABC concerning a program in Philadelphia to distribute condoms to children 11 and older. Please read:An Article Worth Your Time
In conjunction with some of the recent discussion posted below, I would like to share an article written by a coworker of mine that I found useful as well as true. I highly recommend reading through it. Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
If I were to give you all of what was on my mind, we would be here for more pages than I can count. I cannot express the vigor with which I am burning up over the injustice that is rampant in our society. Now, granted, there are many injustices, and many small battles to fight on many fronts before the war of good and evil will be finished. Yet, the one battle I know myself to be forever caught up in is the attack on the human person specifically in the constant attempt to separate the soul-body unity into parts which do not affect one another. This attack also comes in various forms, but the most base is the attack on human sexuality. This attack distorts and disfigures human love, human relationships, the human family, human gender, human gift of life, simple human value and the entire human family.
Contraception is a rejection of the fruit of love, a rejection of the gift that two people give to one another in their sexual intimacy. It rejects not only the gift that may come from their union, that of a child, a new human life, but also the personal gifts of each person. It rejects the intrinsic value of the person, of the body, of the unity between soul and body, of human action, and the value of the other person who is to receive the gift. The truth is, however, that this value cannot be rejected, precisely because it is intrinsic. It belongs to the character of the human being, the very nature of persons, to posses a dignity and power that is transcendent and beyond them. This is why the unity of body and soul which is the human person is so pivotal to anthropology and to this battle. To create a dichotomy that in reality cannot be created will most certainly cause confusion, darkness, injury and suffering. Note, in reality these two can never be separated (perhaps excluding death in this discussion, although I would argue there is still a unique bond that will be revealed and fulfilled at the Second Coming). Speaking of persons, one cannot ever be simply a physical being, for if you were, you would be dead. This is why Descartes' conviction of "I think, therefore I am" has so often captivated people - because in some sense, this is true. However, it cannot be true solely on that premise.
Yet, this is not about Descartes or philosophy per se, this is a point on humanity. Once more, you cannot separate the body and soul. You can certainly think abstractly about each as if they were independent, and you can understand certain senses and affects that are proper to each, but neither is ever truly independent of the other. So it would seem that contraception inherently lies, a rather serious untruth. To say with your body and soul that you give yourself to the other while at the same time stating that your body has properties which you will withhold or limit is contradictory. Perhaps this is not clear - there is no way to participate in sexual union with another person and not imply the total gift of self to the other. The very nature of this type of intimacy demands a certain vulnerability and trust, whether conscious or not, that involves the utmost transcendence of the person in the act.
These points must be fleshed out one hundred times over, but I do not have the room here. I highly recommend referring to various Church documents for further reading (a good place of collected sources is here: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/index.shtml) and also some of the profound works on human sexuality by the soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul II. "Love and Responsibility" and "The Theology of the Body" are two excellent sources. Also recommended are "Humanae Vitae," "Familiaris Consortio," "Mulieris Dignitatum," "The Nuptial Body" by Angelo Scola, "Redemptoris Hominis," "Gaudiem et Spes," and of course, the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Once more, the battle is about recovering the human person within the truth and fullness of his being. There is no removing the gift of filiality - of sonship before the Father that is given to us primarily in our nature as created in His image, and then deepened in a profound way at Baptism and the reception of the other sacraments. Man is good, according to God's word. He therefore has a responsibility to be aware of this inherent value of his being, and to act accordingly. Not only to act according to his own good, but the inherent goodness of every other man. As I was discussing above, contraception cuts out the heart of the human person by insisting that man reject himself above all else. It is a lie to oneself even before it is a lie to another. It is a direct statement of doubt of the intrinsic value of the embodied person. Yet, this value is real, and is experienced in reality every day, at all times. It is existence. It cannot be removed. Therefore, man chooses to dwell in a state of self-denial in his acceptance of this demeaning activity.
It is not hard to understand how this level of doubt or rejection that forms a base in our cultural behavior then feeds into the many other manifestations of the human rejection of the good of the person and of life. Abortion, homosexual activity, masturbation, other forms of sexual abuse, pornography, etc... are examples of the human family that has been torn apart, and the human person who is suffering from a lie that has become the bedrock of his self awareness. I have read personal testimonies of women on Planned Parenthood's facebook page insisting that they are more sexually pleased on their own than from their husbands. I have read personal testimonies of mothers who have chosen to have one of their conceived twins "removed" (aborted) because they had only been anticipating one child from their in-vitro fertilization. I have read of young children who at 9 years old have had their first full-out sexual union with someone, and have found that after they are unable to process their experience. They understand themselves as disembodied, as if they were not the acting subjects in the encounter. They are detached, much as young children are when they are sexually abused. Yet, these children choose to be intimate (if that word is even applicable with children since their emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological elements still in growth and developing, and certainly not mature), rather than being forced into intimacy. But there is something distinct about our culture that has insisted to them that this is appropriate and normal. I have read of parents encouraging their three and four year old daughters to explore their bodies sexually and to stimulate themselves if that is possible. There are state programs offering condoms for free, discretely in the mail, to any young man age 9-18. There are of course an unbelievable amount of magazines, television shows, movies and free images that are purely sexual and are the constant experience of young people. Better Homes and Gardens is replaced with a barely-clothed Rhianna, and everyone is supposed to be alright with this.
Children need protection, deserve protection. We all, actually, deserve protection from this onslaught. As we age and mature, we begin to develop a greater sensitivity to what "love" truly is, and how it encompasses more than just a physical body. Yet, our culture insists on the divorce between love and sex, between sex and marriage, between children and sex, and between children and marriage. We have watched as this has wrecked havoc on our society, and yet we continue to perpetuate the phenomenon. Divorce, rape, sexual abuse, prostitution, STDs, ABORTION, cohabitation, multiple sexual partners, and homosexual activity are simply "put up with," and by that, we must admit, we mean "accepted as a norm." C.S. Lewis wrote a brilliant discussion of love in a book titled "The Four Loves," in which he discusses love of affection (storage), love of friendship (philia), love of romance (eros) and love of totality or unconditional love (agape). This sort of discussion of love in all of its beautiful dynamism and richness, in the ways in which we participate and take up these elements of love within one another, is simply a foreign language today.
I must go, but I beg of you to take some time to evaluate your understanding of the gift of love, and the beauty of the human person in its fullness. Recognize both the wonder of the human body and the gift of sexual union while also recognizing the depth and breadth of our personal participation in intimacy with another. We deserve not to sell ourselves short. We deserve to comprehend some of the gorgeous plan that our Creator had in mind when he formed us in our mother's womb. We deserve to recognize the generous and gratuitous gift of adopted sonship in Christ that has been offered humanity, and what it means to be in the image and likeness of God.
Let us pray for purity, for defense from temptation and evil, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit that we will come to greater wisdom of the goodness, truth and beauty of personhood.
Most Blessed Mother, protect us and pray for us.
Contraception is a rejection of the fruit of love, a rejection of the gift that two people give to one another in their sexual intimacy. It rejects not only the gift that may come from their union, that of a child, a new human life, but also the personal gifts of each person. It rejects the intrinsic value of the person, of the body, of the unity between soul and body, of human action, and the value of the other person who is to receive the gift. The truth is, however, that this value cannot be rejected, precisely because it is intrinsic. It belongs to the character of the human being, the very nature of persons, to posses a dignity and power that is transcendent and beyond them. This is why the unity of body and soul which is the human person is so pivotal to anthropology and to this battle. To create a dichotomy that in reality cannot be created will most certainly cause confusion, darkness, injury and suffering. Note, in reality these two can never be separated (perhaps excluding death in this discussion, although I would argue there is still a unique bond that will be revealed and fulfilled at the Second Coming). Speaking of persons, one cannot ever be simply a physical being, for if you were, you would be dead. This is why Descartes' conviction of "I think, therefore I am" has so often captivated people - because in some sense, this is true. However, it cannot be true solely on that premise.
Yet, this is not about Descartes or philosophy per se, this is a point on humanity. Once more, you cannot separate the body and soul. You can certainly think abstractly about each as if they were independent, and you can understand certain senses and affects that are proper to each, but neither is ever truly independent of the other. So it would seem that contraception inherently lies, a rather serious untruth. To say with your body and soul that you give yourself to the other while at the same time stating that your body has properties which you will withhold or limit is contradictory. Perhaps this is not clear - there is no way to participate in sexual union with another person and not imply the total gift of self to the other. The very nature of this type of intimacy demands a certain vulnerability and trust, whether conscious or not, that involves the utmost transcendence of the person in the act.
These points must be fleshed out one hundred times over, but I do not have the room here. I highly recommend referring to various Church documents for further reading (a good place of collected sources is here: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/index.shtml) and also some of the profound works on human sexuality by the soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul II. "Love and Responsibility" and "The Theology of the Body" are two excellent sources. Also recommended are "Humanae Vitae," "Familiaris Consortio," "Mulieris Dignitatum," "The Nuptial Body" by Angelo Scola, "Redemptoris Hominis," "Gaudiem et Spes," and of course, the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Once more, the battle is about recovering the human person within the truth and fullness of his being. There is no removing the gift of filiality - of sonship before the Father that is given to us primarily in our nature as created in His image, and then deepened in a profound way at Baptism and the reception of the other sacraments. Man is good, according to God's word. He therefore has a responsibility to be aware of this inherent value of his being, and to act accordingly. Not only to act according to his own good, but the inherent goodness of every other man. As I was discussing above, contraception cuts out the heart of the human person by insisting that man reject himself above all else. It is a lie to oneself even before it is a lie to another. It is a direct statement of doubt of the intrinsic value of the embodied person. Yet, this value is real, and is experienced in reality every day, at all times. It is existence. It cannot be removed. Therefore, man chooses to dwell in a state of self-denial in his acceptance of this demeaning activity.
It is not hard to understand how this level of doubt or rejection that forms a base in our cultural behavior then feeds into the many other manifestations of the human rejection of the good of the person and of life. Abortion, homosexual activity, masturbation, other forms of sexual abuse, pornography, etc... are examples of the human family that has been torn apart, and the human person who is suffering from a lie that has become the bedrock of his self awareness. I have read personal testimonies of women on Planned Parenthood's facebook page insisting that they are more sexually pleased on their own than from their husbands. I have read personal testimonies of mothers who have chosen to have one of their conceived twins "removed" (aborted) because they had only been anticipating one child from their in-vitro fertilization. I have read of young children who at 9 years old have had their first full-out sexual union with someone, and have found that after they are unable to process their experience. They understand themselves as disembodied, as if they were not the acting subjects in the encounter. They are detached, much as young children are when they are sexually abused. Yet, these children choose to be intimate (if that word is even applicable with children since their emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological elements still in growth and developing, and certainly not mature), rather than being forced into intimacy. But there is something distinct about our culture that has insisted to them that this is appropriate and normal. I have read of parents encouraging their three and four year old daughters to explore their bodies sexually and to stimulate themselves if that is possible. There are state programs offering condoms for free, discretely in the mail, to any young man age 9-18. There are of course an unbelievable amount of magazines, television shows, movies and free images that are purely sexual and are the constant experience of young people. Better Homes and Gardens is replaced with a barely-clothed Rhianna, and everyone is supposed to be alright with this.
Children need protection, deserve protection. We all, actually, deserve protection from this onslaught. As we age and mature, we begin to develop a greater sensitivity to what "love" truly is, and how it encompasses more than just a physical body. Yet, our culture insists on the divorce between love and sex, between sex and marriage, between children and sex, and between children and marriage. We have watched as this has wrecked havoc on our society, and yet we continue to perpetuate the phenomenon. Divorce, rape, sexual abuse, prostitution, STDs, ABORTION, cohabitation, multiple sexual partners, and homosexual activity are simply "put up with," and by that, we must admit, we mean "accepted as a norm." C.S. Lewis wrote a brilliant discussion of love in a book titled "The Four Loves," in which he discusses love of affection (storage), love of friendship (philia), love of romance (eros) and love of totality or unconditional love (agape). This sort of discussion of love in all of its beautiful dynamism and richness, in the ways in which we participate and take up these elements of love within one another, is simply a foreign language today.
I must go, but I beg of you to take some time to evaluate your understanding of the gift of love, and the beauty of the human person in its fullness. Recognize both the wonder of the human body and the gift of sexual union while also recognizing the depth and breadth of our personal participation in intimacy with another. We deserve not to sell ourselves short. We deserve to comprehend some of the gorgeous plan that our Creator had in mind when he formed us in our mother's womb. We deserve to recognize the generous and gratuitous gift of adopted sonship in Christ that has been offered humanity, and what it means to be in the image and likeness of God.
Let us pray for purity, for defense from temptation and evil, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit that we will come to greater wisdom of the goodness, truth and beauty of personhood.
Most Blessed Mother, protect us and pray for us.
Monday, April 4, 2011
What We Do In Life
"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity." - Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator)
(Might I mention now that if you have not seen the movie Gladiator, make that a #1 on your list of priorities. Thanks!)
My friends,
I believe it fair to say that many hearts have been stirred by these great words delivered by Russell Crowe in Gladiator. There's something somewhat bewitching to think that we have that sort of power. There's something very comforting about imagining that we could move the world, move the cosmos even, by our lives. There's certainly something that calls to us and builds in our imagination a picture of greatness or even of heroism. There may even be a bit of a challenge in our experience of those words, a pondering deep within about our own strength and courage, and if we too could do something that might "echo in eternity."
I have no intention of discrediting the power of that moment or the movie itself (I think it is a very good and dramatic reflection on what it is to be human), but I would like to draw a more universal point from the line. Assuming that one accepts eternal life and the immortality of the human soul (the human being) once in existence, there ought to be a simple question begged by this idea of our actions 'echoing in eternity.' It should be... don't all of our actions echo in eternity, if we are going to look at it in that light? If what we do at some pivotal and dramatic moment will necessarily affect our lives and the lives of countless others and in some way 'echo in eternity,' how could it not be the case that everything we do, at any and every moment, also affects ourselves and others and will have some effect in eternity? Please understand, I am not implying that eternity is what is up for grabs or subject to change here - we will leave that as a fixed mark, as a truth that we will understand in its fullness when our time comes. Yet, as far as we will one day exist in a state that is different and non-temporal, our actions here on earth (while we live this life) do have a relation to life after life.
This could become a very simple argument for "living a good life" so that we can "go to heaven" or so that we do not "end up in hell." Yet, my intention is more than just a moral life, although it does assume a moral life ultimately. The point is that most people in our modern culture can easily understand the separation between action and consequence that we grow up with. It is not that we refuse all responsibility for our actions (though that does happen), but that we seem to have some serious filters keeping our ideals or beliefs trapped in our vocabulary and making them unable to trickle down to our hearts, bodies and whole selves.
For example, there are many who profess to care greatly about health; they eat well, exercise, perhaps they only by farm-fresh produce...yet they engage in sexual activity that endangers them with diseases, or they binge drink on the weekends, or they smoke, etc... A different example could be someone who professes to be Christian (and lives as a Christian) but votes and advocates pro-choice agendas, which is essentially an advocacy for mothers to be able to kill their unborn and innocent children (which is NOT compatible with Christianity). Consider how our standards for movie ratings seem to imply that young people can appropriately view what ought to be deeply private and intimate between a man and a woman (sexual activity in PG-13 movies), but may not be able to appropriately view violence or death (often causes for R ratings for movies). I am not advocating that things in R rated movies ought to be viewed by more people, but rather, there is a disparity in modern culture between what is professed and what is acted out. A disparity between truth and the way we act according to a different set of truths we assume based on convenience or habit. Forgive me, but even the disconnect between a man who is a loving father and husband and the times when he is looking at porn...these examples are realities throughout our modern culture, and the roots are deeper than simply "we ought to be good" or "we ought not to be evil."
In all of these cases, the weight of the immoral or disordered behaviors seems to be lost or forgotten. Men and women seem highly susceptible to misunderstanding how deeply and thoroughly truths run. Our bodies mean something, in the here and now, and also for what will be. Our words also carry a level of profundity. Certainly, we are still mere creatures, and the mercy and love of God has been revealed to be abundant and unconditional, but this should mean that we recognize our need to accept the truth of our world and ourselves and our relationships to and with others, rather than behave as if it is all irrelevant since we can say sorry later. It is hard for me to really grasp the vapors of steam that are rising from my interior when I think about the duplicity we are raised with in society!
Needless to say, double standards exist all around us, and can be sighted quite easily when we open our eyes to them. Yet, the trouble is that so few people seem interested in being able to see anymore. People seem content with blindness, content with living in this limping fashion. But the blind are unable to see how bad the wounds are that they are creating for themselves and others by this kind of living. We are too integrated as human persons, too thoroughly body-soul, to survive this kind of constant tearing apart. We cannot continue to say we love Jesus and then abuse our brothers and sisters in our words and actions. And if "abuse" is too strong a word, than accept "lie." For when we tell someone we love them, or behave in a way that typically implies that we love them (such as sexual activity) whether we love them or not, but we do so while acting other than in true love (which requires a commitment and promise of oneself, a gift of self that can only be given in totality through marriage), than we do lie to them, and we do abuse them in different ways. We also abuse ourselves. This is the thing that I find most astonishing, how little connection we make even within our own interior awareness or self-knowledge. If we are unable to conceive of how we are hurting another whom we ought to treat with respect, we ought to at least realize the damage we are doing to ourselves. But sin has been denied. We will not be rebuked or told that we must behave according to some set of rules, even if they are so natural and inscribed in us that we cannot escape them for all of our refusal to acknowledge them.
Perhaps I am walking too far into the woods of abstract thought. To be concrete, I firmly believe that our lived experience of the world demands that we recognize that how we behave, the actions that we make, will always have some influence and effect on our own person and also on others and the world at large. It is really ridiculous to imagine that creatures who begin existence in-relation to other creatures (aka, no one is born without coming from two parents) could then live life without always being related to other creatures in this same type of constitutive sense. And if we are constituted in relation, than our responses, invitations, participations or refusals will always impact us and others. Sipping your water bottle is clearly less affective of others than it is for yourself, and most likely it is not an action that is in danger of immorality, but it still means something that we choose to sip it or are able to sip it, etc...
At the end of the day, the point is to reconsider how seriously one takes life. Do not give up fun, or laughter, or silliness, or impulsivity. Yet, do not allow yourself to be dominated by impulses that are not guided and ordered by a moral order of love, by the truth. Do not allow the duplicity that meets us at every corner to sink in and take root in your mind and heart. Do not accept that every barely-clothed woman on the cover of a magazine is beautiful simply because she is barely-clothed; she deserves more than that, she is certainly not only her body. You deserve more than that, you should not be in a position where you are only considering her as a body nor should you have it reinforced in your mind that beauty is nothing more than parts that have been emphasized that are really one with a much greater whole. It is the person who is beautiful, but our culture has forgotten what and who people are.
I challenge us all to consider Maxiumus' line once more. We cannot be so simplistic that we really accept that our actions and behavior in life affects only us, and that the affect is only skin deep. No, we feel, deep in our souls, the brokenness we live. We become shaped and formed by the habits we build. We need to sense once more in our hearts the transcendence of the human person. We need to reawaken our sensibility to our relationship to others, the world, and of course, to God. We need to reopen our eyes and ears to understand the depth and breadth of truth and love that order our world. We cannot find fulfillment, happiness, peace, hope, true love, if we will not strive to live as whole people, as truly human. We will never find an end to the restless search if we fail to understand how integrated we are, and how much our behavior can and does mean.
"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity."
(Might I mention now that if you have not seen the movie Gladiator, make that a #1 on your list of priorities. Thanks!)
My friends,
I believe it fair to say that many hearts have been stirred by these great words delivered by Russell Crowe in Gladiator. There's something somewhat bewitching to think that we have that sort of power. There's something very comforting about imagining that we could move the world, move the cosmos even, by our lives. There's certainly something that calls to us and builds in our imagination a picture of greatness or even of heroism. There may even be a bit of a challenge in our experience of those words, a pondering deep within about our own strength and courage, and if we too could do something that might "echo in eternity."
I have no intention of discrediting the power of that moment or the movie itself (I think it is a very good and dramatic reflection on what it is to be human), but I would like to draw a more universal point from the line. Assuming that one accepts eternal life and the immortality of the human soul (the human being) once in existence, there ought to be a simple question begged by this idea of our actions 'echoing in eternity.' It should be... don't all of our actions echo in eternity, if we are going to look at it in that light? If what we do at some pivotal and dramatic moment will necessarily affect our lives and the lives of countless others and in some way 'echo in eternity,' how could it not be the case that everything we do, at any and every moment, also affects ourselves and others and will have some effect in eternity? Please understand, I am not implying that eternity is what is up for grabs or subject to change here - we will leave that as a fixed mark, as a truth that we will understand in its fullness when our time comes. Yet, as far as we will one day exist in a state that is different and non-temporal, our actions here on earth (while we live this life) do have a relation to life after life.
This could become a very simple argument for "living a good life" so that we can "go to heaven" or so that we do not "end up in hell." Yet, my intention is more than just a moral life, although it does assume a moral life ultimately. The point is that most people in our modern culture can easily understand the separation between action and consequence that we grow up with. It is not that we refuse all responsibility for our actions (though that does happen), but that we seem to have some serious filters keeping our ideals or beliefs trapped in our vocabulary and making them unable to trickle down to our hearts, bodies and whole selves.
For example, there are many who profess to care greatly about health; they eat well, exercise, perhaps they only by farm-fresh produce...yet they engage in sexual activity that endangers them with diseases, or they binge drink on the weekends, or they smoke, etc... A different example could be someone who professes to be Christian (and lives as a Christian) but votes and advocates pro-choice agendas, which is essentially an advocacy for mothers to be able to kill their unborn and innocent children (which is NOT compatible with Christianity). Consider how our standards for movie ratings seem to imply that young people can appropriately view what ought to be deeply private and intimate between a man and a woman (sexual activity in PG-13 movies), but may not be able to appropriately view violence or death (often causes for R ratings for movies). I am not advocating that things in R rated movies ought to be viewed by more people, but rather, there is a disparity in modern culture between what is professed and what is acted out. A disparity between truth and the way we act according to a different set of truths we assume based on convenience or habit. Forgive me, but even the disconnect between a man who is a loving father and husband and the times when he is looking at porn...these examples are realities throughout our modern culture, and the roots are deeper than simply "we ought to be good" or "we ought not to be evil."
In all of these cases, the weight of the immoral or disordered behaviors seems to be lost or forgotten. Men and women seem highly susceptible to misunderstanding how deeply and thoroughly truths run. Our bodies mean something, in the here and now, and also for what will be. Our words also carry a level of profundity. Certainly, we are still mere creatures, and the mercy and love of God has been revealed to be abundant and unconditional, but this should mean that we recognize our need to accept the truth of our world and ourselves and our relationships to and with others, rather than behave as if it is all irrelevant since we can say sorry later. It is hard for me to really grasp the vapors of steam that are rising from my interior when I think about the duplicity we are raised with in society!
Needless to say, double standards exist all around us, and can be sighted quite easily when we open our eyes to them. Yet, the trouble is that so few people seem interested in being able to see anymore. People seem content with blindness, content with living in this limping fashion. But the blind are unable to see how bad the wounds are that they are creating for themselves and others by this kind of living. We are too integrated as human persons, too thoroughly body-soul, to survive this kind of constant tearing apart. We cannot continue to say we love Jesus and then abuse our brothers and sisters in our words and actions. And if "abuse" is too strong a word, than accept "lie." For when we tell someone we love them, or behave in a way that typically implies that we love them (such as sexual activity) whether we love them or not, but we do so while acting other than in true love (which requires a commitment and promise of oneself, a gift of self that can only be given in totality through marriage), than we do lie to them, and we do abuse them in different ways. We also abuse ourselves. This is the thing that I find most astonishing, how little connection we make even within our own interior awareness or self-knowledge. If we are unable to conceive of how we are hurting another whom we ought to treat with respect, we ought to at least realize the damage we are doing to ourselves. But sin has been denied. We will not be rebuked or told that we must behave according to some set of rules, even if they are so natural and inscribed in us that we cannot escape them for all of our refusal to acknowledge them.
Perhaps I am walking too far into the woods of abstract thought. To be concrete, I firmly believe that our lived experience of the world demands that we recognize that how we behave, the actions that we make, will always have some influence and effect on our own person and also on others and the world at large. It is really ridiculous to imagine that creatures who begin existence in-relation to other creatures (aka, no one is born without coming from two parents) could then live life without always being related to other creatures in this same type of constitutive sense. And if we are constituted in relation, than our responses, invitations, participations or refusals will always impact us and others. Sipping your water bottle is clearly less affective of others than it is for yourself, and most likely it is not an action that is in danger of immorality, but it still means something that we choose to sip it or are able to sip it, etc...
At the end of the day, the point is to reconsider how seriously one takes life. Do not give up fun, or laughter, or silliness, or impulsivity. Yet, do not allow yourself to be dominated by impulses that are not guided and ordered by a moral order of love, by the truth. Do not allow the duplicity that meets us at every corner to sink in and take root in your mind and heart. Do not accept that every barely-clothed woman on the cover of a magazine is beautiful simply because she is barely-clothed; she deserves more than that, she is certainly not only her body. You deserve more than that, you should not be in a position where you are only considering her as a body nor should you have it reinforced in your mind that beauty is nothing more than parts that have been emphasized that are really one with a much greater whole. It is the person who is beautiful, but our culture has forgotten what and who people are.
I challenge us all to consider Maxiumus' line once more. We cannot be so simplistic that we really accept that our actions and behavior in life affects only us, and that the affect is only skin deep. No, we feel, deep in our souls, the brokenness we live. We become shaped and formed by the habits we build. We need to sense once more in our hearts the transcendence of the human person. We need to reawaken our sensibility to our relationship to others, the world, and of course, to God. We need to reopen our eyes and ears to understand the depth and breadth of truth and love that order our world. We cannot find fulfillment, happiness, peace, hope, true love, if we will not strive to live as whole people, as truly human. We will never find an end to the restless search if we fail to understand how integrated we are, and how much our behavior can and does mean.
"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Poetic Last Days, March
It's that time again, when a little poetry comes to the aid of the heart that seeks to meditate and pray. May God bless your Lenten journey.
The Chalice at His Side
Cracked and dry am I,
Shriveling in this air.
Empty inside for I
Did not want to share.
What irony I find,
That given this fine wine,
Harbored within myself,
A bitter and toxic mind.
Was I to pour it out,
To waste such potency?
Why give it away,
When it was given to me?
Something more to this wine,
Potent at a cost.
The fullness of its sweetness,
Was premised on the loss.
Freely given to be given away,
Pungent as it flows,
Richness seen as n'er before,
Delight only the Lover knows.
Remain with me, I cry,
Not wanting to lose this wine,
Sustain me, O, I pray,
To last yet one more day.
Yet shriveled and sick am I,
Barren inside and dry,
What remains is only the muck,
Of one who would not love.
Deeper I must delve down,
Within the depths of me,
To seek and hunt for the source,
Of that sweet and holy Spring.
Dig and work and crawl,
Find the clay below,
Until my hands are wet again,
And the Wine once more will flow.
And now I understand,
What I could not see before,
Only in the pouring out,
Where the rich is made poor.
There in the giving of all I have,
There in the emptying out,
The wonder of the Life remains,
The Light does not go out.
O, Sweet Wine, had I but known,
Would that I have seen.
Only in giving what I have now,
Am I truly the one who receives.
Remain with me, I cry,
Sustain me, O, I pray,
Do not hold back all that you are,
I will give it all away.
Flow through me now, O Sweet Wine,
I will not hinder you.
This heart beats once again,
This soul is fresh and new.
The dryness has been swallowed up,
The emptiness is filled,
My cup overflows in generous Love,
My restless spirit stilled.
What kind of Love is this, I ponder,
That only in giving is known?
What miracle is present here,
Grapes crushed as seeds are sown.
That Well within springs from your Side,
This Wine comes without cost,
Let me give it freely with all I am,
That true Life may not be lost.
"Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners...No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matt. 9:13, 16-17)
"I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts." (Ezekiel 36:25-26)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Desert Solitude
My dear friends.
Thank you for your patience. The number of things I cannot wait to write on (and yet, have been forced to wait to write on) will soon enough be flowing forth from my itching fingers. However, the last round of comprehensive exams is upon me, and so the month of March has been devoted to relearning all that I've learned.
So for your great delight and pleasure, I am honored to share a reflection written by my boyfriend that I believe is very true to form with the nature of this blog and also a wonderful Lenten reflection.
The soul that rejects God's love fissures like the veins of an arid desert.
It is in the solitude of the desert that man learns to survive on his own. Left only to his instincts, he learns to become self-sufficient in this harsh world. He becomes primal. He lives off of the land and develops mechanisms to adapt to the rugged terrain. He hardens his skin and his heart so as to protect himself. His world without God is treacherous and any vulnerability to love can be attacked by the beasts that prey about him. They search as a lion in the night for him. They know him better than he himself, and they exploit and rape his conscience. As a sculptor takes to the rock, they begin fashioning an image and likeness of themselves within the man. There's immense gratification in breaking the sanctification of man, and they feast on his soul as ravenous birds.
But with no warning, the storm clouds quicken and the sky becomes as black as sack cloth. Thunder rolls and the beasts flee from the promise of Rain. The man cannot prepare for the inevitable outpouring of Grace that is to come. Lightning rips through the sky and the downpour commences. As the desert terrain swells with living water, so too does the soul flood with the flowing mercies from God. It rushes in a torrent and carries the life of the man away in the darkness.
The life that once was lived is now lost.
Awakening he sees Light about him. The stark landscape has transformed into an alien planet of colors and beauty. Wandering from plant to tree, he breathes in the fruits of God's grace and weeps from joy.
As the desert is primal in nature, so too is the soul of the man. To survive is possible, but he surely cannot thrive in this desolate wasteland alone. Inspired by this, the man ventures forth into the desert in search of beauty, love, and grace. Living from storm to storm, he prays and hopes that he finds his paradise.
He knows now that there is something greater beneath the surface of all things and that all of creation yearns for living water.
May the Lord guide and protect us always. "May your kindness, LORD, be upon us; we have put our hope in you." (Psalm 33:22)
Thank you for your patience. The number of things I cannot wait to write on (and yet, have been forced to wait to write on) will soon enough be flowing forth from my itching fingers. However, the last round of comprehensive exams is upon me, and so the month of March has been devoted to relearning all that I've learned.
So for your great delight and pleasure, I am honored to share a reflection written by my boyfriend that I believe is very true to form with the nature of this blog and also a wonderful Lenten reflection.
The soul that rejects God's love fissures like the veins of an arid desert.
It is in the solitude of the desert that man learns to survive on his own. Left only to his instincts, he learns to become self-sufficient in this harsh world. He becomes primal. He lives off of the land and develops mechanisms to adapt to the rugged terrain. He hardens his skin and his heart so as to protect himself. His world without God is treacherous and any vulnerability to love can be attacked by the beasts that prey about him. They search as a lion in the night for him. They know him better than he himself, and they exploit and rape his conscience. As a sculptor takes to the rock, they begin fashioning an image and likeness of themselves within the man. There's immense gratification in breaking the sanctification of man, and they feast on his soul as ravenous birds.
But with no warning, the storm clouds quicken and the sky becomes as black as sack cloth. Thunder rolls and the beasts flee from the promise of Rain. The man cannot prepare for the inevitable outpouring of Grace that is to come. Lightning rips through the sky and the downpour commences. As the desert terrain swells with living water, so too does the soul flood with the flowing mercies from God. It rushes in a torrent and carries the life of the man away in the darkness.
The life that once was lived is now lost.
Awakening he sees Light about him. The stark landscape has transformed into an alien planet of colors and beauty. Wandering from plant to tree, he breathes in the fruits of God's grace and weeps from joy.
As the desert is primal in nature, so too is the soul of the man. To survive is possible, but he surely cannot thrive in this desolate wasteland alone. Inspired by this, the man ventures forth into the desert in search of beauty, love, and grace. Living from storm to storm, he prays and hopes that he finds his paradise.
He knows now that there is something greater beneath the surface of all things and that all of creation yearns for living water.
May the Lord guide and protect us always. "May your kindness, LORD, be upon us; we have put our hope in you." (Psalm 33:22)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Poetic Last Days, February
Seems that I might consider renaming the poetry series "Poetic First Days," since my timing seems to miss the mark each month!
Here's a little fun from the great Gilbert Keith (G.K) Chesterton:
Here's a little fun from the great Gilbert Keith (G.K) Chesterton:
A Prayer in Darkness
This much, O heaven—if I should brood or rave,
Pity me not; but let the world be fed,
Yea, in my madness if I strike me dead,
Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave.
If I dare snarl between this sun and sod,
Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own,
In sun and rain and fruit in season shown,
The shining silence of the scorn of God.
Thank God the stars are set beyond my power,
If I must travail in a night of wrath,
Thank God my tears will never vex a moth,
Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower.
Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had
Thought it beat brightly, even on—Calvary:
And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree
Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad
Pity me not; but let the world be fed,
Yea, in my madness if I strike me dead,
Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave.
If I dare snarl between this sun and sod,
Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own,
In sun and rain and fruit in season shown,
The shining silence of the scorn of God.
Thank God the stars are set beyond my power,
If I must travail in a night of wrath,
Thank God my tears will never vex a moth,
Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower.
Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had
Thought it beat brightly, even on—Calvary:
And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree
Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad
Friday, February 25, 2011
Ark of the Covenant
I have not developed much thought on this blog concerning Our Blessed Mother; this is both because I feel she is so worthy a topic that I feel whatever I say shall be inadequate, and also because there will always be more to say of the one who is Virgin Mother of God and Mother of the Church.
Many saints have devoted their entire lives to her honor, seeking to better understand the mysterious graces granted to this little girl who gave her total "fiat" to the angel Gabriel and became the Mother of Christ through the Holy Spirit. St. Louis de Montfort, perhaps one of the better known, wrote many beautiful things in his small book "True Devotion to Mary."
(If you would like to read it, the entire work in available online, here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm)
St. Alphonsus Ligouri also had a great love for Our Lady and wrote "The Glories of Mary" (which I have not yet read, but intend to): http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm.
You of course have the many saints who were blessed to actually see Our Lady, such as St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France, St. Juan Diego in Guadalupe, Mexico, and Venerable Sr. Maria Lucia and Bls Francisco and Jacinta Marto in Fatima, Portugal.
I do not have the time to list here any form of proper record of the early Church Fathers and their love for Our Lady, but St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Irenaeus, and many others wrote beautiful and profound things concerning her privileges and the honors given to her by God. Here's a short summary page from Dr. Mark Miravalle: http://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/heart_mary/mary_early_church_miravalle.htm
Surely we cannot ignore the beautiful documents of Church history given by our Magisterium in regards to the Blessed Mother, most recently in the document of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium. A brief overview of the Doctrines on Mary can be found here: http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marya1.htm
Therefore, the point is that my reflections are more from personal love of my Mother than they are meant to be in the form of teaching.
First, I would like to list the Ten Virtues of Mary as explained by St. Louis de Montfort in True Devotion. (In alphabetical order for easy memorizing, they go as follows:)
Angelic Sweetness
Ardent Charity
Blind Obedience
Constant Mental Prayer
Divine Purity
Divine Wisdom
Heroic Patience
Lively Faith
Profound Humility
Universal Mortification
These virtues are wonderful topics of meditation and contemplation in our journey to holiness, and how we might better come to know the Heart of Christ through the Heart of His Mother.
Other aspects of honor for Our Lady include the many titles that have been attributed to her throughout Church history, especially considering her typifying of the Church as Bride of Christ and the many analogies drawn of her as New Eve, spiritual Mother of us all, the Body of Christ even as the Church is Body, etc...
One of my favorite titles within the Tradition is "Ark of the Covenant."
St. Louis de Montfort uses this title in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin in his preparation for Total Consecration to the Immaculate Heart.
To really consider this title properly, we must reach back into the Old Testament and seek to understand how the Ark of the Covenant was understood. We do not have time for much exegesis here, but suffice it to say that the Ark was the visible sign among the Israelite people of God's presence with them, the Holy place where the Glory of the Lord dwelled.
The Ark therefore is a sign and symbol as well as a reality. In some ways one can see the Ark as a prefigurement for the Church, for the Tabernacle where God will remain with us, in Christ's very Flesh. Likewise, the analogy is not hard to understand in light of the Mother of Jesus. She who bears Christ within herself, within her womb, is much like the Ark of the Old Testament. Within her is the Glory of God, is God Himself. She bears Him to the world, carrying Him within her holy temple. The language of the human body as a temple is not a stretch for Biblical theology as St. Paul reminds us: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Therefore, if the body is a place where the Holy Spirit dwells with us, and likewise the same place where we meet God in the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, certainly it can be said that the Mother of Jesus was the temple within which He dwelt for nine months! Moreover, as the Holy Spirit "came upon" Mary when she conceived Jesus, He remains with her, and she is Spouse of the Spirit in a unique way. So as we all are temples of the Holy Spirit, in an honored fashion, Mary is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
I could go on, but there is much to think about in those short thoughts.
I want to end with a prayer from the Preparation for Total Consecration which St. Louis de Montfort includes. I cannot help but think of Our Mother's title as "Ark of the Covenant" whenever I read this:
O, Jesus Living in Mary
Come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries,
Subdue every hostile power
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father.
Amen.
Let us pray that like Our Lady, we will come to know the heart of Christ in a special way through the intimate time spent with him in prayer and contemplation and through the mysteries of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Let us also ask the Holy Spirit to come upon us and form us into His very likeness, that we can always be living temples and witnesses of God's love.
Many saints have devoted their entire lives to her honor, seeking to better understand the mysterious graces granted to this little girl who gave her total "fiat" to the angel Gabriel and became the Mother of Christ through the Holy Spirit. St. Louis de Montfort, perhaps one of the better known, wrote many beautiful things in his small book "True Devotion to Mary."
(If you would like to read it, the entire work in available online, here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm)
St. Alphonsus Ligouri also had a great love for Our Lady and wrote "The Glories of Mary" (which I have not yet read, but intend to): http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm.
You of course have the many saints who were blessed to actually see Our Lady, such as St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France, St. Juan Diego in Guadalupe, Mexico, and Venerable Sr. Maria Lucia and Bls Francisco and Jacinta Marto in Fatima, Portugal.
I do not have the time to list here any form of proper record of the early Church Fathers and their love for Our Lady, but St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Irenaeus, and many others wrote beautiful and profound things concerning her privileges and the honors given to her by God. Here's a short summary page from Dr. Mark Miravalle: http://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/heart_mary/mary_early_church_miravalle.htm
Surely we cannot ignore the beautiful documents of Church history given by our Magisterium in regards to the Blessed Mother, most recently in the document of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium. A brief overview of the Doctrines on Mary can be found here: http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marya1.htm
Therefore, the point is that my reflections are more from personal love of my Mother than they are meant to be in the form of teaching.
First, I would like to list the Ten Virtues of Mary as explained by St. Louis de Montfort in True Devotion. (In alphabetical order for easy memorizing, they go as follows:)
Angelic Sweetness
Ardent Charity
Blind Obedience
Constant Mental Prayer
Divine Purity
Divine Wisdom
Heroic Patience
Lively Faith
Profound Humility
Universal Mortification
These virtues are wonderful topics of meditation and contemplation in our journey to holiness, and how we might better come to know the Heart of Christ through the Heart of His Mother.
Other aspects of honor for Our Lady include the many titles that have been attributed to her throughout Church history, especially considering her typifying of the Church as Bride of Christ and the many analogies drawn of her as New Eve, spiritual Mother of us all, the Body of Christ even as the Church is Body, etc...
One of my favorite titles within the Tradition is "Ark of the Covenant."
St. Louis de Montfort uses this title in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin in his preparation for Total Consecration to the Immaculate Heart.
To really consider this title properly, we must reach back into the Old Testament and seek to understand how the Ark of the Covenant was understood. We do not have time for much exegesis here, but suffice it to say that the Ark was the visible sign among the Israelite people of God's presence with them, the Holy place where the Glory of the Lord dwelled.
The Ark therefore is a sign and symbol as well as a reality. In some ways one can see the Ark as a prefigurement for the Church, for the Tabernacle where God will remain with us, in Christ's very Flesh. Likewise, the analogy is not hard to understand in light of the Mother of Jesus. She who bears Christ within herself, within her womb, is much like the Ark of the Old Testament. Within her is the Glory of God, is God Himself. She bears Him to the world, carrying Him within her holy temple. The language of the human body as a temple is not a stretch for Biblical theology as St. Paul reminds us: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Therefore, if the body is a place where the Holy Spirit dwells with us, and likewise the same place where we meet God in the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, certainly it can be said that the Mother of Jesus was the temple within which He dwelt for nine months! Moreover, as the Holy Spirit "came upon" Mary when she conceived Jesus, He remains with her, and she is Spouse of the Spirit in a unique way. So as we all are temples of the Holy Spirit, in an honored fashion, Mary is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
I could go on, but there is much to think about in those short thoughts.
I want to end with a prayer from the Preparation for Total Consecration which St. Louis de Montfort includes. I cannot help but think of Our Mother's title as "Ark of the Covenant" whenever I read this:
O, Jesus Living in Mary
Come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries,
Subdue every hostile power
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father.
Amen.
Let us pray that like Our Lady, we will come to know the heart of Christ in a special way through the intimate time spent with him in prayer and contemplation and through the mysteries of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Let us also ask the Holy Spirit to come upon us and form us into His very likeness, that we can always be living temples and witnesses of God's love.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Beauty
Hmm. There it is. There he is. There she is.
You can't really help yourself, you must keep looking.
You understand what it means to be held captive, to be riveted, to be spellbound.
The colors, the movements, the shape, the lines, the sound, the fabric, the many facets that are remarkable to your senses - they all collide and converge to trap you, right there, as you are, and you are helpless to be free.
Moreover, you have no desire to be free. No, you are a happy and willing captive, for the conquerer is living within your own heart.
This, my friends, is what I believe we experience when we encounter the beautiful.
Please, allow me to preface with the usual form of disclaimer: I am NOT Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Karol Wojtyla or any other person of consequence who has something to say about beauty.
That being said, I do have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, fingers, and a heart, and I do live in this world.
That does not make me an expert, but it does give me all the cause in the world to speak of the beautiful, for it is all around us and taken up in the world.
Some questions, pehaps, ought to be considered.
What is beauty?
What is "objectively beautiful"?
Is there such a thing?
Is beauty truly in the "eye of the beholder," or is there something more to this idea?
Is beauty simply an idea, or is it some type of reality?
Now, to be fair, I don't think these questions can be fully treated on this blog. However, I want them to be present in your mind when we speak of "beauty" because I believe the answers to be fundamental to our understanding of this concept and this reality.
To begin with, I would say that there is indeed an objective beauty, or at least an objective way to define what is beautiful. I mean "objective" here as "true" or "inherent" or "real." I would also say that our individual affinities and what we find familiar certainly do affect what is beautiful to each person, so that there is of course the subjective sense of beauty as well. However, I would also argue that overall, the objective truth of something beautiful is prior to, or has priority over, what is found subjectively beautiful. And I believe beauty is both an idea and a reality. This is because, above all else, beauty is personal. As something which is both an idea and a reality, beauty is something that we encounter. It is both the tangible reality which we see or feel or know in some way through our senses and the draw and desire that takes hold within us and makes its home in our mind and heart.
Consider something that you do find beautiful, whether it be a seashell or a woman or a symphony, etc... What is it that moves you? That captures you? Do you walk over to the orchestra and say, "you are beautiful!" before they have begun to play? Or is it rather that once the music reaches you and you enounter the movements, then you know it to be beautiful. To say that something like an idea is personal is to personify it in some sense. It is different than the personification of a spoon or some inanimate object, because this personality is more specific to the relation it has with you.
Perhaps I am drawn more to dark hair and you to light hair, as far as what we find beautiful or attractive. Both can be said to be good. Yet one reaches into my heart in a different way than it does to yours. What is important is that both of us can be aware that there is something outside of us or beyond us that is drawing us to it. What is also important is that we recognize that although our responses to this object are different based on the subjective desires we have, the goodness of the thing itself is the starting point and presence of the beauty that is inherent in the object.
It is vital that what is beautiful is good, because what is beautiful is something that displays "what it is meant to be," and fulfills to some extent the goodness that was always present within it. For example, let us take a table. I have a little side table in the living room which was made rather simply, out of something close to cardstock, and because it was made without real wood, it has little appeal as something of beauty. However, I also have a little side table in my bedroom, and this table is made out of wood. You can see the pattern of the wood throughout the table, and it has been stained so that there is a rich color to it. Both of these tables serve the same purpose. Yet one seems to "be" more of what a side table "ought to be," while the other seems to display little value in the sense of fulfilling its potential.
Another example could be when something is old or broken. When placed next to a new version, the object will typically show how limited it is in revealing what it was meant to be, and the fullness of its particular potential. Now, this must be qualified both in terms of what attracts an individual and in terms of what we mean by potential. For example, I may have a strong affinity for old and comfortable things, and find them most comforting and desirable when they are worn in and remind me of home. Therefore, an old couch might actually seemt to fulfill its "goodness" to me over and above a new one, because a couch is meant to be sat on and used. Yet, another could argue that the new couch is beautiful while the old one is threadbare and ugly.
So we cannot outright define something as "beautiful" simply if it is the "best it can be," but of course we can understand how there is some truth in the point.
We also need to consider what attraction or affinity mean. To be drawn to something means to recognize a good that we believe would be good for us, such as something that would make us happy, improve us, or be helpful. However, the highest attraction to things is when we can see the good in them for themselves, or of themselves, rather than something for us. In this case, we want to be with it or in it or participate with it - not only because it will make us happy (although that will probably be a nice side-effect), but simply because it is a good in and of itself. For instance, when the sunlight shines into a room and we can see all the dust particles in the air. Children will often try to catch them or at least stand in the sun to be part of this "magical" phenomenon. This is not because the child thinks that they are going to be able to hold onto the particles or that this experience is going to make them happier or better... it is simply because they see what they understand as good and beautiful and they want to be part of it.
Again, consider a beautiful scene, perhaps a sandy isolated beach or a far reaching field at the base of a mountain. These are typically things that stir in us a desire to participate. We don't want to put the sand in a bottle and think that we've taken what is beautiful for ourselves. We want to lay in it. We want to dig our toes in and feel the warm sand on top and the cooler sand below. We want to lay in that field and smell the flowers and hear the bees and feel the tickle of the tall grass. We want to accept the beauty around us into our hearts and into our memories. Certainly, we may want to try to take a souvenir with us, but we understand that to be a tangible memory of a beautiful experience, or the experience of the beautiful, rather than the containment of the beauty itself.
So we are dealing with a concept that requires our physical presence and the presence of something else which draws us, but also with the reality of things which in and of themselves are good, and possess a truth and therefore a beauty which we desire to be a part of and to know in more depth. This is ultimately the beauty we encounter in other people. When we come to know and love our family, friends and spouses, it is because we have first seen or experienced some amount of the beauty proper to the person, and have therefore been drawn more deeply into knowing the truth of their personal goodness. It is very hard to be a friend to someone who you cannot find this experience of the good in. It is hard not to be a friend to someone whose beauty profoundly moves you.
There is so much more to say about this, so perhaps I will attempt a bit of a series on the concept. For now, let us consider what it means to encounter the beauty of God. Is the love of our parents something we know as beautiful? What about the common prayer of the Church? Perhaps the family in their community? Are we left dumbstruck by the Eucharist? Do we sense the sacramentality of the world around us in its very nature as beautiful? Even driving through a busy city where there is far more concrete than there is grass, am I not still caught up in gratitude and longing when I see a sunset or a storm roll in? What does it even mean for man to yearn to be with the beautiful?
Let us consider St. Augustine's beautiful quote:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
You can't really help yourself, you must keep looking.
You understand what it means to be held captive, to be riveted, to be spellbound.
The colors, the movements, the shape, the lines, the sound, the fabric, the many facets that are remarkable to your senses - they all collide and converge to trap you, right there, as you are, and you are helpless to be free.
Moreover, you have no desire to be free. No, you are a happy and willing captive, for the conquerer is living within your own heart.
This, my friends, is what I believe we experience when we encounter the beautiful.
Please, allow me to preface with the usual form of disclaimer: I am NOT Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Karol Wojtyla or any other person of consequence who has something to say about beauty.
That being said, I do have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, fingers, and a heart, and I do live in this world.
That does not make me an expert, but it does give me all the cause in the world to speak of the beautiful, for it is all around us and taken up in the world.
Some questions, pehaps, ought to be considered.
What is beauty?
What is "objectively beautiful"?
Is there such a thing?
Is beauty truly in the "eye of the beholder," or is there something more to this idea?
Is beauty simply an idea, or is it some type of reality?
Now, to be fair, I don't think these questions can be fully treated on this blog. However, I want them to be present in your mind when we speak of "beauty" because I believe the answers to be fundamental to our understanding of this concept and this reality.
To begin with, I would say that there is indeed an objective beauty, or at least an objective way to define what is beautiful. I mean "objective" here as "true" or "inherent" or "real." I would also say that our individual affinities and what we find familiar certainly do affect what is beautiful to each person, so that there is of course the subjective sense of beauty as well. However, I would also argue that overall, the objective truth of something beautiful is prior to, or has priority over, what is found subjectively beautiful. And I believe beauty is both an idea and a reality. This is because, above all else, beauty is personal. As something which is both an idea and a reality, beauty is something that we encounter. It is both the tangible reality which we see or feel or know in some way through our senses and the draw and desire that takes hold within us and makes its home in our mind and heart.
Consider something that you do find beautiful, whether it be a seashell or a woman or a symphony, etc... What is it that moves you? That captures you? Do you walk over to the orchestra and say, "you are beautiful!" before they have begun to play? Or is it rather that once the music reaches you and you enounter the movements, then you know it to be beautiful. To say that something like an idea is personal is to personify it in some sense. It is different than the personification of a spoon or some inanimate object, because this personality is more specific to the relation it has with you.
Perhaps I am drawn more to dark hair and you to light hair, as far as what we find beautiful or attractive. Both can be said to be good. Yet one reaches into my heart in a different way than it does to yours. What is important is that both of us can be aware that there is something outside of us or beyond us that is drawing us to it. What is also important is that we recognize that although our responses to this object are different based on the subjective desires we have, the goodness of the thing itself is the starting point and presence of the beauty that is inherent in the object.
It is vital that what is beautiful is good, because what is beautiful is something that displays "what it is meant to be," and fulfills to some extent the goodness that was always present within it. For example, let us take a table. I have a little side table in the living room which was made rather simply, out of something close to cardstock, and because it was made without real wood, it has little appeal as something of beauty. However, I also have a little side table in my bedroom, and this table is made out of wood. You can see the pattern of the wood throughout the table, and it has been stained so that there is a rich color to it. Both of these tables serve the same purpose. Yet one seems to "be" more of what a side table "ought to be," while the other seems to display little value in the sense of fulfilling its potential.
Another example could be when something is old or broken. When placed next to a new version, the object will typically show how limited it is in revealing what it was meant to be, and the fullness of its particular potential. Now, this must be qualified both in terms of what attracts an individual and in terms of what we mean by potential. For example, I may have a strong affinity for old and comfortable things, and find them most comforting and desirable when they are worn in and remind me of home. Therefore, an old couch might actually seemt to fulfill its "goodness" to me over and above a new one, because a couch is meant to be sat on and used. Yet, another could argue that the new couch is beautiful while the old one is threadbare and ugly.
So we cannot outright define something as "beautiful" simply if it is the "best it can be," but of course we can understand how there is some truth in the point.
We also need to consider what attraction or affinity mean. To be drawn to something means to recognize a good that we believe would be good for us, such as something that would make us happy, improve us, or be helpful. However, the highest attraction to things is when we can see the good in them for themselves, or of themselves, rather than something for us. In this case, we want to be with it or in it or participate with it - not only because it will make us happy (although that will probably be a nice side-effect), but simply because it is a good in and of itself. For instance, when the sunlight shines into a room and we can see all the dust particles in the air. Children will often try to catch them or at least stand in the sun to be part of this "magical" phenomenon. This is not because the child thinks that they are going to be able to hold onto the particles or that this experience is going to make them happier or better... it is simply because they see what they understand as good and beautiful and they want to be part of it.
Again, consider a beautiful scene, perhaps a sandy isolated beach or a far reaching field at the base of a mountain. These are typically things that stir in us a desire to participate. We don't want to put the sand in a bottle and think that we've taken what is beautiful for ourselves. We want to lay in it. We want to dig our toes in and feel the warm sand on top and the cooler sand below. We want to lay in that field and smell the flowers and hear the bees and feel the tickle of the tall grass. We want to accept the beauty around us into our hearts and into our memories. Certainly, we may want to try to take a souvenir with us, but we understand that to be a tangible memory of a beautiful experience, or the experience of the beautiful, rather than the containment of the beauty itself.
So we are dealing with a concept that requires our physical presence and the presence of something else which draws us, but also with the reality of things which in and of themselves are good, and possess a truth and therefore a beauty which we desire to be a part of and to know in more depth. This is ultimately the beauty we encounter in other people. When we come to know and love our family, friends and spouses, it is because we have first seen or experienced some amount of the beauty proper to the person, and have therefore been drawn more deeply into knowing the truth of their personal goodness. It is very hard to be a friend to someone who you cannot find this experience of the good in. It is hard not to be a friend to someone whose beauty profoundly moves you.
There is so much more to say about this, so perhaps I will attempt a bit of a series on the concept. For now, let us consider what it means to encounter the beauty of God. Is the love of our parents something we know as beautiful? What about the common prayer of the Church? Perhaps the family in their community? Are we left dumbstruck by the Eucharist? Do we sense the sacramentality of the world around us in its very nature as beautiful? Even driving through a busy city where there is far more concrete than there is grass, am I not still caught up in gratitude and longing when I see a sunset or a storm roll in? What does it even mean for man to yearn to be with the beautiful?
Let us consider St. Augustine's beautiful quote:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Let Us Pray
I am such a fan of many prayers, and some are listed on this blog.
I came across this novena and couldn't help but share it! Our Lady of Czestochowa is a wonderful intercessor and a beautiful image of the love and suffering of Our Lady which we should all share in.
http://maryshelper.tripod.com/ourladyofczestochowanovena/
Sweetest Mother, draw us ever closer to your Son, who is Perfect Love. Amen.
I came across this novena and couldn't help but share it! Our Lady of Czestochowa is a wonderful intercessor and a beautiful image of the love and suffering of Our Lady which we should all share in.
Sweetest Mother, draw us ever closer to your Son, who is Perfect Love. Amen.
He is Faithful
If we only knew the gift it was to be made from dust! What joy it is, to receive everything as gift! We have only but to accept, to say "yes", to be thankful, and we are caught up in mercy, love and peace. Our joy should never be stemmed, for we have deserved nothing and have been given everything; no, we have deserved death and have been given life.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Poetic Last Days, January
I deeply apologize that "Poetic Last Days" was skipped in the month of December, and that January's is a day late.
I have to admit, this has a melody to it (aka, it's more song lyrics than a poem), but since you are not able to hear the music, I hope the reading of it will still convey some of the feeling behind the idea. Happy February everyone!
Undone
And yet
More than ever
Alive
Broken
But finding
New life
Arising
Lost
And alone
Unsure where
To go
Lifting
Hands
Waiting for
Something
Someone
To stand
And hold
Me
Ready
To take
The leap
Unafraid
Stir up in us
Lord the fire
To blaze when all is dark
Stir up in us
Lord the joy
To sing when we are lost
Stir up in us
Lord the hope
To never be afraid
Stir up in us
Lord the faith
And we shall be saved
By your hands
By your mercy
By your grace
By your love
Falling in this place
Filling up this place
Moving in this place
Taking all the space
With you
Ready
For new
Trials
Coming
No doubt
Climbs
Uphill
Are coming
Strengthen
Drooping hands
And weak
Knees
Shake off
Bonds
Of lies
And sin
Break down
Walls
Deep
Within
Open doors
Let in
Light
Anew
Flood within us Lord
Your mercy
Take us up into
Your glory
We'll carry the world
With us
Into your peace
Stir up in us
Lord the fire
To blaze when all is dark
Stir up in us
Lord the joy
To sing when we are lost
Stir up in us
Lord the hope
To never be afraid
Stir up in us
Lord the faith
And we shall be saved
By your hands
By your mercy
By your grace
By your love
Falling in this place
Filling up this place
Moving in this place
Taking all the space
With you
What else
Can we owe
Than life
Unhindered
Given over
Unto
Your
Wonder
Surrendered
And free
We
Come
Unto Thee
I have to admit, this has a melody to it (aka, it's more song lyrics than a poem), but since you are not able to hear the music, I hope the reading of it will still convey some of the feeling behind the idea. Happy February everyone!
Undone
And yet
More than ever
Alive
Broken
But finding
New life
Arising
Lost
And alone
Unsure where
To go
Lifting
Hands
Waiting for
Something
Someone
To stand
And hold
Me
Ready
To take
The leap
Unafraid
Stir up in us
Lord the fire
To blaze when all is dark
Stir up in us
Lord the joy
To sing when we are lost
Stir up in us
Lord the hope
To never be afraid
Stir up in us
Lord the faith
And we shall be saved
By your hands
By your mercy
By your grace
By your love
Falling in this place
Filling up this place
Moving in this place
Taking all the space
With you
Ready
For new
Trials
Coming
No doubt
Climbs
Uphill
Are coming
Strengthen
Drooping hands
And weak
Knees
Shake off
Bonds
Of lies
And sin
Break down
Walls
Deep
Within
Open doors
Let in
Light
Anew
Flood within us Lord
Your mercy
Take us up into
Your glory
We'll carry the world
With us
Into your peace
Stir up in us
Lord the fire
To blaze when all is dark
Stir up in us
Lord the joy
To sing when we are lost
Stir up in us
Lord the hope
To never be afraid
Stir up in us
Lord the faith
And we shall be saved
By your hands
By your mercy
By your grace
By your love
Falling in this place
Filling up this place
Moving in this place
Taking all the space
With you
What else
Can we owe
Than life
Unhindered
Given over
Unto
Your
Wonder
Surrendered
And free
We
Come
Unto Thee
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I'm a Survivor
So maybe Destiny's Child is a little corny, but you'll have to humor me here.
The song "I'm a Survivor" came into my head today, and it certainly lifted my spirits. If you have been feeling in any way exhausted, used, abused, abandoned, worn out, ignored, unappreciated, etc... you may want to think about what it means to say you will survive, that you will fight, that you will work harder.
My friends, life is a struggle. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has been hidden away with fairies or something. But I would argue that the reason I acknowledge it as such is probably not the same reason that is generally considered. Not to cut out the obvious fact of the struggle to survive and all of its sharp teeth, but more importantly it is the struggle to be whole, to be pure, to be good, that is the true task at hand.
There is much to consider about these terms, even just about the ideals. To be good, what is that?
Aristotle would tell us that as humans, we naturally seek the good that we see for ourselves. St. Thomas Aquinas would add that this natural good is our ultimate fulfillment in God, who is our source and end. Many various wise people (who I am not at liberty to cite here, being that my memory is not so strong) have expounded on these points and discussed (at ridiculously great lengths) what it means for man to desire his good, and how man can know what his good is, and if there is a universal good for all men or if each person's good is specific to his own being.
Today is not the day for philosophy (we started with Destiny's Child) so I will skip over those many arguments and discussions. Those are certainly questions worth mulling over, so take time to consider them. The Church would tell us that our purpose in existing is to "know love and serve" God (timeout to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1: "God, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life...God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life"). So if our end is to know our Creator, that means a lot about our everyday. The beautiful thing here (though there are many) is that our Creator (whom we are to come to know) is a loving one. He certainly is beyond and above our littleness, and yet he stooped to come amoung us and rescue us from our brokenness. Not only that, but he left us with a rather useful and sound map and compass (the Church) to lead us ever-more away from the brokenness and into his marvelous light.
So our good is to be fulfilled, to become who and what we were meant to be, to discover the glory that dwells within ourselves that we may have been unaware of. For us to pursue this, we need the tools given to us by the Church. We need the Sacraments. We need Baptism to irradicate the stain of original sin from our souls. We need the Eucharist to purify and sustain us, to transform us, that we would be made "holy by the power of your Spirit" and that our humanity may paritcipate in the glory of the Word made flesh. We need Confirmation, that our lives will be under the counsel and love and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need daily prayer and communal prayer to lift us up beyond the darkness of this world. We need Confession that we can be healed of our many sins and discover the mercy and grace that God so abundantly lavishes on his children when they ask.
To learn habits of good, to develop virtues in place of vice - this is the ever-present task. Every action and thought and word we participate in will lead us further down the path of wholeness or further down the path of division. We are either fulfilling some potential for good in us or rejecting some potential for good in us. Certainly there are many things which in and of themselves are rather neutral (picking up the phone, eating an apple, smelling some cookies, going to the bathroom...) but when one begins to really examine this life, everything truly does take on some level of meaning in the greater picture. The battle is a life-long struggle. Every smaller battle trains us and strengthens us so that the greater challenges are not impossible to face. If I eat my apple and I'm enjoying it and I am grateful for its existence and then for its new existence in my stomach, I am certainly appreciating the gifts of one who loves me (God) and I am a happier person because I have received that which I did not deserve. Meanwhile, if I am eating out of functionality, or even bitterness because I would rather eat a cookie but I'm dieting, I am not finding praise or worship or gratitude in my heart but self-righteousness and maybe pride. Now certainly we can't go crazy being scrupulous about every little detail, but the idea is important because it does imply that we acknowledge God as Lord of our entire lives and our whole selves and not just a God who we visit on Sundays or think of occassionally.
For our persons to every be united as we are meant to be, to really understand our souls and bodies as a whole, as the true one being that each individual is, than we need to recognize both the divisive effects of sin on our lives and the unitive effects of virtue and grace on our lives. They stand in stark contrast...to discover oneself in an even deeper way it is required that we live (to our best ability, which can be very great with the aid of grace) in harmony with God's laws, and the natural law, which is given by God. We must understand that we are more free and more able to be who we are called to be when we not only obey the laws given to us but love them. They bring peace. They stir up a sense of self that is profound. They allow us to know our hearts, to see our inner selves, and yet to love and respect our bodies and how all of our person is intrinsically and intimately united. Just in the same way, every sin taps a wedge into the bedrock of our person. Every sin, whether purposeful or omission, leads us out of love and into darkness. Every minute spent thinking over the offenses of another is a minute not spent loving in this world. Where we might have forgiven and found healing, we are wasting ourselves on bitterness or malice. There are so many things that can lead to our bedrock breaking into pieces!
Sexual sins, or sins with our bodies, are perhaps the most dangerous. If we are willing to treat our very selves as a tool or function for accomplishing some good feeling or "act of freedom" or proof of our self-control or self-possession, what we are truly doing is proving how lost and blind we have become. No one who loves himself would harm himself. No one who is proud (in the good sense) would abuse himself. No one should seek what they think is "good" when it isn't good for them! But how often we are subject to that! How often we think that if we can only impress some person, we will have a better life. And so we wear things we would not normally wear, or say things we would not normally say. Or how often do we believe that the person we are is simply not good enough for whatever we secretly yearn for in the depths of our hearts, and so we settle for far lesser dreams and far more tragic treatment because we have forgotten who we are and who we were made to be. Just for the record, God never ceases to call us to be the beautiful and resplendent children he has made us. Never. We can spit in his face and the next moment he is still holding his arms out. Certainly it takes time and great effort (and most of all, real humility) for us to be reconciled if we have developed habits of sin that control our lives, but we are never outside of his mercy and love. Never!
St. Claude de Colombiere wrote this most beautiful prayer:
"Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others.
Other people will glofiry You by making visible the power of Your grace by their fidelity and constancy to You.
For my part I will glorify You by making known how good You are to sinners,
that Your mercy is boundless and that no sinner no matter how great his offences should have reason to despair of pardon.
If I have grieviously offended You, My Redeemer, let me not offend You even more by thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon Me.
Amen."
That is something to chew on.
So this is our hope and our task - to desire the good (which is our being-in-love with the One who has first loved us!!!) and to pursue it with all of our selves, even in the tiniest of ways, every day, come what may. If we can strive to avoid sin, and beg for the grace to avoid it even more, and beg for the grace to be sorry when we do sin and for the grace to recognize the things which lead us to sin or our inclinations to sin, we will slowly begin to weed out those things that so deeply wound us and allow ourselves to begin the weight lifting and strength training that we need for this war!
(If you would like to read more on the Church's teaching on the beauty and truth of the gift man has been given in sexual love and its right-ordering, I highly suggest reading Humanae Vitae http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html and The Theology of the Body http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tbind.htm.)
Say it with me now,
"I'm a survivor
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop
I'm gonna work harder..."
Yeah... :)
The song "I'm a Survivor" came into my head today, and it certainly lifted my spirits. If you have been feeling in any way exhausted, used, abused, abandoned, worn out, ignored, unappreciated, etc... you may want to think about what it means to say you will survive, that you will fight, that you will work harder.
My friends, life is a struggle. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has been hidden away with fairies or something. But I would argue that the reason I acknowledge it as such is probably not the same reason that is generally considered. Not to cut out the obvious fact of the struggle to survive and all of its sharp teeth, but more importantly it is the struggle to be whole, to be pure, to be good, that is the true task at hand.
There is much to consider about these terms, even just about the ideals. To be good, what is that?
Aristotle would tell us that as humans, we naturally seek the good that we see for ourselves. St. Thomas Aquinas would add that this natural good is our ultimate fulfillment in God, who is our source and end. Many various wise people (who I am not at liberty to cite here, being that my memory is not so strong) have expounded on these points and discussed (at ridiculously great lengths) what it means for man to desire his good, and how man can know what his good is, and if there is a universal good for all men or if each person's good is specific to his own being.
Today is not the day for philosophy (we started with Destiny's Child) so I will skip over those many arguments and discussions. Those are certainly questions worth mulling over, so take time to consider them. The Church would tell us that our purpose in existing is to "know love and serve" God (timeout to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1: "God, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life...God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life"). So if our end is to know our Creator, that means a lot about our everyday. The beautiful thing here (though there are many) is that our Creator (whom we are to come to know) is a loving one. He certainly is beyond and above our littleness, and yet he stooped to come amoung us and rescue us from our brokenness. Not only that, but he left us with a rather useful and sound map and compass (the Church) to lead us ever-more away from the brokenness and into his marvelous light.
So our good is to be fulfilled, to become who and what we were meant to be, to discover the glory that dwells within ourselves that we may have been unaware of. For us to pursue this, we need the tools given to us by the Church. We need the Sacraments. We need Baptism to irradicate the stain of original sin from our souls. We need the Eucharist to purify and sustain us, to transform us, that we would be made "holy by the power of your Spirit" and that our humanity may paritcipate in the glory of the Word made flesh. We need Confirmation, that our lives will be under the counsel and love and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need daily prayer and communal prayer to lift us up beyond the darkness of this world. We need Confession that we can be healed of our many sins and discover the mercy and grace that God so abundantly lavishes on his children when they ask.
To learn habits of good, to develop virtues in place of vice - this is the ever-present task. Every action and thought and word we participate in will lead us further down the path of wholeness or further down the path of division. We are either fulfilling some potential for good in us or rejecting some potential for good in us. Certainly there are many things which in and of themselves are rather neutral (picking up the phone, eating an apple, smelling some cookies, going to the bathroom...) but when one begins to really examine this life, everything truly does take on some level of meaning in the greater picture. The battle is a life-long struggle. Every smaller battle trains us and strengthens us so that the greater challenges are not impossible to face. If I eat my apple and I'm enjoying it and I am grateful for its existence and then for its new existence in my stomach, I am certainly appreciating the gifts of one who loves me (God) and I am a happier person because I have received that which I did not deserve. Meanwhile, if I am eating out of functionality, or even bitterness because I would rather eat a cookie but I'm dieting, I am not finding praise or worship or gratitude in my heart but self-righteousness and maybe pride. Now certainly we can't go crazy being scrupulous about every little detail, but the idea is important because it does imply that we acknowledge God as Lord of our entire lives and our whole selves and not just a God who we visit on Sundays or think of occassionally.
For our persons to every be united as we are meant to be, to really understand our souls and bodies as a whole, as the true one being that each individual is, than we need to recognize both the divisive effects of sin on our lives and the unitive effects of virtue and grace on our lives. They stand in stark contrast...to discover oneself in an even deeper way it is required that we live (to our best ability, which can be very great with the aid of grace) in harmony with God's laws, and the natural law, which is given by God. We must understand that we are more free and more able to be who we are called to be when we not only obey the laws given to us but love them. They bring peace. They stir up a sense of self that is profound. They allow us to know our hearts, to see our inner selves, and yet to love and respect our bodies and how all of our person is intrinsically and intimately united. Just in the same way, every sin taps a wedge into the bedrock of our person. Every sin, whether purposeful or omission, leads us out of love and into darkness. Every minute spent thinking over the offenses of another is a minute not spent loving in this world. Where we might have forgiven and found healing, we are wasting ourselves on bitterness or malice. There are so many things that can lead to our bedrock breaking into pieces!
Sexual sins, or sins with our bodies, are perhaps the most dangerous. If we are willing to treat our very selves as a tool or function for accomplishing some good feeling or "act of freedom" or proof of our self-control or self-possession, what we are truly doing is proving how lost and blind we have become. No one who loves himself would harm himself. No one who is proud (in the good sense) would abuse himself. No one should seek what they think is "good" when it isn't good for them! But how often we are subject to that! How often we think that if we can only impress some person, we will have a better life. And so we wear things we would not normally wear, or say things we would not normally say. Or how often do we believe that the person we are is simply not good enough for whatever we secretly yearn for in the depths of our hearts, and so we settle for far lesser dreams and far more tragic treatment because we have forgotten who we are and who we were made to be. Just for the record, God never ceases to call us to be the beautiful and resplendent children he has made us. Never. We can spit in his face and the next moment he is still holding his arms out. Certainly it takes time and great effort (and most of all, real humility) for us to be reconciled if we have developed habits of sin that control our lives, but we are never outside of his mercy and love. Never!
St. Claude de Colombiere wrote this most beautiful prayer:
"Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others.
Other people will glofiry You by making visible the power of Your grace by their fidelity and constancy to You.
For my part I will glorify You by making known how good You are to sinners,
that Your mercy is boundless and that no sinner no matter how great his offences should have reason to despair of pardon.
If I have grieviously offended You, My Redeemer, let me not offend You even more by thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon Me.
Amen."
That is something to chew on.
So this is our hope and our task - to desire the good (which is our being-in-love with the One who has first loved us!!!) and to pursue it with all of our selves, even in the tiniest of ways, every day, come what may. If we can strive to avoid sin, and beg for the grace to avoid it even more, and beg for the grace to be sorry when we do sin and for the grace to recognize the things which lead us to sin or our inclinations to sin, we will slowly begin to weed out those things that so deeply wound us and allow ourselves to begin the weight lifting and strength training that we need for this war!
(If you would like to read more on the Church's teaching on the beauty and truth of the gift man has been given in sexual love and its right-ordering, I highly suggest reading Humanae Vitae http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html and The Theology of the Body http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tbind.htm.)
Say it with me now,
"I'm a survivor
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gon' stop
I'm gonna work harder..."
Yeah... :)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Mercy.
Too many thoughts have been dancing through (and colliding within) my mind, and at this point its fair to say the pinball machine is ready to break down.
My friends, mercy. Mercy, mercy, mercy! Divine mercy, real mercy, living and generous, form-taking mercy. Mercy alive and breathing. Mercy as a child. Mercy as a man. Mercy on a cross. Mercy as King.
I was reflecting on what true charity is. On the mountain that we all have to ascend to reach that unbelievable challenge uttered by Christ, "Be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect." That journey is uphill. That journey is full of sharp rocks and steep ascents. That journey is also filled with beautiful landscapes and invigorating experiences! Oh! The colors. The breaths of air that seem to have been saved for your lungs alone. The intoxicating scents of mountain air that teach you about a way of living that our little world has forgotten. You pant for more. Nothing ever tastes as sweet again. You are lost to it. These are woods you will happily wander into, map left behind, rejoicing at the idea of being lost. This is a trail your feet know without being told. This is a way that is clearly marked, simply by the desire in your heart. Follow the love inside of you! Run when you cannot bear to walk, and you will gain ground. Sing when you are stirred within, laugh at everything. Smile because it is too ridiculous not to.
Do not allow yourself to get over it. Never get over it. There is never room enough in you to exhaust all that you can take it! There will always be more beauties, more glories! Hans Urs von Balthasar says that glory is the fullness of beauty revealed. That means that glory is what you experience when your heart is too captivated to do anything else but adore what you have been captured by. And the mountain, the ascent to charity... it captivates. Not only the mountain, but the journey itself. Every step! Every breath. Every stone that digs into our feet. Every inch of dirt we move through. Every drop of rain or dancing stream or fierce wind or starry night or great oak. Not just these things in and of themselves, but our participation in them. Our encounter with them. Our harmonies to their symphonies. It is the moments of "them being" and "us coming to them" and "together, it being better." And forgive me for all the mountain imagery because this is just as applicable to the eyes of one meeting the eyes of another, or a still moment shared between old friends, or the explosion of a family reunited with one another (at least, that's the caliber of sound when my family is together), or the smile of teammates when the goal has been accomplished or the pride in a professor's eyes at the student who has excelled. All of this is what is part of our climb into the heights and depths of charity.
Today at mass the priest said, "Humility is not putting yourself down or thinking less of yourself, it is simply the truth." This is the epitome of true charity - mercy. The truth is our littleness, and the truth is also God's benevolence. The truth is our pitiful infidelity and the truth is his UNFAILING CONSTANCY. He is always there. Always. Never leaves us. Never gives up. Never ceases to love. Gosh! Do we have ANY idea of what the words "never" and "always" really mean? How could we? Look at our society, at our culture, at our world! Everything is so quick, so instantaneous, and sadly, so inconsistent. If there is any quality that is most endearing and most healing to me in the merciful love of God it is certainly his perfection made manifest in his unstobbable and eternal and infinite and constant being. Never means, never. There is simply no time, no space and no place that you could be that he will not already be there and will not follow you to. Just waiting to pick you up again, waiting carry you back home. "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep" (Lk. 15:4-6). And this is Mercy.
Who among us can turn to our brother after he has insulted us and genuinely love him, forgive him, even get up and make him something to eat because he is hungry? Who among us wouldn't consider this complete foolishness!? He didn't even apologize! He might do it again! Will he learn nothing? Are we to be so poorly treated? Oh, but was this not exactly the life of our Lord? Is this not the entire love story of the Scriptures, of the Hebrew people and God, of the Bride (the Church) and the Bridegroom? When have we ever given him true cause to lavish the grace upon us that he does? The justification that we could never earn for ourselves has been generously supplied by the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. This is mercy. The truth is mercy. Humility is acknowledging the truth of the mercy of God.
Everything is mercy. The grace to have our hearts stirred by the beauty of the ascent to charity throughout our lives, even the sorrows and the darknesses and the freezing cold nights... that is mercy! The grace to see, that is mercy. Just to open our eyes is mercy; to have ears to hear, that too is mercy. He is embodied Mercy. Love made flesh is mercy. The Eucharist is Mercy.
My friends, mercy. Mercy, mercy, mercy! Divine mercy, real mercy, living and generous, form-taking mercy. Mercy alive and breathing. Mercy as a child. Mercy as a man. Mercy on a cross. Mercy as King.
I was reflecting on what true charity is. On the mountain that we all have to ascend to reach that unbelievable challenge uttered by Christ, "Be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect." That journey is uphill. That journey is full of sharp rocks and steep ascents. That journey is also filled with beautiful landscapes and invigorating experiences! Oh! The colors. The breaths of air that seem to have been saved for your lungs alone. The intoxicating scents of mountain air that teach you about a way of living that our little world has forgotten. You pant for more. Nothing ever tastes as sweet again. You are lost to it. These are woods you will happily wander into, map left behind, rejoicing at the idea of being lost. This is a trail your feet know without being told. This is a way that is clearly marked, simply by the desire in your heart. Follow the love inside of you! Run when you cannot bear to walk, and you will gain ground. Sing when you are stirred within, laugh at everything. Smile because it is too ridiculous not to.
Do not allow yourself to get over it. Never get over it. There is never room enough in you to exhaust all that you can take it! There will always be more beauties, more glories! Hans Urs von Balthasar says that glory is the fullness of beauty revealed. That means that glory is what you experience when your heart is too captivated to do anything else but adore what you have been captured by. And the mountain, the ascent to charity... it captivates. Not only the mountain, but the journey itself. Every step! Every breath. Every stone that digs into our feet. Every inch of dirt we move through. Every drop of rain or dancing stream or fierce wind or starry night or great oak. Not just these things in and of themselves, but our participation in them. Our encounter with them. Our harmonies to their symphonies. It is the moments of "them being" and "us coming to them" and "together, it being better." And forgive me for all the mountain imagery because this is just as applicable to the eyes of one meeting the eyes of another, or a still moment shared between old friends, or the explosion of a family reunited with one another (at least, that's the caliber of sound when my family is together), or the smile of teammates when the goal has been accomplished or the pride in a professor's eyes at the student who has excelled. All of this is what is part of our climb into the heights and depths of charity.
Today at mass the priest said, "Humility is not putting yourself down or thinking less of yourself, it is simply the truth." This is the epitome of true charity - mercy. The truth is our littleness, and the truth is also God's benevolence. The truth is our pitiful infidelity and the truth is his UNFAILING CONSTANCY. He is always there. Always. Never leaves us. Never gives up. Never ceases to love. Gosh! Do we have ANY idea of what the words "never" and "always" really mean? How could we? Look at our society, at our culture, at our world! Everything is so quick, so instantaneous, and sadly, so inconsistent. If there is any quality that is most endearing and most healing to me in the merciful love of God it is certainly his perfection made manifest in his unstobbable and eternal and infinite and constant being. Never means, never. There is simply no time, no space and no place that you could be that he will not already be there and will not follow you to. Just waiting to pick you up again, waiting carry you back home. "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep" (Lk. 15:4-6). And this is Mercy.
Who among us can turn to our brother after he has insulted us and genuinely love him, forgive him, even get up and make him something to eat because he is hungry? Who among us wouldn't consider this complete foolishness!? He didn't even apologize! He might do it again! Will he learn nothing? Are we to be so poorly treated? Oh, but was this not exactly the life of our Lord? Is this not the entire love story of the Scriptures, of the Hebrew people and God, of the Bride (the Church) and the Bridegroom? When have we ever given him true cause to lavish the grace upon us that he does? The justification that we could never earn for ourselves has been generously supplied by the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. This is mercy. The truth is mercy. Humility is acknowledging the truth of the mercy of God.
Everything is mercy. The grace to have our hearts stirred by the beauty of the ascent to charity throughout our lives, even the sorrows and the darknesses and the freezing cold nights... that is mercy! The grace to see, that is mercy. Just to open our eyes is mercy; to have ears to hear, that too is mercy. He is embodied Mercy. Love made flesh is mercy. The Eucharist is Mercy.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
This is a Great Mystery
I'm going to be honest here (not that I am ever not "pointedly honest" with this blog) -
this semester has been, without a doubt, my least productive. I have managed to work 20 hours nearly every week, write and present the "God's Vision of Love" talk series and organize and fundraise for a mission to Haiti this December... but despite my deep gratitude to the Lord for all of these good works, the truth is that I have certainly slacked on my actual school work, which really should be my priority.
So, my firm resolve is to dive back into my wonderfully nerdy self as soon as is physically possible (and that is probably not until Christmas break). Until then, seeing as how I am already behind in all of my reading, I might as well go ahead a write a blog post :)
I wanted to talk about touch.
Touch, I feel (haha), is one of the more neglected senses.
Certainly not in all areas of life, but I'm speaking in a universal way. Sight is often harped on, or spoken highly of, or at least observed, whether it is the way we look at some one, or the way we are perceived, or more obviously the things to be observed such as color and shape. Our ability to hear is possibly even more practiced (if your ipod isn't playing, music from the computer will be, let's not deny it.) Smell... well, ok, smell gets the shaft. Taste is certainly appreciated in our culture, I don't think that needs explanation (although many settle for tastes that are mediocre).
But touch.
Much of my thought is coming from all that has been discussed on this blog from the "Adequate Anthropology" series and the "God's Vision of Love" series, and those points are basically drawing on John Paul II's understanding of anthropology, of the human person. This anthropology is necessarily a theological one. You cannot have the gift without the giver.
But before Christ, the encounter with the Lord was very typically a spiritual one only. Of course, the prophets and those who were chosen to establish covenants with the Lord such as Abraham and David certainly encountered him while being in-body, or embodied, and so they heard him with their ears even if he was not physically before them (and I am not going to go further into that although there is much to be thought about). But with Christ came an entirely new revelation of God, and entirely new encounter...most importantly, an entirely new meeting place.
Christ is the place for encounter God, for seeing him face to face. And this is in a body, through a body. In the spiritual sense, this Body is the Church. In a physical sense, this Body is the Eucharist, given as the source and summit of the very life of the Church. But this Body was also a man who walked this earth for thirty-three years and spoke to people, was heard by people, was seen and was touched.
(Maybe you had forgotten I was writing about touch... I almost did.)
No, Christ brings this element of God's love to us in a new and dynamic way that we could not have comprehended before. The imagery of nuptiality that St. Paul uses to draw the analogy of God's love for man and the love between a husband and wife summarizes this. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word..." (Eph. 5:25-26, emphasis added). And, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord" (Eph. 5:22, emphasis added). He says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5:32).
Again, books have already been written on this mystery (many beautiful ones, by people much wiser and more learned than myself) and my point is not to enter into them here. Rather, I want us to reflect on the beauty and mystery of touch.
Touch is an encounter. It occurs at a place, on a body, that a person experiences. Whether it is a hand on your shoulder to encourage you before you face a crowd, or a quick hug to say goodbye, or a sure kiss from the one you love, touch says something, it signifies something. If nothing else, it is a more comforting promise of the meaning revealed in the touch, a deeper communication of what was meant to be made known. I can smile at you and you will understand my pleasure, but I can hug you and leave no doubt. The intensity behind our touch, positive as well as negative, communicates a level of our whole self that is embedded in the action.
To be perhaps less-than-tactful, if I have someone shake my hand at the sign of peace during mass who barely wraps their fingers around my hand and leaves enough space for all those germs that are inevitably jumping from my palm to theirs... well, let's be honest here, I don't feel like the touch they gave truly signified much wishing-of-peace to me. And I feel even less that someone wanted me to know the Lord's peace if I just get the head-nod of acknowledgement. Does this make the point? The firm grip of someone who says, "Peace be with you," or, "Christ's Peace," leaves me assured that they truly desire me to know that peace.
Perhaps a different analogy? When you meet someone you haven't seen for many months (or years) and embrace as if old friends, but you are given the "burp-the-baby" pat on the back rather than a friendly embrace... what is the encounter? One that communicates a less-than-comfortable knowledge of the other person. It says that there is not the same understanding that once existed. And if you were hugging someone you just met for the first time that day, you probably wouldn't be embracing them as you would a friend of five or ten years.
Interestingly enough, a point that is made by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, albeit indirectly, and also a point that is then taken up by John Paul II in The Theology of the Body, this time directly, is the way that condoms and contraception also make a drastic change to the communication behind a touch. In the most intimate of human touch, within the bond of sexual union, the communication of the full love and desire of both lovers for one another is necessary and apparent. Much like the "not-quite-peace" or the "not-sure-hug," contraception is the barrier between the two that signifies a "not-quite-total-love." Again, this is not the point of this post so we'll have to return to this later, but I wanted to make that analogy. Touch, what you say through it and signify with it, means something!
Christ comes to us in the Eucharist as his very body. He allows us to approach him and touch him and to receive him into us. I think it is fair to say that if the source and summit of our faith revolves around the body of God, touch matters.
We therefore have a responsibility as people of faith to consider more deeply the touch we give and receive, and to recognize what we mean and signify with our actions, in hopes that we will come to better reflect the "glory of God [that] is man fully alive" (St. Irenaeus).
this semester has been, without a doubt, my least productive. I have managed to work 20 hours nearly every week, write and present the "God's Vision of Love" talk series and organize and fundraise for a mission to Haiti this December... but despite my deep gratitude to the Lord for all of these good works, the truth is that I have certainly slacked on my actual school work, which really should be my priority.
So, my firm resolve is to dive back into my wonderfully nerdy self as soon as is physically possible (and that is probably not until Christmas break). Until then, seeing as how I am already behind in all of my reading, I might as well go ahead a write a blog post :)
I wanted to talk about touch.
Touch, I feel (haha), is one of the more neglected senses.
Certainly not in all areas of life, but I'm speaking in a universal way. Sight is often harped on, or spoken highly of, or at least observed, whether it is the way we look at some one, or the way we are perceived, or more obviously the things to be observed such as color and shape. Our ability to hear is possibly even more practiced (if your ipod isn't playing, music from the computer will be, let's not deny it.) Smell... well, ok, smell gets the shaft. Taste is certainly appreciated in our culture, I don't think that needs explanation (although many settle for tastes that are mediocre).
But touch.
Much of my thought is coming from all that has been discussed on this blog from the "Adequate Anthropology" series and the "God's Vision of Love" series, and those points are basically drawing on John Paul II's understanding of anthropology, of the human person. This anthropology is necessarily a theological one. You cannot have the gift without the giver.
But before Christ, the encounter with the Lord was very typically a spiritual one only. Of course, the prophets and those who were chosen to establish covenants with the Lord such as Abraham and David certainly encountered him while being in-body, or embodied, and so they heard him with their ears even if he was not physically before them (and I am not going to go further into that although there is much to be thought about). But with Christ came an entirely new revelation of God, and entirely new encounter...most importantly, an entirely new meeting place.
Christ is the place for encounter God, for seeing him face to face. And this is in a body, through a body. In the spiritual sense, this Body is the Church. In a physical sense, this Body is the Eucharist, given as the source and summit of the very life of the Church. But this Body was also a man who walked this earth for thirty-three years and spoke to people, was heard by people, was seen and was touched.
(Maybe you had forgotten I was writing about touch... I almost did.)
No, Christ brings this element of God's love to us in a new and dynamic way that we could not have comprehended before. The imagery of nuptiality that St. Paul uses to draw the analogy of God's love for man and the love between a husband and wife summarizes this. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word..." (Eph. 5:25-26, emphasis added). And, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord" (Eph. 5:22, emphasis added). He says, "This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5:32).
Again, books have already been written on this mystery (many beautiful ones, by people much wiser and more learned than myself) and my point is not to enter into them here. Rather, I want us to reflect on the beauty and mystery of touch.
Touch is an encounter. It occurs at a place, on a body, that a person experiences. Whether it is a hand on your shoulder to encourage you before you face a crowd, or a quick hug to say goodbye, or a sure kiss from the one you love, touch says something, it signifies something. If nothing else, it is a more comforting promise of the meaning revealed in the touch, a deeper communication of what was meant to be made known. I can smile at you and you will understand my pleasure, but I can hug you and leave no doubt. The intensity behind our touch, positive as well as negative, communicates a level of our whole self that is embedded in the action.
To be perhaps less-than-tactful, if I have someone shake my hand at the sign of peace during mass who barely wraps their fingers around my hand and leaves enough space for all those germs that are inevitably jumping from my palm to theirs... well, let's be honest here, I don't feel like the touch they gave truly signified much wishing-of-peace to me. And I feel even less that someone wanted me to know the Lord's peace if I just get the head-nod of acknowledgement. Does this make the point? The firm grip of someone who says, "Peace be with you," or, "Christ's Peace," leaves me assured that they truly desire me to know that peace.
Perhaps a different analogy? When you meet someone you haven't seen for many months (or years) and embrace as if old friends, but you are given the "burp-the-baby" pat on the back rather than a friendly embrace... what is the encounter? One that communicates a less-than-comfortable knowledge of the other person. It says that there is not the same understanding that once existed. And if you were hugging someone you just met for the first time that day, you probably wouldn't be embracing them as you would a friend of five or ten years.
Interestingly enough, a point that is made by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, albeit indirectly, and also a point that is then taken up by John Paul II in The Theology of the Body, this time directly, is the way that condoms and contraception also make a drastic change to the communication behind a touch. In the most intimate of human touch, within the bond of sexual union, the communication of the full love and desire of both lovers for one another is necessary and apparent. Much like the "not-quite-peace" or the "not-sure-hug," contraception is the barrier between the two that signifies a "not-quite-total-love." Again, this is not the point of this post so we'll have to return to this later, but I wanted to make that analogy. Touch, what you say through it and signify with it, means something!
Christ comes to us in the Eucharist as his very body. He allows us to approach him and touch him and to receive him into us. I think it is fair to say that if the source and summit of our faith revolves around the body of God, touch matters.
We therefore have a responsibility as people of faith to consider more deeply the touch we give and receive, and to recognize what we mean and signify with our actions, in hopes that we will come to better reflect the "glory of God [that] is man fully alive" (St. Irenaeus).
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