Friday, July 25, 2014

Be Not Afraid


2 Corinthians 4:7-15

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.


Benedict XVI On plane to Portugal: Wednesday, May 12, 2010.

For us, Fatima is a sign of the presence of faith, of the fact that it is precisely from the little ones that faith gains new strength, one which is not limited to the little ones but has a message for the entire world and touches history here and now, and sheds light on this history. In 2000, in my presentation, I said that an apparition – a supernatural impulse which does not come purely from a person’s imagination but really from the Virgin Mary, from the supernatural – that such an impulse enters into a subject and is expressed according to the capacities of that subject. The subject is determined by his or her historical, personal, temperamental conditions, and so translates the great supernatural impulse into his or her own capabilities for seeing, imagining, expressing; yet these expressions, shaped by the subject, conceal a content which is greater, which goes deeper, and only in the course of history can we see the full depth, which was – let us say - “clothed” in this vision that was accessible to specific individuals. Consequently, I would say that, here too, beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first place refer to Pope John Paul II, an indication is given of realities involving the future of the Church, which are gradually taking shape and becoming evident. So it is true that, in addition to moment indicated in the vision, there is mention of, there is seen, the need for a passion of the Church, which naturally is reflected in the person of the Pope, yet the Pope stands for the Church and thus it is sufferings of the Church that are announced. The Lord told us that the Church would constantly be suffering, in different ways, until the end of the world. The important thing is that the message, the response of Fatima, in substance is not directed to particular devotions, but precisely to the fundamental response, that is, to ongoing conversion, penance, prayer, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. Thus we see here the true, fundamental response which the Church must give – which we, every one of us, must give in this situation. As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely this essential: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological virtues. This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Old Man on the Hill

THE OLD MAN ON THE HILL: PAULLIE'S TIME HAD COME



What's it like for Paullie to watch up close his legoland utopia assembled by his messiah? What's it like for Paullie and Waltper to watch up close their stumbling block in exile?

The smiles on their faces for Paullie, Waltper, Joaqnas, and the dying company imagining an old man writhing in the attic while the fools' messiah assemble the pieces together cheerfully. Some blind pieces smoothly joining in.

Yet, the old man on the hill was quite serene. He had faced the stones, bullets, ridicule and all. He loved them enough to give them the Truth. He doesn't mind being on the hill for to end in Calvary was his desire.

The fools' messiah a few hundred meters away. A small hotel, a good size to put everything and everyone under control. Don't like any hand me down, he chooses what he pleases and turns into a magical show for the public.

The fools' messiah was a surprise to everyone. He knew all this too well, he had been in a smaller stage and he wanted this big stage for so long. His legoland utopia shaped by the dying company in his head had finally found its time amidst the scandals, betrayals, and dissent.

For the old man on the hill knew that the fools' messiah's time had come; He was just happy to do what God asked of him. To disrupt the trajectory for a little while putting in place the tools for the creative minority. It was a great battle fought even then, exorcists were at hand to fight the Enemy. Almost, almost... the old man on the hill could have lost to the spirit of gin and vermouth. A limited time given to the old man on the hill.

The time had come.... strange times, indeed. Paullie is happy. Even Jane, Ton, Bar, Sko, and Mickey Mouse are happy. It would seem their fools' messiah would really build their legoland utopia. But they don't want to simply have a legoland utopia, they want to dismantle the edifice that the old man on the hill reinforced. They want the old man obliterated and all he had done undone.

Paullie and the dying company delighted even more when the old man on the hill would appear with the fools' messiah. They are certain that the old man on the hill is miserable. He should be. He must be.

The fools' messiah is rushing things. His time is limited, too. He... he will not be betrayed. He knew exactly who his runners will be. The pawns are slowly placed in the legoland utopia.

Down on the hill, the fools' messiah sounds, looks, and smells like a Shepherd but he is leading the sheepfold somewhere else into a legoland utopia.

The old man on the hill prays for the sheepfold. Saddened by some, happy for those persevering. Yet, his confidence on his Shepherd remains for the Shepherd is always part of humanity's past, present, and future.

While the world focused on the fools' messiah, Paullie and the dying company likes to watch the old man on the hill, too. Kind of perplexed that his reaction is not as Paullie expects. Paullie convinces himself that hypocrisy is at work.

Although his plans were always set aside for his Master's plan, the old man on the hill is at peace where he is. He had for so long been dedicated as his Master's beast of burden.



Paullie and the dying company wanted to portray the old man on the hill as a pitiable creature with thwarted dream of becoming a doctor.

The old man on the hill was contented, he gave all he could for time was running out. He knew the secrets. He knew what was to come. He knew the Mother Queen's time had come to BATTLE FOR EVE.

Paullie and the dying company didn't really know what was happening in the world, in themselves, or in their loved ones. The spirit of gin and vermouth had filled them and in a stupor they live. They thought they had the victory with a fools' messiah by their side. The legoland utopia, they thought was a place to be. Yet, in the legoland utopia, they can't help but look. In the silence of the hill, a creative minority found its freedom.

Left Vs. Right

The left and the right in the wheels that turn. Left is happy, right's heyday seems over.

Left:
I have looked forward to this day to throw in your face the evil you have done.
You torture, you rape, you kill anyone who is in the way of your military-empowered state. The most horrendous things happened under your watch.
The tools of torture you purchased in your fascist regime. Inserting these things in the male organ. Let them scream in pain than squeal your lies.
You wallow in your fortune, blood money from corruption.
You are a predator of women. You buy their soul for their liberty in your fascist world.
I long for you to live long... long enough to hear the cries of the lives you have destroyed. Little voices of poor. Wounded cries of the mother.
Murderer! Murderer!

Right:
You have not forgotten and your hatred burns me. Yet, I laugh to look at you... for you have become like me whom you so despise.
I have looked forward to this day to throw in your face the evil you have done.
You torture, you rape, you kill innocent children in the womb who is in the way of your women empowerment. The most horrendous things happened under your watch.
The tools of torture you purchased in your social equality. Inserting these things in the female organ. Let them scream in pain than squeal your lies.
You wallow in your fortune, blood money from abortion.
You are a predator of women. You buy their soul for a promise of liberty in your socialist world.
I long for you to live long... long enough to hear the cries of the lives you have destroyed. Little voices of babies. Wounded cries of mothers.
Murderer! Murderer!
You and I have become.

Left versus Right. Right versus Left. They looked at each other's eyes. For one moment, they saw themselves in the person they don't want to be.

Q&A with Fr. Schall

An America Magazine Org Interview of Fr. James Schall S.J.
Any last thoughts?

We live in a time in which the very essence of our republic and our reason are being overturned in the public order. They are replaced by the voluntarism of which Pope Benedict spoke so clearly. All turmoil in the public order begins in the hearts and minds of the dons, clerical and academic. My last thoughts are those of Chesterton concluding Heretics in 1905, that in the end, the only ones left to uphold reason in the modern world will be the believers. We are seeing this happen before our very eyes, but few notice because few want to know.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Through the Vicissitudes




Calamities. War. Corruption. Crashes. Abortion. Euthanasia. Same-sex marriage. Illegal migration. "Restore man to the center".

With a world seemingly headed for self-destruction, how could one feel comfortable and happy in this world we live in. There are three essentials of life that make things life worth living: faith, family, and friends.



FAITH

We focus on the Holy Trinity and with the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the Holy Angels, and the saints, we can keep our faith alive. The Sacraments may not be accessible always to us but through prayers, we keep our spiritual communion.

There may be so many negative elements in the Church, but the deposit of faith can give us a solid foundation. A lifetime will not be enough to exhaust it. We have the faith of the "little one", the way of humility to keep the flame of Truth burning to guide us.

FAMILY

Often neglected in our consumer and production oriented world, it is important to make a home. A home that may be reduced to its bare essentials.
Let not our homes be mere boarding house to sleep on or a storage building for our material collections.
Keeping our homes back to its essential where relationships can be healed and nurtured. A home where there is a breathing space for creativity and self-growth. A home which is a domestic church where one can guide each other towards God who is Truth, Life, and Love.
A place where a child can be a child, a parent can be a parent, a sick person can be a sick person, an old person can be an old person, a man can be a man, a woman can be a woman... a time and place to fulfill God's purpose and Divine Plan for each one.

FRIENDS

Friendship, though, often without a sense of permanence, can be enduring. It keeps our hearts and minds open and not self-contained. Friendships remind us the value of trust - to choose who we trust and to be trustworthy. Friendships allow us to keep our sense of duty towards our neighbor beyond the extension of our self.



With faith, family, and friends, there is beauty amidst the rubbles. They are like seedlings finding its way from the ground. They are like blossoms that spread their fragrance, no matter what the conditions of the surroundings may be.
Through the vicissitude of life, it is faith, family, friends that will get us through without becoming unreal and yet faithful to the pursuit of Truth. With God's mercy and grace, we will make it to our eternal home.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Ssssh


Many bloggers recommend ignoring Pope Francis' homilies, addresses, and interviews since they are not doctrinal, not ex-cathedra anyway. Let the mass media do their spin on it or wait for Vatican's explanation. If you love Christ and His Church and your neighbor, one can not simply take everything in stride.

•• Majority of Catholics will not take the time to read encyclicals, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or watch EWTN. Their first source will be what the mass media says. The other alternatives will be the talk-of-the-town/parish/community/org, internet social media, bloggers.
What has been said by the mass media will have lasting impressions on the majority and if they are giving wrong feeds to the public, it will be extremely difficult to undo and correct. The alternative sources must do the job.

•• Lots of battle had been won and lost in the informal arena before it was tackled in the legal and formal way.
Social conditioning and social acceptability begin subtly until it gains strength for a formal launching. Indifference to issues paves the way to who is the "loudest and most active" becoming the voice of the majority.

•• You can not evangelize and say "ignore the pope". It is the oddest situation, perhaps, but you have to explain the teaching in light of, or in spite of, what the pope said. Evangelization woes.

•• We can not numb ourselves to what is happening if we truly desire truth.
Many had become victims of dangerous cults because of this desensitization and self-deception.
Although we can not condemn people to hell, we can judge actions and choices that we know can be harmful or leading to perdition. Our free will is God's gift that empowers us to follow God and be mindful that we are being followed by those who trust us.

That being said, it is quite understandable that others will choose a different way. We choose our battles or better yet we find our place and purpose in this battlefield of life because we are more than a field hospital.

Priestly Celibacy


Cardinal Brandmüller writes about the origin of priestly celibacy as reproduced by Sandro Magister

WE PRIESTS, CELIBATE LIKE CHRIST

by Walter Brandmüller


Dear Mr. Scalfari,

Although I have not enjoyed the privilege of meeting you in person, I would like to revisit your statements concerning celibacy contained in the account of your conversation with Pope Francis, published on July 13, 2014 and immediately disputed in their authenticity by the director of the Vatican press office. As an “old professor” who for thirty years taught Church history at the university, I would like to bring to your attention the current state of the research in this field.

In particular, it must be emphasized in the first place that celibacy by no means dates back to a law invented 900 years after the death of Christ. It is instead the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke that report the words of Jesus in this regard.

Matthew writes (19:29): "And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life."

What Mark writes (10:29) is very similar: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold."

Luke (18:29ff.) is even more precise: "Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."

Jesus does not address these words to the masses, but rather to those whom he sends out to spread his Gospel and proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God.

In order to fulfill this mission it is necessary to free oneself from any earthly and human attachment. And seeing that this separation signifies the loss of what is taken for granted, Jesus promises a "recompense" that is more than appropriate.

At this point it is often highlighted that “leaving everything” referred only to the duration of the voyage of proclaiming his Gospel, and that once they had finished their task the disciples would return to their families. But there is no trace of this. The text of the Gospels, in referring to eternal life, are speaking of something definitive.

Now, seeing that the Gospels were written between 40 and 70 A.D., their redactors would have been brought into a bad light if they had attributed to Jesus words that did not correspond to their conduct of life. Jesus, in fact, demands that those who have been made participants in his mission must also adopt his way of life.

But what does Paul mean, when in the first letter to the Corinthians (9:1, 4-6) he writes: "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? . . . Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?" Do not these questions and statements take it for granted that the apostles were accompanied by their wives?

One must proceed with caution here. The apostle's rhetorical questions referred to the right of the one who proclaims the Gospel to live at the expense of the community, and this also applies to the one who accompanies him.

And this obviously brings up the question of who this companion may be. The Greek expression "adelphén gynaìka" requires an explanation. "Adelphe" means sister. And here sister in the faith means a Christian, while "gyne" indicates - more generically - a woman, whether virgin or wife. In short, a female person. This makes it impossible to demonstrate that the apostles were accompanied by wives. Because if this were a case one would be unable to understand why an "adelphe" is distinctly spoken of as a sister, and therefore a Christian. As for the wife, it must be understood that the apostle left her at the time when he became part of the circle of disciples.

Chapter 8 of the Gospel of Luke helps to clarify this. It states: "The twelve were with [Jesus], and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means." From this description it seems logical to deduce that the apostles followed the example of Jesus.

Attention must also be called to the stirring appeal for celibacy or conjugal abstinence made by the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 7:29ff.): " I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none." And again: "The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided." It is clear that Paul is addressing these words in the first place to bishops and priests. And he himself would have adhered to this ideal.

In order to prove that Paul or the Church of apostolic times did not acknowledge celibacy, the letters to Timothy and Titus, the “pastoral letters,” are sometimes brought out as evidence. And in effect, in the first letter to Timothy (3:2) a married bishop is mentioned. And the original Greek text is repeatedly translated in the following way: “Let the bishop be the husband of a woman," which is taken to be a precept. But one needs only a rudimentary knowledge of Greek to translate this correctly: "For this the bishop must be above reproach, married only once (and he must be the husband of a woman!), sober and judicious." And also in the letter to Titus we read: "An elder (meaning a priest or bishop) must be blameless and married only once."

These are indications that tend to rule out the possibility that a priest or bishop should be ordained who has remarried after the death of his wife (successive bigamy). Because apart from the fact that at that time a remarried widower was not looked upon kindly, for the Church there was also the consideration that in this way a man could never give any guarantee to respect abstinence, to which a bishop or priest would have to devote himself.


THE PRACTICE OF THE POST-APOSTOLIC CHURCH


The original form of celibacy therefore allowed the priest or bishop to continue his family life, but not his conjugal life. For this reason as well the preference was to ordain men who had reached an advanced age.

The fact that all of this can be traced back to ancient and sacred apostolic traditions is testified to by the works of ecclesiastical writers like Clement of Alexandria and the north African Tertullian, who lived in the 2nd-3rd century after Christ. Another witness of the high consideration bestowed on abstinence among Christians is a series of edifying tales of the apostles, the apocryphal 'Acts of the Apostles' composed in the 2nd century and widely read.

In the 3rd century the literary documentation on the abstinence of the clergy multiplied and became increasingly explicit, especially in the East. For example, here is a passage from the Syrian 'Didascalia': "The bishop, before he is ordained, must be put to the test to establish if he is chaste and has raised his children in the fear of God." The great theologian Origen of Alexandria (3rd century) also recognized the celibacy of abstinence as binding; a celibacy that he explains and explores theologically in various works. And obviously there are other documents that could be brought forward in support, something that obviously is not possible here.


THE FIRST LAW ON CELIBACY


It was the Council of Elvira in 305-306 that put this practice of apostolic origin into the form of a law. With canon 33, the Council prohibited bishops, priests, deacons, and all other clergy from having conjugal relations with their wives, and likewise prohibited them from having children. At the time it was therefore thought that conjugal abstinence was compatible with family life. Thus even the sainted pope Leo I, called Leo the Great, wrote around 450 that ordained men did not have to repudiate their wives. They were to remain together with them, but as if "they did not have them," as Paul writes in the first letter to the Corinthians (7:29).

With the passing of time there was an increasing tendency to ordain only celibate men. The codification would come in the Middle Ages, an era in which it was taken for granted that the priest and bishop would be celibate. It was another matter that the canonical discipline was not always followed to the letter, but this should not come as a surprise. And, as is in the nature of things, the observance of celibacy has seen highs and lows over the course of the centuries.

There is, for example, the famous and fiery dispute in the 11th century, at the time of what is called the Gregorian reform. At that juncture one witnessed a split that was so stark - especially in the German and French churches - as to lead the German prelates who were contrary to celibacy to forcibly expel from his diocese the bishop Altmann of Passau. In France, the pope's emissaries who were charged with insisting on the discipline of celibacy were threatened with death, and at a synod held in Paris the sainted abbot Walter of Pontoise was beaten by bishops opposed to celibacy and was thrown in prison. In spite of this the reform succeeded and a renewed religious springtime took place.

It is interesting to note that the contestation of the precept of celibacy has always coincided with signs of decadence in the Church, while in times of renewed faith and cultural blossoming one has noted a strengthened observance of celibacy.

And it is certainly not difficult to draw historical parallels with the current crisis from these observations.


THE PROBLEMS OF THE CHURCH OF THE EAST


Two questions that are frequently posed still remain open. There is the one concerning the practice of celibacy on the part of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine empire and of the Eastern rite, which does not admit marriage for bishops and monks but grants it for priests on the condition that they be married before they receive the sacrament. And taking precisely this practice as their example, there are some who ask if it could not be adopted by the Latin West as well.

In this regard must be emphasized in the first place that it was precisely in the East that the practice of abstinent celibacy was held to be binding. And it was only during the Council of 691, called "Quinisextum" or "Trullanum," when the religious and cultural decadence of the Byzantine empire was evident, that the rupture with the apostolic patrimony was reached. This Council, influenced to a great extent by the emperor, who wanted new legislation to restore order in relations, was never recognized by the popes. It was precisely then that the Church of the East adopted its practice. When later, beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries, and afterward, various Orthodox Churches returned to the Church of the West, the problem was posed in Rome about how to deal with the married clergy of those Churches. The various popes decided, for the good and unity of the Church, not to require any modification in their way of life for priests who had returned to the mother Church.


THE EXCEPTION IN OUR TIME


There is a similar motivation behind the papal dispensation from celibacy granted - beginning with Pius XII - to the Protestant pastors who convert to the Catholic Church and want to be ordained priests. This rule was recently applied by Benedict XVI to the numerous Anglican prelates who wanted to unite, in conformity with the apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus," with the Catholic mother Church. With this extraordinary concession, the Church recognizes the long and sometimes painful religious journey of these men of faith who have reached their destination with conversion. A destination that in the name of truth leads those directly concerned to renounce even the financial support realized until that moment. It is the unity of the Church, a good of immense value, that justifies these exceptions.


BINDING PATRIMONY?


But apart from these exceptions, the other fundamental question is raised, and that is: can the Church be authorized to renounce an evident apostolic patrimony?

This is an option that is continually taken into consideration. Some think that this decision could not be taken only by a part of the Church, but by a general Council. In this way it is thought that in spite of not involving all the ecclesiastical ranks, at least for some the obligation of celibacy could be relaxed if not abolished outright. And what appears inopportune today could be the reality tomorrow. But if there were the desire to do this one would have to bring back to the forefront the binding element of the apostolic traditions. And one could also ask if, with a decision made in the assembly of a Council, it would be possible to abolish the celebration of Sunday, which, if one wished to be meticulous, has fewer biblical foundations than celibacy.

To conclude, allow me to advance a consideration projected into the future: if it is still valid to contend that every ecclesiastical reform worthy of this definition must emerge from a profound understanding of the ecclesiastical faith, then the current dispute over celibacy would be overcome through a deepened understanding of what it means to be a priest. And if it were understood and taught that the priesthood is not a function of service exercised in the name of the community, but that the priest - by virtue of the sacrament received - teachers, guides, and sanctifies “in persona Christi," all the more so would it be understood that it is precisely for this reason that he also takes on Christ's way of life. And a priesthood understood and lived in this way would once again exercise a power of attraction over the finest of the young.

As for the rest, it must be taken into account that celibacy, just like virginity in the name of the Kingdom of Heaven, will always be troublesome for those who have a secularized conception of life. But as Jesus said in this regard: “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”

__________


The newspaper in which Cardinal Brandmüller published his analysis, on July 13, 2014:

> Il Foglio