Keep going back to Scripture for more

The opening to tomorrow's reading from the Book of Wisdom struck me as never before:

"God formed man to be imperishable;
   the image of his own nature he made them.
But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world,
   and they who are in his possession experience it."

We usually focus, as at funerals, on the next verses: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God..." It is a marvelously consoling and upbeat passage. That is only right. But maybe, especially in this month of November, we just might need a bit of sobering up and a full stop to contemplate those first words.

We live in a world which takes too much in stride when it comes to death; it is a world possessed, which pushes away the fullness of life in Christ. We live in a violent, death-dealing world, which aborts, euthanizes and brings death upon itself, a world in the possession of the Devil.

We need to redouble our prayers and sacrifices for those who have gone before us in death, but we also need to be less intimidated by those who are far from Christ's election and the light. Ours is the better part and no one should take it from us.

Post-Conciliar Minimalism

As of today, I am convinced that there exists something which we can properly label "post-conciliar minimalism". The thing in and of itself is not of today and might even predate the Second Vatican Council; it is not the same as Modernism; perhaps it is no more than a consequence of certain human defects, like laziness or indolence. Fundamentally, it ends up being a kind of short changing of most everything in Catholic life after Vatican II. It is that multifarious blight on the Church which should never have happened, had what Pope St. John XXIII hoped for from the Council actually come to be. I use the term "minimalism" because the thing is static and overarching, covering phenomena or tragedies like iconoclasm, which, especially from the time of the Council itself, reared its ugly head and destroyed much without substitution or explanation:

"At the time of the first discussions about liturgical reform, Archbishop Tchidimbo returned to Conakry and ordered the destruction of the baldachin and the main altar. We were angry, incredulous at this hasty decision. Rather violently, we passed without any preparation from one liturgy to another. I can attest to the fact that the botched preparation for the liturgical reform had devastating effects on the Catholic population, particularly on the simpler people, who scarcely understood the swiftness of these changes or even the reason for them." [Sarah, Cardinal Robert; Diat, Nicolas (2015-08-31). God or Nothing (Kindle Locations 1344-1348). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.]

 Minimalism is the word, because it describes destruction as reduction, which left us with a crust of bread of a devotional life and never honestly faced the challenge of nourishing people of our time generally bent on consumption, living in a post-industrial urban setting too noisy and too demanding for past practices to face, that is, without some imagination and creative effort. Hence the more politically correct term "minimalism" for those too squeamish or scrupulous to call a half century of movers and shakers, together with both willful and unknowing accomplices, either lazy or indolent.

Everyone, or so it seems, has a pet theory to explain the general collapse of regular Sunday Mass attendance nearly everywhere in the Catholic world. Understanding the thing by means of the interpretive key of minimalism as attitude or approach, one understands readily that you can call the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the "source and summit" of Christian existence, but then you have to prepare people for it and offer opportunities after it for consequent expression. The Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is sadly or too often reduced to a discursive exercise which has taken the place of a whole gamut of devotions and lessons both at catechism and in the home.

Take the matter of the reduction to an absolute minimum of preparation for reception of Holy Communion: My mother's family, when she was a child, went to Mass every Sunday and prepared themselves as a family for the worthy reception of Holy Communion once a month. That preparation involved above all a monthly Saturday confession. I remember Mom making discreet and appreciative comments about how Grandma prepared her youngest daughter for this event, both for Saturday confession and for Sunday Communion. Although by the time of my childhood, yet before the Council, that type of conscious, methodical, monthly preparation for Communion seems to have been replaced by weekly Communion and for those who went to daily Mass almost always, nonetheless it was not surprising for people at Mass not to come up to the rail to receive at Communion time. At the time of my first Holy Communion the fast was from midnight and many who chose the late morning Solemn High Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday might not have fasted since midnight and hence could not receive. As reasonable as the move to the three hour fast was, it didn't take long for the push to one hour before Communion, which amounted to a de facto abolition of the fast and perhaps explains all the chewing gum stuck underneath the seats of the pews, which pious janitors and volunteers would spatula/scrape off a couple times of year during pre-holiday church cleaning: post-conciliar minimalism.

The other day the Bishops of Switzerland as a Conference published a pastoral letter teaching on the roles proper to priests, permanent deacons and lay people in pastoral service. Apart from a reminder that the preaching office in the Church is proper to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the bishops earned scorn for teaching about the fundamental differences between these three categories in the Church. To be fair, I did run across one article from the Jura region, which in the light of the new pastoral encouraged lay people to participate generously in a program of accompaniment for people who had suffered the loss of a loved one in their family. Retweeting one of the news reports on the new pastoral, I got a couple respectful comments from regular Catholics in the pew, who seemed bewildered by this reservation of the preaching office to the priest and wondering what would become of them if their last bulwark was deprived of a sermon by a lay theologian in the absence of a qualified priest... The reductionism just keeps paring away at something which has long since lost its proper framework and unfolding as the source and summit. (I am purposely avoiding the vocations crisis, which in its complexity goes far beyond the minimalist interpretation.)

Truth to be told, the solution is not as simple as restoration; Pope St. John XXIII wanted creativity and energy renewed within the Church and hence perhaps the allergic reaction of those days to the word reform. It would be enough, I think, for lots of folks to stop denying that we have a problem and to open up to the tradition not as form but rather as culture. The hope would be that we might be able to decide on a new approach to Divine Worship which might in turn inspire mothers and fathers to take time to prepare their children for Sunday Mass. The type of scorn for solid notions like "holy fear" which is so common in certain circles is no more than an indication of the indolent nature of much of what is supposed to pass for critical analysis. We need urgently to free ourselves from the shackles of the all to frequently minimalist approach to things Catholic, which deprives the faith of those supports which in times past encouraged or fostered its vitality.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

This Sunday, Starring two poor Widows

As edifying as Jesus' teaching from today's Gospel about the greater merit in God's eyes of the widow's mite, I have to say that my "admiration for piety award" goes to the widow in the Old Testament Book of Kings (1 Kgs 17:10-16) who shares her last scrap of bread and bit of oil with the prophet Elijah, cutting herself and her young son free of the assurance of one last mouth full to show charity. These two women are absolutely great and as caught up in the mystery of God's life in and for the world as I could ever hope to be.

My sister sent me an Edith Stein (another woman who cut herself free and went into God) quote in French (sorry, no footnote or reference):

"Les tournants décisifs de l'histore du monde sont essentiellement conditionnés par des âmes dont aucun manuel d'histoire ne parlera. Et nous-mêmes, nous ne saurons à qui nous devons les tournants decisifs dans notre vie personnelle qu'au Jour où tout ce qui est caché sera révélé."

Even though not touching upon their substance as radically as in the case of the two widows, I had the privilege of witnessing a couple who took a man, a poor stranger, in, giving him work, bread, pocket money, and their love and respect. People like this in our world are certainly many and we thank God for them as did St. Edith Stein, confident as was she that they are the ones who move our world for the better and further the cause of the Kingdom.

This evening I have the first of a couple celebrations for the Feast of St. Martin of Tours: some to a military beat of Martin the young soldier seeking Christ in His guise of poverty and one very personal, recalling an elderly pastor ready to forego heaven for yet a time should his brethren's need exceed his own longing to be with the Lord. I will be hoping and praying these days that we have enough Martins both military and hierarchical to make our world move in charity toward Christ.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Picking up the Thread and Carrying the Task Forward

God or Nothing

Sarah, Cardinal Robert; Diat, Nicolas

(2015-08-31).  Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

"Here are the words of Pope John at the opening of Vatican Council II: “The serious problems confronting the world after almost two thousand years remain unchanged. Jesus Christ is ever resplendent as the center of history and of life. Men are either with Him and His Church, and then they enjoy light, goodness, order, and peace. Or else they are without Him, or against Him, and deliberately opposed to His Church, and then they experience confusion, bitterness in human relations, and the danger of fratricidal wars.” From the start of Vatican II, although concerned about aggiornamento, the renewal of the Church, and the reunion of Christians, the pope had strongly emphasized that the Council’s chief task was to reveal God to the world, to defend and promote doctrine. That is why the Church, while rejoicing in the admirable inventions of human genius and in the progress of science and technology, had to remind mankind that beyond the visible aspect of things the primordial duty remains to turn to God. For John XXIII, the Council was first of all an encounter with God in prayer, with Mary, like the apostles in the upper room on the eve of Pentecost." (Kindle Locations 1656-1664). 

One of the things children used to learn, that experience which marked their coming of age, their adulthood, was reverence for parents, not because we recognized them as having something over on us, but because we understood that they had learned life's lessons and stood noble and tall in the midst of all that could not be explained except by closeness to the Almighty. Suffering and deprivation not so much embraced in and of themselves but met and faced in company with Jesus Crucified and Glorified.

Nicolas Diat does a great job in an interview book of giving us access to Cardinal Robert Sarah as an elder, as a father in faith.

I'll say no more but encourage you to read and enjoy. This might be the book which helps you to come humbly home to the tradition and stop kicking at the goad. This might be the book that shames you for your modernism or iconoclasm to place you at the feet of God's little ones, great in His eyes and light to the world.

You may think you know some things better than the Cardinal, but in this world, God's world, it is long since time for you to recover reverence for the immediacy of experience in Christ's presence, for the prayerfulness which bows the head and bends the knee.

Never Too Late to Start Thinking Straight

The Gospel from today's Mass got me thinking:

 

"Jesus said to his disciples, ‘There was a rich man and he had a steward denounced to him for being wasteful with his property. He called for the man and said, “What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer.” Then the steward said to himself, “Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes.”

  Then he called his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, “How much do you owe my master?” “One hundred measures of oil” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond; sit down straight away and write fifty.” To another he said, “And you, sir, how much do you owe?” “One hundred measures of wheat” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond and write eighty.”

  ‘The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.’" (Luke 16:1-8)

Who or what is the authority which can call us to order? How do you get a wasteful or slacking steward to recognize the error of his ways? The slacker is classified by Jesus as dishonest, because, caught and called to account, he stole from his master to assure himself a future outside his master's service. He is a child of this world; he knows his own kind and how to get ahead for today. Jesus would have the children of light, those who profess faith in Him and seek His paths, show themselves as clever in seeking Him.

Maybe it is indeed astuteness which is lacking among Catholics today and hence the dumb and stubborn refusal of many who claim to be Catholic on their own terms to recognize the threat of judgment hanging over them, over those who run roughshod over the Church. But we know these are not the children of light; they have not chosen the narrow way, but the wide track which leads to perdition. Maybe an appeal to authority to try and call them back is out of place; maybe it is more a question of encouraging those who firmly desire to be children of the light, children of God, true followers, committed Catholics. In effect, Jesus with His parable is calling the "good guys" to be more astute in promoting the faith, in striving for holiness, of binding the Church together in love.

If we were more astute, we might walk away from certain lost causes, shaking the dust from our feet and quickening our steps along Christ's path, tried and true, since apostolic times.

As tempted as I am to point fingers, I think the better choice is to urge myself along, first of all, and then all who are well disposed to seek Christ's Kingship over them within the Catholic Tradition as practiced always and everywhere, to render an account of our stewardship and throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Just Judge. Let us be drawn and hasten after Jesus in the fragrance of His garments!

Stubborn insistence upon bad choices cannot save.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Omelia per i Defunti - Tutto verso Dio

2 novembre 2015

Commemorazione di Tutti i Fedeli Defunti

Isaia 25, 6a. 7-9

Romani 8,14-23

Matteo 25,31-46

“L’ardente aspettativa della creazione, infatti, è protesa verso la rivelazione dei figli di Dio.” (dalla Seconda Messa, Lettura ai Romani)

“I Santi” (la festa di ieri) meritano una solennità nel calendario liturgico; essi ci ispirano per parole e per esempio di capire meglio che significa essere figlio di Dio, andando verso Cristo, attirandoci nel loro seguito. “I Morti” (oggi) invece hanno come festa solo una commemorazione; è un altro tipo di celebrazione liturgica oggi. Va notato che dopo Natale, però, oggi è l’unica occasione nell’anno liturgico quando il sacerdote è autorizzato a trinare, ad offrire il Sacrificio Eucaristico tre volte nello stesso giorno. Oggi si intende in suffragio per i cari defunti: la prima Messa per tutti, poi l’altro secondo la mente del Santo Padre, e in fine la terza per i suoi morti, cioè applicata l’intenzione a scelta dal sacerdote celebrante. Questa nostra seconda Messa è per i defunti secondo la mente di Papa Francesco.

È più che giusto pregare per i nostri morti, non solo oggi e non solo durante il mese di novembre, ma incessantemente. Questo è un obbligo di amore verso loro e verso Gesù Cristo, Nostro Signore e Nostro Dio. Questo esercizio ha merito presso Dio non solo per quelli che ci hanno preceduto nella fede, per affrettare la fine delle loro sofferenze in Purgatorio, ma anche per noi. Si tratta di un insegnamento, di uno sprono ai battezza di vivere non solo per oggi ma soprattutto per l’eternità nella comunione dei santi, con Dio nella gloria. La commemorazione di tutti i defunti ci aiuta a capire meglio la nostra natura umana alla luce della grazia che ci salva; siamo motivati a vivere la carità cristiana, che non arde mai abbastanza nei nostri cuori. Il messaggio non potrà essere più schietto o più chiaro: non facciamo mai abbastanza nella sequela di Gesù; dobbiamo sforzarci di più per poter stare alla destra all’Ultimo Giudizio davanti al Re. Chi è mai partito da questo mondo senza bisogno di purificare i suoi sentimenti, senza dover riparare danni fatti verso Dio e verso il prossimo, danni o dispetti fatti per pensiero, parola, opera o omissione? Purgatorio, purtroppo, è per molti il comune destino al momento del Giudizio particolare. Dobbiamo pregare per affrettare il loro entro nel Regno dei Cieli.

“L’ardente aspettativa della creazione, infatti, è protesa verso la rivelazione dei figli di Dio.”

Il nostro è un mondo che prega poco, e che pertanto non conosce il Dio rivelato in Cristo che ci ama così tanto a dare il Suo unico Figlio per la nostra salvezza eterna. Per amore, la nostra preghiera di intercessione e di supplica è il nostro debito agli altri, nostri parenti, amici, conosciuti e sconosciuti, affinché questo mondo si salva; il nostro buon esempio di vita vissuta comunica ad altri la nostra consapevolezza della traiettoria giusta della vita cristiana, che rispecchia la perfezione di questa “ardente aspettativa della creazione”, di cui S. Paolo parla ai Romani.

Vivere come se Dio non fosse fanno molti; questi non si interessano per le nostre prediche. Si spera, però, che la nostra preghiera e la nostra testimonianza di vita tocchi questi cuori di pietra e che ci salvano dalla dannazione eterna. Offriamo il Santo Sacrificio per chi, senza peccato grave, ha lasciato questo mondo ancora bisognoso di purificazione.

Affidiamo tutti, e oggi soprattutto le anime di Purgatorio, alla Madre di Dio, Maria Santissima, che nella sua materna bontà, stenda il suo mantello protettivo sopra i suoi figli!

REQUIEM AETERNAM DONA EIS, DOMINE!

ET LUX PERPETUA LUCEAT EIS!

REQUIESCANT IN PACE!

How can this be? Hardly a dead end!

"Atheism represents a supreme threat to humanity." Bishop Robert Barron says some super-powerful things in this video. He does it in his inimitable style, at once reassuring and frank. Please, take a look and a listen!

With each passing day, my schooling on Switzerland teaches me new lessons and gets more intense. A repeating or repeated message which it seems is important for people here from very different walks of life to share with me might be so expressed: "The so-called 'culture of death' is much more pervasive here than one would like to believe." 

Granted, I knew before I came that representatives of a notorious assisted suicide group have unlimited access to nursing care facilities where a priest might not be admitted to visit an elderly parishioner or the mother or father of someone in his parish. They tell me now that Italians tired of life cross the border into Switzerland to have themselves killed. I could go on. All of a sudden that third category in society in terms of religious profession: "Catholic", "Protestant", "No religious affiliation" or simply "None", becomes frightfully ominous in terms of its consequences, not just for individuals, but for the sake of the life of the world.

Between Halloween and threats of a staged exorcism in St. Louis, much has again been said about the diabolical, about Satan, who ultimately tempts people to deny God in favor of the illusion that their own preferences may reap them other than the whirlwind. Godlessness is a terrifying, death-dealing resignation to darkness, which destroys one and all who get in the path of that person. Good people are dumbfounded by the lack of response at all the horrible revelations of late concerning Planned Parenthood, and a whole series of people, some paying lip-service to religion and even to Catholicism, continue to insist on infanticide, whether inside or outside the womb, no long even denying the dark and far from infect free hell of the abortoria, which are as back alley as you can imagine. "Atheism represents a supreme threat to humanity."

I don't suppose we can get "Nones" to fear hell, to dread eternal damnation; they live it now without God. Still, maybe we should try, because dreading the loss of heaven and the pains of hell is the anti-chamber to hope and the embrace of Christ's unbounded love.

How can so much sadness resist in the shadows of such a beautiful land? Why resist the Good News which saves and allows us to enter into the company of the saints, here and now, one day, sooner than we think, in glory for all eternity? The unbaptized and unconverted whom I have known or observed in my life are either dumbed down to despair or frazzled nerves on the verge of crashing and burning. The unenviable and terrible "periphery" of our world is a clogged, dark and murky mainstream, which kicks against the goad.

We owe this world our frankness and our joy. Saints of God, come to our aid and theirs! Please, God, that no more souls be lost to everlasting death!

Arranging my books on the shelf the other day, I saw a good sized biography of St. Niklaus von Flüe in French there. Maybe somebody else's gift left behind will help me gift others and touch hearts here at the top of the world, as the great hermit did born now almost 600 years ago.

Un silence qui fonde la Suisse.