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The Cross, the Key to the Glory of Heaven

A Scriptural Reflection on the Second Sunday of Lent | Carl E. Olson | February 28, 2010

Readings for Sunday, February 28, 2010:

• Gen 15:5-12, 17-18
• Psa 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
• Phil 3:17-4:1 or 3:20-4:1
• Lk 9:28b-36

Some critics of Catholicism complain that it is too earthly, material, and even violent, with far too much talk of death and dying. Others bemoan that it is too heavenly minded, overly focused on the world of come, as evidenced by odd rituals and promises of eternal life. In reality, G. K. Chesterton argued in his brilliant book Orthodoxy, the strange shapes of Catholicism come together to form a key that opens the lock to truth and understanding.

Consider today’s Old Testament reading, which describes an event that will seem unsettling to modern readers. Abram is commanded by God to bring together some animals and birds, sacrifice them, and then wait among them. Years later this same man would nearly sacrifice his only son, again at the request of his God. Yet the Church recognizes Abraham as the great man of faith who, called by God, was obedient, thus becoming “the father of a multitude of nations’” (CCC 59). Abraham’s relationship with God sets the tone for the sacred history recorded in the Old Testament and points toward the “fullness of time” and his seed, Jesus Christ.

In order to better understand the story of Abram and his sacrifices, we need to backtrack a bit. When God called Abram to leave his home, land and family (Gen 12:1-3), it was a definitive moment in the history of humanity and salvation. Jean Cardinal Daniélou goes so far as to state that this call to Abram was “an almost unique happening, paralleled only by the Creation of the world, and Christ’s Incarnation.” At the core of Abraham’s relationship with God was the berith: the covenant. An essential feature of a covenant was that it had to be confirmed by an oath, which solemnly bound the two parties together.

This oath was often connected with a ceremony involving a sacrifice; in the case of Abram the splitting in two of animals, which was a way of declaring, “If I fail to keep this oath, may I be cursed and killed as these animals.” This “cutting of a covenant”, as it is called, was an act of self-cursing that indicated the importance of the covenant and God’s absolute promise to fulfill it. When the frightening theophany ended, the covenantal promise was given to Abram, repeating the initial promise of land along with physical boundaries of the future kingdom’s extent.

Fast forward to about A.D. 30. Accompanied by the three disciples closest to Him, Jesus goes up the mountain to pray. That moment of contemplative serenity was suddenly transformed by dazzling light as the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament appeared and began conversing with the Prophet, the one spoken of by Moses: “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen” (Deut 18:15).

Luke’s account emphasizes Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the glory bestowed upon the Chosen One of Israel, and the suffering that would be necessary to fulfill His Father’s will and establish a new covenant and kingdom. God’s glory and the Kingdom are closely related to one another, having already been mentioned together immediately prior to this event (Lk 9:26-27).

Like Moses, Jesus would lead His people on an exodus out of bondage. Like Moses, Jesus would establish a covenant with Israel—the new Israel, the Church. Like Moses on Mount Sinai, Jesus would shine with the glory of God. But as Peter found out upon suggesting a memorial for the three men, Jesus is far greater than Moses or Elijah: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

The covenant with Abraham was sealed with the blood of sacrifices. The new covenant established by Christ is fulfilled and sealed by His bloody, sacrificial death on the Cross. And “pledge of glory” for the people of the new covenant? The Eucharist, which “already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies” (CCC 2000; cf. CCC 1419).

Thus earth and heaven meet in the Incarnate Word, who became man so He could open the doors to heaven with the key of the Cross.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the March 4, 2007, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Related Ignatius Insight Articles and Book Excerpts:

• Who Creates Anew? A Lenten Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent, Feb. 21, 2010 | Carl E. Olson
• Lent: Why the Christian Must Deny Himself | Brother Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B.
• Lord, Teach Us To Pray | Fr. Jerome Bertram
• The Question of Suffering, the Response of the Cross | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• The Cross--For Us | Hans Urs von Balthasar
• The Premises of Gospel Poverty | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Lent and "Our Father": The Path of Prayer | Carl E. Olson
• Thirsting and Quenching | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Seeking Deep Conversion | From Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• "Lord, teach us to pray" | From Earthen Vessels | Gabriel Bunge, O.S.B.
• The Religion of Jesus | From Christ, The Ideal of the Priest | Blessed Columba Marmion

The Church of Latter Day Sinners

The Church of Latter Day Sinners | Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R. | From Arise From Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn't Make Sense

I think that the Catholic Church should be called the Church of Latter Day Sinners.

That's all we claim to be. There are those churches who feel they are perfect. I feel sorry for them. Jimmy Swaggart had one of those churches going for a while, but he dropped out.  Perhaps much for his own spiritual benefit, the bottom fell out. Members of his church all thought they were saints, but it's a good thing that they weren't. Jesus Christ did not come to save the saints. He came to save the sinners. "For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt 9:13). Jimmy has announced himself to be a penitent since the time when he ran into disgrace. That was very wise. He should have been doing it all the time. The followers of Jesus Christ are all poor, self-confessed sinners if they are wise. I have been privileged to know a few people who some day may be canonized saints, but they all thought that they were poor sinners.

You must expect that these poor sinners in the Church are going to get hurt and that they are going to hurt each other. To be let down by the Church is not a reason to leave her, anymore than to be let down by your family is a reason to give up family life and move to a desert island. Are there any who have not been hurt by members of their family? In his City of God, St. Augustine wisely observed that it breaks the heart of any good person to see that even in one's own home one is not in a safe place and that one may be attacked even there by an enemy posing as a friend or even by an enemy who used to be a loved one. [1] If we all gave up on the human race because we have been hurt, we'd have to move to separate planets.

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"Christians are now considered..."

"... the most persecuted religious group around the world."

Many readers of this blog likely know that already. But it is heartening to see this printed in a newspaper such as Der Spiegel, which has a lengthy feature, "Christianity's Modern-Day Martyrs," on its website today. The introductory paragraph states:

The rise of Islamic extremism is putting increasing pressure on Christians in Muslim countries, who are the victims of murder, violence and discrimination. Christians are now considered the most persecuted religious group around the world. Paradoxically, their greatest hope could come from moderate political Islam.

And here is a bit from a few paragraphs in:

Not only in Malaysia, but in many countries through the Muslim world, religion has gained influence over governmental policy in the last two decades. The militant Islamist group Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, while Islamist militias are fighting the governments of Nigeria and the Philippines. Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen have fallen to a large extent into the hands of Islamists. And where Islamists are not yet in power, secular governing parties are trying to outstrip the more religious groups in a rush to the right.

This can be seen in Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Indonesia to some extent, and also Malaysia. Even though this Islamization often has more to do with politics than with religion, and even though it doesn't necessarily lead to the persecution of Christians, it can still be said that where Islam gains importance, freedoms for members of other faiths shrink.

There are 2.2 billion Christians around the world. The Christian non-governmental organization Open Doors calculates that 100 million of them are being threatened or persecuted. They aren't allowed to build churches, buy Bibles or obtain jobs. That's the more harmless form of discrimination and it affects the majority of these 100 million Christians. The more brutal version sees them blackmailed, robbed, expelled, abducted or even murdered.

Bishop Margot Kässmann, who was head of the Protestant Church in Germany before stepping down on Feb. 24, believes Christians are "the most frequently persecuted religious group globally." Germany's 22 regional churches have proclaimed this coming Sunday to be the first commemoration day for persecuted Christians. Kässmann said she wanted to show solidarity with fellow Christians who "have great difficulty living out their beliefs freely in countries such as Indonesia, India, Iraq or Turkey."

Read the entire piece. Lent, a season focused on spiritual combat and the war against sin, is a wonderful time to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted, imprisoned, and sometimes beaten, tortured, and martyred. It's so easy, here in the U.S., to fixate exclusively on problems that, while very real and certainly important, pale in many ways to the darkness threatening believers all around the globe. Their painful witness is a reminder, as Hans Urs von Balthasar pointed out in The Moment of Christian Witness, that "persecution constitutes the normal condition of the Church in her relation to the world..."

Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi on the "doofus father"

The Archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, in a column titled, "Fathers":

One evening, as I surfed the television channels, I came across one of those comedy series usually referred to as a "sit-com." In this program, the father of the television family was portrayed as clueless, out of touch with everything and everyone around him, foolish, ignorant, and incapable of discussing anything intelligently. Such a character in television comedies is all too well known. It is my understanding that the television industry has a term for this character: "the doofus father."

Unfortunately, the doofus father image has deeply affected our society and convinced many that the father is simply a dispensable member of the family. Our society tends not to honor the father’s importance despite overwhelming statistics showing the powerful impact the father’s presence has in the family.

The love of the mother is vitally important to the welfare of a family. Much can be written about the mother’s love, far beyond the scope of this article. Her caring love has a way of holding a family together. At the same time, the father’s impact in the life of a child can be seen in a variety of measurable ways. Children raised without fathers are more likely to drop out of school, go to prison, smoke, use drugs, own a weapon, assault a teacher, get pregnant as teens, suffer from depression, and commit suicide.

The father’s impact reaches even into church attendance. In 1996 Weern Haug and Phillipe Warner of the Swiss Federal Statistic Office completed a study of church attendance. (The Swiss are about 44% Catholic and 40% Protestant.) The study concluded that, if both parents attend church regularly, 33% of their children will regularly attend church as adults. Only 25% of their adult children will not practice their religion at all.

But note this startling fact: if only the mother is regular in attending church, and the father attends irregularly, then only 3% of their adult children will attend church regularly, and 38% of their adult children will not practice their religion all. If the father never attends church, even if the mother attends church regularly, only 2% of their adult children will attend church and 60% will not attend church at all.

Read the entire piece on the CNA website.

IgnatiusInsight.com Articles by Deacon Burke-Sivers:

• Becoming a Man of God | Audio Interview with Fr. Larry Richards, author of Be a Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be
•Discovering the Fatherhood of God in a Gender-Neutral Society | Mary Anastasia
• Behold the Man! | An interview with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers about his new EWTN series
• The Meaning and Necessity of Spiritual Fatherhood | Harold Burke-Sivers

The Mercenary

The Mercenary | Susan Peek | From Chapter 1 of A Soldier Surrenders: The Conversion of St. Camillus de Lellis (A Novel)

The novel, A Soldier Surrenders, is the story of the dramatic conversion and inspiring goodness of the soldier Camillus de Lellis who lived in the late 1500's, and became the founder of the religious order known then as "Ministers of the Sick", and today now called the "Hospitallers". The story of St. Camillus is one that is filled with an intriguing combination of drama, military battles, sickness and disease, conversion to  God, and great charity for countless suffering people, be they dying soldiers, prisoners or patients in the hospitals that he founded.

Camillus is a saint that anyone can identitfy with since he was a very worldly man, a huge man at 6 foot 6 inches height, a soldier who fought against the Turks, and one who had a terrible addiction to gambling that continually reduced him to poverty and shame. He also suffered tremendously throughout his life from various ongoing ailments including a crippling leg disease for 46 years, a rupture for 38 years, chronically painful feet problems, and a distaste for food that caused him an inability to retain it. None of his own great sufferings kept him from always thinking of others first, and striving to serve the many sick and dying people under his care.

He eventually conquered his personal weaknesses like gambling, but not without a long and constant struggle, an example of perseverance that will inspire anyone with their own personal moral, spiritual or physical struggles. God rewarded him with many followers who joined his order to serve the sick and dying, as well as great spiritual gifts including prophecy and miracles. St. Camillus was a forerunner of the work of the International Red Cross, and he used that same symbol for his own religious order. Camillus was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746, and was proclaimed patron of the sick and of hospitals in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

This excerpt is from the opening pages of A Soldier Surrenders.

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Now available...

... from Ignatius Press, the latest addition to the Ignatius Critical Editions:

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

Arguably the darkest of all Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is also one of the most challenging. Is it a work of nihilistic despair, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”, or is it a cautionary tale warning of the dangers of Machiavellianism and relativism? Does it lead to hell and hopelessness, or does it point to a light beyond the darkness?

This critical edition of Shakespeare’s classic psychological drama contains essays by some of today’s leading critics, exploring Macbeth as a morality play, as a history play with contemporary relevance, and as a drama that shows a vision of evil and that grapples with the problem of free will.

This edition of Macbeth has an introduction by Joseph Pearce, editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, and five essays of contemporary criticism, including "Depraved or Determined? Macbeth and the Problem of Free Will," by Regis Martin.

Also, a novel about Don Juan of Austria:

The Last Crusader

by Louis de Wohl

Don Juan of Austria, one of history’s most triumphant and inspiring heroes, is reborn in this opulent novel by Louis de Wohl.

Because of the circumstances of his birth, this last son of Emperor Charles the Fifth spent his childhood in a Spanish peasant’s hut. Acknowledged by King Philip as his half-brother, the attractive youth quickly became a central figure in a Court where intrigues and romances abounded. Don Juan’s intelligence, kindness and devout attachment to the Church enabled him to live unscathed in an environment of luxury, violence and treachery.

De Wohl paints in brilliant color the vivid scenes and characters at the Court of King Philip, Juan’s campaign against rebel Moriscos in Andalusia, and the amazing climatic victory at Lepanto where he saved the Christian world from Islamic dominance. Here is a novel of high adventure which brings to life the turbulence of the sixteenth century with its conflicts of wickedness and piety, its sins of pride and conquest, its seething heresies and its great faith.

“A page-turning thriller. Exhilarating!” — Joseph Pearce, Author, The Quest for Shakespeare

“In his epic poem, Lepanto, Chesterton called Don Juan the ‘the last knight of Europe.’ This thrilling tale is about things that really happened!” — Dale Ahlquist, Editor, Lepanto – The Annotated Edition

“De Wohl novels are always mentioned by my radio audience as among their favorite reads.” — Al Kresta, Host, Kresta in the Afternoon

Here are more Spring 2010 releases from Ignatius Press.

Whoops!

Paul Kengor, author of God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life, writes in The Weekly Standard of how Secretary of State Clinton, in her keynote at the 2010 National Prayer Breakfast, spoke for several minutes about an adoption center, the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children, she co-founded with Mother Teresa. Kengor writes:

My compliments to Mrs. Clinton: Unlike so many liberals who insist they want abortion to be “safe and legal” but “rare,” here was one who finally lifted a finger to promote the birth and adoption of unborn babies rather than feed them into the jaws of Planned Parenthood clinics. Hillary Clinton, lifelong Methodist, did a good work.

It turns out, however, that the work didn’t bear the fruit we hoped. It reportedly lasted a handful of years, closing by 2002. World’s Emily Belz called the Washington, D.C. branch of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. The nun who answered didn’t go into details on the home’s closure, noting that the nuns are not permitted to talk to the press, but did confirm that the order sold the Chevy Chase house in 2002. (One could only wish that the rich liberals in this wealthy neighborhood might have tossed some scraps to the home as they scooted by in their Beamers.)

So, that’s it. The adoption home that Clinton and her advocates have touted as a display of her Christian compassion has been out of operation for a long time.

This prompts some inconvenient questions:

Has Mrs. Clinton known that the home has been shut down, all the while boasting about it in books, statements, interviews, and no less than the keynote at the 2010 National Prayer Breakfast?

Read the entire piece. Kengor is also the co-author of The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand (Ignatius Press, 2007).

Fr. Aidan Nichol's "radical proposal for saving Catholic education"...

... in England, in today's edition of The Catholic Herald. Fr. Nichols, O.P., is the author of several books, including a second edition of Rome and the Eastern Churches: A Study in Schism, available soon from Ignatius Press.

Truth, Freedom, and Sincerity

Truth, Freedom, and Sincerity | Fr. James V. Schall, S. J. | Ignatius Insight | February 25, 2010

"Your country (England) is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet ... the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.... Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others—on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth." -- Benedict XVI, "Ad Limina Address to Bishops of England and Wales." (February 1, 2010. L'Osservatore Romano, English, February 3, 2010)

I.

Notions of charity, truth, law, compassion, equality, tolerance, virtue, sincerity, friendship, justice, and benevolence are so muddled in recent thought that we find these noble aspirations and realities to be analyzed in such a way as to deny each other's validity. Intelligence, of course, means to sort the essence of each notion out and properly relate it to the others, if possible. All these terms have valid origins in reason and revelation. Freedom or liberty has many meanings. It can mean freedom of the will, freedom under law, freedom to do whatever I want, or freedom to do what I ought or what God directs me to do.

Some people obviously are more virtuous than others. Therefore, they are not simply "equal" in how we regard them. But if we insist on equality, we have to ignore the often higher sense in which we are not equal. Aristotle says that all revolution and controversy arises from perceptions of justice and equality. Everybody that is equal in some things thinks he is equal in everything; those who are unequal in some things want to be unequal in all things.

The essence of civilization is how we balance these two very valid but different conceptions. We may demand "in justice" that everyone be our friend, since this is what a certain understanding of "equality" demands. But it cannot happen. Justice to be justice, as Aristotle taught, needs to recognize both equal and unequal and to know the difference. Friend of everybody, friend of nobody, as an old saying went.

Read the entire essay...

"We own you, you puritanical, homophobic religious nuts!"

That's not exactly what Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for the UK, said on BBC yesterday, but it really isn't too far off the mark:

"If you are currently a Catholic school ... you could choose to teach only to children that contraception is wrong, homosexuality is wrong. That changes radically with this bill."

"A Catholic faith school can say to their pupils we believe as a religion contraception is wrong but what they can't do is therefore say that they are not going to teach them about contraception to children, how to access contraception, or how to use contraception. What this changes is that for the first time these schools cannot just ignore these issues or teach only one side of the argument. They also have to teach that there are different views on homosexuality. They cannot teach homophobia. They must explain civil partnership. They must give a balanced view on abortion, they must give both sides of the argument, they must explain how to access an abortion, the same is true on contraception as well."

Those quotes and others can be read on the blog of John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). In addition, Balls, in a letter to The Times (Feb. 23, 2010), stated,

While schools with a religious character will be free, as now, to express the views of their faith, what they cannot do is suggest that their views are the only ones. All schools will be required to cover in their teaching of personal, social and health education the full range of content prescribed in the statutory programme of study for secondary schools and in the relevant parts of the new primary curriculum.

The bottom line is that all young people should receive accurate and balanced information and discrimination is prevented in all schools.

And, of course, the State is always the best place to go when you are shopping for "accurate and balanced" information about abortion, sex education, diversity, and family life. Absolutely! Forget about drinking the Culture of Death Kool-Aid—simply dive in and bathe in the stuff.

The SPUC website provides this background information:

• The government's Children, Schools and Families bill http://is.gd/6JIGE would force all state schools to provide sex and relationships education (SRE) for all primary and secondary school pupils.
• The government want SRE to include signposting and links to abortion and other anti-life/anti-family services in schools, including faith schools.
• The bill would force schools to teach SRE according to principles of "equality", "diversity" and "rights".
• The government's draft SRE guidance http://is.gd/8bgB6 interprets those principles to include abortion, birth control, homosexuality and "a wide range of [sexual] practices".
• Schools, if challenged, may well have to prove their SRE programmes accord with the bill's principles and that they had "regard" to the government's anti-life guidance. 
• Faith schools may argue that they are entitled to protect their ethos, but the government has demanded that schools accept its sexual health agenda. The government says schools may adapt "the way things are taught", but it insists that all aspects of SRE will have to be delivered in all schools.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, who lived for many years in Britain, has a good post about "Big Brother Britain" and that country's "passion for the panacea of 'sex education'."

Related Ignatius Insight Pieces:

• The Religion of Liberalism, Or Why Freedom and Equality Aren't Ultimate Goals | An interview with James Kalb
• The State Which Would Provide Everything | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Liberal Democracy as a Culture of Death: Why John Paul II Was Right | Dr. Raymond Dennehy
• Religion and Socialism | Peter Kreeft
• "Certain Fundamental Truths": On the Place and Temptations of Politics | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Secularity: On Benedict XVI and the Role of Religion in Society | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

Sorting out the controversy over the USCCB and questionable coalitions

Russell Shaw, author of Nothing to Hide: Secrecy, Communication and Communion in the Catholic Church (Ignatius, 2008) and several other books, sorts through the controversy over the USCCB's relationship with certain suspect coalitions:

A controversy over involvement by the U.S. bishops’ conference and one of its top executives in two liberal public policy groupings spotlights the perils associated with a familiar Washington institution: the coalition.

Coalitions with policy agendas are a way of life in the capital. But as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has lately been reminded, this is a way of life with ambiguities and risks, including guilt by association.

Calls for reform

The controversy erupted when several conservative groups complained that John Carr, head of USCCB’s social development and peace office, formerly played a leadership role in a coalition called the Center for Community Change, which the conservatives accused of promoting abortion and homosexuality. Carr says he severed ties with the center five years ago, and up to then it had no connection with these issues.

Calling themselves the Reform CCHD Now Coalition, the conservatives also complained that 31 of 150 organizations in the Center for Community Change coalition got grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

The bishops’ domestic anti-poverty program has come under fire for funding groups engaged in abortion advocacy and other questionable activities and has withdrawn funding from several.

The Reform CCHD Now Coalition counts some two dozen members, including the American Life League, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry and Real Catholic TV. The critics have continued raising questions about other CCHD-funded groups.

A second round of criticism originated with conservative Catholic journalist Deal Hudson, who noted that the USCCB was one of nearly 200 organizations comprising the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, which, along with its traditional civil-rights agenda, advocates on behalf of gay rights and has opposed abortion restrictions.

Read the entire piece on OSV's "Daily Take" blog.

Save 20% on Ignatius Press titles from Canadian authors, artists, saints

Offer ends Tuesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 midnight EST.
These prices are available online only through Ignatius.com

Great Titles from Canadian Authors, Artists and Saints all at 20% off !

The Olympics are well under way in Vancouver, Canada and the excitement of the games increases each day. Ignatius Press wants to celebrate the work of our Canadian authors, artists and saints by offering you an "Olympic special" with 20% off on these inspiring titles below.  From the novelist Michael O'Brien to the fascinating story of Issac Jogues, the Missionary & martyr, we have captivating products for one and all. Including the new CD release from The Canadian Tenors who are sure to be a huge hit! See the listing below for some great Canadian content!

Should England be a Catholic country again?

That will be the topic up for debate when Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Piers Paul Read, and Reverend Dom Antony Sutch face off against Lord Richard Harries, Matthew Parris, and Stephen Pound on March 2, 2010, in London. The debate is sponsored by The Spectator. Here is more information.

Thirsting and Quenching

Thirsting and Quenching | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. | From Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within

Men and women everywhere are hungry and thirsty, voraciously yearning and seeking: rich and poor, wise and foolish, young and old, literate and illiterate, saints and sinners, atheists and agnostics, playboys and prostitutes. Some can explain their inner emptiness in words; most cannot, but everyone experiences it. That inner ache drives all our dreams, desires, and decisions--good and bad. Even your decision to pick up this book and read was triggered by this nameless desire.

Our abiding hunger for more than we presently experience does not have to be  proved but only explained. Which is what we propose to do right now, before we even begin to think about what prayer is all about. Otherwise you and I cannot understand fully the splendid reality of communing deeply with our Creator and Lord and of our unspeakable destiny in and with him.

Mere animals do not and cannot have this inner aching need, for the simple reason that material things are satisfied with visible creation and their place in it. Because you and I have intellects and wills rooted in our profound spiritual core, nothing finite and limited does, or ever can, fill us. Deep in our humanness is an ache for fullness, for infinity. We are completely satisfied by no individual egoism, by no series of selfish pursuits: vanity, fame, money, lust, power, drugs. Always the sinner seeks more accolades, more money, more recognition, more lewd eroticism, more control of others, more drugs. Never is he satisfied, never really happy and fulfilled.

Why is this so? As spirit-in-the-flesh beings, you and I burst beyond the material order, beyond what our senses can attain, beyond the cosmos itself. By its limited nature nothing created can satisfy us. God alone, the sole infinite One, can fill our endless yearnings. As Karl Rahner put it, we are oriented by nature to the Absolute. Or as John Courtney Murray expressed it, the problem now is not how to be a man, but how to become more than a man. Or as St. Augustine put it in his classic prayer: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." Kittens and giraffes do not have this problem. They cannot. You and I do. (See CCC 27-30.)

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"All I can say is that this is one of my favorite novels ever..."

That is Jeff Miller, the "Curt Jester," describing Lucy Beckett's novel, A Postcard From the Volcano (Ignatius, 2009). Miller writes:

A great Catholic novel does not have to have hit-you-over-the-head Catholic themes, but presents the truth of the human person in a way that enables you to reflect upon it. The characters are so alive in this book, that I would have to remember that it was a book of fiction and not a historical drama based on the lives of actual persons. I wanted to be able to enter into conversations with them to both interact and to learn from them. The last page of the book brought to me a sadness in realizing that the novel was over, even though the ending was quite apt. I just did not want this book to end – which I don’t feel very often in a 500 plus page novel.

And concludes: "I can only give it my highest praise by saying it goes on my reread list." Read his entire post. You can read an interview with Beckett about the novel, as well as the prologue to the novel, on Ignatius Insight:





Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles, Interviews, and Book Excerpts:

• The Order of Love | From the Introduction to In the Light of Christ: Writings in the Western Tradition | Lucy Beckett
• Reading In the Light of Christ | An Interview with Lucy Beckett
• Citadel of God: A Novel About Saint Benedict (Chapter One) | Louis de Wohl
• The Opening Pages of Island of the World: A Novel | Michael O'Brien
• The Mercenary, from A Soldier Surrenders: The Conversion of St. Camillus de Lellis | Susan Peek
• The Misunderstood Monster | Joseph Pearce | From the Introduction to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Ignatius Critical Editions)
• Evangelizing With Love, Beauty and Reason | Joseph Pearce
• The Measure of Literary Giants | Joseph Pearce
• The Power of Poetry | Joseph Pearce
• Well-Versed in Faith | Selections from Flowers of Heaven: One Thousand Years of Christian Verse

Christopher O. Tollefsen has written an exceptional essay...

... on education and homeschooling for The Public Discourse site. It should be read in its entirety, but here is an excerpt:

Children’s education is primarily about their fulfillment, but that fulfillment is and can only be rooted in an orientation towards a life of service to genuine human goods, including the goods of others and service to God. The particular form of life within which each child is called to perform these services is the child’s vocation; the task of education—its primary end—is to enable children to recognize, accept, and pursue that vocation.

This task cannot be accomplished without a host of subsidiary ends being met. Children must be instructed into the moral and religious life, and this must include sexual education. As a part of this education, children must be taught how to distinguish true from false claims, and genuine from illusory goods. This part of a good education is itself bound to be deeply countercultural in the consumeristic and erotically charged world in which we live. Further, children will not understand or make adequate use of the gifts they have been given unless they are allowed and encouraged to discover and cultivate those gifts; consequently, an adequate education will be attentive to the much of the traditional curriculum, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, the study of literature, history and the social sciences. At the same time, education should also provide exposure to nonacademic domains within which children might have gifts, such as music and sport. Children must also learn what it is to act in communion with others, and what it is to possess the virtue of solidarity. Finally, because children are, and will grow up to be, members of a state, to the authorities of which they are rightly subject, children must learn what respect is due those authorities, and how they may be responsible citizens of their state.

When these genuine educational interests of children are violated by their parents, as when parents neglect their educational responsibilities, or positively abuse their children, this cannot be construed as in the interests of the parents. Rather, parents fail themselves as parents just insofar as they fail their children. To frame failures of education in terms of conflicts of rights or interests entirely misconstrues the proper relationship between parents and children.

Read the entire piece. The last sentence above, I think, makes an much-needed and much ignored point. The constant talk of rights in our culture often blinds us to the basic reality of human nature and the proper ends of human life and relationships, which do not depend upon rights, but which, understood in light of the moral and natural law, is part of the basis for said rights. Dr. Tollefsen, who  says it much better, so do read the entire essay.

"Would Jesus Be in the Church Today?"

Would Jesus Be in the Church Today? | Christoph Cardinal Schönborn | From Who Needs God? Barbara Stöckl in Conversation with Christoph Cardinal Schonborn | Ignatius Insight

Can someone be a Christian without a church? There are so many people who work with the sick, the elderly, with homeless people and the marginalized in our society, who are there for these people and, thus, living Christian ideas in their most unadulterated form. Many of them, however, are not Catholic, nor do they have any use for the Church's rules and regulations. Nonetheless, I ask myself: Are they not the better Christians, at any rate, better than very many who go to church on Sundays?

Yes, and no. I often hear that: ''I'm not a bigot, I don't go to church, but I am a good Christian." And then I say again, "Which of us is a good Christian is something Christ will ultimately decide; we all have to appear before his throne of judgment." He will judge whether, in his eyes, I have been a good Christian. Part of being a good Christian, in the human, earthly  order of things, is going to church to worship. For that is actually, as they used to say, our Christian duty. And part of it, of course, is also keeping the commandments of loving God and one's neighbor and not behaving like a scoundrel or a slave-driver. That is the human order of things. According to the human, earthly order of things, of which the Church order is also a part, I would have to answer someone who says, "I don't need any church in order to be a good Christian": That is not right. In order to be a Christian in the sense of our earthly pilgrimage, you need a church, and you need a community. "A single Christian is not a Christian", wrote Tertullian (d. 220), an early Christian writer.

That is to say, you cannot be a Christian on your own. Another question is, "How do I stand before God?" In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus is talking about the final judgment. There, he does not ask, "Have you gone to church on Sundays? Have you paid your parish contributions? Have you obeyed your bishop?" There, the judge says only, "I was sick, and you visited me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was in prison, and you visited me. I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink." Then those concerned will ask, "When did we see you naked and clothe you?" and so on. And then Jesus replies, "Whatever you did for the least of my brothers , you did for me." They had not perceived that at all . They simply did it. In the judgment of God, no doubt, the critical point will not be whether I have fulfilled all the Church's commandments, but whether I have lived love. There are, no doubt, many people who are not part of the visible community of the Church, and in that sense are not Christians, but to whom Christ will say, "Come, O blessed of my Father, for the kingdom of heaven is prepared for you."

Yet since we are pilgrims on earth, I still have to say to our dear former Christians: You cannot make things quite so easy for yourselves by saying, " I don't need the Church" , since the passage is not so simple. Renouncing all the help and support, all safe-conduct on the path, that I find in the community of faith is somewhat irresponsible. I think many people in our society are dealing irresponsibly with the capital of their lives, with what we need by way of spirituality in order to pass along the path of life, when they say, "I don't need the Church."

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Now, now—don't be putting words in the Catholic Church's mouth!

ABC News (Australian) hosts a discussion about the recent canonization of Mary MacKillop and how the "Vatican's decision to canonise Mary MacKillop has highlighted tension between Christian churches on the very question of sainthood."

Sides are clearly marked: "The Catholic Church says its saints are an intermediary with God but the Baptist, Anglican and Uniting churches say all Christians are saints and the idea of canonisation is misleading."

Silliness ensues. The Anglican Bishop of North Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies, "has a lot of questions about the Catholic notion of sainthood. He says it goes against the teachings of the Bible":

GLENN DAVIES: The Bible makes it very clear that people who believe in Jesus are saints. Sainthood is something which is a gift of God.

What the Church is doing, the Roman Catholic Church in this case is making up human regulations to determine who is a saint and who is not.

SIMON LAUDER: What's essentially wrong with Catholics and Anglicans having a different definition for the word saint?

GLENN DAVIES: Well the question is do you want God's definition or do you want human definition? I much prefer God's definition any day.

And what the Roman Catholics by saying only Mary is the only Australian saint, you're saying to every believer in Australia: you are not a saint. Now that is terrible.

Well, yes, that is terrible. However, that is also terribly false, which is truly terrible. It seems that in all of the talk of this definition and that definition (as defined by him), Dr. Davies conveniently forgot the Catholic definition (not defined by him):

"The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God."  The Church, then, is "the holy People of God," and her members are called "saints."

United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she becomes sanctifying. "All the activities of the Church are directed, as toward their end, to the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God."  It is in the Church that "the fullness of the means of salvation"  has been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace of God we acquire holiness."

"The Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though imperfect."  In her members perfect holiness is something yet to be acquired: "Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state - though each in his own way - are called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father himself is perfect." ...

By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly pro claiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors. "The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church's history."  Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, pars. 823-25, 828; emphasis added)

Dr. Davies, I submit, has as much business publicly pontificating about Catholic teaching as I do talking about the finer points of playing rugby. He insists that what Catholics are saying—"by saying only Mary is the only Australian saint"—is that if you are a believer in Australia, but you aren't Mary MacKillop, "you are not a saint." Total nonsense, of course. This is like saying, "The public schools have recognized Mr. Smith as the Public School Teacher of the Year, which means that if you aren't the Public School Teacher of the Year, you really aren't a public school teacher." Or: "The Crochet Club of Western Australia has recognized Ms. Speedifingers as the Best Crocheter in Western Australia, which means that no one else has a clue about crocheting." Or, "Anyone who is not in the Rugby Hall of Fame is not a real rugby player." All of which is nonsense and all of which should, I hope, highlight exactly what the Catechism states: Saints with a capital "S" are proposed and offered as models of fidelity and faith, and as sources of renewal, edification, and encouragement.

The real issues, of course, are those of ecclesiology and authority. If the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and has been given authority to govern, then Dr. Davies doesn't have much to stand on other than his personal opinion about "the teachings of the Bible." But, then, if the authority on these matters is solely the Bible, we are back to the well-known and daunting difficulty: who interprets, explains, defines, teaches, and clarifies what the Bible means? You know the drill. (And, I trust, we don't have to point out how sadly silly it is to say, "The Bible doesn't need to be interpreted; it's as clear as the day is long...") The irony is that while Dr. Davies complains "the Roman Catholic Church in this case is making up human regulations to determine who is a saint and who is not," it is actually Dr. Davies who is making up a non-Scriptural human regulation (commonly called sola scriptura) to determine what is of God and what is not. Now that is terrible...

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:

• Why Catholicism Makes Protestantism Tick: Louis Bouyer on the Reformation | Mark Brumley
• Has The Reformation Ended? | An Interview with Dr. Mark Noll
• Evangelicals and Catholics In Conversation, Part 1 | Interview with Dr. Brad Harper
• Evangelicals and Catholics In Conversation, Part 2 | Interview with Dr. Brad Harper
• Thomas Howard and the Kindly Light | Ignatius Insight
• Objections, Obstacles, Acceptance: An Interview with J. Budziszewski | Ignatius Insight
• Thomas Howard on the Meaning of Tradition | Ignatius Insight
• Surprised by Conversion: The Patterns of Faith | Peter E. Martin
• Reformation 101: Who's Who in the Protestant Reformation | Geoffrey Saint-Clair
• The Tale of Trent: A Council and and Its Legacy | Martha Rasmussen

Benedict XVI reflects on the temptation of Jesus in the desert, spiritual combat

From Vatican Information Services:

ANGELUS: LENT, A PERIOD OF SPIRITUAL "COMBAT"

VATICAN CITY, 21 FEB 2010 (VIS) - The significance of the Lenten journey was the theme of Benedict XVI's remarks before praying the Angelus this morning with thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

 The Pope commented on the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert, which was the Gospel reading for today, the first Sunday of Lent, explaining that the temptations "were not a by-the-way incident, but the consequence of Jesus' decision to complete the mission entrusted to Him by the Father".

 "Christ came into the world to free us from sin and from the ambiguous lure of seeking to plan our lives without God. He did this not with high-sounding proclamations but by struggling personally with the Tempter, all the way to the Cross. This example holds true for us all: that the world is improved by beginning with ourselves, by changing, with God's grace, what is wrong with our lives".

 Of the three temptations of Jesus, the first "had its origin in hunger, in material want", said the Pope. "But Jesus responded with the words: 'One does not live by bread alone'". The second temptation came when the devil showed Christ all the kingdoms of the earth; this, the Holy Father explained, "is the lure of power which Jesus unmasked and rejected". To the third temptation, the proposal to perform a miracle that everyone might believe in Him, Jesus responded: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

 "Making constant reference to Holy Scripture", the Pope added, Jesus "made human criteria subject to the only true criterion: obedience to the will of God. This is a fundamental lesson for us too: if we carry the Word of God in our minds and hearts, if it enters our lives, then we too can reject all the tricks of the Tempter".

 "Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism".

 In closing his remarks the Holy Father invoked the help of the Virgin Mary "that we might live this period of grace joyfully and fruitfully. May she particularly intercede for me and my collaborators in the Roman Curia as we begin our spiritual exercises this evening", he concluded.

The Holy Father reflects at length, with many excellent insights, on the Temptation in the Desert in his book, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (paperback edition, with a new index; pages 25-45). Also see Fr. Schall's essay, "'God Is The Issue' | The Temptation in the Desert and the Kingdoms of This World," which reflects on Benedict's book.

UPDATE: Also see this book, helpfully mentioned by a reader in the comments:

Spiritual Combat Revisited
by Fr. Jonathan Robinson

Fr. Robinson has done a great service in revitalizing Lorenzo Scupoli’s classic, Spiritual Combat, so that contemporary Catholics can rediscover this rich work that has served many generations of Catholics. This book is about the life of prayer and personal reform and renewal. It fits squarely into the tradition of the “great masters” of the spiritual life, and to the line of great modern writers on spirituality. It is a work of particular relevance that confronts modern culture with the tough-minded, deeply authentic challenge of spiritual combat.

Robinson has retained Scupoli’s appeal to the Catholic reader through a conversational style, short chapters, familiar examples from everyday life, and the pastoral bent which has marked his own outstanding career. Covering the basic difficulties of daily prayer and of obstacles to living the virtues, Scupoli and Robinson test the mettle of real Catholics by calling us to live an interior life for and with God.

“A serious, but readable, contemporary presentation of the spiritual wisdom contained in a 16th century spiritual classic which St. Francis De Sales highly praised. Robinson has a profound understanding and appreciation for the ‘spiritual combat’ dimension of our journey toward union with God." — Ralph Martin, Author, Called to Holiness

Fr. Jonathan Robinson is the founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, and a License in Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He is also the author of The Mass and Modernity: Walking to Heaven Backwards.

"Primacy in Love": The Chair Altar of Saint Peter's in Rome

"Primacy in Love": The Chair Altar of Saint Peter's in Rome | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Images of Hope

Anyone who, after wandering through the massive nave of Saint Peter's Basilica, at last arrives at the final altar in the apse would probably expect here a triumphal depiction of Saint Peter, around whose tomb the church is built. But nothing of the kind is the case. The figure of the Apostle does not appear among the sculptures of this altar. Instead, we stand before an empty throne that almost seems to float but is supported by the four figures of the great Church teachers of the West and the East. The muted light over the throne emanates from the window surrounded by floating angels, who conduct the rays of light downward.

What is this whole composition trying to express? What does it tell us? It seems to me that a deep analysis of the essence of the Church lies hidden here, is contained here, an analysis of the office of Peter. Let us begin with the window, with its muted colors, which both gathers in to the center and opens outward and upward. It unites the Church with creation as a whole. It signifies through the dove of the Holy Spirit that God is the actual source of all light. But it tells us also something else) the Church herself is in essence, so to speak, a window, a place of contact between the other-worldly mystery of God and our world, the place where the world is permeable to the radiance of his light. The Church is not there for herself, she is not an end, but rather a point of departure beyond herself and us. The more transparent she becomes for the other, from whom she comes and to whom she leads, the more she fulfills her true essence. Through the window of her faith God enters this world and awakens in us the longing for what is greater. The Church is the place of encounter where God meets us and we find God. It is her task to open up a world closing in on itself, to give it the light without which it would be unlivable.

Let us look now at the next level of the altar: the empty cathedra made of gilded bronze, in which a wooden chair from the ninth century is embedded, held for a long time to be the cathedra of the Apostle Peter and for this reason placed in this location. The meaning of this part of the altar is thereby made clear. The teaching chair of Peter says more than a picture could say. It expresses the abiding presence of the Apostle, who as teacher remains present in his successors.

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