Below are my picks by month of the blog posts I remember. As might be expected, some months it was difficult to choose even one and others it was tough find only one. I do not include homilies, as these are written in a different vein than posts; post being written spontaneously with no planning. I would be happy to have readers share their favorite post or posts in the combox.
December- True Knowledge Wounds Us
November- Jesus Makes Clean and Whole
October- Love is the only reason
September- Our on-going cultural embrace of non-being
August- "resistance to the annhilation of the human subject"
July- Of human rights
June- Why deacons?
May- YouTube Orthodoxy and Saturday miscellania
April- April begins, the snow continues, notes on ecumenism, and the ND controversy goes on
March- Patience takes time, being patient costs us time, but it is well spent
February- Abraham Lincoln's 200th
January- What sacrifice?
This year I posted 355 times, making 2009 the first year since I began blogging seriously in 2006 that I did not average at least a post a day. There are now 1,353 post on this blog. Who knows what 2010 holds? So, this wraps up another year on Καθολικός διάκονος. I pray that everyone has a great New Year's Eve!
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Críticas e elogios a Obama no rescaldo da tentativa falhada de ataque terrorista
Já a secretária Janet Napolitano, titular da pasta da Segurança Interna, está sob fogo por ter dito que «o sistema funcionou».
"the law of the 'I' is love"
We are tempted all the time to reduce Christian life to moralism, to doing the right thing. When we live in such a way, we give ourselves a lot of credit for being what we mistakenly believe to be obedient. Obedience, which is adherence to Christ, is not just following the rules in a strict way. If living in this way comprised what life in Christ is meant to be we could have just stuck with the Law, with observing the 613 mitzvot. The trouble with this, as Jesus demonstrated time and again in his encounters with the scribes and Pharisees, is that heartless observance of these prescriptions and proscriptions does not even constitute fidelity to the Law. Jesus Christ alone fulfilled the Law by loving the Father and us perfectly. He alone makes up for our unwillingness and inability in this regard. He crystallized the Law for us: "But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets'." (Matt. 22:34-40).
How do I know when I am living in a moralistic manner? Luigi Giussani, in whose charism I am blessed to share, stated that "if your action derives from something dictated to you, it's child's play. If it comes from the awareness moved by the presence of a [person] destined for the eternal, it is no longer child's play" (Is It Possible to Live This Way? Vol 3). As St. Paul urged the church in Corinth "do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature" (1 Cor. 14:20).
How do I know when I am living in a moralistic manner? Luigi Giussani, in whose charism I am blessed to share, stated that "if your action derives from something dictated to you, it's child's play. If it comes from the awareness moved by the presence of a [person] destined for the eternal, it is no longer child's play" (Is It Possible to Live This Way? Vol 3). As St. Paul urged the church in Corinth "do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature" (1 Cor. 14:20).
The Cathedral of the Madeleine Nativity Pageant
Each year prior to the Noon Mass on Christmas day we have the children of the parish who are enrolled in Religious Education in grades K-4 process to our lovely creche located in the Our Lady Chapel, located West of the main altar. It is always one of the joys of my Christmas Day. I process with them and they help me bless the manger scene. So, here is this year's picture, courtesy of our Children's Religious Education Coodinator, without whom my life as a DRE would be nigh unto unmanageable, Cathy Piaz:
This picture makes me beam, like a warm ray of light on a cold day.
This picture makes me beam, like a warm ray of light on a cold day.
«Caderno Afegão», por Alexandra Lucas Coelho
«Este livro é um acto de coragem. É um acto de optimismo, também.
Paul Theroux explica na introdução a "O Velho Expresso da Patagónia" que "os viajantes são essencialmente optimistas, ou então nunca iriam a lado nenhum".
É esse optimismo que permite a Alexandra Lucas Coelho afastar quaisquer receios com uma espécie de fatalismo paradoxalmente empreendedor: "não há nada a fazer". Mesmo quando por instantes se lhe infiltra na mente a dúvida acerca do desconhecido que a certa altura a transporta, sabe-se lá para onde, numa terra onde "um estrangeiro é um acepipe". "Não há nada a fazer." E a viagem continua.
Vamos com ela aos jardins de Babur. Descobrimos com ela – num país masculino, onde até na morgue há frigoríficos distintos para os cadáveres de homens e mulheres – a herança da extraordinária rainha Gowar Shad. Mergulhamos o olhar no azul intenso de Band-e-Amir, um milagre atribuído a Ali, primo e genro do Profeta, que continua a proporcionar a quem o visita os bens mais escassos num país em guerra: tranquilidade e alegria.
Aquilo que aqui, a ocidente, a milhares de quilómetros de distância, é apenas um borrão sem nome, uma massa de ideias vagas e de lugares-comuns, geopolítica e geoestratégia, toma a forma de gente concreta, ganha contornos, espessura, rosto. O facto de Alexandra Lucas Coelho escrever tão bem faz o resto. É o meio de transporte em que viajamos por um lugar aonde, é quase certo, nunca iríamos de outro modo.»
(do prefácio de Carlos Vaz Marques)
Acompanhou-me nos últimos dias e acabei de o ler há momentos. É um livro belíssimo , que vale a pena ser saboreado.
Alexandra Lucas Coelho, jornalista do «Público», escreveu «Caderno Afegão», obra na qual relata a sua experiência (única) no Afeganistão, em Junho de 2008.
Numa altura em que o Afeganistão é, cada vez mais, o país chave para se perceber como irá correr o resto do mandato de Obama, aqui fica a sugestão de leitura, no CASA BRANCA.
A edição (muito bonita) é da Tinta da China.
The Cathedral of the Madeleine Book Club recommences
For those of you who live in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, I am happy to announce the recommencement of The Cathedral of the Madeleine Book Club. We will begin meeting again on Tuesday, 2 February 2010 from 7:00-9:00 PM. The book we are going to discuss is The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. According to Dr. Marianne Friederich, Schlink's novel is part of the fourth wave of German Holocaust literature. Dr. Friedrich has noted that in The Reader Schlink "takes a new approach in dealing with the Holocaust" not only by shifting the focus "from the victims to his protagonist's personal encounter with a perpetrator," but "he also replaces the bond between fathers and their children with a bond of passionate love," which the film version greatly overplayed at the expense of the novel's integrity.
We will gather in the Our Lady of Zion chapel promptly at 7:00 PM, which is the prayer room just off the Cathedral, the one with the votive candles, just prior to moving to the Cathedral rectory where our discussion will take place. After The Reader, we will read and discuss John Allen's recently published book The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church.
We will gather in the Our Lady of Zion chapel promptly at 7:00 PM, which is the prayer room just off the Cathedral, the one with the votive candles, just prior to moving to the Cathedral rectory where our discussion will take place. After The Reader, we will read and discuss John Allen's recently published book The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church.
Charity and generosity, what's the diff?
Is there is a difference between service and Christian service, between service and diakonia? If so, what is it? Msgr. Giussani, in the Assembly at the end of the first chapter of Is It Possible to Live This Way?: An Unusual Approach to Christian Existence, Vol. 3 Charity, makes a distinction between generosity and charity, caritas, love. The difference may seem a little hair-splitting, especially to those of us who hail from the U.S. because we tend to be so pragmatic, results oriented. In other words, we ask- If something good is done by one for another or a group of people for other people, what difference does their motivation make? This attitude explains a lot about Christianity in this country, where a few years ago a majority of respondents to a poll about their favorite Bible verse picked "God helps those who help themselves," which is not a Bible verse. The answer is- it makes a big difference, both to the one who gives as well as to the one who receives. In his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est, which merits reading over and again, the Holy Father wrote about why motivation matters, why love, caritas, matters more than anything else:
In this letter Pope Benedict also cites kerygma-martyria, leitourgia, and diakonia as expressions of the Church's deepest nature (par. 25a). Leitourgia and diakonia (i.e., love of God and love of neighbor respectively) are ways that we become martyrs, ones who proclaim (kerygma) Christ. Of course, all three of these "presuppose each other and are inseparable" (par. 25a).
For Giussani "generosity begins with you, an impetus that originates in you. Its whole reason for being is to express something in you" (Is It Possible 61). I think we can detect generosity when we hear things like, "I helped at the soup kitchen and I felt so good afterwards. Helping others makes me feel so good." By contrast, "the act of love arises outside you, arises from a presence that lies outside you and surrenders to the emotion or to being moved by that presence"
(61). While this sounds good, even easy, we often initially resist what the love that arises outside of us demands; it means doing something I may find inconvenient, even difficult.
Giussani chooses the perfect illustration from the beginning of the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, which is one of the most overused, hence, misapplied and misunderstood passages of Scripture, read at virtually every Catholic wedding- "If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing" (verse 3). He uses the example of the Czech, Jan Palch, who lit himself on fire and burned to death to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 to further illustrate. "[C]harity is a presence for whom I give my life, to whom I give my life" (61-2). This presence has a name, the name given by the archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, the name of the presence is Jesus, who is Christ the Lord. We are still celebrating His becoming human for us and for our salvation, which, the Holy Father reminded us a few Christmases ago, is worked out through our lives, which is composed of the various circumstances in which we find ourselves, and not despite our every day experiences.
Most, if not all, of this was summed up by the Holy Father when he wrote: "Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift" (Deus Caritas Est par. 7). You see, this difference makes all the difference in the world? It is the difference between giving a man a fish, teaching a man to fish, and being a fisher of men, which means being loved and, in turn, loving the other person's destiny.
"Going beyond exterior appearances, I perceive in others an interior desire for a sign of love, of concern. This I can offer them not only through the organizations intended for such purposes, accepting it perhaps as a political necessity. Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave. Here we see the necessary interplay between love of God and love of neighbour which the First Letter of John speaks of with such insistence. If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be 'devout' and to perform my 'religious duties', then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely 'proper', but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well" (par. 18)
In this letter Pope Benedict also cites kerygma-martyria, leitourgia, and diakonia as expressions of the Church's deepest nature (par. 25a). Leitourgia and diakonia (i.e., love of God and love of neighbor respectively) are ways that we become martyrs, ones who proclaim (kerygma) Christ. Of course, all three of these "presuppose each other and are inseparable" (par. 25a).For Giussani "generosity begins with you, an impetus that originates in you. Its whole reason for being is to express something in you" (Is It Possible 61). I think we can detect generosity when we hear things like, "I helped at the soup kitchen and I felt so good afterwards. Helping others makes me feel so good." By contrast, "the act of love arises outside you, arises from a presence that lies outside you and surrenders to the emotion or to being moved by that presence"
(61). While this sounds good, even easy, we often initially resist what the love that arises outside of us demands; it means doing something I may find inconvenient, even difficult.
Giussani chooses the perfect illustration from the beginning of the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, which is one of the most overused, hence, misapplied and misunderstood passages of Scripture, read at virtually every Catholic wedding- "If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing" (verse 3). He uses the example of the Czech, Jan Palch, who lit himself on fire and burned to death to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 to further illustrate. "[C]harity is a presence for whom I give my life, to whom I give my life" (61-2). This presence has a name, the name given by the archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, the name of the presence is Jesus, who is Christ the Lord. We are still celebrating His becoming human for us and for our salvation, which, the Holy Father reminded us a few Christmases ago, is worked out through our lives, which is composed of the various circumstances in which we find ourselves, and not despite our every day experiences.
Most, if not all, of this was summed up by the Holy Father when he wrote: "Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift" (Deus Caritas Est par. 7). You see, this difference makes all the difference in the world? It is the difference between giving a man a fish, teaching a man to fish, and being a fisher of men, which means being loved and, in turn, loving the other person's destiny.
Update on Christmas Mass shenanigans in St. Peter's
VATICAN CITY, 25 DEC 2009 ( VIS ) - Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. today released the following communique:
Yesterday evening, during the entry procession of the celebration, an unbalanced person - one Susanna Maiolo, age 25, with Italian and Swiss nationality - leapt over the barrier and, despite an intervention by the security guards, managed to reach the Holy Father and grasp his pallium, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. The Pope was able to get up immediately and continue the procession, and the rest of the celebration took place without incident.
Unfortunately, in the confusion, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray fell and broke the neck of his femur. He was taken to Rome 's Gemelli hospital where his condition is good although he will have to undergo an operation in the next few days.
The young woman, who was unarmed but showed signs of mental unbalance, was taken to a psychiatric hospital where she will undergo obligatory treatment.
In a separate communique issued yesterday, the Holy See Press Office made known that Cardinal Roger Etchegaray underwent a complete arthroprothesis of the hip. The operation was successful and he is in good health.
The Press office also stated that Ms. Maiolo's case remains with the Vatican magistrates who, "in the light of the reports of doctors and of the Vatican Gendarmerie, will evaluate the next steps to be taken." Along with our daily prayers for the Holy Father, let us continue to pray for His Eminence, Cardinal Etchegaray and for Ms. Maiolo
Yesterday evening, during the entry procession of the celebration, an unbalanced person - one Susanna Maiolo, age 25, with Italian and Swiss nationality - leapt over the barrier and, despite an intervention by the security guards, managed to reach the Holy Father and grasp his pallium, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. The Pope was able to get up immediately and continue the procession, and the rest of the celebration took place without incident.
Unfortunately, in the confusion, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray fell and broke the neck of his femur. He was taken to Rome 's Gemelli hospital where his condition is good although he will have to undergo an operation in the next few days.
The young woman, who was unarmed but showed signs of mental unbalance, was taken to a psychiatric hospital where she will undergo obligatory treatment.
In a separate communique issued yesterday, the Holy See Press Office made known that Cardinal Roger Etchegaray underwent a complete arthroprothesis of the hip. The operation was successful and he is in good health.
The Press office also stated that Ms. Maiolo's case remains with the Vatican magistrates who, "in the light of the reports of doctors and of the Vatican Gendarmerie, will evaluate the next steps to be taken." Along with our daily prayers for the Holy Father, let us continue to pray for His Eminence, Cardinal Etchegaray and for Ms. Maiolo
Feast of the Holy Innocents
During these days immediately following Christmas we celebrate three very important feasts. We observe the Feasts of St. Stephen, St. John the Evangelist, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Feast of St. Stephen is a special day for deacons, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, which would have been observed yesterday were it not Sunday, but Sundays remind of the reason for any of it, is a day for priests. My friend, Paul Z., posted a wonderful Blessing of Wine to be given on the Feast of St. John. In my opinion, wine itself is a blessing. Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a day that we honor the young men and women, boys and girls who serve at the altar.
Cathedral of the Madeleine Christmas pageant 2008
"Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
"It has been a painful year. But the Church today may well be a better and safer place than was the Church of twenty five years ago when all looked well but where deep shadows were kept buried.
"The Church in Dublin is called to conversion and to renewal. The origins of the past failings spring in a special way from a false understanding of the Church. They spring from a false understanding of the place of the priest in the Church and from a totally impoverished understanding of the Church as a community of the baptised.
"Paradoxically, such a false understanding of the place of the ordained priesthood in the Church has damaged priests. Many survivors of abuse and their families not only had a better understanding of the nature of abuse and its disastrous effects than did the experts of the Church and science. They also had a better understanding of the role and importance of the priest and the vocation of priests to be Christlike in a special way. Survivors turned to a priest sincerely and with idealism and they were met by betrayal of priesthood through abuse or distortion of the priesthood though lack of the care they had a right to receive."
He goes to say something about priests that is also needed and often neglected in this heart-breaking horror- "There are great priests in this diocese. They too feel betrayed. Many feel that I have not defended them enough and not supported them adequately at this moment. If I have failed them, from this Mother Church of the Archdiocese I ask their pardon. I recognise their dedication and I am sure that the people of the diocese do too." Nonetheless, he goes to says that the Church can only be renewed by "honestly and brutally recognising what happened in the past. There can be no glossing over the past. Renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past. Criminal behaviour must be investigated and pursued. Gross failures in management must be remedied in a transparent way. Current practice must be effectively monitored. Anachronisms left over from past history must be replaced." In the end, we look to the Word of God, who for us and for our salvation became human. Indeed, the Church writ large is called to constant conversion and renewal until we attain the fullness of the stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
All children have a right, an inherent right, to receive love and care. So, if you are a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an older brother or sister, or a godparent, give a little one a hug today, let them know you love them, let them know they are safe and can grow up confident in your love and care. This should be especially easy since we are still basking in the glow of our celebration of the Lord's coming into the world as a helpless baby, the day after our observance of the Feast of the Holy Family, and the day we remember the Holy Innocents.
Cathedral of the Madeleine Christmas pageant 2008
"Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:'A voice was heard in Ramah,In today's world with all the violence, especially in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and more recently in Pakistan, there is a lot of random violence that takes the form of suicide bombings, remotely detonated bombs, or stand-off attacks that kill indiscriminately. Along with innocent men and women, children are killed. A few weeks ago I watched the Brazilian movie The City of God. In the film there is a horrifying scene where two street children, one maybe five and the other seven, are cornered by a drug dealer who shot them both in one of their feet and then had a child about their age decide which of them should be killed. Let's not forget the many innocents who have been abused in the church. For those who follow things ecclesial, the child abuse crisis in Ireland reached a crescendo just before Christmas, revelations came forth in a government report that caused several bishops to resign for their failure to act to protect children. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who was named to his post to deal with this situation, addressed this in his Christmas homily, which is painful and hopeful at the same time:
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more'" (Matt. 2:16-18)
"It has been a painful year. But the Church today may well be a better and safer place than was the Church of twenty five years ago when all looked well but where deep shadows were kept buried.
"The Church in Dublin is called to conversion and to renewal. The origins of the past failings spring in a special way from a false understanding of the Church. They spring from a false understanding of the place of the priest in the Church and from a totally impoverished understanding of the Church as a community of the baptised.
"Paradoxically, such a false understanding of the place of the ordained priesthood in the Church has damaged priests. Many survivors of abuse and their families not only had a better understanding of the nature of abuse and its disastrous effects than did the experts of the Church and science. They also had a better understanding of the role and importance of the priest and the vocation of priests to be Christlike in a special way. Survivors turned to a priest sincerely and with idealism and they were met by betrayal of priesthood through abuse or distortion of the priesthood though lack of the care they had a right to receive."
He goes to say something about priests that is also needed and often neglected in this heart-breaking horror- "There are great priests in this diocese. They too feel betrayed. Many feel that I have not defended them enough and not supported them adequately at this moment. If I have failed them, from this Mother Church of the Archdiocese I ask their pardon. I recognise their dedication and I am sure that the people of the diocese do too." Nonetheless, he goes to says that the Church can only be renewed by "honestly and brutally recognising what happened in the past. There can be no glossing over the past. Renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past. Criminal behaviour must be investigated and pursued. Gross failures in management must be remedied in a transparent way. Current practice must be effectively monitored. Anachronisms left over from past history must be replaced." In the end, we look to the Word of God, who for us and for our salvation became human. Indeed, the Church writ large is called to constant conversion and renewal until we attain the fullness of the stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
All children have a right, an inherent right, to receive love and care. So, if you are a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an older brother or sister, or a godparent, give a little one a hug today, let them know you love them, let them know they are safe and can grow up confident in your love and care. This should be especially easy since we are still basking in the glow of our celebration of the Lord's coming into the world as a helpless baby, the day after our observance of the Feast of the Holy Family, and the day we remember the Holy Innocents.
Year C Feast of the Holy Family
Readings: Sir. 3:2-6.12-14; Ps. 128:1-5; Col. 3:12-21; Luke 2:41-52
According to Jewish practice during the Second Temple period, the time in which Jesus lived, every male was required to go to Jerusalem to make an offering to the Lord three times a year: on Passover, which commemorates Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Pentecost, which recalls God’s giving the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai; Tabernacles, which marks Israel’s forty year sojourn in the desert. In today’s Gospel Jesus had just reached the age at which he was required to fulfill these obligations.
Like the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, eight days after his birth, St. Luke uses this episode to highlight the Holy Family’s fidelity to the Torah. Like so many episodes in his life, this observance results in a surprise, a very early manifestation of Jesus’ messianic and divine identity. What is surprising about this narrative is what appears to be our Lord’s impertinent answer to his mother’s question, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety," an anxiety that any parent would feel upon realizing a child was missing or lost (Luke 2:48). Jesus responds, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" (Luke 2:49)
Our Lord’s seemingly impertinent response to his mother leads us to consider our reading from the Book of Sirach, which is seen by many scholars as a commentary on the fourth commandment that enjoins us to honor our father and our mother. This commandment is a bridge between the first three commandments about loving God and the final six about loving our neighbor. In this schema, parents are rightly situated between God and other people. This unique place parents occupy in our lives entails mutual responsibilities. We should honor our parents because they gave us life and our elders because they are the repositories of life’s wisdom. Very often it is their hard work and self-less sacrifice that earned the benefits we enjoy.
There is much said and written today about the Church’s magisterium, her teaching authority. Most of this speaking and writing focuses on the authority of the papacy or the episcopacy. On this feast, we are reminded that parents, because their authority is also divinely derived, constitute part of the Church’s authentic magisterium because in "Christ the family becomes the domestic church because it is a community of faith, of hope, and of charity" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 456).
With authority comes tremendous responsibility. Hence, the responsibilities of parents exceed the duties of their children. When presenting a child for baptism, after requesting the sacrament for her/him, Christian parents willingly accept "the responsibility of training [them] in the practice of the faith" (Rite of Baptism for Several Children par. 39). They assume the "duty" of bringing their children "up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor" (par.39). Indeed, much of any child’s image of God is derived from his/her parents. Therefore, Christian parents must be mindful that their authority, like that of the Church, "is not above the word of God, but serves it" (Dei Verbum par. 10)." In order to serve the word of God, parents must listen "to it devoutly" (par. 10).
In our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the apostle provides us with a list of values that are to be nurtured in the family. More fundamentally, the family has a value that itself needs nurturing, especially at a time when it faces such danger brought about by radical attempts to redefine it in ways that accord neither with nature nor revelation.
Pope Benedict has observed that "[t]he family is the indispensable foundation for society and a great and lifelong treasure for couples." The family is also "a unique good for children," the Holy Father continues, "who are meant to be the fruit of love, of the total and generous self-giving of the parents." Recently a document called the Manhattan Declaration was issued. It is an ecumenical document signed by several Catholic and Orthodox bishops, as well as by many Protestant leaders in the U.S. In the section on marriage it states forthrightly that in order "[t]o strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore... a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage... we must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make." This is no small chore, but one that can be accomplished by Christians, strengthened by sacramental grace, who seek to make known the great mystery of God’s love by living matrimony as a holy state of life, as a sacrament.
Getting back to Jesus’ response to his mother, we see, on closer examination, that Jesus is not being impertinent or disrespectful. While he is and will always be the son of Mary and was beholden to Joseph as to a father, he is most profoundly the Son of God. His words, therefore, are a reminder to Mary and Joseph to recognize the reality of who he is and how he is constitutive of reality, a recognition that forces them to confront the great mystery of God-made-man for us.
Our Gospel ends with a portrait of family life that gives us a little insight into the life of Jesus between the age of twelve the beginning of his public ministry: "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man" (Luke 2:51-52). By humbly submitting himself to the parental authority of Mary and Joseph our Lord made known to them what they were not able to understand that day in the Temple. Likewise, it is by our humble obedience to the Father, whose perfect will is expressed through his Son that we make the Lordship of Jesus Christ known to those who do not understand. As you continue your joyful celebration of Christmas, along with all the goodies and sweets may all of you enjoy the sweetest fruit of all, which we contemplate as the fifth and final Joyful mystery of the rosary: the joy of finding Jesus, who is Christ the Lord.
According to Jewish practice during the Second Temple period, the time in which Jesus lived, every male was required to go to Jerusalem to make an offering to the Lord three times a year: on Passover, which commemorates Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Pentecost, which recalls God’s giving the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai; Tabernacles, which marks Israel’s forty year sojourn in the desert. In today’s Gospel Jesus had just reached the age at which he was required to fulfill these obligations.
Like the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, eight days after his birth, St. Luke uses this episode to highlight the Holy Family’s fidelity to the Torah. Like so many episodes in his life, this observance results in a surprise, a very early manifestation of Jesus’ messianic and divine identity. What is surprising about this narrative is what appears to be our Lord’s impertinent answer to his mother’s question, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety," an anxiety that any parent would feel upon realizing a child was missing or lost (Luke 2:48). Jesus responds, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?" (Luke 2:49)
Our Lord’s seemingly impertinent response to his mother leads us to consider our reading from the Book of Sirach, which is seen by many scholars as a commentary on the fourth commandment that enjoins us to honor our father and our mother. This commandment is a bridge between the first three commandments about loving God and the final six about loving our neighbor. In this schema, parents are rightly situated between God and other people. This unique place parents occupy in our lives entails mutual responsibilities. We should honor our parents because they gave us life and our elders because they are the repositories of life’s wisdom. Very often it is their hard work and self-less sacrifice that earned the benefits we enjoy.
There is much said and written today about the Church’s magisterium, her teaching authority. Most of this speaking and writing focuses on the authority of the papacy or the episcopacy. On this feast, we are reminded that parents, because their authority is also divinely derived, constitute part of the Church’s authentic magisterium because in "Christ the family becomes the domestic church because it is a community of faith, of hope, and of charity" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 456).With authority comes tremendous responsibility. Hence, the responsibilities of parents exceed the duties of their children. When presenting a child for baptism, after requesting the sacrament for her/him, Christian parents willingly accept "the responsibility of training [them] in the practice of the faith" (Rite of Baptism for Several Children par. 39). They assume the "duty" of bringing their children "up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor" (par.39). Indeed, much of any child’s image of God is derived from his/her parents. Therefore, Christian parents must be mindful that their authority, like that of the Church, "is not above the word of God, but serves it" (Dei Verbum par. 10)." In order to serve the word of God, parents must listen "to it devoutly" (par. 10).
In our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the apostle provides us with a list of values that are to be nurtured in the family. More fundamentally, the family has a value that itself needs nurturing, especially at a time when it faces such danger brought about by radical attempts to redefine it in ways that accord neither with nature nor revelation.
Pope Benedict has observed that "[t]he family is the indispensable foundation for society and a great and lifelong treasure for couples." The family is also "a unique good for children," the Holy Father continues, "who are meant to be the fruit of love, of the total and generous self-giving of the parents." Recently a document called the Manhattan Declaration was issued. It is an ecumenical document signed by several Catholic and Orthodox bishops, as well as by many Protestant leaders in the U.S. In the section on marriage it states forthrightly that in order "[t]o strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore... a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage... we must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make." This is no small chore, but one that can be accomplished by Christians, strengthened by sacramental grace, who seek to make known the great mystery of God’s love by living matrimony as a holy state of life, as a sacrament.
Getting back to Jesus’ response to his mother, we see, on closer examination, that Jesus is not being impertinent or disrespectful. While he is and will always be the son of Mary and was beholden to Joseph as to a father, he is most profoundly the Son of God. His words, therefore, are a reminder to Mary and Joseph to recognize the reality of who he is and how he is constitutive of reality, a recognition that forces them to confront the great mystery of God-made-man for us.
Our Gospel ends with a portrait of family life that gives us a little insight into the life of Jesus between the age of twelve the beginning of his public ministry: "He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man" (Luke 2:51-52). By humbly submitting himself to the parental authority of Mary and Joseph our Lord made known to them what they were not able to understand that day in the Temple. Likewise, it is by our humble obedience to the Father, whose perfect will is expressed through his Son that we make the Lordship of Jesus Christ known to those who do not understand. As you continue your joyful celebration of Christmas, along with all the goodies and sweets may all of you enjoy the sweetest fruit of all, which we contemplate as the fifth and final Joyful mystery of the rosary: the joy of finding Jesus, who is Christ the Lord.
Nancy Pelosy, 'madam speaker'
Texto publicado no passado dia 21 de Dezembro, no «Histórias da Casa Branca», site de A Bola, secção Outros Mundos, sobre a speaker da Câmara dos Representantes:
Nancy Pelosi, "madam speaker"
Por Germano Almeida
Há um elo fundamental para que a corrente entre a Casa Branca de Barack Obama e o Congresso possa funcionar – e batalhas como a da Saúde mostram que nem sempre tem funcionado da melhor forma. Esse elo chama-se Nancy Pelosi, a poderosa 'speaker' da Câmara dos Representantes.
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi, 69 anos, é a primeira mulher a liderar a House (a câmara baixa), um marco histórico que até George W. Bush (que ainda era Presidente quando Nancy atingiu o posto) destacou durante largos minutos em discurso no Congresso. É, também, a primeira italo-americana e a primeira congressista eleita pelo estado da Califórnia a assumir o posto de speaker.
Filha de um antigo congressista do Maryland, Thomas D'Alesandro, Nancy cresceu numa família com fortes ligações ao Partido Democrata. Além de ter servido no Congresso, o pai de Nancy foi também mayor de Baltimore, tal como o filho, Thomas D'Alesandro III, irmão da actual 'speaker'.
É católica (religião minoritária no meio predominantemente protestante da política americana) e está casada, há 46 anos, com Paul Pelosi. Têm cinco filhos: Nancy Corrine, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul e Alexandra.
A vocação política, que está nos genes de Nancy, levou-a a entrar no Congresso há mais de duas décadas, em 1987. Quinze anos depois, tomou a liderança da bancada democrata, sucedendo a Dick Gephardt, que abandonou o cargo para preparar a sua (mal sucedida...) candidatura presidencial nas primárias de 2004.
Depois de ter liderado a então minoria democrata durante quatro anos, na primeira parte dos anos Bush, a vitória do Partido Democrata nas intercalares de 2006 levou Pelosi a ser escolhida para comandar a Câmara dos Representantes.
Jogo de equilíbrios
Dois anos depois, quando Barack Obama conquistou a Casa Branca, os democratas passaram a beneficiar de um «pleno» de que há muito não dispunham: controlam, desde aí, a Presidência, o Senado e a Câmara dos Representantes.
A somar a este cenário aparentemente tão favorável para o Partido Democrata, falta dizer que, poucos meses depois da eleição de Obama, foi atingido o mítico número de 60 senadores – o limiar que impede um 'filibuster' (minoria de bloqueio) republicano.
É que apesar de terem perdido o influente senador Joe Lieberman, do Connecticut (que passou para a coluna dos independentes), os democratas conquistaram o apoio do senador Arlen Spector, da Pensilvânia, que trocou de partido, abandonando os republicanos, na sequência do apoio que deu ao 'stimulus package' preparado pela Administração Obama para responder à crise económica, aprovado no Senado.
À primeira vista, parecia o cenário político ideal para que a Administração Obama pudesse jogar os seus trunfos com relativa tranquilidade. Mas é sabido que as coisas estão longe de ser assim: o Presidente ainda não sabe se vai conseguir passar no Senado um dos pilares do seu primeiro mandato, a Reforma da Saúde, apesar de esta já ter passado na Câmara dos Representantes. Foi uma aprovação histórica, mas tangencial – e a intervenção de Nancy Pelosi nas negociações de bastidores revelou-se decisiva.
Com um Partido Republicano cada vez mais disposto a subir o tom da oposição a Obama (e ansioso por aproveitar as intercalares de 2010 para alterar fortemente os dados do jogo), e com uma fatia minoritária -- mas significativa para formar maiorias -- de 'Blue Dogs' democratas que vota frequentemente em direcção oposta à do Presidente, não tem sido fácil gerir este jogo de equilíbrios.
Obama sabe que corre o risco de perder estas maiorias alargadas no Congresso dentro de poucos meses – e conta com a habilidade negocial de Nancy para ir passando as medidas essenciais. Já foi assim com a recuperação económica, está a ser assim com a Reforma da Saúde e há-de ser assim com a Climate Bill e, sobretudo, quando chegar o momento do Congresso apreciar a decisão do Presidente para o AfPak.
Refazer pontes políticas
Forte opositora da guerra do Iraque, Nancy também tem sido contra a escalada militar adoptada pelos EUA no Afeganistão, nos últimos anos, e não escondeu as suas enormes reservas sobre a recente decisão de Barack Obama de enviar mais 30 mil efectivos para o terreno.
Também na Reforma da Saúde, Pelosi tem-se situado na ala esquerda das sensibilidades democratas, mostrando-se acérrima defensora de uma via tendencialmente universal – e a favor da polémica 'public option', que está a emperrar uma solução de consenso.
Mas, como 'speaker' do Congresso, Nancy tem sabido interpretar a máxima que nos diz que a política está longe de ser um mundo ideal e deve ser «a arte do possível»: há poucos meses, garantia a pés juntos que «a Reforma da Saúde terá a 'public option' ou então não será uma verdadeira reforma». Perante as ameaças dos 'Blue Dogs' de travarem o diploma, Nancy já diz agora que «vale a pena encontrar vias para encontrar pontes políticas que permitam aprovar o essencial».
Mesmo ocupando uma franja mais liberal do que o Presidente, Nancy Pelosi tem sido decisiva para que Obama possa ver no Congresso um aliado e não um adversário.»
On the feast of Stephen
Today marks the feast of my patron, St. Stephen (Στέφανος in Koine Greek). He is also the heavenly patron of this blog, the mission of which "is to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the diakonia of koinonia." Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew, one of the seven men set apart by the apostles to help with daily distribution in the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. These seven Greek-speaking Jewish men, one of whom was a convert to Judaism, are viewed as the first deacons, though they are never referred to in Scripture by this title. However, a deacon is not defined by a title, but by service. After all the Greek word diakonia, from which the noun diakonos is derived, means service. Hence, all Christians are called to be deacons in a very real sense by virtue of our baptism and confirmation. One who is ordained a deacon is ordained to service and is to sacramentally embody the link between the liturgy and Christian life, between liturgy, witness, and service. This is one reason why the deacon sings or says the dismissal at the end of the Mass. This is a sending forth of all who have received Christ into the world to be Christ for others through selfless service.
These seven men were called to help bring peace to a young community that had grown somewhat fractious due to the fact that the Greek-speaking members felt that Greek-speaking widows were not getting their fair part of the daily distribution of food. Their call was a call to diakonia of koinonia- a call to the service of communion so that the apostles could devote themselves fully to preaching. In a way, it shows us something with which all Christian communities struggle, what makes us different, language, culture, or whatever. Yet, we profess to be one in Christ. Let's look at the account of their call:
In the Christmas issue of Magnificat is an article by the Jesuit, Fr. Alfred Delp, who himself died a martyr's death under the Nazis in 1945. In this lovely reflection he writes that because God became a man "[h]istory now becomes the Son's mode of existence; historical destiny becomes his destiny. He is to be encountered on our streets. In the darkest cellars and loneliest prisons of life, we will meet him. And that is already the first blessing and consecration of the burden: that he is to be met under its weight." He goes on to say that second blessing is that we feel a new power to bear this weight and the third blessing that results from God becoming man for us is that Jesus Christ provides the model of how to live in a truly human way, what Fr. Delp called "the primordial model of existence." We will be formed according to this model if we, like St. Stephen, "do not resist this formation." According to Delp "[t]he strength for mastery of life grows through the influx of divine life among those to whom Christ has made himself known, among the greater human community as well as small groups brought together by circumstance." In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ "[s]omething new has been born in us, and we do not want to tire of believing the star of the promises and acknowledging the singing angels' Gloria - even if it is sometimes through tears." Like St. Stephen, who saw Jesus at the right hand of God as he was being stoned, which vision allowed him forgive those who were killing him, which meant for him in that moment bearing the weight of what could well be seen as a terrible reality, "[o]ur distress has truly become transformed, because we have been raised above it."
With a deep diaconal bow to my friend Paul Z., who blogs over on Communio, here is a news item about the Holy Father's Angelus remarks on this lovely feast: On St Stephen’s, we remember believers who are tested or suffer because of their faith.
St. Stephen- pray for us.
These seven men were called to help bring peace to a young community that had grown somewhat fractious due to the fact that the Greek-speaking members felt that Greek-speaking widows were not getting their fair part of the daily distribution of food. Their call was a call to diakonia of koinonia- a call to the service of communion so that the apostles could devote themselves fully to preaching. In a way, it shows us something with which all Christian communities struggle, what makes us different, language, culture, or whatever. Yet, we profess to be one in Christ. Let's look at the account of their call:
"At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them. The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:1-7).However, before the end of the sixth chapter of The Acts of the Apostles, Stephen, too, is preaching. Stephen's preaching drew the attention of other Jews who saw nascent Christianity as a heresy, not least among whom was Saul of Tarsus, and at Saul's behest Stephen was stoned to death becoming the first martyr for the faith. He is referred to as proto-martyr because his martyrdom set the form for future witnesses. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict wrote that "[t]he Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia)" (par. 25a). In St. Stephen we move from theoria to praxis, to the concrete embodiment of what this looks like.
In the Christmas issue of Magnificat is an article by the Jesuit, Fr. Alfred Delp, who himself died a martyr's death under the Nazis in 1945. In this lovely reflection he writes that because God became a man "[h]istory now becomes the Son's mode of existence; historical destiny becomes his destiny. He is to be encountered on our streets. In the darkest cellars and loneliest prisons of life, we will meet him. And that is already the first blessing and consecration of the burden: that he is to be met under its weight." He goes on to say that second blessing is that we feel a new power to bear this weight and the third blessing that results from God becoming man for us is that Jesus Christ provides the model of how to live in a truly human way, what Fr. Delp called "the primordial model of existence." We will be formed according to this model if we, like St. Stephen, "do not resist this formation." According to Delp "[t]he strength for mastery of life grows through the influx of divine life among those to whom Christ has made himself known, among the greater human community as well as small groups brought together by circumstance." In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ "[s]omething new has been born in us, and we do not want to tire of believing the star of the promises and acknowledging the singing angels' Gloria - even if it is sometimes through tears." Like St. Stephen, who saw Jesus at the right hand of God as he was being stoned, which vision allowed him forgive those who were killing him, which meant for him in that moment bearing the weight of what could well be seen as a terrible reality, "[o]ur distress has truly become transformed, because we have been raised above it."With a deep diaconal bow to my friend Paul Z., who blogs over on Communio, here is a news item about the Holy Father's Angelus remarks on this lovely feast: On St Stephen’s, we remember believers who are tested or suffer because of their faith.
St. Stephen- pray for us.
Urbi et Orbi- Christmas 2009
URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
CHRISTMAS 2009
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
CHRISTMAS 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
and all men and women, whom the Lord loves!
"Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,
quia natus est nobis Dominus.
A light will shine on us this day,
the Lord is born for us"
(Roman Missal, Christmas, Entrance Antiphon for the Mass at Dawn)
The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us.
The Bible and the Liturgy do not, however, speak to us about a natural light, but a different, special light, which is somehow directed to and focused upon "us", the same "us" for whom the Child of Bethlehem "is born". This “us” is the Church, the great universal family of those who believe in Christ, who have awaited in hope the new birth of the Saviour, and who today celebrate in mystery the perennial significance of this event.
At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that "us" was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light "that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the "sign" of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the “us” of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.
Hwelih Isho'
In solidarity with our Chaldean brothers and sisters, some of whom, specifically those in Basra, Iraq, who have cancelled Christmas celebrations because Christmas "coincides this year with a sad memorial for Shiite who commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Al Hussain and his brother Al Abbas in Karbala." Hwelih Isho' (i.e., Christ is born) is our Christmas and Friday traditio.
Fortunately, the prohibition only pertains to Basra. Nonetheless, let us remember the Christians of Iraq and the entire Middle East, churches that are truly undergoing martyrdom, women and men who risk their lives to worship Christ the King.
A deep diaconal bow to Dr. McNamara for bringing this video to my attention.
On the day before our comemoration of the Lord's Nativity
From the people at The Resurgence, it is accompanied by these words:
A Miracle
"In John 6, Jesus performs a miracle of multiplying loaves of bread and fish to feed over 5,000 people. This passage has been used to make the point that Jesus had to wait for the boy to offer his food before Jesus would do his part. When applied to our spiritual lives it looks like this: 'God is really into you, but he wants you to be really into him first and he wants you to make the first move and show him that you are serious and all about his glory. And after you respond, God will look upon you with favor and good pleasure. God may even ‘use you’."
"This is not true. We do not have this miracle recorded for the purpose of trying to convince you to try harder to get God’s attention."
One the remaining theological giants of the twentieth century, one of the Dominicans who launched last century's Thomistic revival, Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, OP, passed away yesterday, 23 December, at the age of 95. It would be an understatement to say that Schillebeeckx pushed the theological envelope, especially after the Second Vatican Council. Somebody once asked me if there were any happy Catholic theologians. One was Schillebeeckx. He wrote a gem of a small book called I Am A Happy Theologian. Even though he was from Belgium, he lived, taught, and wrote for most of his life in the Netherlands, spending more than 50 years teaching at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He was educated in Belgium by Jesuits, but joined the Order of Preachers Friars, popularly known as the Dominicans. At the time of his death he was trying to finish a major theological work on the sacraments.For me, the most valuable achievement of Fr. Schillebeeckx was bringing Catholic theology, especially Thomism, into dialogue and confrontation with contemporary philosophy, especially with the likes of my beloved W (whom I have not mentioned for far too long). His most enduring and controversial work (to tie it to my lead in)remains his two volume Christology, which he dubbed an experiment. Thomism, namely the analogia entis (i.e., analogy of being), remained central to his theological project. He understood, as the titles of one of his books on ecclesiology and another book on Christology show (i.e., Church: The Human Story of God and Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God) that our encounter with God in Christ is an existential encounter, which can only be a mediated encounter. As is appropriate for any Christian, Fr. Schillebeeckx was full of hope, which is an appropriate subject for these final hours of Advent. Robert McClory of NCR interviewed Schillebeeckx a few years ago. During the interview McClory asked him how he saw the future, to which the happy theologian responded he was "always" optimistic," explaining his optimism, he said: "I believe in God and in Jesus Christ." McClory recalled that he said that as as if to ask- "And what else would one need?" Indeed, what else?
It was also made known the day before yesterday, that American philosopher John Edwin Smith, who worked in the American pragmatic tradition and who made many valuable contributions to the philosophy of religion, died back on 7 December.
Today's edition of the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera features a letter to the editor written by Fr. Julián Carrón, which was given the title That Nostalgia for the Infinite. In my estimation, Carrón is most correct when he observes that "[t]he most convincing sign that Christ is God, the greatest miracle that astonished everyone—even more than the healing of cripples and the curing of the blind—was an incomparable gaze. The sign that Christ is not a theory or a set of rules is that look, which is found throughout the Gospel: His way of dealing with humanity, of forming relationships with those He met on His way. Think of Zacchaeus and of Magdalene: He didn’t ask them to change, but embraced them, just as He found them, in their wounded, bleeding humanity, needful of everything. And their life, embraced, re-awoke in that moment in all its original profundity." He goes on to ask "how do we know that Christ is alive now? Because his gaze is not a fact of the past, but is still present in the world just as it was before. Since the day of His resurrection, the Church exists only in order to make God's affection an experience, through people who are His mysterious Body, witnesses in history today of that gaze capable of embracing all that is human."
Reforma da Saúde aprovada no Senado (III): Obama fala numa «reforma real e significativa»
O Presidente agradeceu a Harry Reid, líder da maioria democrata no Senado, a Nancy Pelosi, speaker da Câmara dos Representantes, o «extraordinário trabalho cumprido», falou num «voto histórico» e lembrou: «Desde Teddy Roosevelt, sete Presidentes, democratas e republicanos, tentaram reformar o sistema e essas tentativas foram sempre bloqueadas pelos grandes interesses».
Obama destacou «as medidas mais duras algumas vez já tomadas para travar os interesses das grandes companhias e proteger os cidadãos». É «a protecção para 30 milhões de americanos que não a tinham», insistiu Obama.
E lançou: «É a maior reforma governamental desde a Segurança Social e, no caso da Saúde, desde a implantação do Medicare, nos anos 60».
Obama destacou «as medidas mais duras algumas vez já tomadas para travar os interesses das grandes companhias e proteger os cidadãos». É «a protecção para 30 milhões de americanos que não a tinham», insistiu Obama.
E lançou: «É a maior reforma governamental desde a Segurança Social e, no caso da Saúde, desde a implantação do Medicare, nos anos 60».
Reforma da Saúde aprovada no Senado (II): programa vai custar 871 mil milhões de euros
«After months of blown deadlines and political near-death experiences, a sweeping health care reform bill cleared the Senate Thursday on a party-line vote, putting President Barack Obama within reach of a domestic policy achievement that has eluded Democrats for decades.
With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the session, Democrats gathered in the chamber before sunrise on the day before Christmas to cast a vote long in coming but in the end, hardly a surprise, a 60-39 tally that was the fourth time in as many days that Democrats proved they could muster the winning margin.
But this was the one that counted, the bookend to a House vote last month that puts Congress on record saying that Americans have a right to affordable health insurance, with plans that will cover 30 million Americans currently without it.
“With today’s vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country,” President Barack Obama said at the White House, calling the bill the important piece of social legislation since Social Security in the 1930s. “Our challenge, then, is to finish the job.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said before the vote that Americans could wait no more. “How much longer can we afford to put this off, or ask the uninsured for their patience?” Reid said. “We may not completely cure this crisis today or tomorrow, but we must start toward that end. We must strive for progress.”
But clearly exhausted, Reid mistakenly voted no when the roll call came to him. Reid shook his head, changed his vote to "aye" – and rested his head on his desk briefly. The chamber erupted in laughter.
"I spent a very restless night last night trying to figure out how I could show some bipartisanship and I think I was able to accomplish that for a few minutes," Reid joked later.
The vote sets the stage for difficult House-Senate negotiations during which Democrats will be forced to settle differences that have lingered for months, and there is still no guarantee a bill will pass in the end.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), one of the last Democratic holdouts, once again made clear that his vote isn’t assured when the bill returns to the Senate. In the hallway outside the vote, he told his fellow moderate, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), “Our work is not over.”
"Splitting the difference here could well break the 60-vote consensus," Lieberman said to reporters.
Moments after the historic vote, Nelson returned to the Senate floor, to reassert his call for strong language in the bill that prevents federal funding of abortion, another likely sticking point in the upcoming negotiations.
Republicans, too, say their work isn’t finished. “This fight isn’t over. My colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law. That’s the clear will of the American people — and we’re going to continue to fight on their behalf,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.
But with momentum at their back, Democrats believe they can craft a compromise that, in broad strokes, would expand coverage through subsidies to help Americans buy insurance and allowing more people into the Medicaid program. The Senate plan includes a new national health insurance program overseen by the government but offered through private insurers.
Both the House and Senate bills prevent insurance companies from dropping patients who get sick and create a new legal requirement that all Americans must own health insurance – a provision already under growing attack from conservatives and liberals.
For a day at least, however, Democrats basked in the moment.
When Sen. Robert Byrd’s name was called, the ailing West Virginian said, “Mr. President, this is for my friend, Ted Kennedy – aye," a reference to the late Massachusetts senator who long fought for universal health care.
Kennedy’s wife, Victoria Kennedy, attended this vote, as she did early Monday morning. Tears in her eyes, she was emotional after the vote. "This is an enormous step for our country," she told reporters off the Senate floor. "We have some steps to go. But we have come too far. We're not going to let this opportunity slip away"
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the last vote, entering the chamber late to a round of applause, and he yelled out "yes."
The visitor's gallery was filled with staff that worked on the bill, as well as the longest-serving House member in history, John Dingell, whose father fought for universal health care. Following the vote, the usually stoic Reid broke into a broad smile, and accepted a parade of handshakes from Democrats. He embraced Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who he worked hard to win over last month for the first key test vote.
Senate Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky was absent for the vote.
Obama has said he would be deeply involved in the negotiations – a contrast to his approach up to this point, involving himself only at key moments and frustrating Democrats who wanted more hands-on help from their leader as they took politically dicey votes.
“We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session, because the American people need it now,” Obama told PBS Wednesday in an interview.
Reid accomplished what was long viewed as impossible: He drafted a comprehensive reform bill palatable to both extremes of his Democratic caucus, moderates and liberals, plus everybody in between.
The Senate plan falls far short of Democrats' initial vision for reform in one key regard — it lacks a government-run insurance option after several moderate Democrats said they’d block the bill if it remained. That decision has divided the Democratic base, with many liberals saying the plan isn’t true reform and would merely enrich private insurers.
But the past four days have still been heady for Democrats, who are well aware of their role in pushing health care reform farther than their predecessors. Reid, in particular, has been singled out repeatedly for praise.
“He is on the verge of achieving what majority leaders going back over a half a century have failed to accomplish,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate health committee, said. “Make no mistake, Majority Leader Reid has earned his place in the Senate's history.”
Senate Republicans gambled on Democrats becoming so utterly divided that they would be forced to scrap the bill.
Democrats did struggle to find consensus at every step of the process – during the painstaking committee-level negotiations in both chambers, and as Pelosi and Reid attempted to push the bills towards final passage.
But congressional Democrats always remained remarkably united on the need to finish the job. In the last month, as Senate Republicans threw up procedural hurdles and portrayed the bill as a dangerous experiment, Democrats emerged as a more cohesive unit than when the process began.
“Ultimately, every Democrat from the most liberal to the most conservative realized we had to get a bill, whether they wanted to do health care at the beginning or not,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) said after Nelson, the last holdout, committed his vote last weekend. “Everybody realized there was just no option and nobody wanted to be the last person to bring it down.”
Republicans kept up their fight to the end. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who was once viewed as a potential Republican supporter and spent months negotiating with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), said passing the bill would be worse than doing nothing.
“When the debate began last year, interested legislators of both parties set forth benchmarks that were no-brainers: Health care reform should lower the cost of premiums. It should reduce the deficit. It should bend the growth curve in health care the right way,” Grassley said. “The Reid bill doesn't do any of those things.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) repeated charges he first made last weekend that the process was corrupt, citing state-specific deals Reid struck with members to secure their votes.
“This vote is indeed historic,” Coburn said in a statement Thursday. “This Congress will be remembered for its arrogance, corruption and stupidity. … If this bill becomes law, future generations will rue this day and I will do everything in my power to work toward its repeal.”
Some of the toughest work remains ahead.
Senate Democrats concede that significant differences with the House – coupled with the fatigue caused by 25 consecutive days in session this month – will prevent delivering a final bill to Obama’s desk by the State of the Union speech.
“Let's be very honest about this, we need a break,” Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “We need a break to get home to our families, to repair some relationships with our spouses, and to relax and recharge and come back. And I think we'll have a much more positive outcome after that break. But it does take time away in January. It may mean that this will take a little longer.”
And after a year of deadlines for action that came and went – the August recess, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, the end of year – Durbin swore them off. “No. Nope. No deadlines. Boy, I have I learned that. I've announced three or four solemn deadlines during the course of this and had to eat my words every time so I'm finished with deadlines,” he said.
The two bills share the major goals of expanding coverage to millions of Americans and slowing the rapid growth in health care costs. But they differ in many ways, both large and small. Beyond the public option and abortion, the House and Senate bills are at odds over the taxes levied to pay for the overhaul, the mandate on employers to provide coverage, and the amount of subsidies for low- and moderate-income people to purchase coverage.
Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have been trying to ease the way for a smooth, politically painless negotiation between the House and Senate on a final bill. Few expect the public option to survive when the two bills are merged, but that didn't stop prominent liberals in the House from waging a last-ditch campaign to save it on the eve of Thursday's big vote.
"By eliminating the public option, the government program that could spark competition within the health insurance industry, the Senate has ended up with a bill that isn't worthy of its support," the always-candid Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter wrote on CNN.com Wednesday.
On a conference call with her rank-and-file Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reminded House Democrats, "We need to let the Senate work its will," according to someone on the call.
But she also appeared to remind them that she doesn’t plan to concede much ground during the conference negotiations.
"They have a good bill. We have a great bill," the speaker told her colleagues.
Pelosi walked House Democrats through the schedule for the negotiations, telling her members that the best-case scenario would have a bill on the president's desk at the end of January or the beginning of February. Hoping to pass the bill before Obama comes to the House for his first official State of the Union, the speaker said the White House has shown some flexibility to schedule the speech a little later than usual. Pelosi also warned her caucus that the Congressional Budget Office would need at least 12 days to deliver its final cost projection on whatever negotiators agree to.
House Democrats want to ensure the final package makes mandatory insurance more affordable. The House bill provides more extensive subsidies than the Senate legislation at the lower end of the income scale. Liberal Democrats would also like to see the final bill impose a greater burden on businesses to cover their employees.
On the call, a number of Democrats also asked the speaker to push for a mix of new taxes in the final bill. Some Democrats in the House want to see a combination of their surtax on the wealthiest Americans and the Senate's tax on high-end health care plans.»
in POLITICO.COM
A few random items
It is a strange day, akin perhaps to Holy Saturday, the quiet before storm. There is a lot going on, but I am remaining calm, prayerful, hopeful. I am especially hopeful in light of the fact that my beloved Utes are playing tonight in the Poinsettia Bowl against the University of California Golden Bears. A Ute win is all the more necessitated by the win of our arch rival, BYU, last night. The Cougs walloped Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. This is a good place to admit that I root for all Mountain West Conference teams to win their bowl games, especially against teams from BCS conferences, like the PAC-10. Yes, I even root for the Y. So, way to go Cougs! GO UTES!
UPDATE: Utes beat Cal 37-27 for their 9th bowl victory in a row, the longest in the nation to finish this season 10-3.
We had our Cathedral staff luncheon this afternoon. I had the privilege of sitting next to and getting caught up with our Vicar General, who also serves as our Vicar for Clergy, Msgr. Fitzgerald, who embodies for me what being a priest means, a man whose love of the church, kindness, intelligence, energy, and sound judgement are unparalleled.
Anyway, the celebration and commemoration of the Lord's Nativity is nigh. As Advent comes to a close, I pray Maranatha- Come Lord Jesus!
UPDATE: Utes beat Cal 37-27 for their 9th bowl victory in a row, the longest in the nation to finish this season 10-3.
We had our Cathedral staff luncheon this afternoon. I had the privilege of sitting next to and getting caught up with our Vicar General, who also serves as our Vicar for Clergy, Msgr. Fitzgerald, who embodies for me what being a priest means, a man whose love of the church, kindness, intelligence, energy, and sound judgement are unparalleled.
Anyway, the celebration and commemoration of the Lord's Nativity is nigh. As Advent comes to a close, I pray Maranatha- Come Lord Jesus!
Reforma da Saúde é votada no Senado na quinta de manhã, véspera de Natal
E Barack Obama só vai descansar depois de ver os seus «amigos do Senado» a aprovar o histórico diploma:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
True knowledge wounds us
In his first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, the Holy Father wrote that "[t]he Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacrament (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable" (par. 25a). The first of these, martyria, or, stated simply, giving witness, is, indeed, primary. Hence, liturgy and service are ways of giving witness to the One who was crucified, rose again, ascended, and who will return: Jesus Christ.
Being a witness means really and truly having an encounter with Christ, an authentic and genuine, if mediated, experience of Him. After all, we cannot give witness to what we have not seen. I recently had the opportunity to be present for the reception of two women who are in very poor health, so poor that their days are clearly numbered, into the church. While baptized, confirmed, and brought into communion with the church via the Roman Rite, they were carefully prepared to be Byzantine Catholics by family members. So, our small celebration had many of the trappings of an Eastern Rite celebration, which is more ecstatic than our solemn and beautiful Roman ritual. Because I was present to witness this great event, I was given a martyr's ribbon, a small bow with a small gold medallion on it. I cherish it. The whole afternoon and evening I continually thought about what it was I witnessed. I saw Christ that day in the water, in the sacred chrism, in the bread, in Msgr. Mayo, the celebrant, but most of all in the faces of these two women, who wanted so badly to be united to Christ in and through their chronic and even terminal suffering unto death. I bear a wound from that day, it was awesome because it was awful, meaning full of awe.
I am currently reading Rowan Williams' The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St. John of Cross. Dr. Williams is currently the Archbishop of Canterbury, as such he is the head of the worldwide Anglican communion, which currently presents him with no shortage of suffering as controversy rages and division threatens, all of which was only exacerbated by the Holy See's promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus. Before ascending to this position, before being made an Anglican bishop, he was and remains a highly respected theologian and scholar of ancient and Eastern Christianity. In all his works, at least the ones I have read, Williams highlights the centrality of the cross. At the beginning of The Wound of Knowledge he highlights what a scandal the cross remains for too many Christians. "Our healing," Williams writes, "lies in our obedient acceptance of God's will; but this is no bland resignation." It cannot be mere resignation to what happens to us, such a bland approach has no place in Christian praxis. If Christianity means anything, it means not being fatalistic because through Christ God is intimately involved, not just in the world, but in my life. He goes on to write that our healing "is a change wrought by anguish, darkness and stripping. If we believe we can experience our healing without deepening our hurt, we have understood nothing of the roots of our faith" (20).
Experience is, indeed, the instrument for our human journey, all of our experience, nothing excluded. "The desire to be in God's image without attaining Christ's image is a desire for immediacy, which wants everything without detour and without self-actualization" (21). Self-actualization can only be realized (i.e, made real) through experience. Such a desire for immediacy, Williams points out, is "a narcissistic desire of the ego to settle down in God, immortal and almighty" (21). A person who approaches life in this way "doesn't find it necessary 'to let [her/his] life be crucified' and to experience the night of pain" (21). This attitude is operative among young and old alike in these days leading up to Christmas, when we want to get through all the build up, all the violin concerts, choral recitals, church services, shopping for others, etc., and just rip open those packages with my name on it!
Writing about the witness of the early martyr Ignatius of Antioch, on whose memorial my youngest son was born, Williams says that in the letters he wrote to the churches of Asia Minor on his way to his own gruesome death at the hands of the Roman authorities, Ignatius understands that "the death of God is that which uniquely gives meaning to the death of the martyr" (25). Conversely, Ignatius give witness to the fact that "there is equally a sense in which the death of the martyr gives meaning to the death of God-made-man" (25). Be that as it may, "[t]he martyr has no illusion about the reality of his bonds, his fear, and his pain. Yet in it he knows the closeness to God" (25). Citing the fourth chapter of Ignatius' letter to the church in Smyrna, where he became a Christian under the tutelage of Polycarp, another early bishop/martyr, Williams quotes the martyr: "To be in front of the wild animals is to be in front of God"(25).
Where is God? We often ask this when experiencing something difficult. God is in the wild animals you face. God is using these circumstances and all the circumstances of your life to accomplish His purpose in and through you, not only to perfect you, but with your cooperation, to reconcile the world, just as he did through Jesus, who was also perfected through suffering (Heb. 5:8-9). Already, less than century after Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, and ascended, there were those in the church who "found it intolerable that the Savior, the agent and embodiment of God, should share so wholly in the vulnerability of humanity" and submit himself to an unjust and shameful death (25). It is against these people and this notion that Ignatius, even as he marches towards Rome to his certain death, "turns all his polemical vigor" (25). His vigor is not exhausted by rhetoric. It is completed by his own gruesome death, which he accepted joyfully, offering himself as a sacrifice, albeit one made acceptable by the perfect sacrifice of his Lord.
God becoming man for our sake. God sharing wholly in human vulnerability. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, not cozy little manger scenes and nice, warm yet small thoughts. We are confronted with reality that liberates only because it shakes us awake, out of our slumber, out of our desire domesticate God, to to reduce Christ's humanity. Green Day hit the nail on the head when they sang that "the Jesus of suburbia is a lie;" for so indeed he is.
When you hear that God loves you, you have but two choices that indicate you understand the reality those words convey- either you run for your life, or you willingly lay it down for others. I will let Jesus himself testify to the truthfulness of this observation: "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:24). I always joke around and say that someday I am going to sing this dismissal at the end of Mass: "The Mass is ended, run for your lives!"
In his second letter to the church at Corinth, St. Paul writes that he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove "a thorn was [that was] given [him] in the flesh," but the Lord responded, telling him "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:6-9). So, Paul resolves that he "will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10). It is an aw(e)ful(l) thing to realize that it is through our brokenness that we best witness to what God has done for us in Christ; so much so that when those who persevere, surviving the time of tribulation, are resurrected, like Christ, their wounds will be the most beautiful parts of them. The wounds in his hands, feet, and side mean so much more than anything He ever said, or anything else He did, all of which was done for us in humble obedience to the Father.
Sts. Stephen, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Perpetua, Felicity, and all holy martyrs- pray for us as we, in turn, pray Maranatha-Come Lord Jesus!
Being a witness means really and truly having an encounter with Christ, an authentic and genuine, if mediated, experience of Him. After all, we cannot give witness to what we have not seen. I recently had the opportunity to be present for the reception of two women who are in very poor health, so poor that their days are clearly numbered, into the church. While baptized, confirmed, and brought into communion with the church via the Roman Rite, they were carefully prepared to be Byzantine Catholics by family members. So, our small celebration had many of the trappings of an Eastern Rite celebration, which is more ecstatic than our solemn and beautiful Roman ritual. Because I was present to witness this great event, I was given a martyr's ribbon, a small bow with a small gold medallion on it. I cherish it. The whole afternoon and evening I continually thought about what it was I witnessed. I saw Christ that day in the water, in the sacred chrism, in the bread, in Msgr. Mayo, the celebrant, but most of all in the faces of these two women, who wanted so badly to be united to Christ in and through their chronic and even terminal suffering unto death. I bear a wound from that day, it was awesome because it was awful, meaning full of awe.
I am currently reading Rowan Williams' The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St. John of Cross. Dr. Williams is currently the Archbishop of Canterbury, as such he is the head of the worldwide Anglican communion, which currently presents him with no shortage of suffering as controversy rages and division threatens, all of which was only exacerbated by the Holy See's promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus. Before ascending to this position, before being made an Anglican bishop, he was and remains a highly respected theologian and scholar of ancient and Eastern Christianity. In all his works, at least the ones I have read, Williams highlights the centrality of the cross. At the beginning of The Wound of Knowledge he highlights what a scandal the cross remains for too many Christians. "Our healing," Williams writes, "lies in our obedient acceptance of God's will; but this is no bland resignation." It cannot be mere resignation to what happens to us, such a bland approach has no place in Christian praxis. If Christianity means anything, it means not being fatalistic because through Christ God is intimately involved, not just in the world, but in my life. He goes on to write that our healing "is a change wrought by anguish, darkness and stripping. If we believe we can experience our healing without deepening our hurt, we have understood nothing of the roots of our faith" (20).
Experience is, indeed, the instrument for our human journey, all of our experience, nothing excluded. "The desire to be in God's image without attaining Christ's image is a desire for immediacy, which wants everything without detour and without self-actualization" (21). Self-actualization can only be realized (i.e, made real) through experience. Such a desire for immediacy, Williams points out, is "a narcissistic desire of the ego to settle down in God, immortal and almighty" (21). A person who approaches life in this way "doesn't find it necessary 'to let [her/his] life be crucified' and to experience the night of pain" (21). This attitude is operative among young and old alike in these days leading up to Christmas, when we want to get through all the build up, all the violin concerts, choral recitals, church services, shopping for others, etc., and just rip open those packages with my name on it!Writing about the witness of the early martyr Ignatius of Antioch, on whose memorial my youngest son was born, Williams says that in the letters he wrote to the churches of Asia Minor on his way to his own gruesome death at the hands of the Roman authorities, Ignatius understands that "the death of God is that which uniquely gives meaning to the death of the martyr" (25). Conversely, Ignatius give witness to the fact that "there is equally a sense in which the death of the martyr gives meaning to the death of God-made-man" (25). Be that as it may, "[t]he martyr has no illusion about the reality of his bonds, his fear, and his pain. Yet in it he knows the closeness to God" (25). Citing the fourth chapter of Ignatius' letter to the church in Smyrna, where he became a Christian under the tutelage of Polycarp, another early bishop/martyr, Williams quotes the martyr: "To be in front of the wild animals is to be in front of God"(25).
Where is God? We often ask this when experiencing something difficult. God is in the wild animals you face. God is using these circumstances and all the circumstances of your life to accomplish His purpose in and through you, not only to perfect you, but with your cooperation, to reconcile the world, just as he did through Jesus, who was also perfected through suffering (Heb. 5:8-9). Already, less than century after Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, and ascended, there were those in the church who "found it intolerable that the Savior, the agent and embodiment of God, should share so wholly in the vulnerability of humanity" and submit himself to an unjust and shameful death (25). It is against these people and this notion that Ignatius, even as he marches towards Rome to his certain death, "turns all his polemical vigor" (25). His vigor is not exhausted by rhetoric. It is completed by his own gruesome death, which he accepted joyfully, offering himself as a sacrifice, albeit one made acceptable by the perfect sacrifice of his Lord.
God becoming man for our sake. God sharing wholly in human vulnerability. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, not cozy little manger scenes and nice, warm yet small thoughts. We are confronted with reality that liberates only because it shakes us awake, out of our slumber, out of our desire domesticate God, to to reduce Christ's humanity. Green Day hit the nail on the head when they sang that "the Jesus of suburbia is a lie;" for so indeed he is.
When you hear that God loves you, you have but two choices that indicate you understand the reality those words convey- either you run for your life, or you willingly lay it down for others. I will let Jesus himself testify to the truthfulness of this observation: "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:24). I always joke around and say that someday I am going to sing this dismissal at the end of Mass: "The Mass is ended, run for your lives!"
In his second letter to the church at Corinth, St. Paul writes that he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove "a thorn was [that was] given [him] in the flesh," but the Lord responded, telling him "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:6-9). So, Paul resolves that he "will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10). It is an aw(e)ful(l) thing to realize that it is through our brokenness that we best witness to what God has done for us in Christ; so much so that when those who persevere, surviving the time of tribulation, are resurrected, like Christ, their wounds will be the most beautiful parts of them. The wounds in his hands, feet, and side mean so much more than anything He ever said, or anything else He did, all of which was done for us in humble obedience to the Father.
Sts. Stephen, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Perpetua, Felicity, and all holy martyrs- pray for us as we, in turn, pray Maranatha-Come Lord Jesus!
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