St. Philip, deacon and evangelist

Reading: Acts 8:5-17 (not chopping up the section as the lectionary does)

Thus Philip went down to (the) city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. A man named Simon used to practice magic 4 in the city and astounded the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. All of them, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying, "This man is the 'Power of God' that is called 'Great.'" They paid attention to him because he had astounded them by his magic for a long time, but once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized. Even Simon himself believed and, after being baptized, became devoted to Philip; and when he saw the signs and mighty deeds that were occurring, he was astounded. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.

Another Sunday and another reading from the Acts of the Apostles about those whom we revere as the first deacons. Today we read about Philip, the deacon who went to Samaria and preached the Gospel. Of the seven men who on whose heads the apostles laid hands, setting them apart for service, that is, diakonia, in the sixth chapter of Acts, (i.e., Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus), we only ever hear again about Stephen and Philip. It is interesting that Philip, who's ministry, like Stephen's, was not limited to serving at table, but seems to have revolved around him being something of a charismatic evangelist. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and apparently baptized, but he needed to go to Jerusalem and retrieve Peter and John to come and perform an ordinance that can only be likened to the sacrament of confirmation.

Philip is an interesting figure precisely because he was an evangelist. Fleeing the persecution of the nascent Christian Church unleashed in Jerusalem with the martyrdom of Stephen, Philip, along with his four daughters, relocated to Samaria. His four daughters are referenced in Acts 21. As he began to preach the Gospel, to heal the lame, and to cast out demons, he became the rival of a local miracle-worker, Simon. In his First Apology (chaps 26 and 56), St. Justin Martyr calls Simon "a magician," which for a Christian is a pejorative appellation, and notes that he was later revered in Rome as a god.

I like very much what commentator Loveday Alexander, writing The Oxford Bible Commentary says about Philip's challenge to Simon Magus:

the magician's powers may be real, but they fade into insignificance beside the powers of the gospel. The preaching of the word brings about not just a nine days' wonder, but belief and baptism, i.e., intellectual conviction and entry into a new community. The fact that the magician himself is impressed by Philip (v. 13) simply serves to highlight the gospel's power... (pg. 1038)

St. Philip, holy deacon and evangelist, pray for us

Those who "survived the time of great distress"

Back May 2007 I ended my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter with the following words:

Like the child heroine of Flannery O’Connor’s story, The Temple of the Holy Ghost, who says, "I could never be a saint but I think I could be a martyr if they killed me quick," it is the lukewarm Christian "who allots himself a measure that seems appropriate to him and considers anyone who gives more to be a professional saint." "It is important to realize," writes von Balthasar, "that the genuine saint never sees his offer to God as something beyond the norm, as a work beyond what is required." One may believe that the era of the saints is over, but it is always the era of saints until Christ returns in glory, when "the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and . . . will wipe away every tear" (Rev 7:17) as they, like St. Gianna Molla, having "survived the time of great distress," join the white-robed multitude.

This is merely a lead-in to the first time I am writing about a Russian Orthodox priest who was martyred in his church in Moscow 19 November 2009 by a masked gunman, who asked for him by name and then shot him in the head and chest when he responded: Fr. Daniel Sysoyev. I have no illusions that Catholic/Orthodox ecumenical dialogue with Fr. Daniel would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, which is no small thing. However, I see him as a martyr, as a saint. I believe that he will eventually be venerated as such among Orthodox Christians. This process is underway as John Sanidopoulos chronicled over on Mystagogy.

In an interview, translated by and posted on the Russian Orthodox website, Orthodoxy and the World, you get a sense of Fr.Daniel, of his evangelical spirit and generous response to God's call on his life, which, for him, meant giving up his life. This Spirit-filled servant of God did not shrink away from preaching to and evangelizing among Muslims. It was very likely this outspoken evangelism that led to his death. Fr. Daniel succinctly laid out the criteria for giving witness (martyr meaning "witness"), "if you wish to tell another about the power of God, you should first feel the power of God yourself."

Fr. Titus (a.k.a. the Byzantine Rambler) wrote in a nice remembrance of Fr. Daniel: "It is beyond doubt that Father Daniel lived in and for Christ. He and only He was the centre and meaning of his life. His daily confession of the faith and his sincere wish to bring people to the Truth was perceived by many as something foolish, not serious, something inappropriate for reputable people."

The apostle wrote about this meant: "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:22-25). The italicized words are the Greek word that transliterates as skandalon. As you can see, this is the etymological origin of our English word "scandal."

Salvation comes neither by law nor by cheap grace

In his introduction to Eric Metaxas' recent biography of Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Timothy Keller, pastor of New York City's Redeemer Church and author of several very good books, like The Reason for God: Belief in the Age Skepticism, writes about Bonhoeffer's most important theological theme: the stark contrast between "cheap grace" and "costly grace", which he set forth is still very relevant book, The Cost of Discipleship:

Asking how the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany was so easily co-opted by Hitler and the Nazi party, Keller, in a warning to us today, writes that the answer "is that the true gospel, summed up by Bonhoeffer as costly grace had been lost. On the one hand, the church had become marked by formalism. That meant that going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn't really matter much how you live. Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. On the other hand, there was legalism, or salvation by law and good works. Legalism meant that God loves you because you have pulled yourself together and are trying to live a good, disciplined life."

Towards the end of his foreword, Keller writes in the true spirit of Bonhoeffer when he says "we know that true grace comes to us by costly sacrifice. And if God was willing to go to the cross and endure such pain and absorb such a cost in order to save us, then we must live sacrificially as we serve others. Anyone who truly understands how God's grace comes to us will have a changed life. That's the gospel, not salvation by law, or by cheap grace. Costly grace changes you from the inside out. Neither law nor cheap grace can do that."

I think this is worth considering right now in the wake of so many conflicting reactions to the death of Osama bin-Laden. As followers of Christ we must insist that how we live and what we do matters, we cannot shrink back in the face of evil, using cheap grace as an excuse to take a powder, or, even worse, to smugly condemn out of self-righteousness those whose response is to stand-up to evil. This is the challenging legacy and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This puts me in mind of something written by my brother deacon of old, St. Ephrem the Syrian, which I posted over Lent:

"On that dreadful and amazing day, You shall say to us sinners, O Lord: ‘You men know well what I have undergone for you; what have you suffered for Me?’…The martyrs will point to their wounds, their sufferings, the severed parts of their bodies… The ascetics will point to their asceticism, to their long fasts and vigils, to their liberality…But I, idle, sinful, transgressing as I am, what shall I be able to point to? Spare me, O merciful One! Spare me, O Thou Lover of mankind!"

You see, grace is costly, which means that cheap grace is no grace at all.

Homily for Vespers- 2nd Sunday of Easter

Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Seeing is believing, or that’s what we’re often told. Think for a minute. How many things do you believe that you do not see? One standard example of this is to ask someone if they believe in the North Pole. When they answer “Yes,” a follow-up question is asked: Have you ever been there? Given the paucity of people who have ever been to the North Pole, the typical answer is, “No”. Is the implication here that you should stop believing in the North Pole because you have never been there? Well, I for one certainly hope not! You see you believe there is a North Pole because you trust the ones who told you it is there, people like your teachers, your parents, even explorers who make documentaries and write about their experience of traveling to this unique point on the earth, many of which include glossy color pictures. Far from being considered wise and intelligent for disbelieving those on whose testimony most people rely, you’d be considered a little wacky, if not a tad insane, even if you are from Missouri, the "show me" state.

We come to believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the testimony of witnesses. Our patroness, St. Mary Magdalene, is known as the apostula apostulorum, that is, the "apostle to the apostles" precisely because she was the first witness of this glorious event. As a result of her testimony, some of the apostles hurriedly made their way to Jesus’ tomb. Do you think if they did not find her credible they would have bothered to go? They believed her because, like them, she was a disciple of Jesus. She was known to them. She was one of the women who took care of them, providing for them materially. But her testimony was an invitation, echoing the words of her Lord and God as spoken to John and Andrew, who, we are told in St. John’s Gospel, were disciples of John the Baptist who were so taken with Jesus upon seeing him and hearing their master, say, "Behold, the Lamb of God" (John 1:36), that they followed Him, causing Jesus to bid them "Come and you will see." (John 1:39)

It begins by the testimony of witnesses, of people we know, people we trust, not just now, but people through the ages, spanning the millennia between now and when the event of Jesus’ resurrection occurred, what the author of the Letter to the Hebrews described as a "great a cloud of witnesses." (Heb. 12:1) My friends, we, too, can experience the risen Lord. Where, you might ask. In the sacraments, which are always encounters with the Risen One. In baptism we die, are buried, and rise to new life. In confirmation He anoints us, incorporating us more fully into His priestly people. We meet him in confession, the Tribunal of Divine Mercy, where the only defense allowed is saying we are sorry with all our hearts. Most of all we meet Him in the Eucharist, the sacramentum caritatis, the great sacrament of God’s love, in which He gives Himself to us again and again so that we not only see, but also taste the goodness of God and believe.

Jesus, I trust in you

We were to fast from the beginning; our refusal was our downfall

St. Basil in an ancient and comprehensive sermon notes that "fasting is even older than the Law. If you wait a little, you will discover the truth of what I have said. Do not suppose that fasting originated with the Day of Atonement, appointed for Israel on the tenth day of the seventh month. (Lev. 23:27) No, go back through history and inquire into the ancient origins of fasting. It is not a recent invention; it is an heirloom handed down by our fathers. Everything distinguished by antiquity is venerable. Have respect for the antiquity of fasting. It is as old as humanity itself; it was prescribed in Paradise.

Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden, by Masaccio, ca. 1426-1428

"It was the first commandment that Adam received: 'Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ye shall not eat. (Gen. 2:17) Through the words 'ye shall not eat' the law of fasting and abstinence is laid down. If Eve had fasted from the tree, we would not now be in need of this fast. 'They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' (Matt. 9:12) We have been wounded through sin; we are healed through repentance, but repentance without fasting is fruitless. 'Cursed is the ground.... Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth for thee.' (Gen. 3:17-18) You were ordered to live in sorrow, not in luxury. Make amends to God through fasting. Yet even life in Paradise is an image of fasting, not only insofar as man, sharing the life of the Angels, attained to likeness with them through being contented with little, but also insofar as those things which human ingenuity subsequently invented had not yet been devised by those living in Paradise, be it the drinking of wine, the slaughter of animals, or whatever else befuddles the human mind."

Meum cum sim pulvis et cinis

St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Vigin Mary

St. Joseph holding the Christ child

Roman Catholics throughout much of the world observe today as a holy day of obligation. While the Solemnity of St. Joseph is not a holy day here in the U.S., it is an important day, as is our solemnity next Friday, the Annunciation of the Lord. For those who perpetually confuse Mary's Immaculate Conception with Christ's conception, the Annunciation falls nine months before our observance of the Nativity. In any case, the saints are indispensable and have been since the beginning of the church.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom wrote that "unless we are aware that we are outside the kingdom of God, that we need to knock at a door to be allowed in, we may spend a great deal of our lives in imagining that we are inside, behaving as though we were and never reaching that depth where the kingdom unfolds itself in all its beauty, its truth and its glory." Without trying to be too cute, we know people who are inside, as it were. These people we call saints. We ask them to intercede for us from the inside.

All fathers and husbands should have some kind of a devotion to St. Joseph, who, along with his spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a most efficacious intercessor on our behalf. I want to wish my pastor, Msgr. Mayo and our Vicar General, who is also our Vicar for Clergy, Msgr. Fitzgerald, a happy saint day today!

St. Joseph's day is huge in Italy and in many Italian-American communities here in the U.S. So, my Italian friends, enjoy this break from our Lenten austerity!

Father,
you entrusted our Savior to the care of Saint Joseph.
By the help of his prayers may your Church continue
to serve its Lord, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Joseph, pray for us

St. Padric, Dewi Sant and a few Lenten notes

Today is the liturgical memorial of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. For Roman Catholics in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a solemnity and a holy day of obligation. Next to St. Francis of Assisi, probably no saint is better known in the West. Patrick, however, was not Irish by birth. He first went to the Emerald Isle at age 16 after being taken captive in his native England. He was then sold as a slave. He was probably a native Welsh-speaker. He remained in Ireland six years before escaping and returning home. After being formed in monasteries at Tours and Lérins, he was ordained a priest and then a bishop before returning to Ireland as a missionary. As I mention each 17 March, Patrick is something of a pan-Celtic figure. Each entity of Great Britain has its own patron saint: St. David for Wales, St. Andrew for Scotland, and St. George for England.

Incidentally, 1 March is traditionally the memorial of St. David. His memorial remains on the Anglican calendar. I assume that with the institution of the Anglican Ordinariate, St. David’s memorial will resume, in some places, being observed by Catholics, but his feast is not on the Roman calendar, nor on the universal Orthodox calendar.

St. David of Wales

We learn in one of Patrick’s two extant letters that his mother, Conchessa, was a near relative of St. Martin of Tours. It was around AD 433 that Patrick began his mission among the Irish. The date of his death is held to be 17 March 493.

St. Patrick, along with Sts. David and George, is also venerated by Orthodox Christians, given that his life and holiness spread throughout the universal church prior to the Great Schism of AD 1054. Of course, his veneration by our Eastern sisters and brothers is most prominent among the English-speaking Orthodox, who are growing in number, many of whom convert from various Christian traditions, mostly Protestant and, at least in the U.S., many Evangelicals, and even some from Catholicism.

St. Padric of Ireland

While I’m putting up a post, I will take the chance to mention that Tuesday morning I was looking at Arthur Jones’ new Marian blog over on NCR. Given my Lent-long review of my own on-line activities, I take that I went to this webpage as providential. He expresses what I think is a healthy wariness of internet activity (i.e., Facebook, e-mail, Tweeting, etc.), namely ”that we’re all in danger of information overload”, which goes hand-in-hand with the chronic vice of our culture in this age; busyness for busyness’ sake. I say that his wariness is healthy because it doesn’t go to the extreme of dismissing such activity as wholly pointless, or even unnecessary (he starting a blog, after all); on-line activity has its place. My particular challenge is finding and focusing on what is useful for my readers. I am interested to see what fruit this insight bears over these next days and weeks.

I implore, Sts. Patrick and David pray for us. I also invoke the intercession of St. Joseph, whose feast, which is a solemnity and, in most places, but not in the United States, a holy day of obligation, we look forward to this Saturday. Last year, falling as it did on a Friday, we were able to fore go Lenten abstinence. This year, due to the vigil falling on Friday, we will be able to end it a bit early, at sunset.

I also look forward to a solemnity next Friday, 25 March, when I will commemorate and celebrate the Annunciation by having chicken for lunch and eggs for breakfast.

As you walk your Lenten path, Go n-eírí an bother leat (i.e., may road rise up to meet you).

I will end with the beginning stanzas from the Lorca of St. Patrick:

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

So, here's a Welshman, Sir Tom Jones, singing a Gospel tune, a little something about another 40 days and 40 nights in the Bible- Didn't It Rain? There's a bit about cat cruelty thrown in for good measure.

Friends don't let friends drink green beer. If you're going to imbibe this evening, enjoy a nice Guinness or a Harp, or, better yet, have a glass of Irish whiskey.

Meum cum sim pulvis et cinis

The where and how of conversion

This morning finds us one day short of the First Sunday of Lent, which will begin this holy season in earnest. Last night I read a post over on Cahiers Péguy by my friend Sharon that struck me as being what Lent is all about. Lent is not about doing things we don't do the rest of the year, including not eating meat on Fridays and, ideally, even fasting. On my view, it is about doing these things more intensively and conscientiously, which means striving to live more in the awareness of destiny. This brings up, yet again, the reality that the disciplines we intensify during this holy season are means to an end, namely starting from image and moving to likeness, a movement only made possible in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sharon's post, A vocation to the real, takes this up in a very concrete way. She points out that the where and the how of Christ at work seeking to make you over into His likeness is staring you in the face at every moment.

On this interstitial Saturday in Lent I want to turn back to my fellow deacon, the Syriac, St. Ephrem, who brings up the need we have to die to ourselves, giving it the gravity it deserves by putting it in the context of destiny:

"On that dreadful and amazing day, You shall say to us sinners, O Lord: ‘You men know well what I have undergone for you; what have you suffered for Me?’…The martyrs will point to their wounds, their sufferings, the severed parts of their bodies… The ascetics will point to their asceticism, to their long fasts and vigils, to their liberality…But I, idle, sinful, transgressing as I am, what shall I be able to point to? Spare me, O merciful One! Spare me, O Thou Lover of mankind!"

I am always dismayed at the amount of what I can only call silliness that spills forth on and around Ash Wednesday concerning Lent, thus trivializing what is a solemn and holy season. As one who sees the benefit and even the need to be interconnected, I suppose much of this has its place, given the tremendous pastoral need. So, I can deal with those efforts that don't consciously strive to be merely entertaining. Efforts aimed at entertaining, as well-intentioned as they may be, only serve to add more clutter to a culture increasingly made up of distractions.

Starting this Monday I will be posting less, at least over the remainder of Lent. I will definitely continue our Friday traditio and I will put something up on the Sunday readings. I take a kind of odd pride in posting something everyday. So, I will be working on that over Lent. One feature that I am discontinuing altogether is the U.S. hierarchy updates. The best resource for keeping up on these events is the Catholic-Hierarchy News blog, which I feature in my blogfeed over on the right.

I have never judged the success of this endeavor by any quantitative method. Suffice it to say, I do not see myself as an entertainer, but as a deacon who hopes he is providing a service. One service I hope I provide is a blog that has some continuity and coherence from post-to-post, day-to-day, week-to-week, etc., even if I run the risk of being a little repetitive. After all, continuity requires overlap. It also bears mentioning that being serious does not mean being either joyless or humorless.

One cannot post during these days without continuing to ask for prayers for the people of Japan. This morning an explosion was reported at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant that was damaged by the 8.9 earthquake. The explosion raises the concern that one of plant's reactors has started to meltdown. Lord, hear our prayer.

Meum cum sim pulvis et cinis

Happy Cyril and Methodius Day!

Contrary to popular belief, today, at least on the reformed Roman calendar, we mark, not the liturgical memorial of St. Valentine (i.e., one Valentinius), but of Sts. Cyril and Methodious, the great missionary brothers who evangelized the Slavs. On the Eastern calendar their feast is observed on 11 May. St. Cyril is credited with devising the cyrillic alphabet, which is the alphabet associated with most Slavic languages. However, Catholics who abide the by the liturgical calendar associated with the extraordinary form of the Mass (i.e., the old Latin calendar) still observe today as St. Valentine's day.

The Roman calendar, like so much of the liturgy, was reformed following the Second Vatican Council. The reason for St. Valentine not having a memorial on the reformed calendar is that St. Valentine's existence, like that of St. Christopher and a few other "saints," cannot be pinned down with any certainty. It is likely that St. Valentine, as he came to be remembered and memorialized, was a composite figure. He is listed as a Roman priest/martyr and, as such, appears in some Roman martryologies, though none that date back to the times of Christian persecution, but only in some dating back no later than the fifth century. The name Valentinus is also associated as a North African martyr, as well as the bishop of ancient Interamn, which is modern Terni. All of this information is readily available in the on-line Catholic Encyclopedia.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius

One of the reasons for reforming the Roman liturgical calendar was to eliminate the feasts of saints whose actual existence was dubious. Christianity is, after all, an historical religion and saints are real people, this is no small thing.

The same Encyclopedia article goes on to state that "popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair." As a demonstration of this idea, many historians point to lines 309, 322 386 of Sir Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, Parliament of Foules, which the poet later re-titled Book of St. Valentine's Day of the Parliament of Birds:

309 For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
310 Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
311 Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
312 And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
313 That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
314 So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
315 For me to stonde, so ful was al the place

Of course, this should do nothing to dampen having a romantic supper and evening with your beloved. Enjoy! Clarifying this, in my estimation, does help to insulate faith from a kind pie-eyed, squishy sentimentalism and remind us that hedonism is never alright. In any case, true love is a kind of acesis.

Candlemas- Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

In past times the Feast of the Presentation marked the end of the Christmas season. This feast is also known as Candlemas. Traditionally, people would bring candles they used in their homes to the Church to be blessed. Even today some parishes carry on this lovely tradition. On this feast we commemorate and celebrate the day when, in accord with Jewish tradition, Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to God as a firstborn son. In like manner, the Code of Canon Law states that Christian "[p]arents are obliged to take care that infants are baptized in the first few weeks." Of course, we meditate on this event as the fourth Joyful mystery of the Rosary. The fruit of this mystery is obedience.

According to St. Luke's account, upon their arrival at the Temple, Mary and Joseph encountered Simeon and the prophetess Anna, both of whom were anxiously awaiting Israel's Messiah. Simeon had received the assurance of God that he would live until he saw the Messiah. Upon seeing the infant Jesus he broke into the prayer, which is recited every day as part of Night Prayer throughout the Church, known as the Nunc Dimittis:

"Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel" (Luke 2:29-32).

St. Sophronius (AD 560-638), who was patriarch of Jerusalem at the time it fell into Muslim hands in AD 637, preached a wonderful sermon on Candlemas, which is the second reading for today's Office of Readings, in which he said,

"Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendour of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

"The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

"The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God..."

In hastening to meet Christ today, let us be reminded in the lovely words of Gerard Manely Hopkins that "Christ plays in ten thousand places...," perhaps even in a little creature known as Punxsutawney Phil, according to whom spring will blossom early this year. Happy Groundhog Day!

Purgatorio, the fire within

Sandro Magister's 17 January article over on Chiesa in which, prompted by Pope Benedict XVI's 12 January catechesis on St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), he took up the topic of purgatory is something I have thought a lot about this past week. St. Catherine of Genoa is best known for her vision of purgatory. In particular, Magister points out the congruence between the Holy Father's audience and a passage from his magnificent encyclical letter, which is too little known and read: Spe Salvi. I cannot think of purgatory, however, without taking into consideration N.T. Wright's objections to what he sees as a late-developing and uniquely Catholic doctrine.

Wright lays out his objection to the doctrine of purgatory in a chapter of his book Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. In fact, Wright's vehement argument that purgatory is effectively a made-up doctrine, like the doctrine of limbo- that place in between heaven and hell that was posited to give unbaptized infants a place to go and that was effectively retracted by the International Theological Commission, which belongs to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a 2007 document that was some ten years in the making, The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized- sparked a charge of anti-Catholicism against him by the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. The good news is that these two friends, while never agreeing about purgatory, did attain reconciliation. Anyone who is interested can read Fr. Neuhaus' objections to Wright's critique in his piece The Possibilities and Perils in Being a Really Smart Bishop in the April 2008 issue of First Things and Wright's response in the June/July 2008 issue of the same journal.

It is not my intent to lay out Wright's argument contra purgatory at great length. "Purgatory," he correctly observes, "is basically a Roman Catholic doctrine. It is not held as such in the Eastern Orthodox church, and it was decisively rejected, on biblical and theological grounds and not merely because of antipathy to particular abuses [i.e., the selling of indulgences] at the Reformation." Wright goes on to accurately observe that purgatory was intially laid out at some length by "Aquinas in the thirteenth century and Dante in the early fourteenth." It is here that Bishop Wright points out something very vital about purgatory that gives the idea impetus and theological credibility, namely that as a result of these treatments of purgatory, likely more Dante's than Aquinas', "the notion became woven deeply into the entire psyche of the whole period." Of course it remains deeply woven into the psyche of subsequent periods, too. Wright goes on to note that "[t]he poetic and dramatic power of the idea of purgatory is evident," not only in Dante, but also in Newman's lovely poem Dream of Gerontius.

Lust, which artwork based on Dante's Purgatorio I chose due to another post I read and commented on today

The his catechesis on St. Catherine of Genoa, the pope notes that "Catherine, in her mystical experience, never received specific revelations on purgatory or on the souls being purified there." Nonetheless, in her writings about purgatory we encounter "characteristics that were original in her time." First among her unique insights is "the 'place' of the purification of souls." Prior to her time purgatory "was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which purgatory was supposed to be located." For Catherine purgatory is "an interior fire." This insight flows from "her own experience of profound sorrow for the sins committed, in comparison with God’s infinite love." So, from the first "moment of [her] conversion... [she] suddenly became aware of God’s goodness, of the infinite distance of her own life from this goodness and of a burning fire within her. And this is the fire that purifies, the interior fire of purgatory." So, rather than locating purgation in the afterlife, St. Catherine "begins with the inner experience of her own life on the way to Eternity."

"'The soul', Catherine says, 'presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God'. Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty." We, too, are "aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently [we] suffer for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love." The Holy Father concludes that "love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin."

Magister points out that the relevant parts of Spe Salvi are paragraphs 43-48. Central to this part of the Holy Father's letter on hope is when he points to the writings of "recent theologians" who "are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation 'as through fire'. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God" (par. 47).

As Pope Benedict and Bishop Wright both indicate, such matters are too important to be left entirely to theologians. Painters, poets, composers and, in modern times, film-makers demonstrate how consonant the doctrine of purgatory is with the human heart (how deeply woven it is into our Christian psyche), arising from our experience of being fallen creatures in a fallen world, albeit one in the process of being redeemed and purified (Rom. 8:18-30). The obvious example is the Purgatorio of Dante's Divine Comedy (I urge you to check out the Divine Comedy via the University of Texas' wonderful website). Cardinal Newman's Dream of Gerontius holds a special place for me, as does Elgar's brilliant oratorio that sets Newman's poem to music, which I was privileged to hear at The Cathedral of the Madeleine back in August 2009.

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Paulussturz (i.e., Spill of Paul), by Parmagianino, 1527-1528

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, which is undoubtedly a most important event, not just in the history of the church, but in all of salvation history. Saul of Tarsus, a Jew, steeped in Hellenistic culture, and also a Roman citizen, was uniquely positioned for the apostolic role assigned him by divine providence. As both of my readers know, I do a lot with the writings of St. Paul throughout the year. So, let's be content today just to read Paul's account of his own conversion:

"For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

"Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, 'He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.' And they glorified God because of me" (Gal. 1:11-24- ESV).

St. Paul, holy apostle, pray for us!

Last Sunday the English edition of Il Sussidiario published an article I initially posted over on Cahiers Péguy, where I post occasionally. I also contribute to Il Sussidiario on a fairly regular basis.

For our "love of aimless stimulation"

Aldous Huxley, who, along with Witggenstein, Camus, Kerouac, W.G. Seabald, Bob Dylan, W.H. Auden, the Welshman Dylan Thomas, Orwell, Von Balthasar, Eugene Peterson, Ratzinger, Pater Tom, Wojtyla, and Giussani, all Trappists, Carthusians, Caremlites, the early Karl Marx (before he went all dialectician on us) as well as others too numerous to name in a blog post, recognized the great peril in which we have placed our humanity, which, oddly, may have been best exemplified recently by the people in the film Wall-E, hits the nail on the head in his essay Distractions - I, observing in full prophetic mode way back in 1946:

"But it is upon fashions, cars and gadgets, upon news and the advertising for which news exists, that our present industrial and economic system depends for its proper functioning. For...this system cannot work unless the demand for non-necessities is not merely kept up, but continually expanded; and of course it cannot be kept up and expanded except by incessant appeals to greed, competitiveness and love of aimless stimulation. Men have always been a prey to distractions, which are the original sin of the mind; but never before today has an attempt been made to organize and exploit distractions, to make of them, because of their economic importance, the core and vital center of human life..."

I came across this quote from Huxley last night while reading Tim Vivian's introduction to The Coptic Life of Antony in his book Journeying into God: Seven Early Monastic Lives, which is a book well worth any one's while.

He also includes a nice corollary to Poe's Eldorado, as well as a lovely antithesis to what Huxely so accurately describes, when he quotes Pater Tom: "Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, of deepening and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts."

Just as I was finishing typing this post and getting ready to go see him, my Mom called and told me that my Dad passed away this morning. We got him home from the hospital yesterday knowing he would pass, but not knowing when. If you knew my Dad, you would know that he would endorse the message in this post.  Rest in peace, Dad. His last decision was to leave the hospital to die at home, being cared for and surrounded by his family.

Stephen Roger Dodge 17 June 1938 to 17 January 2011.

Pope John Paul II declared blessed

The cries of "Santo Subito!" heard so loudly in St. Peter's Square after the death of Pope John Paul II were heeded. The process for his canonization has been underway since 2005. Just today Vatican Radio published in full the decree of beatification "of the late great Servant of God John Paul II."

The great Dominican theologian, Yves Congar, whom JPII created a cardinal, rightly expressed concern about the practice of popes canonizing other popes. This seems to me to be a very legitimate concern and something that must be safeguarded against. One reason (among many) it must become more of a rarity is that it obscures the holiness of those who walk in the shoes of the fisherman and who are truly saints. John Paul II, beginning with his cultural resistance to the German occupation of Poland as a young man and ending with his witness to the beauty of life during the years of his illness, truly demonstrated heroic virtue. It must be noted that the practice of creating great theologians and scholars cardinals in recognition of their major contributions to the church, as with so many things, was initiated by Pope John Paul II. It must also be noted that Congar accepted the red hat only on condition that he not be ordained a bishop, a concession that Pope John Paul II made for him.

At one time in the church, the only way to be recognized as a saint was by proclamation of the faithful, who simply venerated holy men and women, thus elevating them to sainthood. Indeed, the cries of Santo Subtio on the lips of literally millions of the faithful is probably the best argument in favor of the canonization of Karol Józef Wojtyła.

In his second encyclical and then throughout his life, he taught us that "[t]he Cross is in fact the most profound humbling of God before man. The Cross is like a touch of eternal love on the most painful wounds of man’s earthly existence" (Dives in Misericordia, 8).

It appears that his beatification ceremony will, appropriately, take place on 1 May 2011, which is Divine Mercy Sunday. Like the beatification of the Bl. John Henry Newman, the ceremony will undoubtedly be presided over by Pope Benedict, his close friend and collaborator.

Papa Wojtyla, pray for us!

The twelfth day of Christmas

Adoration of the Magi, by Rembrandt

"The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course of destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ...

"This came to be fulfilled...from the time when the star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.

"Dear friends, you must have the same zeal to be of help to one another; then, in the kingdom of God, to which faith and good works are the way, you will shine as children of the light: through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (from a homily by Pope Saint Leo the Great, which is the second reading for the Office of Readings for Epiphany).

Veni adoramus

St. Lucy, virgin and martyr, pray for us

Today we observe the liturgical memorial of Santa Lucia (ca. 283-304). She died a Syracuse on the island of Sicily likely during the persecution of the Roman emperor Diocletian. She was widely venerated from an early date, which is why her name appears in the Roman Canon. Her feast, celebrated during Advent, is a feast of light. Her day is observed in particular ways among Christians in Northern Europe. After all, Lucia means light.

A few years ago, I composed a lengthy post on Santa Lucia, which was an expanded version of a post from a few years before that, just to give you an idea of the cultus of this highly venerated virgin/martyr.

In Light of the World, Peter Seewald mentions the words of a famous Brazilian supermodel to the Holy Father, stating "that nowadays no woman enters marriage a virgin." Pope Benedict says quite forthrightly that he "disagrees with the supermodel, and many others as well." He goes on to "insist that statistics do not suffice as a criterion for morality... the results of surveys about what people do or how they live is not in and of itself the measure of what is true and right." Indeed, it is the witness of the saints, how they lived and, for the martyrs, like St. Lucy, how they died, in imitation of the Lord, that establishes the criterion of truth and right.

Santa Lucia, ora pro nobis.

Maranatha

Memorial of St. Nicholas

Today we observe the liturgical memorial of St. Nicholas of Myra (270-6 Dec. 346). Myra is located in Asia Minor, also known as Anatolia, which is the city of Demre modern Turkey. Because of the many miracles attributed to him, he is also known as Nikolaos o Thaumaturgos (i.e., Nicholas the Wonderworker). Over his ministry he was known as a secret gift-giver, namely for placing coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. Hence, the long-standing tradition of children leaving their shoes out when they go to bed the night before St. Nicholas Day, a tradition we have observed at our house for the entire 17+ years of our marriage. He was Greek bishop, but lived centuries before the East/West schism and so his day is commemorated throughout the universal Church, that is, among Roman Catholics, most Eastern Catholics, and the Eastern Orthodox.

Like many early saints, such as St. Lucia, St. Agnes, St. Martin of Tours, etc., the cultus of St. Nicholas has waned somewhat. He really began to be venerated in the tenth century. Of course, in the West it has been obscured by the Santa Claus metamorphosis.

Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, children, and sailors. It is due his being the patron of sailors that he is someone we turn to when confronted with danger.

St. Nicholas, holy bishop, pray for us.

Maranatha

"Come and you will see" The Feast of St. Andrew

"The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, 'What are you seeking?' And they said to him 'Rabbi' (which means Teacher), 'where are you staying?' He said to them, 'Come and you will see.' So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah' (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas' (which means Peter)" (John 1:35-42).

St. Andrew is the patron of the see of Constantinople. It was three years ago today that Pope Benedict observed this universal feast at the Patriarchate in Istanbul with Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch. On that occasion the Holy Father said:

"Tradition tells us that [St. Andrew] followed the fate of his Lord and Master, ending his days in Patras, Greece. Like Peter, he endured martyrdom on a cross, the diagonal cross that we venerate today as the cross of Saint Andrew. From his example we learn that the path of each single Christian, like that of the Church as a whole, leads to new life, to eternal life, through the imitation of Christ and the experience of his cross...

"The Divine Liturgy in which we have participated was celebrated according to the rite of Saint John Chrysostom. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ have been made mystically present. For us Christians this is a source and sign of constantly renewed hope. We find that hope beautifully expressed in the ancient text known as the Passion of Saint Andrew: 'I greet you, O Cross, consecrated by the Body of Christ and adorned by His limbs as by precious pearls … May the faithful know your joy, and the gifts you hold in store …'

"This faith in the redeeming death of Jesus on the cross, and this hope which the Risen Christ offers to the whole human family, are shared by all of us, Orthodox and Catholics alike. May our daily prayer and activity be inspired by a fervent desire not only to be present at the Divine Liturgy, but to be able to celebrate it together, to take part in the one table of the Lord, sharing the same bread and the same chalice. May our encounter today serve as an impetus and joyful anticipation of the gift of full communion. And may the Spirit of God accompany us on our journey!"

Of course, a Happy St. Andrew's day to all Scots, too!

St. Andrew, holy apostle, pray for us, especially for the unity of all who follow Christ.

Maranatha

"we ask that the martyrdom of our people be officially recognized..."

There are many ways we can show our solidarity with the Church throughout the Middle East, especially the Church in Iraq. One is to contribute money through any variety of agencies. My agency of choice, one I have supported for quite a few years, is the Catholic Near Eastern Welfare Association, which is a papal agency established to provide humanitarian aid and pastoral support to churches throughout the Middle East. There is also a recent initiative underway, instigated by Maria Teresa Landi, to send letters of support to Christians in Iraq telling them that you stand with them and, to the best of your ability, are standing for them as they continue to be martyred and persecuted.

The Holy Father's representative at the United Nations last week offered his diplomatic pouch (i.e., his ability to directly mail letters to the Papal Nunciature in Iraq) to deliver these letters. The established deadline has passed, but I would be surprised if letters sent now would be left undelivered. So, you can address your emails to Christian families to His Beatitude Emmanuel Delli, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad and email them to tonuncio@gmail.com.

Another way of supporting our brothers and sisters in Christ, probably the most neglected, but the one that will ultimately prove most efficacious, is by fasting and praying on their behalf. To this end, tomorrow, 23 November, many people are praying the rosary for the Christians of Iraq, the Sorrowful Mysteries, please join us for this important initiative, invoking Our Lady of Perpetual Help, who is highly venerated among the Christians of the Middle East.

There is now under way a formal initiative to have the Iraqi martyrs formally declared saints by the Catholic Church. The petition declares that "[d]espite this barbaric act, we, as Arab Christians, want to reaffirm our joy and our desire to live out our Christian faith in the same land where Christ died and rose again for our salvation, and where his apostles told the good news to our ancestors.

"The Middle East is the birthplace of Christianity. We have lived here since Pentecost, when the Spirit inspired our forefathers who expressed their faith through diversity as Greek Catholics, Syriac Catholics, Copts, Maronites, Armenians, Latins, Lutherans and Anglicans – all of whom confess on[e] holy, catholic and apostolic church.

"In the tradition of the early Church, we ask that those who died as martyrs be honoured as saints. We call for the canonisation of the following fallen brothers:

"Fr. Thair Sad-alla Abd-al and Fr. Waseem Sabeeh Al-kas Butros and their companions, who were murdered on October 31 by Islamist terrorists. Others mentioned are the Chaldean Sisters Fawzeiyah and Margaret Naoum, killed March 26, 2007; the Chaldean priest Fr. Raghid Aziz Ganni and sub-deacons Yousef Daoud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Issam Bidawid, killed June 3, 2007 in Mosul; Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj of Mosul, found dead March 13, 2008." I would respectfully add Bishop Luigi Padovese and Fr. Andrea Santoro to this list of Middle Eastern martyrs deserving official canonization.

The petition concludes: "If, as Tertullian said, 'The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church,' then we ask that the martyrdom of our people be officially recognised so that we may take root in the land.

"For this reason, we sign this petition calling for all the Christian martyrs of Iraq to be canonised, so that the example of their life and sacrifice be an inspiration to all of us, Arab and international Christians, who are living in the Middle East."

Indeed, it may well be the blood of these martyrs that insures the survival and even the future flourishing of the Church in Iraq. You can add your name to the petition by visiting the Christian Martyrs of Iraq and signing the petition.

I owe a deep diaconal bow to my brother deacon, Greg Kandra, who blogs over on The Deacon's Bench, for bringing this formal initiative to my attention. As we say in Rome Santo Subito!

All holy men and women, pray for us

Master, discipline, disciple

"A discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to His grace." ~James Kushiner

On this, her liturgical memorial, we implore: St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, pray for us. The martyrs show us the ultimate purpose of practicing spiritual discipline in imitation of our Master, Jesus Christ.

All holy men and women, pray for us