Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciple: “Let us also go to die with him.” John 11
Indian chief, rallying his warrior brothers for battle: “Today is a good day to die!”
“We need someone to die a little tomorrow morning,” Frank Palumbo, Responsible and Catechist for our Neocatecumenal communities at St. Columba’s, NYC, needed help the next morning preparing the Church for Holy Week activities. “The Christian life is about dying, little by little; and we have an opportunity here to die a little tomorrow morning.” I didn’t volunteer, but his words stayed with me. Several months later, on September 11, 2009, Frank was one of the first firemen over the Brooklyn Bridge, to the World Trade Center, and into the hands of God. He left his wife to raise their 12 children; but his mission was accomplished. He had died for the brethren.
Story narrated by Michael during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Men’s Conference (“Iron sharpens iron; so a brother strengthens a brother”), West Orange, NJ, March 28, 2009:
The car hit a spot of ice and slid off the road at Bear Mountain. The husband came to and realized he had two broken legs and his wife had a broken spine and neck. What happened next we know because she survived. The police eventually found her alive in the cold, covered by two winter coats. They found her husband up the hill, frozen to death, where he had pulled himself, coatless and crippled, in his attempt to get help for his suffering wife.
This brother had fulfilled his purpose: he laid down his life for his spouse.
Every man is destined to lay down his life: for wife, children, nation, or Church. We all had the privilege of watching John Paul II lay down his life, in slow motion, as he nobly suffered the ravages of Parkinson’s and taught us all how to die.
The warrior chief is right: Today is a good day to die! Every day is a good day to die!
See you at the General Judgment! We will compare battle scars (i.e. stigmata)!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Emotivism
I was very troubled today by my freshman religion class on the Eucharist. I raised the question: Who can receive? I planned to cover the normal material: a baptized Catholic, who has been catechetically prepared, who understands and believes the Catholic teaching, who is in union with the Church, in the state of grace, and has fasted the hour. I was flabbergasted when several students insisted that everyone had a right to receive: unbelievers, those ignorant, drunkards, and even animals. Not only did they insist that all God’s creatures are entitled to the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, but they did so in a contemptuous manner, disgusted that the Church (and I) would discriminate against other species. They saw nothing wrong with sending the sacred host through the mail to a family member. These were good students from good families who spoke in a tone of righteous contempt for the sacramental practice of the Church.
These students live in an entirely different ontological and moral universe. They fail to see any essential structure to existence: the sacraments are for everyone and everything without discrimination and there is no hierarchy to being so that animals receive respect equal to humans.
Meanwhile, in my senior marriage course on marriage and the theology of the body, the most vocal students see cohabitation and gay coupling as morally equivalent to marriage.
Meanwhile, in the news we learn that President Obama is being honored by our premier Catholic university and the intellectually precocious President Clinton declares that embryos can be destroyed as long as they are not fertilized!
This is deeply troubling. Our youth inhabit a universe devoid of intelligent order, moral purpose or structure. They know only feelings and emotions: they are emotivists. They feel pleasure and pain, they emote good and bad, but they do not know reality as intelligible, as purposeful, as orderly.
This is all very discouraging. But then I think of Pope Benedict and his mission to restore a sense of Creation as infused with Logos, intelligent love and loving intelligence. His gentle, sweet, brilliant, and hopeful lucidity restores me to courage and confidence.
These students live in an entirely different ontological and moral universe. They fail to see any essential structure to existence: the sacraments are for everyone and everything without discrimination and there is no hierarchy to being so that animals receive respect equal to humans.
Meanwhile, in my senior marriage course on marriage and the theology of the body, the most vocal students see cohabitation and gay coupling as morally equivalent to marriage.
Meanwhile, in the news we learn that President Obama is being honored by our premier Catholic university and the intellectually precocious President Clinton declares that embryos can be destroyed as long as they are not fertilized!
This is deeply troubling. Our youth inhabit a universe devoid of intelligent order, moral purpose or structure. They know only feelings and emotions: they are emotivists. They feel pleasure and pain, they emote good and bad, but they do not know reality as intelligible, as purposeful, as orderly.
This is all very discouraging. But then I think of Pope Benedict and his mission to restore a sense of Creation as infused with Logos, intelligent love and loving intelligence. His gentle, sweet, brilliant, and hopeful lucidity restores me to courage and confidence.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sad
Notre Dame’s choice of President Obama as commencement speaker has saddened me. When our own local St. Peter’s College invited him to speak last year I was angry for months (and am still not over it!) but now I feel saddened by loss, alienation, and betrayal.
When my daughter graduated from ND, I was thrilled to be associated with such a great institution: so much positive energy, intelligence and confidence extending into all areas of culture and study! Such a marriage of what is best in the Church and in the USA!
This blow culminates month after month of Catholic deference to the culture of death: the election, the “Catholic” cabinet and congress, the disunity and impotence of our bishops, the immediate implementation of abortion and clone-and-kill policies. It all heightens the awareness of so many family and friends who support or tolerate these policies.
How do I handle the sadness? I renounce resentment and judgmentalism; I bring it to prayer; I intensify my commitment to Catholic values and practice; and I strengthen my communion with those who share my faith and convictions. However, the sadness and loss remain: it is not a difference of opinion; it is a profound moral and spiritual gulf that has come to separate us from those we love.
When my daughter graduated from ND, I was thrilled to be associated with such a great institution: so much positive energy, intelligence and confidence extending into all areas of culture and study! Such a marriage of what is best in the Church and in the USA!
This blow culminates month after month of Catholic deference to the culture of death: the election, the “Catholic” cabinet and congress, the disunity and impotence of our bishops, the immediate implementation of abortion and clone-and-kill policies. It all heightens the awareness of so many family and friends who support or tolerate these policies.
How do I handle the sadness? I renounce resentment and judgmentalism; I bring it to prayer; I intensify my commitment to Catholic values and practice; and I strengthen my communion with those who share my faith and convictions. However, the sadness and loss remain: it is not a difference of opinion; it is a profound moral and spiritual gulf that has come to separate us from those we love.
There Will Be Blood
“Do not think that I only suffered for three hours on my cross. I am in torment until the end of time.” Words of Jesus received by the young Padre Pio.
The entire value of any drama depends upon its ending. Bad ending = Bad drama. The climax and conclusion in a good drama, even a tragedy, is able to sum up the entire plot and yet transcend it, with serendipity, bringing freshness and insight. The tendency of modern cinema is towards nihilistic, depressing endings: Crash, The Departed, There Will Be Blood.The Christian Drama is delightful because the climax is so exhilarating. We already know the ending (Paschal Mystery) even as we continue through our own piece of the drama.
Therefore, the other night I was troubled while watching a documentary on Saint Pio to learn the words he received from Christ: “Do not think I only suffered for three hours on my cross. I am in torment until the end of time.”
Frequently, I console myself and my students with the fact that Jesus was on his cross for only three hours; that his passion lasted about 18 hours and then concluded; that he was in the desert only 40 days; that suffering, in short, is always temporary and passing, like the pains of childbirth, but the afterglow of glory and joy is eternal.
The words Padre Pio heard suggest the opposite: that suffering is indefinite and maybe eternal; that, the Resurrection notwithstanding, there is no end in sight for our suffering; that, indeed, suffering may be eternal, intrinsic to God’s very Self; so that reality is endless pain…the myth of Sisyphus. Taken in this way, the words received overrule the Gospel of Christ’s triumph and he himself remains captive to suffering indefinitely.
These words to the saint are private revelation and therefore not definitive or binding. Nevertheless, given his sanctity and the fruits of his life, they cannot be dismissed.
After pondering these words in the light of the Gospel Mystery itself, I resolved my confusion by recalling that Jesus has identified himself with the very least among us, until the end of time. Until the end of time, the least among us will be in torment, the torment of physical pain, the torments of the emotions and the psyche, and the deeper torment of sin. Jesus words, spoken from heaven where He dwells in his humanity in eternal joy and glory with His Father and mother and the communion of saints, reveal that He, who has transcended time and defeated death, suffering and sin, nevertheless continues to identify His very Self with the suffering, sin and pain of those still moving through time and history…and He will do so until the very end of time.
The words received cannot contradict the more foundational reality of Christ’s final and eternal victory over suffering and sin. But there is within Jesus a mysterious duality: His body is now glorified and joyified in heaven for ever; but he is also “in torment,” not his own torment, which is finished, but He chooses to dwell in the torment of the little ones. Therefore, He who has triumphed over suffering now dwells in the torment of others, bringing his victory there.
The lives of Padre Pio and of all the saints reveal this paradox of duality: immense suffering suffused with hope, joy, love and miracles of new life...indeed, the very pathway or sacrament of this joy, life and love. And so there will, until the end of history, be blood: the blood of childbirth and of martyrdom, the blood of sacrificial/sacred violence, the blood of the stigmata, and the precious blood of the Eucharist.
The ending is happy but the drama is intense. And we are still in the midst of it.
Padre Pio, pray for us!
See you at the Eschaton!
The entire value of any drama depends upon its ending. Bad ending = Bad drama. The climax and conclusion in a good drama, even a tragedy, is able to sum up the entire plot and yet transcend it, with serendipity, bringing freshness and insight. The tendency of modern cinema is towards nihilistic, depressing endings: Crash, The Departed, There Will Be Blood.The Christian Drama is delightful because the climax is so exhilarating. We already know the ending (Paschal Mystery) even as we continue through our own piece of the drama.
Therefore, the other night I was troubled while watching a documentary on Saint Pio to learn the words he received from Christ: “Do not think I only suffered for three hours on my cross. I am in torment until the end of time.”
Frequently, I console myself and my students with the fact that Jesus was on his cross for only three hours; that his passion lasted about 18 hours and then concluded; that he was in the desert only 40 days; that suffering, in short, is always temporary and passing, like the pains of childbirth, but the afterglow of glory and joy is eternal.
The words Padre Pio heard suggest the opposite: that suffering is indefinite and maybe eternal; that, the Resurrection notwithstanding, there is no end in sight for our suffering; that, indeed, suffering may be eternal, intrinsic to God’s very Self; so that reality is endless pain…the myth of Sisyphus. Taken in this way, the words received overrule the Gospel of Christ’s triumph and he himself remains captive to suffering indefinitely.
These words to the saint are private revelation and therefore not definitive or binding. Nevertheless, given his sanctity and the fruits of his life, they cannot be dismissed.
After pondering these words in the light of the Gospel Mystery itself, I resolved my confusion by recalling that Jesus has identified himself with the very least among us, until the end of time. Until the end of time, the least among us will be in torment, the torment of physical pain, the torments of the emotions and the psyche, and the deeper torment of sin. Jesus words, spoken from heaven where He dwells in his humanity in eternal joy and glory with His Father and mother and the communion of saints, reveal that He, who has transcended time and defeated death, suffering and sin, nevertheless continues to identify His very Self with the suffering, sin and pain of those still moving through time and history…and He will do so until the very end of time.
The words received cannot contradict the more foundational reality of Christ’s final and eternal victory over suffering and sin. But there is within Jesus a mysterious duality: His body is now glorified and joyified in heaven for ever; but he is also “in torment,” not his own torment, which is finished, but He chooses to dwell in the torment of the little ones. Therefore, He who has triumphed over suffering now dwells in the torment of others, bringing his victory there.
The lives of Padre Pio and of all the saints reveal this paradox of duality: immense suffering suffused with hope, joy, love and miracles of new life...indeed, the very pathway or sacrament of this joy, life and love. And so there will, until the end of history, be blood: the blood of childbirth and of martyrdom, the blood of sacrificial/sacred violence, the blood of the stigmata, and the precious blood of the Eucharist.
The ending is happy but the drama is intense. And we are still in the midst of it.
Padre Pio, pray for us!
See you at the Eschaton!
Monday, March 23, 2009
“Education President” and the Schizo Psyche of the Limousine Liberal
To the mind attuned to subsidiarity, the pretensions of an “Education President” arouse suspicions of social engineering and a “messiah complex.” The implication seems to be: family, Church, community and the educational guild are together incompetent so what is needed is a federal intervention, an infusion of tax funds, and reform imposed by the experts from above.
The current administration is particularly worrisome given the bipolar split between Obama’s private and public values: this great champion and reformer of the public school system sends his own daughters to prestigious, expensive, elite schools. This is paradigmatic of the double-mindedness of limousine liberalism: our privileged children go to private schools that we can afford; the public schools are great for everyone else; and no, there will be no school choice or tax relief for poor and working class families who would like to choose parochial or other alternate schooling. The limousine liberal enjoys his prestige and wealth as well as a moral righteousness because he supports the sanctimonious progressive agenda involving a school system that is devastating for the poor. The problem is not the choice of an elite school: who in that situation wouldn’t choose the very best? The problem is the hypocritical public allegiance to monopolistic governmental schools and financial repression of alternate education for those with lower incomes.
Making matters worse is the moral value system of the elite who ambition to reform education. Perhaps the most telling indication of Obama’s moral values was his campaign reference to a hypothetical unplanned teen pregnancy as a mistake. This choice of words unveiled the moral universe inhabited by this most discrete diplomat.
The unintended pregnancy of an unwed teenager is many things:
- A natural consequence of intercourse;
- A gift from God;
- An awesome challenge and call to responsibility;
- The discrete creation by God of a unique soul, destined for eternity with Him;
- A painful cross to bear;
- A promise for the future;
- A concrete call to repentance from sin.
This new person is many things; she is not a mistake.
We cannot blame Obama. He has not received a solid catechesis on sexuality from his anthropologist mother, his Ivy League mentors, or the Reverend Wright. Nor is he likely to receive one from the “Catholic” collaborators who surround him. In regard to basic morals of life and love, they are truly a Gathering of the Ungifted. And yet, this is the crew who will presume to transform the education of our young.
To be a Catholic in Obama’s America is to be a stranger in a strange land…to be a captive in Babylon.
The current administration is particularly worrisome given the bipolar split between Obama’s private and public values: this great champion and reformer of the public school system sends his own daughters to prestigious, expensive, elite schools. This is paradigmatic of the double-mindedness of limousine liberalism: our privileged children go to private schools that we can afford; the public schools are great for everyone else; and no, there will be no school choice or tax relief for poor and working class families who would like to choose parochial or other alternate schooling. The limousine liberal enjoys his prestige and wealth as well as a moral righteousness because he supports the sanctimonious progressive agenda involving a school system that is devastating for the poor. The problem is not the choice of an elite school: who in that situation wouldn’t choose the very best? The problem is the hypocritical public allegiance to monopolistic governmental schools and financial repression of alternate education for those with lower incomes.
Making matters worse is the moral value system of the elite who ambition to reform education. Perhaps the most telling indication of Obama’s moral values was his campaign reference to a hypothetical unplanned teen pregnancy as a mistake. This choice of words unveiled the moral universe inhabited by this most discrete diplomat.
The unintended pregnancy of an unwed teenager is many things:
- A natural consequence of intercourse;
- A gift from God;
- An awesome challenge and call to responsibility;
- The discrete creation by God of a unique soul, destined for eternity with Him;
- A painful cross to bear;
- A promise for the future;
- A concrete call to repentance from sin.
This new person is many things; she is not a mistake.
We cannot blame Obama. He has not received a solid catechesis on sexuality from his anthropologist mother, his Ivy League mentors, or the Reverend Wright. Nor is he likely to receive one from the “Catholic” collaborators who surround him. In regard to basic morals of life and love, they are truly a Gathering of the Ungifted. And yet, this is the crew who will presume to transform the education of our young.
To be a Catholic in Obama’s America is to be a stranger in a strange land…to be a captive in Babylon.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Fearaholic’s Anonymous
Hi! My name is Matt and I’m a grateful, recovering fearaholic. I have been addicted to fear and powerless over my cowardice. (Chorus: Hi Matt!)
For decades, I have been fearful of failure, of confrontation, of pain, of beautiful women (and my feelings for them), of tough guys (especially Italians), of competition, of rejection and disapproval, of bosses and authorities, of groups of teenage boys, of my students and my employees, but mostly of my own weakness and cowardice.
At the core of my fear was a sad sense of isolation and loneliness. I felt alone and scared. My addict (a.k.a. Scratch, the Deceiver, the Accuser, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Tempter, Adversary, Old Nick, Prince of Darkness and many more) shamelessly took advantage of my vulnerability and haunted me for years with a tormenting interior chant: “You are a wimp! A coward! A waste! A (capital L) Loser! You do NOT have what it takes! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Thanks to Higher Power, the program, the fellowship and my sponsor, I have been growing sober from fear now for some decades. I am no longer ashamed, inadequate, alone and afraid. Whenever I do feel that way, I immediately call upon my Sponsor (a.k.a. Counselor, Advocate, Hallowed Ghost, Third Person, Comforter, Intercessor, Paraclete, Consoler, Mother of the Poor, Light Eternal, Inner Guest, Sevenfold Gift and many more). He immediately and efficaciously relieves me of my fearful, sad aloneness and brings me into a most encouraging communion with Himself, with the Father, with the communion of saints, all my brothers and sisters in recovery, those still in bondage to fear and deception, and most of all with the One who accepted all fear and failure, all pain and confusion, all competition and confrontation, all weakness and humiliation…and made all of that the pathway to communion and love and positive sobriety.
Thanks to my sponsor, the program, and all of you (my brother and sister addicts), I am growing in freedom from fear every day; I am a saint-in-the-making; I am training for heroism.
See you in the Eucharist!
For decades, I have been fearful of failure, of confrontation, of pain, of beautiful women (and my feelings for them), of tough guys (especially Italians), of competition, of rejection and disapproval, of bosses and authorities, of groups of teenage boys, of my students and my employees, but mostly of my own weakness and cowardice.
At the core of my fear was a sad sense of isolation and loneliness. I felt alone and scared. My addict (a.k.a. Scratch, the Deceiver, the Accuser, Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Tempter, Adversary, Old Nick, Prince of Darkness and many more) shamelessly took advantage of my vulnerability and haunted me for years with a tormenting interior chant: “You are a wimp! A coward! A waste! A (capital L) Loser! You do NOT have what it takes! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Thanks to Higher Power, the program, the fellowship and my sponsor, I have been growing sober from fear now for some decades. I am no longer ashamed, inadequate, alone and afraid. Whenever I do feel that way, I immediately call upon my Sponsor (a.k.a. Counselor, Advocate, Hallowed Ghost, Third Person, Comforter, Intercessor, Paraclete, Consoler, Mother of the Poor, Light Eternal, Inner Guest, Sevenfold Gift and many more). He immediately and efficaciously relieves me of my fearful, sad aloneness and brings me into a most encouraging communion with Himself, with the Father, with the communion of saints, all my brothers and sisters in recovery, those still in bondage to fear and deception, and most of all with the One who accepted all fear and failure, all pain and confusion, all competition and confrontation, all weakness and humiliation…and made all of that the pathway to communion and love and positive sobriety.
Thanks to my sponsor, the program, and all of you (my brother and sister addicts), I am growing in freedom from fear every day; I am a saint-in-the-making; I am training for heroism.
See you in the Eucharist!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Modest Politics a la Benedict: a Catholic Third Way
“The pope’s modest vision of politics clearly goes against utopian views as we commonly understand the term...the expectation of a state of salvation within history that in itself transcends the possibilities of political action but is established by political means…The Christian tradition provides other views of utopia that do not partake of such irrationalism…the monastic ideal which was to live the life of paradise now…Mendicant religious orders that went into the world and later third orders were again attempts to transform the world by establishing a utopian ideal within it. So for all of its rejection of false, political utopias, the Church provides, as it were, other utopias which edify the world and push it to a higher, more spiritual standard.”
Thomas Rourke in “Fundamental Politics,” Communio, Fall 2008.
Pope Benedict gives us a sophisticated, nuanced critique of the two utopian ideologies that compete in our current contest: Obama-ism and Reagan-ism. The first places its hope in the preternatural ability of the expanded, progressive state to revive the economy, provide universal healthcare, quality education, alternate energies, international peace through diplomacy and a cleaned environment…all through tax increases on the very wealthy. This is utopian thinking in spades. Unfortunately, the alternate ideology is an exaltation of the impersonal “invisible hand” of global market capitalism which, allied with democratic politics, is construed as the privileged vehicle of redemption for the poor. The two visions share an illusional belief in the efficacy of market capitalism, the first as regulated by an expanded government, the second as freewheeling. Pope Benedict preaches neither of these market-gospels.
Current events surely confirm Benedict's skepticism. The long-running Madoff ponzi scheme and the AFG bonuses: could there be more blatant evidence of governmental incompetence and capitalistic greed? It is astonishing that people continue to place such trust in the bureaucratic state and the impersonal market!
Benedict’s modesty would shift us from the macro to the more micro level. Recalling his sainted namesake, he points to the monasteries and their role in the creation of medieval Europe as models for a Catholic politics of realism and humility. The Catholic vision here is that communities of every level, but especially the most foundational, the family, are empowered in the Eucharist to flesh out a civilization of love, respect, fraternity, and joy. So, we imagine, with Benedict, a culture rich with a web of interconnected families (extended and open), neighborhoods, parishes, study meetings, ecclesial movements, non-profits, fraternities and sororities, political action groups…all in their own way fleshing out the Triune life received in the sacramental Church.
This view suggests a relative shift of emphasis away from macro-politics towards energetic involvement on the more immediate, concrete level. It prescribes a degree of skepticism, but not complete cynicism, about grand schemes involving state action or market infallibility. The first priority today must be protection of the family, chastity and innocent, helpless life from destruction by the liberationist state, now allied with capital, media and elite culture...a triumphant state actively colonizing guiless Catholics. (Who is the commencement speaker at Notre Dame this year? The Divine Emperor Obama himself!) A Catholic third way will collaborate with the Republicans on this priority without pledging allegiance to the entire conservative ideology and remain open to cooperation with the Democrats on a wide range of issues beyond the moral and cultural.
So, let us “do the good that presents itself” in the immediate communities where we live; placing our trust in the Church rather than any political program; defending our most cherished values centered in the family and the very little ones who are most fragile and vulnerable; and doing all in the Eucharistic spirit of reception, gratitude, and confident assertiveness.
Thomas Rourke in “Fundamental Politics,” Communio, Fall 2008.
Pope Benedict gives us a sophisticated, nuanced critique of the two utopian ideologies that compete in our current contest: Obama-ism and Reagan-ism. The first places its hope in the preternatural ability of the expanded, progressive state to revive the economy, provide universal healthcare, quality education, alternate energies, international peace through diplomacy and a cleaned environment…all through tax increases on the very wealthy. This is utopian thinking in spades. Unfortunately, the alternate ideology is an exaltation of the impersonal “invisible hand” of global market capitalism which, allied with democratic politics, is construed as the privileged vehicle of redemption for the poor. The two visions share an illusional belief in the efficacy of market capitalism, the first as regulated by an expanded government, the second as freewheeling. Pope Benedict preaches neither of these market-gospels.
Current events surely confirm Benedict's skepticism. The long-running Madoff ponzi scheme and the AFG bonuses: could there be more blatant evidence of governmental incompetence and capitalistic greed? It is astonishing that people continue to place such trust in the bureaucratic state and the impersonal market!
Benedict’s modesty would shift us from the macro to the more micro level. Recalling his sainted namesake, he points to the monasteries and their role in the creation of medieval Europe as models for a Catholic politics of realism and humility. The Catholic vision here is that communities of every level, but especially the most foundational, the family, are empowered in the Eucharist to flesh out a civilization of love, respect, fraternity, and joy. So, we imagine, with Benedict, a culture rich with a web of interconnected families (extended and open), neighborhoods, parishes, study meetings, ecclesial movements, non-profits, fraternities and sororities, political action groups…all in their own way fleshing out the Triune life received in the sacramental Church.
This view suggests a relative shift of emphasis away from macro-politics towards energetic involvement on the more immediate, concrete level. It prescribes a degree of skepticism, but not complete cynicism, about grand schemes involving state action or market infallibility. The first priority today must be protection of the family, chastity and innocent, helpless life from destruction by the liberationist state, now allied with capital, media and elite culture...a triumphant state actively colonizing guiless Catholics. (Who is the commencement speaker at Notre Dame this year? The Divine Emperor Obama himself!) A Catholic third way will collaborate with the Republicans on this priority without pledging allegiance to the entire conservative ideology and remain open to cooperation with the Democrats on a wide range of issues beyond the moral and cultural.
So, let us “do the good that presents itself” in the immediate communities where we live; placing our trust in the Church rather than any political program; defending our most cherished values centered in the family and the very little ones who are most fragile and vulnerable; and doing all in the Eucharistic spirit of reception, gratitude, and confident assertiveness.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Good Lenten Movie Alert: The Island
This Russian (subtitled) film is not for everyone: it is slow moving, meditative, and deeply spiritual. Father Anatoly is an eccentric, mystical, guilt-ridden (WWII incident) monk in the “holy fool” tradition who attracts people because of strange powers to heal, exorcise and prophesize. It will probably be incomprehensible and even ridiculous to a secular mind. It pushes beyond the boundaries of the Western, and even the ordinary Roman Catholic, mind into a domain where the supernatural, including the demonic, is as close as the air we breathe. The chilling, stark Russian environment becomes a leading actor in the tradition of Lawrence of Arabia, Into Great Silence and Black Robe. Either of the two exorcism scenes is alone worth the price of admission. I have never seen genuine, heartfelt prayer like this in any other movie: a masterpiece and a great Lenten meditation.
Monday, March 16, 2009
I Am a Copy Cat
“Oh my gosh, she is touching the tabernacle. Isn’t that disrespectful, nervy and eccentric?” I thought, observing the elderly, wheelchair-bound woman in the nursing home chapel. But then I watched her. Slowly, rhythmically, devoutly she would touch the golden tabernacle and then bless herself. Her genuine piety was tangible. After some time, she slowly wheeled herself over to the statue of our Lady, that of St. Joseph, and then onto the stations. I thought of offering to push her but realized that I was invisible to her and that she was deeply in prayer and did not want to be disturbed. A little later, when she was gone, I surrendered to the impulse myself: I approached the tabernacle and stood within two feet, asking our Lord for more intimacy and closeness. I copycatted her.
At the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, moved by the faith and humility of the campesinos as they climbed the hill on their knees, I surrendered to the mimetic urge and did the same, praying on each of the many steps for a different person from my past (childhood playmates, ex-teachers, family, school friends, etc.). At the end my knees were sore and my pants soiled but my spirit restored. I am a good copycat.
When the librarian explained her pilgrim walk across northern Spain, I was filled with the urge to mimic the adventure. Eventually I did copycat her.
From charismatics I learned to pray in tongues, prophesize, sleep in the spirit, cast out demons, and praise God with physical exuberance; in my Neocatechumenal community I mimicked the (European) kiss of peace on both cheeks, exhortations and echoes, asking for forgiveness and acknowledgment of judgments, and a little about giving away all of my wealth to follow Christ. At the hermitage I copy the hermits in silence and recollection; at the monastery I follow along with chant and the liturgy of the hours. From recovering alcoholics and addicts I learn to own my powerlessness, take my inventory, make my amends, and surrender to Higher Power. In the coming years, my ambition is to emulate Dorothy Day, Catherine Dougherty and Mother Teresa in their love for the poor. In these things and many more, I am a copycat.
Planted within the Church, I want to copycat everything that is good, beautiful and noble: to serve with those who serve; pray with those who pray; grieve with those who grieve; and rejoice with those who rejoice. Within the mimetic community of the Church, living in truth and love becomes increasingly effortless as the surrender to mimesis becomes routine and enjoyable.
As an expert copycat, I am not shy to be an example for others. Charles Barkley could not be a role model because he is a superstar and a celebrity. But I am just a copycat and so I am not shy to shout out with St. Paul “Follow me as I have followed Christ!”
It is great to be a copycat!
At the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, moved by the faith and humility of the campesinos as they climbed the hill on their knees, I surrendered to the mimetic urge and did the same, praying on each of the many steps for a different person from my past (childhood playmates, ex-teachers, family, school friends, etc.). At the end my knees were sore and my pants soiled but my spirit restored. I am a good copycat.
When the librarian explained her pilgrim walk across northern Spain, I was filled with the urge to mimic the adventure. Eventually I did copycat her.
From charismatics I learned to pray in tongues, prophesize, sleep in the spirit, cast out demons, and praise God with physical exuberance; in my Neocatechumenal community I mimicked the (European) kiss of peace on both cheeks, exhortations and echoes, asking for forgiveness and acknowledgment of judgments, and a little about giving away all of my wealth to follow Christ. At the hermitage I copy the hermits in silence and recollection; at the monastery I follow along with chant and the liturgy of the hours. From recovering alcoholics and addicts I learn to own my powerlessness, take my inventory, make my amends, and surrender to Higher Power. In the coming years, my ambition is to emulate Dorothy Day, Catherine Dougherty and Mother Teresa in their love for the poor. In these things and many more, I am a copycat.
Planted within the Church, I want to copycat everything that is good, beautiful and noble: to serve with those who serve; pray with those who pray; grieve with those who grieve; and rejoice with those who rejoice. Within the mimetic community of the Church, living in truth and love becomes increasingly effortless as the surrender to mimesis becomes routine and enjoyable.
As an expert copycat, I am not shy to be an example for others. Charles Barkley could not be a role model because he is a superstar and a celebrity. But I am just a copycat and so I am not shy to shout out with St. Paul “Follow me as I have followed Christ!”
It is great to be a copycat!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Return of the Establishment
Yesterday the Church remembered the martyrs of Cordoba. The Moors overran Spain in 711 and Christianity was oppressed. Many Catholics found a measure of peace and tolerance by cooperating with the regime but eventually a more vigorous, witnessing Catholicism emerged that dared to publicly declare Mohammed as a false prophet. The martyrdoms began in 822 but intensified in 852 with reign of the more severe King Mohammad I. So, we see that in Moorish Spain, the Church took two different postures to oppression and hostility: compliance and resistance.
At least weekly we remember the heroic martyrs of Elizabethan England, many of them learned Jesuits, who willing accepted torture, hanging, drawing and quartering in fidelity to Pope and Church when the broader Church submitted to the monarch as head of the Church. Here again we see two Churches: the collaborative and the oppositional.
In China today we have the two Churches: the underground, persecuted Church unfailingly loyal to Rome and the public, governmentally-controlled “official” Church. Again: a Church colonized by a hostile, state power and an underground Church that suffers persecution and martyrdom.
The USA Catholic Church split into two in 1968 with Humanae Vitae: the majority, especially in the academy, renounced the Pope’s restatement of tradition and a small minority accepted the same. The following 40 years has seen both groups developing in a tense, competitive relationship with each other. Formal, overt schism has been avoided because episcopal leadership has adopted an irenic, tolerant approach to dissent. The election of 2008, when a majority of Catholics actively supported the agenda of “choice,” however, marked a threshold. This electoral decision consolidated and sealed the allegiance of the majority to the emergent, anti-Catholic new Establishment.
In an insightful article, “The Return of the Best and the Brightest” (February 2009 First Things), R.R. Reno writes of the Obama presidency:
“Not since John F. Kennedy have we elected a man so closely identified with Northern urban, educated elites. His inner circle shares a similar profile. Their resumes shine with degrees from the old establishment colleges and universities: the Ivy League, University of Chicago, and so forth. There are no DePaul or Purdue grads to be found, no ward politicians, no in-laws with dubious credentials clamoring for civil-service jobs, no thick-nicked labor leaders…Their progressive views, trim physiques, and well-disciplined lives remove all doubt: We’re witnessing the restoration of the Establishment.”
Reno goes on to show that The Establishment, after the Kennedy era, transformed itself by diversifying and reaching out and captivating the “best and brightest” of other ethnic and religious groups into the orbit of Northern, secular, cosmopolitan Ivy League culture.
By this logic, Obama, culturally and morally, is no more Black than Biden and Pelosi are Catholic. Notwithstanding his dark complexion and their self-professed piety, they have been thoroughly assimilated into the dominant cultural paradigm.
Reno discloses the real nature of The Establishment:
“The easy combination of progressive ideals with institutional conservatism characterizes Establishment leadership. When the chips are down, what matters most is protecting the status quo. Therefore, the new Establishment evident in the Obama administration is likely to govern from the middle, as did the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, which were dominated by the old Establishment. Expect moderate economic interventions and no fundamental changes in foreign policy.”
And so, the new administration moved forcefully to dead center in foreign policy with Gates and Clinton. Economically, they are anything but socialists: they are committed to saving the finance system and preserving a market economy. More precisely, they show a credulous belief in the preternatural ability of our markets, with some state stimulus and regulation, to stimulate the economy, provide universal health care, develop alternate energies, clean the environment, revive education, maintain world peace, and redistribute wealth…all by just increasing tax rates for the very wealthy. They are “true believers” in capitalism (albeit with an expanded state, a la fascism.) Consider all the millions donated to the Obama campaign by the bankers, elites and corporate America.
Culture and morality are where Obama and crew most embody the Establishment. By contrast, Sarah Palin is the antithesis of that value set: she has too many kids, including her (eugenically) undesirable; her children do not use “protection” and so give birth to “mistakes;” she likes guns, hunting and the military; she talks openly about demons and heaven and, worst of all, speaks freely about her love for Jesus! She actually means the person Jesus; not abstractions like justice, peace or the environment, but the actual person! She is quintessentially the redneck moron whom Obama described, in a moment of uncharacteristic candor, as “clinging to guns and religion” because she does not understand her real economic interests.
The Catholic majority supported the anti-Catholic Establishment in the culture war skirmish of 2008 because of a soft-leftist-materialism that said: “We can live with abortion, embryonic destruction, and all the rest but we can’t put up with the rich getting any richer. We can put those things like innocent life and family to the side: we need jobs and health care!” Recall that foreign policy differences were muted by election time since Bush had already established a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq and Obama was talking tough about Afghanistan.
Now we watch as Obama recruits “the best and brightest” of our pro-choice Catholics into his cabinet and continues the colonization of Catholics spearheaded over the decades by the Kennedys. Much blame for this domestication and castration of Catholic vigor lies (with some exceptions) with the bishops.
Their feeble resistance to the Establishment brings to mind an image of a Human Resources professional (think Toby of “The Office”) who comes upon a workplace scene where a stronger man is beating the living daylights out of a much smaller man. Aware of the liability and legal dangers of getting involved in the fray, our professional scrupulously avoids forceful intervention but dutifully protests: “This behavior is inappropriate and entirely unacceptable. It violates our ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy. It is being reported and there will be proper consequences.” With that, he calls 411 and then notes accurately the time, his precise words, and the fact that he called the police immediately. He is satisfied that he has followed procedure and is shielded from liability. Meanwhile, the bigger man is kicking the smaller man’s face in.
We can only hope and pray that our bishops and all of us may receive the courage and clarity to honor, visa vie the new Establishment, our memory of the martyrs of Cordoba, the Tower of London, and Red China.
At least weekly we remember the heroic martyrs of Elizabethan England, many of them learned Jesuits, who willing accepted torture, hanging, drawing and quartering in fidelity to Pope and Church when the broader Church submitted to the monarch as head of the Church. Here again we see two Churches: the collaborative and the oppositional.
In China today we have the two Churches: the underground, persecuted Church unfailingly loyal to Rome and the public, governmentally-controlled “official” Church. Again: a Church colonized by a hostile, state power and an underground Church that suffers persecution and martyrdom.
The USA Catholic Church split into two in 1968 with Humanae Vitae: the majority, especially in the academy, renounced the Pope’s restatement of tradition and a small minority accepted the same. The following 40 years has seen both groups developing in a tense, competitive relationship with each other. Formal, overt schism has been avoided because episcopal leadership has adopted an irenic, tolerant approach to dissent. The election of 2008, when a majority of Catholics actively supported the agenda of “choice,” however, marked a threshold. This electoral decision consolidated and sealed the allegiance of the majority to the emergent, anti-Catholic new Establishment.
In an insightful article, “The Return of the Best and the Brightest” (February 2009 First Things), R.R. Reno writes of the Obama presidency:
“Not since John F. Kennedy have we elected a man so closely identified with Northern urban, educated elites. His inner circle shares a similar profile. Their resumes shine with degrees from the old establishment colleges and universities: the Ivy League, University of Chicago, and so forth. There are no DePaul or Purdue grads to be found, no ward politicians, no in-laws with dubious credentials clamoring for civil-service jobs, no thick-nicked labor leaders…Their progressive views, trim physiques, and well-disciplined lives remove all doubt: We’re witnessing the restoration of the Establishment.”
Reno goes on to show that The Establishment, after the Kennedy era, transformed itself by diversifying and reaching out and captivating the “best and brightest” of other ethnic and religious groups into the orbit of Northern, secular, cosmopolitan Ivy League culture.
By this logic, Obama, culturally and morally, is no more Black than Biden and Pelosi are Catholic. Notwithstanding his dark complexion and their self-professed piety, they have been thoroughly assimilated into the dominant cultural paradigm.
Reno discloses the real nature of The Establishment:
“The easy combination of progressive ideals with institutional conservatism characterizes Establishment leadership. When the chips are down, what matters most is protecting the status quo. Therefore, the new Establishment evident in the Obama administration is likely to govern from the middle, as did the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, which were dominated by the old Establishment. Expect moderate economic interventions and no fundamental changes in foreign policy.”
And so, the new administration moved forcefully to dead center in foreign policy with Gates and Clinton. Economically, they are anything but socialists: they are committed to saving the finance system and preserving a market economy. More precisely, they show a credulous belief in the preternatural ability of our markets, with some state stimulus and regulation, to stimulate the economy, provide universal health care, develop alternate energies, clean the environment, revive education, maintain world peace, and redistribute wealth…all by just increasing tax rates for the very wealthy. They are “true believers” in capitalism (albeit with an expanded state, a la fascism.) Consider all the millions donated to the Obama campaign by the bankers, elites and corporate America.
Culture and morality are where Obama and crew most embody the Establishment. By contrast, Sarah Palin is the antithesis of that value set: she has too many kids, including her (eugenically) undesirable; her children do not use “protection” and so give birth to “mistakes;” she likes guns, hunting and the military; she talks openly about demons and heaven and, worst of all, speaks freely about her love for Jesus! She actually means the person Jesus; not abstractions like justice, peace or the environment, but the actual person! She is quintessentially the redneck moron whom Obama described, in a moment of uncharacteristic candor, as “clinging to guns and religion” because she does not understand her real economic interests.
The Catholic majority supported the anti-Catholic Establishment in the culture war skirmish of 2008 because of a soft-leftist-materialism that said: “We can live with abortion, embryonic destruction, and all the rest but we can’t put up with the rich getting any richer. We can put those things like innocent life and family to the side: we need jobs and health care!” Recall that foreign policy differences were muted by election time since Bush had already established a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq and Obama was talking tough about Afghanistan.
Now we watch as Obama recruits “the best and brightest” of our pro-choice Catholics into his cabinet and continues the colonization of Catholics spearheaded over the decades by the Kennedys. Much blame for this domestication and castration of Catholic vigor lies (with some exceptions) with the bishops.
Their feeble resistance to the Establishment brings to mind an image of a Human Resources professional (think Toby of “The Office”) who comes upon a workplace scene where a stronger man is beating the living daylights out of a much smaller man. Aware of the liability and legal dangers of getting involved in the fray, our professional scrupulously avoids forceful intervention but dutifully protests: “This behavior is inappropriate and entirely unacceptable. It violates our ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy. It is being reported and there will be proper consequences.” With that, he calls 411 and then notes accurately the time, his precise words, and the fact that he called the police immediately. He is satisfied that he has followed procedure and is shielded from liability. Meanwhile, the bigger man is kicking the smaller man’s face in.
We can only hope and pray that our bishops and all of us may receive the courage and clarity to honor, visa vie the new Establishment, our memory of the martyrs of Cordoba, the Tower of London, and Red China.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tripod of Generosity to the Poor
There are three ways for society to help the poor: charity, business, and government.
Direct actions of personal charity are the most primal and essential. These are voluntary acts of generosity, sometimes called almsgiving, and have always and will always be a staple of the Christian life. Jesus himself said “The poor you will always have with you.” Pope Benedict instructs us that even the best society will always require such acts. They are spontaneous, extravagant and come with no strings attached. They are intrinsic and essential to the Church as a participation in and expression of God’s generosity.
Business activity and initiative provide the broadest and richest pathway out of poverty into productivity and security. Entrepreneurial initiative, investment, free markets, incentives, limited taxation and regulation, networks of trust, synergistic energies of collaboration and cooperation, rigorous work ethics and moral standards: all of these in the longer term conspire towards a prosperous economy which rewards the industrious and enterprising and all who have the ability and desire to participate at any level.
Last of all we have government assistance including a safety net, reasonable regulation, advocacy for the disadvantaged, unions that defend the worker and countervail the power of capital, welfare for the very needy, and a restrained but activist government able to protect the weakest and correct injustices arising in the business environments.
A healthy society combines all three elements in a harmonious synthesis. Compare it to making pancakes: you will always need flour, milk, and eggs. Without these three you will not have pancakes but something else. The exact proportions we can argue about: some prefer thin, small, “silver dollars;” others like to fill the entire frying pan with a thick, cake-like batter. Economic policy is a constant balancing of state intervention and the market economy. Catholics and others of good conscience will inevitably disagree in prudential judgment about policies and the balance of power between the state and the market in a fascinating, intense, challenging dynamic of competition and collaboration.
Franklin Roosevelt represented an emphasis on state intervention; Ronald Reagan swung the pendulum towards free markets; and Obama, with a clear popular mandate, is swinging back again. Newt Gingrich, free marketer par excellence, who coincidentally is just now joining the Catholic Church, has urged moderate Republicans to align themselves with Obama in a moderate/liberal realignment and thereby cut him off from the liberal extreme that supported him so vigorously through the primaries. This proposal discloses a Catholic appreciation for pragmatism, compromise, moderation and balance. The plan has less than a 50/50 chance of succeeding because ideological extremists dominate both parties in a bipolar politics that leave moderates like me without a home. David Brooks, the conservative voice of the NY Times opinion page, is the most insightful and lucid defender of pragmatic moderation in economics.
My own suspicion is that the American economy is resilient enough to survive the current crisis and the Obama project without collapsing; but it is not powerful enough to fulfill all the expectations aroused by his campaign. Hopefully, the stimulus will help to revive investment and activity; unfortunately, the overreach of his longer term agenda will itself have negative consequences that will in turn provoke a reaction back towards the right.
In the meantime, the business implosion and the worrisome governmental expansion give us all the more incentive to direct our energies into charitable activities at the more local and concrete level of family, neighborhood and city. These micro activities are far more enriching for our minds, souls, bodies, families and communities.
Direct actions of personal charity are the most primal and essential. These are voluntary acts of generosity, sometimes called almsgiving, and have always and will always be a staple of the Christian life. Jesus himself said “The poor you will always have with you.” Pope Benedict instructs us that even the best society will always require such acts. They are spontaneous, extravagant and come with no strings attached. They are intrinsic and essential to the Church as a participation in and expression of God’s generosity.
Business activity and initiative provide the broadest and richest pathway out of poverty into productivity and security. Entrepreneurial initiative, investment, free markets, incentives, limited taxation and regulation, networks of trust, synergistic energies of collaboration and cooperation, rigorous work ethics and moral standards: all of these in the longer term conspire towards a prosperous economy which rewards the industrious and enterprising and all who have the ability and desire to participate at any level.
Last of all we have government assistance including a safety net, reasonable regulation, advocacy for the disadvantaged, unions that defend the worker and countervail the power of capital, welfare for the very needy, and a restrained but activist government able to protect the weakest and correct injustices arising in the business environments.
A healthy society combines all three elements in a harmonious synthesis. Compare it to making pancakes: you will always need flour, milk, and eggs. Without these three you will not have pancakes but something else. The exact proportions we can argue about: some prefer thin, small, “silver dollars;” others like to fill the entire frying pan with a thick, cake-like batter. Economic policy is a constant balancing of state intervention and the market economy. Catholics and others of good conscience will inevitably disagree in prudential judgment about policies and the balance of power between the state and the market in a fascinating, intense, challenging dynamic of competition and collaboration.
Franklin Roosevelt represented an emphasis on state intervention; Ronald Reagan swung the pendulum towards free markets; and Obama, with a clear popular mandate, is swinging back again. Newt Gingrich, free marketer par excellence, who coincidentally is just now joining the Catholic Church, has urged moderate Republicans to align themselves with Obama in a moderate/liberal realignment and thereby cut him off from the liberal extreme that supported him so vigorously through the primaries. This proposal discloses a Catholic appreciation for pragmatism, compromise, moderation and balance. The plan has less than a 50/50 chance of succeeding because ideological extremists dominate both parties in a bipolar politics that leave moderates like me without a home. David Brooks, the conservative voice of the NY Times opinion page, is the most insightful and lucid defender of pragmatic moderation in economics.
My own suspicion is that the American economy is resilient enough to survive the current crisis and the Obama project without collapsing; but it is not powerful enough to fulfill all the expectations aroused by his campaign. Hopefully, the stimulus will help to revive investment and activity; unfortunately, the overreach of his longer term agenda will itself have negative consequences that will in turn provoke a reaction back towards the right.
In the meantime, the business implosion and the worrisome governmental expansion give us all the more incentive to direct our energies into charitable activities at the more local and concrete level of family, neighborhood and city. These micro activities are far more enriching for our minds, souls, bodies, families and communities.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Ponzi Prankster, Monopoly Champ, Hand of God
You can’t make this stuff up!
Bernie Madoff, having stolen $50 Billion in a Ponzi scheme, claims with his wife that their own $69 million was money he made elsewhere. The late night comedians wonder where the wealth came from:
- Money he saved at Geico?
- Bought all his clothing at the Nearly-New store?
- Money he saved by fully inflating his tires?
- Used green stamps?
- Shoveled walkways for his rich neighbors when it snowed and invested wisely?
- Turned off all lights and kept his temperature at 68 instead of 70 degrees?
- His tithe was so generous that God simply had to reward him handsomely?
This guy is hilarious! It is some kind of Vaudeville act: the smartest, richest guy around tricks all the smartest, richest people out of all of their money. If they make the movie, they will have to bring Grocho Marx back!
Many people don’t get it because they take the whole thing so seriously. Elie Wiesel, who lost his personal fortune and his foundation to Madoff, has spoken with gravity about his wickedness. It would be good for Elie to lighten up and have a big laugh about the whole thing. Unlike the crowds who revere him as a spiritual, moral guru, Madoff did him a big favor: he relieved him of his illusional wealth; deflated his ego and sense of self-importance; scrutinized his soul; prepared him to meet his Maker at his particular judgment (which cannot be too far off given Wiesel’s age); and provided him with a much-needed opportunity to forgive an enemy and bless God (with Job) in a time of trial.
The Ponzi scheme was not such a wicked event in my view: probably a venial rather than a mortal sin. First of all, it is just money; it is not something serious like running a concentration camp, selling pornography, cheating on your spouse, or voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Secondly, he only stole from the rich who were eager to become even richer; he was Robin Hood writ large in technological post-modernity. (Okay, I know he also ruined some good foundations!) Thirdly, our money-obsessed society needed just such a huge prank to unveil the illusions around wealth, status, and security. Lastly, let’s be sympathetic: after you get into a Ponzi scheme for, let’s say a few $hundred million, it is awful hard to back out gracefully. I probably would have done the same in that circumstance: once you tell a little lie, you need to tell a larger one to cover up, and so on ad infinitum. Anyway, doesn’t the whole thing seem like a big game of monopoly? Isn’t that really what finance is all about: a big game to see who dies with the most points? Consider also that this could have turned out differently: if the economy had continued to prosper or the world had come to an end suddenly, no one would have even known and no harm done.
On TV, Madoff is unfazed by the entire thing. He has a slight smirk on his face. In one part of his Jewish mind, he realizes it was a fantastic joke; his competitive side is thrilled that he beat all his buddies at their own game; but in the deeper level of his Hebrew consciousness, he senses himself as an instrument of a providential God, disciplining his recalcitrant, greedy children and calling them to repentance.
Part Grocho Marx; part Jeremiah; and all-time Monopoly champion: You have got to love Bernie Madoff!
Bernie Madoff, having stolen $50 Billion in a Ponzi scheme, claims with his wife that their own $69 million was money he made elsewhere. The late night comedians wonder where the wealth came from:
- Money he saved at Geico?
- Bought all his clothing at the Nearly-New store?
- Money he saved by fully inflating his tires?
- Used green stamps?
- Shoveled walkways for his rich neighbors when it snowed and invested wisely?
- Turned off all lights and kept his temperature at 68 instead of 70 degrees?
- His tithe was so generous that God simply had to reward him handsomely?
This guy is hilarious! It is some kind of Vaudeville act: the smartest, richest guy around tricks all the smartest, richest people out of all of their money. If they make the movie, they will have to bring Grocho Marx back!
Many people don’t get it because they take the whole thing so seriously. Elie Wiesel, who lost his personal fortune and his foundation to Madoff, has spoken with gravity about his wickedness. It would be good for Elie to lighten up and have a big laugh about the whole thing. Unlike the crowds who revere him as a spiritual, moral guru, Madoff did him a big favor: he relieved him of his illusional wealth; deflated his ego and sense of self-importance; scrutinized his soul; prepared him to meet his Maker at his particular judgment (which cannot be too far off given Wiesel’s age); and provided him with a much-needed opportunity to forgive an enemy and bless God (with Job) in a time of trial.
The Ponzi scheme was not such a wicked event in my view: probably a venial rather than a mortal sin. First of all, it is just money; it is not something serious like running a concentration camp, selling pornography, cheating on your spouse, or voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Secondly, he only stole from the rich who were eager to become even richer; he was Robin Hood writ large in technological post-modernity. (Okay, I know he also ruined some good foundations!) Thirdly, our money-obsessed society needed just such a huge prank to unveil the illusions around wealth, status, and security. Lastly, let’s be sympathetic: after you get into a Ponzi scheme for, let’s say a few $hundred million, it is awful hard to back out gracefully. I probably would have done the same in that circumstance: once you tell a little lie, you need to tell a larger one to cover up, and so on ad infinitum. Anyway, doesn’t the whole thing seem like a big game of monopoly? Isn’t that really what finance is all about: a big game to see who dies with the most points? Consider also that this could have turned out differently: if the economy had continued to prosper or the world had come to an end suddenly, no one would have even known and no harm done.
On TV, Madoff is unfazed by the entire thing. He has a slight smirk on his face. In one part of his Jewish mind, he realizes it was a fantastic joke; his competitive side is thrilled that he beat all his buddies at their own game; but in the deeper level of his Hebrew consciousness, he senses himself as an instrument of a providential God, disciplining his recalcitrant, greedy children and calling them to repentance.
Part Grocho Marx; part Jeremiah; and all-time Monopoly champion: You have got to love Bernie Madoff!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Catholic Agnosticism
Our Catholic Faith teaches: (Choose the correct answer.)
1. Babies who die without baptism (including abortions and miscarriages):
a) Go automatically/directly to heaven due to their innocence and God’s love.
b) Go to hell because of original sin and separation from God.
c) Go to limbo.
d) We really don’t know, but we trust, pray and hope (which is to say that we don’t know.)
2. Evolution of species as the mechanism that originated the human race is:
a) An indisputable, absolute fact.
b) Impossible because it contradicts the clear testimony of Genesis.
c) The marvelous, complicated way God created humans.
d) We really don’t know from our faith about evolution.
3. Christ’s second coming:
a) Will not be a historic reality since it is a biblical myth.
b) Imminent because of current events prophesized in scripture.
c) Will probably occur in a few million years.
d) We have no idea of its timing although we know it is coming.
4. The population of hell is:
a) Few or none because the love of God forgives all sins.
b) Immense because the vast majority remain in sin and disbelief.
c) Probably about a 50/50 split with heaven.
d) We really have no clear idea from revelation, scripture and tradition; we only know there is a hell, not how many are there.
5. The ideal political/economic society:
a) Abolishes the injustice of great wealth alongside of horrendous poverty.
b) Secures freedoms associated with democracy and market economies.
c) Directly obeys the Church in the manner of medieval Christendom.
d) We have no such template. Rather, we have principles (solidarity with the poor, subsidiarity, freedoms including that of religion) that can be applied to critique and improve all imperfect societies.
6. The State of Israel is:
a) A divinely intended compensation for the guilt of the Holocaust.
b) Clearly God’s proximate preparation for the imminent Parousia.
c) A cruel injustice against the disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs.
d) A complex, multifaceted secular fact without any clear, univocal religious content.
7. Judas, Hitler, Stalin and Mao are now:
a) In purgatory or heaven because God wants no one to go to hell.
b) Without any doubt in hell.
c) No longer exist.
d) We don’t know where.
8. The details of the Genesis story (temptation with fruit, serpent, etc.) are:
a) Purely fictional (like myths from other ancient religions) and entirely void of actual, historical content.
b) Literally true in all details because they are divinely revealed.
c) Blend of fact and fiction which scripture scholars can unravel.
d) Aspects we do not clearly know about the actual, real event of the fall.
9. Jesus’ descent into hell between his death and resurrection is:
a) Not factual but a poetic/mythical way of saying he frees us from evil.
b) A precise, accurate, historic description of his temporal stay, from Good Friday afternoon to Easter Sunday morning, in hell where the souls of the just had been waiting through the centuries (linear time line) to enter heaven.
c) A metaphoric way of saying that he emptied himself and entered the very deepest realities of despair and abandonment.
d) A revealed reality about which we know very little.
10. The homosexual condition is:
a) Something one is born with and therefore morally neutral or good.
b) A self-chosen moral depravity.
c) A dysfunction treatable by therapy.
d) We do not know, from our faith, its origins.
The correct answer to all these questions is d: we don’t know. Catholicism, agnostic about these realities, maintains an epistemological humility before the Mystery of these mysteries. Most of them we will probably never know this side of heaven and the eschaton: population of hell, destiny of the nonbaptized, and detailed knowledge of the fall. Some may yield greater theological light with the passage of time (descent into hell.) Others will be clarified by developments in science (evolution, origins of homosexuality) but always with the partiality, tentativeness, provisionality, and correctibility that characterizes scientific hypotheses.
Liberal sentimentality renounces such humility in favor of a rigid dogmatic system that teaches: the mercy of God without his justice and wrath; presumption about heaven; avoidance of the reality of original sin; evolution as a dogma; homosexuality as inborn; foundational scriptural realities as mythical; a softened version of class warfare and leftist utopianism. All of the a answers above express this subjectively infallible mythology/ideology. These beliefs are not rooted in revelation or science; rather, they are personal sentiments, feelings, and presumptions. Imbibed from and reinforced by a secular ambiance, they are asserted all the more aggressively and defensively because they lack scientific and revelatory authority as mere assertions of emotive, psychological certitude.
The b answers above all express a Protestant fundamentalism that, deprived of an apostolic magisterium and tradition, interprets particular biblical passages in a literal and selective manner. It also sanctifies secular realities (Israel, democracy, capitalism) thereby immanentizing heaven and the eschaton as an inverse image of leftist utopianism.
In contrast with these competing closed/rigid systems, the genuinely “catholic” (universal) position welcomes a diversity of opinions to the Big Table: Intelligent Designers and evolutionists; Christian Zionists and pro-Arabs; utopian optimists and apocalyptic pessimists; socialists, anarchists, libertarians and capitalists; clinicians who identify homosexuality with psychological harm and scientists searching for biological predispositions. There is, then, a liberty within the Church in regard to a large range of philosophical issues; a liberty that does not characterize the opposing, polarized ideologies of our society. Paradoxically, it is the magisterium that preserves and protects this liberty by preventing the sacralization of any particular school of thought.
The Catholic deposit of faith is as clear about what we don’t know as it is about what we do know, with certainty, from Divine Revelation. It deconstructs mythologies and ideologies of the right and the left, even as it tolerates both. With the wise man, the Catholic can say about these many realities: “I know that I do not know.”
1. Babies who die without baptism (including abortions and miscarriages):
a) Go automatically/directly to heaven due to their innocence and God’s love.
b) Go to hell because of original sin and separation from God.
c) Go to limbo.
d) We really don’t know, but we trust, pray and hope (which is to say that we don’t know.)
2. Evolution of species as the mechanism that originated the human race is:
a) An indisputable, absolute fact.
b) Impossible because it contradicts the clear testimony of Genesis.
c) The marvelous, complicated way God created humans.
d) We really don’t know from our faith about evolution.
3. Christ’s second coming:
a) Will not be a historic reality since it is a biblical myth.
b) Imminent because of current events prophesized in scripture.
c) Will probably occur in a few million years.
d) We have no idea of its timing although we know it is coming.
4. The population of hell is:
a) Few or none because the love of God forgives all sins.
b) Immense because the vast majority remain in sin and disbelief.
c) Probably about a 50/50 split with heaven.
d) We really have no clear idea from revelation, scripture and tradition; we only know there is a hell, not how many are there.
5. The ideal political/economic society:
a) Abolishes the injustice of great wealth alongside of horrendous poverty.
b) Secures freedoms associated with democracy and market economies.
c) Directly obeys the Church in the manner of medieval Christendom.
d) We have no such template. Rather, we have principles (solidarity with the poor, subsidiarity, freedoms including that of religion) that can be applied to critique and improve all imperfect societies.
6. The State of Israel is:
a) A divinely intended compensation for the guilt of the Holocaust.
b) Clearly God’s proximate preparation for the imminent Parousia.
c) A cruel injustice against the disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs.
d) A complex, multifaceted secular fact without any clear, univocal religious content.
7. Judas, Hitler, Stalin and Mao are now:
a) In purgatory or heaven because God wants no one to go to hell.
b) Without any doubt in hell.
c) No longer exist.
d) We don’t know where.
8. The details of the Genesis story (temptation with fruit, serpent, etc.) are:
a) Purely fictional (like myths from other ancient religions) and entirely void of actual, historical content.
b) Literally true in all details because they are divinely revealed.
c) Blend of fact and fiction which scripture scholars can unravel.
d) Aspects we do not clearly know about the actual, real event of the fall.
9. Jesus’ descent into hell between his death and resurrection is:
a) Not factual but a poetic/mythical way of saying he frees us from evil.
b) A precise, accurate, historic description of his temporal stay, from Good Friday afternoon to Easter Sunday morning, in hell where the souls of the just had been waiting through the centuries (linear time line) to enter heaven.
c) A metaphoric way of saying that he emptied himself and entered the very deepest realities of despair and abandonment.
d) A revealed reality about which we know very little.
10. The homosexual condition is:
a) Something one is born with and therefore morally neutral or good.
b) A self-chosen moral depravity.
c) A dysfunction treatable by therapy.
d) We do not know, from our faith, its origins.
The correct answer to all these questions is d: we don’t know. Catholicism, agnostic about these realities, maintains an epistemological humility before the Mystery of these mysteries. Most of them we will probably never know this side of heaven and the eschaton: population of hell, destiny of the nonbaptized, and detailed knowledge of the fall. Some may yield greater theological light with the passage of time (descent into hell.) Others will be clarified by developments in science (evolution, origins of homosexuality) but always with the partiality, tentativeness, provisionality, and correctibility that characterizes scientific hypotheses.
Liberal sentimentality renounces such humility in favor of a rigid dogmatic system that teaches: the mercy of God without his justice and wrath; presumption about heaven; avoidance of the reality of original sin; evolution as a dogma; homosexuality as inborn; foundational scriptural realities as mythical; a softened version of class warfare and leftist utopianism. All of the a answers above express this subjectively infallible mythology/ideology. These beliefs are not rooted in revelation or science; rather, they are personal sentiments, feelings, and presumptions. Imbibed from and reinforced by a secular ambiance, they are asserted all the more aggressively and defensively because they lack scientific and revelatory authority as mere assertions of emotive, psychological certitude.
The b answers above all express a Protestant fundamentalism that, deprived of an apostolic magisterium and tradition, interprets particular biblical passages in a literal and selective manner. It also sanctifies secular realities (Israel, democracy, capitalism) thereby immanentizing heaven and the eschaton as an inverse image of leftist utopianism.
In contrast with these competing closed/rigid systems, the genuinely “catholic” (universal) position welcomes a diversity of opinions to the Big Table: Intelligent Designers and evolutionists; Christian Zionists and pro-Arabs; utopian optimists and apocalyptic pessimists; socialists, anarchists, libertarians and capitalists; clinicians who identify homosexuality with psychological harm and scientists searching for biological predispositions. There is, then, a liberty within the Church in regard to a large range of philosophical issues; a liberty that does not characterize the opposing, polarized ideologies of our society. Paradoxically, it is the magisterium that preserves and protects this liberty by preventing the sacralization of any particular school of thought.
The Catholic deposit of faith is as clear about what we don’t know as it is about what we do know, with certainty, from Divine Revelation. It deconstructs mythologies and ideologies of the right and the left, even as it tolerates both. With the wise man, the Catholic can say about these many realities: “I know that I do not know.”
Black Robe
Good Movie Alert: Black Robe. This 1991 film is solid, serious Lenten fare. I recall that my father included in his Lenten practice reading of religious inspiring literature. I have been trying to use my Netflix membership to view similarly uplifting movies. This one is at the top of the list.
It resembles The Mission: poignant soundtrack, intelligent and courageous Jesuit priests, magnificent and authentic scenery, frightful violence, and an ending that is at once saddening and thrilling. Along with that movie, Keys of the Kingdom, and Inn of the Seventh Happiness, this tops the list of great mission movies.
Rated R, it is clearly adult fare due to graphic (but not suggestive) sexuality and violence (more suggested than actually portrayed.) As a viewer, I felt an unusual historic authenticity about the entire film, even more so than The Mission or Last of the Mohicans and infinitely more than the Holywood-ish, politically-correct Dances with Wolves. It demonstrates a most realistic anthropological sensibility in disclosing the darker and lighter sides of the native Americans, the French and the Jesuits themselves. The interactions between Jesuit and Indian were profoundly lucid in unveiling the cultural dissonance and mutual incomprehension between the groups: the clock, the alphabet, and views on marriage and heaven. Daniel, a young frontier Frenchman, in love with a beautiful Algonquin maiden, straddles both worlds and helps the viewer see the values, disvalues and conflict between the two human, and imperfect, cultures.
In the end, however, beneath and beyond a dark realism and relativism, the movie is about faith, courage, and martyrdom. It is one beautiful film!
It resembles The Mission: poignant soundtrack, intelligent and courageous Jesuit priests, magnificent and authentic scenery, frightful violence, and an ending that is at once saddening and thrilling. Along with that movie, Keys of the Kingdom, and Inn of the Seventh Happiness, this tops the list of great mission movies.
Rated R, it is clearly adult fare due to graphic (but not suggestive) sexuality and violence (more suggested than actually portrayed.) As a viewer, I felt an unusual historic authenticity about the entire film, even more so than The Mission or Last of the Mohicans and infinitely more than the Holywood-ish, politically-correct Dances with Wolves. It demonstrates a most realistic anthropological sensibility in disclosing the darker and lighter sides of the native Americans, the French and the Jesuits themselves. The interactions between Jesuit and Indian were profoundly lucid in unveiling the cultural dissonance and mutual incomprehension between the groups: the clock, the alphabet, and views on marriage and heaven. Daniel, a young frontier Frenchman, in love with a beautiful Algonquin maiden, straddles both worlds and helps the viewer see the values, disvalues and conflict between the two human, and imperfect, cultures.
In the end, however, beneath and beyond a dark realism and relativism, the movie is about faith, courage, and martyrdom. It is one beautiful film!
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Candy Test
Four Catholic School girls (all chocolate lovers) gave up candy for Lent.
The first came home from school on Ash Wednesday, ashes still fresh and prominent on her forehead, and seeing pieces of chocolate on the kitchen counter, could not keep from snacking on them. The next day she came home to find a box of chocolate covered cherries (her favorite) on the same counter. She ate three of them. Friday lunch found her obsessing about chocolate and the fact that she would have none for 40 days. Agitated with her day, she became increasingly sad and aggravated until she surrendered to the impulse and got an Almond Joy from the candy machine. Upon finishing the treat, she fell into a swamp of self-loathing: “I am overweight and ugly; I don’t do my homework; I can’t even give up candy; and I will not follow through on my promise to get back to Sunday mass. I am a total Loser!” In her contempt for self, her name is Discouragement.
The second girl is the polar opposite: strong of will, disciplined athlete, and straight-A student. For her, the 40 days wiz by without a taste of candy and on Easter morning she enjoys a moderate portion of chocolate and congratulates herself on her moral performance. Surveying her moral, academic, social and athletic successes, she gloats with a sense of satisfaction on her superiority to peers. Consciously, she is aglow with self-confidence and self-reliance; subconsciously, she is independent of and disconnected from God. Her name is Pride.
Our third faster duplicates the failed fast of Discouragement (three strikes in three days) but her response is different. Beating her breast with contrition, she begs God for mercy and aid: “I am so weak! Help me! Jesus, I trust in your Mercy! Despite my failure, I will not lose faith in you!” In her hope and trust, she is Humility.
Our last faster is successful like number two but exults on Easter morning in gratitude: “Thank you so much, Lord, for a beautiful lent. You have blessed me in so many ways: my family, school, friends, and all my great activities. I am not worthy! And I see so many who suffer: Let me help them and show them your love!” In her joy and generosity, she is Gratitude.
Our line-up of four: Discouragement, Pride, Humility and Gratitude. Who is the worst? Who is the best? This question provoked a thoughtful discussion in religion class. A narrow majority saw Pride as the worst response, thus agreeing with the traditional identification of pride as the primal and deepest sin. The decision on best response was a split between Gratitude and Humility. The more immediate reactions favored the all around positive and successful position of Gratitude. But more pensive students moved on to see a deeper faith and surrender in Humility who found union with God even in failure.
We were able to agree that Lent is not about will power; it is about deeper connection with God, in our failures and our successes.
See you on the confession line!
The first came home from school on Ash Wednesday, ashes still fresh and prominent on her forehead, and seeing pieces of chocolate on the kitchen counter, could not keep from snacking on them. The next day she came home to find a box of chocolate covered cherries (her favorite) on the same counter. She ate three of them. Friday lunch found her obsessing about chocolate and the fact that she would have none for 40 days. Agitated with her day, she became increasingly sad and aggravated until she surrendered to the impulse and got an Almond Joy from the candy machine. Upon finishing the treat, she fell into a swamp of self-loathing: “I am overweight and ugly; I don’t do my homework; I can’t even give up candy; and I will not follow through on my promise to get back to Sunday mass. I am a total Loser!” In her contempt for self, her name is Discouragement.
The second girl is the polar opposite: strong of will, disciplined athlete, and straight-A student. For her, the 40 days wiz by without a taste of candy and on Easter morning she enjoys a moderate portion of chocolate and congratulates herself on her moral performance. Surveying her moral, academic, social and athletic successes, she gloats with a sense of satisfaction on her superiority to peers. Consciously, she is aglow with self-confidence and self-reliance; subconsciously, she is independent of and disconnected from God. Her name is Pride.
Our third faster duplicates the failed fast of Discouragement (three strikes in three days) but her response is different. Beating her breast with contrition, she begs God for mercy and aid: “I am so weak! Help me! Jesus, I trust in your Mercy! Despite my failure, I will not lose faith in you!” In her hope and trust, she is Humility.
Our last faster is successful like number two but exults on Easter morning in gratitude: “Thank you so much, Lord, for a beautiful lent. You have blessed me in so many ways: my family, school, friends, and all my great activities. I am not worthy! And I see so many who suffer: Let me help them and show them your love!” In her joy and generosity, she is Gratitude.
Our line-up of four: Discouragement, Pride, Humility and Gratitude. Who is the worst? Who is the best? This question provoked a thoughtful discussion in religion class. A narrow majority saw Pride as the worst response, thus agreeing with the traditional identification of pride as the primal and deepest sin. The decision on best response was a split between Gratitude and Humility. The more immediate reactions favored the all around positive and successful position of Gratitude. But more pensive students moved on to see a deeper faith and surrender in Humility who found union with God even in failure.
We were able to agree that Lent is not about will power; it is about deeper connection with God, in our failures and our successes.
See you on the confession line!
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