Fr. JC Maximilian

[“The Last Judgment” by Rogier Van der Weyden]

I am sure that most of you have seen the teasers for the soon to be released film, “2012”. For those who may not have heard about this film, it is a disaster movie about the end of the world, that derives its premise from the ancient Mayan “Long Cycle” calendar. The ancient Mayans actually had several calendars that marked the cycles of a lot of different things, and these calendars were surprisingly accurate in predicting certain astronomical events, such as eclipses. Their so called “Long Cycle” calendar supposedly measures the major cycles of the earth, with each cycle taking something over 5000 years. The “Long Cycle” calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Now, neither the ancient Mayans, nor the present day Mayans, said anything about that being the end of the world – it is just the end of the “Long Cycle,” which seems to measure another astronomical event, namely the alignment of the sun and the so-called “dark rift” of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Mayans just presumed that after December 21, 2012 the cycle in the sky would begin again. However, there have been plenty of people reading into the end of the “Long Cycle” calendar, seeing in it the end of the world, and Hollywood is going to cash in on that.
        
For a lot of people, these kind of stories about the end of the world are fascinating. Whether it is the Mayans’ calendar, or Nostradameus, or even the prophesies of St. Malachy, a lot of people want to know when the end of the world is coming. The people in Jesus’ time were no different. While we do not hear the question in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is responding to a question that was put to Him concerning when would the end of the world come.
        
Jesus does not answer the question of “when” but He does make it quite clear that there will be an end of the world, a final tribulation, and a final judgment. While many of us seem to have an interest in the first two of those – when it will happen and what will the tribulation be like – most of us are pretty uncomfortable with the idea of judgment. After all, Jesus is so loving and gentle and kind, that we are uncomfortable with the idea that He will judge us. In fact, one of the things that I have notice as a priest in presiding over funeral Masses, is that everyone presumes that the deceased IS ALREADY in Heaven. To suggest that perhaps they are not, even to suggests that they may be in Purgatory, is viewed as a horribly judgmental thing to do. Yet presuming that a person is in Heaven is the actual kind of judgment that Jesus warns us about not doing, because only God is the final judge. In fact, each week at Mass, as we proclaim the Creed, we say, “he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom will have no end.”
        
Jesus talks about the final judgment not to be cruel and make us squirm, but because He loves us. Christ knows that the battle between good and evil will continue throughout human history. But He also knows that this ongoing battle will provide the opportunity for His grace to spread throughout the world. And once that expansion has reached its fulfillment, He will come again to establish the definitive and everlasting victory of His Kingdom.
        
Far from being cruel and heartless in talking about the Final Judgment, it is because of His deep love for us that Jesus tells us about these things. Instead of trying to frighten us, Jesus is trying to motivate us. Telling us about it gives us a chance to organize our lives accordingly, to build our lives on the everlasting rock of Christ our Savior: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
        
Like the ancient Mayans, most of the ancient people saw life as an endless cycle that just keeps going around and around in endless repetition. It is still easy to get caught up in thinking about life in that way. Fall follows Summer, and is followed by Winter and Spring. Such an endless, meaningless cycle typically gives way to pessimism.
        
The Judeo-Christian vision of human history, however, provides for hope. Hope is not wishful thinking, rather it is based on reason. Hope is a certainty about the future based on a certainty in the present. Because we are certain of God’s love and the presence of Christ Jesus in our lives right here and now, we are certain about the promises about the future that God has revealed to us through His Son Jesus. In his encyclical, “Saved by Hope,” which Pope Benedict XVI published in 2007, the Holy Father refers to the Final Judgment as a “place for hope.” He goes on to say, “From the earliest times, the prospect of the Judgement has influenced Christians in their daily living as a criterion by which to order their present life, as a summons to their conscience, and at the same time as hope in God’s justice. Faith in Christ has never looked merely backwards or merely upwards, but always also forwards to the hour of justice that the Lord repeatedly proclaimed. This looking ahead has given Christianity its importance for the present moment” (Spe Salvi #41).
        
As we approach the end of the Church’s liturgical year, and the readings at Mass talk more about the Final Judgment, it is a good time to look at how we are organizing our life. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that hope presumes desire; that we only hope for things that we desire. What is the most important desire of our hearts? Is it not for eternal happiness? Do we order our lives in a way so that we are on the road to eternal happiness? We know that it is achievable because Jesus has come to open the gates of paradise for us. However, like anything that we hope for, it will require some effort. We will not be able to achieve eternal happiness on our own. We must follow Jesus, with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul. Since we know how things will end, we can arrange our lives wisely, giving our friendship with Christ and our obedience to his commands the priority they deserve.

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I went to graduate school in Champaign, IL, the home of Olympic speed-skater Bonnie Blair. I make no claims of knowing her; in fact I have never seen her, except on TV. Yet during the 1988 Winter Olympics, like everyone else in Champaign, I caught “Bonnie fever.” In some strange way, in each Gold Medal that she won during those games, it felt as if the whole town won.

Winning an Olympic gold medal is certainly a great achievement, but today we celebrate people who have achieved so much more that even an Olympic gold medal. Today as a whole Church we are called to turn our gaze to the glory of heaven. We are invited to call to mind our older brothers and sisters who not only persevered in their faith while they lived on earth, but actually lived their lives in such a way that they built up Christ’s Kingdom in the world. They not only resisted the onslaughts of evil, but they conquered territory for good. Now they are enjoying their reward, and that should give us joy too.

Yes, we should be experiencing JOY as we celebrate All Saints Day. Our joy does not come from the saints achievements taking away all the problems that we face here on earth – clearly they do not. Today’s joy doesn’t come from a false gospel that you sometimes hear preached on TV these days: the gospel of “prosperity,” which promises heaven on earth.
That’s not Christian joy. Jesus never promised heaven on earth – in fact, he promised that following him mean carrying crosses and facing persecution.

So, where does Christian joy come from? First it comes from sharing in the victory of the saints. Like the people in Champaign, IL in 1988 who shared in Bonnie Blair’s victories, we should rejoice in the victory of the saints in spreading the Kingdom of God – the Good News – by their lives of virtue. Yet our joy in not only vicarious. It also comes from being reminded that God has given us the tools we need to follow in the saints’ footsteps – to win the gold medal ourselves and make it to heaven.

The first tool for following in the saints’ footsteps is to know where our destination is. Today’s first reading reminds us that we know where we are going in life! We know what comes after death! In his vision, recorded in the Book of Revelation, St. John sees the angels of destruction waiting at the corners of the earth, waiting for the orders from God to put an end to human history, that sorry story of sin, greed, injustice, and destruction. Yes, God will not tolerate sin and death and injustice forever. The world will come to an end, and God will put all things right. However, before letting loose the angels of destruction God says, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” What is this seal that is put on the foreheads of the servants of God? It is the sign of the cross that the bishop makes with the sacred chrism when he anoints us at the moment of our confirmation. It marks us as followers of Christ. And all of human history from the time of Christ’s first coming has one purpose: for every human being to have an opportunity to receive that mark, to become Christ’s follower. Those who do will be clothed in the white robe of grace and enter into eternal life, which starts here on earth and lasts forever in heaven. This is where we are going, and we know it!

The second tool for following in the footsteps of the saints is knowing who we are. We need to know our place in the universe – neither minimizing it, nor exaggerating it. Again we have St. John making clear, this time in today’s second reading, just who we are – the children of God. We are not just some nameless speck in the universe, nor are we the masters of the universe. We are members of God’s family and He loves us profoundly, and He wants us to love each other and Him with all our hearts.

Most of us, who have received the sacrament of Confirmation, probably took a Confirmation name, the name of a saint who has especially inspired us, with whom we can identify in a personal way. Do you remember yours? Mine is Peter. Today we should renew our choice. It is a symbolic way to recommit to our true identity as children of God, and that identity is the second tool God gives us to help us follow in the saints’ footsteps, so we can share in their joy.

It is not enough, however, just to know who we are and where we are going. We also need to know how to get there; and that is the third tool for following in the footsteps of the saints. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us the “how” of being His followers so that we can get to Heaven. The Beatitudes are the steps to happiness; and not the kind that comes and goes, but the eternal happiness of heaven. The Beatitudes are the attitudes of Christ, and the basic attitudes that help us live as Christians. St. Matthew places his account of Jesus giving us the Beatitudes at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount. Here they serve as the summary of everything that Jesus will teach His followers throughout the Gospel. They also summarize everything that Jesus Himself lived out during His time on earth. The Beatitudes take the Ten Commandments to their fulfillment.

Since we are children of God, sons and daughters in the Son, we should act like Christ.
Christ himself is the way to our destination. Christ loved the Father by fulfilling His will even to the point of dying on a cross. He loved His neighbor by leaving behind the glory of heaven and coming to earth to teach, heal, and forgive our sins. Loving God and neighbor – this is the core of all the Beatitudes: an attitude of the heart that focuses more on God and others than on self.

Often times at Mass we are so preoccupied with the difficulties of life on earth, here in the Church Militant, that we forget to pay attention to the Church Triumphant. Yet at every Mass our prayers are joined with those of all the angels and saints, in both thanking God and asking for His grace. In the Eucharist, Christ lays the bridge between heaven and earth. As He does so at this Mass, let us lift our eyes to the Triumph of the saints, and allow our hearts to rejoice.

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[Jesus healing the blind man, by Eustache Le Sueur, 1625-1650.]

I have never been to Lourdes, in France, so I do know this from first hand experience, but Cardinal Basil Hume, the late archbishop of Westminster, wrote about this in his book, The Mystery of Love. The Cardinal writes that the first thing you see on the path that leads to the grotto is a statue of the blind Bartimaeus. It is clear from the statue’s expression, as it looks over the grotto, that Bartimaeus sees nothing, for he is still blind. Why this statue at a place where there has been so many miraculous healings? Cardinal Hume wondered the same thing until he heard the story behind the statue. Apparently an Italian woman, who was blind, had gone to Lourdes hoping to be cured of her blindness. Although she left Lourdes still unable to see, her time there allowed her to rediscover her faith, and she realized that her newfound spiritual acuity was more valuable than being able to see with her eyes.

One of the common misperceptions about people who are blind is that their other senses are super-sensitive. This really isn’t true. The reason it may appear that a blind person has more sensitive hearing, smell or touch, is that they pay closer attention to the senses that they have. It isn’t that the blind person can hear things that the person who has their sight cannot hear. Rather, because they cannot see, the blind person pays closer attention to what they can hear so that they can know better about the world around them. However, the person who can see could also hear what the blind person hears, if only they pay closer attention.

Faith is a kind of “spiritual” sense. It allows us to recognize the presence and action of God in our lives. Too often we have the tendency to make God “small.” We try to put into a nice little box within our lives. Often we only recognize the presence of God the hour we are at Mass on Sundays. Perhaps our spiritual sense is a bit more sensitive, and we recognize His presence in our lives when everything is going well or we get something that we really wanted. During those times perhaps we quickly thank God for His special blessings. Too often, however, our spiritual sense is too limited – we only have faith in those very small, limited boxes.

But what about in difficult times? What about during times of suffering? Too often we are very blind, spiritually – especially when everything is not going as we expect things to go.

Jesus calls us to have better spiritual sight than that. He actually wants us to have perfect, 20/20, vision. He wants us to recognize the love and goodness of God in every moment of our lives.

We have been on “the way” – which is what we call this section of St. Mark’s Gospel – for nearly two months now. It started with Jesus healing another blind man, and now, as this journey of Jesus and His disciples to Jerusalem is nearing its end, Jesus heals another blind man. The bracketing of this section of the “journey on the way” with accounts of Jesus healing two blind men is meant to highlight for us that Jesus came to heal our spiritual blindness. It is by following Him, listening to His words, obeying His commandments, and most importantly placing our trust in Him, that we will gain real vision – to see the glory of God. We do not know the name of the blind man at the beginning of this “journey on the way” and that man does not really recognize who Jesus is. Here, at the end of the journey on “the way,” we know that the man’s name is Bartimaeus. More importantly, while Bartimaeus may have been physically blind, he demonstrate real faith – real spiritual sight – because he is the only person who is healed in Mark’s Gospel who uses Jesus’ name, and he calls Him one of the ancient titles of the Messiah; “Son of David.” Bartimaeus shows his trust and faith in Jesus by “spring up” and running to Jesus, despite his physical blindness. In his spiritual sight, Bartimaeus recognized in Jesus the person who could give him what his heart truly longed for, that which was the deepest desire of his heart, namely salvation. The Greek word that is used in this passage for the verb “to heal” also means “to save.” Jesus tells Bartimaeus to go on his way, for his faith had saved him, and St. Mark immediately tells us that Bartimaeus “followed him on the way.” Bartimaeus truly wants, and is given, eternal salvation.

The disciples of Jesus, like us too often, have been more blind to the reality of who Jesus is. Too often they, like us, had their own ideas, their own expectations, of what the Messiah is suppose to be like; they try to fit Jesus into their own box, but their box is too small. “Although Jesus has been teaching them all along ‘the way,’ at this point their vision is still only partial; they do not yet grasp who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. Only after the resurrection will their eyes be fully open” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture).

Jesus continues to ask us the same question that He asked Bartimaeus; “What do you want me to do for you?” Will we allow Him to heal our spiritual blindness – to save us – as He healed and saved that blind Italian woman who commissioned the statue of Bartimaeus that stands in Lourdes? She left Lourdes still unable to see with her eyes, but her real blindness – her lack of faith – was healed. She left Lourdes, like Bartimaeus, with profound spiritual vision, following Jesus on “the way.”

I leave you with the following prayer from Origen (185-253), one of the first great theologians of the Church:

A Prayer for Sight
May the Lord Jesus touch our eyes,
As he did those of the blind.
Then we shall begin to see in visible things
Those which are invisible.
May He open our eyes to gaze not on present realities,
But on the blessings to come.
May he open the eyes of our heart to contemplate God in Spirit,
Through Jesus Christ the Lord,
To whom belong power and glory through all eternity. Amen.

OK, I had to post this because for those who know me, I have a bird named Max. I got him in June with the money my mother gave me for my 5th anniversary as a priest. OK, my bird is a parakeet and not a blue rock-thrush, but my Max is also blue (and green and yellow and black), and I am teaching him to say, “God is Love” which was, of course the title of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical. I think I know what some bird is getting for Christmas….shh, don’t tell my Max.

New from Ignatius Press:

Max and Benedict
   
by Jeanne Perego
Illustrated by Donata Dal Molin Casagrande

This lovely illustrated book for children (of all ages!) is a sequel to Joseph and Chico, the international best-seller

that told the story of the life of Pope Benedict XVI from his youth through his election as the Pope. With the same award-winning author and illustrator, this lavishly illustrated book is aimed at children but in a way that even adults will enjoy. It takes up the story of Benedict’s XVIs new life as the Pope.

The narrator of this book is a blue rock-thrush that spends most of his time on the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica and in the Vatican gardens. (The scientific name of this kind of bird is Monticola Solitarius, and it really lives in Rome.) This particular bird’s name is Max, and from his solitary perch, he observes everything in the vicinity. He is fascinated by one human in particular: the Pope. Max tells readers what the Pope does on a typical day, as well as about special moments in his life, such as his vacations and apostolic trips. The book provides a delicate portrait of the Holy Fathers many responsibilities, and it helps us understand the Pope Benedict’s important obligations that he always strives to carry out with love, faith and dedication.

Max talks about the Pope’s private and public audiences, his meetings with heads of state and with children, important liturgical moments, and the Angelus. He also describes more curious events, such as the blessing of the lambs and of a fire truck. He tells us about the moments that the Pope devotes to writing and to prayer. Max flies to see the Pope at his summer home, Castel Gandolfo, and is sorry he cannot accompany him on his important apostolic trips, but is happy each time the Pope returns to the Vatican. Max is also delighted when he sees the Pope relax a bit, playing the piano or strolling through the Vatican gardens. Max loves music, too, as do many of his friends, who live in the Vatican gardens.

Through this wonderful story, the author presents some of the fundamental ideas of Pope Benedict XVI and the important daily life and activities of the successor of St. Peter, told in simple words that young readers can understand and enjoy. The lavish watercolor illustrations make a wonderful gift book and a cherished keepsake for all ages.

Jeanne Pergeo, an Italian journalist who lives in Bavaria, is the author of the best-selling Joseph and Chico, as well as of Benedict XVI’s Bavaria.

Sample images from the book:

In this chapter of the encyclical the Holy Father starts to identify how the Church’s teaching on human development speaks to some of the most prevalent issues facing us today. He notes that Pope Paul VI’s understanding of human development set the goal of rescuing people from hunger, deprivation, disease, and illiteracy first and foremost, and that these are still concerns for human development today.

The Holy Father wants to make clear that there is nothing wrong with profit if it is used to serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Profit becomes problematic when it is produced by improper means and it does not have the common good as its ultimate end. When profit becomes the end in itself, it starts to destroy wealth and create poverty. This is evidenced by the fact that the world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms, while the gap between the rich and poor is increasing. A major cause of this problem is the greed and corruption among those in leadership positions — both political and economic — in both the wealthy countries and in poor ones.

At the time in which Pope Paul VI wrote Populorum Progressio, we could already speak of social issues in global terms. However, in the past 40 years there has been an integration of nations and economies to an unprecedented level. 40 years ago, individual States still had a large degree of ability to determine the priorities for their economy and govern the instruments at their disposal. This is why Pope Paul VI assigned a central role to what he called “public authorities.” Today, however, individual States have to address the limitations to their own sovereignty with international trade and banking has placed on them. Economies are much more integrated together today, thus it is not realistic to look solely at the State’s public authorities for solutions. These public authorities need to re-evaluate their role and power in engaging the economic problems of today.

Whereas in the past, competition in the marketplace was often confined to within national boundaries, today the competition crosses the globe. In order to attach new industry countries too often relax the social networks that safeguarded the welfare of workers. In doing so, the focus becomes on profit as an end in itself, and not a means for fostering human development. The Holy Father reminds us, that in an authentic concern for human development, “the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity” (#25).

Another factor of importance to human development today is on the cultural plane. There is a much greater possibility of cultural interaction today. This can be a positive force in human development if two dangers, that the commercialization of cultural exchange can increase, are avoided. First there is the danger of “cultural eclecticism” where cultures are placed uncritically along side each other and viewed as being substantially equivalent and interchangeable. This leads to cultural relativism, which actually results in keeping the various cultural groups separated, since they are seen as being substantially the same. This actually closes down intercultural dialogue. The other danger is “cultural leveling” which loses sight of the profound significance of the culture of different nations. Both of these dangers separates culture from human nature, which reduces the human person.

The Pope notes another issue for our time is “food security.” Feeding the poor has been a central concern of the Church’s social justice ministry right from the beginning. Today the concern in not so much with there not being enough food to feed everyone, but rather inadequate structures to ensure that everyone receives adequate food and water. Food and access to water is an universal right of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination (#27).

One of the issues that struck me the most in this chapter is the Holy Father’s clear statement that we cannot detach respect for life from all other matters of social justice and human development. I have been in parishes where the “Social Concerns” committee refused to support any Respect Life initiative, and vice versa. The Holy Father points out in many nations, in an attempt to address poverty, there are government and non-governmental efforts to control population growth through contraception, sterilization and even forced abortion; sometimes without even informing the women concerned. “Openness to life is at the center of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good. . . . The acceptance of life strengthens moral fiber and makes people capable of mutual help. By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens” (#28).

A final concern connected to human develop noted in the encyclical is the denial of the right to religious freedom. Problems in this area includes religious fanaticism, violence against religious belief, and even religious indifference and practical atheism. We must keep in mind that God is the guarantor of man’s true happiness. When there are obstacles to people fulfilling their supernatural desires, there is a reduction of their humanity.

To address these concerns so to foster human development, the Holy Father states that there must be a commitment to foster the interaction of the different levels of human knowledge. Again, he emphasizes that Charity does not exclude knowledge. “Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile” (#30). Given the complexity of the phenomena before us, charity in truth requires that we know and understand, acknowledging and respecting the specific competence of every level of knowledge. This does not exclude charity, either. “Human knowledge is insufficient, and the conclusions of science cannot indicate by themselves the path towards integral human development” (#30). “Love is rich in intelligence, and intelligence is full of love” (#30).

In other words, moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in hand. A good example of this is the debate over the use of embryonic stem cells and cloning. Often the proponents of no or little restrictions in this type of research parade out potential promises of this research in curing diseases, without any reflections on the morality of the research. Often the mainstream media paints the Church as being against stem cell research, when in fact the Church has supported most research using stem cells, just not those studies that wish to destroy human embryos to obtain the stem cells; in other words destroys one human life in order to do research to help others. Too much science is done today with the rejection of metaphysics and rejection of theology as another form of knowledge. The Holy Father warns, “Without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family” (#33).

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[“St. Thérèse of Lisieux” by Leonard Porter; please support this fine artist by buying a print of this painting at eBay]

If you bring a missal or something with the Mass Readings in it, you might be wondering what is going on, since none of our readings where from the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Bishop Smith gave us permission to transfer the feast of St. Theresa this year, which is normally on October 1, to this weekend since she is our parish patron saint. He knew that we are having our parish picnic this afternoon, and breaking ground on our Faith Formation Center, so he wanted us to be able to make it an even more solemn celebration.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus calls us the “light of the world” and tells us not to keep our light under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:13 -16). In her autobiography, St. Theresa recalls how she asked the Lord how she could be the light of the world. Essentially, what she was asking the Lord was how to live her life as Vocation.

I am sure that all of us have heard that the word “vocation” comes from the Latin word that means “call.” We all have a calling. We just have to look at our “state of life”: whether we are singled, married, or ordained/vowed religious. Yet even in each of those general, “state of life,” vocations we are all called to a more specific vocation. St. Theresa was called to the “state of life” vocation of being a Carmelite nun who lived in strict cloister, yet she wanted to know how specifically God was calling her to live this life. Despite her youth of years, she lived a profound maturity of faith.

There are three elements of the maturity of faith that we call living life as a Vocation. First and foremost, we must be aware of belonging to an Other. After all, we can’t call ourselves. We must be called by someone other than ourselves. At the same time, this Other must know us better than we know ourselves, for how else could they call us to what will truly make us happy. For St. Theresa, she never had any doubt about who the Other was that called her. She had a deep relationship with Christ Jesus. She recognized in the Church the Mystical Body of Jesus whom she loved above all else. That is why she always drew close to the Church, for she knew that in doing so she was drawing close to the Other who called her.

The second element of living life as Vocation, is the energy of the “yes”, the “fiat” like Mary our Mother. It is the simplicity of freedom. We live as conscious human beings, aware of our feelings, thoughts, desires, actions. We live as an integral “I” so that in our “yes” nothing becomes an objection to our choice. It is all “yes”; without any of the “buts” or “howevers”. Again, we see in our patroness, St. Theresa this simplicity of freedom, this energy of the “yes.” Her “little way” was the making of her life a total gift to the Other who called her and loved her. Again, from her autobiography, even when they told her that she was too young to enter the convent, she did not let that become an obstacle – she went to the Pope to get permission.

Lastly, life as Vocation is a life of faithfulness. It is the energy to continue to follow the Other, no matter what difficulties we encounter along the way. In good times and bad, we remain in the Lord, in His Church. You may not know this, but for most of the last year of her life, St. Theresa suffered from a severe dryness in her spiritual life. All the wonderful spiritual consolations that she enjoyed most of her life were taken from her. There may have been times when her intellect wanted to doubt in God, but her heart would never permit it. She followed her Beloved in His Passion, His agony in the garden, so that she could say like He did, “not my will, but your will be done.” It was in living her life as Vocation that St. Theresa found her true place in the Church, to be love.

Since she is the patron of our parish, St. Theresa should be a special model for our lives. We too should live our lives as Vocation as she did. This past week, on the Memorial of St. Theresa, Pope Benedict reminded the world of this call to live as Vocation; “To our society, often permeated by a rationalist culture and widespread materialism, St. Therese of Lisieux shows, as a response to the great questions of life, the ‘little way’ which looks to the essence of things. It is the humble path of love, capable of enveloping and giving meaning and value to all human affairs”

I think that this message is especially appropriate as the Church in the United States also celebrates Respect Life Sunday. If we were going to point to one thing that most represents the evil that materialism and rationalist culture produces it would be the Culture of Death mentality so pervasive in our society, especially in the horror of abortion. In the Culture of Death we see the opposite of living life as Vocation. First there is no recognition of the Other – not the presence of Christ Jesus in the presence of that unborn life. Instead of an energetic “yes” to the Other that comes from freedom, there is the “no” that comes from fear. Instead of focusing on the joy of remaining in the Lord, there is a focusing on the difficulties on the road to be eliminated.

St. Theresa said that she wanted to spend her heaven showering down roses of Divine grace upon the earth. It is fitting that the symbol of the Respect Life movement is the “rose of life.” It is a symbol of the vocation of love that St. Theresa lived on earth and continues to live in heaven; a love that promotes life by the recognition of the Other who is Life itself, and gives us hope.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, pray for us!

Since this encyclical is commemorating the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Populorum Progressio, this chapter basically summarizes the main points of that encyclical. Pope Benedict XVI discusses how while, Populorum Progressio was certainly a fruit of the Second Vatican Council, it would be wrong to see it as a “break” from the Church’s social teaching prior to the Council. In fact, he clearly disagrees with the whole attitude that the Council marked a radical change in the Church. Rather he sees it as flowing from the “Tradition of the apostolic faith,” to address the issues of our times. “The Church’s social doctrine illuminates with an unchanging light the new problems that are constantly emerging” (#12; picking up a theme from John Paul II’s encyclical, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis #3).

From the vision of the Council, Pope Paul VI set out to convey two important truths. First, the whole Church, in all her being and action (whether she is proclaiming, celebrating, or performing acts of charity), is engaged in promoting integral human development. However, the Church needs a climate of freedom in order to bring all this energy to the advancement of humanity and the promotion of universal fraternity. Unfortunately the Church’s freedom is often impeded; whether through persecution or even simply reducing her public presence to just her charitable activities.

The second truth that Pope Paul VI conveyed is that “authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension” (#11). This includes the spiritual/religious dimension which gives us the perspective of eternal life. We must recognize that Man does not develop through his own powers, nor can development be simply handed to him. Even the institutions that we create are not enough, because integral human development is primarily a vocation. As such, it involves the free assumption of responsibilities in solidarity with everyone else. It requires the recognition that human development NEEDS God, because we cannot bring about our own salvation. Without this recognition, any attempt of development dehumanizes the human person.

The Holy Father then demonstrates how these themes are also picked up, and developed in different ways, in other writings of Paul VI. Importantly, Paul VI recognized that all these social questions had really become worldwide. He also saw that technology, while bringing the possibility of much good in promoting human development, had serious limitations; it should be viewed as an ambivalent tool, at the service of the human striving for truth and meaning, but incapable of providing that truth and meaning in itself.

Even Man himself cannot, on his own, supply the ultimate meaning of his existence. That is only possible through the transcendent call, vocation, from the Mystery. The Mystery provides Man with responsible freedom, with is presupposed in integral human development. In addition to freedom, integral human develop also requires a respect for its truth. It is a call to seek the “more.” The essential quality of ‘authentic’ development is that it must be ‘integral.’ In other words it “has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man” (Populorum Progressio #14).

Lastly, the view of development as vocation brings charity into the central place of that development. “As society becomes ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors, but does not make us brothers. Reason, by itself, is capable of grasping the equality between men and of giving stability to their civic coexistence, but it cannot establish fraternity. This originates in a transcendent vocation from God the Father, who loved us first, teaching us through the Son what fraternal charity is” (#19).

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[“The Last Judgement” by Fra Angelico]

The Gospel is always so very rich, so there are always so many things one can reflect on. This weekend’s Gospel reading is no exception. It seems that Jesus is talking about evangelization, sin and scandal, and even hell. All in one very brief passage. How do we make sense of all of it? Or should we just focus on one aspect at a time?

I think that there is a reason for these themes to be together in this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel. First we have the disciples concern about someone using Jesus’ name to drive out demons. Jesus tells the disciples to do nothing to prevent him. Why? Because “whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus was warning the disciples against developing an attitude of exclusiveness.

Christianity is not a club that one joins. It is a life. It is a recognition that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and a conscious choice to unite ourselves to Christ Jesus so to share in His life. Jesus is pointing out to the disciples that no one could work good works in His name if they did not have real faith in Him as the Messiah, as the Son of God. Our desire should be to share the Good News that we have recognized in Jesus with everyone, and we should recognize anyone who is proclaiming that Good News as a brother or sister in Christ Jesus. This is especially true today as it is very common for us to interact with people of other Christian denominations. While we should not ignore the real doctrinal differences that exist between our Protestant and Orthodox brothers and sisters and we of the Catholic Faith, at the same time we should respect the lively faith that they have, and rejoice in the grace of God that is at work among them. And, of course, we should pray, as Christ Himself did on the night before His death, that we may all be one.

This broadmindedness, however, is not unlimited. Just as Jesus wants to emphasize the generosity of God’s love in rewarding those who serve Him, Jesus also wants us to take sin very seriously. That is why in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says the opposite of what He said in today’s reading from St. Mark’s Gospel, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30). In the end there is no neutral ground in relation to Jesus: sooner or later we all must make a choice either to be on His side or to oppose Him.

It is to provide this balance that we have the second group of sayings in today’s Gospel. If God graciously rewards small acts of kindness, He will also severely punish acts of evil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter” (CCC #2284). People who are in positions of authority take on a particular gravity of scandal because their bad example can have a greater influence on others. We are all sinners in need of redemption, and God offers His mercy to all people. As Christians we should be quick to offer forgiveness to those who sin and seek forgiveness. Scandal is not simply the fact that someone does something sinful. Scandal is when the person says, through their words or actions, that their sinful behavior is not really bad, thus encouraging others to do the same thing.

Jesus mixes no words in condemning scandal. For the Jewish people at that time, drowning a person was the most cruel way of killing someone, so to fix a “great millstone,” literally meaning one that only a donkey could turn, around someone’s neck and then casting them into the sea was a most horrible punishment.

Then there are all those sayings about Gehenna. Gehenna was a valley to the southeast of Jerusalem. It was a place where some Israelites gravely turned their backs on God, by burning their children to death as a sacrifice to the pagan god Moloch. Due to the horrible nature of this sin, one of Israel’s good kings desecrated the valley by turning it into a garbage dump. By the time of Jesus, the place reeked and there were constant fires. Also by that time, Gehenna had become a visible symbol for hell, the place of eternal punishment for those who oppose God.

Hell is not a popular subject today. When I was in the seminary I heard a priest tell a group of parishioners that we need to remember that there are two options after death – heaven and purgatory. He thought he was being so very “traditional” by mentioning purgatory. When I asked him later about hell, he told me, “no one believes in hell any more.” So, just to be clear – hell is real. Jesus plainly teaches that there are two possible destinations for us after death – heaven or hell (purgatory is a prelude to heaven, a final cleansing for make us ready for heaven). Heaven is the eternal joy of union with God, and hell is the eternal misery of separation from God. We might not feel comfortable talking about hell, but it is a most necessary fact. We would have no freedom if we did not have the option of saying “no” to God.

The truth that Jesus conveys in today’s Gospel reading is that we choose our own destiny. With every decision we make, with every action we take over the course of our lifetime we are orientating ourselves either to heaven or to hell, and at the moment of death we embrace what has truly become our choice. As C.S. Lewis put it, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell” (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pp. 72-73).

Jesus’ warning should arouse a healthy hatred for sin within us. We must be willing to make the changes in our lives so to choose eternal salvation. While Jesus does not want us to really start cutting off body parts, He does really want us to make really changes in our lives. Are we willing to give up HBO or Showtime if they lead us into temptation? What about a job or an unhealthy relationship? Maybe it is an unhealthy pleasure or entertainment. We need to take our eternal destination seriously. Do we want to make ourselves fit for heaven or for hell? The choice is up to us.

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Now that I have finished Is it Possible to Live this Way? Vol. 1: Faith by Msgr. Luigi Giussani, I am turned my attention to Pope Benedict XVI’s most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate or in English, Charity in Truth. I am reading the edition put out by Ignatius Press, as pictured above, however since there are several editions of the encyclical (including just downloading the PDF), I will use the paragraph numbers which will remain the same across editions, instead of the page numbers when making references to the text.

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been one of my favorite writers in theology for a long time. While most certainly a scholar, I find his writing very easy to understand. I believe it is because he does not just caught up in his head, but he writes from his heart: from the unity of his person. He writes from his experience. Now, while I do not know if he is a member of Communion and Liberation, I do know that he has been very close to the Movement for quite some time. He preached at Msgr. Guissani’s funeral Mass, and shortly after he was elected Pope he asked for members of Memores Domini, basically the secular institute of the Movement (they are lay men and women who live in community after making promises of chastity, obedience and poverty, while working in the world), to move into the Apostolic Palace to do the housekeeping, but mostly so he could join them for “School of Community” as often as his schedule would allow. I believe it is his living the Method of CL that allows him to write so well from his own experience so that we can see what he is talking about in our own experience.

Right from the start, His Holiness points out that Charity in truth is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. For each of us, truth is God’s plan, and we find our good by adhering closely to God’s plan in our lives. It is only through adherence to God’s plan that we can experience real freedom, which is of course, our destiny. Jesus, through His Incarnation, purifies our search for love and truth, and liberates both from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it.

In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, the Holy Father started from the truth revealed through St. John, that “God is Love” (1 Jn 4:8), and that everything has its origin in God’s love, everything is shaped by His love, and everything is directed towards God’s love. That charity, our participation in God’s love, is at the very heart of the Church’s social teaching. Charity is what gives this teaching life, for it gives it real substance to the relationship with God and neighbor.

Unfortunately, charity is often misconstrued in modern society is such a way as to empty it of any real meaning. When this happens there is the risk that charity will become detached from ethical living. Charity must remain rooted in the real; it must remain rooted in truth. St. Paul writes, in his Letter to the Ephesians, to speak “the truth in charity” (Eph. 4:15), and this is very important. Truth must be sought, found and expressed in charity. I am sure we have all experienced people being “brutally honest” with us. It is not so much the truth but the way it is expressed to us that can be so painful when done with little concern for our feelings. Or, scientific research, which is a seeking of the truth, most certainly can be so very good in promoting human development, but not when that research is done in a way that does not respect the dignity of the human person (this is why the Church is opposed to embryonic stem cell research; not to stand in the way of the benefits that might come from that research, but because of the truth of the dignity of the human life that is destroyed in that research). However, in this encyclical, Pope Benedict is turning St. Paul’s expression around to emphasize that charity also needs to be understood, confirmed, and practiced in the light of truth. “Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity” (#3). Without this foundation in truth, charity “degenerates” into mere emotionalism. This foundation gives charity freedom from the constraints of emotionalism that takes away charity’s social and relational content, and from the constraints of fideism that deprives charity of its human and universal breathing space.

When we fill charity with truth we can communicate and share it with others. The word “dialogue” comes from two Greek words, dia which means “through” and logos which means “word or reason”. Thus truth allows us to let go of our subjective opinions and impressions, to move beyond our cultural and historical limitations, so that we can come together in the assessment of the value and substance of things. “In the present social and cultural context, where there is a widespread tendency to relativize truth, practicing charity in truth helps people to understand that adherence to the values of Christianity is not merely useful but essential for building a good society and for true integral human development” (#4).

Charity is both received and given. Of course it is first received by us from God, but then we are called to give it to others. The Church’s social teaching is “the proclamation of the truth of Christ’s love in society. This doctrine is a service to charity, but its locus is truth” (#5). As we are first the objects of God’s love, we should then become the subjects of charity by allowing ourselves to become instruments of God’s grace, His charity, so that we can form a network of charity.

This encyclical is marking the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Populorum Progressio (“The Development of Peoples”), and so it picks up and extends many of the themes of that monumental encyclical. Two of the most important being justice and the common good.

Simply, justice is giving another person what is due them. Every society develops its own system of justice. Charity, however, goes beyond justice while never lacking justice. In justice I give to the other person what is due them. I call the plumber to fix my sink, in justice I pay him for his services. Charity goes beyond justice because in charity I offer what is mine to the other. “I cannot ‘give’ what is mine to the other without first giving him what pertains to him in justice” (#6). So using our plumber analogy, I cannot give him a tip if I have not first paid him the bill I owe him. The tip would be charity, a giving of something that is mine to him. Paying his bill is justice. “On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. . . . On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving” (#6).

All this is a good thing for us. If God was merely just, we would all be in trouble. We are all sinners, and if God treated us merely in justice, according to what we deserve, we would have no chance of heaven. But God is Love/Charity, so He goes beyond justice, offering Himself, quite literally by becoming Flesh and still offering Himself in the Eucharist, for the forgiveness of our sins. Yet, God does not contradict justice; He will judge us. If we are in mortal sin, we will end up in hell, if we still have the stains of our venial sins we will spend time in Purgatory making amends for the effects of our sins (which God has forgiven), and once free from all stain of sin God will bring us into communion with Him in heaven. As God deals with us (both just, but goes beyond justice to be charitable in giving and forgiving us), so we must we deal with one another.

This brings us to the consideration of the common good. If I say that I love someone, then naturally I desire the good for the person I love, and I will even take steps to help secure for them the good. We are all called to love not just this person and that one, but all people. Therefore there is a good that is linked to living in society, and we call that the common good. To both desire and strive for the common good is a requirement of both justice and charity. “The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbors, the more effectively we love them” (#7).

“The Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim ‘to interfere in any way in the politics of States’. She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and skeptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it. Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development” (#9).

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With this post, I finish my reading and reflection of this book by Msgr. Giussani. Since it is an “Assembly” there is a bit of a mishmash of themes. Others reading these pages will undoubtedly be drawn to different things than I was; that is why it is best to discuss these books in a School of Community, so that we can learn from each other. Of course please feel free to make comments on this post, and if you have read the book, share your own insights.
One of the first things that struck me was Giussani’s statement of the necessity of hell. When I was a seminarian, a priest I knew gave a talk to a group of parishioners and he seemed honestly pleased with himself because he reminded the people that there was another place in which one might find oneself after death besides heaven — purgatory. Later when I pointed out that he forgot to mention hell, he told me that no one believes in hell anymore. Wow! That might explain a lot about our modern society.

Msgr. Giussani reminds us that “the ultimate idea of man is that man is a freedom, that is, something made for happiness” (p. 141). He then points out it is in this that hell is born, for without hell there would be no freedom. Why? Because freedom requires both the possibility to say “yes” and the possibility to say “no.” As Milton put it in Paradise Lost, Man was created, “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (Book III). Hell is the BIG NO. It is where we go when we have made a definitive choice to say “no” to God. Mortal Sin is such a saying of “no” to God, and as a result the Divine Life dies within us. Of course, in His great Mercy, God gives us opportunities to turn away from our “no” and say “yes” to His will. Through the sacrament of Reconciliation, the Divine Life is restored to us. What makes it definitive for us is the state we are in when we die. No more choices after death.
Giussani points out that we need this ability to choose, otherwise the happiness that we would reach in heaven would not be our own. That choice must be the object of my freedom.

Giussani also addresses a concern that his idea of authority, the following of another, might seem to be the fostering of a dependency on the other. But if you and I are both seeking Truth, Happiness, Beauty, and those things have a real meaning (so an objective reality), we would be journeying together. Would I be depending on you, or would you be depending on me? I guess we could say we are both dependent on the one we are following, but by our free choice to follow that authority (Christ) we are making that way our own. As St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”

Finally, Giussani has a beautiful reflection on friendship. Friendship is not just a nicety, it is a necessity. It is an encounter with another person who desires my life (welfare) more than they desire their own. They want us to reach our destiny, and are willing to make self-sacrifices so that we can achieve our destiny. It again reminds me of St. Paul, when he is saying that as much as he would like to be finished with this life so that he can share the life of Christ in Heaven, he is willing to continue in his mission so that others might come to Christ. When you desire my destiny and I desire your destiny we have a companionship. A healthy companionship is NEVER exclusive, it never views other people as extraneous. In our companionship we want others to join us, because we want them to share the same freedom and happiness that we have discovered. It a way, we can see how the Church’s teaching on contraception flows from this; if my marriage is truly a healthy companionship, I would never want to exclude the possibility of children.

This friendship, this companionship, is a guided one. We do not set our own way. We help each other along the way, even correcting each other when we start to wander off the way. Our companionship is guide by Christ, the Mystery in whom we recognize the deepest desires of our hearts.