My daughter says the funniest things. One day I was on my knees and elbows, cleaning the floor. I do this a few times a day in the area where the kids eat. She said sadly, "Mom, I hate to see you doing work on your knees. You shouldn't have to do that." I explained to her that it was my pleasure and my privilege to parent her and her brother, and to clean up after her Dad as well. As far as the physical position, well, it's just easier to clean the floor from . . . the floor. I didn't want her to see housework as menial, didn't want her to somehow interpret the physical positions she sees me in, head half in the dryer, wearing gloves while cleaning toilets, carrying three bags of groceries on each arm while holding a kid in each hand, as demeaning or undesirable. How I hope I have communicated the great dignity of marriage and motherhood to her! And if I have not, Lord, teach me how to do so!
I cannot think of a life better spent than one spent in service to others. There is, paradoxically, a selfish reason for this. When I'm thinking and acting outwardly, doing for someone else, I am not focusing on the care and feeding of ME. I am only so interesting, and then let's face it, it's time to stop tending to my physical appearance, worrying about my health, and futzing around in my memory or imagination for things to worry about or re-enact. In my observation, a life spent dedicated only to self is a life that becomes exhausting in its infinite nature. I have a closet full of clothes that attest to this. After the tenth pair of jeans, what's left to discover? After the fifteenth pair of shoes, a feeling of burden emerges. All this stuff is mine to maintain and keep track of and clean and select from. There's a heaviness to possession. The addiction to buying and acquiring is SO American, and so pervasive . . . we're all guilty of it, and I unfortunately still fall into the sin of overindulging my kids with small toys and pieces of nonsense. Then I have to figure out where to keep it all, and keep it there neatly, and I've created a need to serve the stuff instead of serving the people in my home. Or (ouch!) serving God.
I was praying the other night and something hit me out of nowhere. That in His misery, at His lowest point, Jesus did two amazing things: one, He actually fulfilled His highest purpose, one that only the Son of God, only a King could fulfill, and two, He managed to forgive the good thief and welcome him into Paradise. That thought really got lodged in my heart and mind. I meditated on that for a while. Jesus is up there, feeling physical and mental anguish beyond anything I can imagine, and He is being humiliated beyond what any human being (no less God!) should ever endure, and He pulls it together long enough to turn to this criminal, this sinner, and grant him absolution. And promise Him instant eternal life! I laugh at myself that Jesus still amazes me anew after all these years. I'm so silly sometimes. Like there is anything Jesus CAN'T do? Of course he served, and taught us to serve. Of course he exemplified humility. Of course He took on flesh, and became small. It is His example that drives me on to my goal: to become invisible in those moments when I'm evangelizing or witnessing, invisible so that all people see, all my children see, is Jesus. Because there really is not much more to me that is interesting. I'm skin and bones, and a voice, and a lot of stuff that I've collected over the years. Everything good in those physical elements, and coming through those earthly characteristics and powers is Jesus. Plain and simple.
When I think about the "highs" of my life, they are not the times I've been on the receiving end of glory. I accelerated relatively quickly in my teaching career, and in the teachers' union as well. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, a perfect 4.0, from college. I had a beautiful wedding gown and matching headpiece that my mother spent extra for so I could look perfect. Recently, my husband took me to a concert, our first date night in I can't tell you how many years, and I was transported back to my youth as I danced in my seat and sang every single lyric. But you know who had more fun? My husband, watching ME have fun. Because HE knows the secret as well. And as great as that night was, it was not as great as some simpler, quieter nights I recall, when I was pregnant with my son, barely able to bathe my daughter with my big belly in my way. Or when I stood backstage watching my daughter step out and dance with the Moscow Ballet, watched her perform the steps she had rehearsed so many times, with my heart in my throat. What if she made a mistake, fell, got scared?! But she didn't. I forgot myself entirely in these moments. I was not really there; I only existed in the service and support of my children, and that is the most freeing and liberating feeling I can recollect. To not sit and stew about myself is a gift, and an ongoing goal of mine.
Please do not confuse, my friends, an interior spiritual life with the self-absorption I am talking about. You better believe I take my time for my religious reading, my prayer, my fellowship, and my worship. That, too, must be about the other, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, about thanking God the Father. About getting to know Mary after all of those years I ignored her. About learning wisdom from the saints. About becoming fortified by what my Church has to feed me so that I can continue to get on the floor and clean up crumbs, and get on the phone and comfort a friend, and get on Facebook and disabuse someone of a misconception about Catholicism, and get down next to the bed, look squarely into the faces of my children, and pray with them. I fulfill my highest purpose from these low places, and I thank God for it.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Excuse Me, Ma'am, But Your Ducks Aren't All In A Row
Human beings have certain responsibilities to each other, at least they do if they want to rightly and accurately call themselves civil, or religious, or kind. In my last blog post, I talked about how Catholic Christians in particular need to "get Amish" so to speak. By that I do not mean we should isolate ourselves from others; rather, that we need to man up and make certain that our words and actions match what we claim to believe, what we vow to live by in the creeds we speak and the Sacraments in which we participate. The topic expanded for me this week . . . I saw two phenomena occurring around me, orbiting my little planet, and they made me shake my head, and they brought me to tears at Mass. I was hit by Christian coldness and Christian competition. Now to be honest, my crying at Mass is really not an occasion for alarm. I choke up every time the Gospel is lifted! But this was different -- I was crying out of my heart and my hurt feelings. Feelings hurt by Catholics and other Christians. And if you're claiming the title of practicing Catholic you have to practice kindness, or you simply do not have your ducks in a row no matter how many morning prayers you say or committees you join.
Catholics and other Christians should not engage in Schadenfreude, competitiveness, nor should they enjoy the heck out of public one-upsmanship under the guise of fraternal correction. Catholics and other Christians should not engage in ad hominem attack, wish death or pain on others, nor should they refer to entire groups of people of any stripe or inclination as being less human and less worthy of respect than they themselves are. We are a people called to peace and love. The second command Jesus gave us was to love each other so much that it equaled the way we loved and attended to OURSELVES. This did not come with a clause that exempted people of other religions, colors, sin stylings, or people whose only sin is that they have MORE or BETTER stuff than we do. We cannot and should not feel free and comfortable name calling people simply because they are in the public eye. We cannot and should not feel free and comfortable name calling people simply because they are of a religion that we do not understand, living a lifestyle the Church considers sinful, or even daily committing mortal sin. Fraternal correction, prayer for conversion, evangelization = good. Wishing people off the face of the earth = bad.
Competitiveness is a trait I have never possessed, so to be fair, I don't know what it's like to be given to the sin of feeling hateful or acting cruelly toward another person because of jealousy or a sense that someone has taken a piece of a pie I wanted. I have many sins to count, but that's not my category. I have been the victim of it, however, and I can tell you it cuts to the bone. Sometimes I want to hand out a little flyer to every new female acquaintance that says: "This document acknowledges that now and forever you are prettier, smarter, nicer, funnier, more devout, and generally of a higher caliber of humanity than I am. Your kids are more athletic, better in school, cleaner, better fed, and more attractive. Your house is the perfect size, not so big as to be sinful but not so small as to be cramped and make you anything less than an amazing interior decorator. Your hair is never floopy in humidity. Your husband loves you more than my husband loves me. Your skin looks younger than mine, and you smell fresher. You are more well-read, better at all sports (and your body shows it!) but you are not obsessed with your physical appearance to the point of being vain. Your parents were superior to mine, unless of course you wear as a badge of honor that you survived a rough childhood, in which case, you had a harder childhood than I did. Your pets do not shed or emit an odor or make any annoying sounds, unless of course they do, and you want to talk about how that pet owning life is a sacrifice you are making, in which case, wow, I'm not even a pet owner, so I again fall short. In summary, you rock and I stink. You win. I lose. Please do not pretend to be my friend and then pull your friendship away because you somehow perceive that I have started gaining on you in any category because I hereby legally declare without qualification or reservation that the aforementioned state will NEVER OCCUR." I will, of course, have this notarized.
Friends, I use humor and hyperbole here, but the point I am attempting to drive home is such an important one. I can't stress enough how the secular world is watching us. How lukewarms, on-the-verges, fallen aways, and nones are watching us. They are waiting for us to screw up, to behave in such a way that they can call us out for being hypocrites. It's bad enough that they will accuse us of what we don't do, but don't give them ammunition. Our children are watching us. Moms, don't teach your daughters to be competitive, to snipe, to envy, to gossip, to wisecrack, to hate those in sin instead of having mercy on them and praying for their conversion. God is watching us. Guess who else is watching? The foe. He loves discord, competition, pride, arguing, Schadenfreude, stereotyping, hatred and contempt of the poor, shunning of other races and religions, disgust at homosexuals, and sneering at post-abortive women. He laps it up like Nutella. Why? Because it's a BOGO for the devil! He buys one, and gets one free. They sin, we react sinfully to their sin, and he collects twice on his bet.
The foe loves when Christian men and women are competitive with each other, too. We who are supposed to be wanting as much for others as for ourselves? How much win is there for ole' fault face if we actually want our acquaintances and even "friends" to have LESS than we do!? What a victory for him. Stop handing the devil victories. These are habits of mind we can break. Think with your heart and your Catholic-formed conscience before you speak or type. Before you give a dirty look. Before you spread a tale. Think, and I blatantly rob here from Peter Kreeft, do I want to be doing this or saying this when Jesus comes back? If Jesus returned right now, this instant, would he find my heart full of envy? Full of judgment? Would he find me NOT fraternally correcting with love, but one upping for the feeling of rightness and security it gave me?
Tonight in our examinations of conscience, let's all search ourselves for these things. The tongue is a weapon, as is the stare, the keyboard, the pen, the phone . . . please operate these things as you would if you were the very hands and feet of Jesus on earth, because as St. Teresa of Avila reminded us, you are.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Catholic Up
The challenges facing all people of faith today have been written about by thinkers and theologians far more capable than I. I have heard our current American and indeed Western first world society called Sodom and Gomorrah, and not by hysterical voices. I have my standard arsenal of prayers and I have my standard advice: be an example and keep praying for conversions, because if the Lord can knock Saul on his rear and convert him he can knock these Christophobic bullies off of their horses as well. What I'd like to focus on here, though, are the personal challenges we face, the ones in our own homes and our own heads. These are the places over which we should be exercising the most control, but sometimes they suffer and crumble while we go on complaining bitterly about the state of everyone else's souls. Time to remove some planks.
Forgiveness is a beautiful concept. It's the centerpiece of our religion -- the very reason Jesus suffered torment and humiliation. We are told in very clear and easy to understand terms in both Scripture and Tradition that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. When we pray the Lord's prayer, we are reminded weekly (or daily!) that we need to forgive others. Yet only a few moments can pass after prayer or Mass and we are thinking about a favorite grudge, or explaining away a pet resentment. I know you think forgiveness is beautiful, BUT your story is different. What has been done to YOU is so unspeakable, so wrong, that surely it qualifies for a hall pass from The Church and from Jesus Himself. The person who did it to you isn't even sorry! I'm here to tell you, my friend, that it is irrelevant what tale you spin, how long or how sordid. You are called to forgive all, as you want all to be forgiven of YOU. Now of course you see YOUR sins as bad but not BAD. The sin committed against you was ongoing, is ongoing, stinks to high Heaven. Your own sins are venial, teeny, and smell like gardenias. Stop kidding thyself. Forgive if you have aught against any. Jesus said it. You think Jesus didn't mean it? He meant everything; He is God, and God is Truth itself.
How do you forgive the apparently unforgivable of the perpetrator who is unrepentant or even an ongoing violator? You put on your big Catholic pants and just do it, and by that I mean, you use what helps you have been given: the Sacraments, the Saints, prayer, Scripture, the Catechism, sacramentals. Go to the Confessional and talk about YOUR sin of unforgiveness. If you have a soft priest who tells you it's okay to hold a grudge, quietly walk out, do your penance, but know that it is NOT okay to hold a grudge. Your priest is making a pastoral decision and trying to be kind, but you know in your heart that forgiveness is not optional. You know the ugly nasties you are wishing on your enemy. Strive to have no enemies! It can be done! This does not mean you stick around and let people continue to hurt you. Sometimes it is giving another human being an occasion to sin by staying in a toxic relationship. Get away! But forgive, pray for the person, and sincerely wish conversion, peace, and yes, even Heaven for this person, as if you were begging for yourself or your own child.
Along with forgiveness, the second area I see Catholics and other Christians taking short cuts is obedience. That's understandable. Everything our senses take in tells us that obedience is for suckers, idiots, medievals, provincials, dopes, and rubes. Yet we know better. Obedience is glorious. It is the key to peace. To do that which Christ commands us, without complaint, without anger, without rebellion, without pride, without qualification, is the sweetest gift we can offer Him. Here again you will flood the page with "Yes, buts." Yes, I am called to obey, but The Church really needs to get with the times on contraception, so I don't really have to obey to the letter there, do I? YES. Yes, I am called to obey, but the death penalty is still permitted by The Church, so I think it's a great idea and a great deterrent, and I will fight, fight, fight for the right to have people executed despite our Catechism's statement on it and our last three Popes urging us to rethink it. Yes, I am called to obey, but Mass at my parish is BORING and the homilist should be doing better and the music is tripe. Yes, I am called to obey but I think Pope Francis is too plain. Yes, I am called to obey, but the old rules about masturbation, pornography, and gossip are really very 1950's and let's face it, NOBODY can really follow them. Yes, I am called to obey, but I will not let my husband lead our family if he's going to try to boss me around in the year 2013. Yes, I am called to obey, but Confession is more of an optional thing, not something that most Catholics really DO anymore. Yes, I am called to obey, but I can't welcome the immigrant because he might take away more of my money and stuff.
We could do this all day, couldn't we? Why don't you think of yours right now? Or write them down? Or reread your Catechism to see where you're falling short, where you're putting your own "yes, buts."
You know, my friends, Catholicism is not supposed to look like anything else. We should be standing out like the Amish at this point. That's how crazy and sin-soaked the "world" is. We should be saying no to things, getting raised eyebrows because of our choices, looking for alternative forms of entertainment, speaking differently from the average American, even dressing differently from the average American. If you look at this life as a burden, then I'm not sure what you thought your signed up for: we are to be little Christs. That doesn't mean we snark all week, watch provocative television, follow a political party line that's rife with grave sin, show our cleavage, tell racist jokes, cheat on our taxes, cheer rah rah for same sex marriage so everyone at the office likes us, and then go to Mass on Sunday and hope it all gets rinsed away like Jesus is running a big ole' car wash.
I'm not asking anyone to wear a hair shirt. Or give up electricity. And these words do not imply that the writer of said words is in an ivory tower, looking down at you all squeaky clean. We all have planks. Start pulling them out. In summary: Catholic up. People at your office, your schools, your clubs, the stores you regularly patronize, your Facebook page, your Twitter, your carpool, your hair salon, your racquetball team, your PTA, should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a practicing, adherent Catholic. If you are a non-Catholic reader of this blog, these words still apply to you: the people with whom you have regular contact should know beyond question that you are an orthodox and adherent Christian. What they should not see you as is someone who it's super comfy to be around because you will endorse every sin and laugh at every off color joke. Nor should they see you as self-righteous and condescending. The middle ground is the formula laid out by our faith: forgive, obey, and thus be fishers of men. Maybe your life will be the thing that knocks some Saul off of his ride and creates the opportunity for him to be transformed into a Paul. You will never know if you are too busy grousing about the state of the world, marinating in resentments and pettiness, or acting out yourself to the point of passively aggressively persecuting your own Church.
Monday, June 17, 2013
And then?
My Godmother, Aunt Emily, used to keep religious tracts all over her small railroad apartment. Some were in her worn pine green Bible, some were scattered on the dining room hutch, some in various places where she would sit and read while resting from cooking or cleaning. I remember one vividly. It covered, cartoon style, panel by panel, the life of a man, from boyhood fun to adolescent rites of passage, to adult success. He was a decorated graduate, then a neatly dressed executive, then a proud grandfather. After each panel, and a description of his earthly command of each step down the path of life, it asked, "And then?" Well, you can guess what the last panel was: his gravestone. These may have been doomsday Chick tracts for all I remember. The message stuck with me. All your life you pursue, seek, want, get, and then? Then to dust you shall return.
Did the man in the tract attend church and read his Bible? No, he forgot that! This was the simplistic but legitimate warning of the tract. Once under the earth, it was too late. As a child, I wasn't disturbed by the somewhat heavy handed tract, but I was intrigued by it. It made me ask myself the question, even at seven years old. I would go to school and be good and have fun, and eat cake and share Barbies with my sister, and then? How did I know if I was going to end up in Heaven? Even at my tender age, I had a very firm grasp on one inevitability: I was going to die at some point. My Protestant religious education was pretty soothing. All I had to do was believe in Jesus as my Savior and I was a lock. But then the tract didn't make a whole lot of sense. What was wrong with the man's life? Even if he never walked into a church, if he was a nice businessman and a giving father and a doting Grandpa, and he believed in Jesus, he was a shoe in for Heaven, right? So why all the scary imagery? Why the fuss? Why were they creating requirements that didn't exist? Who could read the man's heart?
The biggest misunderstanding I encounter about the very broad topic of Christianity is that it's a relativistic, open ended, and fuzzy sort of business. That it is NOT an exact science, with tomes written about it, with a formula, with defined Truth and a history of defending it against heresies and lies. I know a handful of people who "get it" and the rest, quite candidly, still have a very blurred-edge idea of who Jesus is, why He came, what His divinity entails, and, on a whole other level, what Catholicism teaches about these things. And for how LONG we've been teaching it! (Hint: the beginning of Christianity).
I almost wish we had Catholic Chickesque tracts. But our message is not that simple. If you have the faith of a child, if you have been GRACED with that, then you may not ever encounter complicated theology. But if you have an educated mind and you let many forces influence you and fall in love with many things created, then you have to counter balance those things with not equal but GREATER parts theological. The risk of NOT doing this is, that when you reach a crisis point, a death in your family, an illness, a loss of a job, a betrayal by a friend, or a critique of your Church by a friend of relative, you're going to crumble like a gluten-free saltine. Because you have heard the words that you should build your house on rock and not on sand, but the truth of the matter is that you have used very very firm sand and called it rock. There is only one rock, only one Petra, only one Bride of Christ, only one Christ Himself.
I cannot say enough times that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is essential reading. Even if you are a hardcore Protestant, you can buy yourself a used CCC. I dare you. I dare you to even buy the YouCat, our youth Catechism as prepared and approved by The Church. Or buy an old Baltimore Catechism. It has visuals like a Chick tract, if you're into that sort of thing. In my view, nothing is like the real deal, the BIG Catechism, signed by our beloved Pope John Paul II. Read and learn.
There are three levels you will hit at different times during catechesis if it's done correctly: comfort, challenge, and close the book. Comfort comes from reading that you can do nothing to separate you from the love of God, and why. (I bet you don't REALLY know why.) Challenge comes from the teachings themselves, and how they are hated by "the world," and how you will suddenly see that, uh-oh, they are backed by Scripture (because the Catholic Church is responsible for compiling the Bible. Say what? Yes.)
So what do I mean by close the book? Those are the moments when you read something that knocks the wind out of you. And you have to close the book, rub your eyes, or exhale, or call someone, or check your Bible, or look in the mirror, or call someone you are very pleased that you have been holding a grudge against and say, "I'm sorry we fought. Let's stop it now." These moments are the Holy Spirit coming up actively within you. He's always there, but you keep him very quiet and inactive in there. When you read Scripture, or the Catechism, or the early Church fathers, or any spiritual reading, or you pray the Rosary, or you contemplate the Passion, the Holy Spirit becomes active within you, giving you graces of understanding and empathy, charity, wisdom, peace of mind, and clarity. These are fruits you will then be able to share with those in your family, your co-workers, your friends, even those hostile to religion (a lot of people.)
I flew recently (not for a very happy reason) and again heard the yada yada warning about putting on my oxygen mask before trying to put on someone else's . Boy does that one irk me. I am so conditioned to say, no, I will get the mask on my neighbor first because in third grade I learned that JOY = Jesus, Others, and then Yourself. But they are trying to save more lives with this rule. You can't put on someone else's mask if you are losing oxygen and passing out. Now you and your neighbor are slumped over. And then?
It's the same way with spiritual food, with spiritual oxygen. Take YOURS first, and then you can supply it to others. You can't share what you don't possess, and you can't tell anyone about Jesus if you don't KNOW Him yourself. You certainly can't teach anyone about the faith if you don't know it yourself. If you are challenged about contraception and you start stuttering, that's IT. Opportunity for catechesis and possibly saving someone's soul GONE. 'The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will help me know what to say', you retort! No! He is there NOW, waiting for you to read and learn and absorb and pray and be filled with the Trinity's massive and precise theology.
You can be a walking and talking tract. You can help someone move from a house built on sand to a house built on The Rock. But you can't do that if all you have is Mass attendance, or a vague picture of a loving blue-eyed Jesus. You need to get your mask on, get your oxygen, and then you can supply that lifesaving oxygen to someone else. There is no other help that matters. Good listeners are in short supply, I grant you, and so are those who are willing to give materially 'til it hurts to aid the poor. But most lacking of ALL are those who are gutsy enough, catechized enough, and loving enough to spread the Gospel in its entirety and its complexity to others at risk of their own popularity. Be that person. And then? Well, you'll see. But trust me, it will be worth the effort, even if you don't see the reward in the short term. I taught high school for eight years. You don't get a lot of immediate gratification in that line of work. In fact, you more frequently find yourself on the receiving end of ungrateful parents, disrespectful administrators, and indifferent students. But maybe, if you run into a "kid" years later, he will tell you, "I'll never forget when you said . . . " or "You changed the way I looked at . . . "
You plant a seed, and then you walk away, and it may take years, my friends, to germinate and produce a flower, or even a little green head popping out shyly from the soil. Plant it anyway. Jesus wants us to be spicy salt and bright light for the world, not lukewarm and complacent quasi-disciples who are convinced we just have to do our seventy years here and then collect our ticket to Heaven at the end of the ride. It simply doesn't work that way. Discipleship doesn't work that way. Theology cannot be condensed to a tract, and evangelization cannot be reduced to you saying in a half-hearted voice, "Yeah, I'm Catholic," or "I was raised Catholic, but. . . " or, God forbid, "I believe in something, but since no one knows what is out there, you know, I don't really believe in religion." All you are showing with these statements is complete ignorance of a body of teaching that is comprehensive, exacting, and completely lucid. Tap into it starting now; don't rely on those "other people" out there to increase the numbers of adherent religious. If not now, when? Like the busy man in the old-fashioned tract, you may not be doing anyting egregiously WRONG, but you're not living abundantly either.
Did the man in the tract attend church and read his Bible? No, he forgot that! This was the simplistic but legitimate warning of the tract. Once under the earth, it was too late. As a child, I wasn't disturbed by the somewhat heavy handed tract, but I was intrigued by it. It made me ask myself the question, even at seven years old. I would go to school and be good and have fun, and eat cake and share Barbies with my sister, and then? How did I know if I was going to end up in Heaven? Even at my tender age, I had a very firm grasp on one inevitability: I was going to die at some point. My Protestant religious education was pretty soothing. All I had to do was believe in Jesus as my Savior and I was a lock. But then the tract didn't make a whole lot of sense. What was wrong with the man's life? Even if he never walked into a church, if he was a nice businessman and a giving father and a doting Grandpa, and he believed in Jesus, he was a shoe in for Heaven, right? So why all the scary imagery? Why the fuss? Why were they creating requirements that didn't exist? Who could read the man's heart?
The biggest misunderstanding I encounter about the very broad topic of Christianity is that it's a relativistic, open ended, and fuzzy sort of business. That it is NOT an exact science, with tomes written about it, with a formula, with defined Truth and a history of defending it against heresies and lies. I know a handful of people who "get it" and the rest, quite candidly, still have a very blurred-edge idea of who Jesus is, why He came, what His divinity entails, and, on a whole other level, what Catholicism teaches about these things. And for how LONG we've been teaching it! (Hint: the beginning of Christianity).
I almost wish we had Catholic Chickesque tracts. But our message is not that simple. If you have the faith of a child, if you have been GRACED with that, then you may not ever encounter complicated theology. But if you have an educated mind and you let many forces influence you and fall in love with many things created, then you have to counter balance those things with not equal but GREATER parts theological. The risk of NOT doing this is, that when you reach a crisis point, a death in your family, an illness, a loss of a job, a betrayal by a friend, or a critique of your Church by a friend of relative, you're going to crumble like a gluten-free saltine. Because you have heard the words that you should build your house on rock and not on sand, but the truth of the matter is that you have used very very firm sand and called it rock. There is only one rock, only one Petra, only one Bride of Christ, only one Christ Himself.
I cannot say enough times that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is essential reading. Even if you are a hardcore Protestant, you can buy yourself a used CCC. I dare you. I dare you to even buy the YouCat, our youth Catechism as prepared and approved by The Church. Or buy an old Baltimore Catechism. It has visuals like a Chick tract, if you're into that sort of thing. In my view, nothing is like the real deal, the BIG Catechism, signed by our beloved Pope John Paul II. Read and learn.
There are three levels you will hit at different times during catechesis if it's done correctly: comfort, challenge, and close the book. Comfort comes from reading that you can do nothing to separate you from the love of God, and why. (I bet you don't REALLY know why.) Challenge comes from the teachings themselves, and how they are hated by "the world," and how you will suddenly see that, uh-oh, they are backed by Scripture (because the Catholic Church is responsible for compiling the Bible. Say what? Yes.)
So what do I mean by close the book? Those are the moments when you read something that knocks the wind out of you. And you have to close the book, rub your eyes, or exhale, or call someone, or check your Bible, or look in the mirror, or call someone you are very pleased that you have been holding a grudge against and say, "I'm sorry we fought. Let's stop it now." These moments are the Holy Spirit coming up actively within you. He's always there, but you keep him very quiet and inactive in there. When you read Scripture, or the Catechism, or the early Church fathers, or any spiritual reading, or you pray the Rosary, or you contemplate the Passion, the Holy Spirit becomes active within you, giving you graces of understanding and empathy, charity, wisdom, peace of mind, and clarity. These are fruits you will then be able to share with those in your family, your co-workers, your friends, even those hostile to religion (a lot of people.)
I flew recently (not for a very happy reason) and again heard the yada yada warning about putting on my oxygen mask before trying to put on someone else's . Boy does that one irk me. I am so conditioned to say, no, I will get the mask on my neighbor first because in third grade I learned that JOY = Jesus, Others, and then Yourself. But they are trying to save more lives with this rule. You can't put on someone else's mask if you are losing oxygen and passing out. Now you and your neighbor are slumped over. And then?
It's the same way with spiritual food, with spiritual oxygen. Take YOURS first, and then you can supply it to others. You can't share what you don't possess, and you can't tell anyone about Jesus if you don't KNOW Him yourself. You certainly can't teach anyone about the faith if you don't know it yourself. If you are challenged about contraception and you start stuttering, that's IT. Opportunity for catechesis and possibly saving someone's soul GONE. 'The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will help me know what to say', you retort! No! He is there NOW, waiting for you to read and learn and absorb and pray and be filled with the Trinity's massive and precise theology.
You can be a walking and talking tract. You can help someone move from a house built on sand to a house built on The Rock. But you can't do that if all you have is Mass attendance, or a vague picture of a loving blue-eyed Jesus. You need to get your mask on, get your oxygen, and then you can supply that lifesaving oxygen to someone else. There is no other help that matters. Good listeners are in short supply, I grant you, and so are those who are willing to give materially 'til it hurts to aid the poor. But most lacking of ALL are those who are gutsy enough, catechized enough, and loving enough to spread the Gospel in its entirety and its complexity to others at risk of their own popularity. Be that person. And then? Well, you'll see. But trust me, it will be worth the effort, even if you don't see the reward in the short term. I taught high school for eight years. You don't get a lot of immediate gratification in that line of work. In fact, you more frequently find yourself on the receiving end of ungrateful parents, disrespectful administrators, and indifferent students. But maybe, if you run into a "kid" years later, he will tell you, "I'll never forget when you said . . . " or "You changed the way I looked at . . . "
You plant a seed, and then you walk away, and it may take years, my friends, to germinate and produce a flower, or even a little green head popping out shyly from the soil. Plant it anyway. Jesus wants us to be spicy salt and bright light for the world, not lukewarm and complacent quasi-disciples who are convinced we just have to do our seventy years here and then collect our ticket to Heaven at the end of the ride. It simply doesn't work that way. Discipleship doesn't work that way. Theology cannot be condensed to a tract, and evangelization cannot be reduced to you saying in a half-hearted voice, "Yeah, I'm Catholic," or "I was raised Catholic, but. . . " or, God forbid, "I believe in something, but since no one knows what is out there, you know, I don't really believe in religion." All you are showing with these statements is complete ignorance of a body of teaching that is comprehensive, exacting, and completely lucid. Tap into it starting now; don't rely on those "other people" out there to increase the numbers of adherent religious. If not now, when? Like the busy man in the old-fashioned tract, you may not be doing anyting egregiously WRONG, but you're not living abundantly either.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Lawn Chair Catechism Session One
The Holy Spirit knows just what to send into my life and when. Today I have been given an opportunity to answer some reflective questions about my faith walk and my parish life, two things you never have to to twist my arm to do! I want to thank Jen Haganey and Sarah Reinhard for welcoming me into the fold. This is a great project and I hope to contribute in any way possible in the future to Lawn Chair Catechism and to Catholic Mom.com.
In your own
faith:
- How would you describe your lived relationship with God to this point in your life? The first word that comes out of my heart is "consistent." As I age and change, as I suffer losses and gain blessings that I never could have anticipated as a child or a young woman, I see only one element of my life that stands completely immutable, and that is the relationship between me and God, the Truth, Being Himself. My faith life certainly has gone through some important evolutionary steps! I became Catholic in 2010, and that has been the defining moment thus far in my faith life. But since my earliest memories as a toddler in a home where the Bible and prayer were present to this very day when I read my morning devotional as I hold my son on my hip, the presence of God in my life has never been something I've doubted or lacked. So, the way I LIVE this relationship out has looked different at different times, and my level of obedience has definitely increased. The liberties I take with His Word and His instruction have decreased. The vague fears and concrete disasters in my life have increased, but God has always been a reference point, the beauty that I know I am striving for. The face of Jesus has always been before me. Always, as long as I have memory, I have held the image of Jesus' face in front of me as I received any earthly praise or any earthly scorn. Now, as a Catholic, my relationship with Christ has obviously deepened indescribably as I have been blessed to partake in the Real Presence. But Jesus has not changed; only my level of commitment to Him, my willingness to get on my knees, on my face, on the floor, and tell Him to take over have increased.
- What does the word “discipleship” mean to you? Do you perceive a need in the Church today to help lay Catholics become more fervent followers of Jesus Christ? Sometimes I don't think I have the nerve to call myself a disciple. For what men am I fishing? Am I salt and light? There are days I feel more like sand and darkness, all cozied up with my faith to comfort me. Other days someone will tell me I have shown them Jesus in some way, and I know, I know as surely as I can see my hand in front of my face, that I must keep persevering to earn the title of Christian and the job of disciple. This is a rough audience we have to present to, fellow Catholic Christians. In many, many cases, you will be working and mothering and shopping alongside people who have received lifetimes of indoctrination in three areas: secularism, materialism, and Christophobia. If you're lucky, you won't get outright virulent hate, but you'll find cafeteria Catholics, lukewarms, Republicatholics and Democatholics who put party politics before the Magisterium, and fallen-away Catholics who are SURE they know the Church is thoroughly corrupt and you are a fool for buying into it. So what approach do I use? Well, I only have two rules. As I get older, I find I can't remember more than that anyway. Rule number one is never, ever let them see or hear you do anything that is not Christlike ( I didn't say these rules were easy, I said they were few in number!). Rule number two is pray. Truly pray for people. If you can be an example of an adherent Catholic Christian and you can pray fervently for these folks, you are halfway there. You will be unimpeachable and you will be effecting real change by prayer. You never know which prayer of yours is the one, in the great quilt of time, may be the stitch that holds someone's life together when it lined up with God's pattern.
In your parish:
- How would you describe your parish’s current efforts at discipleship? A hotbed of discipleship? A weekly gathering of spiritual sleep-walkers? Or perhaps something in between? My parish is currently in a "cluster" relationship with a much more liberal parish. That makes some goal setting and event planning difficult. But I think we are very strong in the person to person stuff, and in the example setting. There are families in my parish who amaze me with their pure devotion to Christ's Church. That inspiration is catching. They are examples to me and to my children. We have business owners in our parish who run their businesses honestly and with charity always in the forefront. When we DO have "formal" evangelization events, speakers, and the like, they are generally well received and fairly well-attended. I think, though, that we are a stronger SERVICE parish than anything else. We do a lot for the poor of the community and the poor in downtown Cleveland. We meet our fundraising goals easily and always exceed them. It is my hope that when the community hears about these programs, that our discipleship is evident. They know we are Christians, after all, by our love.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
A Different Kind of Top Ten
When I first began immersing myself in the study of Catholicism, I read everything I could get my hands on. I have already cited here on my blog The Catholic Truth Society, publishers to the Holy See, as a great resource. My neighbor and friend Sandy was a great boon as well, with her casual dropping off of books and offers to answer questions. But the Catechism was really the turning point. Of course the Didache, the Church Fathers, EWTN, the many adherent and well-written blogs, and my RCIA education were keys to the door, but reading the Catechism was like finding a road map to my own mind and body, a treasure map that had been hidden underground for thirty nine years. My most emotional moments, the ones where I had to put down the book and compose myself, came from reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Since then I have also read the Catechism of the Council of Trent and the Baltimore Catechism, but the definitive Catechism for The Church, the one that grew from these and addresses every modern issue we will confront in our day is the Complete Catechism bearing the signature of Blessed Pope John Paul II. Herein I have compiled for you what for me are the ten most impactful passages from our Catechism. These tenets shape my thinking, my behavior toward others, my opinions on how to heal our broken and continually breaking world, my attitude toward my marriage, and how I approach my vocation as a mother. I hope they enlighten and educate you if it is your first time seeing them, or serve as a refresher if you have read them but let them get away from you.
1. 66. No new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . yet it remains for Christian faith to gradually grasp its significance over the course of the centuries . . . Private revelations . . . have been recognized by the authority of The Church, but they do not belong to the Deposit of Faith. This was a huge relief for me. As I explored the implications and manifestations of this , I found it to be true over and over again. Catholics were not adding anything to the Scripture and Tradition left by Christ; they were guarding it FROM additions. That Deposit of Faith and what it precisely contains was a sacred pearl of great price. The entire structure and personnel of The Church now struck me as a fort armed by soldiers, protecting The Truth from the many assailants from within and without who would seek to undermine, change, add to, subtract from, finesse away, politicize, and altogether pervert Her. I soon learned about what Martin Luther *really* did and I was horrified. As my research continued and I read from sources closer to the time of when Jesus and the earliest members of His Church walked, studied, worshipped, and preached, I was left without doubt that THIS was The Deposit of Faith He left, and that the guiding body, the Pope and the Magisterium, were divinely led by the Holy Spirit (God Himself) in order to answer modern questions that are not addressed specifically in Scripture or oral Tradition.
2. 133. The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. 'Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.' Coming from Protestantism, where it was "me, Jesus, and my Bible," I did have a vestige of false belief that the Catholic Church was less "into" Scripture than were the Protestants. Again, from hours of research into the history of the Church between the book of Acts and the time of the Reformation (a period which was previously left out of my religious education), I learned that the Catholic Church compiled and canonized Scripture, encouraged the reading of Scripture, and that the Catechism and every encyclical I read was filled with cross references and footnotes FROM Scripture. The saints fed themselves on Scripture. This passage from the Catechism uses very exact and purposeful language "forcefully exhorts" to communicate to Catholic Christians that we must immerse ourselves in Scripture. I learned about Lectio Divina. I watched as the Gospel was lifted and carried with reverence and singing at Mass. And I saw how there were more books in the Bible than I had thought there were, not due to Catholics adding books, but to Protestants removing them! Mostly I learned that the Bible was one of the things that would bring me into the Church, because evidence of The Real Presence, Purgatory, and other doctrines, were found therein.
3. 598. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for He is in them) and hold Him up to contempt . . . when we deny Him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on Him. As a Protestant, I heard too much back and forth about who crucified Christ. Was it the Jews? The Romans? Upon whom could we lay blame? And could we, like Pilate, ever wash our hands of this act, so distant from us in history? Converting slowly into the Church revealed to me that I joined in with those who tortured and killed Christ every time I sinned against Him. And it seared on to my brain and heart the idea that I can never, ever, celebrate, condone, laugh at, view with pleasure, tinker with, dip my toe into, encourage and abet, throw parades for, or turn the other way from helping someone repent from the sins that my Jesus suffered whippings and humiliation for. Never.
4. 1395. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church. I took pride as a Lutheran in our open rail communion. How snobby those Catholics were, not letting anyone and everyone partake in their symbolic bread and wine. If Communion were just a symbol, then why not have an open rail? If it demanded nothing, no adherence or loyalty, no vow, no fasting, no state of grace, then why not let anyone walk in and eat? Understanding full communion, finally believing in the Real Presence, was like a punch in my gut. I had distributed communion to my fellow Lutheran parishioners. I had laughed at my friends' jokes about getting drunk on the leftover wine we had to finish. Obviously my view of the Eucharist has changed completely, perhaps more than anything else about my theological perspective and spiritual life. I could never leave the Eucharist. I could never walk away from the Real Presence now, and I do not know how anyone does. I am also acutely aware that the Eucharist must be withheld from people for the protection of their own souls, so that they do not receive it lightly or in a state of grave sin. And since Scripture backs this up, it was not a hurdle at all to my conversion.
5. 1696. Unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself, which is a condition for acting justly; and without the offer of forgiveness he would not be able to bear this truth. This reads as obvious to many, but I must tell you, my friends, that I have talked with and known rather well people who have told me that they are not sinners and do not sin. Or, they compare their sins with other people's and feel very propped up and happy that they are who they are and not the wretched sinners they see around them. I suppose the reason is that the idea of our own sinfulness IS almost unbearable if not for the hope Christ has given us. But be clear: you will get nowhere in your spiritual life if you do not acknowledge your sinfulness. You will achieve a shallow sense of being "pals" with Jesus, or worse yet, a sense of superiority over others who simply sin differently than you, but you will never be in the Sacrament of the Present Moment, holding hands with Jesus, if you do not look in the mirror and say, "God have mercy on me, a sinner."
6. 1700. The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God . . . it is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment. My entire life, before I had any ability to articulate a political position or even read a newspaper, I have been unable to "fit" into a "side." As I got older, it became worse for me. Liberals loved me and considered me one of them until they found out I was anti-abortion. Conservatives loved me and considered me one of them until I talked about the death penalty. My views on immigration, preferential option for the poor, same sex attraction, lying, the role of the wife in a marriage, child rearing, would have me bouncing from left to right like a fuzzy tennis ball. When it came time to vote, I registered as an Independent, unable to commit to either political party because both supported some evil practice in their platform. It was not until I read the Catechism that I could see that my philosophy was by no means unique. In fact, it was undergirded by the idea of the Imago Dei, that each person held and bore the image of God Himself, and was entitled to certain dignities and rights because of that. Further, he had responsibilities to act and eschew certain desires because of that. The Catholic Church transcends political loyalties, or should.
7. 2035. The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed. The authority of the Magisterium extends also the the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. Talk about a misunderstood teaching! Where, I wondered as Lutheran and then a dabbling evangelical, did the Catholic Church find these perfect old men to lead them? Again, after hours upon hours of reading about the earliest Christians, and coming to an understanding about the true definition of infallibility and the Deposit of Faith, I "got it." Infallibility is a protection, not a genetic predisposition or a made-up state that starts when the Pope sits down in a special chair. Yes, we have a chair of Peter, but no, it's not magical. Yes, we are guided by the Holy Spirit, but the Popes have never been and never WILL BE without sin. The Church will never be without sin. 'Cause it's full of people. See #5.
8. 2267. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm -- without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent." I have always been heartbroken by the very idea of a person walking to his death by electrocution or lethal injection. Even as I type, my friends, I choke up. I see someone's son or daughter, I see a creation stamped by God, being dragged to the slaughter without necessity. To find out that The Church, in writing and in spirit, and in TRUTH, knows that the death penalty is wrong and ugly and should only be employed if there is absolutely no other way to protect the innocent from a criminal, was huge for me. HUGE.
9. 982. There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all men desires that in His Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin. How many times have I thought about these words? They are so simple and yet there are dimensions to them that require additional reading about invincible ignorance, perfect versus imperfect contrition, and the mystery of the mind of God. The Church will declare no one beyond redemption, no one IN Hell. She may warn you that you are on the path, but She will never say that God's mercy couldn't extend to you. This is a subtle golden thread that wove throughout the whole of Catholic teaching that for me was just so beautiful and rang so true: that the mind of God, of Being Himself, of the beginning and the end who supports all life, is not bound by the Sacraments or by anything that WE understand of Him. His divine revelations to us are for OUR benefit, and if we follow the maker's directions, and turn from sin, our inner workings will not go haywire and become irrevocably out of order. But He has the last word.
10. 2271. Since the first century The Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. I first learned what abortion was at about age fourteen. In my Lutheran school, the teacher made it very clear by her tone and her facial expression that this was something horrific and difficult to talk about, but she gave us the straight story. I was bowled over. Who could author such an idea? How could it be legal? What schools did these women attend that they didn't know when life began? Since then, I have been vocally and unabashedly anti-abortion. I am pro-life from fertilization, when a new person with new and distinct DNA is formed, to natural death. As a Protestant, it pained me to see one ecclesial body after another crumble under the weight of societal pressure to go soft and iffy on abortion. Their non committal stance on abortifacient contraception is unacceptable to me. Now I am Home, in a safe Home where it has always been taught, and always will be taught, and is in writing, that we are officially against abortifacient contraception and abortion. Again, the research I put in helped me to see that this was always the view of Christians until Lambeth in the 1930's. And then the weak links broke the chain. Now it's anyone's guess what the positions on abortion are in over 30,000 Christian denominations. And even if they TAKE a position, it will be with provisos, language that slithers like a snake through loopholes so that the evil will be okay under certain circumstances. We're not talking double effect here; we're talking procured abortion with the aim of aborting as its primary purpose. I cannot ever again belong to a church who would turn a blind eye to the weakest among us when we all know Christ Himself spoke these words to us, "Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you have done to ME."
Postscript: There have been moments I have laid my hand on my Bible, or on my Catechism and felt an electric charge go through my fingers. Here is His love letter to me; here are the Church's bumpers around me to protect me from my own selfish and foolish inclinations. I become choked up with gratitude and anticipation. Yes, anticipation, because these words, these images and truths, originated and instituted by Jesus Christ the living Savior Himself, preserved by His Bride the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, are merely glimpses of the glory to come if the Lord sees fit to grant me entrance into Heaven, which is my deepest desire and my most beautiful dream.
1. 66. No new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . yet it remains for Christian faith to gradually grasp its significance over the course of the centuries . . . Private revelations . . . have been recognized by the authority of The Church, but they do not belong to the Deposit of Faith. This was a huge relief for me. As I explored the implications and manifestations of this , I found it to be true over and over again. Catholics were not adding anything to the Scripture and Tradition left by Christ; they were guarding it FROM additions. That Deposit of Faith and what it precisely contains was a sacred pearl of great price. The entire structure and personnel of The Church now struck me as a fort armed by soldiers, protecting The Truth from the many assailants from within and without who would seek to undermine, change, add to, subtract from, finesse away, politicize, and altogether pervert Her. I soon learned about what Martin Luther *really* did and I was horrified. As my research continued and I read from sources closer to the time of when Jesus and the earliest members of His Church walked, studied, worshipped, and preached, I was left without doubt that THIS was The Deposit of Faith He left, and that the guiding body, the Pope and the Magisterium, were divinely led by the Holy Spirit (God Himself) in order to answer modern questions that are not addressed specifically in Scripture or oral Tradition.
2. 133. The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. 'Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.' Coming from Protestantism, where it was "me, Jesus, and my Bible," I did have a vestige of false belief that the Catholic Church was less "into" Scripture than were the Protestants. Again, from hours of research into the history of the Church between the book of Acts and the time of the Reformation (a period which was previously left out of my religious education), I learned that the Catholic Church compiled and canonized Scripture, encouraged the reading of Scripture, and that the Catechism and every encyclical I read was filled with cross references and footnotes FROM Scripture. The saints fed themselves on Scripture. This passage from the Catechism uses very exact and purposeful language "forcefully exhorts" to communicate to Catholic Christians that we must immerse ourselves in Scripture. I learned about Lectio Divina. I watched as the Gospel was lifted and carried with reverence and singing at Mass. And I saw how there were more books in the Bible than I had thought there were, not due to Catholics adding books, but to Protestants removing them! Mostly I learned that the Bible was one of the things that would bring me into the Church, because evidence of The Real Presence, Purgatory, and other doctrines, were found therein.
3. 598. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for He is in them) and hold Him up to contempt . . . when we deny Him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on Him. As a Protestant, I heard too much back and forth about who crucified Christ. Was it the Jews? The Romans? Upon whom could we lay blame? And could we, like Pilate, ever wash our hands of this act, so distant from us in history? Converting slowly into the Church revealed to me that I joined in with those who tortured and killed Christ every time I sinned against Him. And it seared on to my brain and heart the idea that I can never, ever, celebrate, condone, laugh at, view with pleasure, tinker with, dip my toe into, encourage and abet, throw parades for, or turn the other way from helping someone repent from the sins that my Jesus suffered whippings and humiliation for. Never.
4. 1395. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church. I took pride as a Lutheran in our open rail communion. How snobby those Catholics were, not letting anyone and everyone partake in their symbolic bread and wine. If Communion were just a symbol, then why not have an open rail? If it demanded nothing, no adherence or loyalty, no vow, no fasting, no state of grace, then why not let anyone walk in and eat? Understanding full communion, finally believing in the Real Presence, was like a punch in my gut. I had distributed communion to my fellow Lutheran parishioners. I had laughed at my friends' jokes about getting drunk on the leftover wine we had to finish. Obviously my view of the Eucharist has changed completely, perhaps more than anything else about my theological perspective and spiritual life. I could never leave the Eucharist. I could never walk away from the Real Presence now, and I do not know how anyone does. I am also acutely aware that the Eucharist must be withheld from people for the protection of their own souls, so that they do not receive it lightly or in a state of grave sin. And since Scripture backs this up, it was not a hurdle at all to my conversion.
5. 1696. Unless man acknowledges that he is a sinner he cannot know the truth about himself, which is a condition for acting justly; and without the offer of forgiveness he would not be able to bear this truth. This reads as obvious to many, but I must tell you, my friends, that I have talked with and known rather well people who have told me that they are not sinners and do not sin. Or, they compare their sins with other people's and feel very propped up and happy that they are who they are and not the wretched sinners they see around them. I suppose the reason is that the idea of our own sinfulness IS almost unbearable if not for the hope Christ has given us. But be clear: you will get nowhere in your spiritual life if you do not acknowledge your sinfulness. You will achieve a shallow sense of being "pals" with Jesus, or worse yet, a sense of superiority over others who simply sin differently than you, but you will never be in the Sacrament of the Present Moment, holding hands with Jesus, if you do not look in the mirror and say, "God have mercy on me, a sinner."
6. 1700. The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God . . . it is essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment. My entire life, before I had any ability to articulate a political position or even read a newspaper, I have been unable to "fit" into a "side." As I got older, it became worse for me. Liberals loved me and considered me one of them until they found out I was anti-abortion. Conservatives loved me and considered me one of them until I talked about the death penalty. My views on immigration, preferential option for the poor, same sex attraction, lying, the role of the wife in a marriage, child rearing, would have me bouncing from left to right like a fuzzy tennis ball. When it came time to vote, I registered as an Independent, unable to commit to either political party because both supported some evil practice in their platform. It was not until I read the Catechism that I could see that my philosophy was by no means unique. In fact, it was undergirded by the idea of the Imago Dei, that each person held and bore the image of God Himself, and was entitled to certain dignities and rights because of that. Further, he had responsibilities to act and eschew certain desires because of that. The Catholic Church transcends political loyalties, or should.
7. 2035. The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed. The authority of the Magisterium extends also the the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. Talk about a misunderstood teaching! Where, I wondered as Lutheran and then a dabbling evangelical, did the Catholic Church find these perfect old men to lead them? Again, after hours upon hours of reading about the earliest Christians, and coming to an understanding about the true definition of infallibility and the Deposit of Faith, I "got it." Infallibility is a protection, not a genetic predisposition or a made-up state that starts when the Pope sits down in a special chair. Yes, we have a chair of Peter, but no, it's not magical. Yes, we are guided by the Holy Spirit, but the Popes have never been and never WILL BE without sin. The Church will never be without sin. 'Cause it's full of people. See #5.
8. 2267. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm -- without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent." I have always been heartbroken by the very idea of a person walking to his death by electrocution or lethal injection. Even as I type, my friends, I choke up. I see someone's son or daughter, I see a creation stamped by God, being dragged to the slaughter without necessity. To find out that The Church, in writing and in spirit, and in TRUTH, knows that the death penalty is wrong and ugly and should only be employed if there is absolutely no other way to protect the innocent from a criminal, was huge for me. HUGE.
9. 982. There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all men desires that in His Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin. How many times have I thought about these words? They are so simple and yet there are dimensions to them that require additional reading about invincible ignorance, perfect versus imperfect contrition, and the mystery of the mind of God. The Church will declare no one beyond redemption, no one IN Hell. She may warn you that you are on the path, but She will never say that God's mercy couldn't extend to you. This is a subtle golden thread that wove throughout the whole of Catholic teaching that for me was just so beautiful and rang so true: that the mind of God, of Being Himself, of the beginning and the end who supports all life, is not bound by the Sacraments or by anything that WE understand of Him. His divine revelations to us are for OUR benefit, and if we follow the maker's directions, and turn from sin, our inner workings will not go haywire and become irrevocably out of order. But He has the last word.
10. 2271. Since the first century The Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. I first learned what abortion was at about age fourteen. In my Lutheran school, the teacher made it very clear by her tone and her facial expression that this was something horrific and difficult to talk about, but she gave us the straight story. I was bowled over. Who could author such an idea? How could it be legal? What schools did these women attend that they didn't know when life began? Since then, I have been vocally and unabashedly anti-abortion. I am pro-life from fertilization, when a new person with new and distinct DNA is formed, to natural death. As a Protestant, it pained me to see one ecclesial body after another crumble under the weight of societal pressure to go soft and iffy on abortion. Their non committal stance on abortifacient contraception is unacceptable to me. Now I am Home, in a safe Home where it has always been taught, and always will be taught, and is in writing, that we are officially against abortifacient contraception and abortion. Again, the research I put in helped me to see that this was always the view of Christians until Lambeth in the 1930's. And then the weak links broke the chain. Now it's anyone's guess what the positions on abortion are in over 30,000 Christian denominations. And even if they TAKE a position, it will be with provisos, language that slithers like a snake through loopholes so that the evil will be okay under certain circumstances. We're not talking double effect here; we're talking procured abortion with the aim of aborting as its primary purpose. I cannot ever again belong to a church who would turn a blind eye to the weakest among us when we all know Christ Himself spoke these words to us, "Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you have done to ME."
Postscript: There have been moments I have laid my hand on my Bible, or on my Catechism and felt an electric charge go through my fingers. Here is His love letter to me; here are the Church's bumpers around me to protect me from my own selfish and foolish inclinations. I become choked up with gratitude and anticipation. Yes, anticipation, because these words, these images and truths, originated and instituted by Jesus Christ the living Savior Himself, preserved by His Bride the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, are merely glimpses of the glory to come if the Lord sees fit to grant me entrance into Heaven, which is my deepest desire and my most beautiful dream.
Monday, April 22, 2013
No, not one.
I've been immersed in a lot of suffering and death over the last several days, both in my country and in my little sphere of friends and family. What stands out in review is that tragic circumstances bring out the best selves in some people and the worst in others. There are days when I look around me, and then ultimately in the mirror and ask, "Is there any good man?" and the answer comes back, "No, not one." What a sorry lot we are, when ten minutes after finding out about a massive national rupture, a dangerous and unfinished debacle, our first instinct is to start blaming, speculating on what horrid behavior "the other" will engage in, and feathering a nest for confirmation of our own pre-existing theories about the good and evil teams of the world.
I looked online for homilies about the parable of the good Samaritan. It's always encouraging to me, and a reminder that Jesus wants us to ask ourselves just who our neighbor really is. I find the answers spin outward in concentric circles. To some people, there really isn't any neighbor. They are looking out for number one, and the only ally is someone who backs up their agenda or feeds their ego in some way, family and a few like-minded friends included. Then there are those who do truly care for neighbors, providing that the neighbor is somewhat similar to them, and certainly safe to be around. Moving outward, we see the Samaritan, and we see what Jesus' standard is: our neighbor is everybody, and by that Jesus means EVERY ONE. That includes those we don't trust, those we don't particularly like, those who are opposed to us, and those who are intent on our destruction.
Now, of course, and it hardly needs to be said, this does not mean that I should lay myself down in the middle of the street and let someone run his car over my head because he is my neighbor and this would satisfy his desire to kill. That wouldn't be loving my neighbor, because it would be encouraging and perpetuating his sin. As I've discussed before on this blog, a Christian may not EVER encourage, assist in, celebrate, condone, or turn a blind eye to sins that Jesus was tortured and died for. EVER. So you've called a sin a sin. Now what?
After you've identified a sin, you call it what it is and rebuke the sinner. Sometimes the truth and nature of the sin is so obvious that "calling out" is not necessary, but we must always be clear in our minds about what sin is. Then what? Well, these are things we do NOT do: we do not glory in the sin or hope for the suffering and damnation of the sinner. We do not puff ourselves up in our gratitude and pride that WE and everyone who thinks the way WE do could never commit such a sin. We do not mock and laugh at the sinner, or torture the sinner, or do anything to FURTHER erode his or her innate human dignity, which has already been compromised by his or her sin.
What we DO is: pray for the sinner. Find ways to learn from the sinner. Find sins in ourselves that resemble on some level the sin that the sinner committed. Find someone around us who may be at risk for sinning and try to catch him or her before the fall. Live as an example of uprightness, kindness, mercy, peacefulness, forgiveness, and fairness.
Justice will be served, and we know this because God is justice itself. God is all good things, and justice is a good thing. God will provide what is needed for the victims of a horrible sin, and He will provide what is needed for the sinner. We have temporal means as well to deal with sinners who have violated laws and/or personal boundaries. But God Himself has told us that vengeance belongs to HIM, not to us. We are not to take our big ball of imperfect emotional idea of justice from the middle of our guts and hurl it at the sinner, thinking somehow we are carrying out God's divine justice. That is not the way it works, and we better be glad it's not, because in about three minutes it will probably be YOUR turn to sin again. And you don't want the justice of imperfect men, do you? You want the merciful and perfect justice of God.
What I have found perhaps most beneficial about being Catholic, in a practical, real life way, is the daily self-examination. I present this analogy: in my bathroom, I have an 8x magnifying mirror. It's great for tweezing eyebrows, and great for keeping me humble. Because I see my face for what it really is, aging, imperfect, temporary. It doesn't make me beat my breast and want to go out and get Botox. It actually makes me feel free. It's just a face. I'm not keeping it forever. I won't need it where I hope to be going. The daily examination of conscience works kind of the same way. Don't just look at your behavior and your thought patterns in a fuzzy, faraway, or cursory way. Look at your heart and your intentions, your words and your acts, in an 8x magnifying mirror. Now you don't look so hot. Now you get that Scripture was right. No, not a good man, not even one.
But you don't have to turn away from the examination of conscience and go wear a hair shirt. You can take a few steps that are more constructive. Confess your sins and receive absolution. Then go about the work of implementing a two-pronged plan. Avoid the occasions of sin, and use your newly found humility ('cause if you do Confession right, you're going to come out humbled) to aid you in loving your neighbor. That is, after you've identified correctly and Biblically just who your neighbor is.
Is there anyone out there who is not my neighbor? Anyone so repugnant and evil that he does NOT deserve my prayers? Anyone who is thinking and living so contrary to the Law of God that surely she is worthy of my scorn and hatred? Anyone so stained by sin that Jesus would surely pat me on the back for spitting on this person, laughing at this person, refusing my heart's mercy to this person? Is there anyone at all who is so damnable and laughable and horrible that this soul is beyond forgiveness and redemption?
No, not one.
I looked online for homilies about the parable of the good Samaritan. It's always encouraging to me, and a reminder that Jesus wants us to ask ourselves just who our neighbor really is. I find the answers spin outward in concentric circles. To some people, there really isn't any neighbor. They are looking out for number one, and the only ally is someone who backs up their agenda or feeds their ego in some way, family and a few like-minded friends included. Then there are those who do truly care for neighbors, providing that the neighbor is somewhat similar to them, and certainly safe to be around. Moving outward, we see the Samaritan, and we see what Jesus' standard is: our neighbor is everybody, and by that Jesus means EVERY ONE. That includes those we don't trust, those we don't particularly like, those who are opposed to us, and those who are intent on our destruction.
Now, of course, and it hardly needs to be said, this does not mean that I should lay myself down in the middle of the street and let someone run his car over my head because he is my neighbor and this would satisfy his desire to kill. That wouldn't be loving my neighbor, because it would be encouraging and perpetuating his sin. As I've discussed before on this blog, a Christian may not EVER encourage, assist in, celebrate, condone, or turn a blind eye to sins that Jesus was tortured and died for. EVER. So you've called a sin a sin. Now what?
After you've identified a sin, you call it what it is and rebuke the sinner. Sometimes the truth and nature of the sin is so obvious that "calling out" is not necessary, but we must always be clear in our minds about what sin is. Then what? Well, these are things we do NOT do: we do not glory in the sin or hope for the suffering and damnation of the sinner. We do not puff ourselves up in our gratitude and pride that WE and everyone who thinks the way WE do could never commit such a sin. We do not mock and laugh at the sinner, or torture the sinner, or do anything to FURTHER erode his or her innate human dignity, which has already been compromised by his or her sin.
What we DO is: pray for the sinner. Find ways to learn from the sinner. Find sins in ourselves that resemble on some level the sin that the sinner committed. Find someone around us who may be at risk for sinning and try to catch him or her before the fall. Live as an example of uprightness, kindness, mercy, peacefulness, forgiveness, and fairness.
Justice will be served, and we know this because God is justice itself. God is all good things, and justice is a good thing. God will provide what is needed for the victims of a horrible sin, and He will provide what is needed for the sinner. We have temporal means as well to deal with sinners who have violated laws and/or personal boundaries. But God Himself has told us that vengeance belongs to HIM, not to us. We are not to take our big ball of imperfect emotional idea of justice from the middle of our guts and hurl it at the sinner, thinking somehow we are carrying out God's divine justice. That is not the way it works, and we better be glad it's not, because in about three minutes it will probably be YOUR turn to sin again. And you don't want the justice of imperfect men, do you? You want the merciful and perfect justice of God.
What I have found perhaps most beneficial about being Catholic, in a practical, real life way, is the daily self-examination. I present this analogy: in my bathroom, I have an 8x magnifying mirror. It's great for tweezing eyebrows, and great for keeping me humble. Because I see my face for what it really is, aging, imperfect, temporary. It doesn't make me beat my breast and want to go out and get Botox. It actually makes me feel free. It's just a face. I'm not keeping it forever. I won't need it where I hope to be going. The daily examination of conscience works kind of the same way. Don't just look at your behavior and your thought patterns in a fuzzy, faraway, or cursory way. Look at your heart and your intentions, your words and your acts, in an 8x magnifying mirror. Now you don't look so hot. Now you get that Scripture was right. No, not a good man, not even one.
But you don't have to turn away from the examination of conscience and go wear a hair shirt. You can take a few steps that are more constructive. Confess your sins and receive absolution. Then go about the work of implementing a two-pronged plan. Avoid the occasions of sin, and use your newly found humility ('cause if you do Confession right, you're going to come out humbled) to aid you in loving your neighbor. That is, after you've identified correctly and Biblically just who your neighbor is.
Is there anyone out there who is not my neighbor? Anyone so repugnant and evil that he does NOT deserve my prayers? Anyone who is thinking and living so contrary to the Law of God that surely she is worthy of my scorn and hatred? Anyone so stained by sin that Jesus would surely pat me on the back for spitting on this person, laughing at this person, refusing my heart's mercy to this person? Is there anyone at all who is so damnable and laughable and horrible that this soul is beyond forgiveness and redemption?
No, not one.
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