Viator

An Occasional Rant 12: Is God Too Big for One Church?

In the early Middle Ages, Christians and Muslims came into direct contact with one another in Spain.  The Muslims had invaded Spain and held territory primarily in the South.  Over time, a kind of peace developed where Christians and Muslims could have civil, intellectual debate.  The Muslims were completely scandalized by the idea that God could become so small that He would become incarnate in a human person.  The Muslims believed that God is too big to be contained in a single person. The Dominicans, trained by St. Thomas Aquinas responded with this argument:

God is SO powerful, that He CAN become Incarnate and become fully human while He remains fully divine!

This fact is the essence of our Christmas celebration!  If we do not believe this, we should just wish our friends a happy non-specific holiday season. 

Today, this argument is no longer asserted.  Today we live in an era of syncretism.  A helpful article on the topic defines syncretism as the attempt to appropriate the ideas and traditions from a variety of spiritual traditions without any attempt to discriminate their truth or value on the basis of Catholic faith.  In other words, a syncretist view is that Catholicism is a "religion" that is simply a cultural and traditional manifestation of "Religion" with a capital R.  The so called super religion is the place to which all the "many roads to God" are claimed to lead.  The syncretist view is that we can not know anything about this Religion because it needs to be discovered within ourselves.  Thus, we are all free to "experience" God according to "our own way."

The claim to freedom appears to be enlightened and "spiritual" and seems to require a greater awareness than traditional, doctrinal religions like Judaism and Christianity!  To use the language of the street: the syncretist view is just more "cool" today than religions that are many thousands of years old.  The claim is that God is so big that he can not be contained in a single religion. 

Why is syncretism so popular?  We capitalist, democratic, free thinking men and women of the 21st Century do not want to be directed or led.  We want a choice that "fits us."  Jesus Christ said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  We prefer a religion that tells us that We are the way, the truth, and the life.  We want a Christ of our own design.  We want a morality and a "spirituality" that maximizes our own choices even if they are immoral by traditional standards.  This is very dangerous if there is a god who has revealed himself and we have invented a religion of our own liking!

Here is the claim again:

False Statement: God is too big to be contained in a single religion.

To which the response of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, all the Prophets God sent to Israel, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, all the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, thousands of consecrated Bishops in succession to the Apostles, and 264 Successors to St. Peter is:

God is SO powerful, and He loves us SO much, that He CAN reveal Himself in and through His One True Church whose teachings the worldly cannot comprehend but which the lowly can know, while He remains fully divine!

Yes, Saint Paul is correct when He says that if Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are the most pitiable of people.  We are betting everything on the belief that Mary received a message of Glad Tidings from an Angel sent by God.  We are wagering our lives on the witness of the Apostles that they saw the Resurrected Jesus!  They saw something that changed their lives and ours.  They saw Something.  Praise God Almighty, THEY saw Something!

I think that is enough.

Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!

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Benedict Teaches 3: The Deposit of Faith

I have been thinking about the Church lately: what she is and Who it is that leads her.  Benedict commented in The Ratzinger Report that the Church has the Deposit of Faith given to her by Our Lord Jesus and that she has the responsibility of everywhere and always proclaiming and transmitting this gift.  Then Cardinal Ratzinger said:

"In a world in which, at bottom, many believers are gripped by skepticism, the conviction of the Church that there is one truth, and that this one truth can as such be recognized, expressed and also clearly defined within certain bounds, appears scandalous.  It is also experienced as offensive by many Catholics who have lost sight of the essence of the Church.  The Church is, however, not only a human organization; she also has a deposit to defend that does not belong to her, the proclamation and transmission of which is guaranteed through a teaching office that brings it close to men of all times in a fitting manner."  (TRR, 24)

The Benedict XVI Project page can be found here.

Words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI can be found here.

St. Peter, pray for us!

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Aristotle for Everybody: 3: Man’s Three Dimensions

It is revealed that God is Beauty, that God is Truth, and that God alone is Good. These three dimensions of God correspond to the nature of mankind. Philosophy has shown through reason that the nature of humanity is oriented to and is fulfilled by the presence of God!

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Humans have three dimensions that correspond to the greatest goods: the truth, the good, and the beautiful. These three dimensions are making, doing, and knowing.

REFLECTION

Only human beings are persons. While we live in three dimensional space, we have other dimensions. Three important dimensions are (1) making, (2) doing, and (3) knowing. All three dimensions are characterized by thinking.

By "making" Aristotle meant that man is an artist or artisan. Man produces man things: shoes, ships, books, houses, and so on. Only man makes things. Some things are natural to the world; other things are artifacts, or creations from the work of man. Man is alone in this ability.

"Doing" means that man is a moral and social being. Only humans are free to do right or wrong. We in the Church would say that only man can be a sinner or a saint. Animals simply live according to their programming and do not have the freedom to act otherwise.

"Knowing" signifies that man is a learner. We acquire knowledge of all kinds. While animals learn in a rudimentary way, only humans learn for the express purpose of simply understanding.

Man is alone in his ability and desire to know the greatest values in the universe: the truth, the good, and the beautiful. Man's three dimensions correspond to the three greatest goods. Man makes the beautiful; man strives to do the good; man wants to know the truth.

KEY QUOTES

"While, as bodies, we are physical things like all other bodies, we are, as we have just seen, the special kind of thing – the only kind of thing – that is called a person." (AFE, 16)

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

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Aristotle for Everybody: 2: Man the Philosophical Animal

Aristotle's classification scheme expands beyond the physical world. There is also the world of ideas! There is a great divide between things and ideas. It is interesting that the reasoned position of Aristotle is consistent with Revelation: Man is the height of God's creation. We would add that only persons, men and women, can have faith and know God. We are the crown of creation.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

There is more to the universe than physical things. Ideas, concepts, mathematical notions, colors, are all non physical realities whose existence no one would doubt but which cannot be touched. Some characteristics of things are essential, or accidental, others are essential for the nature of a thing to remain. Finally, persons are a special kind of "thing" because we are able to do more than any other thing in our world.

REFLECTION

Physical things are not all that exists. There are other items that have existence: mathematical quantities, shapes, imaginary characters, spirits, God, ideas and theories. There are many other non-physical things that have existence. The great divide is what separates the universe of objects that can be thought of from the group of objects that have physical existence.

When thinking of the world of physical bodies, Aristotle divided its constituents into "bodies" and on their other side, their "characteristics" or attributes. Attributes would include ideas such as colors or odor. Bodies can change but attributes can never change. A ball can be rough and become smooth and still remain a ball. However, roughness can never become smooth without becoming something different. Redness can never become blueness; the redness will leave a thing but it cannot change.

Some attributes of a physical thing are part of its nature and must be present throughout its existence. For example, if roundness leaves a ball, it becomes something else but it ceases being a ball. This is an essential part of the nature of a ball.

We must differentiate among things and persons. We generally do not refer to persons as things. Why? Primarily because persons have more dimensions that all other things. We, like a ball, exist within the three dimensions of space. However, we can do much more than the ball can do by virtue of our nature.

KEY QUOTES

"The universe of objects that can be thought of is much larger than the physical world – the world of bodies, either those now in existence or those that have existed in the past. It includes the world of bodies, but it also includes much else besides. The line that divides bodies from everything else is the great divide." (AFE, 11)

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

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Aristotle for Everybody: 1: Philosophical Games

Why would a Catholic be interested in reading about the philosophy of Aristotle? There are at least three answers. First, Aristotle's view of reality is the one closest to that of the Judeo-Christian world view. We hold that reality and truth are real and that we can know them. Second, Aristotle's way of doing philosophy was taken up by the Church as a method for doing Theology. St. Thomas Aquinas refers to Aristotle as "The Philosopher." Third, we read Aristotle because what he taught was true. Aristotle was wrong about a few things. He was right, however, in his understanding of truth and a person's ability to know it. To understand God, we must understand truth.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Classification is first step in philosophy. Aristotle classified things from inert, to plants, to animals and then humans. Humans are a special case because it is part of our nature to ask questions and to seek answers through observation and thought. The nature of a thing is defined by essential characteristics. Unessential characteristics are called accidental.

REFLECTION

Classification is a first step in philosophy. Aristotle was exceptional in his ability to categorize everything he saw around him. Philosophical thought begins with asking questions; the first question is, "What is that?" One distinction that Aristotle makes is between elementary and composite bodies. Elementary bodies consist of a single kind of matter such as gold, or zinc. Composite bodies are made up of two or more different kinds of matter such as bread or a car. There are other distinctions to be made as well.

A very important distinction is between living things and inert bodies. All living things have certain characteristics: they take nourishment, grow and reproduce. Inert things have mass, weight, physical presence. Plants have all the characteristics that inert things have but they also have the characteristics of living things but cannot move independently from the earth. Animals have the essential characteristics of plants and inert things but also have the ability to move freely under their own means. Additionally, animals have sense organs while plants generally do not.

Human beings are a special kind of animal. We perform certain functions that animals do not. We ask questions and seek answers to those questions through observation and by thought. Animals do not do this.

Each kind of thing has a nature. Nature is that set of characteristics that distinguishes a thing from all other things. For example, all humans have human nature but dogs do not have human nature. Further, every human being has a human nature. However, not every attribute of a thing is fundamental to its kind. For example, human beings with blonde hair are essentially the same as human beings with black hair. Hair color does not differentiate a kind of human; it only defines characteristics of some humans. These kinds of differences are called accidental. The major differences between humans and all other things with a different nature are called essential.

KEY QUOTES

"It is in another way that philosophy is useful – to help us to understand things we already know, understand them better than we now understand them. That is why I think everyone should learn how to think philosophically." (AFE, ix)

"Aristotle's thinking began with common sense, but it did not end there. It went much further. It added to and surrounded common sense with insights and understandings that are not common at all. His understanding of things goes deeper than ours and sometimes soars higher. It is, in a word, uncommon common sense." (AFE, xiv)

"Philosophical thought began with the asking of questions – questions that can be answered on the basis of our ordinary, everyday experience and with some reflection about that experience that results in a sharpening and refinement of our common sense." (AFE, 4)

"At the top of the scale are human beings who perform all the vital functions performed by other animals and who, in addition, have the ability to seek knowledge by asking and answering questions and the ability to think philosophically." (AFE, 7)

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

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On the Teaching of the Saints 12: Joy

Among the world's stereotypical views of Christianity is that its members are sad and gloomy. A popular song from about twenty years ago declared that it is better to laugh with the sinners than to cry with the saints. Nothing could be more wrong! St. Francis de Sales teaches:

"The Holy Spirit, speaking by all the saints, and our blessed Lord Himself, assures us that a devout life is a lovely, a pleasant, and a happy life."

(Esper, Saintly Solutions, 145)

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!

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Benedict Teaches 2: On the Church

It is a near certainty that no Pope has ever written as much as Benedict – Ratzinger.  John Paul II is the most prolific as Pope, but did not publish as frequently prior to ascendency to the Throne of Peter as did Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.  The thought of our Holy Father emerged from his days as an academic, Archbishop, and also from his days as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  In 1985, a book length interview of Cardinal Ratzinger was published. The Ratzinger Report is a great introduction to the thinking and brilliance of our Holy Father.

Then Cardinal Ratzinger acknowledged that the Church was in a state of crisis: a turning point.

"My impression is that the authentically Catholic meaning of the reality 'Church' is tacitly disappearing, without being expressly rejected. Many no longer believe that what is at issue is a reality willed by the Lord himself. Even with some theologians, the Church appears to be a human construction, an instrument created by us and one which we ourselves can freely reorganize according to the requirements of the moment. In other words, in many ways a conception of Church is spreading in Catholic thought, and even in Catholic theology, that cannot even be called Protestant in a 'classic' sense. Many current ecclesiological ideas, rather, refer to the model of certain North American 'free churches', in which in the past believers, took refuge from the oppressive model of the 'State Church' produced by the Reformation. Those refuges, no longer believing in an institutional Church willed by Christ, and wanting at the same time to escape the State Church, created their own church, an organization structured according to their own needs." (TRR, 46)

He goes on to explain the Catholic conception of Church.

"For a Catholic the Church is indeed composed of men who organize her external visage. But behind this, the fundamental structures are willed by God himself, and therefore they are inviolable. Behind the human exterior stands the mystery of a more than human reality, in which reformers, sociologists, organizers have no authority whatever. If the Church, instead, is viewed as a human construction, the product of our own efforts, even the contents of the faith end up assuming an arbitrary character; the faith, in fact, no longer has an authentic, guaranteed instrument through which to express itself. Thus, without a view of the mystery of the Church that is also supernatural and not only sociological, Christology itself loses its reference to the divine in favor of a purely human structure, and ultimately it amounts to a purely human project; the Gospel becomes the Jesus-project, the social-liberation project or other merely historical, immanent projects that can still seem religious in appearance, but which are atheistic in substance." (TRR, 46)

The Benedict XVI Project page can be found here.

Words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI can be found here.

St. Peter, pray for us!

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An Occasional Rant 11: Becoming a Joyful Saint

The Third Sunday of Advent is focused on joy. The Old Testament reading is from Isaiah and calls us to joy: "I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation …" We who have faith and are confident in the joy that awaits us, are to be joyful!

In Conversation with God has a sobering passage today about the soul that lacks joy.  The opposite of joy is gloominess.

"A gloomy soul is at the mercy of many temptations. How many sins have been committed in the shadow of that gloominess! When the soul is happy is spreads its happiness and is an encouragement to others. When it is downcast it spreads misery and does harm to others. Sad looks spring from egoism, from thinking about oneself to the exclusion of others, from laziness in one's work, from lack of mortification, from the search for small self-indulgences, from carelessness in one's relationship with God."

That is a very straightforward statement! The consequences for the gloomy soul are not limited to relationships with others; the problem of self-absorption has eternal consequences.

"Unless we forget ourselves, and are not too much taken up with our own affairs, we will not be able to know and serve Christ, in whom is our true happiness. Anyone excessively self-centered will find it very difficult to discover the joy of opening himself out towards God and towards other people."

There is a solution!

"In order to reach God and to grow in virtue we must have joy. Moreover, if we fulfill our duties joyfully we will be able to give a great deal of help to those around us, for this is a happiness that draws many to God. St. Paul instructs the first Christians: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

There it is: Christians have a positive duty to joy! We are to reject gloominess by thinking less about ourselves and then by putting our focus on the needs of others.

All of this leads us to consider our call to be saints.

It is clear from Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition that the purpose of life is to become a Saint.  What is a saint?  The Catechism teaches that a "saint" is a "holy one who leads a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and receives the reward of eternal life." Simple enough! We must move toward sanctity in our present life; Purgatory is the final purification of those who have fundamentally chosen holiness and have lived to be saints.  While simple to define, becoming a saint takes effort on our part.  Most importantly, becoming a saint requires that we live a "life in union with God through the Grace of Christ." St. Alphonsus Liguori provided a list of fifty recommendations for those who seek sanctity. These recommendations are from his book: The Incarnation Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ.

Here are fifty saintly recommended interior and exterior practices.

1: Desire ardently to increase in the love of Jesus Christ.

2: Make frequent acts of love towards Jesus Christ. Immediately on waking, and before going to sleep, make an act of love, seeking always to unite your own will to the Will of Jesus Christ.

3: Frequently meditate on His Passion.

4: Always ask Jesus Christ for His love.

5: Receive Holy Communion often. Also, many times in the day make spiritual Communions.

6: Frequently visit the Most Holy Sacrament.

7: Every morning receive from the hands of Jesus Christ Himself your own cross.

8: Desire Paradise and death, in order to be able to love Jesus perfectly and for all eternity.

9: Speak often of the love of Jesus Christ.

10: Accept contradictions for the sake of Jesus Christ.

11: Rejoice in the happiness of God.

12: Do that which is most pleasing to Jesus Christ. Do not refuse Him anything that is agreeable to Him.

13: Desire and endeavor that all should love Jesus Christ.

14: Pray always for sinners and for the souls in Purgatory.

15: Drive from your heart every affection that does not belong to Jesus Christ. (Love of spouse, children, family, friends all belong to Jesus Christ and are pleasing to Him.)

16: Always have recourse to the most holy Mary, that she may obtain for us the love of Jesus Christ.

17: Honor Mary in order to please Jesus Christ.

18: Seek to please Jesus Christ in all your actions.

19: Offer yourself to Jesus Christ to suffer any pain for His love.

20: Be always determined to die rather than commit a willful venial sin.

21: Suffer crosses patiently, saying, "Thus it pleases Jesus Christ."

22: Renounce your won pleasures for the love of Jesus Christ.

23: Pray as much as possible.

24: Practice all the mortifications that obedience permits.

25: Do all of your spiritual exercises as if it were for the last time.

26: Persevere in good works in the time of aridity.

27: Do not do anything or leave anything undone through human respect.

28: Do not complain in sickness.

29: Love solitude and be able to converse alone with Jesus Christ.

30: Drive away melancholy, which is gloom.

31: Spend time with persons who love Jesus.

32: In temptations, turn to Jesus crucified and to Mary in her sorrows.

33: Trust entirely in the Passion of Jesus Christ.

34: After committing a fault, do not be discouraged, but repent and resolve to amend.

35: Do good to those who do evil.

36: Speak well of all and excuse the intention when you cannot defend the action.

37: Help your neighbor as much as you can.

38: Neither say nor do anything that might vex your neighbor. If you have been wanting in charity, ask your neighbors pardon and speak kindly to him.

39: Always speak with mildness and in a low tone.

40: Offer to Jesus Christ all the contempt and persecution that you meet with.

41: Look upon religious Superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ.

42: Obey without answering and without repugnance, and do not to seek your own satisfaction in anything.

43: Like the lowest employment.

44: Like the poorest things.

45: Do not speak either good or evil of yourself.

46: Humble yourself even towards inferiors.

47: Do not excuse yourself when reproved.

48: Do not defend yourself when found with fault.

49: Be silent when you are upset.

50: Always renew your determination of becoming a saint, saying, "My Jesus, I desire to be all Yours, and You must be all mine."

I think that is enough.

Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!

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The Philosophy of Jesus: Introduction: The Four Great Philosophical Questions

I begin far more frequently than I finish! So, I start writing now about another book. The Philosophy of Jesus is a very compact book by Professor Peter Kreeft. The purpose of the book is (1) to show Christians a view of Jesus as a Philosopher and (2) to show non-Christians a new dimension of philosophy. I begin the analysis of this book by referring to Introduction III. The purpose of the introduction is to frame the content of the book into the Four Great Philosophical Questions.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

There are four great philosophical questions. First we ask what is. We want to know reality. This area of philosophy that asks fundamental questions is called metaphysics. Once we know reality, we ask how we know what we know. This is epistemology. Then we ask about ourselves: who are we who want to know what is real? This is philosophical anthropology. Finally, when confronted with reality, how we know what we know and who we are, we wonder what we should be. This last question is ethics. As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to each of the four great philosophical questions. Because this is so, the purpose of the book is to look at Jesus as the "philosopher" who is the answer to our greatest questions.

REFLECTION

The Four Great Philosophical Questions can be organized in this way:

Division of Philosophy	Question
Metaphysics	What is? What is real? What is most real?
Epistemology	How can we know what is real, especially the most real?
Philosophical Anthropology	Who are we, who want to know the real?
Ethics	What should we be, how should we live, to be more real?

The first question and basis for all other questions is: what is that? We wonder about what things are in themselves. We want to understand the nature of things. This is the area of philosophy that is called metaphysics. Metaphysics is the science of being; or of the absolutely first principles of being. Metaphysics is also called ontology or philosophy of first causes. In other words, what is the essence of things? We must also define "being." Being is whatever in any way is, whether it exists or is possible, whether in the mind, in the imagination, or in a statement. Philosophically, being is the real and corresponds to essence or thing. (MCD) Simple things are hard to define.

At some point, Kreeft observes, we not only want to know what things are but we want to know the difference between one thing and another. We want to know how we know. We want to know how we can be sure we know reality. This is the philosophy of epistemology. This question leads us to ask about the ultimate reality. How can we who are finite know the infinite? How can man know God?

The next question to be asked is a turn inward. We ask about ourselves. Who are we who desire to know and to know how we know? We want to know the knower. These questions are in the area of Philosophical Anthropology. Anthropology is not only the science of what is known about man in the past but also the study of who man is always.

When we ask sufficient questions about ourselves we realize that only men can fail to be its true self. Birds never act in a way contrary to bird-ness. Bears always act in a manner consistent with the nature of bears. Plants never violate their natures. Stones and oceans always act in a manner consistent with what their nature. Only humanity can be inhuman. Only men and women will act in ways contrary to their nature. Because of this we desire to understand the differences between good and evil. We can choose either good or evil. Nothing else in the universe can make the choice between good and evil. We ask how we can be "real" or our true selves, our good selves. What does it mean to be a good person and how can good people become good people.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to our greatest needs and to the four great philosophical questions. Through Divine Revelation we learn that Jesus is the eternal logos. What is logos? "Logos means the Word of God, the Revelation of God, the Speech of God, the Wisdom of God the Mind of God, the Truth of God, the Reason of God, the Philosophy of God." Kreeft asserts that "Jesus is God's philosophy."

KEY QUOTES

"There are four perennial philosophical questions, "Philosophy" means "the love of wisdom," and wisdom, if we had it, would give us answers to at least these four great questions: (1) What is? What is real? Especially, what is most real? (2) How can we know what is real, and especially the most real? (3) Who are we, who want to know the real? "Know thyself." (4) What should we be, how should we live, to be more real?" (POJ, 6)

"The logical order of questions is this: we must first know something real before we can know how we know it; and we must first know who we are before we can know what is good for us." (POJ, 8)

"The Christian answer: because the only adequate and final answer to all four great philosophical questions is Christ." (POJ, 9)

St. Francis De Sales, pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

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On the Catechism: 1: To Know and Love God

The first words of the Catechism express the infinite perfection, blessedness and goodness of God. God created man to “make him share in his own blessed life.” God made us to be happy and live forever with a share of the His own life. This fact alone is astounding. It has been revealed to Israel and to all the nations of the world through the Church that God is good and that He loves the humanity that He has created.

A second key point is that God draws close to man! Notice that the Catechism does not teach that man first seeks God.  Rather, the witness of history and the Holy Scriptures is that God initiates the relationship with His people.  History is full of failed efforts, false religions, and hopeless philosophies that seek to either invent or posit a “god” to worship or to ignore God and create a man made utopia.  Our Lord is revealed as “Father” who seeks after the love and good of His children.

The good and loving Holy Trinity calls man to a relationship with God: to “seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.” In the same way, God calls men into the unity of the Church. The cause of our disunity is sin. Just as God initiates a loving relationship with men, He initiated and executed the Plan of Salvation that redeemed and justified man before God.

The supremely loving act of the Father was to send His Son as “Redeemer and Savior.” In and through the Son, God invites men, “in the Holy Spirit”, to be his adopted children and “thus heirs of His blessed life.” The teaching and life of the Church is about our response to this invitation and the life we live as restored, redeemed, and justified sons and daughters of the Lord!

CCC 1

1 God, perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

Q&A

Q. What are the very first words of the Catechism that describe God?

A. God is described as infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.

Q. Why did God create man?

A. God created man in a plan of sheer goodness so that man could share in His own blessed life.

Q. Does God draw close to and call man?

A. God both draws close to man and calls man. The Catechism says that God draws close to man at every time and in every place.

Q. What is God’s call to man?

A. God calls man to seek Him, to know Him, and to love Him with all his strength. He makes this call to man while constantly drawing closer to man.

Q. Does God call men to unity with one another?

A. Yes. Like all good Fathers, God wants His children to live in harmony and unity with one another.

Q. What is the source of division among men?

A. Sin.

Q. What type of unity does God desire for men?

A. God desires that all men should be united with one another in the family of the Church which is visible and identifiable to all men.

Q. How has God overcome sin and disunity?

A. God accomplished the defeat of sin and unity through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. God sent His Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, to men and to become one with us. Through the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord, the work of redemption and salvation was accomplished. Jesus Christ established the unified family of God in His Church.

Q. What is the status of men who enter the Church?

A. Those who enter the Church in faith in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, are made His adopted sons and daughters and thus heirs of His blessed life.

CREDO

I believe that God is infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself.

I believe that God created man in a plan of sheer goodness in order to share His blessed life .

I believe that God calls all men to Himself and that He draws men to unity in His Church.

I believe that all disunity among men is caused by sin.

I believe that God has defeated sin and disunity through His Son, who became one with us, and who suffered, died, and rose again.

I believe that the work of redemption and salvation was accomplished through Our Lord's suffering, death, and resurrection.

I believe that all who enter the Church in faith in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, are made His adopted sons and daughters and are thus heirs of His blessed life.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!

Catechism Project Link

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Evangelium Vitae: 5 and 6: In the Name of God Love Life

We conclude the opening remarks and preambles of Humane Vitae in Paragraphs 5 and 6. By way of review, let's look at what the Holy Father has said so far.

REVIEW

In Paragraph 1, John Paul reminds us that the Gospel is essentially a Gospel of Life and that the Church has received this good news and must proclaim this good news everywhere and always. In fact, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ is in some way related to fulfillment and joy that is part of the birth of every child. We must know that the Lord Jesus came in His divinity and entered humanity so that we would have life in abundance now and for all eternity in Heaven.

In the second paragraph, the Pope reminds us that we are far more than mere animals in a material world. We are eternal beings who live this life in preparation for an eternal life of happiness with God. The way we prepare for eternal life is to grow to perfection in love, offering ourselves as a gift to God and to our neighbors. At the same time, we each recognize natural law written in our hearts that commands us to do good and avoid evil. It is self evident that a fundamental right of each individual person is the right to life. What's more, believers in Christ have a special duty to defend and promote the right to life. In fact, the Incarnation, the Son's willingness to take on human nature demonstrates the sacred value of human life. Human life is sacred.

In Paragraphs 3 and 4, our beloved Pope presents the new threats to sacred human life that have emerged in recent history. The Church has no choice but to exercise its maternal care for every individual. He notices that the threats to human life have expanded to an alarming scale and that the conditions for human life are degrading. Science and technology, which have enormous potential to benefit man, is at the same time becoming a threat to human life and dignity. Sorrowfully, he observes that the situation is expanding and that broad sectors of society condone and justify crimes against individual lives on the basis of individual freedom. What is more, in addition to opposing the power of the state to punish such crimes, society now seeks the authorization and support of the state and health-care systems for crimes against individual lives. The cause for this state of affairs is grave moral decline. What was once clearly known to be gravely sinful is now unclear. The basic value of human life is unclear to a world that is suffering grave moral decline.

KEY POINTS

Significantly, John Paul states that he was asked to speak on the issue of life by the Cardinals of the Church "with the authority of the Successor of Peter." This means that the Pope is speaking not as a theologian or simply as a leader but as the one who holds the Keys to the Kingdom of God. Citing the involvement of the world's Bishops, John Paul explains that the Church is duty bound to speak on behalf of those who "have no voices." He continues the tradition of the great social encyclicals by speaking out in defense of the poor and "those who are threatened and despised and whose human rights are violated."

The poor and despised of our time are the millions of unborn children who are murdered in the womb. The purpose of the encyclical is to be a "vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its inviolability." The Pope appeals particularly to families. Families, he pleads, should be a "sanctuary of life." At stake is whether or not our will be an authentic civilization of truth and love.

DOCUMENT

In communion with all the Bishops of the world

 5. The Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals held in Rome on 4-7 April 1991 was devoted to the problem of the threats to human life in our day. After a thorough and detailed discussion of the problem and of the challenges it poses to the entire human family and in particular to the Christian community, the Cardinals unanimously asked me to reaffirm with the authority of the Successor of Peter the value of human life and its inviolability, in the light of present circumstances and attacks threatening it today. In response to this request, at Pentecost in 1991 I wrote a personal letter to each of my Brother Bishops asking them, in the spirit of episcopal collegiality, to offer me their cooperation in drawing up a specific document. I am deeply grateful to all the Bishops who replied and provided me with valuable facts, suggestions and proposals. In so doing they bore witness to their unanimous desire to share in the doctrinal and pastoral mission of the Church with regard to the Gospel of life. In that same letter, written shortly after the celebration of the centenary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum, I drew everyone's attention to this striking analogy: "Just as a century ago it was the working classes which were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the Church very courageously came to their defense by proclaiming the sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person, so now, when another category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical cry in defense of the world's poor, those who are threatened and despised and whose human rights are violated".

Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon. If, at the end of the last century, the Church could not be silent about the injustices of those times, still less can she be silent today, when the social injustices of the past, unfortunately not yet overcome, are being compounded in many regions of the world by still more grievous forms of injustice and oppression, even if these are being presented as elements of progress in view of a new world order. The present Encyclical, the fruit of the cooperation of the Episcopate of every country of the world, is therefore meant to be a precise and vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its inviolability, and at the same time a pressing appeal addressed to each and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness! May these words reach all the sons and daughters of the Church! May they reach all people of good will who are concerned for the good of every man and woman and for the destiny of the whole of society!

6. In profound communion with all my brothers and sisters in the faith, and inspired by genuine friendship towards all, I wish to meditate upon once more and proclaim the Gospel of life, the splendor of truth which enlightens consciences, the clear light which corrects the darkened gaze, and the unfailing source of faithfulness and steadfastness in facing the ever new challenges which we meet along our path. As I recall the powerful experience of the Year of the Family, as if to complete the Letter which I wrote "to every particular family in every part of the world", I look with renewed confidence to every household and I pray that at every level a general commitment to support the family will reappear and be strengthened, so that today too-even amid so many difficulties and serious threats-the family will always remain, in accordance with God's plan, the "sanctuary of life". To all the members of the Church, the people of life and for life, I make this most urgent appeal, that together we may offer this world of ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure that justice and solidarity will increase and that a new culture of human life will be affirmed, for the building of an authentic civilization of truth and love.

Q&A

Q. With whose authority does Pope John Paul II speak?

A. He speaks with the authority of the Successor of Peter.

Q. What is the duty of the Church regarding the oppressed?

A. The Church has the duty to speak out on behalf of those who have no voice. In particular, the church must speak for the poor, the threatened, the despised, and those whose human rights are violated.

Q. What group of people is the Pope concerned with in this encyclical letter?

A. He is concerned with the multitude of weak and defenseless human beings: the unborn children.

Q. What is the purpose of the encyclical?

A. The encyclical is a precise and vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its inviolability. It also an appeal, in the name of God, to respect, protect, love and service every human life.

St. Pope Pius X, pray for us!

Link to John Paul II Project: Evangelium Vitae

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On the Teaching of the Saints 11: The Immaculate Conception

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Consider the praise offered to the Mother of God from Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

"The Immaculate One appears in this world without the least stain of sin, the masterpiece of God's hands, full of grace.  God, the Most Holy Trinity, beholds the lowliness (that is, the humility, the root of all her other virtues) of His Handmaid, and does great things for her, He the Almighty.  God the Father gives her His own Son to be her Son; God the Son descends into her womb; and God the Holy Spirit forms the body of Christ in the womb of this pure virgin.  And the Word was made flesh.  The immaculate One becomes the Mother of God.  The fruit of the love of God in his Trinitarian life and of Mary the Immaculate One is Christ the God-Man."

Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!

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An Occasional Rant 10: Subtle Speculation

There is a danger for those who seriously study theology. The danger is asking too many questions. One of those questions for me has been to wonder how the sacrifice of living creatures – especially Our Lord's sacrifice – makes up for our individual sins and for the stain of original sin with which all sons and daughters of Adam are born.  At the same time, one should be careful when raising these issues and avoid disturbing the peace of others. I am going to continue to research this issue but here is information that I put together that satisfies the "what" of the question. The "why" will have to wait.

How sacrifice atones for sin.

Consider these definitions from the Modern Catholic Dictionary:

Sacrifice, Old Testament. As described in the books of the Old Law, sacrifice essentially meant honoring God by offering him some of the creatures that are precious to human beings, in acknowledgement of God's sovereignty and human dependence on the Creator. Two kinds of sacrifice are recognized and required of humanity, the bloody and the unbloody. Four kinds of bloody sacrifices are described: 1. Holocaust was the most perfect, also called the whole-burnt offering; the animal or other object was completely consumed by fire, and as the "perpetual sacrifice" it was offered twice daily, morning and evening.; 2. Sin offering was to expiate misdeeds committed through ignorance or inadvertence,; the kind of victim depended mainly on the dignity of the person offended; 3. Guilt offering was especially prescribed for sins demanding restitution; 4. Peace offerings were either in gratitude or in fulfillment of a vow, or simply voluntary; part of the ceremony of this kind of sacrifice was that part of what was offered was returned to the one offering, to be eaten in a sacrificial meal.

So it appears that the acts of sacrifice were acts of worship that acknowledged the dignity of God.  They were fitting in view of the who God is and how sin was an offense to Him.  What these sacrifices did not do is fix the relationship.  When an animal was thoroughly destroyed, man lost complete use of the benefits of that animal.  Of course, we know that Jesus Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice of the New Covenant and that no further sacrifices were needed because of the infinite value of His life. He was the priest and the victim. He was the Holocaust and the sin offering and the guilt offering. Hebrews 10:12-13 tells us that Christ, who by his perfect obedience has "offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever at the right hand of God." We say that Our Lord atoned once and for all for our sins. What does it mean to atone? Again the MCD helps me to understand.

Atonement. The satisfaction of a legitimate demand. In a more restricted sense it is the reparation of an offense. This occurs through a voluntary performance that outweighs the injustice done. If the performance fully counterbalances the gravity of the guilt, the atonement is adequate. And if the atonement is done by someone other than the actual offender, but in his stead, it is vicarious. Applied to Christ the Redeemer, through his sufferings and death he rendered vicarious atonement to God for the sins of the whole human race. His atonement is fully adequate because it was performed by a divine person. In fact, it is superabundant because the positive value of Christ's expiation is actually greater than the negative value of human sin.

So we see that the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were not sufficient to overcome sin. Justice is giving a person his rightful due. Because sin offended the infinite dignity of God, then our death as a result of sin is justified. God does not play games with definitions. If the price for sin is death then death is needed. However, the death of animals for centuries in the Temple could only delay the justice due God by giving Him continual honor. All the while, the Father's plan of salvation was moving toward the only sacrifice that would suffice: the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is only His suffering and death that satisfies the need of justice and in which atonement is available. The word atonement does in fact mean the restoration of "at one-ness." Because of Jesus, we can be one with God again. All the while, we remember that, as St. Augustine says, we sinned without God but He will not save us without us.

I think that, for now, this satisfies my understanding of the sacrifice in the Old Testament and the sacrifice of Our Dear Lord. I need to study the Old Testament more carefully.

I think that is enough.

Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!

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Prayer For Beginners 2: Motives

Why should we pray? Professor Kreeft has provided a very useful list of ten reasons to pray. Kreeft is a delight to read because he cuts to the heart of things with a minimum of words. Consequently, summarization is barely required.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The Ten Reasons to pray are these:

1^st    Only prayer can save the world.

2^nd    We must pray because God commands it.

3^rd    God wants us to receive truth for our mind, goodness for our will, and beauty for our heart.

4^th    God's honor deserves and demands our prayer.

5^th    We will die one day and so we do not have an infinite amount of time.

6^th    Prayer is delightful.

7^th    We know God through prayer.

8^th    Prayer is a prerequisite of teaching and preaching.

9^th    Prayer is the only way to make spiritual progress.

10^th    Without prayer we cannot attain the meaning of life, the end purpose of our existence.    

REFLECTION

The question "why pray" has a very practical answer. We must pray because only prayer can save the world. To the mind of secular man, prayer is tedium at worst and escapism at best. Prayer is the most practical thing in the world. The world needs saints. Saints are made in prayer. The root of our problems in the world is sin. Kreeft says, "Saints are the antibodies that fight sin."

We must pray because God commands it. Prayer is not a program of self improvement. Our Lord tells us in 1 Thessalonians to "pray constantly." Why does God command us to pray always? The answer is amazing. We must pray always because God loves us and yearns and longs to come to us and share His life with us. We should not pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, MY will be done." We should pray to change our will. We should pray for the grace to more closely conform to His will. When we ask for things, which we should do, we do so because even this has been commanded by Jesus Christ! Secular man can't see this; we live in a world of "my will be done." We acknowledge no one as greater than ourselves or more deserving of love than ourselves.

God commands us to pray for good reasons. Our soul has three powers: mind, will, and heart. In prayer we receive the three things our souls need: we receive truth for our mind, we receive goodness for our will, and we receive beauty for our heart. Yes, we can perceive beauty and goodness in prayer! In the silence and presence of God we receive a tiny glimpse of Him: He is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Why would we avoid this? How is it that we can stop praying! The answer: we are weak and sinful and we still fight against the consequences of sin.

God's honor deserves our prayer. Kreeft makes this clear: "To put it most simply, God is God, the Absolute Reality, Infinite Perfection, more massively real than the universe itself and more worthy than all the ideals together ever conceived by all human minds. If we could see the truth, we would fall to our knees with great joy! Each of us has a sense of the greatness of God. Even if we do not know His name, we sense greatness in a beautiful piece of music, we enjoy truth when we hear it, we want what is good and we reject what is not good. Each person was made with this sense of reality. How do we respond to reality? Kreeft offers this formula: "Right Response to Reality – the Three R's – is the fundamental principle of morality, of sanctity, and of sanity. We know disorder and dissipation when we see it and we are repelled by it. These are all signs that we were made for God. Knowing God's greatness shows God's honor and we desire to pray.

When we think about the fact that we will die, we have a greater sense of urgency about prayer. We do not have an infinite amount of time. Universally, people who are dying think about the things they should have done. They think about what is important in life; we can learn much from them. In the end, we will wish we had prayed more.

Prayer is delightful! The saints all say that spending time in prayer is sweet and delightful. They live in continual conversation with God. They live in His presence. God accepts the "selfish" motive of our pleasure as a reason to pray. This is a natural motive. Kreeft says, "Our own delight and peace and joy and happiness is perfectly proper for God appeals to this motive throughout Scripture." C.S. Lewis said that God is "like a good earthly father, he is easy to please but hard to satisfy." Even though we are pleased by our prayer, we have obligations with which we must live.

Prayer is the way to know God. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. Our Lord said, "This is eternal life: that they know thee, the only true God." (Jn 17:3) Kreeft makes some key points here. First he says, "To know anyone, you must not just know thousands of things about him, but you must know him, you must meet him, you must spend time, with him." We must practice the presence of God. Praying is knowing God by practicing His presence. This is the highly realistic way to live because God is really present. It is a fantasy to construct a world in our own minds, in which God is absent.

Every Christian will be called upon to teach and evangelize even if only to the very few around us. Prayer, and its effect, knowing God, is "the essential prerequisite for all religious teachers, catechists, evangelists, and preachers." If we are to be useful, we must be in communion with God. We teach best what we love.

Prayer is the only way to spiritual progress. Jesus puts spiritual progress in its proper perspective. Kreeft explains: "When he says to us, 'Follow me' (Mt 8:22), he is not saying, 'Please remember to be nice.' He is inviting us to a high-speed chase down the roads of our life. On that chase there is no rest except eternal rest and no security except eternal security." Spiritual progress, in one sense happens because God does not leave us alone. He pursues us. Kreeft uses the example of uncles. Uncles will always tell us we are great, they pat us on the head and then they go home. Fathers, on the other hand, pursue us. Fathers never leave their children alone; they constantly push and drive us to be better. Fathers love more than uncles.

Without prayer we cannot attain the meaning of life, the end and purpose of our existence. What is the purpose of life? The purpose of life is to become a saint. This is to say, to become holy. Everything God has done from the creation of the world to His death on the cross through every detail of our lives is to make us saints. Kreeft makes a key point about Jesus Christ, "He was not called 'Jesus' (Savior) merely because he was to save us from the punishment for our sins; he was called 'Jesus' for he will save people from their sins.' (Mt 1:21) His purpose was not just to make us safe but to make us saints." Our Lord died not only to take on the punishment that we deserved but to make it possible for us to be saints. Prayer is the fuel for that blessing.

KEY QUOTES

"… nothing else can ever cure our sick world except saints, and saints are never made except by prayer." (PFB, 14)

"He [God] yearns and longs for us to pray more passionately than any earthly lover yearns for his beloved to turn her eyes and her attention to him. (All earthly loves are tiny droplets of his infinite sea of love; he is where all love comes from whether we receive it pure or whether we pollute it.)" (PFB, 15)

"Three reasons God commands us to pray correspond to our three deepest needs, the fundamental needs of the three powers of our soul: prayer gives truth to our mind, goodness to our will, and beauty to our heart. The true, the good, and the beautiful are the three things we need and love the most, because they are three attributes of God." (PFB, 16)

"[W]e should pray because prayer is the most realistic thing in the world to do. It is our acknowledgment of reality, our right response to reality, our honesty with reality. Right Response to Reality – the Three R's – is the fundamental principle of morality, of sanctity, and of sanity." (PFB, 17)

"To pray is to know God by practicing his presence; and this is to live in reality (for God is really present), instead of in the fantasy worlds we construct in our own minds, in which God is absent." (PFB, 20)

"Even good earthly fathers want the very best for their children; why do we expect our Heavenly Father to be any less demanding and leave us alone? That is what uncles do, not fathers. Christ did not teach us to pray, "Our Uncle who art in Heaven."" (PFB, 23)

St. Thomas More, Pray for us!

Analytical Table of Contents

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Spiritual Combat Revisited 1: First Principles

Before entering into spiritual combat directly, Scupoli and Robinson prepare the reader with "First Principles." These principles are the perspective from which Scupoli approaches the spiritual life. Following chapters will look at the Four Weapons of spiritual combat: (1) humility and self-distrust, (2) the practice of the virtue of hope and confidence in God, (3) spiritual exercises, and (4) the practice of prayer. The five First Principles that we must understand are:

1st: Knowledge of the goodness and the greatness of God, and our nothingness and inclination to all evil,

2nd: Love of him and the hatred of ourselves,

3rd: Subjection not to him alone, but, for love of him, to all his creatures,

4th: Entire renunciation of all will of our own, and absolute resignation to all his divine pleasure, and

5th: Willing and doing all purely for the glory of God and solely to please him, and because he so wills and merits thus to be loved and served.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

There are five principals which apply to the spiritual life. We must grow in knowledge of God and about ourselves. This means that we must admit that we are completely dependent upon God and that He exists and is beyond our ability to conceive. As created beings, we depend entirely upon His providence for our existence. We are in the end, nothing without God. We must love God because He is deserving of love. We must hate anything that prevents us from obtaining God. This hatred, if it applies to persons, at the same time commands us love the person and bring them to Christ's mercy. We must subject ourselves to God and serve our neighbors. Our submission is the submission of a friend that offers himself out of love for his beloved. This is not the service of a slave, but the devotion of a son or daughter. We must renounce our own will and resign ourselves to the will of God. This resignation is particularly applicable to setting our own goals and in establishing our own moral standards: we must do neither. Finally, we must will all and do all for the glory of God.

RELFECTION

Knowledge about God and about Ourselves

We must acknowledge that God's existence does not depend on us. God is not a creation of our minds. He is. We may not and should not refer to "my God" in a way that implies another may have "their God." God exists whether we remember Him or try to forget him. Hebrews 11 tells us, "And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whomever would draw near to God must believe that he exits and that he rewards those who seek him."

We must acknowledge that God exists and that He is beyond anything that we can imagine. We must acknowledge that God created freely without any need for His creation. We most all acknowledge that all creation and its order belongs to Him. We must acknowledge that God is everywhere and that He directs all things by His providence.

Among all the world's religions, only Israel knew of a God that loved them. We must know that God is good and that only God is good. All goodness is a share in His goodness. Scupoli advises that "We must pray for a serene and serious acceptance that everything that happens to us is directly or indirectly from the hand of God for our own good."

We are called to the knowledge of our nothingness. We must base our spiritual life on the truth. The truth is that we are physically nothing. We must accept that there was a time before our conception when we were not! We will cease to exist in the way we exist now. Whatever we are it is contingent. This is to say that our being is given to us from outside of ourselves. Reality has no need of us; we are not necessary. We must accept this truth. Along with our physical nothingness we know by experience and observation that each and every one of us is morally weak. Scupoli says, "left to ourselves and our wounded human nature, we turn to sinful ways and wrong doing.

We are completely, then, dependent upon the grace of God. Given our contingent nature we must know that whatever is good in us is "God's gift and that without this gift we cannot merit salvation."

The Love of God and Hatred of Ourselves

It is important to understand what it means to "love" and to "hate." Common usage mistakenly associates emotions with both of these acts. These are acts of the will. Robinson helps us by defining the terms. "If we are moved positively by something, then we are said to love it; if we experience it as repellent, then we are said to hate it." We try to obtain for ourselves those things we love and we reject those things we hate.

When we understand and see the desirability of God, our desire for Him will not be satisfied until we are united with Him. This is, perhaps, why spousal images are used so frequently in Scripture's explanation of our love of God and His love for His people. Our Lord commands us in Matthew 22 to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

If we want something we are going to hate anything that gets in the way of our obtaining it! While we do not talk this way today, we can say that we hate whatever is in the way of our obtaining that which we love. It is in this way that Our Lord tells us that we must hate even our parents if they are in the way of our obtaining God. This is a fair exchange! God is the greatest good and therefore it is just to hate anything that would deprive us of God. We must be sure that this kind of "hate" is not the emotion of hate as we know it. (Please see Key Terms below.)

In the same way, Thomas Aquinas observes that we hate what is bad for people that we love. He says in the Summa, "Now hating what is bad for someone and loving what is good for him amount to the same thing. Hence even this perfect hatred belongs to charity." Finally, Robinson again clarifies this notion of hating when applied to hating ourselves. This is not self-loathing or despising oneself. He explains: "… we have to detest whatever in us is at enmity with obtaining God, who is the treasure of our heart. Hate is not too strong a word, if we have any notion of the value of the treasure."

Subjection to God and His Creatures

When we develop true friendship with a spouse, we become subject to them. Robinson states, "A friendship that is truly human in the deepest sense involves not only pleasure and usefulness, but a giving of self to the other person." It is in this way that we must subject ourselves in friendship to God. What is more, for friendship to be sensible there must be a mutual self giving among the friends. Robinson says that "love that is serious involves at least an effort to serve, to be faithful, and to nurture the other person."

When we apply this definition of friendship, we wonder how we can love God. What can we do to serve and nurture God? One way in which we are faithful to God is by continually trying to fully grasp that which is good, noble and true. We grow in our love of God by becoming the kind of people that are able to serve, be faithful to and nurture other people. We begin to understand what it is to love God when we love others and not always put our own interests first. Affective love is being "pleased and satisfied with God and the things he loves." Effective love is "serving God and doing what he commands." This is paramount! One way in which we love God is to keep His commandments as they have been handed on to us through Scripture and Tradition from the Apostles! In this way, to be obedient to Christ's Church is to love God!

Renunciation of Our Own Will and Resignation to the Will of God

"Love does not insist on its own way" says 1 Corinthians 13:5. We must renounce self direction of our lives. What is self direction of our lives? This means determining for ourselves the moral standards according to which we will live. Most often, establishing our own moral standards are mere rationalizations for sins we have already chosen to commit. Secondly, we must abandon our own goals in life and leave the direction of our lives to God.

In order to renounce self direction and our own moral standards, we must resign ourselves to the will of God. We must be willing to accept God's providence for us. We have two tasks. First, we must try to do what God wants in every circumstance of our lives. Second, we have to try to will what God wants of us.

To Will and Do All for the Glory of God

In the end, our spiritual life is about God. The spiritual life is not about our efforts and our prayer. Rather, the spiritual life is about God who died and rose again for us. Everything is about Him. Our happiness is in Him and Him alone. While we must make efforts within the spiritual life, that spiritual life will be fruitful when turned confidently over to Him. Robinson points out that "it is pleasant and useful to believe in God." God is lovable in Himself. Our efforts to obey the commandments, to love our neighbor, and submit our will to Him are the ways in which we unite ourselves to Him in the "fullest and truest way possible in this life."

God is worthy of our service. While as American's we are conditioned to serve no one but rather to be served. Our radical individualism admits to no differences among us so that the idea of willfully serving is lost to us. Perhaps this is best seen among men and women. However, God is worthy of our service. Why? Because of God's goodness – He is the good God.

KEY QUOTES

"He wants us to be clear that we are bound by our Christianity to fight the vices and develop the virtues. At the same time, however, he reminds us that the goal of spiritual combat is an ever more intimate union in love between the individual and Christ." (SCR, 25)

"True holiness and spirituality do not consist, Scupoli insists, in 'exercises which are pleasing to us and conformable to our nature', but only in those that 'nail that nature with all its works to the cross' and that 'by renewing the whole man by the practice of the evangelical virtues, unite him to his crucified Savior and Creator." (SCR, 26)

"… all too often spirituality means techniques for obtaining peace of soul that have little to do with either Christianity or morality." (SCR, 27)

"All this is a blow to our pride, and it goes against much modern thought, but our faith teaches us that all the good in us that works toward our salvation is God's gift and that to trust in our own talents and endowments is to set out on the road to spiritual self-destruction." (SCR, 35)

"If we are moved positively by something, then we are said to love it; if we experience it as repellent, then we are said to hate it." (SCR, 36)

"In a mysterious yet profound way we are moved to love God. We hardly know what the words mean, and there are any number of ways that this love first impresses itself on us. But love once awakened in us leads to the desire for God, and the desire for God will not be satisfied until we are united with him." (SCR, 38)

"We should love the sinner according to his nature, which he has from God and which is capable of eternal happiness. On the other hand, we can consider his sin and recognize that because it is opposed to God it is an obstacle to eternal happiness. Hence, he says, 'sin makes men God's enemies, and so we must hate all sinners without exception, even our own father or mother or near ones." (SCR, 39)

"… we have to detest whatever in us is at enmity with obtaining God, who is the treasure of our heart. Hate is not too strong a word, if we have any notion of the value of the treasure." (SCR, 40)

"We begin to love God, to desire God, and to possess God in a deeper way by becoming more the sort of people who are capable of giving a love that is unselfish and that does not always put our own interests first." (SCR, 41)

"We must renounce the self-direction of our lives in the sense of determining for ourselves the moral standards and the goals by which we are to live. Self-renunciation means a determined effort to live a Christian life by Christian standards in every circumstance of our lives, and this will in all likelihood mean giving up on cherished ambitions and dreams." (SCR, 42)

"Our progress in love of God begins with a recognition that it is pleasant and useful to believe in God." (SCR, 44)

"The love and service of God is sometimes presented to us as something that must exclude all other loves, or else as something so immediate and so engrossing that everything else seems second-rate and finally useless. Such a view must be wrong because, first of all, it falsifies what seems to be the example of the saints, who love people in this life in a way that does seem overwhelming and appears to be at least as immediate as their love for God."

"Secondly, whether it means to or not, the view that any human love is somehow second-rate denigrates all the human and gracious aspects of life that make it worth living. It seems to imply that married love, the love of friendship, and the whole network of trust and support that can, and often does, exist between human being is somehow shoddy and in competition with the love of God." (SCR, 47)

"In fact, as we all know, the love of God is learned through loving other people." (SCR, 47)

KEY TERMS

Asceticism	Spiritual effort or exercise in the pursuit of virtue. The purpose is to grow in Christian perfection. Its principals and norms are expanded in ascetical theology. (MCD)
Evangelical Virtues (or Counsels)	In general, the teachings of the New Law proposed by Jesus to his disciples which lead to perfection of Christian life. In the New Law, the precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity; the evangelical counsels are to remove whatever might hinder the development of charity, even if not contrary to it. The public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience is a constitutive element of the state of consecrated life in the Church. (CCC, Glossary)
Grace	The free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. (CCC, Glossary)
Hatred	A voluntary act by which someone or something is regarded with bitter aversion. On the first level hatred is directed against either God or some rational being; on the second level it is directed against some quality in another but without hatred of the individual personally. (MCD)
Perfection	Creatures are as perfect as they are like God, and moral perfection consists in becoming like Christ, who is infinite God in human form. (MCD)
Providence	God's all-wise plan for the universe, and the carrying out of this plan by his loving rule or governance. The eternal world plan and its fulfillment in time are together called divine providence. Divine providence is universal in that all events, even the post personal decisions of human beings, are part of God's eternal plan. It is infallibly certain that because the ultimate purpose that God has for the universe will not fail. And it is immutable because God himself cannot change. (MCD)
Vice	A bad moral habit. Technically a vice is the strong tendency to a gravely sinful act acquired through frequent repetition of the same act. Qualities that characterize a vice are spontaneity, ease, and satisfaction in dong what is morally wrong. (MCD)
Virtue	A good habit that enables a person to act according to right reason enlightened by faith. Also called an operative good habit, it makes its possessor a good person and his or actions also good. (MCD)

St. Francis De Sales, Pray for us!

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A Prayer: For Resignation to God's Will

I will whatever you will, because you will it.

I will it in the way you will it.

I will it for as long as you will it.

Amen.

(Thanksgiving After Mass from the Roman Missal)

On the Teaching of the Saints 10: St. John of the Cross

High on the list of difficult things to understand is how suffering and God's will work together for our good.  It is really a matter of faith.  Somehow, the saints, who suffer much, see it.  We know that our end is eternal happiness; we hang on to that hope!  St. John of the Cross offers this advise:

"See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect."

(Esper, Saintly Solutions, 109)

St. John of the Cross, pray for us!

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An Occasional Rant 9: A Little Red Book

I have a little red book that I carry with me.  I read this book in the margins of events between the endings and startings of the day.  The book is called My Daily Life.  The subject of the book is psychology from a Catholic and therefore, a classical realist point of view.  The book is published by Confraternity of the Precious Blood.  It is small enough to fit in a back pocket but it is packed with wisdom.  I think I will comment from time to time on what my little red book has to say.  Consider these two selections:

Man needs order.

"A number of people look on God as an intruder in their personal lives.  They feel that He places impossible obligations and unreasonable restrictions on them.  They consider daily life hard enough, without having to worry about God's super-imposed rules and regulations.  These people are mistaken.  Their notion of God and His commandments is far from the truth.  God did not create man to carry burdens beyond his strength.  Neither does He desire to test man's virtue or prove his sincerity by sending him needless disappointments, useless frustrations, or arbitrary commands.  Your ordinary daily life has its own natural disappointments and frustrations.  Your human nature has its built-in laws.  These laws require you to observe a certain order.  They put definite limits on what you can do safely, and indicate what constitutes a threat to your health of body, peace of mind, and moral self-possession.  For example, if you overeat, you must be prepared to suffer some discomfort or worse.  No need to feel that God is punishing you.  He simply lets nature take its course."   (MDL, 11)

I think a more accurate view of God's "rules and regulations" is to view them as walls or fences that prevent us from leaving the castle where we are safe and protected.  Crossing the walls leads to consequences - natural consequences - that come from wandering out into areas where we are in danger.  We desperately want to walk into the darkness of the forest to "see what is there."  When we are attacked and injured by wild animals we wonder why God allowed this!  No, our God is a loving Father who wants us to live under His protection. Each of us needs to live within our capabilities. 

We should not focus too much on ourselves.

"Beware of morbid introspection!  In your desire for a flawless perfection, you may be tempted to study everything you think, feel, say, or do, ever looking for possible defects, or criticizing yourself for not have behaved "better" than you did.  The defects and faults which require your proper concern, will usually come to your attention through the negative response of people who are not habitually difficult  or overly sensitive, or through your own observations in your calmer and more realistic moments.  Vague, indefinite "possible failures" are not worth bothering with.  There will always be some self-doubt about something or other in the mind of the average man.  This is the normal state of human nature on earth.  The true "adult" understands this fact, and learns to go about his daily routine with an intelligent disregard of his indefineable fear of failure."  (MDL, 147)

I think I will give myself a break and think much less about myself.

I think that is enough.

Mary, Theotokos, Pray for us!

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On the Teaching of the Saints 9: St. Alphonsus Liguori

Distractions during prayer are very common.  Nonetheless, we struggle to overcome them and to truly address our words to Our Lord with sincerity and focus.  St. Alphonsus Liguori explains the problem.  One solution is to simply let the distractions float by our minds and gently let them go away.  Sometimes, we need to simply offer the distraction as a moment of suffering to Our Lord and leave it to Him!  In this way, we turn the enemy's attack to God's glory!

"The devil is never busier trying to distract us than when he sees us praying and asking God for grace.  And why?  Because the enemy sees that at no other time do we gain so many treasures of heavenly goods as when we pray."

(Esper, Saintly Solutions, 76)

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us!

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Spiritual Combat Revisited: Introduction to Part One

The first part of Spiritual Combat Revisited sets the outline of the battle in which we engage. Scupoli presents our goal and then promises that there will be a combat within ourselves to obtain that goal. We do not go to battle unarmed. In order to obtain the goal he provides the tools for winning.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

We are created to live in eternal happiness with God. This is the meaning of life! In order to obtain this happiness, we must, with the help of God's grace, grow in virtue and reject all that is sinful in our lives. To be perfect we must seek holiness by engaging in spiritual battle with ourselves in an effort to remove everything from our lives that stands in the way of our goal. The four weapons of spiritual combat are: (1) humility and self-distrust (2) practice of the virtues of hope and confidence in God, (3) spiritual exercises which are the systematic efforts we undertake to cooperate with God's grace, and (4) the practice of prayer.

REFLECTION

The Regular Guy gets up every morning, goes off to a job that is not his dream come true, and counts the minutes until he gets to go home to be with his family. He is a "good guy." He doesn't steal, he doesn't lie for the most part, he doesn't cheat on his wife, and he pays his taxes. He is also indifferent to his religion. He goes to Church because he wants the children to have religion and because his wife asks him to do so. What he does not seek is a close intimacy with God. The thought never crosses his mind because, after all, he doesn't do anything particularly sinful.

What the Regular Guy doesn't realize is that he is rich and he is choosing to live in the pool house! He can live in his Father's mansion if he would only eliminate the minor vices in his life and would actively work to be a saint. Saints are Italians, Irish, priests and nuns, he tells himself. He is a father, a husband and a worker. He just pulls the wagon every day. We need to raise our sights! We can have greatness!

We can know the beginning of the joy of heaven now. Robinson outlines the steps of the battle we must fight. We must be humble and admit that we are capable of wickedness and sin that would send us to Hell; we must consciously grow in virtue and grow in our trust in God. We must make systematic efforts to cooperate with God's grace in ways that are very similar to training for an athletic event - something the Regular Guy hasn't done since high school. Finally, we must pray. When we pray we must not just recite words; we must carefully and deliberately speak to God. The Regular Guy can be a saint – if he chooses to be.

KEY QUOTES

"… we were created for beatitude and that we have to play our part if we are to achieve our final destiny; but we have divided hearts, and following the way of Christ is going to involve a warfare against everything in our nature that pulls us away from the happiness for which we were created." (SCR, 20)

"We are born in sin; we are saved by Christ; we must live in hope; and we can do no good without God's grace. There is not suggestion in his work that we are saved by building up a bank account consisting of repeated acts of virtue. The virtues help to overcome the divisions in the self and open the way to Christian perfection and purity of heart. These virtues are essential for salvation, but they are not sufficient in themselves. We engage in the spiritual combat because we desire beatitude. We look forward to what has been promised us. In this Scupoli echoes the words of St. Paul to the Philippians: "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (SCR 21)

St. Francis De Sales, Pray for us!

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