Celebrating the Year of Faith

“And so I bow my knee to the Father from whom every family on earth takes its name.” Ephesians 3:14-15

In some religions, those words are considered blasphemy which is punished by killing. To others, secularists who worship their own ideas, this Scripture is laughable, a cause for mockery and derision. They are quick to remind us of all the failed fathers and all the failings of our father. They determinedly refuse to acknowledge the good of fatherhood and decide to ‘bend their knee’ only to the failures of fatherhood. Well, like my daughter says, everyone has their own pope.

For my part, I am filled with love for my earthly dad who himself was filled with all the love and the foibles common to every man. I am filled with love for all the great dads I know, none of whom are perfect, but who each strive to be. I am filled with love for all the selfless men who lay the joy of children on the altar of celibacy in order to be father to me and to every child of God in His Holy Catholic Church.

In spite of the sneering derision of our Culture of Death, on this weekend in which the Church celebrates Evangelium Vitae, I join St. Paul in bowing my knee in humble thankgiving and joy to our Heavenly Father, not for what He’s done but for who He is. God who loves me through all the wonderful men He has put in my life, especially Jesus Christ. Through all the ups and downs, He’s made it evident to me that Love Remains!

The first reading today (June 14) is one of my favorite Bible passages: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15:

“Brothers and sisters:

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;

perplexed, but not driven to despair;

persecuted, but not abandoned;

struck down, but not destroyed;

always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

For we who live are constantly being given up to death

for the sake of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith,

according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,”

we too believe and therefore speak, 

knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus

will raise us also with Jesus

and place us with you in his presence.

Everything indeed is for you,

so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.”

I often wonder if the Facebook culture in which we live tends to magnify the minutiae of our lives (“look what I’m having for lunch!”) and ignore the pain that characterizes every person’s life. For example, I have never seen a Facebook post saying, “We put Mom in a nursing home today” or “Our home was foreclosed on today.”

God is nothing if not realistic. His Word accurately reflects the good, the bad and the ugly of life on this planet. In the passage from Second Corinthians, quoted above, St. Paul characteristically doesn’t try to sugarcoat life on our account. He admits that he himself is perplexed, persecuted, struck down and afflicted in every way but never abandoned, destroyed or driven to despair. The reason he experiences his life in this way is because he understands, in a way most of us don’t, the Third Dimension of his life. That is, the Body of Christ (us) cannot be separated from the Head of Christ. Ever.

So, while we still suffer on earth as Christ did, we still live with Him in heaven. While we are constantly being given up to death in our bodies, our bodies are constantly radiating the resurrected life of Jesus to those around us. While we are daily humbled, in little and big ways, we are daily raised up to dwell with Christ as He comes to dwell in us through the Sacraments. “In Him, we live and move and have our being.”

So “everything, indeed, is  for us”, as Paul says. The whole world has been oriented toward our belief and redemption! How then can we not speak? How can we keep from singing? How can we keep from sharing the truth of our Faith with everyone we meet during this Year of Faith, even on Facebook?

Those who have encountered dysfunctional families can often attest to the phenomenon of avoiding the painful truth of an issue in order to keep the peace; frequently leading one to feel like he/she is “walking on eggshells.” The proverbial “elephant in the room” can accompany everything from addictions, to infidelity, or simply the need to forgive an ex-spouse whose emotional presence is never altogether absent. People avoid truth for a number of reasons, not the least of which can be human woundedness and fear. The fact that we have hurt others, that we ourselves have made mistakes, and that it is simply easier to cohabitate with the dysfunction latent in non-truth than to deal with truth itself, is obvious in the lives of many. Not infrequently however, sustained exposure to dysfunctional situations has the insidious effect of rendering the “dysfunctionalism functional.” In other words, the chaos of the family becomes so normal on a day-to-day basis one gradually adapts to it in a love-hate codependence. Some people even begin to thrive on chaos, at times creating division without realizing it simply because they have associated it as entirely routine. Normally it is not until one encounters a healthy family environment that the victim of a dysfunctional situation begins to realize how the “elephant” of dysfunction has now fully warped the “room” of one’s own family, in addition to now residing permanently within it.

Just as the “functionalizing of dysfunctionalism” can slowly suffocate a healthy family, so too can the dysfunctionalism of evil slowly asphyxiate the morality of an entire culture as well; which is where we currently find ourselves in the secular west. This immoral dysfunction is witnessed in a culture that sees absolutely nothing awry with killing its most vulnerable (aged and unborn), evaluating moral truth based on Gallup polls, ascribing ego to personal “rights,” perceiving happiness through the optic of sexual gratification and wealth, and labeling those who insist on exposing the “elephant” of immorality to them as thoroughly “intolerant.” As the prophets of the Old Testament discovered firsthand, the bearer of the truth is often the recipient of the cultural wrath. In his firm discourse with the Pharisees in John’s gospel (Jn 9:41), Jesus attests to the fact that pride is both blinding and leads to division, a hallmark fingerprint of the diabolic. The Holy Spirit however, leads to unity within oneself, the family, and the culture (Jn 10:16). When an entire society adopts the dysfunction of evil, it inevitably assumes what Blessed John Paul II referred to as “structures of sin” (Solicitudo rei Socialis, #36) and a “culture of death” (Evangelium Vitae,#12), which finds its cultural framework among the deadened consciences of millions who have rationalized the unreasonable “elephant” of non-truth. Such a dimming of the intellect of one person ultimately precedes the death of other people, as moral truth becomes the victim of cultural truthicide.

In an act of acute fortitude, forty-five years ago this month Pope Paul VI promulgated the encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life, 1968). Though labeled colloquially as the “birth control encyclical,” the document itself is less about the matter of artificial contraception and more about the textured beauty of conjugal love within marriage and human anthropology. The Pontiff’s prescient look at marriage and family, drawing largely from the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), highlighted as well the moral dysfunctionalism that would invariably accompany a contraceptive mentality. When sexual union is amputated from the fruits of the unitive bonding of the couple and the possibility of procreation, it gradually begins to warp human perceptions of oneself, the other, and mankind as well. The Holy Father makes several predictions that will accompany a culture which adopts the “contraceptive” modus of thought: a consistent decreasing of moral standards throughout society; a consistent increase in marital infidelity; a gradual loss of respect for women by men; and the forced application of reproductive technologies by governments (#17). Even many who oppose the Catholic Church on much of her moral doctrine find it difficult not to concede that Paul VI’s predictions have to some degree been vindicated. For instance, Harvard researcher Dr. Edward Green, who has spent almost thirty years researching condom usage in family prevention, concedes that the position of the Catholic Church regarding condoms as ineffective has been statistically shown to be correct, though privately he disagrees with much of the Catholic positions (Catholic News Agency. “Harvard Researcher Agrees with the Pope on Condom in Africa.” March 21, 2009). Assuming morality is extracted completely from the issue, from a sociological standpoint the warnings in Humanae Vitae have materialized to such a degree that to even lightly gloss the surface in this context is to some degree redundant.

It is said that the issue of contraception is the moral “tip of the arrow” for Catholics who claim to be authentically Catholic and those who are only ostensibly so. That the word “contraception” literally means “against the beginning,” is perhaps insightful considering that both the Bible and John’s gospel begin with the phrase “in the beginning” (Gn 1:1; Jn 1:1). The contraceptive act then immediately sets its moral trajectory “against the beginning” of God’s presence among the couple, not to mention divine revelation itself. In a culture which unabashedly worships youth, hour-glass figures, and sexual longevity, there is little doubt that Jesus’ admonition that in gospel truth “a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father” (Lk 12:53) is manifestly seen in the contraception issue among many Catholic families. The issue is often divisive as many may know that the Church forbids contraception; yet very few actually know why or have taken the time to research it. Furthermore, that Americans are willing to even kill to protect their right to sexual autonomy is not simply an issue pertaining to morality, but is also a “right” protected by the Supreme Court (Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, 1992). Though it went over culturally like a ‘brick through a glass house’ at the time of its release, in Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI presciently forewarned of a culture which equates legality with morality, thereby washing its hands in a Pontius Pilate-esque denial of moral culpability for evil. Such a contraceptive mentality has also led to what some psychologists have termed the “Peter Pan syndrome,” wherein many adult men with children are seemingly unable to grow-up, assume responsibilities, and often expect sexual gratification on demand (Dr. Dan Kiley, The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up). I can attest to the dozens of wives and mothers I have counseled over the years whose husbands and sons are forty years old and play three hours of X-box a day.

It is somehow ironic then, that only a week after the forty-fifth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, our nation begins the full implementation of arguably the largest piece of pro-contraceptive and anti-family legislation in United States history, the Affordable Health Care Act (August 1, 2013). This unabashed incursion of religious freedom has been condemned by many on all political sides and of varied faith backgrounds. Add to this the irony endemic in the fact that some of those leading the charge in the implementation of the HHS Mandate are the very ones charged, by virtue of their offices, with protecting the religious freedom of its citizens; not a few of whom actually profess to be “Catholic.” Only history will tell whether or not the HHS Mandate is indeed the full-flourishing of the contraceptive mentality that Pope Paul VI warned of so many years prior. Nonetheless, within its utilitarian skeleton, once implemented the Mandate will ultimately translate into the deaths of countless unborn persons and perhaps even some who are reading this article, as the lives of the elderly will increasingly be assessed according to convenience and cost, as opposed to dignity and intrinsic worth. The propaganda defending the Mandate can never ultimately hide the “elephant in the room” of moral truth and the despotic reality that while killing may be legal and even now celebrated as “Healthcare,” there will nonetheless be real eternal consequences to those who promote it; and simply put, they will not be pleasant. As Humanae Vitae asserts, it is not too late to fix the dysfunctionalism of immorality we now find ourselves skipping into.
Fr. Ben’s website: http://www.frben.com

Vatican City, 4 June 2013 (VIS) – After the memorial Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica yesterday afternoon, presided by Bishop Francesco Beschi of Bergamo, Italy, the Holy Father went to the Basilica and, after praying before the coffin containing the remains of Blessed John XXIII, met with the two thousand pilgrims from the Diocese of Bergamo who had traveled to Rome to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the Blessed.

The Pope noted how, in those days, St. Peter’s Square had been transformed into a sanctuary under the open skies, receiving faithful of different ages and social backgrounds who had gathered to pray for the Pope’s health day and night, as well as the tremendous grief that 3 June in 1963 on receiving the news of the pontiff’s death. The entire world had seen Pope John as a pastor and a father. And how had he won the hearts of such different people, many even non-Christians? The answer, Pope Francis said, is found in his episcopal motto: “Oboedientia et Pax”, obedience and peace.

“I would like to start from peace, because this is the most obvious aspect that people perceived in Pope John. Angelo Roncalli was a man capable of transmitting peace: a natural, serene, and friendly peace; a peace that he expressed to the entire world upon his election to the pontificate and received the reputation of goodness.”

“It is so wonderful to meet a priest, a good priest with goodness.” The pontiff recalled the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola when he gave the Jesuits an entire list of virtues that a superior should have. “But in the end he said: ‘And if he doesn’t have these virtues, let him at least have much goodness.’ This is what’s essential.”

“This was undoubtedly,” continued the Pope, speaking of John XXIII, “what distinguished his personality, that which enabled him to build strong friendships everywhere … often coming in contact with environments and worlds that were far removed from the Catholic universe in which he was born and formed. It was in precisely those spheres that he proved an effective weaver of relationships and a valuable promoter of unity, within and outside of the ecclesial community, open to dialogue with the Christians of other Churches, with proponents of the Jewish and Muslim worlds, and with many other men and women of good will.”

“Here,” the Holy Father said, “we come to the second and decisive word:’obedience’ … In fact, it was the instrument for achieving peace. Firstly, it had a very simple and concrete meaning: carrying out, in the Church, the service that his superiors asked, without seeking anything for himself, without trying to get out of anything that was requested of him, even when it meant leaving his own land, dealing with worlds unknown, staying for long years where the Catholic presence was scarce. This letting oneself be led, like a child, constituted his priestly journey.”

“Through this obedience, however, Roncalli, the priest and bishop, lived an even deeper faithfulness, which we can define—as he would have called it—abandonment to Divine Providence. In the faith he continuously recognized that, through that life’s journey that was seemingly guided by others, not led by his own tastes or on the basis of his own spiritual sensitivity, God was carrying out His plan.”

“Even more profoundly, through this daily abandonment to God’s will, the future Pope John lived a purification that allowed him to completely break away from himself and to adhere to Christ, letting that holiness that the Church has officially recognized emerge. ‘Whosoever loses their life for my sake will save it’, Jesus tells us. Herein lies the true source of Pope John’s goodness, of the peace that he spread in the world, herein we find the root of his holiness: in his evangelical obedience.”

“This is a lesson for all of us, but also for today’s Church: if we know how to let ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit, if we know how to mortify our selfishness to make room for the Lord’s love and his will, then we will find peace, then we will know how to be builders of peace and we will spread peace around us.” 

In conclusion, the Pope addressed the faithful present, urging them to “imitate his holiness. Let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid of the risks just as he was unafraid. Docility to the Spirit, love for the Church, and forward … the Lord will do the rest.”

A JESUIT REFLECTION

During the first week of June Catholics celebrate two liturgical feasts that highlight Jesus’ human nature and love for those He has redeemed: the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus—Corpus Christi (June 2)—and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 7). Christ’s Body and Blood, broken and spilled from a pierced Heart on the Cross for our salvation, nourish us at every Eucharist. A simple yet profound action at Mass proclaims why God assumes our fragile nature. A drop of water falls into the chalice of wine as whispered words entreat: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” God weds our humanity to Himself so that we might share, today and forever, in His divine nature. This “great exchange” is our salvation! In Jesus, God takes on a human Body whose Heart burns with love for the human race and thirsts for our love in return.

I write these words on the last day of Prep’s school year: Deo gratias! Summer brings a more leisurely rhythm, including increased opportunities to recreate and enjoy time with family and friends. Can we also make more time to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:11)? St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, had a special gift for “finding God in all things.” Christ speaks through every reality, momentous or “ordinary”: the beauty of a putt sunk from 40 feet, a belly laugh shared with friends, the moral courage elicited by an Oklahoma twister, a cold Trappist beer at Krug Park, the birth of a child and death of a grandparent, the scent of a lilac bush, disappointment in love or career. To quote Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, how can I more deeply sense that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God”? Two suggestions:

• Spend 15 minutes every morning pondering the daily Gospel from Mass, engaged in a “heart to Heart” (yours and Jesus’) during which you speak less and listen more. What happens when you notice Jesus noticing you? Here’s a simple way to pray with any Bible passage:http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/AudioRetreat/Kroll-01-2010/Kroll-T01-02.pdf
• Receive Christ’s Body and Blood at Mass one day each week other than Sunday. The Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” says Vatican II. You can better be the Body of Christ for others the more closely you sacramentally unite yourself to that Body. As a branch you bear greater fruit if the lifeblood of the Vine courses through your veins.

Fr. Rob Kroll, S.J.
Superior – Creigton Prep Jesuit Community

    What do union workers, abortionists, immigrants and those with same-sex attraction have in common? They are all used as convenient scapegoats by some groups of “Catholics.”  Within the last week, I have heard or seen in print, Catholics demean whole groups of people by saying things like, “If they’re leaning on the shovel, they’re union workers” or “Throw the illegals (immigrants) in jail and send their kids back to grandma” or “He killed babies so we kill him” or “Sodomites are sodomites” or “Ragheads”, referring to Muslims.

Nice, huh? There are probably a thousand reasons ranging from political to social to spiritual why someone who professes to be Catholic can condemn a whole group of people in one breath and be oblivious to the contradiction (lie) that they are living. I don’t intend to explore all that here. When prejudice is at work, one excuse is as good as another. The fact that your daddy said the same thing or that the Old Testament says, “An eye for an eye” or about any other justification that can be unearthed in self-defense of bigotry is basically baloney.

The bottom line is that Committed Catholics are not allowed to spout vitriol against another group of people. Period. The rationale for what should be a self-evident fact is rooted in our union with Christ who has identified himself with every living person. So, in despising others, we despise Him. In ignoring the dignity of others, we ignore the Dignity of God. Jesus asked Saul on the road to Tarsus, “Why are you persecuting me?”  Jesus told us over and over, “Whatever you do to the least, you do to Me.” Jesus’ most scathing words were saved for the self-righteous.

This begs the question: How can a Catholic march themselves up to Communion, receive the Body of Christ every week and then turn around and attack Christ present in others? How can this be? This is a scandal. Are we not called to judge a tree by its fruit? Absolutely. Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to behavior that conflicts with the teachings of the Church? No. But we only judge the behavior, never the person. We always love the sinner and hate the sin. We are bound, before God, to pray for those who persecute us, not to condemn them.

Pope Francis has spent much of the last two months pointing out to Catholics the flaws that     we are guilty of and need to confess. Here’s a snippet:

“We all chat in Church! As Christians we chat! The chatter is hurtful? We hurt one another. It is as if we want to put each other down.: instead of growing, one makes the other feel small while I feel great. That will not do! It seems nice to chat … I do not know why, but it looks nice. Like sweet of honey, right? You take one and then another, and another, and another, and in the end you have a stomach ache. And why ? The chatter is like that eh? It is ‘sweet at first and it ruins you, it ruins your soul! Rumors (gossip) are destructive in the Church, they are destructive … It’s ‘a little’ like the spirit of Cain who killed his brother, his tongue; it kills his brother! ” Homily 5-18-13