tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86249120195748749472024-02-18T23:47:45.421-05:00Carthage Must Be DestroyedCarthago delenda estDanny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-1644038088967159582021-01-18T15:58:00.000-05:002021-01-18T15:58:47.473-05:00 Honest Reflections on MLK Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9-YrGVDrk8tBeMXopCNPLHLX-uQXD_By3VR8OIgyMf5DCmtDZC-gURK9bU8yoFoFSVzYygXbLCytqGKqdoHpsbxp_tXyEt66kDGZ_9WLDG_o1tZaj85wJQHaQwtF2GVSJuNbJsArJ8A/s1200/1_ch0I4co6ujYt4CLrt5sgKQ.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9-YrGVDrk8tBeMXopCNPLHLX-uQXD_By3VR8OIgyMf5DCmtDZC-gURK9bU8yoFoFSVzYygXbLCytqGKqdoHpsbxp_tXyEt66kDGZ_9WLDG_o1tZaj85wJQHaQwtF2GVSJuNbJsArJ8A/w640-h640/1_ch0I4co6ujYt4CLrt5sgKQ.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div gmail_original="1" style="text-align: left;"><span>"</span>Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." - Amos 5:24
</div></blockquote><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1">Sitting in a jail cell for protesting racial injustice he wrote his now famous "<a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">Letter from a Birmingham Jail</a>" to southern clergymen to encourage them to live up to their calling as Christians and support him in his fight against the injustices experienced by the African-American community. (I encourage anyone who has 25-30 minutes to spare to read it. It one of the greatest documents on justice ever penned.) Ever the theologian, Dr. King deftly uses the Christian tradition to set the stage:</div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid." </div><div><br /></div></blockquote>In his narrative for social justice he weaves in the likes of Sts. Augustine and Aquinas, Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr and shows quite convincingly with a theologian's aptitude that the business of the church must include justice for all. He echoes Pope Leo XIII's words in Rerum Novarum: "It must not be supposed that the Church so concentrates her energies on caring for souls as to overlook things which pertain to mortal and earthly life." With this standard of justice in the church articulated, he laments that the white moderate clergy has sat back and not recognized the dire conditions of the black population in their midst and that they described the desegregationalist activity in Birmingham as "extreme," and that they've been labelled "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators." MLK was hoping to make an ally out of the reasonable white moderates but came up against eerily similar roadblocks to our present crisis:</div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative."</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>And later:</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div gmail_original="1"><div>"In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber." </div><div><br /></div></div></blockquote>His prose serves as a very prescient reminder to the callousness with which many in the white community perceived the BLM protests this summer.
Considering the tenor of too many white reactions to the BLM protests—calling them "Marxist," "anti-Christian," "violent," "riotous," a "poison," where they are allowed to "loot," "steal," and "burn"—I think it would be of no surprise that Dr. King would find himself unheard, ignored or attacked by many for organizing protests against racial injustice today. What would Donald Trump have said about him on Twitter this past summer? Probably something similar to: "Dr. King hates law and order! A nasty guy!" <div><div><br /></div><div>Now as easy as it is, especially after January 6th, to pile on Trump as a neo-fascist racist sympathizer and feel good about it—we all need that hit of dopamine—that leaves very little room for reflection on how
I am—and I'll speak for myself here—if not directly contributing to the problem, prolonging it with indifference. Dr. King is clear who he thinks the real problem is:<br /><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."</blockquote></div><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><br /></div><div gmail_original="1"> If I admit it, and admit it I must, I would have to say that for too long I have found a home in that polite white moderate class that preserves the status quo. Granted I've <i>desired </i>justice for African-Americans in my mind and in cigar-and-scotch-soaked forums for quite some time, but a list of my direct actions taken would be shamefully short. This makes me honestly ask: "So did I even really desire it?" I clearly had other concerns that overruled standing in solidarity with the black community. <span style="background-color: white;">I've been "more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows." </span>I've read this letter by Dr. King every year for five or six years counting and each time it hits harder. This letter wasn't just written to white clergymen in the 1960s. It was written to me now almost 60 years later and lovingly but firmly invites me to take action to fight injustice and face the consequences with non-violence and dignity.</div><div gmail_original="1"><br /></div><div gmail_original="1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYg7qcj9ykfdSWMOOVnCJQNwFm0WyPJtx1mSO3RjhFpf-_z4GN7uBf6ChZG_PkDb-gdrYFfMm7i9AWiFcQxFdSSFZZHM9A38Hkxwnj1jGQ3n5O9ALYmUhn3sSMgvypbJvIW8icTRrUBk/s1372/Martin_Luther_King_Jr_in_Jefferson_County_Jail_Birmingham_Alabama_November_3_1967.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYg7qcj9ykfdSWMOOVnCJQNwFm0WyPJtx1mSO3RjhFpf-_z4GN7uBf6ChZG_PkDb-gdrYFfMm7i9AWiFcQxFdSSFZZHM9A38Hkxwnj1jGQ3n5O9ALYmUhn3sSMgvypbJvIW8icTRrUBk/w299-h400/Martin_Luther_King_Jr_in_Jefferson_County_Jail_Birmingham_Alabama_November_3_1967.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><div gmail_original="1"><br /></div>And as Christians, we are commanded to do so. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus holds back no punches when he shows us what the righteous life should look like:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'<br /><br /></blockquote><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><div>A tall order at first glance, but one we can achieve through the daily act self-denial in our taking up of our cross. We are called to act, to be "doers of the word and not hearers only," and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This love is the reflection of God working through us. "You know them by their fruits." I can't love someone by saying so, I must show that I love through my direct actions. </div><div><br /></div><div>To honor the legacy of Dr. King is, even in a small way, to continue to work against these forms of injustice in our own spheres by trying to understand the legitimate grievances that the black community has with our justice system and stand in solidarity with them, speaking out to our families, workplaces, churches and communities about racial injustice, and by voting in a way that seeks to broaden the river of justice to all peoples and recognizes that every human being has dignity. To look upon every human face, Jesus tells us, is to look in His face, a face that is the icon of God who loved us into being.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In the words of Dr. King:<br /></div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. "<br /><br /></blockquote><div dir="ltr" gmail_original="1"><div><br /></div><div>Rest in Peace, Dr. King. </div></div></div><div></div></div></div>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-87019219265810233922014-11-01T13:59:00.005-04:002014-11-01T14:03:31.077-04:00All Saints' Day<div>
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<i>Alleluia.<br />Salvation, glory, and power to our God:<br />Alleluia.<br />his judgments are honest and true.<br />Alleluia. Alleluia.<br /><br />Alleluia.<br />Sing praise to our God, all you his servants,<br />Alleluia.<br />all who worship him reverently, great and small.<br />Alleluia. Alleluia.<br /><br />Alleluia.<br />The Lord our all-powerful God is King;</i><br />
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<i>Alleluia.<br />let us rejoice, sing praise, and give him glory.<br />Alleluia. Alleluia.<br /><br />Alleluia.<br />The wedding feast of the Lamb has begun,<br />Alleluia.<br />and his bride is prepared to welcome him.<br />Alleluia. Alleluia.</i><br />
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<i>See Revelation 19</i></div>
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<b>The beauty of the Gospel is fully alive in the saints.</b><br />
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Today is the Solemnity of All Saints and also the third anniversary of the day that I decided to be Catholic. It was best decision I have ever made. There is nothing like going along for the ride on the Barque of St. Peter. One of my greatest joys these last three years has been getting to know the saints. I knew about some of them: those living in the apostolic age, of course, and saints like Augustine and Athanasius. When one enters the one Church Jesus Christ founded, however, the veil rolls back and a host of saints is revealed. They are one of the greatest gifts God gives to us who are sojourning on earth. Why the saints you ask? Because the saints bear witness to the fruit of Christ Jesus’ love for mankind. Their lives are, in a sense, the beauty of the Gospel. The Gospel is not just an idea that we assent to, it is a life that we live by uniting ourselves with the Word made flesh. The saints lived lives totally converted to our Lord Jesus. They can do nothing in themselves, but they all can say with St. Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (1)!”<br />
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As sharers in the body of Christ, the saints take up their crosses and follow in his footsteps. They live the life of Christ. They participate in him. “This is my commandment to you, love one another as I have loved you (2).” Take the Blessed Virgin Mary for instance. She never wavered in her devotion to Christ, and she bore her cross at his feet during his Passion. She reflected the blessedness of his suffering in hers. Pope Benedict XVI, in a homily on the the Feast of All Saints, stated beautifully:<br />
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“Thus, we have come to the Gospel of this feast, the proclamation of the Beatitudes which we have just heard resound in this Basilica. Jesus says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed those who mourn, the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful; blessed the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted for the sake of justice. In truth, the blessed <i>par excellence</i> is only Jesus. He is, in fact, the true poor in spirit, the one afflicted, the meek one, the one hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemaker. He is the one persecuted for the sake of justice. The Beatitudes show us the spiritual features of Jesus and thus express his mystery, the mystery of his death and Resurrection, of his passion and of the joy of his Resurrection. This mystery, which is the mystery of true blessedness, invites us to follow Jesus and thus to walk toward it (3).”</div>
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As an artist, I am always thinking about colors. Imagine if you will that the superabundant merits that Jesus won for us on the cross are all the colors on a color wheel (the beatitudes!) with Jesus being the color wheel itself. Now imagine that each of the saints represents one swatch on that wheel. No matter its hue, saturation or lightness, each color exists within the spectrum of the color wheel, and each color, or saint, is different from all the other ones. All the colors together show the beauty of the color wheel, and so the saints themselves together, show the beauty of the body of Christ. Not that Christ needs theses saints, for it is through his love that he uses us—the same love that created the world not because he needed to, but because he loved what he was to create. Therefore he delights to use us: his colors, his saints, his members that make up his body. He delights to use us, because he wants to share his divine life with us, because love, as both the recipient and the giver, is the greatest thing anyone can experience.<br />
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The saints are beautiful. To look at the saint is to behold the face of Jesus. By their union with Christ and each other through the gathering around the eucharistic table, they are changed—changed into Jesus: “yet it is not I, but Christ living in me (4).” To be a saint is to empty oneself as Christ did and to live for another. And in a sense in this emptying, Christ is really filling us with himself. The saints do not hide Christ in a sea of faces—no!—they all standing pointing to the Lamb of God saying with his Mother: “My soul proclaims proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior (5)!” “No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source (6).”</div>
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The Catholic Church, possessing the fullness of the gifts of divine life by the power of the Holy Spirit, channels the grace of Jesus Christ (sacraments) to the faithful. Acts tells us that the faithful devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, the breaking of bread and of prayers. This is the Mass. The breaking of bread, or as we call it, the Eucharist, is the participation in Jesus Christ himself. The body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord and Savior is made really, truly and substantially present in the form of bread and wine for our salvation. Jesus, the God-Man and our passover, upon his resurrection, opens the door to life beyond death. He took the eternal divine, which is timeless, and finite creation, which exists within time, united them in his person and ascended into heaven. The incarnation of Jesus Christ continues because “things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human (7).” Following St. Paul, this small band of Christians that shared in one loaf as one body soon realized that this (eucharistic) communion goes far beyond the unity of those on earth. “A cosmic breath very soon entered into the concept of Church: the communion of saints spoken of [in the creed] extends beyond the frontier of death; it binds together all those who have received the one spirit and his one, life-giving power (8).” There is but one Church—one body. There is only one who unites the saints in heaven to those those of earth, one who has has passed over to death and unites all beyond it, one who even now waits for you in the stillness of a whisper, in the bread of the saints: Our Lord Jesus Christ.</div>
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It is this union of divine love with the Word Incarnate that allows us to say with St. Thomas Aquinas: <br />
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“I pray that You bring me, a sinner, to the indescribable Feast where You, with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, are to Your saints true light, full blessedness, everlasting joy, and perfect happiness. Through the same Christ our Lord (9).”<br />
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Here's a list of <a href="http://www.catholic.org/saints/popular.php">popular Catholic saints</a>, for your perusal.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1. Philippians 4:13.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">2. John 15:12<br />3. Benedict XVI. "Homily on Holy Mass on the Solemnity of All Saints," Vatican Basilica, 1 Nov 2006.<br />4. Galatians 2:20<br />5. <i>Magnificat</i>, Luke 1:46-47.<br />6. <i>Lumen Gentium</i>, 62.<br />7. <i>Exsultet</i><br />8. Ratzinger, Joseph. <i>Introduction to Christianity, </i>334-35.<br />9. Aquinas, Thomas. "Prayer of Thanksgiving After Mass."</span></div>
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-61738850433613127022014-04-19T14:03:00.001-04:002014-04-19T15:27:05.690-04:00He Descended Into Hell<div style="display: inline !important; text-align: left;">
<i> "Tell me, my master, tell me, lord," I then</i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>began because I wanted to be certain</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>of that belief which vanquishes all errors,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i> "did any ever go—by his own merit</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>or others'—from this place toward blessedness?"</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>And he, who understood my covert speech,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>when I beheld a Great Lord enter here;</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>the crown he wore, a sign of victory.</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i> He carried off the shade of our first father, </i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>of his son Abel, and the shade of Noah,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>of Moses, the obedient legislator,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i> of father Abraham, David the king,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>of Israel, his father, and his sons,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>and Rachel, she for whom he worked so long,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i> and many others—He made them blessed;</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>and I should have you know that, before them,</i></i></div>
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<i style="text-align: start;"><i>there were no human souls that had been saved."</i></i></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">—Virgil responds to Dante about the souls in the realm of the dead</span><br />
<i><i>Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto IV</i></i><br />
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The Harrowing of Hell, as the ancient Christians called it, is Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into the realm of the dead <i>(hell, sheol, the inferno)</i>. This is the place were men, just and unjust alike, await their final destination, whether it be to share in the blessedness of the divine, or the realm of the damned. Jesus Christ, by his death as the God-Man, unlocked the entry into heaven that was sealed off to all those who had gone before him. By his own death, Jesus Christ has defeated death. As Adrian Walker says, "The Risen Lord has victoriously filled death with the only substance and intelligibility it can have: Himself."<br />
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Imagine the souls of all the patriarchs of the Old Testament and of all the just who followed God banging at the gate heaven to no avail. "The way is shut," as the Dead Men of Dunharrow in Tolkien's <i>Lord of the Rings</i> say to Aragorn. There is no entry for man into heaven. So our fathers wait. They wait in hope of the Messiah. "When will he come?" they ask. As they wait David sings a familiar psalm:<br />
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<i>I waited patiently for the Lord;<br />he inclined to me and heard my cry.</i><br />
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<i><br />He drew me up from the desolate pit,<br /> out of the miry bog,<br />and set my feet upon a rock,<br /> making my steps secure.</i></div>
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<i><br />He put a new song in my mouth,<br /> a song of praise to our God.<br />Many will see and fear,<br /> and put their trust in the Lord.</i><br />
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The Prophet Isaiah solemnly responds:</div>
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<i>For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks,</i></div>
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<i>nor death that praises you;</i></div>
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<i>neither do those who go down into the pit</i></div>
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<i>await your kindness.</i></div>
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<i>The living, the living give you thanks,</i></div>
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<i>as I do today.</i></div>
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<i>Fathers declare to their sons,</i></div>
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<i>O God, your faithfulness.</i><br />
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Then suddenly, out of the abyss, a shining light appears. It is a light like none of them have ever beheld—it is Light itself, the Light of the World. The Just One approaches, clothed in splendor and wearing a crown of unsurpassable regal splendor, with the air of triumph, a scepter of mercy, and the robes of righteousness. He, who has accomplished his passion and died in obedience to the Father, approaches the dead, preaches to them the kingdom of heaven and his victory. They listen. He tells them of His redemption he won and offers them eternal life through His blood. They sing in unison:</div>
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<i>And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad; </i></div>
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<i>even my body shall rest in safety. </i></div>
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<i>For you will not leave my soul among the dead,</i></div>
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<i>nor let your beloved know decay!</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>You will show me the path of life,</i></div>
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<i>the fullness of joy in your presence,</i></div>
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<i>at your right hand happiness for ever!</i></div>
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They have all been waiting for this day. He clothes them in white robes washed in His blood. Then in a terrible and sublime action, He bursts open the gate with the divine prerogative that was only His to wield. The darkness subsides. The shackles of death are removed. They all breathe and smell the sweet aroma of life. He enters through the gate to Life. As he enters, he himself is transformed into a gate—a new gate, with eternal beatitude awaiting on the other side. He calls to his own. "Follow me." His own hear His voice. They walk through and rise with Christ singing: "Alleluia. Alleluia."</div>
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The following sermon is taken from the Second Reading of the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday:</div>
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<b>From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday<br />The Lord Descends Into Hell</b><br />
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Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.<br />
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He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”<br />
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I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.<br />
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For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.<br />
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See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.<br />
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I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.<br />
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Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.<br />
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<b>Responsory</b><br />
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Our shepherd, the source of the water of life, has died. The sun was darkened when he passed away. But now man’s captor is made captive.<br />
– This is the day when our Savior broke through the gates of death.<br />
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He has destroyed the barricades of hell, overthrown the sovereignty of the devil.<br />
– This is the day when our Savior broke through the gates of death.</div>
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Praise be to Jesus Christ, now and forever!</div>
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-36040596603233308972014-03-04T08:37:00.000-05:002014-03-04T17:57:19.880-05:00Out of the Depths: My First Lent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Three years ago at this time, I was at one of the lowest points in my life. Everything that I thought was important was being stripped away. If real suffering is akin to pneumonia, mine was more of a sniffle, but at the time, it was real, and I was hurting. Fear over finances. Physical pain. Despair. Nothing was interesting. Everything tasted bland. C.S. Lewis in the <i>Great Divorce</i> mentions the main character standing in a bus queue that is going nowhere and noticing that his surroundings were stuck in that moment after sunset when all the colors are flat and dim but not dark enough for the light coming from the inside of houses to look cozy and inviting. Everything is neutral and nothing is appealing. That's how I felt. I was going nowhere and the whole damn world was gray.<br />
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At one point, in one of those raw moments of honesty, I gave God an ultimatum: "Either you show me what you want me to do, or you'll lose me. I'm hanging on by a thread here. I need something now!" On reflection, I think I was influenced by John Piper's JOB poem, which my friend Chris Koelle illustrated and we later turned into an <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/job/id523952730">animation</a> with Aaron Greene's beautiful score. Job, at a moment of desperation, which of course was much more intense than my own, prays:<br />
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<i>Oh God, I cling with feeble fingers</i><br />
<i>to the ledge of your great grace.</i><br />
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I was really down and out. This is not dissimilar to what all of us go through at some point—a moment of truth. What do I <i>really</i> believe? Am I a Christian because of my upbringing? Do I "believe" because it is convenient, and it makes sense for the time being? We all have to own those and similar questions at some point. Life and what you believe about it will always come down to brass tax. So it was with me in the beginning of 2011.<br />
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I attended this thing for young singles that was run by First Presbyterian Church called <i>Life</i>. And yes, that got annoying to ask/be asked about. Anywho, it met once a week, Mondays I believe at the time, and was run by Phil Hargrove, a minister at First Presbyterian and a man that I admire greatly. It was one week after my "ultimatum" with God and either the first or second time that I had attended <i>Life</i> when he gave a talk about Lent. Now I had heard about Lent of course. I grew up in South Bend, Indiana, a democratic Irish/Polish Catholic town with a <a href="https://www.nd.edu/">little university</a> with the mascot of the "Fighting Irish" which you may have heard of, but I had never really given Lent much thought. It was something for someone else to do other than me. After the talk that night, I couldn't stop thinking about it.<br />
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Three days earlier, I had just been hired to fill in at New Covenant School in Anderson as the Art Teacher (Yes, unemployment was one of the many things that contributed to my despair). I was talking the Headmaster, Joey Thames, with whom I befriended immediately, on the Wednesday morning after I got hired, and a day and a half after the talk at <i>Life</i>. He asked me what I was going to give up at Lent. I had been thinking about Lent a lot in that short time but I had not planned on giving something up yet (I'll get into that concept later.). I thought about it for ten seconds. It was obvious to me. Anyone who knows me knows that I like a good red wine, a high-gravity beer and a single-malt scotch as much as I love anything else. I told him him I was giving up all forms of alcohol. He said the same. It was nice to have a companion who sympathized with my "tremendous" sacrifice.<br />
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To this day, I cannot for the life of me remember how or why I entered through the large wooden doors at St. Mary's Catholic Church at 7pm that night for Ash Wednesday. But I did. I was there. I had never been inside before, nor had I ever been to a Catholic Mass. Here I was at St. Mary's with all the bells and smells, the stained glass, the immaculate choir and Fr. Newman's thundering homily delivered to a packed out sanctuary. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I'll admit that I don't remember much except the imposition of ashes and a series of questions posed by Fr. Newman: "Why is it that all four masses today have been standing-room only? Why is it that so many Protestants–<i>that's me</i>–are here for Ash Wednesday Mass at the beginning of Lent? What is it that draws them here?" The question itself was enough. I don't even remember what his answer was exactly. I didn't know why I was there myself. But I spent the rest of Lent figuring that out.<br />
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Before I go on further, it is time for a <a href="http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/faq.php">crash course in all things Lenten.</a> Lent, which starts tomorrow, is a liturgical season lasting forty days that was started by at least the 3rd-4th century. It is called <i>Quadragesima</i> (forty) in Latin. Our word <i>Lent</i> comes from a Germanic word meaning spring. The forty days of Lent lasting from Ash Wednesday to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday">Maundy Thursday</a> mirror Jesus' forty days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness. As we are the Body of Christ, we aim to participate in his life. Lent is a time of prayer, penance, and denial of self to help bring about true repentance of sins and renewal of baptismal promises in preparation for Easter. The self-denial part is what everyone is familiar with. Chocolate, beer, fast-food, Facebook, sex... whatever it may be, the faithful willing give it up. And not just the faithful, even those on the fritz with the Catholic Church take part. Everybody recognizes in some way that denying ourselves of the things we desire is good for us. But giving up something is not the point in itself. What does it point to?<br />
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At the heart of Lent is baptism. All through Lent, the catechumens (those unbaptized) are being prepared to take the Sacrament of Baptism at the Easter Vigil, be confirmed in the Church and to partake of the Holy Eucharist. For those who are baptized, God has washed you with cleansing waters of his Spirit and grafted you into his body. Our sins are forgiven and we are no more children of wrath, but have become sons of God. We are told to "sin no more." But we are not yet perfect. We fall back into sin, and we stop ascending the ladder to heaven to have a look around. The original sin is removed, but we have to be remolded because of our tendencies to sin. And this is a slow process for most of us—a lifetime process in fact. The Church recognizes our lapses, and so Lent is one way where the Church corporately can recognize the need to return to our baptismal commitment by the grace of God. Lent is, in a sense, a preparation to once again say our "<i>fiat</i>" to God, to detest our sins and to come before the throne of grace saying "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."<br />
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The penitential aspect of Lent touches both dimensions of our being: the spiritual and the physical. Matching prayer and penance with abstinence of food and the "thing desired" propels us to a higher plane than what we normally experience. You sense that you are both an angel and beast at the same time. You have cravings for food and true sorrow for sin. They work together. Your craving for food turns into a longing for the Resurrection, and your sorrow for sin brings you to the threshold of things hoped for. For me, it was one of the first times, if not the first time, that I sensed my own uniqueness as a human. We truly are unlike anything else. To paraphrase Frank Sheed in <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/666640.Theology_and_Sanity">Theology and Sanity</a></i>, there is the spiritual world with all its angels, principalities and powers, and then there is the physical world with its galaxies, stars, planets, water, soil, plants and animals. But if these two dimensions were opposing triangles, they would meet at one point. And that point is us—humanity. We straddle the spiritual and the physical. We are truly unique.<br />
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Now this might seem like a remote connection to the purpose of Lent, and it probably is, but for me it meant everything. Here was something that I experienced that cut to the core of my being: by denying myself, I felt complete. The paradox was tremendous. Lent was absolutely liberating. The weight of sin and the despair of not getting what I wanted was lifted off my back. The physical acts of contrition really meant something to me spiritually. I KNOW they did. I had always kept my spiritual side distinct from my physical side. The two did not really relate. Lent changed that. I recognized within me that the spiritual and the physical dimensions, although they are distinct, make up ONE person—me—whoever me actual is. It was as if I was staring at myself in the mirror for the first time. It was a pretty self-aware moment.<br />
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I stuck it out for the forty days. As we were nearing the end of it, I had a sense of hope like I had never felt before. Yes, I wanted to let the wine flow like the wedding feast at Cana, but the hope of the Resurrection shown so bright that everything else that I had placed my hope in became translucent and faded in comparison. It was one of those moments, and you know when you have it, where you have intense clarity and peace, and you feel you understand the cosmos.<br />
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Was Lent an emotional response? Emotion definitely played its part. But remember, Lent is 40 days long—there is plenty of time for the emotion to wear off and the desire to break your fast comes on strong. Emotion was the outpouring of something I had finally grasped. I was being pulled into something that was much bigger than I. Lent transcended me. I realized I did not know much of anything during those forty days and that was a good thing. Even as I write this, I know that I have only scratched the surface into the mystery that Lent draws us into.<br />
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In his own way, God was answering my "ultimatum" by preparing me through Lent to be received in his Church. As Lent prepares us for the Easter Season, and the Passion the Resurrection, for myself Lent was also preparing me for the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life. Now, Lent is but one facet of my conversion, but I can say after the Lent of 2011 I had the grace to lay down my prejudice towards the Catholic Church and find out what she is on her own terms. I wanted to know what the Catholic Church says she is in herself and not what others said about her. Lent had showed me that those two were not adding up.<br />
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So for all you Protestants out there who may not have participated in Lent before, give it a try. Go to an Ash Wednesday Mass or service tomorrow and surrender yourself these forty days. Devote yourself to prayer. I suggest the morning and evening prayers of the <a href="http://divineoffice.org/">Liturgy of the Hours</a>. Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, do not eat on Fridays, seek reconciliation with your neighbor and return to you baptismal commitments. You have nothing to lose (except the thing you give up!) and everything to gain. This is not a hidden invitation to become Catholic. Many Protestants as well as the Eastern Orthodox communions also participate in Lent. And this is just my story. God meets us where we are. We are human and he uses the most human of means to reach us. Lent is just that. Its one of the most human ways in which God comes to meet and restore us. Lent, for all its penance, is a tremendous gift when coupled with the hope of the Resurrection. This Wednesday will be the beginning of my fourth Lent, and I will ever thank God for it.<br />
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And I learned what it was that brought me to St. Mary's that night. It was Jesus Christ.<br />
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Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.<br />
Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.<br />
If You, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?<br />
But with You is forgiveness, that You may be revered.<br />
I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in His word.<br />
My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn.<br />
More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord,<br />
For with the Lord is kindness and with Him is plenteous redemption;<br />
And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.<br />
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<i>~De Profundis (Psalm 130)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-62223083548251577512014-02-22T16:04:00.001-05:002014-02-22T16:09:43.904-05:00Feast of the Chair of Peter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Upon the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Cardinal Francis George, who at the time was Archbishop of Chicago, was noted to have a serene and contemplative look on his face when the new pope and all the cardinals were standing around the Loggia of St. Peter's. When asked what he was thinking about at that time he said: "I was gazing over toward the Circus Maximus, toward the Palatine Hill where the Roman Emperors once resided and reigned and looked down upon the persecution of Christians, and I thought, 'Where are their successors? Where is the successor of Caesar Augustus? Where is the successor of Marcus Aurelius? And finally, who cares? But if you want to see the successor of Peter, he is right next to me, smiling and waving at the crowds.'"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter—the celebration of the office of the papacy. Pope Francis, who has so far captured the hearts of the world with his simplicity, humility and compassion, is the 265th successor of St. Peter. He was joined today by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus in an "unprecedented ceremony." Everyone recognizes that it is quite unusual to see two popes at the same time. It has not, however, been </span>unusual<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to see one pope succeed another pope. In fact it is really silly to say. It is a no-brainer to everyone. For almost two thousand years there has been an unbroken succession of Apostolic authority vested to the man who stands in Simon Peter's stead. The succession is clear and steady, but the barometer of papal popularity greatly varies. There is not a position on earth where a man garners as much love as he does hate. Are you ambivalent towards Pope Francis? Probably not. Everyone who finds out I am a Catholic chomps at the bit to ask me what I think of the new pope. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For two thousand years, the papacy has wielded more influence than any other office. You may think, "well, he doesn't wield the power that the President of the United States possesses." While I would say that there is an argument to be had against that (see Pope John Paul II and the downfall of the USSR and the influence of Catholic Social Teaching), point is that only the pope has been there since the beginning. Every step of the way, there has been a pope: from the persecutions of Christians under the Romans, to doctrinal crisis of the 4th and 5th centuries, to shooing Attila the Hun out of Italy, to missionary work in the far reaches of Northern Europe in the dark ages, to unifying Christendom under one banner and countering the advancement of Islam during the Middle Ages, to patronizing the arts and culture during the Renaissance, to sending missionaries to the ends of the earth after the Counter-Reformation, to rallying the Catholic nations to defending Europe from the Ottoman Turks, to the development of Social Teachings that put the dignity of the human person in real practical terms, to combatting tyrannical regimes and fostering ecumenism among all Christians in the present age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And yet amid all these empirical accomplishments, all the while, every step of the way, the successors of Peter have preserved and safeguarded the deposit of faith which was given to them by Jesus Christ. Catholics recognize that without Peter's charism, the truth cannot be preserved. Truth cannot be properly known to be true if those who profess to transmit the truth cannot be trusted to properly know the truth. Without the preservation of truth, things will disseminate into moral relativism—a Christianity with fuzzy edges. Truth-seekers, rightly frustrated, will end up rejecting it. Let us go a step further. Without the leadership of one who preserves the truth, not only will moral relativism ensue, but it will do so on the backs of manifold schisms—an anti-Pentecost, if you will, or the new Babel. This is one reason why Protestants divide instead of unite. Protestantism, in itself, claims no authority. It places the authority on the clear understanding of Scripture. Scripture alone is the only infallible interpreter of the Truth. But if you and I disagree on the "clear teaching" of Sacred Scripture, who, I pray thee, will settle the matter if there is no one to turn to? For let's be real, a book cannot interpret itself. Luther had no authority to call off Zwingli or the antinomians. Neither could John Calvin, with all his "genius," forge the middle way. Their words cannot bind your conscience if they don't carry the weight of infallible authority. At best you agree with them by virtue of believing them in yourself, as if the arrow of truth is pointing towards oneself—you become you're own pope. This is the stuff of schism. Called to Communion has <a href="http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2009/11/solo-scriptura-sola-scriptura-and-the-question-of-interpretive-authority/">taken up this charge</a>, and I need not belabor the point here. This lack of infallible authority is why there are countless schisms within the Protestant communities. Furthermore, it is just plain ol' common sense: What army can stay unified without a general? What corporation can operate without one who makes the final call? What government of any stripe that has worked at much length can make any progress and bind the state together without one leader who decides? What local parish or church has no leader? What sports team has no head coach? What school has no principal?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the evangelist is clear in showing us that Jesus intends to allow Peter to participate in his authority in a special way:</span></div>
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"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'"</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now many will say that faith is the rock upon which Christ builds his Church. I agree, but I will add that it is <i>Peter's </i>faith—not James', not John's, not any one else's. It is a <i>both/and</i> argument. Just as Jesus has united the divine and human in his person, so by extension, the office of the pope is both a divine and human—faith which comes from God and the man, Peter, whom God chose. This divine and human marriage bleeds into all aspects of Catholic teaching: the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection, the Sacraments, the Nature of the Church, Sacred Scripture, the Office of the Pope, <i>et cetera</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So many times the argument is used that the whole enterprise of the Bishop of Rome is opposed to Jesus Christ. But I believe that to be a misunderstanding that stems from a lack of <i>incarnational theology</i>. God has come to us. <i>Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit a nobis. </i>The Son of God condescended to us to unite us to himself. We are baptized into his body and <i>participate</i> in the life of Christ. Everything we are to do is in participation with Jesus Christ, not in opposition to him. He is the Vine and we are the branches. It is through him which we live and bear fruit. So it is with the Chair of Peter. Peter's authority does not take away from the authority of Jesus. It was given to him by Jesus. Listen to the words of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_I">Pope St. Leo the Great</a> in a homily on Matthew 16:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"<i>And I say to you.</i> In other words, as my Father has revealed to you my godhead, so I in my turn make known to you your preeminence. <i>You are Peter:</i> though I am the inviolable rock, <i>the cornerstone that makes both one,</i> the foundation apart from which no one can lay any other, yet you also are a rock, for you are given solidity by my strength, so that which is my very own because of my power is common between us through your participation."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, the power of binding and loosing which Matthew 16 speaks of is also given to the other apostles. In the Gospel of John, Jesus appears in their midst, breathes on them and say: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven</span>; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” <span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus Christ gives the authority he received from his Father to the Apostles, but he singled out Peter for something more. Peter's charism is not one of just cold preservation of the truth, like a safety deposit box, he is chiefly called to be a faithful shepherd who provides for the sheep and even for his brethren. In Luke 22, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus said to Peter:</span></div>
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"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren." <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Peter, of course goes on to deny Jesus, but unlike Judas, Peter repents and turns back. In John 21, after the disciples recognized the Risen Lord standing on the shore while they fished, they meet with him as he is preparing food. Mirroring his triple denial, Jesus pulls Peter away from the rest of the disciples and asks him:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">St. Augustine highlights this in a letter to the Manichees: "There are many things that keep me in the Catholic Church... the succession of priests, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it the charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate." Later in the letter he comes right out and says, "I would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Church had not moved me."</span></div>
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The "dynasty" of the popes has had a remarkable run: two thousand years and still kicking. Now, if all of the popes were truly exceptional and saintly individuals, which would be remarkable enough, one would try to rest the merits of this incredible succession on the individuals themselves. But, as we are all well aware, God has blessed his Church with some less than stellar pontiffs, and some that were downright bad. This to me is more remarkable. How could an man-created institution perpetuate itself down throughout the centuries with so many ill-equipped leaders? Answer: it cannot. The Catholic Church and the Papacy does so because it is a <i>divine</i> institution.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like any other institution, there is a leader. Unlike any other institution, it is divinely protected. If not, how could there be any unity? Now this is by no means a proof, but if you look at the disparity between the communions of the Christian bodies of the world, there is one that most obviously stands out. As Blessed John Henry Newman so eloquently and sharply puts:</span></div>
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"There is a religious communion claiming a divine commission, and holding all other religious bodies around it heretical or infidel; it is a well-organized, well-disciplined body; it is a sort of secret society, binding together its members by influences and by engagements which it is difficult for strangers to ascertain. It is spread over the known world; it may be weak or insignificant locally, but it is strong on the whole from its continuity; it may be smaller than all other religious bodies together, but is larger than each separately. It is a natural enemy to governments external to itself; it is intolerant and engrossing, and tends to a new modeling of society; it breaks laws, it divides families. It is a gross superstition; it is charged with the foulest crimes; it is despised by the intellect of the day; it is frightful to the imagination of the many. And there is but one communion such."<br />
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That the Catholic Church stands out among the rest, there can be no question. The Chair of Peter in no small way is the distinguishing principle of unity that preserves so vast and diverse a body of people. It has existed for so long, beginning with Peter, "down to the present episcopate." The Barque of Peter, the Catholic Church, is still sailing, and Peter is still at the helm. For two thousand years it has lasted, and we take it for granted. I think it is safe to say, even if you would not desire to admit it, that the Catholic Church and the papacy will be around for the next two thousand years, if the Lord tarries. It is a rather immovable force. It is grounded–much like, I dare say, a Rock.</div>
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All-powerful Father,</div>
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you have built your Church</div>
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on the rock of Saint Peter's confession of faith.</div>
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May nothing divide or weaken</div>
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our unity in faith and love.</div>
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Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,</div>
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who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,</div>
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one God, for ever and ever.</div>
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Today is the Feast Day of St. Anthony the Great, or Anthony of the Desert, as he is sometimes called. Although he is not the first monk or aesthetic, his austere lifestyle and influence in gaining hundreds of followers and to forsake everything to devote their lives to prayer and alms giving won him the honor as the Father of Monasticism.</div>
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<b>From the Life of St. Anthony</b></div>
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<i>by St. Athanasius of Alexandria</i></div>
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When Anthony was about eighteen or twenty years old, his parents died, leaving him with an only sister. He cared for her as she was very young, and also looked after their home.<br />
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Not six months after his parents’ death, as he was on his way to church for his usual visit, he began to think of how the apostles had left everything and followed the Saviour, and also of those mentioned in the book of Acts who had sold their possessions and brought the apostles the money for distribution to the needy. He reflected too on the great hope stored up in heaven for such as these. This was all in his mind when, entering the church just as the Gospel was being read, he heard the Lord’s words to the rich man: If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor – you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me.<br />
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It seemed to Anthony that it was God who had brought the saints to his mind and that the words of the Gospel had been spoken directly to him. Immediately he left the church and gave away to the villagers all the property he had inherited, about 200 acres of very beautiful and fertile land, so that it would cause no distraction to his sister and himself. He sold all his other possessions as well, giving to the poor the considerable sum of money he collected. However, to care for his sister he retained a few things.<br />
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The next time he went to church he heard the Lord say in the Gospel: Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Without a moment’s hesitation he went out and gave the poor all that he had left. He placed his sister in the care of some well-known and trustworthy virgins and arranged for her to be brought up in the convent. Then he gave himself up to the ascetic life, not far from his own home. He kept a careful watch over himself and practised great austerity. He did manual work because he had heard the words: If anyone will not work, do not let him eat. He spent some of his earnings on bread and the rest he gave to the poor.<br />
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Having learned that we should always be praying, even when we are by ourselves, he prayed without ceasing. Indeed, he was so attentive when Scripture was read that nothing escaped him and because he retained all he heard, his memory served him in place of books.<br />
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Seeing the kind of life he lived, the villagers and all the good men he knew called him the friend of God, and they loved him as both son and brother.</div>
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Read in full at <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2811.htm">NewAdvent</a>.</div>
Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-24320695011775213412013-12-29T08:00:00.000-05:002013-12-30T09:21:09.675-05:00Feast of the Holy Family & St. Thomas Becket<i><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Feast of Holy Family</span></b></i><br />
<i>An address by Pope Paul VI (Nazareth, January 5, 1964). </i><br />
<i>Taken from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for the Sunday in the Octave of Easter.</i><br />
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<h4>
Nazareth, a model</h4>
Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ’s life was like and even to understand his Gospel. Here we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way God’s Son came to be known, profound yet full of hidden meaning. And gradually we may even learn to imitate him.<br />
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Here we can learn to realize who Christ really is. And here we can sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded and affected his life on earth: the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief, everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world. Here everything speaks to us, everything has meaning. Here we can learn the importance of spiritual discipline for all who wish to follow Christ and to live by the teachings of his Gospel.<br />
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How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth! How wonderful to be close to Mary, learning again the lesson of the true meaning of life, learning again God’s truths. But here we are only on pilgrimage. Time presses and I must set aside my desire to stay and carry on my education in the Gospel, for that education is never finished. But I cannot leave without recalling, briefly and in passing; some thoughts I take with me from Nazareth.<br />
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First, we learn from its silence. If only we could once again appreciate its great value. We need this wonderful state of mind, beset as we are by the cacophony of strident protests and conflicting claims so characteristic of these turbulent times. The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God.<br />
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Second, we learn about family life. May Nazareth serve as a model of what the family should be. May it show us the family’s holy and enduring character and exemplify its basic function in society: a community of love and sharing, beautiful for the problems it poses and the rewards it brings, in sum, the perfect setting for rearing children – and for this there is no substitute.<br />
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Finally, in Nazareth, the home of a craftsman’s son, we learn about work and the discipline it entails. I would especially like to recognize its value – demanding yet redeeming – and to give it proper respect. I would remind everyone that work has its own dignity. On the other hand, it is not an end in itself. Its value and free character, however, derive not only from its place in the economic system, as they say, but rather from the purpose it serves.<br />
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In closing, may I express my deep regard for people everywhere who work for a living. To them I would point out their great model, Christ their brother, our Lord and God, who is their prophet in every cause that promotes their well being.<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Commemoration of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr</span></b></i><br />
<i>From a letter by St. Thomas Becket (mid 12th century). </i><br />
<i>Taken from the Reading in the Office of Readings for the December 29.</i><br />
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Without real effort, no one wins the crown</h4>
If we who are called bishops desire to understand the meaning of our calling and to be worthy of it, we must strive to keep our eyes on him whom God appointed high priest for ever, and to follow in his footsteps. For our sake he offered himself to the Father upon the altar of the cross. He now looks down from heaven on our actions and secret thoughts, and one day he will give each of us the reward his deeds deserve. <br />
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As successors of the apostles, we hold the highest rank in our churches; we have accepted the responsibility of acting as Christ's representatives on earth; we receive the honor belonging to that office, and enjoy the temporal benefits of our spiritual labors. It must therefore be our endeavor to destroy the reign of sin and death, and by nurturing faith and uprightness of life, to build up the Church of Christ into a holy temple in the Lord.<br />
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There are a great many bishops in the Church, but would to God we were the zealous teachers and pastors that we promised to be at our consecration, and still make profession of being. The harvest is good and one reaper or even several would not suffice to gather all of it into the granary of the Lord. Yet the Roman Church remains the head of all the churches and the source of Catholic teaching. Of this there can be no doubt. Everyone knows that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given to Peter. Upon his faith and teaching the whole fabric of the Church will continue to be built until we all reach full maturity in Christ and attain to unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God.<br />
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Of course many are needed to plant and many to water now that the faith has spread so far and the population become so great. Even in ancient times when the people of God had only one altar, many teachers were needed; how much more now for an assembly of nations which Lebanon itself could not provide with fuel for sacrifice, and which neither Lebanon nor the whole of Judea could supply with beasts for burnt offerings! Nevertheless, no matter who plants or waters, God gives no harvest unless what he plants is the faith of Peter, and unless he himself assents to Peter's teaching. All important questions that arise among God's people are referred to the judgment of Peter in the person of the Roman Pontiff. Under him the ministers of Mother Church exercise the powers committed to them, each in his own sphere of responsibility.<br />
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Remember then how our fathers worked out their salvation; remember the sufferings through which the Church has grown, and the storms the ship of Peter has weathered because it has Christ on board. Remember how the crown was attained by those whose sufferings gave new radiance to their faith. The whole company of saints bears witness to the unfailing truth that without real effort no one wins the crown.<br />
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-38354978873171789672013-12-28T08:00:00.000-05:002013-12-30T09:21:00.543-05:00Feast of Holy Innocents<i style="font-weight: normal;">Sermon by <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-quodvultdeus/">St. Quodvultdeus</a> for the Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs (mid 5th century).</i><i>Taken from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for December 28th.</i><br />
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<i>They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ</i></h4>
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.<br />
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Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.<br />
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You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.<br />
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Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace – so small, yet so great – who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God’s adopted children.<br />
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The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation.<br />
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But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.<br />
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How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.</div>
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-60369882754919750502013-12-27T10:00:00.001-05:002013-12-27T11:05:43.217-05:00Feast of St. John the Evangelist<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sermon by St. Augustine of Hippo on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist (early 5th century).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Taken from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for December 27th.</i></span><br />
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<h4>
Life itself was revealed in the Flesh</h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>We announce what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have touched with our own hands.</i> Who could touch the Word with his hands unless <i>the Word was made flesh and lived among us?</i> Now this Word, whose flesh was so real that he could be touched by human hands, began to be flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb; but he did not begin to exist at that moment. We know this from what John says: <i>What existed from the beginning.</i> Notice how John’s letter bears witness to his Gospel, which you just heard a moment ago: <i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.</i> Someone might interpret the phrase the Word of life to mean a word about Christ, rather than Christ’s body itself which was touched by human hands. But consider what comes next: <i>and life itself was revealed.</i> Christ therefore is himself the Word of life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> And how was this life revealed? It existed from the beginning, but was not revealed to men, only to angels, who looked upon it and feasted upon it as their own spiritual bread. But what does Scripture say? <i>Mankind ate the bread of angels.</i> Life itself was therefore revealed in the flesh. In this way what was visible to the heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men’s hearts. For the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal the part of us by which we could see the Word.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> John continues: <i>And we are witnesses and we proclaim to you that eternal life which was with the Father and has been revealed among us</i> – one might say more simply “revealed to us.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>We proclaim to you what we have heard and seen.</i> Make sure that you grasp the meaning of these words. The disciples saw our Lord in the flesh, face to face; they heard the words he spoke, and in turn they proclaimed the message to us. So we also have heard, although we have not seen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Are we then less favored than those who both saw and heard? If that were so, why should John add: <i>so that you too may have fellowship with us?</i> They saw, and we have not seen; yet we have fellowship with them, because we and they share the same faith.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>And our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. And we write this to you to make your joy complete</i> – complete in that fellowship, in that love and in that unity.</span>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-61556329657100875312013-12-26T21:22:00.000-05:002013-12-27T13:31:26.161-05:00Feast of St. Stephen<i>Sermon by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe on the Feast of St. Stephen (Circa AD 500)<br />Taken from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for December 26th</i>
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Armament of Love</h4>
Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier. <br />
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Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin’s womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven. <br />
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Our king, despite his exalted majesty, came in humility for our sake; yet he did not come empty-handed. He brought his soldiers a great gift that not only enriched them but also made them unconquerable in battle, for it was the gift of love, which was to bring men to share in his divinity. He gave of his bounty, yet without any loss to himself. In a marvelous way he changed into wealth the poverty of his faithful followers while remaining in full possession of his own inexhaustible riches. <br />
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And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the king, it later shone forth in his soldier. Love was Stephen’s weapon by which he gained every battle, and so won the crown signified by his name. His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment. Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven. In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition. <br />
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Now at last, Paul rejoices with Stephen, with Stephen he delights in the glory of Christ, with Stephen he exalts, with Stephen he reigns. Stephen went first, slain by the stones thrown by Paul, but Paul followed after, helped by the prayer of Stephen. This, surely, is the true life, my brothers, a life in which Paul feels no shame because of Stephen’s death, and Stephen delights in Paul’s companionship, for love fills them both with joy. It was Stephen’s love that prevailed over the cruelty of the mob, and it was Paul’s love that covered the multitude of his sins; it was love that won for both of them the kingdom of heaven. <br />
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Love, indeed, is the source of all good things; it is an impregnable defense,- and the way that leads to heaven. He who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides him, protects him, and brings him to his journey’s end. <br />
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My brothers, Christ made love the stairway that would enable all Christians to climb to heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore, in all sincerity, give one another practical proof of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together.<br />
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<i>Also, the story behind the carol "Good King Wensceslas" is set on the Feast of St. Stephen. Enjoy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4MWOpEXe5w">tuxedo guy</a>.</i><br />
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-62473496506927317312013-12-26T21:03:00.000-05:002013-12-27T11:04:52.817-05:00Christmas Day<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"><i>Homily by Pope St. Leo the Great on Christmas Day (5th century)<br />Taken from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for December 25th</i></span></span><br />
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<h4>
Christian, remember your dignity</h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">marvelous</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"> work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ. </span></span>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-4442642380170248732013-12-26T20:59:00.001-05:002013-12-26T20:59:50.689-05:00Christmas Season Office of Readings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For the next several days, I will be posting the sermons from the Office of Readings in the </span><a href="http://divineoffice.org/" style="font-family: inherit;">Liturgy of the Hours</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. If you have never looked at the Liturgy of the Hours, this is a great time to do so. The hymns, antiphons, psalms and readings from the Christmas Season are among the best. Now that I have started praying the Divine Office, I can never go back. The Hours are meant for everyone to pray. The liturgical seasons cannot be participated in properly without it. This is my favorite Christmas to date thanks to the Liturgy of the Hours. All the great Advent prayers lead in perfectly to the Nativity of Our Lord and stir up within you a longing for Jesus Christ's coming that is fulfilled in the the Christmas Vigil. All the Sermons for the Second Reading are excellent, so I will just be posting them in their entirety and adding little to nothing myself. I am a day behind because yesterday was just too much fun to take the time to start then. So with that, </span>Merry Christmas!<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh and for all you Protestants out there, just as you can't take "Christ" out of "Christmas," you can't take "Mass" out either. This is just a jab, plain and simple.</span>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-50755030656304325542013-11-22T09:21:00.000-05:002013-11-22T10:25:11.555-05:00Between Heaven and Hell and the Joys of Daily MassTwo things today. They may or may not be related.<br />
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First, today of course is the 50th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy. A lesser known fact: this is also the 50th anniversary of the passing of C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. Quite the closing of an age, the death of those three. Dr. Peter Kreeft, WHO IS THE MAN, wrote a book in 1982 about a ficticious conversation between the deceased Kennedy, Lewis and Huxley. <i>Between Heaven and Hell </i>is a short read (about 120 pages) and is well worth your time. Kreeft is an expert at making the difficult intelligable, much like Lewis, and does so delightfully through a dialogue among the orthodox christian, humanist christian and pantheist christian world views—Lewis, Kennedy and Huxley, respectively. It is a fast-paced conversation about the most important things—adding to "the Great Conversation." I read it a couple weeks ago, and I will be reading it again soon.<br />
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Second, today is the feast day of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr of the Church. If you haven't read the story of St. Cecilia, if would be worth you time to <a href="http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=34">familiarize yourself with it</a>. Martyred for her faith, she is one of the purest example of a life consecrated to God. The beauty of her life exemplifies the life of Jesus Christ and points towards Him. This morning after Mass had ended, Father Newman invited us behind the sanctuary to the sacristy and showed us a stainglass window of St. Cecilia, similar to the one above. Our four Dominican Sisters, who teach at the parish school and of whom St. Cecilia is the patroness of their Congregation, were there with us. After a little background of the painting and a brief description of the symbols, such as the organ, the twenty of us were blessed to be able to witness the Sisters sing a beautiful song to St. Cecilia while we gazed on the window as the sun was coming up. It was one of those moments where everything was at peace—Tolkienesque I should say. I felt as if I was in Lothlórien. Oh, the joys of daily Mass.<br />
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A couple lines from the song:<br />
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<i>Who are you St. Cecilia? God's beloved one. Let me know you St. Cecilia, how you gave your heart to God's Son.</i>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-19822073384856452812013-08-15T15:41:00.001-04:002014-08-05T10:05:39.057-04:00Assumption of Mary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I have been looking forward to the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary for a while. I’ve circled it on my calendar, dwelled on the mystery which it reveals and planned on fine drink for the feast. And what a feast it is! The Blessed Virgin is the exemplar follower of Christ, the pride of humanity and the greatest single created being in the universe. Her assumption, following Christ’s ascension, is a foreshadowing of all the saints of Christ’s Mystical Body. As a Protestant I never understood the idea behind Catholic feast days, veneration of the saints, and devotions to Mary. My question was not necessarily about its “intrinsic evil,” but more along the lines of “why bother?” For me, as a Protestant, Christ was the center and he alone. Everything else got in the way. Christ is the one mediator, not St. Thomas, St. Therese of Lisieux, certainly not the so called “Blessed Virgin Mary.” These stood in the way of Christ, hid him from view and shadowed his majesty as the King of Everlasting Glory. Or at least, so I thought. </div>
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<h3>
LEAVE NO TRACE</h3>
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There are many holy relics of the saints. The heads, hands, arms, feet and blood of countless saints are scattered all over the Old World. St. Peter was buried underneath Vatican Hill over which, you guessed it, St. Peter’s Basilica was erected in the 4th century. St. John the Baptist was buried in Damascus, now interred in the Umayyad Mosque, which was converted from a Christian Basilica. The relics of St. James are in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, and St. Thomas is buried, as the Indian priest at the parish in Edisto Beach told me, in southeastern India in the city of Chennai. St. Francis’ is of Assisi, St. Martin’s of Tours, St. Denis’ of Saint-Denis. Just look up any cathedral in Europe and you are sure to find that it was built upon the the grave of the patron namesake. Who wouldn’t want a claim on the bones of St. Benedict or St. Anthony of Padua or the martyred body of St. Sebastian? The lance that pierced the side of Christ was believed to be found in a cave church at Antioch during the First Crusade, and there is enough pieces of the cross scattered around Europe—as someone joked somewhere—to reconstruct Noah’s Ark. As silly as it may sound to Protestants, these relics are important things to all faithful Catholics, and they have always been so. But it may be better served to get into this line of reasoning at a later time.<br />
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It is quite a peculiar thing, then, to note that there is no cathedral, basilica, or shrine of the Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox or Anglican persuasion that is built over top the relics of the Virgin Mary. There is a Church of the Dormition (sleep), similar to that of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord, but not over her body. No one claims her relics. No one—not even a finger or a lock of hair. <br />
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Now, I need not persuade anyone of the Catholic Church’s fondness of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You cannot go to any major city in the whole of western civilization and not find a St. Mary’s Church or ignore the fact that a bazillion <i>Hail Marys</i> have been recited since the 13th century. Mary is here to stay. So it must go without saying that not claiming the bones of so holy a saint, the Exemplar Saint in fact, would have been a gross oversight. That would have been an oversight of <i>Maginot-Line–Munich-Agreement–Off-to-invade-Russia–Forgetting-to-lock-the-door-in-the-Siege-of-Constantinople–Sinking-of-the-Titanic</i> proportions. And yes, the door was truly <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_18868_5-minor-screw-ups-that-created-modern-world.html">left unlocked</a>. We are left to ask: “Why no relics?”<br />
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The Catholic Church teaches and believes to be revealed by God that our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Whether she died, fell asleep, or that the apostles were stolen away by a whirlwind to her funeral is not what is important. The reality is that Mary, a humble Jewish woman born to Joachim and Anne in the 1st century B.C., was not to decay in a grave, but to be caught up immediately with her Lord and Son. The startling reality of this most beautiful dogma has ramifications for all the People of God. <br />
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ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST</h3>
During the reign of Caesar Augustus, in a small village in a far away outpost of the Roman Empire, the most amazing conversation was held by the two most unlikely beings—an angel of the highest rank and a teenage virgin of no esteem. The angel was of course Gabriel and the virgin was Mary. The archangel announces to Mary the divine plan: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you... you will conceive in your womb and bear a son... and he will be the Son of the Most High.” Mary responds and commences the redemption of all mankind: “Let it be done with me according to your word.” At that moment, as the Creed proclaims, “For us men and for our salvation, [the Son] came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” John announces this to us at the beginning of his Gospel: “And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” God, who seemed so distant, so far away, so aloof, has come to us.<br />
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Every human being craves for what is impossible to satisfy here on earth. We crave for the infinite. We crave for knowledge of everything, the ability to sense and feel one with anyone and anything, the bliss of perfect happiness, to be fully understood, freedom from constraint and sickness, and, most of all, eternal life. Like Adam, we want to be like God. We want to be gods. That desire is not evil. It was given to us all. We are <i>Imago Dei</i>. We are the supreme material creation in the universe. We have infinite souls that desire the infinite. And that thirst cannot be satisfied without an infinite solution. God is the the only solution to our divine inclinations. “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” <br />
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The Catholic Church is built on the reality of the Incarnation of the Jesus Christ. The nature of the Church and the sacraments flow from this joining of God and Man. In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, a famous phrase in the <i>Exsultet</i> reads: <i>“O Felix Culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem.”</i> Translated: “O happy fault that merited so great a Redeemer!” St. Augustine states that “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.” Through Adam’s sin greater joy will be had. What man had and lost—Original Justice and incorruptibility—is now surpassed by the coming of Christ. Adam wanted divinity and fell because he wanted it apart from God. In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul, probably quoting early church liturgy, triumphantly states:<br />
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<i>Though he was in the form of God, <br />Jesus did not count equality with God<br />something to be grasped at.<br /><br />Rather, he emptied himself, <br />and took the form of a slave,<br />being born in the likeness of men.<br /><br />He was known to be of human estate,<br />and it was thus that he humbled himself,<br />obediently accepting even death,<br />death on a cross!<br /><br />Because of this,<br />God highly exalted him<br />and bestowed on him the name<br />above every other name,<br /><br />So that at Jesus’ name<br />every knee must bend<br />in the heavens, on the earth,<br />and under the earth,<br />and every tongue proclaim<br />to the glory of God the Father:<br />JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!</i><br />
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In our hopelessness God condescended to us. He lowered himself to lift us up. The Creator of the universe, the immaterial, infinite and immutable being took on human flesh. The Creator and creation unite in the person of Jesus Christ. All his divinity, in its infinity, affects his entire creation. The things of God are now given to the things of men. Matter is sanctified. No longer is God so distant. He has become one of us. God now dwells among nature by taking on the flesh of a young Jewish woman. <br />
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The desire for the infinite is no longer a shadow and a dream but the light of true reality. God SHARES his divinity with humanity. St. Athanasius of Alexandria in his work <i>On the Incarnation</i> famously states that “God became man so that men might become gods!” He being God, lowers himself to become man. What he was, which is God, he retains, and what he was not, which is human, he assumes. The Nicene Creed proclaims that Jesus is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial (of the same substance) with the Father.” Jesus shares God’s divinity and now by virtue of his assumed humanity, shares with us the blessedness of the divine. This is why we are a new creature. We are destined for the infinite, for the eternal beatitude.<br />
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The Church has always recognized the union of Jesus and Mary. What affects Jesus, in turn affects Mary. The Council of Ephesus recognized this when they concluded that Mary was rightly called the <i>Theotokos</i>—Mother of God, and not the <i>Christotokos</i>—Mother of Christ. She is connected to the person of Jesus, who is both God and Man, not just his human nature. Mary bore one person, not a human nature loosely connected to the Son of God. But Mary’s role is more than just the one who bore Jesus. For, if we dwell on that fact alone, how could we not realize that it would change the course of history forever? <br />
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“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”<br />
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Familiar words to everyone. “Mary, full of grace.” Mary was indeed full of grace, for our Blessed Mother was to play an important role in the redemption of mankind. Through Eve, all of humanity fell from grace, but through the Blessed Virgin, we rise to newness of life everlasting. She bore the infinite in her womb. She participated in the redemption of the world through her obedience to God. Every step of the way, Mary freely chose to follow God, to raise the child Jesus, to hide his words and actions in her heart, to suffer with him through his Passion to the point of his death and to remain ever devoted, body and soul, to her Son and Savior. There is no one who knows our Lord like Mary, no one who is so intimately united to him both physically—his Mother—and spiritually—“Full of grace, the Lord is with you!” Our Mother was united to her Son in all things. She shows us what a follower of Jesus Christ looks like. She was the first and greatest follower of Jesus. <br />
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When, in the mysterious hours of the night, to which no man is a witness, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, rose from the dead, everything changed forever. By his death he brought an end to all death. “The Risen Lord has victoriously filled death with the only substance and intelligibility it can have: himself.” God triumphs in all things, even in death. “If I make my bed in sheol, you are there.” Death is defeated for mankind forever. “Oh death, where is your sting?” “The things are heaven are now wed with those of earth.” Jesus rose victorious from the grave for death could not contain him. The Catechism states: “The Father's power ‘raised up’ Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity.” A human is seated at the right hand of the Father. A man is part of the glory of the Triune God.</div>
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At his Ascension, Christ triumphantly entered his proper dwelling, in full victory, possessing all glory and power and to live in reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. His ascension, though, is not for him alone. He condescended to lift us up. At baptism we are grafted into the Body of Christ, tending to perfection by his grace. It is not a metaphorical body, it is a real body, with Christ as the real head. And like a body, it is one. The ascension of Jesus of Nazareth is our hope:<br />
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<i>You have raised us up with him:<br /> where he, the head, has preceded us in glory,<br /> there we, the body are called in hope.</i><br />
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In a sermon on Ascension Day, Augustine states:<br />
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“Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.”<br />
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THE ASSUMPTION</h3>
Unlike all other humans, Jesus’ humanity stems only from his mother. He was more like her, than any other son was like his mother. In the <i>Paradiso</i> of Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i>, St. Bernard tells us to "see the face that is most like Christ's." She completely shares her humanity with him, and so, in turn he completely shares his incorruptibility with her. Since she said “may it be done” she has shared in his destiny. She followed him back to Jerusalem in search of her twelve-year-old son to find him in the temple, she followed him along the Via Dolorosa bearing his cross, and suffered with him at the sight of his crucifixion. Mary cannot be separated from her son, and her Son would not have it any other way. She is forever united to Jesus Christ. Building on the tradition of the church, St John Damascene teaches us:<br />
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<i>“It was necessary that she who had preserved her virginity <br />inviolate in childbirth should also have her body kept free<br />from all corruption after death;<br /><br />It was necessary that she<br />who had carried the Creator as a child on her breast<br />should dwell in the tabernacles of God.<br /><br />It was necessary that the bride espoused by the Father<br />should make her home in the bridal chambers of heaven.<br /><br />It was necessary that she who had gazed on her crucified Son<br />and been pierced in the heart by the sword of sorrow<br />which she had escaped in giving him birth,<br />should contemplate him seated with the Father.<br /><br />It was necessary that the Mother of God<br />should share the possessions of her Son,<br />and be venerated by every creature<br />as the Mother and handmaid of God.”</i><br />
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Mary is our hope. She shows us what is in store for us. She united herself to her Son and was elevated as the Queen of Heaven. She does not cloud the majesty of Christ, she magnifies it. “She is there to sit in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.” Her Assumption is our hope. “It shows us,” said Pope Benedict XVI, “in a brilliant way, our destiny and that of humanity and of history. In Mary, in fact, we contemplate that reality of glory to which each one of us and the entire church is called.”<br />
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<i>Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum<br />Benedicta tu in mulieribus,<br />et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.<br />Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,<br />Ora pro nobis peccatoribus,<br />Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.</i><br />
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Amen.</div>
Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-14460199730256366802013-05-09T17:13:00.000-04:002013-05-09T17:43:39.937-04:00Ascension of Our Lord<span style="font-family: inherit;">In most places around the world, today is the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord. Growing up I never really understood the significance, or rather the fuller purpose, if you will, of the Ascension of Jesus. I thought of it as a "my work here is done" moment. Of course in one vein, part of his work is done. He is no long the one who descended and dwelled among us. He was and is the Risen Lord. But his work as the one he ascended into all glory was just beginning and is an eternal mission, not fulfilled until he gathers all peoples and nations into one body. And nor has he left us. "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age." It was good that he ascended, so that the Spirit could descend and so we could enjoy him intimately through the Eucharist. In that most Blessed Sacrament, he gives of himself more abundantly than the manna that was given to the Israelites in the desert. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By his descent to this world through the Incarnation, he assumed us in life–the Creator and Creation unite in the person of Christ. The Divine comes in contact with the flesh. By his death as the divine man, he filled death with himself, and defeated it, for death cannot contain him. By his Resurrection, God the Father "introduces the Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity" as the Catechism says. By his Ascension, a glorified divine man assumes his place at the right hand of the Father—the God-Man Jesus Christ. "Only the one who descended can ascend into heaven." Through our Baptism we are grafted into to his Body, and so share in Him as the "whole Christ." The Body of Christ, being one with the Head, follows the Son in hope into the glory of God the Father. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sermon from St. Augustine on Ascension Day</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth.</em> For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?</em> and when he said: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I was hungry and you gave me food.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em>These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ.</em> He too has many members, but one body.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Almighty God,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> fill us with a holy joy;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> teach us how to thank you with reverence and love</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> on account of the ascension of Christ your Son.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You have raised us up with him:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> where he, the head, has preceded us in glory,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> there we, the body, are called in hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> one God, for ever and ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-42916912987204278172013-04-28T17:49:00.000-04:002013-04-28T19:08:17.834-04:00Christ is the Day<br />
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I've been thinking about what it is that makes it all worth it. If someone said to me: <i>"Jesus is God. My sins are forgiven, but so what? Who cares?"</i>, how could I respond? This is not an unlikely proposition. It is a question I get asked from time to time in various forms. I think it to be a legitimate question. What compels us to do the will of God and tends us towards him? All my knowledge in apologetics, which talks <i>about</i> the truth, is deficient in answering this. It is challenging to articulate this convincingly through words unless we experience it. I think there is a tendency to focus on the negative aspects of Christianity and relegate the positive to the superfluous–the focus of Atonement for the Sinner as more important then the Resurrection. It is usually expressed in a manner similar to "The Father restored His Son to life to show us that the debt of our sin was satisfied." While this is partly true, there is so much more to the Resurrection. It comes back to the Incarnation–God becoming man. The fact that God who is being <i>itself</i>, the I AM, assumed humanity, is not something that is for him alone. The potentiality of the Incarnation has a universal effect on all of humanity. The Resurrection of the Son of Man is the fulfillment of that potentiality.<br />
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As Pope Benedict XVI says in the <i>Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week,</i> "Jesus' Resurrection was about breaking out into an entirely new form of life, into a life that is no longer subject to the law of dying and becoming, but lies beyond it–a life that opens up a new dimension of human existence. Therefore the Resurrection of Jesus is not an isolated event that we could set aside as something limited to the past, but it constitutes an "evolutionary leap"... Is not creation actually waiting for this last and highest "evolutionary leap", for the union of the finite with the infinite, for the union of man and God, for the conquest of death?" Through his death he destroys death by filling it with himself, by resurrecting, he opens up the way to new life for us as sons of God–heirs in him. At Baptism we are supernaturally grafted into the Body of Christ, and through participation in the Eucharist we are transformed more perfectly into complete union with the Risen One, who sits on the Throne in Heaven, with his full humanity incorporated into the Trinity. As St. Augustine says, "'For he has given them the power to become sons of God.' If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods." St. Athanasius, in his work <i>On the Incarnation</i>, plainly lays it out: "For he was made man that we might be made God." For my part, if Christianity does not believe this, I would count myself with the ranks of the bored "so what"-ers.<br />
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Today's <a href="http://divineoffice.org/easter-w05-sun-or/">Office of Readings</a>* in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours"> Liturgy of Hours</a>, which I highly recommend participating in, in a sermon recorded over 1600 years ago, St. Maximus of Turin speaks to the heart of this "<i>so what?</i>" question. I included the whole sermon:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Christ is risen! He has burst open the gates of hell and let the dead go free; he has renewed the earth through the members of his Church now born again in baptism, and has made it blossom afresh with men brought back to life. His Holy Spirit has unlocked the doors of heaven, which stand wide open to receive those who rise up from the earth. Because of Christ’s resurrection the thief ascends to paradise, the bodies of the blessed enter the holy city, and the dead are restored to the company of the living. There is an upward movement in the whole of creation, each element raising itself to something higher. We see hell restoring its victims to the upper regions, earth sending its buried dead to heaven, and heaven presenting the new arrivals to the Lord. In one and the same movement, our Savior’s passion raises men from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Christ is risen. His rising brings life to the dead, forgiveness to sinners, and glory to the saints. And so David the prophet summons all creation to join in celebrating the Easter festival: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rejoice and be glad,</em> he cries, <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on this day which the Lord has made.</em></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></span><span style="background-color: white;">"The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. Christ is this day, says the Apostle; such is the meaning of his words: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Night is almost over; day is at hand.</em> He tells us that night is almost over, not that it is about to fall. By this we are meant to understand that the coming of Christ’s light puts Satan’s darkness to flight, leaving no place for any shadow of sin. His everlasting radiance dispels the dark clouds of the past and checks the hidden growth of vice. The Son is that day to whom the day, which is the Father, communicates the mystery of his divinity. He is the day who says through the mouth of Solomon: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I have caused an unfailing light to rise in heaven.</em> And as in heaven no night can follow day, so no sin can overshadow the justice of Christ. The celestial day is perpetually bright and shining with brilliant light; clouds can never darken its skies. In the same way, the light of Christ is eternally glowing with luminous radiance and can never be extinguished by the darkness of sin.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"This is why John the evangelist says: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to overpower it.</em></span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"And so, my brothers, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, conscious of his sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer by the burden of his guilt. Sinner he may indeed be, but he must not despair of pardon on this day which is so highly privileged; for if a thief could receive the grace of paradise, how could a Christian be refused forgiveness?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">This is true hope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">*The </span></span>Office of Readings is part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the official public prayer of the Catholic Church which was started by the Jews while suffering through the Babylonian Captivity and has been adapted since the Ascension of the Risen Christ. The Catholic Church has continued the Jewish practice of prayers seven times a day. This in no small way shows the continuity between Judaism and Christianity. "I came not to abolish [the law], but to fulfill."Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-2814559435628987322013-02-11T08:29:00.003-05:002013-02-11T08:31:49.722-05:00Pope Resigns: Gonna be a wild LentSo Pope Benedict XVI is resigning. He will be missed. He has fulfilled his post with great diligence and pastoral care. Interesting that his resignation and the next papal conclave to elect his successor will all take place during the Lenten season. I can't say that his monumental move to resign, something that hasn't been done since the Protestant Reformation, isn't wholly surprising. He's a man who has surprised everybody every step of the way. Stay tuned. I'm sure that everybody will be giving their expert input and sensationalizing this story: "I'm shocked, shocked I tell you."<br />
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Anybody want to go to Rome in mid-March?Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-47514102823726974122013-02-08T15:59:00.000-05:002014-08-28T10:45:17.107-04:00Augustine of Hippo, the Saint<i>From my January 2013 Hall of Men toast</i><br />
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“You are great, Lord, and greatly to be praised. Your power is great, and your wisdom can’t be numbered. Humans wish to praise you—humans, a portion of your creation, who carry around their mortality, who carry around the testimony of their sin and that “God opposes the proud.” Even so, humans, a portion of your creation, wish to praise you. You excite us to pleasure in praising you, because you made us for yourself! Our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.” – <i>Confessions, 1.1</i><br />
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William Jurgens said in his three-volume conglomeration on the writings of the Church Fathers that “if we were faced with the unlikely proposition of having to destroy completely either the works of Augustine or the works of all the other Fathers and Writers, I have little doubt that all the others would have to be sacrificed. Augustine must remain.” Name another man since the Apostles who has had more influence than St. Augustine. Men like Boethius, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Luther, Calvin, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Newman, Tolkien, Lewis, Balthasar, Wojtyla and Ratzinger were all deeply influenced by him. He wrote the first known autobiography, the first history of the world and set the tone for medieval Christian thought and all of Western thought. His explanation of time is still compelling. His ideas of Just War are used as the standard today. He is known as the Doctor of Grace for his myriad of treatise on the subject. At least two of his works are consistently listed among the greatest books of all time. No great thinker can ignore this African bishop from antiquity and come away having any idea what it means to be a man of the West. We all see world through the lens of Augustine. <br />
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There was definitely a problem, for me, with the idea of toasting such a man. We could easily spend a couple hours talking about all of St. Augustine’s deeds. His works are like the abundance of fruit on a healthy tree. And we could, since we have both Catholics and Protestants present, delve into a lengthy polemical discussion about whose tradition should be used to interpret Augustine. Also, there might not be anything about this man that I will say tonight that you did not already know. It was a little vexing at first knowing that some of you might know more about him than myself. I am no Augustine expert, even though he is my patron saint and my Sacramental Name is Daniel David <i>Augustine</i> McNight. <br />
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I think I have a solution for myself. We’re not here to necessarily learn something new about these men–if we do, that’s gravy. Chiefly, we’re here to honor these men. I am here to be a herald for a man who wholly deserves to mentioned among these other great men. But if we are here to celebrate the man Augustine, the man, I think we must dig deeper. What makes Augustine great is not his immense intelligence or his beautiful rhetoric. Sure he’s a genius, but so was Niccolo Machiavelli, Friedrich Nietzsche and John-Paul Sartre. Those men will never be on this wall. We must find the essence of St. Augustine or the truth about him, his being, rather than just his deeds, or maybe more accurately, what informs his deeds. <br />
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I want to focus on three expressions which I think, at least in my mind, encapsulate him fairly well. There are this: he is a seeker, a fighter and a lover. This is how I see him. We know of him being a seeker first of all because of his long search for Truth, first as a Gnostic and then once becoming a Christian, seeking understanding and wisdom in the bosom of Truth. As a fighter we see him first opposing the chief Manichee and then, as a bishop, practically every single heretic, demagogue and liar in his diocese. He could not resist to give an account to the Truth of Jesus Christ. He never backed down. His body of work is a testament to this. As a lover, we know this side of him first imperfectly, or more properly, pervertedly, as a playboy, and then completely as a celibate priest in a fulfilling relationship with the Triune God. You see the opposite ends of the spectrum–embracing a lie and then embracing truth, but he never stopped being a seeker, fighter and a lover throughout. These expressions of him were made perfect, in a sense, by something else. Something even more central.<br />
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Many men are seekers, fighters and lovers. What makes Augustine who he is, a man of near mythic proportions, is much simpler than just being a seeker, a fighter and a lover, but at the same time, it goes way beyond. I will say that we could have very easily never heard of him had he stayed a Gnostic Manichee. He could have been a phantom in the night–destined for eternal obscurity as he gallivanted around the empire seeking to quench his restlessness in the embrace of lust. No one would plunge the depths of the mind of this last ancient and first medievalist if he died saying “Lord grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” His life would have been a shadow and a dream had he not met the one lover he was trying to avoid his whole life. We would have never known of his tenacity if he had not allowed himself to be defeated. He was close to being a waste, not because of the loss of talent, but because of loss of being truly human. What makes Augustine truly great, is the same that can make us great. And at the deepest level, it is not a <i>what</i>, but a <i>who</i>. No, the who is not us, but we are required nonetheless. Catholic writer Leon Bloy said that “There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint.” <br />
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What does it mean to be a saint? Let’s tease this out. A saint starts with this: “God exists. I am not God.” If you are to become saint you must, as the Temple at Dephi says, “<i>Know Thyself</i>”. The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint knows he is a sinner. As Peter Kreeft says: “A saint's heart is broken by every little sorrow and sin. A saint's heart is also so strong that not even death can break it. It is indestructible because it's so breakable.” Reality is transparent. To fully know oneself is to know God, not to know about God, but to be lost in him–to turn all attention and praise to him. As a spouse praises his lover, so too does the saint to God. A saint is the bride of Christ, totally and perfectly dependent on him for everything and yet at the same time, totally independent: detached from all the cares of this world. That allows the saint to participate in the sufferings of Christ. “If you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” Augustine says “God has only one Son on earth who never sinned, but never one without suffering.” Suffering with purpose–sacrifice. With sacrifice, we move beyond the “individual”, for we exist <i>for another</i>. The fullness of personhood lies in love for others. As Christ lay dying on the Cross the totality of his existence for others was made manifest. He opened himself up to us as the way to salvation and in partaking of the divine nature of God. Augustine says, echoing the Fathers, "'For He hath given them power to become the sons of God.' If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods." But how can this happen other than being one with Christ? The Apostle says, “I am crucified with Christ, yet not I, but Christ who lives in me.” So to answer the question to be a saint and the answer to what can make us truly great is to be another. It is to be Jesus. Augustine writes: <br />
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Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God's grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man... The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members.</div>
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But in the end a saint is most wholly himself, for Jesus was the most human of humans. Participation in Christ is to be fully human. For the saint, there is no higher purpose than total surrender to Christ in Christ. Augustine knew the cost of surrender to God. In his <i>Confessions</i> in Book 8, being cut to the heart by the by a messenger from God on this very issue of total surrender, he rushes out to his little garden to breathe. He leaves his friend Alypius to weep in solitude and his physical strength gives way: <br />
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I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And, not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto Thee: and Thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord, wilt Thou be angry for ever? Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words: How long, how long, "tomorrow, and tomorrow?" Why not now? why not is there this hour an end to my uncleanness?<br />
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So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find... Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.<br />
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So who is Augustine? Look at the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Look at all his Saints among whom is Augustine. He reveals himself in the lives of those who know him. Our honored man was made St. Augustine by being made Christ. I have heard it explained that Augustine is like a child and God is a lake. The child is so much in love with the water, that he runs full steam and jumps off the pier, plunging straight into the heart of the lake–enjoying it for what it is and giving little thought as to ever getting out. Remember the opening paragraph of his <i>Confessions</i>. He has found himself by having totally lost himself in God. Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-68042208089233957832013-01-28T19:33:00.004-05:002021-01-18T15:55:00.009-05:00St. Thomas Aquinas & Grace Perfecting Nature<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today is the Feast Day of the St. Thomas Aquinas. If one's size reflected one's influence, St. Thomas is just about right. Known as the Angelic Doctor and the Universal Doctor, his importance to philosophy, theology and ethics reigns supreme. He's pretty awesome. And a super-smart brainiac. And mondo pious. He'd crush you if he sat on you. He'd crush your high hopes of dissent with his logic and make you feel silly. He was so saintly and humble, he was gifted a </span>glimpse of the Beatific Vision.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> He was the most reasonable guy out there, and at the same time was a mystic. He believed in miracles, and when he saw them, he didn't think it was out of the ordinary. Why should it be? He was the intellectual genius that lived in elfland and believed that "a tree grows fruit because it is a magic tree" as another man of considerable intellect and girth once noted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although talking about his body of work would and does take many lifetimes, I'd like to focus on one point, and that is the connection between Grace and Nature. Most people tend to pit one thing against the other saying "this or that". But that is not always the only option. Who isn't annoyed by those web polls that say "How well do you feel the president is doing his job?" And then you have to choose between "Excellent" and "Terrible". Things are never that easy. Even Socrates </span>succumbs<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to this: "Is a thing good because the gods will it, or do they will it because it is good? You have to choose between an arbitrarily "just" god or one that has to examine his conscience at night before he goes to bed. Christian Tradition says this ignores the third option of goodness being from the nature of God himself, and can never be in contradiction to him (although the reformers rejected this and promoted the Divine Command Theory). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So it is with nature and grace. I will explain the two opposing options first and then the third way, which </span>in reality was always the first way. Let's<span style="font-family: inherit;"> give a little rundown.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pelagius</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Boom goes the dynamite! This heretic entered the scene at the end of the 4th century and was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church and a chief opponent Saint Augustine. Big bad Pelagianism teaches that your nature, via your free will, can merit eternal life on its own. No grace needed. Original Sin did not blight our nature. There might be grace out there but whatever, we lead the charge. Jesus was just a moral example of how it's done right. Nature does everything apart from grace.</span><br />
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St. Augustine and the Catholic Church were too much for Pelagius, and his teaching was condemned as heresy. It's kid brother semi-pelagianism, which said we need grace, but we initiate it, was also ousted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Orange in 529 and reaffirmed at Trent.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Martin Luther</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Huzzah! In the early 16th century, this Reformer, as well as Calvin and most of Protestantism, believed that original sin has ruined our natures, made them evil and whatever we do in our will always leads to a mortal sin. Grace does everything apart from nature. We can only do good passively, and well, let me just quote the man: </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"I frankly confess that, for myself, even if it could be, I should not want 'free will' to be given to me, nor anything to be left in my own hands to enable me to endeavor after salvation... Whatever work I had done, there would still be a nagging doubt as to whether it pleased God, or whether He required something more." – <i>Bondage of the Will</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Luther taught that man's will is only "free" when he chooses sin. The good that we do comes from God taking over our wills, so, as he said, we work passively. This is pretty much the opposing extreme of Pelagianism. On the otherhand, Reformation theology also teaches that man's nature was, before the fall, capable of maintaining the full vision of God, without the aid of Divine Grace. Hmm, encroachment foul on the Reformers: bumped into a Pelagian. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><b>St. Thomas Aquinas</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it." – <i>Summa Theologica</i>, Part 1, 1:8.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The third way. Choosing between grace and nature is a false dichotomy. We have fallen. We no longer enjoy the grace of Original Justice before God, and we are reverted to our baser instincts. But our nature is not bad, nor is incapable of doing any good thing. Man's chief problem is not that he cannot do a good thing, it is atonement that he is incapable of and without it, his good deeds are like filthy rags, as the Apostle says. Atonement had to come from the God-Man, Jesus Christ. He won for us the merits of eternal salvation and bestows his grace to us through the Sacraments and extraordinary means. (Baptism!) Only when we've received the Holy Spirit do our works of love merit anything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">St. Thomas teaches that as a result of Original Sin, our wills are not directed towards God, but everything else. </span>Concupiscence, or the inclination to sin, is not Original Sin itself, but a material effect of it.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We need the grace for God to work in us to will, and when we do will, we cooperate with that grace. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">St. Thomas also said, as he did somewhere in his <i>Summa</i>, that "God does not justify us without ourselves, because while we are being justified we consent to God's justification by a movement of our free will. Nevertheless this movement is not the cause of grace, but the effect; hence the whole operation pertains to grace." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) God operates through grace to move us. The First Cause.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Man actively receives the grace of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Through grace God strengthens man to will to perform meritorious works. Co-operation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As St. Augustine says: "He operates that we may will; and when we will, He co-operates that we may be perfect." – <i>De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio</i>, 33.</span><br />
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So in the end it is not grace outside of nature, but nature cooperating with grace. Grace and Nature should not be disconnected. They should be ever joined at the hip. Catholic Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor, commenting on the splitting of grace and nature, said: " the average Catholic reader... [is] more of a Manichean than the Church permits. By separating nature and grace as much as possible, he has reduced his conception of the supernatural to the pious cliché."</div>
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In the end, grace is not an escape from or rival of nature. It brings about the fulfillment of nature. In fact, it established our nature. It is everything one has hoped for. God, the author of our nature, condescended to assume our nature to bring it to perfect completion. In the Incarnation, all aspects of nature, which includes human nature, are joined to the divine nature of God. With the Resurrection of Jesus, he opened up to us the way to eternal life with God and our final evolution as humans. With the Ascension of Jesus, that nature, that human nature, is introduced and incorporated into the Holy Trinity. If we are part of the Mystical Body of Christ, we too will become, as St. Peter says, "partakers of the Divine Nature".</div>
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In the words of St. Thomas while pounding a large wooden table, "That will settle the Manichees!"</div>
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St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.</div>
Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-67295236826677961222013-01-28T10:58:00.001-05:002013-01-28T11:27:38.191-05:00Bonus Ol' Latinus <br />
So I've been studying Latin since May. Probably not surprising–'tis a geeky Catholic thing to do. It's at the same time exhilarating and depressing, and always hard work. For instance, since Latin is one of the most conjugated languages, the word "to chew" (mandūcō, mandūcāre, mandūcāvī, mandūcātum) has at least, sigh, 141 ways one can write the word, and this is not counting all the different ways to write indicative/subjunctive passive perfect, future perfect and pluperfect, which are sort of like the middle ground between a noun and a verb, which can cause headaches, tears and feelings of emptiness and can ultimately lead to mental breakdowns, but I digressiō.<br />
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Because Latin is so precise, words seem to have richer and clearer meanings. For instance, look at English. Many of it's more weightier words stem from a Latin origin, like salvation, justice, virtue and intelligence. The use of conjugations allows for so much precision that you can subtly change to whom you speak to, about, with, and, to get to the point, the entire context with a one or two letter switch-a-roo-ski. This is totally great once you are liberated from the bondage which it at first seems to bring. It's subtle and powerful, as Cicero, probably the greatest Latin orator of all, found to be true. <br />
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I am indebted to <a href="http://newadvent.org/">newadvent.org</a> for all the work done on the
translation of the Church Fathers and the Summa into English in a free
format on the interwebs. I hadn't notice until yesterday that the Bible
format that they use has the Greek, English and Latin text <a href="http://newadvent.org/bible/joh001.htm">side by side by side</a>. This is most definitely the greatest web discovery for me since
Google Earth. I tried to work my way through John 1 with some success, and it was very rewarding, that is, if there is a reward in kinda-sorta cheating. <br />
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One of the joys and main motivations is the participation in Ecclesiastical Latin in the liturgy of Holy Mass. My hope is that I can read St. Jerome's Vulgate, Virgil, Cicero, St. Augustine and St. Thomas in Latin, but I have a long way to go. I'll start with Caesar's Commentaries and work my way up to Hobbitus Ille (the Hobbit). The more I study it, the more I appreciate it and its huge impact on Western culture. Up until the 19th Century, it was still a commonly used language throughout the west, and "men of distinction" knew it well. I read John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua (first hint) this summer, and he was dropping Latin references like he was Harry Potter or something. After Vatican II it was downgraded for a bit with everyone freaking out and running amok, but now it's going through a little renaissance. After studying this "dead language" for a time, a renaissance is a good thing. The West thinks like a Latin. As an English speaker, it not a foreign language like French or Polish, it's our mother language (and I guess dad would be that barbarish "ye ølde engliƒh"). We can't help being affected by our upbringing. Even now that we're grown up and don't live in her house anymore, not only should we never forget her, we should probably visit often. <br />
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"Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est, urbs habet octo colles!" Oh, slam! See, everything's better with Latin. Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-26544976405705431812012-11-21T12:35:00.000-05:002012-11-21T19:24:04.182-05:00Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe<br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.3451862959191203" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This Sunday is the the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. A fitting Mass for Thanksgiving weekend. The Solemnity proclaims that Christ is preeminent over all creation. But Jesus’ rise to kingship is like no other. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The desire for power is itself a powerful thing. Man has always craved power. We like to control things. But as history tells us, power also corrupts. The irony of power is that the more you desire and attain it at the expense of others, the more it destroys you–a basic survey of the history of the Byzantine emperors alone will prove this sufficiently. The Biblical record of this is also quite clear. In the garden Adam was tempted by the Serpent that if he were only to eat of the fruit, he would yield a power comparable to God. Adam knew it was forbidden, but desired to disobey God and sacrifice love in order to achieve his goal. In his moment of sin, he cared nothing for God, and as a result, nothing for himself. Adam, desiring to elevate himself, fell, and with him, the entire human race. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seems to be that elevating yourself is... not a keen idea. But it is too late for warnings, man is severed from God and needs radical surgery to stitch up the relationship. Man, as a creature, can do nothing to reconcile himself before God. His offerings to God of things created and owned by God are worthless offerings. Man’s pride and power-seeking has been his undoing. There is no hope in himself and he knows it. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, through whom the Father Almighty made all things, took the reverse route of Adam. He shared with God all things in the perfect unity of love. The Son had everything, or rather, he transcended everything. His Father loved him with a perfect love and called him His beloved Son. The Lover and the Beloved–they needed nothing. Man’s folly was no hindrance to the bliss of the Holy Godhead. But the love of the Father knows no limits. Knowing the plight of us men, the Father had compassion for us in our hopeless state. It is as if he sees from a carriage on a cold, rainy, gray day an orphaned baby sitting in the middle of the muddy road, looking, looking and crying, for someone to pick him up and hold him. There is no hope for this pitiful child, but the Father will not abandon the orphan. The Father desires to bring the child to himself. He turns to his Son, who is always with him, and asks him to get down into the mud and filth and save the child from certain death. The Son desires nothing but to please his Father. With supreme love, he gets down from the carriage. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike Adam who wanted to elevated himself, the Son lowered himself to our level. He did not desire to exploit power, power that was rightfully his, but instead condescended to our lowly state and emptied himself and took on the nature of man. He restricted his divine abilities by accepting the limitations of man. “You know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” The incomprehensibleness of his divinity remained what it was, but what he assumed was like us in every way–measurable and knowable. This divine human, whose presence among the kings of men should be beneath him, was born into poverty and grew up in a carpenter’s shop. During his ministry, he preached the Kingdom of God but desired no power. His enemies, who clung to their temporal gains, arrested him because he threatened their authority. He was stripped and scourged, humiliated with a “kingly” crown of thorns, and mocked as a king whose only subjects were but jeering, violent soldiers. Pilate, prefect of Rome in Judaea, abused his authority by avoiding responsibility and handed the Son of God over to the wishes of an angry mob. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus received ultimate humiliation–condemned to die while suspended between heaven and earth on a cross. Death on a cross was the greatest insult in the Roman world. It was reserved for the wretched. He was cursed by men and felt the full brunt of man’s enmity for God. Jesus cries a psalm of David in solidarity with us: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” Can more shame and dishonor be heaped upon one man? As he expired, he died an enemy of the Jews, a “blasphemer” and a despised outcast. He was removed from his wooden altar and laid to rest in a common tomb. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, through all this suffering lies the hope of man. The injustice of his death was purposed. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, offered himself to the Father in sacrificial love and accomplishes the redemption of humanity. He passed over from death to life. Death could not contain him. This is the Paschal Mystery: Christ’s Passion as the Suffering Servant is the model and atonement for all humanity, and at the same time by his death he destroys death, and by his resurrection he opens up to us the path to eternal life. By stooping down, he lifts us up.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With his victory won and his work accomplished, he can now claim his promise from the Father–glory, honor and authority of universal proportions. He ascends through his own power to where he was before in the presence of his Father. His entry into the courts of heaven is no small thing. The entrance of the Highly Exalted One, the King of Kings, is the culminating moment in the Kingdom of God. He then takes His place at the right hand of the Father. The same unity of the Divine before the Son’s condescension is now once again fully realized, but things are different now. Jesus is still what he assumed–a man. In the love of the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, the Father introduces Christ’s humanity into the Godhead. God assumed Man, and now, Man assumes God. From his throne on High he intercedes to the Father on our behalf as the one mediator between God and Man. He spans the gulf now as he did while suspending on a tree drawing all men to himself. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But even now in His exalted state, he does not think it beneath him to continue to stoop down to our level. He promised to always be with us and he does so really, truly and substantially. As St. Francis notes: “For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you.” He is with us in the form of Bread and Wine; he is with us at every Mass. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ~Philippians 2:6-11</i></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through humility he has been exalted. Through giving he has gained all. Through sacrificial love he is the beneficiary of the perfect love of the Father. Through emptying himself of power, he now rules with all power. He is the Great King. There is no throne or dominion in heaven or on earth that moves without him. The stars and galaxies are bound by his word. The great and powerful as well as the lowly are under his watchful eye. There is none who can escape him, and all will bow before him. He rules with justice and mercy through his perfect love. He cares about his subjects and ever serves them by making himself one with them. He gives his peace to all who are in him. He is our salvation and our King whose kingdom will last for all eternity. He shows us the way of salvation: by humbling himself, he is was raised to glory. This is the most unusual rise to power, but the only rise to power that has ever mattered. “How worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and divinity, and wisdom and strength and honor. To him belong glory and power for ever and ever.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Praise be to God.</span></span></b></div>
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Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-30184000113988622552012-11-05T18:21:00.003-05:002012-11-05T19:06:46.199-05:00Mass in the Road to EmmausThe Bible is full of little nuggets–stories that seem so simple in passing but have deep meaning upon further reflection. The Last Supper is explicit enough as an event in Sacred Scripture. The Synoptic Gospels and the First Epistle to the Corinthians give us the explicit Eucharistic narrative. But there are other stories, or nuggets, that are implicitly connected to the Mass. One I find compelling is the story in the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke where the risen Jesus travels with two disciples along the road to Emmaus. Here, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” And later, the disciples exclaimed: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” This is in the same vein as the Liturgy of the Word, when Christ, the Word of God, opens to us the the Revelation of God.<br />
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When the party arrives at their destination, they compel Jesus to stay, “So he went in to stay with them.” This prefigures Christ our Pasch abiding with us–“entering under our roof” as we say in Mass. He is standing at the door waiting to come in. Those “in Christ”–those baptised in His name–can claim him. Only those who have invited Jesus to dwell with them are able to partake of the everlasting bread. Inside, Christ “took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.” Offering, Thanksgiving, Communion... a form akin of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.” They went back to Jerusalem, and said they saw Christ in the breaking of bread.<br />
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Notice that the narrative twice mentions that they saw Christ in the breaking of the bread, or in a sense, during the consecration. He was hidden from them in appearance, but during the breaking of the bread, he was made known. What a wonderful picture. Jesus was actually present with them in person, but was most fully revealed to them in a supernatural way through the liturgy during a simple meal. Such as it is at every celebration of the Eucharist. Christ is really, truly and substantially present in the form of bread and wine for our salvation. In the Eucharist, we share communion with the divine life as we anticipate the blessed hope of the glorious resurrection. Through the breaking of bread he is made known to us. May we, like the disciples, beg Christ to enter and stay with us as often as we “DO THIS.”<br />
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ANIMA CHRISTI<br />
Soul of Christ, sanctify me<br />
Body of Christ, save me<br />
Blood of Christ, inebriate me<br />
Water from Christ's side, wash me<br />
Passion of Christ, strengthen me<br />
O good Jesus, hear me<br />
Within Thy wounds hide me<br />
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee<br />
From the malicious enemy defend me<br />
In the hour of my death call me<br />
And bid me come unto Thee<br />
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints<br />
and with Thy angels<br />
Forever and ever<br />
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Amen Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-5090021418832872922012-10-31T13:29:00.000-04:002014-10-31T10:49:33.292-04:00Reformation Day RevisitedToday is Reformation Day. To those of you who know that I am now a Catholic, it will be obvious to you that my view on the Reformation has “changed” somewhat. I’ve done a great deal of thinking and would like to share a few things.<br /><br />
Jesus says in the Gospel of John on the evening before he was to suffer:<br /><br />
“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”<br /><br />
Naturally, looking at the many divisions within Christianity, this is not fully realized. Many would say that we are in fact one, spiritually speaking, but in light of the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ, of which all who are baptised are members of his body, this calls for a visible and an invisible unity. Furthermore, the language in John 17 speaks to a deep and perfect unity among Christians. We all are one in Christ through baptism, but we should not stop there. Think of family member who you are really close to. You have more in common with them than just shared ancestry. My brother and I grew up together. All the inside jokes, family drama, hours playing Goldeneye 007, crying when Boston College beat Notre Dame in 1993, and me being the best man at his wedding, makeup who we are–together. I would lose a part of me if he were gone. Now, we could have grown up apart and never know each and still be brothers. But it is not the same at all. So it is with Christians. God calls us to complete unity, not unity of the lowest form. The church in the West is akin to brothers that have been separated for 495 years. For the sake of the Church Christ founded, we all need to be under one roof, sharing one loaf, so the world will know the love of God.<br /><br />
Now to the Reformation. Instead of the typical polemics, let’s talk about early 16th century Europe. The Catholic Church was fat. The Church’s teaching was still holding fast to the Traditions the apostles handed to them, but in a lot of places practical abuses crept in. Think of it as “do as I say, not as I do.” What the Church was saying may be correct, but her actions were undermining that teaching. Enter Martin Luther. This is what he saw: he saw Bishops, the successors of the Apostles themselves, living in open sinful lifestyles, using political clout to win favors to gain ecclesial offices, never actually shepherding their flock by living in some palace miles and miles away from their diocese. Priests, who were supposed to be celibate, regularly had mistresses. Since there were no seminaries, many priests did not know Church doctrine as they should. There were some unsanctioned abuses with indulgences that led to the building of a beautiful building in far away Rome which was for an aloof pope who appeared to be more interested in hunting than being a “fisherman”. In short, it was a mess. The Church needed reform and Luther was not afraid to be a whistleblower.<br /><br />
Luther nailed his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, and one thing led to another and now we have 35,000+ separated churches around the world–not his intention, of course. But in a nutshell, and this is no surprise, I believe Luther went to far. I believe he was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT in calling out the abuses in the Church and his efforts in large part brought about the Counter-Reformation that purged the Church of many abuses, led to a huge Catholic revival that deepened the faith and sent missionaries all over the world. Saints like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier affected or were affected by the Catholic Reformation. I do manifestly believe that Luther was ABSOLUTELY WRONG in his invention of Sola Scriptura which led to private interpretation of truth over the Church's. But I’m not going to give proofs for that here. That is not my point at this time.<br /><br />
So is Luther to blame for the Church split? Partially. He did set up his own church.<br /><br />
So who else shares in the blame? “Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa.”<br /><br />
If many in the Catholic Church would have been living as members of the Body of Christ were intended to live–salt and light to the world–Luther’s revolution might have been avoided. But that is not how it played out. Was the Church Magisterium preaching heresy? No. Was the Church apostate as Luther and his associates said? Emphatically no. But many in the Church were not seeking first the Kingdom of God. We are called not just to preach the Gospel message, but to LIVE the Gospel. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, the Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, is the Gospel. If I am in Christ I am to live a life of faith, hope and love in obedience to the one who has set me free. He has won for us the merits of Eternal Life, and his free gift of grace showers on us. News like this compels us to love.<br /><br />
Martin Luther saw the disconnect. He, understandably in some way, split with Rome, and it was ugly. Ugly on both sides–read about the Peasant’s War and the Wars of Religion in the 17th century for starters. Liken the split to a divorce. One spouse has been abusing his/her relationship with the other. The other calls out the former and threatens to leave. Instead of seeking the other in love, a fight breaks out, and ultimately ends in a divorce. No love. In the same breath as John 17, in chapter 15, Christ gives his Apostles a mandate: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. <b>My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”</b> This is what was lacking the dialogue between Luther and the Church. Love compels us to seek out the other, repent and strive for communion. Both the Reformers and the Catholic Church are guilty of not approaching the other with the love of Christ. The Catholics of course did try to reconcile, but it took decades. By then, the pain was too deep and animosity reigned. On one level I know why Protestants celebrate Reformation Day, of course, I was one for 28 years, but at the same time it must also be looked at as a tragedy. The greatest triumph would have been a Reformation within, led in part by Luther, that would have kept the Church united and set the stage for the Church to be the guiding shepherd at the dawn of the Modern Era.<br /><br />
A new Reformation is needed–one that unites our scattered brothers and sisters around the world into one fold. We must come together and understand each other. Only then can we resolve disagreements. But even with super-sized disagreements that are not trivial but are very, very important, all is not lost. As the modern secular world of moral relativism erodes everything around us, Christians are starting to unite. The spirit of ecumenism and the "New Evangelization" of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is taking root, but there is so much to overcome. There is only one possible way that the Church can be one: looking to Christ. The love of the Father to us is manifested in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are called to be imitators of Jesus in all things, and chiefly in sacrificial love. That love comes not from our own strength but from the one who came down from heaven, took the form of a man and entered willingly into his Passion. We are his and he keeps us. Only the love of God can end ugly divisions. Love is stronger than all that would stand our way. The love of God has already won the battle. Love has overcome the world. Christ is in us and shares with us this love which comes from the Father. This is the greatest source of hope imaginable. At the end of Jesus’ prayer in the Upper Room he speaks to the Father about revealing his manifold love: <br /><br />“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”<br /><br />
May the love of the Father, which is manifested through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be with us all.Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-22352061760591971452012-02-23T19:07:00.005-05:002012-02-23T19:58:17.228-05:00What's your Top Ten Classical Pieces Ever?<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; ">What's your Top Ten Classical Pieces Ever? (Renaissance-Modern). No soundtracks are allowed. After compiling my last, several things I noticed: 1)Bach makes it thrice, Mozart zilch. 2) I typically favor Baroque and Romanticism (most of the would be honorable mentions were also from those eras). 3) Gustav Holst is English. I had no idea.</span></div><div><span><br /></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MELOwYwSblo7Awtr6szNXs2DccY7iSBKp2mlxGItapTawiZyoH0tZhPwRILqTo0g6NWZgjGYxMlbd90e1AFfQQJJcjYdi5qpLApeNU3w_nv5_Ci4kV4eDiR4N86vy_FD8-BhryYW5UA/s1600/Alec+Bach.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MELOwYwSblo7Awtr6szNXs2DccY7iSBKp2mlxGItapTawiZyoH0tZhPwRILqTo0g6NWZgjGYxMlbd90e1AFfQQJJcjYdi5qpLApeNU3w_nv5_Ci4kV4eDiR4N86vy_FD8-BhryYW5UA/s400/Alec+Bach.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712498790798550066" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span ><i>Alec Bach</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span ><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">1.</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; white-space: pre; "> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Air on G String–</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Johann Sebastian Bach–</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Baroque</span></div><div><span>2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Canon in D–Johann Pachelbel–Baroque</span></div><div><span>3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Missa Papae Marcelli: Kyrie–Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina–Renaissance</span></div><div><span>4.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring–Johann Sebastian Bach–Baroque</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">5.</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; white-space: pre; "> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Jupiter–Gustav Holst–Early Modern</span></div><div><span>6.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>9th Symphony–Ludwig van Beethoven–Classical/Romantic</span></div><div><span>7.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rhapsody on Paganini–Sergei Rachmaninoff–Romantic</span></div><div><span>8.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cello Suite No. 1–Johann Sebastian Bach–Baroque</span></div><div><span>9.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Piano Concerto No. 1–Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky–Romantic</span></div><div><span>10.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Swan–Camille Saint-Saëns–Romantic</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">What's your list?</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div></div></div>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624912019574874947.post-79461341061419051192011-10-29T18:23:00.011-04:002011-10-31T18:57:55.155-04:00The Church’s Role in the Forming of the New Testament Canon<div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Recently I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the early Church. Being a nerd about history I tend to invest a lot of time in such things. As anyone versed in early Church history would know, you cannot avoid running into the formation of the New Testament canon. Growing up, I never really thought about how the canon was formed. I kind of thought that God told all of the authors of the Bible to write their letter or letters and then get together and compile it into one book and tell everyone that this is God’s inspired word. This is incorrect. I don’t think that a great many Christians, even if they can see this as a silly and naive notion, can, in fact, offer up a more accurate account of the formation of the canon.</span><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIGxZWkZPg0xDyFrIGHHC5-72cjzCestNTA7-O-JuR7cGMCyTemtEIIzKy-9WyBI9KmeQ0rCMdIyNcBKH4RV-KDDBkMYlH4rQVTWtlVE6xfGxUNTtpncxZ7FdzI42RMwnKbxKPux6eYo/s1600/Shepherd+not+making+the+cut.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaIGxZWkZPg0xDyFrIGHHC5-72cjzCestNTA7-O-JuR7cGMCyTemtEIIzKy-9WyBI9KmeQ0rCMdIyNcBKH4RV-KDDBkMYlH4rQVTWtlVE6xfGxUNTtpncxZ7FdzI42RMwnKbxKPux6eYo/s400/Shepherd+not+making+the+cut.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669051169158866530" /></a><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The canon, or the 27 books that make up the New Testament, was a collection of books written between AD 49 through as late as AD 95 (depending on your dating of Revelation). However, these were not the only Christian books/letters in circulation at this time. In fact the books of the canon were just 27 books in a great sea of books written by holy men of the first and second centuries. This begs two questions: Why these books and not others, and who decided what’s in and what’s out?</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In brief, this is what I intend to answer.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">I might be stepping on toes for this one, so feel free to be bothered and form a rebuttal.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Apostolic Age</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In the 16th year of the reign of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, Jesus Christ, before ascending to heaven, told His Apostles that he was sending them the Holy Spirit, who will empower them to be His “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He did not, however, leave them with a handbook, or a list of books that need to be completed so they can be compiled into a second testament. It wasn’t even until two decades later that the first book in the canon, Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, was written. The apostles were preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His words were orally passed down and spread throughout the empire. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17). Most people probably could not read at that time as it was. We do know that some of the apostles dictated to others what to say in their letters. Paul, an apostle and major author of the New Testament, valued the oral tradition greatly: “What you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">heard</span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). And again in 2 Thessalonians 2:15: "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter."</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We’ve all played the telephone game where one person starts with a story and then it is passed to the next person and the next, until it reaches the final person who’s retelling of the story is usually considerably different than the original. Could this same type of thing be an issue with the oral tradition of the Christians? No. The apostles, being filled with the Holy Spirit, accurately and authoritatively preached the Good News. They were protected by the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5a). This is an important point. The Holy Spirit is the key. Without the Holy Spirit, we would not be able to completely trust the preaching of the apostles, nor the written Gospels or epistles as inspired. I had a conversation with a friend some time ago, and he confessed to me that he has not looked into how the New Testament canon was formed because he was afraid that what he would find would shake his faith. This is understandable. If the Holy Spirit is not guiding the Jesus’s Church, then all is up for grabs and the Church could run into serious error.</span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><b>Church Fathers</b></span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The year is AD 96 and the apostles have all passed on. The Bishop of Rome at this time is Clement and is, according to Paul, “a fellow laborer in Christ” (Philippians 4:3). Clement refers to the epistles of Paul, and the words of Jesus and holds them in high regard, but he never calls them Scripture. That is a term he reserves for the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament). Although this is by no means substantial proof, it does seem that if the Bishop of Rome doesn’t consider certain letters to be scripture and never mentions or is unaware of the vast majority of them at this time, then it is logical to assume that oral tradition, even after the death of all the apostles, is still the main vehicle for spreading the Gospel. While the Gospels and letters are still in their infancy, it should be noted that they were being dispersed throughout the empire, and more and more Christians were becoming aware of the written teachings of Jesus. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Jump forward about 50 years. Marcion, a bishop from Sinope, a city in modern day Turkey, the villain of our story, distanced himself from the traditional conservative teachings and proposed his own canon. Although he believed Jesus was sent by God and was the Savior of the world, He believed that the God of the Old Testament was not compatible with the Church’s teachings of Jesus. He viewed YHWH to be a lesser deity, jealous and bent on unfairly judging men for their sins, and that the Heavenly Father, spoken of by Jesus, was compassionate and full of mercy. Therefore he believed that Jesus Christ was not the fulfillment of Old Testament Law nor the second Moses, for they were not of the same God. In fact he believed Judaism to be utterly opposed to Christianity. He believed that the New Testament canon should comprise of only ten of Paul’s letters and Luke’s Gospel, both of which he personally edited out things of which he didn’t agree. This of course created a huge controversy that ultimately led to Marcion’s ideas being deemed heretical by the early Church. It also forced the Church to deal with the issue of what </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">was</span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> the true biblical canon. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In the next couple of centuries, Church Fathers started compiling their own lists of books that should be included in the canon. Justin Martyr in the mid-2nd century included the three Synoptic Gospels, but doesn’t mention John’s. He also quotes the apostles from unknown works that are not in the New Testament canon, such as a fire in the Jordan River during the Baptism of Jesus. Irenaeus of Lyon, who was taught by Polycarp, who was a disciple of John the Apostle, deems the four Gospels the only true gospels and attacks those who only accept one. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">A late 2nd century canon was found to be very similar to that of the current New Testament with the following exceptions, it includes the Book of Wisdom, the Apocalypse of Peter (with reservation), and does not mention anything about Hebrews, James, and 1 and 2 Peter, and only accepts two epistles of John. The Shepherd of Hermas is mentioned as a worthy book, but that it should not be read during worship. By the beginning of the 3rd century, a pattern of among the many different canons started showing that although some include this one or that one and exclude in like fashion, generally they all excepted the canonicity of the modern day New Testament, with slight reservation for Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 3 John, and Revelation, with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John being established as the the only true Gospels. Some of the other books to be included in various local canons were the Gospel of </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Barnabas, Didache, which gave directions on the Eucharist, I Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Gospel according to the Hebrews</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Pontius Pilate, the Acts of Paul, and many others that have been lost and are only mentioned by early Church leaders. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">St. Athanasius, who famously fought Arianism and helped bring about the Nicene Creed, also proposed a list that contained, in entirety, the same 27 books in the current canon. </span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In AD 383, 353 years after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Latins get down to business and make it happen. Between the efforts of Pope Damascus I, St. Jerome and St. Augustine of Hippo, the canon in the west officially comes to a consensus. The Pope commissioned the new Latin translation, called the Vulgate, to replace the older Latin texts. This translation, largely produced by the efforts of St. Jerome, had in its canon the Latin translation of the Septuagint and only the 27 books that we know of as the New Testament. In AD 397, St. Augustine called together the Council of Carthage in part to authoritatively establish the official New Testament canon, which he already thought was agreed upon by all, but was not officially recognized. The canon was accepted and closed on August 28, 397.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVi1R8nblyXsvQ-_PkgT3u5ciqhM8mU-OdUj1d5dG5b8_32pfvb76XNSt7G9XrSH-QPyAmOG1DgLoTEJbYSpBX_v6cHAUYlObQtEfO1WewlcbLVUmdstfItV3rDWf1_3cwWhmEr8kyyB0/s1600/Carpaccio_Augustine.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVi1R8nblyXsvQ-_PkgT3u5ciqhM8mU-OdUj1d5dG5b8_32pfvb76XNSt7G9XrSH-QPyAmOG1DgLoTEJbYSpBX_v6cHAUYlObQtEfO1WewlcbLVUmdstfItV3rDWf1_3cwWhmEr8kyyB0/s400/Carpaccio_Augustine.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669148300781081554" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><br /></u></span></div></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Eastern Church was more reluctant to come up with a canon. They appreciated the gradation of quality of books and were not fond of the idea of a canon which makes the sharp contrast between accepted books and those left out. By the 5th century, their canon matched that of the Latins. </span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><b>Recent History</b></span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Things were peachy for a while, but 1,000 years later, Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation challenged the canon of the Vulgate and removed some of the books of the Septuagint from the Protestant canon. Luther also wanted to remove Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation because he perceived that they went against his doctrines of Grace alone and Faith alone. James especially troubled him, because the only place where “faith alone” is mentioned in the Bible is in James 2:24: “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” These books are now mentioned last in the German Luther Bible. Everybody had to officially affirm their canons–the Catholics at the Council of Trent in 1546, the Church of England in the 39 Articles in 1563, and in the Westminister Confession of Faith for Calvinists in 1647.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AhWj3mNgNdBR3AwdzWzQlqQbzJOpzTLMwiRwqMOj-a_0n-6B02bEsBbxbpER0hWpLsU8Py6MJKSan2XkTp_kAy4Mro6aCQAbyOEsxg6FOKuJFn56-ENesGBkRzDFes69FVu0BG1Mf4w/s1600/martinluther_cranach2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AhWj3mNgNdBR3AwdzWzQlqQbzJOpzTLMwiRwqMOj-a_0n-6B02bEsBbxbpER0hWpLsU8Py6MJKSan2XkTp_kAy4Mro6aCQAbyOEsxg6FOKuJFn56-ENesGBkRzDFes69FVu0BG1Mf4w/s400/martinluther_cranach2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669129664034821570" /></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><b>Why Only These 27 Books?</b></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 19, 32); background-color: rgb(249, 253, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span><br /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">This is impossible to answer outside of the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. If it were not for Jesus’s promise to send a Helper, we would have absolutely no confidence in the Scriptures. Just think if the House of Representatives and the Senate were ones to try to agree up a canon. All sorts of books would have slid in or have been removed because of favors, lobbyists, and public opinion. Now as much as the men and woman of the legislative branch of the United States are similar in human nature to the men of the Council of Carthage, there is no Holy Spirit guiding Congress. Congress can make grave mistakes (of which we are pretty aware), but Jesus has promised us that He will build His Church and “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18), and that the Holy Spirit would Sanctify and give life to the Church. “The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church). It was men who chose the canon, but chosen through the working of the Spirit by the grace of Jesus Christ. What is included in the Bible is accepted by Christians in faith in Jesus’s promise to His Body.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Now, interestingly, the Church was moved by God in the Apostolic Age to write all of the books to be used in the New Testament canon. This is pretty much universally accepted. Protestants and Catholics alike say that the authority of the Apostles was greater or at least equal to the Scriptures, for they themselves wrote it, were commissioned by Jesus Himself and were filled with the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room. And based on the history of the formation of the canon, the Church was moved by God to authoritatively deem what truly is the canon. (If you don’t believe that by now, is your faith now shaken?) But AD 397 is way beyond the Apostolic Age. It is generally agreed that not one apostle lived to see the 2nd century. So where does this maintained authority that was used to canonize the Scriptures come from? Even then, after the canon is formed, does the Church then lose it’s authority to become subordinate to the Scriptures? Is the Church’s authority greater, equal to, or inferior to the Bible? What does the Bible say on the matter? To mention just one solid verse, for there are many proof texts to be used for opposing viewpoints, look to the Apostle Paul in his first letter Timothy: “if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, <i>which is the church of the living God, the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth</i>" (3:15).</span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">But this is another topic to be discussed later.</span></span></div>Danny McNighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15668278894855237223noreply@blogger.com1