Listen to Papa

"In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world." - Genesis 41 Pope Benedict's new encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), which was recently released, the G8 Summit, and the Old Testament story of Joseph have formed a triple play that has me dazzled by God's Providence. Popes often put forth encyclical or "circular" letters to the world, addressed most often to the faithful in the Church, and to "all men and women of good will." Essentially, they are like snapshots of the current state of affairs, seen through the eyes of Mother Church, intended to advise, instruct, comfort, and challenge Her kids to stay on the right path as we make our way through the world. The real gift of these letters is that they are soaked in God's Word (revelation, faith) and in the human experience (the social sciences, reason). The ink flows from the Church's unprecedented 2000 year old memory and experience. These letters are like pure gold. But, I must say, this gold lies too often in a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea of history, just waiting to be discovered. In light of the economic crisis recently gripping the world, we've all been given a healthy reminder of the fragility and transitory taste of earthly goods. Mother Teresa once put forth the idea that America, big, bold, and bright America, might in fact be an impoverished nation. Not of course in the material sense, but spiritually. We've lost our greatest treasure: each other. The beauty and dignity of the human person! "Man is not a lost atom in a random universe: he is God's creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul and whom he has always loved." - Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI At the recent Group of Eight meeting, the leaders of the world's most industrialized nations gathered in Italy, to consider the future, to make decisions of incredible magnitude that will ultimately affect all of humanity. I pray that our leaders will pay heed to the words just penned by Papa Benedict. He wrote them with the greatest care and tenderness, with eyes that have carefully and prayerfully watched God's children fumble and falter through many recent sorrows and sufferings (many of which have fallen on us because of our own greed and short-sightedness). Finally, the relevance of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. The world is hungry, and the world is seeking nourishment. Joseph has been put in charge of the world's grain. Joseph Ratzinger has been appointed the Chief Steward of God's Church on earth. Pope Benedict is offering us all food that will truly fill us, if we but have the humility to come to the Church and ask for this bread. Will the world's leaders read his words? I pray they do, for the charity and truth they reveal is exactly what we need in this time of great famine. "God is the guarantor of man's true development, inasmuch as, having created him in his image, he also establishes the transcendent dignity of men and women and feeds their innate yearning to "be more"." - Pope Benedict XVI

Pope's New Encyclical - Caritas in Veritate

Esteemed Catholic Nerds, The moment has come; our "sleeping bags on the cyber-sidewalk outside the Vatican at 4am moment" is over! Today the Pope released his 3rd Encyclical!! Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth) ... WOOT! WOOT! Benedict XVI has said "this document... intends to focus on some aspects of the integral developments of our time, in the light of love in truth."

SOME QUICK GEMS:

"Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite."

"Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension."

- Pope Benedict XVI

The USCCB has a nice summary of CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING to give us some foundation on its blog here.

Peace and Incense, Bill

Happy Dependence Day!

I think "independence" is overrated. Seriously. So we can vote, drive, use ATMs, and pick up an assortment of wine coolers at the Quickie Mart without question. Big deal! This independence thing has gotten a lot of us grownups into heaps of trouble, by the way.

I think we independent adults could learn a lot from the little ones here. We have a 10 month old baby boy, and he is radically dependent on us, his parents. He has no worries. No car payments. No mortgage. No meetings, no consequences (until the age of reason of course), and no one cares if he toots in public. In fact, we all think it's cute. Everything is cute. He is driven, coddled, cared for 24/7. We carry him, change him, feed him, and all he has to do is LET US DO THIS FOR HIM. In other words, be dependent on us.... Let us love him... Receive the gifts of his father and mother and just wallow in their superfluous care. Is anybody thinking what I'm thinking?

This radical "dependence" is the way to go! So I hereby declare this Sunday, the 5th of July.... Dependence Day! Dependence on Our Father Who Art in Heaven for everything. Dependence on our Blessed Mother Mary's care, who too was and is the model of dependence on the Father. Let us let them carry, coddle, and care for us in our deepest needs this day.

Isn't this the goal of freedom anyway? It's not a gift to be squandered on ourselves, but one to be given back in trust. I love you is ultimately to say "I am lying helpless in your arms. I depend on you. Have your way with me." Paradoxically, becoming dependent on God is what "liberates" us! The more I receive from Him, the more I depend on Him, the more I can give to my wife and son and the micro-world of persons I encounter in my daily walk. So Happy Dependence Day to all! Dependence on the One from Whom all Freedom flows!

Peter versus Mary

Does the Church believe that men are better than women? Why can't women be priests? When is the Vatican going to break free of this outdated patriarchal system of "government" and get with the times?

Hmmm. On this feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, the rocks on which the Church was built, I wonder if in certain circles, these questions aren't stirred up again with new ardor.

The mystics tell us that there are two dimensions to life, two movements of the heart, two approaches to reality and spirituality. They are as big and as cosmic as Earth and Sky, Sun and Moon, Masculine and Feminine. They are the Petrine Way and the Marian Way.

Many of us tend to plod along in our faith journey following the Petrine Way; named after St. Peter, impetuous, lovable, "open mouth insert foot" Peter. It is active, leaps ahead, goes, grabs, speaks with passion and is a very productive way, no doubt. Generally speaking, it has masculine characteristics. To get closer to God, I'm going to "do" this or that.... get involved in a group, knock on doors, do the stations every day, read the entire Bible in a year, etc. It springs forth from us, from our initiative.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's the active branch of the Active/Contemplative paradigm that makes up the Christian Way of life. In the Martha and Mary gospel story, this is Martha.

But it is not the only way to live in the Spirit that God has poured into our hearts. In fact, the primordial way, the first way, the fundamental posture for those who thirst for the Holy Spirit is the Marian Way, modelled after Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This in fact, is the "better part" that Martha's sister chose, and Jesus said it shall not be taken from her. This Way is receptive, it waits, receives, is still. It listens to Words and contemplates the Word. By no means, incidentally, is it to be confused with passivity. This is (paradoxically) an active listening, and eager expectation that the Gift of God should be done unto me, should be given unto me! This Way leads to our being filled with God.

Mother Teresa knew this well. She said only the heart that is empty can be filled. The receptive heart is empty of agendas, aggressive opining, over analyzing. It is essentially feminine. And the saints and mystics say that in relation to God we are all of us feminine...

Guys, this is NOT an affront to our manhood. It simply means that God is Creator, we are creature. It means God (Who is neither male or female) is essentially "masculine" - He initiates, He gives, He impregnates, and we respond, we receive, we are filled with the seed of His Divine Life.

So who's "better" - man or woman? Well, no answer really. Both are creatures equal in dignity, called to respond, receive, conceive the Divine Life. But at the same time, Peter's shining moments did come to him when he was essentially "receptive" - when he stopped talking and started taking in what God was saying to him.

Jesus said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

It seems clear that in that moment, Peter "looked up" - he opened his mind and heart and received that Word from the Father. This was Peter's Marian moment. Perhaps this is why Pope John Paul II called Mary the icon of all humanity, and called for a rediscovery of the "feminine genius" in our times.... our overly productive, aggressively masculine times. Why he called woman God's masterpiece.

Just some thoughts to shed light on more questions. We need both ways, but the foundation lies in the feminine. Let's ponder this one some more today. Am I first a receiver of God's gifts? Or do always make the first move, on my own, from my own strength, my own agenda?

"Only those who have learned to remain with Jesus, are ready to be sent by Him to evangelize."

- Pope John Paul II

Keep On Keepin' On

I think we can all relate to this. What a comfort to see the others who've "failed" somewhere along the line too, only to get back in there and fight! Endurance, persistence, and perhaps a little stubbornness can make all the difference in the world. This also reminds of the line from Neil Diamond's "Done Too Soon." (I know, I know... you never realized how much we can get out of Neil D. huh?) He lists a vast array of people from throughout history and connects them all with this moving verse.... And each one there Has one thing shared: They have sweated beneath the same sun, Looked up in wonder at the same moon, And wept when it was all done For bein' done too soon, For bein' done too soon....

Let's take a look today at the faces around us and beside us, family, friends; at the faces plastered on billboards and magazines and on the silver screen if we catch a movie this weekend. Are we any different on the inside? Are we not all seeking the same things in the end? Did we not all begin the same way, fumble, falter, feel at some point alone, abandoned, rejected, amazed, dazed, captured and captivated by this Journey called Life? We have more in common than we think. We are called to be one; one amazing, holy, and happy communion of persons! The only thing that can separate this is sin. The only thing that can keep us from finding ourselves is the refusal to give ourselves as a gift to each other!

Mission El Salvador

I had the chance to upload some images from a mission trip to El Salvador from 2001. I can't believe it's been that long. Some of the faces and places I encountered on this trip are still very fresh in my memory. There is nothing like the experience of crossing that bridge, entering into another's existence, and just being with them. The time I spent was very brief, but I will never forget it! Thanks to Maryknoll missioners Tim and Ellen O'Connell and Marybeth Gallagher for their hospitality and for their passionate witness to mission!

Sea and Believe

I love the ocean. It helps me believe in things much larger than me. Transcendent things, eternal things; Beauty, Peace, The Oneness. Ultimately... God. Standing before the sea this morning, here in cloudy/sunny Sea Isle City, I had a physical encounter with a spiritual truth. The sea became a channel of grace. And that's the definition of a sacrament, in a very broad sense. I wasn't alone either. Other daily communicants were gathering for this celebration of the sun, rising in benediction over the new day. Does this sound scandalous? Let's recall that the world was God's first church, or Temple, as the Hebrews saw it. In the beginning, we were all priestly in our vocation of praise and worship to the One Who fashioned it all from nothing. We've spent two nights here and are leaving soon. So I had my farewell coffee sitting in the sand, while Rebecca and the wee lad slept. I snapped this picture with the phone, then just stared and listened for a while as the slow, rhythmic beat of the heart of the sea came into me. Ponderings... Who was the first ancient soul to build a craft and seek to cross this watery road to the world's edge? That took some guts. What is it about the lapping up of water on sand, endlessly, that stirs me, invites me, into endless peace? I truly believe we're drawn to the sea because God is still speaking through it; His first sacramental encounter with us. He sings through it's salty symphony, He shines in the sun!