Enduring the Glance

I had FaceTime with my daughter Clare today. As you can see in the screenshot above, she OWNS FaceTime. She literally IS FaceTime. 

There's something so beautiful about children at this age (she's 3). There's an intensity and an exuberant joy in everything. It comes beaming from those eyes like barbed lightning. Those all expressive eyes! It got me thinking about this incredible insight from Von Balthasar that I've been meditating on this Lent:

"Holiness consists in enduring God's glance.  It may appear mere passivity to withstand the look of an eye; but everyone knows how much exertion is required when this occurs in an essential encounter. Our glances mostly brush by each other indirectly, or they turn quickly away, or they give themselves not personally but only socially.  So too do we constantly flee form God into a distance that is theoretical, rhetorical, sentimental, aesthetic, or most frequently, pious. Or we flee from him to external works. And yet, the best thing would be to surrender one's naked heart to the fire of this all-penetrating glance. The heart would then itself have to catch fire... it would be yielding, declaring oneself beaten, capitulating, entrusting oneself, casting oneself into him."

What an incredibly insightful thought. And then it gets even better!

"It would be childlike loving, since for children the glance of the father is not painful: with wide-open eyes they look into his. Little Thérèse - great little Thérèse - could do it. Augustine's formula on the essence of eternity: videntem videre - ‘to look at him who is looking at you.’"

- Hans Urs Von Balthasar, The Grain of Wheat

I think our earthly life is a practice for this eternal "FaceTime" with the God of Beauty. 

The Way to Be as Happy as Pharrell Williams (actually happier)

The ancients knew we were made for it, we moderns are constantly seeking it: Happiness. It's often associated with peace, rest, contentment, or completion. It's the nunc dimittis we all hope to whisper at the end of our day. No matter who you are, where you are, it appears as the Lode Star for all human activity and is the final sentence when the conversation is ending and the decisions have been determined.... "Well, as long as it makes you... happy."

We are often deceived into thinking this peace or happiness can be crafted by us. That we can "make it happen." But when the word is "baptized" or completed, it's spelled beatitude or blessedness. This blessedness is a gift. It is "bestowed" upon the heart as a gift, not as something we manufacture. 

But let's just cut to the chase. How do we get there? How can we prepare the soil of our hearts for the seed of happiness? Here are three ways to "get happy."

1. Stop trying to be happy. 

2. Stop chasing after things to make you happy. 

3. Just be..... and you will be happy. 

I'm thinking you're thinking this is too simplistic, but it is. Thank God. 

Ultimately, when all's said and done, this maddening, swirling, sometimes beautiful, often times busted up enigma we call human life is simple; it's either a yes, or it's a no. It's a humble, gracious, Job-like "Thank You Lord for everything You've done for me!" or a stubborn, restless, job like "Now everything's up to me!" With the first path, He Who is Love, not happiness, is the goal, and happiness is the fruit of that encounter. In the second way, happiness, not He, is the goal, and there is actually seldom any substantial encounter at all. One way is totally receptive in all things to the Love of the Other, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to death so us part. The other attempt at happiness is  deceptive for the love is turned towards myself. My contentment, my completion. My needs. 

Opening Door #1, that is to the Other, means we become more conscious of ourselves, of others, of the Great Mystery, and we realize we are here solely to love. We see complications melt away and learn to live each present moment as a gift. We don't try to manufacture joy the way we once did, with elaborate schemes, or expensive trips, or restless amd fruitiness encounters. 

Door #2 opens not into the Grand Ballroom of a Wedding Feast but into a closed in closet of our own small pleasures and plans. 

So to be happy, stop trying so hard. Looking so hard. Cramming things into the God-shaped hole in your heart expecting them to "make you happy." That's not how it happens. Open the door to Love. Or rather, let Love open the door and come to you. For He has yearned long to share a meal with you. To share Himself with you. 

Now "clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do..."

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

Strangers in Paradise?

I read the first couple of lines from today's gospel (Matthew 25) and, for a moment, could get no further.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,and all the nations will be assembled before him."

In the end, the final consummation, with the closing of one seemingly massive book of history, and before the opening of Another Book which will in fact be the Beginning of All Things, we will find all of humanity and all of the angels (an immense mass of trillions and trillions of persons) gathered before the Word Made Flesh. Not a single person that ever existed will be excluded, human or angelic. You and I are included in the mix.

You and I, and your entire family tree, and mine, and the cashier at the grocery store, and the girl you had a crush on in the 8th grade, and Adolf Hitler, and your Guardian Angel, and Brad Pitt and that homeless lady you always felt uncomfortable passing on the way to the office, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, and well, you get the idea. Wow. A total reckoning. A total and definitive conglomeration of the unique and unrepeatable personal mysteries that we all are.... gathered before the Divine Heart from whence our essences we first came forth.

But at this final gathering, as seen in the gospel of today, this crowd seemed, if I might say... a little... clueless.

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Huh? Why? How?

"For I was hungry and you gave me food,I was thirsty and you gave me drink,a stranger and you welcomed me..."

What? "Lord, when did we see you... Hungry. Thirsty. Naked. Locked up. Alone. Isolated. Ill. Aching for intimacy?"

When you saw another, you saw Me.

Wait, whaaaat.... YOU were in our mix? Here? Beside us... all along? I thought You were in the clouds, in my mind, in my "spiritual life" but what? You were mixed up in it all? In the blood, sweat and tears? The pots and pans, the dark nights, the bright mornings, the magnificent joys and the mediocrity? You? Here?

Yes. Where else would I be? Where else would Love desire to dwell than with the Beloved?

I discovered a man named Lee Jeffries this morning. He is a photographer who has given us a beautiful and sometimes disturbing window into the reality of the God Who is in our mix, of the naked, poor, broken, bruised and beautiful God Who is among us through his visual meditations. Find his work here. And may the portal he has opened up through his camera lens fill in the rest of these words. May the fruit of your meditation blossom into a new way of seeing today.... of seeing everyone. It's preparation for that final gathering, it's the social before we enter the Main Hall where the Feast and the Dance begins. So let's introduce ourselves to one another now. There can't be any strangers in Paradise.

The Noble Life, the Double Life of a Priest

“A priest must be a reservoir before he can become a conduit.”

- St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Tomorrow I will begin co-teaching with Fr. Brett Brannen a unique course on the Theology of the Body and the Priesthood. It's focus is on priestly identity. 

What does it mean to be a celibate man, and still a true father in the deepest sense of the word? To be a man set apart and yet at the same time to be a part of every family, connected deeply to evey heart? 

We will mediate on the priest as son, brother, spouse, and father. With the insights of Blessed John Paul the Great, as well as the scriptures, the saints and the mystics, we will clarify what is in fact not an outdated and irrelevant vocation but an essential and irrevocable sign of humanity's ultimate call: the call to become a gift.... a fruitful, life-giving gift for the world. Prayers are appreciated as we begin this 5 day course, and prayers for the class of men coming from across the country and beyond. Please pray for a renewed vision of this most beautiful of sacraments! 

"A priest is mysterious, he lives in two worlds. He is at his best when he leads a double life, at once both human and divine. No life is more adventurous, for at every moment, like the trapeze artist, he is swinging between time and eternity.”

- Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Reach Out and What?

I remember these ads. And I remember what a heartwarming feeling they conveyed. There's some good marketing there; tapping into the humanity of the consumer. Our longing for connection, for communion and for intimacy. 

"Reach out and touch someone."

Today, living in such a hyper-sexualized culture as we do, with sarcasm and cynicism always a hairs breadth away, a phrase like that has a whole different feel to it. But honestly, the Pharisees in Jesus's time had their own converse fears about touching others. 

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners."

- Luke 5:31-32

So here we are, caught between two extremes. Touch without even knowing a person (an anonymous culture of sexual encounter) or never touch because of the KIND of person they are. 

What does Jesus do? He touches the heart and soul of every person. And so should we in our love and charity. 

"At the end of time, those who will be allowed to contemplate the glorified flesh of Christ are only those who were not embarrassed to touch the flesh of their injured and excluded brothers and sisters."

- Pope Francis

The Father and the Son

Well, there it is. Day 2 of the 40 Days of Blogging began with a few sips of coffee, the daily readings (which are especially powerful today) and a sudden creaking door. A squinty-eyed boy appeared in the hall, roughly 5:04am Eastern Standard Time. He quickly dressed himself for school, then sat curled up in my lap (between the hot coffee and the iPad). Ah the best laid schemes of mice and men....

When I explained what I was up to, he said I should tell you all this: "God, we need to be more interested in You. We don't need to be doing other stuff. But you are the Son of God. You can do anything you want!"

- Seth, age 5

Perhaps I should stop there. Out of the mouths of babes...

After his words of wisdom, he snuggled deeper in. I realized what a gift the whole moment was, and this thought hit me (thanks Holy Spirit)...

"Seth, do you know what prayer is?"
"What daddy?"
"Just this, me holding you is prayer. Prayer is letting God hold us just like this. We don't even have to say anything."

And he didn't. Thank you Jesus. 

"The ultimate purpose of mission is to enable people to share in the communion which exists between the Father and the Son."

- Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 23

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PS - The Boy picked the above image of JPII for you too. 

Back to Blogging

Friends, I haven't seriously blogged in thousands of years. Ergo, for Lent, this holy season that too many believe is a great "giving up" of stuff, I shall be "giving." Blogging. Every day, for 40 days, and if the Lord wills, for thousands of years after this holy season of Lent 2014.

I used to blog.... when the blogosphere was young and fresh and held no sarcastic com boxes. Just kidding, that time never was... THANKS ORIGINAL SIN!!!

But I was witty then, resourceful, appropriate. Occasionally.

Then children came to us, great gifts of the God of Love, and they stole my heart.... and 99.76 percent of my free time. But I'm BAAAACK! In these 40 Days I aim to please, to punch these keys and to puncture the heart and maybe even the conscience (my own first) of anyone who clicks in. To get back to the Heart of Things, as it were. My purpose? To the glory of Love, Hope, and Humor in these foggy days of the early 21st century. God knows we need all three.

Much has happened in these hidden years.... 3 children (Boy Wonder, age 5.... Princess Buttercup aka Clare Bear, age 3.... and our Sweetpea Sheila, 1+ years).

My beloved bride and I have been blessed and broken like a Eucharistic host in the daily mass of our family life, and at times we've resisted, reacted, and the old self got rekindled when our patience was/is pushed to the edge. But honestly, it's been an incredible ride. Wow. God continues to show us ourselves, our absolute need to rely on His Grace and the grace of our sacramental marriage, and these little souls.... these achingly beautiful treasures He's given us to steward. They have slain us with their wonders. And sometimes roundhouse sleep-kicks in our bed at 2:30am.

Back to the main narrative: 
I shall attempt to "give" myself again to this digital diary of sorts, and I can only hope the gift is worthy of your 2.5 minutes of reading during the morning commute, or stoplight/traffic jam on (insert road of choice). In this attempt then of 40 Days of Blogging, I'm sure stories from the Crucible (aka our home) shall surface. Enjoy them, none shall be embellished. It's raw and real.

BREAKING NEWS THAT BROKE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO!
After 8 wonderful years, I made the leap out of teaching at a private boys school in Malvern, PA (what a blessing that was!!) I have transitioned this past summer into full time work for the Theology of the Body Institute (having taught and spoken across the continent for TOB for the past 8 years part time). Now I serve the job of my dreams as a curriculum specialist, faculty member and speaker for Blessed John Paul II's epic vision of the human person. Learn more here!

This vision has always permeated my thoughts, words and I hope actions, (and this blog in the past) and I know it shall do so again. Be warned!

See you in the morning ;)