Praying for the Tragedy in New Orleans

I must say that this week has been quite harrowing in terms of watching the news from New Orleans. My wife and I travelled through that region nearly twenty-five years ago and my daughters have always dreamed of visiting the "Big Easy". Our colleagues have expressed great distress at the loss of life and the degredation of so many lives. Both my wife and I work in the health field and we are concerned about the future of the people, the city and the society. Our Rosaries are always offered for our Lady's intentions and we know that her intentions include the southern United States. We pray that this situation will lead to a long term good for all the people of the United States and the world. We especially pray that the most vulnerable people in society will be valued for their own sake and the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Michael, defend us!



The image above can be found at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Thanks for Your Prayers!

I would like to thank people for their prayers and concern. I am still recovering from the surgery, but things are getting better every day. This is in no small part do to your prayers and the intersession of the Venerable Edel Quinn (Legion of Mary). I had hoped to be more active earlier with my blogging. But, as ever, I have been more optimistic about what I can achieve bodily than is warranted. So, it will be a somewhat slower return to both reading and writing.

Your Prayers Are Welcome

I'm afraid that work commitments and poor health will make blogging a hit or miss affair over the next few weeks. For anyone stopping by during that time, your prayers would be most welcome. I'll certainly be trying to visit my favourite sites for stimulating thoughts. And, I may get a few of my own thoughts up on the site.

Pieper and the Health Promoting Fear of the Lord

I often talk with Catholics who have been infected with a strange malady. They have come to fear the fear of the Lord. They seem to avoid it in all of the conversations and, especially, their liturgical expression. If asked, they will suggest that fear and guilt are outmoded in modern religion. I often wonder if modern religion removes the fear of wild animals, such as a pride of lions, as well. Of course, there is something more fearful than lions and other wild animals--ourselves in our own pride. In any case, Josef Pieper, as usually, puts it very well:

Christian theology is far from denying the fearful element in human existence. Equally, a Christian rule of life will never teach that we should not or must not be afraid of the fear-inducing. As Christians, however, we concern ourselves with the ordo timoris, the relative importance of different kinds of fear; we reflect on what might be truly and ultimately fearful; we take care not to fear things that are not truly and ultimately fearful, and to fear things that are. The ultimate fearful reality, however, is none other than the possibility that we may sever ourselves, willingly and culpably, from the very source of our being. The possibility of incurring guilt is the ultimate existential threat for every person. It is this ever-present fearful possibility of culpabale separation from our source of being to which the fear of the Lord is the adequate response. Human guilt is the ultimate fear-inducing reality; no one could ever be prepared to accept and endure "with dignity" such a fearful thing. This dimension of fear attaches to every human existence as a very real possibility, and even the saints are no exception. No "heroism" whatsoever is able to conquer this dimension, this fear; on the contrary: such fear is the premise for all true heroism. Fear of the Lord--as real fear--must be lived and endured until the final "safety" of eternal life is reached. If courage keeps us from loving our life in such a way as to cause us to lose it--then we understand that fear of the Lord, namely, the fear of losing eternal life, is the foundation of all Christian courage. We have to realize, however, that fear of the Lord is but the lesser converse of trusting love of the Lord. St. Augustine says it: we fear what our love runs away from.

Pieper, J. (1989) "Courage Does Not Exclude Fear." Josef Pieper: An Anthology. San Francisco: Ignatius, pp 70-71.

Augustine and Thought Experiments

Fr. Tom Daly, a Jesuit friend, likes to try to get people to pay attention to what is going on both around and within them. At a recent conference that had all the big commentators on thinking such as Edward De Bono, he presented a session on the science of thinking. Tom, who is eighty, with great alacrity ran the very large audience through a series of exercises--he is a Jesuit after all.

Where people had the most trouble catching on to what was going on related to paying attention to themselves. For instance, Tom might clap his hands and ask what is present when I clap my hands? Most people quickly say a clap, a sound. Someone would then correctly abstract and say, "Something heard." After that, someone was likely to suggest that hearing is present as well. I've watched Tom do this and know that it can take some time for people to catch on to the next bit. He might have to coax them, "What else is here?" "OH, someone hearing!" That last insight almost comes as a shock to many in the audience. How could they have overlooked that bit of data? There is a heard (the sensed), there is hearing (the sense) and there is someone hearing (the sense-er). There is also the known, the knowing and the knower. There is an intelligence that puts this all together and there is a judgment that affirms that this is truly the case. There is also a someone is who responsible for acting, in the most excellent manner possible, on the truth for the good of all.

Augustine in the third chapter of Book Five of his Confessions writes, "They do not know Christ, who is the Way and the Word of God, by which you created all the things which they number and count, the very men who count them, the senses by which they are aware of what they count, and the intelligence by which they count them." If people cannot realise themselves as present, it is not surprising that they cannot surmise the God who is present to all, always and everywhere. Yet, when people do realise that there is a intelligible connection between the heard, the hearing and the hearer, they often start. They express very visible signs of being startled. For some, this starts them thinking things through more thoroughly.

For instance, the following question is raised: why is it that anything that is indeed is intelligble? Or, why is it the case that anything that can be must be intelligible? If "it" lacks intelligibility, "it" is a surd. While I might think it does, in fact, a surd does not exist. Yet, "it" can diminish something that does exist. "It" can certainly diminish the intelligence of the intelligent being who believes that "it" exists when "it" does not.

I like this book in the Confessions (as well as many others). Augustine realised that the whole teaching of the Manichees was bogus because they could not get their science right. However, I don't think that Augustine fully realised what happened in his twenty-ninth year. At least his writing did not realise the fullest expression of his insights. He too quickly moved to criticising the pride of the mathematicians and scientists who had correctly calculated the movement of the stars and planets (well at least calculated well enough--more on this later). While he has a point (that I'll return to), he seems to miss a point as well.

Since they were wrong about concrete and verifiable events, he realised that the Manichees might be wrong about their more speculative assertions. Because they could not provide a coherent account of their understandings about that which is seen, the plausibility of all their assertions was called into question, if not refuted. He hoped that the highly reputed Faustus might be able to explain the discrepancies between the Manichees and the mathematicians and scientists. Faustus, for all his eloquence could not. Augustine, a man of intelligence, required an intelligent answer to the apparent lack of coherence of the Manichean system of thought. He required it because of his trust in the intellibility of the concrete reality that surrounded him as accounted for adequately by the mathematicians and "true" scientists whose books he had read as a civilised man. He was set free from the "snare" of the Manichees because no intelligent explanation could or would be given--their system was absurd.

If you cannot give a fully intelligent explanation for what I can see, how can I trust that you have a grasp of what I cannot see? That is the question addressed to the speculative theologian. It was a question that brought down a whole system of thought backed by the Church in the West. It turned the world upside down--there was truly a revolution--Christians were put in the place of the Manichees. The theologian ignores, at his or her peril, the fact of a culture where people are at leisure to pursue questions of truth to be answered by science and its methods, as well as questions of truth raised by the givenness of the Christ event. Yet, as Augustine well understood, there is a fateful question to be asked of the mathematician and the scientist: If you cannot give an intelligent explanation concerning the source of what I cannot see but can grasp with my intelligence (the intellibility of all that is), why should I accept your dismissal of an intelligent Creator?

Both scientists and theologians are people who may allow their pride to blind them to the relevant data that is given. Something can and must be done about this. But, that is a matter for other posts.

Let No Man Put Assunder: Honouring the Marriage of Aggiornamento and Ressourcement

For nearly three decades, Pope John Paul II and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger balanced, or complemented each other in a remarkable and fecund manner. One was Thomistic in orientation. The other Augustinian. I believe that both orientations are important to the survival of Catholicism in our times. Or, at least Catholicism as a potent witness to the Triune God who redeems a fallen, yet still marvelous, humanity through the humility of the Incarnation and Cross, as well as the glory of a Resurrection and Ascension that climaxes in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost upon Mary, the Apostles and the other disciples gathered in prayer. We need a capacity to theologically address both the world-at-large as it explores realities unimagined by Christians a thousand years ago and the communities that continue to faithfully witness to those realities which were the "natural" habitus of such Christians and which are a sign of contradiction to the religious, moral and aesthetic waywardness of the world-at-large both within and without the contemporary Church.

While examining the development of doctrine and the Vatican Council's insistance "that every group and every period should advance in the understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, by which the doctrine with the same meaning was to apprehended ever more fully," Lonergan reaffirmed the truth of interpretation as identity and continuity. In the following quotation from Insight, the reader should note that Lonergan speaks of both the authoritative pronouncements that the faithful should subject themselves to and the "definitive pronouncements that the Church itself cannot contradict." This passage is quoted from page 740 of the Epilogue of the 1983 edition of Insight published by Darton, Longman and Todd in London:

...As true interpretations, so also Catholic teaching presents the same doctrine and the same meaning through a diversity of conceptualizations and expressions. As true interpretation has to mount to a universal viewpoint, so the Church takes advantage of the philosophia perennis and its expansion into a speculative theology. As there is a difference between interpretation adapted to particular audiences or particular times and the interpretation from the universal viewpoint, so also the Church distinguishes between authoritative pronouncements that call for dutiful submission and definitive pronouncements that the Church itself cannot contradict. As historical interpretation may be based simply on a historical sense or may operate in the light of the universal viewpoint, so too the non-theological interpreter may recapture the mentality for which the books of the Old and New Testament were written or the spirit of the age in which a heresy arose and was condemned, but the theological interpreter has to operate from the firmer and broader base that includes the theologically transformed universal viewpoint; and so it is that in a pre-eminent and unique manner the dogmatic decision is, and the technical thesis of the dogmatic theologian can be, the true interpretation of Scriptural texts, patristic teaching, and traditional utterances.

Three Hail Marys for Faith, Hope and Charity ala Lonergan

While we must seek to understand and engage the realities of the world in which we live as responsible citizens with all those of good will, there is a profound sense in which something more is required of us as Catholics. While the rosary is often ignored and even mocked at times by "modern" Catholics, there is a profound wisdom that is developed by its prayful recitation in the light of both the issues of our lives and the light of the Gospel scenes that it draws upon. For the Kingdom is not ultimately of this world, or so Jesus informed Pilate. In an address that he delivered in 1966 to a meeting of the Canon Law Society of America, Lonergan offers this reflection at its conclusion:

If human historical process is such a compound of progress and decline, then its redemption would be effected by faith, hope and charity. For the evils of the situation and the enmities they engender would only be perpetuated by an even-handed justice: charity alone can wipe the slate clean. The determinism and pressures of every kind, resulting from the cumulative surd of unintelligent policies and actions, can be withstood only through a hope that is transcendent and so does not depend on any human prop. Finally, only within the context of higher truths accepted on faith can human intelligence and reasonableness be liberated from the charge of irrelevance to the realities produced by human waywardness (Insight, chap. XX).

This analysis fits in with scriptural doctrine, which understands suffering and dealth as a result of sin yet inculcates the transforming power of Christ, who in himself and in us changes suffering and death into the means of attaining resurrection and glory.

Lonergan, B. (1974) "The transition from a classicist world-view to historical-mindedness" In A Second Collection. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p 8.

Engaging the Civitas Diaboli, the Power of Evil

The following is from an article written by Christoph Schonborn, O.P., when he was Auxiliary Bishop of Vienna:

It is not because of the nature of human society that conflicts between Church and world keep on erupting. Cardinal Journet speaks, with Augustine, of a third reality, of which people do not like to speak today: the civitas diaboli, the power of evil. Although no period of history has known such a massive number of external manifestations of evil as our century, an astonishing blindness exists on this topic. Here the Council speaks clearly:

A hard struggle against the powers of darkness runs through the entire history of mankind, a struggle that began already at the beginning of the world and, according to the words of the Lord (Matthew 24:13; 13:24-30, 36-43), will endure until the last day. The individual man, drawn into this struggle, must continuously struggle to take his decision in favor of the good, and it is only with great efforts, with the help of God's grace, that he can attain his own inner unity.

Let us attempt to draw some conclusions in the light of this clarification-which is certainly not comfortable, but is thereby all the more healthy.

1. It must be said, against all utopias, that there is no paradise on earth. We are here only as pilgrims; the goal of our life is not here, but "there," in God's eternal kingdom. The provisional character of all earthly realizations, even the greatest and most beautiful, is something we must never forget. Perfect justice, total peace, and completely successful identity do not exist in this life. To accept this frees politics from the compulsion to bring about the impossible by forcible means; it frees society from the penetrating critic who wants everything to be perfect, already here and now.

2. Against all resignation, however, it must also be said that (relative) joy, (relative) success, and (relative) justice can and should exist in this life. For the Christian, heaven is already on earth, in a certain sense. For where in this time, with all its provisional character, he attempts to create space for love, to lend a voice to justice, to live peace, there-even in the midst of great deficiencies and miseries-something of heaven can already be sensed on earth.

3. Against all utopias of the left, and against all resignation of the right, the Christian knows that the decisive struggle is not a class struggle nor a struggle for existence, but the continuous struggle against the power of evil, against the forces of pride, of arrogance, of hatred, through which "the prince of this world" (John 12:31) builds up his kingdom and his lordship, and which are the ultimate source of all injustice and all evil. The Gospel speaks here with an unsurpassable clarity. The victory over the power of evil can be won only through sacrifice and renunciation. No one can be spared from suffering, or from death, which sets a boundary to all our striving. If we become aware once more that we are given a short time in which to fight this struggle, and if we never forget that we are to find and to take the path to eternal life in this brief time span of our life, but can also fail to take this path or lose it, then we shall "make the best use of the time" (Ephesians 5:16), knowing how serious time is, and we shall live sober, righteous, and pious lives in the present world" (Titus 2:12).

True responsibility for life here on earth is generated only by the hope in life after death. But the opposite is likewise true: only responsibility for eternal life give the right joy in this life. Responsibility for life after death generates the genuine hope for this life here on earth. "The Hope of Heaven, the Hope of Earth," First Things (April 1995), pp 36-38

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A Canticle from the Friday Morning Prayer of the Third Week

LAMENT OF THE PEOPLE IN TIME OF FAMINE AND WAR

Jer. 14:17-21

Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
and let them not cease,
for the virgin daughter of my people is smitten
with a great wound
with a very grievous blow.

If I go out into the field,
behold, those slain by the sword!
And if I enter the city,
behold, the diseases of famine!
For both prophet and priest ply
their trade through the land,
and have no knowledge.

Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Does your soul loathe Sion?
Why have you smitten us
so that there is no healing for us?

We looked for peace,
but no good came;
for a time of healing,
but behold, terror.

We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
and the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name's sake,
do not dishonour your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.

Is It The Fury of Some or The Faith of the Many That We Fear?

With each new terrorist attack we rightly weep. We weep for the loss of life and innocence. Do we also smuggle a fear in with our weeping? Not the fear that this might happen to us or our loved ones. That seems more than reasonable. In a sense, I am not wondering if this is a fear that our way of life is threatened. I suspect that it is something deeper. Perhaps our deepest fear is not related to the fury of some. Could it be a fear that the faith of the many peaceable Muslims might expose our failures.

If we examine the situation dispassionately, we cannot fail to observe empirically western society's vast abdication of its ancestral beliefs and morals. In doing so, we may have foreclosed on our futures. It seems that this may be what the Muslim world has already observed and is now acting upon either peaceably or militantly. This appears to have been the opinion of Pope Benedict when he was interviewed by Peter Seewald in the mid-1990s:

This is actually the feeling today of the Muslim world: The Western countries are no longer capable of preaching a message of morality but have only know-how to offer the world. The Christian religion has abdicated; it really no longer exists as a religion; the Christians no longer have a morality or a faith; all that's left are a few remains of some modern ideas of enlightenment; we have the religion that stands the test.

So the Muslims now have the consciousness that in reality Islam has remained in the end as the more vigorous religion and that they have something to say to the world, indeed, are the essential religious force of the future. Before, the sharia and all those things had already left the scene, in a sense; now there is a new pride. Thus a new zest, a new intensity about wanting to live Islam has awakened. This is its great power: We have a moral message that has existed without interruption since the prophets, and we will tell the world how to live it, whereas the Christians certainly can't. We must naturally come to terms with this inner power of Islam, which facinates even academic circles. Salt of the Earth (1996) San Francisco: Ignatius Press, p 246.

Coming to terms with this inner power will require a vast examin de conscience and of consciousness by the members of western society. Fear can be the beginning wisdom. For this to be so, fear must be turned into an acceptance of the truth and the humility of repentance. Also, penance certainly will be required of us. What are we willing to give up? And, more importantly, what new ways are we willing to live with and for each other?