Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

Part of the struggle of bringing Catholic social doctrine to the public sphere (to a great extent, what the Tertio program that I just returned from, was looking at) is the fact that our world is much less receptive to rational, nature-based, arguments than ever before.  Pope Benedict called this the dictatorship of relativism, but quite simply (if tragically) this is the "anything goes" mentality which rejects any objective, unchanging, everybody-can-figure-it-out, truth for a world based on "your truth" and "my truth".  Well, it's pretty simple, if you don't have an objective truth to mutually rely on, you really can't have a discussion: if you don't have any common ground, you can't have a conversation.  So what do we do when rational discussion breaks down?  How do we bring Christ's truth to the world?

I was discussing this with one of the Sisters of Life who were also attending the seminar, and she grinned when I brought up this question, and said "we just have to be martyrs!"  It was an answer I should have known, but it was one that led to a lot of thinking, and praying about, over the following weeks.  We talked about the exact same thing in our small-group discussions; how do we bring the truth of the Gospel to our modern, anti-Gospel, world?  The answer was hanging above our heads, where the crucifix showed us how Christ brought the Gospel to His anti-Gospel world; He didn't argue that God is love, He showed it.

We, of course, have to do the same thing.  And folks, these times where the anti-Gospel is so rampant, allow us to do just that - to proclaim with our lives, with our witness [martyras/μάρτυρας in the Greek], the truth of the Gospel.  People aren't convinced anymore by rational argument - fine - show them that the Gospel is true because your life is evidence for it.  Show them that following the truth of Christ isn't bondage, but freedom, not oppression  but joy.  And here's the key point that I wanted to make in this post: this is exactly the approach we need to take in the (so attacked today) realm of respect for life.  We must show the world that every human person deserves our respect and love by giving that respect and love to every human person.  It's easy to rally in support of the unborn - they're defenseless, yet we mercilessly, pointlessly, atrociously, murder them, that is an injustice that drives us to act.  It's "easy", in this sense, to show our love for the unborn (even if not socially beneficial nowadays), but what about when love is hard?  Our Lord calls us to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" - when was the last time you showed your love publicly for an enemy? Do we go out of our way to show love for those in Planned Parenthood who were recently exposed for selling the body parts of aborted babies?  What they did was unthinkable (though the logical, utilitarian, conclusion from legalized abortion), but how much time have you spent praying for them?  What about the ISIS-attacker, who recently assaulted (and nearly murdered) a tourist at the Colosseum?  What about the gay-marriage activists who have recently won the federal right for two men or women to marry each other?  We may be similarly repulsed by these evils, but does it drive us to love or hatred towards the persons committing them?  

Not for one instant am I saying that what these individuals have done is morally right.  Abortion is wrong because it is the destruction of human life (and selling body parts from that is tantamount to cannibalism), ISIS-executions are wrong for the same reasons (and so many others), and "gay"-marriage is wrong because it not only hurts any children that couple would raise, but destroys the fundamental element, purpose, and structure of society, and goes against one of God's first commands, to "be fruitful and multiply" (besides going against His creation itself: they're called "reproductive" organs for a reason).  What we should realize though is that all these terrible actions are rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding, or ignoring, of human dignity.  Murder and homosexual actions are wrong because human life is sacred, and we cannot destroy, or redefine, what God has created in His image.  But, here's the big point, we must not forget that innate sacredness, that made-in-God's-image, that ability to give and receive love, that is ours as human persons, in our outrage at rejections of that dignity.  Our reaction to sins against the human person must not lead us to commit sins against different human persons (the perpetrators of the original evils).  

To hatred, we must respond with love.  To a rejection of God, we must respond with prayer.  To oppression, we must respond with solidarity.  To terrorism, we must respond with charity.  This is as much of a challenge for me as it is for any of you I suppose.  The difficulty lies in hating sin, but loving the sinner, in making reparation for evil, but interceding for evil-doers.  It has nothing to do with being push-overs, but if we take Christ as our model, we see that love must be our answer, to those who love us, and those who don't.  Not a weak, "luv", but the greatest love: of laying down one's life for another (and his eternal life).  Only this kind of love will convert hearts to Christ because only this kind of love truly mirrors to the world the love of Christ. 

Story: It is the end of July, 1941, in Auschwitz, and the Nazi's choose 10 individuals at random to die as a punishment for the escape of three of their fellow prisoners.  Fr. Maximilian Kolbe steps forwards and offers to go in place of another man who had cried out upon being chosen for this terrible death (starvation and dehydration in an underground cell).  The shocked Nazi official authorizes the swap, and the 10 men march off to their deaths.  Two weeks later, having sung hymns or knelt in prayer for most of that horrendous time, Fr. Kolbe is still alive and is killed with an injection of carbolic acid.  The guards place his body in a coffin and cremate it.  St. Maximilian Kolbe is an amazing example of love, but not only for the man who's place he took, but also for the guards who he prayed for, and surrendered to, even after they had tortured him, and then sent him to this excruciating death.  That love had an effect!  Not only did Franciszek Gajowniczek (the one whose place was taken by Kolbe) get to return to his family after WWII, but even the Nazi guards, seeing that incredible witness of Christ-like love, were moved to place his body in a coffin and respectfully carry it to the cremating ovens.  That was the only time in Auschwitz that we know of a "respectful" burial, and those guards did that because they saw something different in Kolbe, they saw love in the midst of hatred, grace in the midst of hell, a saint in the midst of sin.  

We're called to that same witness, that same courageous love, which doesn't attack evil with evil, but displaces it with the greater power of charity.  We may not convince the world with our arguments, but we will with our Christ-driven, and given, love.  In a world of great sin, saints are all the more visible.  

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, 

if you have love for one another." 

- John 13:35 - 

Sunrise in Washington DC

Wednesday morning dawned cold and sunny.  The alarm went off at 7:00 AM which, based on the fact that I didn't roll out of bed until 7:30, was too early.  Myself and the other guys from the Springfield diocese were going over to serve Mass with the contingent of people from our diocese at 10:00 AM (unlike the other Brute guys, who were celebrating Mass together elsewhere), so I had to pack up my things quickly in order to make it downstairs and catch the hotel shuttle to the metro station.  It was a short (10 minute) drive to the metro station, but the train ride down to Metro Center (the station we needed to get to) was quite a bit longer.  I took the same ride on the previous day and it didn't seem all that long, but this time we were pressured by the clock, so the ride seemed to take forever.  We finally reached that terminal around 9:30, quite a bit later than we had planned, and raced over to the next train which would take us over to the Capital South stop, from which the church was only a short walk. Around this time we happened to run into Fr. Hyland Smith, who was ordained last year for our diocese, and who was trying to get on the same train that we were.  Of course, since we were in a hurry, as soon as the train entered the station it promptly broke down.  We had to wait several more minutes for them to remove the, now broken, train and then wait for the next one to arrive.  By the time we reached Capital South, it was already 10:00, but thankfully the Mass had waited for us (or probably more precisely, Fr. Smith).

Bishop Paprocki talking with the pilgrims after Mass

I quickly threw on my cassock and surplice and walked back into the sacristy, where I said hello to the Bishop and then got ready for Mass.  Cody and I served while the other guys sat in choir (because we didn't need 7 servers).  St. Peter's was packed with young people from our diocese, all having endured a long bus ride from home, and it added, kind of like the Mass at the Basilica, some awesomeness to have all those people present.  Bishop Paprocki reiterated the necessity to stand up against the evil of abortion, how we must show our opposition to it by marching down the cold streets of Washington DC.  Unfortunately, I couldn't track down a transcript of the homily, so that is all I remember.  (That's one thing I dislike about having to do something at Mass, it's hard to pay attention.)  Mass went well, as you might expect, and though it wasn't quite as spectacular as Mass the night before at the Basilica, it was still profound and beautiful.

Crucifix in St. Peter's Church

After Mass, we changed into our warm clothes and grabbed a bite to eat, before walking with the Springfield group (including the bishop) down to the national mall.  It was a short walk, maybe a mile, right down past the capital (on the opposite side from where we would be walking up later during the March for Life).  Though we were all bundled up, it only took a block or two for me to notice that it was really cold out.  One of the other guys checked on his phone and it was a whopping 12 degrees out.  The wind was also in full force and though I was pretty well covered up, my face, which was exposed, quickly started to feel the brunt of the cold.  We eventually split off from the Springfield group and headed over to where the guys from Brute were collecting.  I was going to meet a friend from the Quincy area who is a brother in the Fathers of Mercy, but unfortunately, I didn't have the time to look around amongst the hundreds of thousands of people for his group and was otherwise unable to get in touch with him.  Anyway, we were probably standing there for half an hour while the last few speeches ended (unfortunately, I wasn't paying very good attention, so I don't remember all of what was said), and then the march started. We were about half way back in the crowd at the national mall, but we didn't get into the 'wave' of people very quickly, so we ended up being near the back of the march.

Crowds before the March

The march begins!

This year, unlike in 2013, Brute had our own banner, so we all grouped around it while trying to merge with the slowly moving crowd.  Everybody was shuffling along slowly, so this process took a while, but it turned out just fine because the slow-up meant that I was surprised to run into my aunt/uncle/cousins again.  I was able to talk with them for a few minutes while the crowd was moving slowly, but, as things finally started moving we got squeezed apart.  As our group curved up towards the capital building, we sang several hymns and prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a devotion that so poignantly expresses what the March is about.  Not only are we protesting, politically, against abortion, we are also doing reparation for this evil and begging Our Lord to have mercy on us and our country.  It was, as in previous years, incredible to see all the young people, stretching in every direction, marching against abortion.  Words can't quite do the experience justice, so I'll have to hope that the pictures included here give you some idea of how impressive it was.

The masses marching towards the Capital building

All of us from Brute after the March

Anyway, the group of us seminarians from Brute (along with Fr. Bob) actually curved off of the march before getting all the way up to the Supreme Court.  We turned left as we were going up past the Capital building (instead of continuing all the way up) so that we could get down to Union Station more quickly (and not have to work against the crowd to get there).  It was packed with people who had just finished the march, so it was still a challenge to find and board our train back to where the vans were parked.  I managed to take a short nap on the metro (and finish thawing out) as we sped back to the Shady Grove station, which was wonderful.  We all trickled back to the vans around 4 PM and shortly afterwards started the long drive back to Indianapolis.  We stopped at a place called Cici's pizza on the way home, a buffet-style restaurant that churns out different types of pizza every few minutes.  It was tasty, fast, and cheap, all factors that made it ideal for 50 hungry seminarians.  I spent almost the entire trip back working on homework (except for the times when we were listening to different Catholic talks), though I did fall asleep for maybe an hour during the last stretch of the drive (around 2 AM).  The weather was bad for part of the trip, but thankfully we made it back safely around 4 AM.  Sorry, I don't have anything particularly exquisite to say, it was a fantastic trip, inspiring as always, and something that I will probably miss greatly next year.

Here's a video of bits of the March - actually some of the group from Springfield makes an appearance!

As you probably have heard, Pope Francis was just named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.  He receives the title which had also given to Blessed Pope John Paul II and John XXIII, (who will both be canonized in April).  I read the article, Pope Francis, The People's Pope, and I was a bit worried when I saw the opening line: "He took the name of a humble saint and then called for a church of healing. The first non-European pope in 1,200 years is poised to transform a place that measures change by the century".  Great... Another article about how Pope Francis is going to change everything about the Catholic Church and switch its teaching on abortion, gay marriage, etc.  Wonderful, another news piece that doesn't understand that the Church can't change these teaching because they are Divinely, not humanly, mandated.  They quickly realized my fears:

The papacy is mysterious and magical: it turns a septuagenarian into a superstar while revealing almost nothing about the man himself. And it raises hopes in every corner of the world—hopes that can never be fulfilled, for they are irreconcilable. The elderly traditionalist who pines for the old Latin Mass and the devout young woman who wishes she could be a priest both have hopes. The ambitious monsignor in the Vatican Curia and the evangelizing deacon in a remote Filipino village both have hopes. No Pope can make them all happy at once.

Here it comes, thought I...  But then they got it right:

And so Francis signals great change while giving the same answers to the uncomfortable questions. On the question of female priests: “We need to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman.” Which means: no. No to abortion, because an individual life begins at conception. No to gay marriage, because the male-female bond is established by God. “The teaching of the church … is clear,” he has said, “and I am a son of the church, but”—and here he adds his prayer for himself—“it is not necessary to talk about those issues all the time.”

Again, later in the article:

The five words that have come to define both the promise and the limits of Francis’ papacy came in the form of a question: “Who am I to judge?” That was his answer when asked about homo­sexuality by a reporter in July. Many assumed Francis, with those words, was changing church doctrine. Instead, he was merely changing its tone, searching for a pragmatic path to reach the faithful who had been repelled by their church or its emphasis on strict dos and don’ts. Years of working closely with parish priests have taught him that the church seemed more comfortable with narrow issues than human complexity, and it lost congregants and credibility in the bargain. He is urging his army to think more broadly.

I was legitimately surprised!  Of course, the article isn't perfect, I could complain about some points (even in these quotations), but I'm not going to.  I think they did a really good job outlining the man who is now Pope.  The author seems to understand what the Pope is saying, knowing the background that is the 2000 years of Church Tradition.  I am just glad to see something that finally sets the record pretty straight.  Hopefully, this article will allow people to see the true depth behind Pope Francis.  He isn't changing doctrine, and his change in tone isn't because he is liberal.  Church teaching isn't liberal or conservative, it's truth.  Pope Francis, by putting a huge emphasis on love, compassion, charity, solidarity, etc. isn't undermining Church teaching, He is showing the world the beauty, goodness, and truth behind the morality that they all-too-often misunderstand as harsh, bureaucratic, rules. 

Thanks Time magazine for the great article!  Thanks Pope Francis for setting an example for the world!

Wow, I haven't written a blog post like that before.  (Let me know if it didn't make sense or if I said anything crazy - I hate it when that happens...)  I only have the metaphysics final tomorrow and a bit of polishing to do on the senior seminar paper!

Here is a fantastic video talking about the "big picture", that God is Love and how Pope Francis isn't changing Church teaching, He's just asking us to see the underlying principles (LOVE).  I know I posted about this before, but this video quickly and easily gets to the heart of the matter (without me spending hours banging away on the keyboard - I'm doing that enough right now anyway... Enjoy!

For whatever reason, I was particularly attentive during Mass the other day, and this Gospel really jumped out at me.  The story is familiar: a village doesn't welcome Jesus, and James and John want to call down fire from heaven to destroy the city, just nuke 'em, as Fr. Tom summarized in his homily.  But, instead of being angry at the village, Jesus just goes to another village, rebuking his disciples at their desire for vengeance.

Obviously, there is a lot going on in our world today (the government shutdown comes to mind), but something that has been making waves in Catholic circles is the recent interview given by Pope Francis.  Of course, since I started this post Pope Francis has given a 2nd interview, but I won't go into that one...  Basically, the press (for the most part) has leaped upon this interview saying that the church's policies on issues that is has formerly been staunchly against (abortion, "gay" marriage, contraception) have changed.  Sorry to break the news to the modern world, but they haven't, and they won't.  Actually, listen to what Pope Francis says:

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."

What is he saying?:  We can't focus only on hot-button ethical and moral issues.  Yes, they are important, but if that is all you talk about nobody will listen.  His reason isn't to say that these issues aren't important but that, "when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context."  What's the context?:  Jesus' redemptive, loving, death in order to bring us God's love (and life).  "Love".  It's a word that people have watered down in our culture.  Dictionary.com says that love is:

Love, in Christianity, is so much more than just affection!  Love is a supernatural virtue that comes from God.  Love, is the "fire" that Jesus wants to inflame us with (that is why this post started with that Gospel).  It is the fire that we should be praying would fall from heaven upon us.  As Jesus says "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" - Luke 12:49  Listen to Pope Francis as he continues:

"The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow."

The last line of this statement is the key! "It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow."  The moral teachings of the church aren't subjective, or changing, precisely because they come from  Jesus Christ's teachings and life.  The pope, or the bishops, or whoever, don't just make up moral principles for us to follow.  The Church was guaranteed by Christ to teach the Truth!  Jesus says "I am with you always, to the close of the age." - Matthew 28:20  He says to Peter "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:18-19  Finally, to Pilate's question "what is truth" we find Jesus' answer "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." - John 14:6

Well, here I am again with a daily recap.  So much is happening around here and I decided to just roll it all into one post.  Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense, but it probably doesn't...

Yesterday, as I briefly mentioned I went to Sacred Heart (here in Indianapolis) to take some notes on how their music was for Mass.  We (I'm in the class with 3 other seminarians and other non-seminarians) have an assignment in music class that requires us to go to a Sunday Mass over the next few weekends and write a paper on the music that they do.  (Does the priest chant anything? does the congregation join in?  what songs are chosen?  do they play an organ or something else?  - you get the picture).  Anyway, Sacred Heart, as I was told before I went, is the most beautiful church in the Arch-diocese of Indianapolis, so I was happy to have picked it.  Of course what I didn't know was that they are currently redoing their floors and Mass was in the church hall...  Yep, that was a bummer.

After I got back from Sacred Heart, I joined a group of guys who were making dinner.  On the weekends we don't go to Marian for food, so we have to either eat at Brute or go out someplace.  Being the guy that I am, I typically lean towards eating here rather than spending money elsewhere.  Thus, I was happy to join these guys making dinner, since it would undoubtedly be better than the microwaveable pizza, ramen noodles, or hamburger that I would have made on my own.  It turned out that they were working on a stir-fry with rice, chicken, green peppers, onions, sliced almonds, and a saucy concoction with soy sauce, garlic, and other unidentified spices.  Either way, it turned out delicious!

So, yesterday evening (now it's like 7:30PM), I joined a different group of guys to go ice skating.  Now, I don't think I have ever been ice skating before (maybe some time when an ice storm covered our back yard???), so I was prepared for the worst.  Nevertheless, I quickly got the hand of it, and had a really, really fun evening.  By the end of the hour and a half, I was attempting, unsuccessfully, to learn how to slide to a stop (by flipping your ankles/skates sideways), to skate backwards (I definitely wasn't too elegant doing that either), and racing with the other guys (which, though I didn't win, was relatively successful at).  I only fell down twice and had tons of fun!  (check out my previous post for a video of one of the races).

Now onto today: the first thing on the schedule was Mass at 9:30 AM.  I scheduled myself to cantor it, so on Friday I got together with Aaron, the other guy who is in charge of musical stuff, who also happened to be the organist this weekend, and we picked out the hymns for today.  Unfortunately, at this time I don't remember all of them (opening, offertory  Communion, and recessional) but the opening one was Forty Days and Forty Nights.  - Sorry, my brain is pretty tired, and I'm just drawing a blank -  I managed to pull off everything, even chanting the responsorial psalm without any disasters (it was my 2nd time doing it), except the hymn for the offertory.  Anyway, that was getting on just great; I started on key, with the organ, hitting all the notes correctly, the other guys even joined in singing, and then I got to the 3rd verse, at which point I started singing the fourth...  Yeah, I was oblivious for about a line, then, during the second line, I was trying to figure out why everybody was singing something different from me, and then (3rd line now) Aaron started singing the correct verse, and I finally figured out where I went wrong...  I actually don't know how noticeable it was to everybody else - at Brute the organ/cantor are in the back, so I was possibly drowned out by the organ and everybody else - that's what I'm hoping anyway.  Ah well, it seems as soon as I'm feeling full of myself (just pulled off the responsorial psalm right!), God gives me a dose of humility...  

For lunch one of they guy's family came in to cook us lunch.  As always it was fantastic; lasagna  salad, garlic bread, and a strawberry-pie-on-a-cookie dessert.  Yeah, it was awesome!

Next, for the first time, I went to pray (with a few guys) in front of the abortion clinic.  I'll just note that it was a wonderful experience and leave the details for another post.  (Gosh, I feel like I keep relegating some tidbit to another post and then never get to it...  Sorry, these things take time, and I just don't have much right now...)

When we got back from that around 2:30 we went for a run.  This time we had another guy join the normal group of us (bring the total to 5), who happens to generally run a bit faster than our typical 7:40 pace (more on that in a bit).  It's really funny; I used to always laugh at  those crazy runners that are out pounding the pavement when it's freezing outside.  Well, that's been me for the last week; today was actually a bit warmer than our last run, and it was maybe a bit above 30 degrees.  After a mile or two you do warm up, but until then it's pretty chilly.  Anyway, today was our higher mileage day, so we were doing a four mile loop.  Josh, the "new" guy to our group, really floored the pace when we made the last turn about 2/3 of a mile from Brute (which happens to be 2/3 of a mile uphill) and I drifted slowly off the back.  Thankfully, the other guys were feeling the burn and also began to drift apart, but I only managed to catch up to one of them in the last sprint...  It turned out to be a faster time per mile (under 7:30) then what we typically do for 3 miles, so, yeah, we were cruising.  It was good for me I'm sure, but I'm still pretty sore.

After getting back from the run, I took a hot shower, and then studied with some guys for a theology test on Friday.   (I had avoided doing any schoolwork on Sundays so far this semester, but I was pressed for time, and it was theology, so I did it.)  Then I Skyped with the family until almost 7, when we have a community Holy Hour, and then I ate some dinner, watched a show with the guys, worked on the blog, and now I'm off to bed.  Have a great Monday folks; do something fun!