Hello everybody! Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. I have been working pretty hard on metaphysics, which had the 1st test and 2nd short paper due today. I think I did alright on both, and those were the last big assignments between me and midterm break. Wow, time has absolutely been flying! It is crazy that I am almost a quarter of the way through my senior year already... Anyway, I hope to get a better post put together over the next few days, but for the time being here are a few good videos that I have come across over the last week or so.
First, Pope Benedict on St. Francis - and how he isn't a soft, animal-lover, pal kind of guy. We're talking about a saint folks, that takes guts!
Next is a video by Christopher Stefanick, again pulling no punches in telling the truth about how real tolerance has its foundation in truth and love.
Thirdly, the new trailer for The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug. I imagine that if you are into that sort of thing you have already seen it, but I am kind of excited about the movie, so I figured that every once in a while I should post something here just because I like it... Anyway, enjoy!
And lastly, a time-lapse video of the Mauna Kea, Hawaii astronomical observatory. Beautiful! Fantastic! Extraordinary!
And a video by the piano guys (awesome music, from the great wall of china)!
"As you know, there are various reasons why I chose the name of Francis of Assisi, a familiar figure far beyond the borders of Italy and Europe, even among those who do not profess the Catholic faith. One of the first reasons was Francis’ love for the poor. How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure! After the example of Francis of Assisi, the Church in every corner of the globe has always tried to care for and look after those who suffer from want, and I think that in many of your countries you can attest to the generous activity of Christians who dedicate themselves to helping the sick, orphans, the homeless and all the marginalized, thus striving to make society more humane and more just. But there is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the “tyranny of relativism”, which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples. And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth." [my emphasis]
I see a lot of people fighting against material poverty, and that is certainly important, but we cannot ignore spiritual poverty. Really, that is the bigger problem, the greater evil, the worse deprivation. As Christians we need to do both the corporal and the spiritual works of mercy. Doing the corporal works of mercy is easier, more rewarding, and a source of prestige. Feeding, clothing, healing; they are all things that people like to see others doing. The spiritual works of mercy, on the other hand, have few benefits (on earth); it's tough to forgive, to admonish, to pray. There aren't many people handing you Nobel prizes for praying or confronting people about their sins...
It's unfortunate, but people don't always search for the truth these days - the "dictatorship of relativism" as said by Pope Benedict Emeritus is a big problem in our world. Is there objective, always-true, truth? Or is the good, the beautiful, the right, the true, just what I want it to be? Pope Francis is saying that the antidote to poverty, and the precursor to peace, is accepting the truth.
We are coming up on Holy Week and this topic reminds me of Pilate's question to Jesus: "What is truth?" (John 18:38). Truth, folks, is the person standing before Pilate, Jesus Christ. His words directly before Pilate's question are "For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." (John 18:37) That is the mission of the Christian, to hear Christ's voice. Our world is full of noise and distraction, and especially during Lent we pray, fast, and give alms, to grow closer to God, to hear His voice, to know His truth, and thus, to proclaim it to the world. Welcome to the Church Militant folks!
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| Ecce Homo - Behold the Man |
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| Archbishop Bergoglio before becoming Pope Francis |
It has just been announced that Pope Francis, instead of celebrating the start of the Triduum, the Mass of the Lord's Supper (Holy Thursday), at St. Peter's Basilica, will continue a practice he began as bishop in Buenos Aires and celebrate it at a prison. In this case, the pope will wash the feet of twelve of the inmates at Casal del Marmo, a juvenile prison in Rome.
I think his tweet (from Tuesday gives us the reason for this.
"True power is service. The Pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable."
Pope Francis, I believe, is taking the virtue of humility, seen so clearly in his predecessors, John Paul, who let the world watch the young, vibrant, athlete slowly succumb to Parkinson's disease, and Benedict, who acknowledged to the world that he wasn't strong enough, to a new height. This humility, as all virtues must be, is motivated by love, by charity. Obviously, the perfect example of humility is Our Lord, who became one of his creation, and why did Jesus do this? Love. Pray for Pope Francis that he can continue to show the world what it means to be a disciple of Christ, through his example. I can't help but notice that Pope Francis is taking St. Francis's words "Preach the gospel at all times - If necessary, use words" to heart. As Christians, we must always be conscious of the example we are giving to others. Are we acting like Christ? The slogan "What would Jesus Do?" is kind of laughed at, but that is exactly how we need to live - like Our Lord. Keep up the good Lent!
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