Theology

Today being the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena I was reflecting on the fact that she is the only lay Doctor of the Church. Hurray one for our side. Many people don’t realize that St. Catherine was a lay person since she always shown wearing a Dominican habit. She was in fact a Third Order Dominican and it was common in that time that those who were part of a third order could wear the habit of that order. I remember when I first heard that I thought how cool it would be to be able to do that today. After 20 years in the military wearing a uniform and never having to worry about what to wear to work that since I was part of the Secular Discalced Carmelites that wearing the Carmelite habit would be really POD. I can see why they have changed this since it would certainly be abused, misunderstood, and easily leading to the spiritual pride of the wearer. Though the regulations in many third orders allow their members to be buried in the habit of their orders.

Also thinking about the story of St. Catherine of Siena it made me think about how things just never change. Lay people and women just don’t have any power in the Church and certainly wouldn’t be listened to the the Pope or world leaders or be the instrument of reform in the Church. Oh wait I think I got that all backwards.

Update: Jean At Catholic Fire has a great post on Catherine.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. Phil McCord wasn’t looking for a miracle.

For one thing, he wasn’t much of a praying man. Not like his Baptist preacher father or the Catholic nuns he saw every day as he managed the buildings for the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods near here.

But McCord’s fear of a surgeon’s knife cutting away the cornea of his impaired right eye led him to God, and to what some believe was a miraculous healing.

McCord’s story began in 2001, as he made his way down a long hallway adjacent to the sisters’ Church of the Immaculate Conception. He’d been pulled along the path by the melodic sounds of a pipe organ echoing through the church.

He stepped into the ornate sanctuary and settled into a pew. High above his head, McCord could see a nearly century-old fresco of Christ ascending into heaven. On another fresco above the altar, angels were visiting the Virgin Mary. Bathed in the sounds of the organ and the images of icons, McCord decided to ask God to help him overcome his fear with a silent prayer."
I try to do things for myself," he said. "But that’s not going to happen this time. I’m not going to be able to do this. Can you help me deal with this problem? Can you give me some strength?" McCord felt ashamed of what had humbled him.

But since his recent cataract removal, his right eye had swollen dramatically. His vision was reduced to formless shadows and globs of light. Doctors told him he needed a cornea transplant. But the thought of having his cornea cut out and a cadaver’s put in its place made him queasy.He was looking for help — wherever he could find it.

You there, Blessed Mother? For some reason, McCord thought of the Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin, the little Frenchwoman who had founded the congregation of sisters there 160 years earlier. She didn’t have her own fresco, but her spiritual heirs worshipped here every day. McCord wondered whether she might be looking in, and whether she could put in a good word for him with the "big guy."
This is your house, Mother Theodore," he prayed, silently, "and I am your servant."

The rest of the article is well worth reading. It give some more details on Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin and the events surrounding the first miracle and the investigation surround McCord’s restoration of vision.

Via a nice looking new blog called Benedictus Deus is this snippet from Pope Benedict on marriage.

To renew man, the Lord — alluding to these prophetic voices which always guided Israel towards the clarity of monogamy — recognized with Ezekiel that, to live this vocation, we need a new heart; instead of a heart of stone — as Ezekiel said — we need a heart of flesh, a heart that is truly human.

And the Lord “implants” this new heart in us at baptism, through faith. It is not a physical transplant, but perhaps we can make this comparison. After a transplant, the organism needs treatment, requires the necessary medicines to be able to live with the new heart, so that it becomes “one’s own heart” and not the “heart of another.”

This is especially so in this “spiritual transplant” when the Lord implants within us a new heart, a heart open to the Creator, to God’s call. To be able to live with this new heart, adequate treatment is necessary; one must have recourse to the appropriate medicines so that it can really become “our heart.”

Thus, by living in communion with Christ, with his Church, the new heart truly becomes “our own heart” and makes marriage possible. The exclusive love between a man and a woman, their life as a couple planned by the Creator, becomes possible, even if the atmosphere of our world makes it difficult to the point that it appears impossible.

The Lord gives us a new heart and we must live with this new heart, using the appropriate therapies to ensure that it is really “our own.” In this way we live with all that the Creator has given us and this creates a truly happy life.

As this blogger said "Isn’t this Pope fantastic?" I love this transplant analogy and I think it can be extended. In the realm of organ transplants often immune-suppressant drugs are given since the body is attempting to reject what it sees as foreign material. You can see the same thing happening in the parable of the sower and the seeds where some also end up rejecting what should be life-giving to them. Accepting the sacred heart of Christ to replace are stony hearts the same thing happens. Leading a life of holiness and humility can be fought by our ingrained habits and our thought processes that have not yet adapted. Our materialistic antibodies can kick in to try to deter us from turning towards God as we cling to our sinful habits and faults which we are loathe to give up. It is only through sheer grace that we can accept this new heart. Transplant patients often have to use these immune-suppressant drugs for their whole lifetime. We too must do the same thing when it comes to grace – the grace of final perseverance.

This analogy I believe goes well with my Divine Physician parody.

Here is part of a nice interview with theologian Sister Marcellina Farina
a member of the Pontifical Theological Academy and of the Interdisciplinary Mariological Association.

Q: John Paul II spoke of the "feminine genius." Do you think that Benedict XVI will surprise us with some gesture toward women?

Sister Farina: Benedict XVI follows in John Paul II’s footsteps with his own style, made of noble delicacy and clear testimony.

With his first encyclical letter, "Deus Caritas Est," he lets us perceive his profound proximity to the contemporary world and, therefore, to women; he also indicates the path he is taking and which he wishes to propose not just to the Church but to all people of good will.

When one receives God’s charity with simplicity and radicalism, the world is transformed; it is reborn as a new spring. Each creature, especially the human creature made in God’s image, reflects the luminosity of God, hence, his beauty.

Over this year of pontificate, Benedict XVI has given us a rich doctrinal patrimony in the anthropological ambit. Suffice it to think of the audiences, addresses and messages proposed to the pontifical academies, and of meetings with people of different institutions, believers and nonbelievers.

He has a sober style, made of audacity and evangelical ardor, humility and courage, generous dedication and simplicity. I do not think he will make "astounding" gestures in the phenomenological sense. The wonder he arouses in those who meet and hear him springs from his kind and profound closeness.

Thomas at American Papist has been doing yeoman’s work in covering the condom debate. With the swirl of patently false stories making their way around it is good to see a good roundup on this subject.

Via Domenico Bettinelli I found this new blog by James Stroud called Contemplation of Moral Theology which is an excellent addition to St. Blogs. In a current post HIV and Condoms or the Lesser Evil Defense James discussing the lesser evil defense and specifically addresses the issue of a married couple with HIV which has garnered much commenting on one of my previous posts.

Who would have thought that a Bruce Springsteen song could be used to explain papal teachings?

Author and lecturer Christopher West did just that, singing, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart,” to introduce his presentation on “God, Sex and the Meaning of Life: An Introduction to Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.”

West’s presentation was part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s annual Adult Lecture Series on April 5, and it drew a packed house of more than 500 to St. Paul Seminary.

The crowd was diverse and multigenerational, with students scribbling notes, grandparents smiling as infants babbled in the arms of their parents, and clergy being applauded for their example.

West is a noted expert on theology of the body, having authored three books, recorded numerous presentations and delivered live presentations in more than 150 cities on four continents.

West explained that theology of the body refers to a collection of 129 talks delivered by Pope John Paul II between 1979 and 1984. Its application is universal, West noted. “If you’ve got a body, this theology applies to you!”

Although the phrase “theology of the body” seems to be self-contradictory (theology being a study of the spiritual and the body being earthly), West explained that when seen in the light of Christianity, its purpose becomes clear. Much of Christianity is making visible of the invisible, and the central tenet of Christianity is that God made himself visible in the person of Jesus Christ. “The theology of the body gets us in touch with the ‘Word made flesh,’” West said.

He explained that the human body was created by God to “make visible the reality hidden in God from eternity”: that God himself in the Trinity is an eternal exchange of love, and he has destined us to share in it. The marital embrace itself is a glimpse of God’s free, total, faithful, life-giving love.

West said our “hungry hearts,” our natural human longing for life, is actually a manifestation of our longing for God. “God’s love is what those ‘housewives’ are really ‘desperate’ for,” West noted, also quoting G.K. Chesterton, who wrote, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is actually looking for God.”

Amazing what happens whey you actually teach the faith and the deep beauty of it instead of crap like the musical erotica.

From the Pope’s Wednesday audience as translated by ZENIT.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

In the new series of catecheses, which we began a few weeks ago, we wish to consider the origins of the Church to understand Jesus’ original plan and in this way understand what is essential in the Church, which endures with the passing of time. We also want to understand the reason for our being in the Church and how we must commit ourselves to live it at the beginning of a new Christian millennium.

Reflecting on the early Church, we can discover two aspects: The first aspect is forcefully underlined by St, Irenaeus of Lyon, martyr and great theologian of the end of the second century, the first to leave us, in a certain sense, a systematic theology.

St. Irenaeus writes: "Where the Church is, there also is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace, as the Spirit is truth" ("Adversus Haereses," III, 24, 1: PG 7, 966). Therefore, there is a profound relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church. The Holy Spirit edifies the Church and gives it truth and, as St. Paul says, infuses love in the hearts of believers (cf. Romans 5:5).

But, in addition, there is a second aspect. This profound relationship with the Spirit does not eliminate our humanity, with all its weakness and, in this way, the community of disciples experienced from the beginning not only the joy of the Holy Spirit, the grace of truth and love, but also trial, made up above all by the contrast between the truths of faith and the resulting lacerations of communion.

Just as a communion of love has existed from the beginning and will exist until the end (cf. 1 John 1:1ff), so, sadly, from the beginning division has also erupted. We must not be surprised by the fact that it exists also today: "They went out from us," says the First Letter of John, "but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us" (2:19).

Therefore, the danger always exists, in the vicissitudes of the world and also in the weaknesses of the Church, of losing the faith and thus, of also losing love and fraternity. Therefore, it is a specific duty of those who believe in the Church of love and want to live in her, to recognize this danger also and to accept that communion is not possible with those who do not abide in the doctrine of salvation (cf. 2 John 9-11).

That the early Church was clearly aware of these possible tensions in the living of communion is shown very well in the First Letter of John. There is no other voice in the New Testament that is raised so forcefully to underline the reality of the duty of fraternal love among Christians, but that same voice addresses with drastic severity adversaries, who have been members of the community but no longer are.

The Church of love is also the Church of truth, understood above all as fidelity to the Gospel entrusted by the Lord Jesus to his own. Christian fraternity is born from the fact of being children of the same Father by the Spirit of truth: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14). But, to live in unity and peace, the family of the children of God needs someone who will keep them in the truth and guide them with wise and authoritative discernment: This is what the ministry of the apostles is called to do.

And here we come to an important point. The Church is totally of the Spirit, but it has a structure, the apostolic succession, which has the responsibility to guarantee the Church’s permanence in the truth given by Christ, from which the capacity to love also proceeds. The first summary of the Acts of the Apostles expresses with great effectiveness the convergence of these values in the life of the early Church: "They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship (‘koinonia’), to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42).

Communion is born from faith aroused by the apostolic preaching, it is nourished from the breaking of bread and prayer, and is expressed in fraternal charity and service. We are before the description of the communion of the early Church in the richness of her internal dynamisms and her visible expressions: The gift of communion is kept and promoted in particular by the apostolic ministry, which in turn is a gift for the whole community.

The apostles and their successors therefore are custodians and authoritative witnesses of the deposit of faith given to the Church, and they are also the ministers of charity: two aspects that go together. They must always think of the inseparable character of this double service, which in fact is the same: truth and charity, revealed and given by the Lord Jesus. In this connection, they carry out above all a service of love: the charity they must live and promote cannot be separated from the truth they keep and transmit.

Truth and love are two sides of the same gift, which proceeds from God and which, thanks to the apostolic ministry, is kept in the Church and comes to us in our present [time]! Through the service of the apostles and their successors we also receive the love of the Triune God to communicate the truth that makes us free (cf. John 8, 32)! All this which we see in the early Church leads us to pray for the successors of the apostles, for all bishops, and for the Successors of Peter so that they will really be custodians of truth and at the same time of charity, so that they will really be apostles of Christ, so that their light, the light of truth and charity will never be extinguished in the Church and the world.

From Archbishop Chaput:

God remakes the world with our deeds, not our intentions. What distinguishes real faith from surface piety is whether we actually do what we say we believe.

Our mission as disciples is not simply to pass along good morals to our children, or convey a sense of God’s hand in the world. These things are vital, of course, but they don’t exhaust our vocation. Our mission is to bring the world to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ to the world. Each of us is a missionary, and our primary work is the conversion of our own hearts and the hearts of others so that someday the whole world will acknowledge Jesus Christ as humanity’s only savior and Lord.

That’s a big task. We can’t do it by just “dialoguing” about it, any more than Christ could redeem us by writing an essay on sin. The Gospels have power because they tell the story of what God did; what his only son did; and what Christ’s followers did. The Passion accounts of Christ’s suffering and death move us so deeply because they show in bitter detail how unashamedly God loves us.

This is the hot spark at the heart of every other sincere attempt to tell the Passion story. God spared not even his own Son in saving us. No wonder the cross draws the eye of great artists again and again down through the centuries. The blood of the cross reminds us that — at least on one day in history — love had no limits. And since then, everything has been different.

God built the Church we’ve inherited through the love of generations of believers. Their witness made our faith possible. It’s now our turn to shape the future by the zeal we bring to our own daily witness. It’s our turn to act. It’s our turn to live our Catholic faith with all the courage and strength Christ brought to loving the Church he founded.

…The Church depends on God who will always protect her. But she also depends on us to carry Christ’s mission into the world. Words are cheap. Actions matter. It’s time to live our Catholic faith as the apostles did — and through it, to reshape the world.

I just have to relate something that happened in Mass today. While at Mass during the consecration something absolutely amazing happened. In fact it was I dare say miraculous. I witnessed the bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. In fact another miraculous event also occurred. Even though through transubstantiation what was bread and wine had an actual change of substance the accidents remained – amazing! Two miracles for the price of one. Now I am not trying to pass myself off as special or other than another sinner striving for holiness, but this is not the first time I witnessed this miraculous event. In fact my timing has been perfect in that whether I go to weekday or Sunday Mass or whether I go to one parish or another exactly the same thing happens each time during the consecration! That each and every time through the eyes of faith I witness the same supernatural event. Scoff if you want, but I swear that it is all true.

Seriously though what I wrote above is trying to make a point about what we all can take for granted. That some will chase off towards any rumor of the latest apparition while at the same time the miraculous is constantly happening in our neighborhoods and cities everyday. I was thinking of this fact because I noticed a little heavier attendance at Mass today than normal. Today being the feast day of St. Blaise I am sure many were there to get the blessing of the throat. Not to diminish the effects of sacramental such as blessed candles, but it should be the Eucharist in and of itself that should draw us to Mass. I guess St. Blaise’s feast is similar in a smaller way to Ash Wednesday where if the Church uses a sacramental Catholics seem to find time to suddenly go to Mass. The great thing about the Catholic Church is that it is like a late night infomerical. Yes you get Redemption, forgiveness of sins, and the Eucharist. But wait there is more! Much more! Sacraments, sacramentals, indulgences, devotions, etc. We’re the sacramental superstore where God uses all he can to bring us to him.

On a side note ironically our priest celebrating the Mass today had a slight case of laryngitis and asked the pastor to bless his throat first. Though if Fr. Keene ever found out I used his picture in my Liturgy for Ignoramuses post I would probably really need a healing of the throat also.

I was daydreaming this morning about one day writing a book about the East-West Schism. Unoriginal and straightforward enough, right? Well, actually, rather than analyzing the typical factors — theological methodology, cultural pressures, diplomatic gaffes, crusades, excommunications, heresies and the like — I wanted to make it a love story, of sorts. Since Christianity is fundamentally a marriage – between Heaven and Earth, between the Sheep and the Shepherd, between the Holy and the Forgiven, between all peoples and the Three Persons at one Table – we must view the Church too as a marital saga. A long, long time ago, the East and the West lived as one married couple. They exchanged theological and financial goods, gave birth to children, learned from each other – and also often wounded each other. At some point, the estrangement grew to be too much, and the couple separated. Yet, mysteriously, they could never be divorced, for God had joined them around that one marital Feast, for better or for worse.

Read Elliot Bougis whole post and I especially loved the ending of the post. Earlier this week he also wrote something else profound.

Love is preemptive forgiveness; it is a predetermined benevolence that outlasts the fickleness of sin. Forgiveness is resurrected love; neither it nor the Resurrection is merely "resuscitated" benevolence, but is a glorified, transfigured and life-encompassing renewal of communion.