Weathering the Storm

The Church Confronts Modernity,

Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era,

by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., (Kindle edition) Columbia University Press, New York, 2004.

Every once in a while, I pick up a book on a lark and I hit pay dirt. This was the case with this very readable book which focuses on the first 20 years of the 20^th Century and the contrasts between the so-called “progressives” and the American Catholic intelligentsia on topics like philosophy, sociology, education theory, labor and economics. Very simply stated, I learned a lot from the book and will continue to draw on it concerning any number of matters I am trying to think through these days.

The most captivating part of the book for me was the Epilogue, which addresses the issue of American Catholicism pre and post Vatican II. It contextualizes for me as never before the issues involved in the critique of the pre-Vatican II Church in the U.S. as it stands accused of being a form of ghetto Catholicism. Two points surface for me in particular: a) the renaissance of Thomism and a strict adherence to the principles of natural law enabled the Catholic Church to respond to the devastation of World War I which totally eclipsed or bankrupt pre-war “progressive” optimism; b) Catholic institutional prosperity in the United States from 1920 until 1960 was fostered by its clear and constructive identity. The bottom line being: syncretism was (is?) the spirit of the age; it does not represent a cogent response to pluralism in society; it certainly is not a Catholic option.

In his epilogue, Thomas Woods expresses reservations about the serviceability of the documents of Vatican II for a Church like that in the U.S., immersed as it is in a pluralistic society. He makes a most convincing case from a historical point of view for the salutary effect of the anti-modernist oath on Catholic leadership in the U.S. Woods quotes authors of the period to explain the hardy institutional dynamism at work in the pre-conciliar Church in the U.S., which was anything but a simple ghetto (cf. Kindle edition, Epilogue):

 “By the Church's plausibility structure is meant the series of interlocking social institutions (e.g., parishes, seminaries, educational organizations, mass media outlets, professional and voluntary associations) that, in toto, are theoretically capable of producing a Catholic environment generating and making "real" among its inhabitants authentic Catholic thought and behavior. At its very best, this "Catholic  ghetto"-as it has been referred to by its Catholic detractors-does  not shield away all non-Catholic influence but allows for the formation of authentic Catholic identity and character development capable of engaging in a critical dialogue with the outside world."

Believe it or not, the first thing which came to my mind was a lecture I had just heard in Dallas at the 23^rd Workshop for Bishops, presented by the National Catholic Bioethics Center (February 14-16, 2011) - A Universal Moral Language: Bioethics and the Natural Law. The first talk of the day was given by Janet E. Smith, PhD., who holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. It was entitled “Universality and Natural Law and the Irreducibility of Personalism”. She did a marvelous job all the way around and especially concerning the central role Thomism has to play in seminary education and the intellectual life of the Church. She made a plea for cultivating along side it Wotylian Personalism (think: Pope John Paul II and the Theology of the Body, etc.).

After the talk and discussion, I asked a learned bishop friend of mine whether he shared her enthusiasm for the future of “personalism” and as I had suspected, he did not and for reasons slightly different from my own. In any case, common to both Woods and Smith was a tendency to underline that on the part of Americans of both periods (Progressive Era and today) to balk at St. Thomas’ sweet yoke, not so much as burdensome but chafing a bit at the collar and less than colorful. It would seem that Americans are bent on finding ways of dealing with a minority report or what I consider an elitist cross-section of humanity – those who seek a measure of personal satisfaction in their philosophy. St. Thomas is for me more in touch with the broad base of humanity and might be less emotionally rewarding but for his pragmatism ultimately reaches farther in providing universals applicable to real human psychology.

In any case, I’m wondering what the Catholic Church today needs to do to become for its own folk and for the sake of the salvation of the world more of a “player”. The pluralistic society is a constant; where is the voice or witness to call it to task and effectively shepherd the flock at the same time? For more than half a century, thanks to what my book here describes as “plausibility structure” the Catholic Church in the U.S. was indeed a player, not abstracted from everyday reality, but offering its own and others ready to dialogue the reason for our hope. For our own Catholic people today, where are the “interlocking social institutions” which could channel energy and offer a real option for contributing to the betterment of society? Woods reflects on the stir caused in the media by Dominus Jesus (2000, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), a document which many outside of the Church considered a betrayal of the Church’s perceived post-conciliar stance. Could it not be said, that in failing to clearly identify ourselves (institutionally) we indeed not only risk to but do indeed deceive, failing grievously in our prophetic role for the life of the world?

While not harping for a return to the “good olde days” of terse statements and anathema sits, Woods certainly credits the papacy of Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X with offering the beacon needed by the Catholic Church in the U.S. to sort through a massive and not inarticulate assault on revealed truth. He and certainly I am wondering if we couldn’t use a new “plausibility structure” to weather today’s storm…

Light to Illumine the Nations

The Christmas of the Nations

          Granted that it is a bit of a shock when, every so many years, the Epiphany follows right on the heals of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, even so for all of those countries which, back before the calendar reform after the Council, did not observe the Epiphany as a holy day of obligation the Sunday celebration of Christ’s Manifestation to the nations has been pure gain.

          To call the Epiphany of the Lord the “Gentile Christmas” is to say too little and so I’d like to let our rich tradition speak in the words of the 2^nd lesson from today’s Office of Readings taken from a sermon for this day by Pope St. Leo the Great:

“The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ…

          Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs... In the persons of the Magi let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not in Judaea only, but in the whole world, so that his name may be great in all Israel…

This came to be fulfilled, as we know, from the time when the star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.”

Sadly on this day I cannot banish from my mind’s eye those images of the anguish and rage of Coptic Christian young men in Alexandria, Egypt, following the bomb attack which carried off so many of their loved ones, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The exile, the bondage really, of so many who recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth continues with the complicity of too many.

          Please God, that in our day the silent service of the star of Bethlehem and we by our good example and personal sacrifices would lead the nations to worship Him Who is light and life for all the nations! Lord, grant us peace! St. Leo, pray for us!

Lenten Program

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Stella Maris Parish, 4 March 2009, Kingston, Jamaica

The preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon: today’s Lenten readings challenge us to follow the example of the people of Nineveh from the least to the greatest and repent; to follow the example of the Queen of the South, who took on an arduous pilgrimage to be able to hear King Solomon. Today’s liturgy clearly invites us to do like them and allow those words/that preaching to bear fruits of repentance in our hearts and in our daily lives. Lent is about change of heart; it’s about hearing God’s Word and keeping it faithfully.

Now some of the more perceptive among you may have noticed that I said “those words/that preaching”. In expressing myself this way, it was not my intention to withdraw myself from my responsibility as a preacher here today. I said “those words/that preaching” simply to underline that I’m not preaching myself; I’m preaching Jesus; I’m preaching God’s Word. Although I am not worthy and I dare not say of myself, as Jesus did of Himself in today’s Gospel, “there is something greater than Jonah here”, I cannot excuse myself from going right to the heart of the matter and giving you Jesus in the splendor of the fullness of His Gospel. To my brother bishops, priests and deacons, I say: Sweat it out, preachers! Give the people only the best! The salvation of your listeners depends upon you preaching the Gospel of Repentance.

Today’s liturgy presents us, one and all, with a double challenge. The primary one is that we be attentive, that we listen, and that we allow God’s Word to find a home in our hearts. It is not that we hear and keep the Word as if buried or smothered within us, but that we respond to that word in us by really changing and thereby letting God’s Word shine forth for others to see and appreciate. The classic example of what we are called to do will always be provided by St. Anthony the Great, St. Anthony the Hermit, who as a young man on hearing the words of the Gospel on a Sunday, “go and sell all you have and give to the poor” did just that. He took God’s Word at face value and changed. So must we! So must we!

The other side of the coin is this: each and every one of us, not just the priest or the deacon from the pulpit, must preach; we must be prophets like Jonah. This is not to say we must be preachy preachers or pretentious prophets. Let me understate the case a bit and say our duty is simply not to withhold the Word. We cannot remain dumb or silent about sharing the reason for our hope. The wisdom from on high which is ours, we dare not withhold first and foremost from our loved ones, family and friends. Although we may freely leave the high-profile preaching to the professionals, we dare not keep Jesus to ourselves.

You would think I was saying the obvious, wouldn’t you? Why then are there so many lost souls around today chasing after New Age or motivational speakers? Even more worrisome for me, I cannot figure out why children today grow up so ignorant of the faith. Don’t people have a crucifix and a picture of the Blessed Mother in their homes? Don’t mommies today, walking a crying baby or trying to settle an infant in arms, ever take them up close to look at Jesus on the Cross? When they go to church during the Christmas season don’t they have that small child visit Baby Jesus in the Crib? I have fond memories of my Dad holding younger brothers and sisters still babies and taking them by the right hand, helping them make a Sign of the Cross which always ended with a tickle. Is Jesus, the One greater than Jonah born for us and for us given, present as a loving member of our families today, or is the Word being withheld?
Jonah tried to escape his responsibilities as a prophet and God went to extraordinary lengths to bring him back and put him to work for love of Nineveh and for love of Jonah. You might say that Jonah was drug kicking and screaming to his prophetic mission. And just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites so he should teach us the way to go out of ourselves for others, out of love for others.

Back to our first point ever so briefly! Open wide your hearts, St. Paul says! There is indeed something greater than Jonah here. On Judgment Day we want you on the same side of the great divide as the Queen of the South and the Ninevites. Don’t risk condemnation through dullness or distraction, as if someone owed you more of a sign than the Word itself which gives life. Change! Change! Which of your many faults are you working on this Lent?

One of the private jokes I shared with the Nuncio I served the longest in Germany had to do with an evening with priests where we as guests were offered a choice between a local white wine and a classic French red wine. As guests in a strange place we accepted the local white, all the local priests around the table took the French wine except for two who seemed to feel obliged to keep us company. After a very solemn toast the two tasted the local white, nodded profoundly and announced together that it had character. It was horrible. Thereafter the Nuncio and I could always joke about things with character as being horrible or worthless. Some people kid themselves into believing that their unruliness or stubbornness is a sign of character. Such signs of character would have led Nineveh to ruin and a headstrong or stubborn Queen of the South would have stayed home in her ignorance and be lost as well.

There is something greater than Jonah here. Change! Let everyone know the reason for your hope!

The Reason for Your Hope

Patron Feast
of the Companions of the Transfigured Christ
Sunday, 3 August 2008

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
2 Peter 1:16-19
Matthew 17:1-9


“The Companions of the Transfigured Christ”:

ever since I learned the name of your community, I’ve been struggling with that name because of a long-standing presumption or prejudice on my part concerning this great mystery which unfolded on Mount Tabor. I’d like to share with you today my spiritual dilemma and how you have in a sense helped me to work through it and grow in my appreciation of the Mystery of Jesus’ Transfiguration and its importance for our life of faith. I hope these thoughts may be of help to all of you too.

Very simply, it boils down to this: For some reason and for as much of my life as I can remember, whenever I read the Gospel account of the Transfiguration or meditate on that mystery, even in conjunction with the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, Peter dominates the scene:

“Lord, how good that we are here! With your permission I will erect three booths here, one of you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Luke adds in parenthesis: “(He did not really know what he was saying.)”

What then is unique or special about being a companion of the TRANSFIGURED Christ, as opposed to being a companion of the Risen Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Adolescent Christ or the Infant King? If we focus on Peter’s offer to set up tents and stay on the mountain, it would almost seem as though the Transfiguration would have to be classed as an experience without application in the Christian life, as the one mystery in the life of our Lord and Savior which is not open to a discipleship experience. That, however, cannot be!

But it is not only Peter’s confused reaction to what he saw on Mt. Tabor which causes me to pose the question. We need only look a little further and ask why Jesus said what He did to them as recorded in the closing words of today’s Gospel:

“As they were coming down the mountainside Jesus commanded them, ‘Do not tell anyone of the vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead’.”

What kind of an experience did the first companions of the Transfigured Christ, Peter, James and John, have? We know that Jesus wanted to prepare the inner circle of His Apostles to endure the scandal of the Cross and the glory of the Resurrection, but why did He command their silence? Moving on to our day and to us who live in the glory of Easter, what possible role can this mountaintop experience play in our lives or in the life of any Christian?

The Infancy of Jesus, His Adolescence, His Adulthood, His Passion and Death, His Resurrection and Ascension are all events that have something of the journey about them. We can identify with them to a greater or lesser degree and apply them to our life’s experience. They work as models to be imitated: the Child Jesus within the Holy Family is an easy one. The Adolescent Christ in the midst of the elders in the Temple may not be quite as easy, but really offers all sorts of hope to young people and to the parents and teachers who must deal with youth. All the rest of Jesus’ life-and-teaching is rich in impulses for the lives of Christians great and humble.
The Transfiguration is different. What sort of ground rules does this event provide me for living the Christian life? Where do I begin and where can I go with the Transfigured Christ – He accompanying me and I being His companion? What do I carry with me from this mountaintop experience?

The Second Reading for the Feast is the key to what discipleship with the Transfigured Christ is all about. St. Peter, reflecting on his mountaintop experience, puts it very clearly:

“We ourselves heard this said from heaven while we were in his company on the holy mountain. Besides, we possess the prophetic message as something altogether reliable. Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

What did these three chosen men hear said from heaven? “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

What are they and we to do? “Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

“This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.” The Transfiguration and the words of God the Father spoken from heaven as set out by St. Peter in his second letter tell us that the focus of our lives is and must be Jesus, true God and true Man, Son of God and Son of Mary.

Since the glorious day of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father the question or real issue to be faced by any generation of Christians is not and never has been whether we live in the best of all times or the worst of all times. We are not and cannot be concerned with which way the wind is blowing or how the stock market is doing. No matter how dark the night, Christians have always and must always focus on the lamp of truth whose unwavering flame burns within the community of the Catholic Church. We wait in joyful hope for the Dawn from on high which is about to break upon us.

This is the insight; this is the wisdom to be found at the core, I believe, of the intuition which inspired your choice of a name, “The Companions of the Transfigured Christ”. It is not a question of pretending to be latter day Peters, James or Johns – the chosen ones among the elect. Moreover, Jesus admonishes you as He did those chosen ones that your message is not to be that of shouting out, “We’ve been to the mountaintop!” No, it would seem to me that your mission must be your focus as Peter would have it. Through your retreat and prayer apostolate, as well as through your work in the world, you can do no more and nothing better than take your cue from the lamp of truth burning within Christ’s Church, while living in joyful hope for the Lord’s return in glory. In the midst of darkness and confusion you are fixed on the lamp light until the Dawn breaks through.

In you people must discern a witness countering the prevailing distraction and consumerism of Blackberries, clothes and vehicles. While keeping what you saw on the mountaintop secret, you must be ready to respond to all who are drawn by your witness and explain to them when they ask the reason for your hope.

The Fathers of the Church in their commentary and in their preaching on the Mystery of the Transfiguration mention not only the insight gained by the three apostles from this manifestation. They point out that the Transfiguration was also a revelation to Moses and Elijah. On Mt. Tabor Moses and Elijah learned that the longed-for Messiah, the Savior had come. The Transfiguration was as prophecy and promise for Moses and Elijah what the descent among the dead was as reality and accomplishment for Adam and Eve on that first Holy Saturday. Not only did Moses and Elijah come to assure Peter, James and John that Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, but Jesus had summoned them too to hear those words from His Father in heaven: “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.” The Transfiguration was for the benefit of the living but also for the dead who had in this life fixed their gaze on the lamp of truth foreshadowing the Dawn from on high.

Today is your day for the renewal of vows and promises; you recall the covenant relationship which binds you to each other and to the Father’s beloved Son. When Peter awoke to see the face of Jesus “dazzling as the sun, his clothes as radiant as light”… and when he recognized that Moses and Elijah were attending to Jesus, Peter was carried away by emotion. His emotion was premature. The Father spoke from heaven and all three men fell forward on the ground overcome with fear. Jesus put everything back into perspective and admonished them to silence until the Resurrection. “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

In a sense, the Transfiguration is to the life of Jesus what the Creed is to the Christian Life: it’s all right there. Confessing yourselves before the Church and the World as Companions of the Transfigured Christ you are making, by the grace of God, a complete statement, a statement full of hope and expectation. Never doubt that you can do no better, nor offer the world around you any more.

The other day waiting in the Atlanta Airport, I watched a young man as he with more than evident pleasure unpacked some new electronic gadget he had purchased, showing it to his girlfriend. The man had dignity, the man had poise, and he unpacked the thing and showed it to her with absolute coolness and at the same time with unbounded pride radiating from his face and from every bone of his body. I don’t know what the gadget was or even if he had the slightest guarantee that it would work when he got it home and plugged it in, but it would be hard from his body language to imagine a happier man. I don’t know what he said to the young woman as I was out of ear shot, but it didn’t seem as though his lips were moving much at all.
Rooted, grounded in the Mystery of the Transfiguration you are and have much more than that young man had with girlfriend and gadget. The silence Jesus imposed on Peter, James and John on their way down from Mt. Tabor certainly didn’t keep them from radiating wonder, awe, boundless joy, fervor or whatever else positive and life-filling you’d like to name. They had seen and heard it all in a moment and were still in the company of the Father’s beloved Son, born of Mary. Why in the world would you want to say to anyone “I’ve been to the mountaintop” when everyone else is dying either to ask you the reason for the hope you radiate or simply to join you and your experience?

What you are as “Companions of the Transfigured Christ” may someday soon find its definitive configuration within the constellation of the Church. There you will have a privileged position for gazing upon the lamp of truth and waiting for the Dawn from on high to break upon us. Be of good courage! As the Lord has called you to His mountaintop so He will lead you as He led Peter, James and John. Go in His company, knowing that He is all you need for joy.

Easter Monday

Opening of the Provincial Assembly
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Easter Monday, 24 March 2008,
Emmaus Centre, Torrecilla, Arima

In the Opening Prayer of this Easter Monday we find a really great prayer intention. Just a few moments ago we prayed: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.” As women religious, you know that your baptism finds its perfection in your religious consecration. The prayer intention, if you will, takes on deeper meaning in your lives by reason of your vows. And so with fervor we pray: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.”

The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles is St. Peter’s big Pentecost witness which centers on King David’s prophecy that his descendant, namely Jesus, would not experience the corruption of the grave. The reading from Matthew’s Gospel for today partly overlaps and then sets forth the Gospel reading for this year from the Easter Vigil. We hear again that the first witnesses of the Resurrection were the women. They first discovered the Empty Tomb. They first encountered Jesus, the Risen One, Himself. They bowed down and clasped His Feet.

Regardless of what you, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, have for specific points on the agenda of your Provincial Assembly, which opens with this Holy Mass, such gatherings by their very nature have their meditative or reflective moments. Willed or not, we find ourselves looking around and taking stock of the family, of the other sisters younger and older yes, but also of your “together” as it presents itself at this moment in time. Where do we go from here? How are we doing? What more can we do? All kinds of hopes, really, fill the thoughts of those who are vowed to the apostolate.

At this particular moment and considering the situation in which our region here finds itself, there probably would be no greater gift that you sisters could give as a gift to our world either as a province or individually than to make the witness of those women, the first witnesses to the Resurrection, make that same witness actual in our day and time. I hope you will accept it from me, when I tell you that this is the optimal moment for each and every one of you, regardless of any other factors, to repeat the Easter experience of those women in the hostile environment of our day and time where once again as at the moment of Resurrection the powers that be hunch their backs and find other explanations for the Empty Tomb. Easter is your time and the Easter Proclamation is at the heart of your calling. Consecrated life and Easter Glory belong together as much or more than the vowed life and Lenten penance do.

Yours is the chance, in a very contrary and confused world, to say as those women did to all who are waiting for any news whatever and even to those with no particular expectations, “Be off and be on your way to Galilee where you will see Him!” Not the commander, not the soldier, but the witness rules the day.

The history of your Congregation’s work in this region can in part be summed up in all you have done to empower women. Yours is truly a success story. In all of that, the unreflective soul might have missed the point that the key or cornerstone to your contribution has always been your witness, your excitement over having encountered the Risen One. Back to basics, as they say, or concentrating on essentials is never a bad program – it works for getting sports teams back on their game; it works in life; it is Lent and Easter; it is baptismal renewal.

Alleluia! He is Risen as He said and will meet you in Galilee! Sisters, be on your way as witnesses! Do the Savior’s bidding as He stands before you in glory! Proclaim His victory over sin and death! Urge others to be on the way to His encounter!