I put a notice on the sidebar of this page a while back just to tell people that new content has not been added here recently. At this point, though, it also seems highly unlikely to me that this site will ever have new content. Thus, although what is online here now will remain here, visitors should not expect new content to begin again. Anyone wishing to contact me through this site can still do so through the link on the right. Thank you.
The quotes have been one of my favorite things to put up here, and there is a great quote from the Song of Songs that was brought to mind recently when I noticed it in the Liturgy of the Hours. (Among many reasons that the Liturgy of the Hours is great is the fact that one is regularly exposed to memorable Scripture passages that one would otherwise probably read or hear rarely, if ever.) So one last quote here, from Song of Songs 8:6-7.
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love,
he would be roundly mocked.
Do not thou, O Lord, withhold thy mercy from me,
let thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me without number;
My iniquities have overtaken me, till I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
- Psalm 40:11-13
There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope, as I have been told.
- Gandalf, in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
After my recent post on marriage, the vocations crisis, etc., I remembered that I also originally meant to link to this commentary written some time ago by Dr. Jeff Mirus on marriage as "the forgotten vocation." I pretty much took for granted in my post the goodness and importance of marriage as a call to holiness, focusing instead on what strike me as related problematic approaches to vocations and vocational discernment. Anyway, this piece by Mirus seemed to me to be a really good short treatment of the foundational nature of marriage as a vocation.
Missed this a few days ago, but just noticed these great comments from Pope Benedict, published by Zenit, on the relationship of loving both the human and the divine. Wonderful simple and humble explanation of the Catholic take on the unity of these loves (which naturally must be based on a proper understanding of the relationship between God and the world). I particularly liked this Ratzingerian statement of purpose, as it were, on this point:
"I would like to work for this great Catholic synthesis, for this 'et-et' [and-and]; to be truly man--that everyone according to their own gifts and their own charism loves the earth and the beautiful things the Lord has given us, but to also be grateful for the light of God that shines on the earth, that gives splendor and beauty to everything else. ... Let us live in this Catholicity joyously."
Do read the rest--very short, but very nice. I never cease to be amazed that Benedict comes up with lines like this on the spot, in this case in a Q&A, not a prepared speech.
Trust the human heart: it is blind and blundering, but I fancy it is the best thing in stock. It flies straighter than our logic: to the last it is a reality. We cannot guide it: trust it. ... Let a woman leave her father and mother ... and take her chance like the rest of us. ... I feel if you keep love in you somehow, it will keep a kind of furnished apartments for you in the blackest lonely existence.
- Basil Howe, in Basil Howe, by G. K. Chesterton
I have had some disorganized notes for a while concerning the reality of unrequited love and how it points to truths about the nature of love in general. I keep meaning to draw them together into something unified, but I haven't been able to do it yet. So I'm just going to write out some of my random thoughts based on these notes, since I can't seem to pull it all together. Maybe through posting these I'll be able to organize and unify it a bit more, and post something drawing this out more later. I meant to relate this more directly to some points of Christian theology, but I haven't quite figured that out yet.
I'm not trying to write about masculinity here, but since I don't really have this stuff organized and I have to start somewhere, I'll start by mentioning that I wonder if there is more of a connection with unrequited love in the masculine (which does not mean it doesn't occur in women, of course), since masculinity seems to carry more the aspect of going out to the other in love. I also wonder if unrequited love is particularly problematic for the masculine, since it seems to carry an appearance of impotence, at least if one has certain views of what power is, because unrequited love may seem to imply a certain inability to control, or grasp, or possess, or even conquer. Read more »
This Sunday I went to a very reverently celebrated Novus Ordo Mass in Latin. I wish I could assist at such a Mass more often, but it just isn't practical for me to do so regularly in my location. Anyway, it was great, and the parish I went to has been having this Mass every Sunday for some time, but it is going to be replaced in a couple of months, after the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum goes into effect, with a Mass according to the 1962 Missal. I certainly can't critique this particular decision, particularly since I am not part of the parish and thus do not even know the background and circumstances of the change. It may well be a good thing. However, it does bring to mind something that has worried me a bit about possible unintended consequences of Summorum Pontificum. Read more »
Almost every time I go Mass, I notice among the intentions listed during the prayers of the faithful something about more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Of course, one almost never hears any similar intentions about more marriages. (To be fair, I did go to one parish church recently where I noticed that the pastor prayed for good and holy marriages right alongside vocations to the priesthood and religious life, but I think it's pretty clear that this is the exception, not the rule.) Obviously, I am not saying that we should not pray that we will receive in the Church enough priests, etc. However, I do think the constant prayers for vocations which refer exclusively to the priesthood and the religious life are a symptom of a common misunderstanding of the nature of the vocations crisis, a misunderstanding which also relates to misleading ways of looking at vocations in general. Read more »
The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.
-Moses, in Exodus 14:14
I have to admit that I generally did not enjoy War and Peace. However, one positive aspect of Tolstoy's work here stands out: a respect for everyday things, and the importance of everyday things, which is clearly fundamental in War and Peace. Indeed, that which is "ordinary" is foundational for history in Tolstoy's understanding. Descriptions of ordinary life among ordinary people appear alongside the actions of generals and emperors. Accounts of dances, hunting and even seemingly pointless conversations are given as much attention as (or even more attention than) battles and the movements of armies. Moreover, Tolstoy clearly sees these aspects of life at the family level as authentic history, and as the foundations for the unified reality of Russia.
The family (including the traditional structure of the family) is central for a society which respects how things really are. Various portrayals of marriages and families run throughout the book, culminating in the deep and detailed examination of the families of Pierre and Natasha, and Nicholas and Mary, in the First Epilogue. In that epilogue Tolstoy makes explicit what it seems was already implicit throughout this work in his understanding of marriage and family: that marriage is meaningless without reference to the community of the family. To select a negative instance from earlier in the work, for example, there is something wrong with the marriage of Pierre and Helene, as Pierre senses in the beginning, and the key manifestation of the problem is that the marriage is not to bear fruit in the natural community of a family (nor for that matter does the marriage even begin with any serious sense of community, of common life, between Pierre and Helene). The community of the family grounds a sense of Russia as a community unified in a deep way, regardless of divisions which may exist, such as those between classes, the division between urban and rural, and so forth. Read more »
Last Sunday, we had the reading from the Gospel of John of the story of Mary and Martha (or what is best known as the story of Mary and Martha, although the story of Lazarus really is also a story of Mary and Martha), and I was reminded of a couple thoughts about the whole Mary/Martha relationship and the ways in which it is sometimes understood. There is an enormous amount that could be said about this, of course, but these are just a couple quick things I was thinking about.
This story of Mary and Martha is sometimes viewed as referring to an alleged tension between the contemplative life and the active life, and I think occasionally Mary is even identified explicitly or implicitly with the "religious life," thus identifying Martha more with the life of lay people "in the world." Any identification with particular vocations in this passage is immediately problematic because Mary is said to have chosen the better part, with the an implication that Martha could have chosen that too. In the case of vocations, there is no one vocation that everyone should choose, that represents "the better part" for everyone. It seems clear that it must be possible to sit at the feet of the Lord, as Mary did, in and through every vocation. Read more »
What I am going to do here is not a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but just a reflection on some points about the series, and primarily on the character of Severus Snape.
First of all, I am not trying to enter the debate on the morality of the Harry Potter books here. Suffice it to say that while I would certainly have serious reservations about the appropriateness of parts of the later books for children, I do not agree with the fundamental criticisms of the entire series as a whole as promoting the occult and immorality. It seems to me that magic in the realm of fantasy and myth need not be occult, and is not in this series. (To my mind, the most serious ethical problem in the series is at the end of Book 6, which I will talk about in a moment.) The Harry Potter series obviously is a matter of controversy and disagreement, and I skip over such concerns here only because I simply would never get to what I really want to talk about now if I started addressing them. [I am inserting a note here later to point out that I wrote these comments prior to the extremely bothersome authorial remarks made by Rowling about the character of Dumbledore. While these remarks do not change the books themselves, and I do not believe Rowling's claims about her intentions are reflected in the stories as written, widespread public knowledge of her comments certainly makes the reading of these books by children additionally problematic, at least for the near future.]
Spoiler alert: Ok, although I'm not explicitly discussing the plot here, there will be some major plot spoilers coming up. If you haven't read the book, and don't want to know what happens, please don't read any further. Read more »
Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
There is a theme of rejoicing in the readings for this Sunday, specifically in the first reading and the psalm. Indeed, the first reading includes the beautiful text in Isaiah from which Laetare Sunday in Lent drew its name: "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her!"
The entire first reading is filled with a message of joy and comfort from God to His people. The psalm continues this theme in a context of giving thanksgiving, and above all praise, to God. Throughout the reading and the psalm there is a consciousness that the great deeds God has done for His people ultimately serve the glory of God. This is always something for us to keep in mind, of course: God's gifts are not meant to terminate in my isolated self.
The theme of rejoicing is also picked up in a way in the Gospel, although you may not notice it if you hear only the shorter version of this Gospel at Mass. The shorter version omits the end contained in the longer version, in which the seventy-two disciples whom Jesus sent out at the beginning return to Jesus rejoicing. Jesus affirms that there is great cause for joy, while gently reminding them that they should rejoice primarily not over the power given to them, but at the greater and more fundamental gift they have received: "Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." It is the gift of a place in the kingdom of God that is the most fundamental cause for joy. Read more »
I Kings 19:16, 19-21; Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62
The first reading and the Gospel this Sunday both present the demands of God's call in seemingly very stark and absolute terms. In the first Book of Kings, Elisha apparently must immediately drop everything, his whole life and family, in order to follow Elijah. In the Gospel, we hear Jesus saying, "Let the dead bury their dead," and telling someone who wishes to stop to say good-bye to his family, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what is left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."
This could be interpreted as something very harsh and unforgiving. However, obviously we know that Jesus precisely brings a message of mercy available to all who repent of their sins, so perhaps this passage should not be taken in the most absolute and literal way possible. A further indication of this is that the Church does not urge us to ignore bonds of human love and family, or reject traditions of respect for the dead. On the contrary, the Church herself enters into and upholds these realities as part of the faithful following of Christ.
Furthermore, in other places in the Gospel it is clear that Jesus felt particular compassion for those suffering loss of their family and loved ones. In particular, we can see in John 11 that Jesus was deeply troubled by the sorrow of Martha and Mary at the death of their brother Lazarus. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus did not warn Martha and Mary against looking to what was left behind. Indeed, Jesus Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Read more »
How cool is it that a filly won the Belmont? People are always looking for the historic event of a Triple Crown winner in horse racing, but this is far more remarkable. One can try to come up with all sorts of reasons why Rags to Riches won in this particular case, but the fact is that no filly has won the Belmont in the last century. The funny thing about horse racing is that, even though it's pretty much entirely a fringe sport at this point, it still comes up with great moments, and more inspiring moments than purely human competition. Perhaps this is because the horses lack the complications of human athletic achievers, or because it is a sport of moments, rather than extended games. I don't know. I just know that I don't follow horse racing, but when Rags to Riches was coming down the stretch on the outside of Curlin I was rooting harder for her than I do for any human athlete or team in sports.
Hope consists in asserting that there is at the heart of being, beyond all data, beyond all inventories and all calculations, a mysterious principle which is in connivance with me, which cannot but will that which I will, if what I will deserves to be willed and is, in fact, willed by the whole of my being.
- Gabriel Marcel, "On the Ontological Mystery," in The Philosophy of Existentialism
In his novel Don Quixote Miguel Cervantes obviously is not content with identifying the real world exclusively with the realm of ordinary experience. The rejection of any role for higher ideals in the world would seem inevitably to reduce to an attitude of selfish materialism, which is clearly not the attitude of Cervantes. The very affection with which he writes of the character Don Quixote indicates that he too wants to find a place in the real world for higher ideals, and while parodying works about knight-errantry, he seems to see value in some of the ideals glorified in the tradition of knight-errantry. Such ideals can, and indeed must, be seen in the real world, but it is also clear from this novel that some qualifications need to be placed on that. Don Quixote himself, while embracing higher ideals, clearly is not the exemplar for people to imitate in living out such ideals.
Don Quixote truly sees something that many people around him are missing. He is right to look for something beyond the mundane. However, in a certain sense Don Quixote makes the same mistake many others do, but acts on that mistake in the opposite direction. Others see life as mundane, and accept it as such, while Don Quixote sees life as mundane, but rejects it as such. Rather than accepting the world as he commonly experiences it as containing higher meaning within itself, in many cases he seems to transform reality in his mind to fit his idea of a world in which he can transcend the mundane. This is what makes him insane, to whatever extent he is insane, and results in problems such as the injuries he does to presumably innocent people: attacking sheep and monks probably is not the right way to pursue high ideals! In going beyond the mundane to recognize and appreciate a higher level of reality, one must see the romance, excitement, love and opportunities for heroic virtue precisely in the real experiences of everyday life. Everyday life itself is not mundane. Read more »
Bishop Skylstad, as president of the USCCB, recently named a new chairman and added some new members for the National Review Board (Catholic News Service story on Catholic Online). The new chairman is federal district court judge Michael Merz, and the new members are Robert Kohm (state Supreme Court justice), Emmet Kenney (psychiatrist), Susan Steibe-Pasalich (clinical psychologist), and Diane Knight (retired, career social worker, and former director of Catholic Charities Milwaukee). I don't know much about any of these people (though I find it interesting that Knight appears to be a Democratic supporter, having donated money to the Democratic National Committee in 2005, based on a search at Political Money Line). I also continue to be interested by the kinds of people who are named to this board. This does not necessarily have anything to do with the people named to the board themselves. However, their professions seem to be interesting indicators of how the bishops believe the clergy abuse scandal should be addressed, and thus of how the bishops conceive of this problem in the first place. The latest group of appointees is consistent with the membership of the board up to this point, which has been dominated by lawyers and to a lesser extent psychological professionals, as well as including others with backgrounds in social work, medicine, and university administration. These are certainly the kind of people our secular society accepts as experts, and even universal experts in a sense, but is our society's view of reality, and specifically of the human person, consistent with a Catholic understanding? Read more »
This past Wednesday Pope Benedict focused on Tertullian in his general audience (English translation from ZENIT). Tertullian is fascinating, both as a towering (and now underappreciated) figure of the early Church, and as a cautionary tale of sorts. What really struck me about this, though, is the amazing amount that Benedict teaches. He deals with themes in Tertullian including the nature of Christian dialogue with the surrounding culture, non-violence, the centrality of hope in Christianity (which to me is a particularly great aspect), the Trinitarian formulation of one substance and three persons, and several other things. I'm not sure whether to be more impressed by the breadth of Tertullian's theological accomplishment, or the amount of substance Benedict squeezes into one Wednesday audience. Benedict, obviously a great theologian himself, has some particularly good words in relation to the downfall of Tertullian, and the proper relationship of the theologian to the Church:
"This great moral and intellectual personality, this man who gave such a great contribution to Christian thought, makes me think. It is evident that at the end he lacks simplicity, the humility to belong to the Church, to accept his weaknesses, to be tolerant of others and with himself.
When you evaluate your thought in terms of your greatness, in the end it is this greatness that is lost. The essential characteristic of a great theologian is the humility to stay with the Church, to accept her and one's own faults, because only God is all holy. We, on the other hand, are always in need of forgiveness."
The field of medicine has a long and rich tradition in human history. The need and desire to heal the body would seem to be natural and basic to the human condition in which we find ourselves. The human body is subject to an apparently almost endless variety of injuries and diseases. Almost from the first moment of consciousness a child begins to experience, without fully understanding what is happening, the possibility of pain, injury, and illness--in short, the possibility of a lack of wholeness (health) in the body. However, the child also experiences a corresponding reality: pain can go away, injuries can heal, and the body can overcome illness. Being from the beginning within human community, in the presence of the other, the child also experiences the possibility that an "other" sometimes can "make it better." Already in this primitive experience we can see the roots of the vast area of human endeavor we think of as the field of medicine. Moreover, also revealed in this experience is the truth that from the very beginning we can see the art of healing taking place precisely in the context of human relationship. It therefore should not surprise us that the personal relation of the healer and the one to be healed, the physician and the patient, has taken such a foundational, and almost sacred, place in the tradition of medicine.
The roots of modern medicine in the West are generally traced to the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates is often identified as "the father of medicine." Thus, even though on the surface the practice of medicine today obviously looks very different from the practice of the Greeks, modern medicine still tends to be seen as in some sense participating in a tradition and a line of work in basic continuity with ancient Greek medicine, as well as those who worked in and developed the field in the centuries between the ancient world and the present day. Read more »
Philosophy always buries its undertakers.
- Etienne Gilson, in The Unity of Philosophical Experience
The issue of courtship is obviously an important one in Pride and Prejudice, even in discussion among the characters themselves. In particular, Charlotte and Elizabeth at one point discuss the ways in which (and the extent to which) men and women can and should come to know each other before marriage, specifically in the context of the relationship between Jane and Bingley. Charlotte seems to believe that it is probably not generally possible, and if possible may not even be desirable for a man and woman to know each other well before marriage. For her, it seems marriage hardly involves any choice at all. Her decision to marry Mr. Collins indicates that for her there is no serious choice to be made between marrying and not marrying because, from her perspective at least, almost anything would be preferable to remaining unmarried. This may, of course, be seen more as a negative judgment about other societal realities than any commentary on the institution of marriage itself. At the same time, in Charlotte's view the choice to marry or not marry a specific person is also robbed of much of its meaning, for "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life." This seems to be not merely a judgment about society, but a real statement about marriage. Elizabeth dismisses it as "not sound," and assumes that Charlotte agrees, but again Charlotte’s later explanation of her acceptance of Mr. Collins seems to imply that this really is her view: "I am not romantic you know ... Read more »
I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.
An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.
- Horton, in Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
It is surprising to me that the last book by Pope John Paul II published before his death has not received more attention. Not that it has been ignored, by any means, but it has not been quite as widely discussed, or received with the acclaim I would have expected, particularly after his death, given that it was published so shortly before his death. Perhaps that is partially because of the nature of this book, which is so different in style and to a degree perhaps in some of its topics from his other works. There is a casual, free-flowing, perhaps one could even say disorganized feel to this book, because it is based on a real life discussion, in which the Pope conversationally answered a series of questions. Among other things, John Paul discusses questions of history, philosophy, culture, and national identity, particularly his own Polish identity. Memory and Identity is a thoughtful work with fascinating insights, and unquestionably a book that should be read by anyone who wishes to have a fuller understanding of the world view of John Paul II.
The book begins with a consideration of the mystery of evil, particularly the origins of the great evils of the twentieth century. It is interesting, though certainly not unexpected, that in looking for the origins of these evils John Paul II quickly looks to the history of philosophy. Throughout this book the reader will find him explaining historical developments by referring to philosophical changes. This is a healthy reminder for moderns, who are often so accustomed to material utilitarian ways of thinking that they dismiss philosophers and others who seemingly only think and never do anything. Unfortunately, too many moderns do not realize that while they are waiting for the thinkers to do something, the thinkers are already shaping the thoughts and actions of generations to come, for better or worse. Read more »
Perhaps the most persistent and frustrating problem for people who profess a belief in a God of infinite goodness is the phenomenon of suffering. Everyone suffers, and much of the world seems sunk in the problems of poverty, violence, and all kinds of misery. Even in places and times where there seem to be good reasons for happiness and contentment, there is often great suffering. Even the people who seem as if they have everything going their way are sometimes tormented by untold interior pain that those around them never see.
Some people simply are never bothered as much as others by internal questions about the reasons for suffering, and how suffering can be permitted by an all-good God. For many, though, this area poses a difficult challenge, perhaps the most difficult challenge, for our personal faith. The Judeo-Christian tradition identifies sin as the reason for suffering. Although individual suffering is not necessarily a punishment for personal sin, all human suffering arises in one way or another from sin. The history of human suffering thus begins with the original sin of Adam and Eve, and in a sense the situation worsens with every personal sin throughout the ages since then. At least on one level, this is a rationally satisfactory answer, in that it identifies the root of suffering. However, suffering remains mysterious. Even if sin causes suffering, could not God prevent much of the suffering in the world? After all, it is not as if there is just a little suffering here and a little suffering there. It is all over the place, affecting every person, no matter how good or bad the person, in every situation. If God is all-good and all-powerful, why must there be so much pain? Read more »
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