Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Joy

I came across this while catching up on my backlog of America Magazine issues:

Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

This is from the April 2, 2007 issue, titled 'The Most Infallible Sign: Recovering joy, humor and laughter in the spiritual life', by James Martin, SJ (Teilhard & Martin, two of my favorite Jesuits). This is a great Catholic magazine - I highly recommend it.

If I had all the money in the world...

I remember reading somewhere that an old Jesuit was telling a young novice that he wasn't worried so much about God forgiving him for the mistakes he'd made in life, but it was the disapproval of St Ignatius that worried him. I came across this quote by St Ignatius of Loyola this morning that reminded me of that:

Even if I had all the money in the world, I would not give a penny to the man who by his own fault has become unworthy of the clerical state.

St Ignatius of Loyola

How's that for setting expectations!?

Separate parts - on purpose

Looking back at my last post it’s hard to believe I’ve gone two weeks without writing! Well, it’s been crazy-busy, and life has rarely been so good for me as it has these past few weeks and months… so no worries; when life gets busy, the blog takes a back seat to many other more important things.

While I was reading this Sunday’s scriptures, Paul’s familiar description of the church as the body of Christ showed up. I’ve heard this one many times, but this morning I took a closer look at it, and it’s interesting to see just how far our current reality is from his description. Here’s the part that I’m pondering, and I’ve highlighted the passages that strike me:

God put all the separate parts into the body on purpose. If all the parts were the same, how could it be a body? As it is, the parts are many but the body is one. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you’, nor can the head say to the feet, ‘I do not need you’. What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones; and it is the least honourable parts of the body that we clothe with the greatest care. So our more improper parts get decorated in a way that our more proper parts do not need. God has arranged the body so that more dignity is given to the parts which are without it, and that there may not be disagreements inside the body, but that each part may be equally concerned for all the others. If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it.

During my lifetime I’ve been a member of five different parishes, and though some have been better than others none of them really embraced this notion that the weakest members are the indispensable ones, that the least dignified deserve the most dignity, or that the least honorable receive the greatest care. I don’t think that it was intentional, but it seems that the weakest and least honorable often went unnoticed. It seems to me that our achievement-oriented society infiltrated the church and took our attention away from what God intended.

And then there’s the passage where Paul says God put all the various types of people into the church on purpose. The eccentrics, the liturgical perfectionists, the traditionalists who kneel when everyone else stands, the liberals who recite common prayers in a gender-neutral way when everyone else doesn’t, those who always come to mass late and leave early, the guy behind you who sings loud and clear and badly, the parents struggling to manage their young children, the uptight folks who scowl at anyone who disrupts their good time (particularly at big families), the people who sneak into the back pews out of shame or fear or trepidation but feel a longing to fill some deep need that being at church provides, and so on and so on. Make your own list - God put them all there on purpose. Their presence is not an accident, it’s not inappropriate, it’s not a nuisance, it is God’s purpose for them and for us.

I bet at mass this morning we’re going to sing ‘All Are Welcome’. It’s a nice song, but it usually makes me feel hypocritical.

A pure and simple realization: beings of opposite natures can unite in a concord of harmony.

St. Athanasius

Contradictions and Fruit

The St Ignatius of Loyola quote for today is:

Experience shows that the most frequent contradictions are followed by the greatest fruit.

Contradictions bug me; I really like it when things all fall into place, when they fit, when everything is working and where it is supposed to be. The problem is, those 'things' often have a mind of their own and don't care so much about what I think.

But, what appears to me to be a frequent contradiction may in fact just mean that I'm out of sync with the rest of the world. Maybe frequent contradictions are a reality check; a challenge to look at the world a new way, to find some new fruit? A chance to grow, to learn, to become holier, wiser and more humble...

Loving

Love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself – Jesus

May it please the Beloved that we never fail to love each other, because if we do we are lost – St Teresa of Avila

Love shows itself better through deeds than by words – St Ignatius of Loyola

Love one another, or you perish – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

If there were love of neighbor there would be no terrorism, no repression, no selfishness, none of such cruel inequalities in society, no abductions, no crimes – Archbishop Oscar Romero

Love decides everything – Pedro Arrupe, SJ

So much is written about love… probably because it is so much easier to write about it than to actually do it. I’m not discounting the words that are written about love; but it’s a bit disheartening to see how prevalent the lack of love is in so many places these days.

Let’s build a wall to keep them out of our yard, our subdivision, our seaside resort, our country so that we don’t have to deal with their needs. Let’s spend billions on war while the most vulnerable in our neighborhood, our cities and in our rural areas go without basic healthcare because it’s too expensive for them to pay for it. Let’s divide the world into them and us so we don’t have to deal with them. Let’s ignore how much we contribute to polluting the world so that we can keep the cost of consumer goods low. Let’s spend billions on researching and producing vanity drugs instead of finding cures for simple ailments that affect millions of people each year, people who can’t afford to pay for their cure. Let’s get caught up in our work and entertainment so that we don’t have time to be good parents, devoted spouses, and compassionate friends.

Let’s get caught up in satisfying ourselves instead of loving God and loving those around us. It’s so much easier, and it feels good… for a while, anyway.

Starting within

Reading more about The Catholic Worker, I found that one of their inspirations was the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev. This quote shows how he approached Christianity:

Christianity teaches us to work from within to the outward and not vice versa; the perfect life, whether individual or social, cannot be attained through any programme imposed externally: spiritual rebirth is essential and it proceeds from freedom and grace. Compulsion will never make good Christians or a Christian social order; there must be an effective and real change in the hearts of persons and of peoples, and the realization of this perfect life is a task of infinite difficulty and endless duration.

Nicholas Berdyaev, The Bourgeois Mind, 1934

I suppose one way to look at this is as a return to the basics – spiritual rebirth that proceeds from freedom and grace, followed with a life-long journey towards and with Christ. But the idea that really stood out for me here is that a Christian social order imposed through compulsion is no good. I agree with that, and that could probably get me in trouble in certain circles. Legally-mandated Christian morals that are not widely accepted in society do not make for a good social order. We may decry the sinfulness of some of our society’s laws and norms, but perhaps the starting point is with people’s hearts?

Injuring one injures all

Within Catholicism various groups can get fairly obnoxious with each other. I like this view of how to combat that trend:

In the Liturgy we have the means to teach Catholics, thrown apart by Individualism into snobbery, apathy, prejudice, blind unreason, that they are members of one body, and that 'an injury to one is an injury to all.'

Dorothy Day, from the December 1935 issue of The Catholic Worker

Christian Piety

Christian piety has all too often meant withdrawal from the world and from men - it has led to a sort of transcendent egoism and unwillingness to share suffering. But the world has risen in protest against this form of piety, this arrogance, this indifference to the world's sorrow. And only the living faith of those reborn can withstand this protest. Care for the needs of another human being, even bodily care, which is the essence of true piety. Bread for myself is a material question, but bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.

Jacques Maritain

This quote reminds me that Christian piety can not be indifferent to the world's needs, to our neighbor's needs. The love of Christ, both directly and through the Spirit that lives within us, can never be selfish.

See how they ...

This quote is from Peter Maurin, cofounder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement:

Feeding the Poor at a Sacrifice

1. In the first centuries
    of Christianity
    the hungry were fed
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the naked were clothed
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the homeless were sheltered
    at personal sacrifice.
2. And because the poor
    were fed, clothed and sheltered
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the pagans used to say
    about the Christians
    "See how they love each other."
3. In our own day
    the poor are no longer
    fed, clothed, sheltered
    at a personal sacrifice,
    but at the expense
    of the taxpayers.
4. And because the poor
    are no longer
    fed, clothed and sheltered
    the pagans say about the Christians
    "See how they pass the buck."

Maurin has several other good quotes that I'll post in the next couple weeks or so. But for now, this one has enough for me to contemplate.

Throwing your arms around Jesus

A quote from Karl Rahner, SJ:

Once I was having a conversation with a modern Protestant theologian whose theories seemed to me rather rationalistic. At one point I put in with "Yes, you see, you're actually only dealing with Jesus when you throw your arms around him and realize right down to the bottom of your being that this is still something you can do today."