Feast of St. Gregory the Great (September 3, 2013)

Posted on September 3, 2013 by William Ockham
St. Gregory the Great

St. Gregory the Great

“The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when love ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” St Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor

Today is the Feast of St. Gregory the Great.  It is a special day for me as it reminds to be grateful to my parents as they named their oldest child (yours truly) after St. Gregory the Great. (To have a clearer separation between this blog and my “day job”, I have chosen the pseudonym William Ockham, after the great medieval theologian and philosopher).

Pope Gregory I (c. 540 – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the Pope from September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. Throughout the Middle Ages he was known as “the Father of Christian Worship” because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day.

He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers. He is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and some Lutheran churches. Immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim.The Protestant reformer John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope. He is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.

Gregory was born about 540, the son of a Roman senator and, as a young man, became a servant of the state. In 573 he sold off his considerable properties and, with the money, founded six monasteries in Sicily and another in Rome as well giving generously to the poor. In 574 he entered his own monastery of St Andrew’s on the Celian Hill. Here he led an austere life which he looked back on with pleasure in later years but which was also the cause of constant health problems later in life.

Pope Benedict I called him from the monastery to be one of the seven deacons of Rome, while the next pope, Pelagius II, made him apocrisiarius (or ambassador) in Byzantium. Six years later, Gregory returned to Rome and became abbot of St Andrew’s monastery of which he had been the founder. He apparently believed that the future of Christianity lay with the monastic style of life as he watched the Eastern Roman Empire in decline. However, he would not be able to continue following this way of life. In a well-known story he one day saw Anglo-Saxon slaves on sale in Rome. On being told they were ‘Angli’, he replied, “Non Angli, sed angeli” (Not Angles but angels). They inspired him with a desire to go as a missionary among them. However, during an outbreak of the plague he was elected pope. He was at once faced with major problems – floods, famine, plague, a Lombard invasion of papal territory. There were also problems arising from the role of Byzantium in Church affairs and the need for missionary work among the so-called ‘barbarians’ coming down from the north.

In 592-593 he made peace with the Lombards. He appointed governors to Italian towns, administered the vast properties of the Church with prudence and skill. Also, following the breakdown of civil order with the collapse of the Roman Empire, the pope and the clergy had to assume many of the secular roles of a civil society.

Gregory, as mentioned, was very keen on the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. It was he who sent St. Augustine of Canterbury and his monks on this potentially dangerous mission. However, as the mission succeeded, Gregory continued to give advice when Augustine was not sure how to proceed.

He was able to pass on to the Christianized ‘barbarians’ the learning of the Greek and Latin Fathers. He did this especially through his Homilies on the Gospels and his Moralia on the Book of Job. His works on pastoral care had a deep influence on bishops of the Middle Ages. Gregory understood that Christianity was a universal religion and for new “pagan” converts, it was important for them to maintain as much of their traditions as possible and Christianity to adapt to local customs:

“Destroy as few pagan temples as possible. . . If the temples have been well built, you are simply changing their purpose, which was the cult of demons, in order to make a place where from henceforth the true God will be worshiped. Thus, the people, seeing that their places of worship have not been destroyed, will forget their errors and having attained knowledge of the true God, will come to worship Him in the very places where their ancestors assembled. . . There is no need to change their customs at festivals. Thus, on the feast of dedication or on the feasts of martyred saints whose relics have been placed in the church, they should build booths out of branches round the church as they used to round pagan temples, and celebrate the festival with religious banquets.” — St. Gregory, Letters, 56

His 854 letters are of particular interest to historians as they reveal his wisdom, prudence, and preoccupation in dealing Church and State problems. This included monastic issues, the missionary role of the Church, the integrity of Church teaching and the reproof of senior clerics who liked to use impressive titles. He himself liked to be referred to as the ‘servant of the servants of God’, a title still used by popes today.

Gregory is also remembered for his interest in the development of the liturgy. Many prayers in the Roman liturgy reflect his ideas, if not actually composed by him. He moved the Pater Noster (Our Father) to its present position immediately after the Eucharistic Prayer. He also added material to the Hanc igitur (Father, accept this offering…) in the First Eucharistic Prayer (also known as the Roman Canon). He also introduced the nine-fold Kyrie at the beginning of the Mass, as it still is in the Tridentine Rite. His name has also long been linked with Church music and especially by the Chant which bears his name.
Although his own monastery did not follow the Benedictine rule, Gregory wrote a life of Benedict and he was seen as embodying the Benedictine spirit. Few had more influence on medieval monastic life.

Although he was pope for just 13 years, his influence on the development of the Church and of the papacy in the Middle Ages was regarded as far-reaching. He certainly earned the title of ‘Great’ given to him.

During much of his life he suffered from gout and digestive problems but was intellectually active to the end. He is believed to have been 65 and 70 when he died in 604 and was soon acclaimed a saint.

The earliest pictures of Gregory show him as pope, writing, with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove dictating what he should write. Later he figures as one of the Four Latin Doctors (with SS. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine). Later again the pictures stress his role as teacher of the efficacy of prayer.

Sources:

Living Space
Wikipedia
Online Resources for Gregory the Great (From Divine Lamp)

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Teilhard de Chardin Quote of the Week (September 2, 2013): Depths of God

Posted on September 2, 2013 by William Ockham

word_incarnate

“Lord, I know we cannot forestall, still less dictate to  you, even the smallest of your actions; from you alone comes all initiative—and this applies in the first place to my prayer.

Radiant Word, blazing Power, you who mold the manifold so as to breathe your life into it; I pray you, lay on us those your hands—powerful, considerate, omnipresent, those hands which do not (like our human hands) touch now here, now there, but which plunge into the depths and the totality, present and past, of things so as to reach us simultaneously through all that is most immense and most inward within us and around us.”

— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Mass on the World“

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Sunday Reflection, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 1, 2013): Humility, Ego and Freedom

Posted on August 31, 2013 by William Ockham
"Conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God." -- Sirach 3: 17-18.

Pope Francis demonstrating humility and service

“Conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.” — Sirach 3: 17-18.

“For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” — Luke 14:11

Today is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.  You can find the weekly readings here. They focus on humility, a virtue that I have often struggled to live out. From my early years, my ego, my identity, was based upon how I fared in a competition with others. This played out in school, sports, job opportunities, career advancement, financial status. I had some “success” in these areas but ironically the more “success” I had, the stronger my identity (ego) became tied up in this success. The ego became a brutal taskmaster and I lost the sense of interconnectiveness among humanity. I ultimately came to worship the false idols of material and career success of Western culture.

It when the disconnect between this false ego and my authentic self became so great that I was able to finally open the door to let God in. For me, it was and continues to be a gradual process but through a deeper prayer life, I am able to recognize the ego for what it is and not let it control me. I am starting to experience authentic freedom by living in the way God intended me to be.

Today’s reflection is from Fr. John Speekman of the outstanding blog Sunday Homilies from Australia.  (I am actually going to back three years for the prior Cycle C homily as it was so excellent.) Fr. Speekman talks about the unhealthy Ego turns our focus inward on ourselves, rather than searching for the deep interconnectiveness we have with all humanity. The ego creates an I-it relationship, rather than an I-though relationship.

I encourage you to read the entire homily here, but set forth below is a modified extended excerpt:

Jesus went for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees and he noticed something. He noticed the way they were picking the places of honor. He noticed their lack of humility!

Humility, and its opposite, pride have to do with an inner attitude to ourselves, others, and God. Where does this attitude come from? How does it grow within us? What can we do to develop a ‘right’ attitude to ourselves, to others, and to God?

Servais Pinkaers OP, a wonderful moral theologian, says that early on in our history, at the time of our Original Sin, it was as though we suddenly caught a glimpse of ourselves – and a terrible thing happened.

‘I love you’ became ‘I love you to love me.’

Consciousness did a U-turn and became ‘selfish-consciousness’. Love did a U-turn and became ‘selfish-love’. It was the birth of the Ego – in the negative sense of the word – in the destructive sense.

There are two things about the Ego we should notice:

  • it has a voracious appetite
  • it is a master of disguise

The Ego has a voracious appetite. Everything is fodder for the Ego. It claims everything. It claims our gifts, our achievements, even our holiness. ‘Yep, I am much holier than you! – and I did it my way!’

The Ego is also a master of disguise. It is so cunning and so subtle but only at the beginning.

Since Ego wants its own way, and not the way of the other, it has to pretend a lot. It has to pretend it only wants what is for the best. It certainly can’t afford to let others think that it is only feathering its own nest.

It does this because the Ego wants, ultimately, that the whole world, even God, should serve it. The Ego cannot serve, it demands to be served.

Jesus himself said: I have come as one who serves and this is because he only ever did the will of his Father and not his own will.

The first, and most subtle step in the Ego’s insatiable desire to become the ruler of the world is that it has to conquer the individual – me – and you.

My Ego is hard at work trying to conquer me, and your Ego is hard at work trying to conquer you.

It begins by making servants of our hearts and minds and faculties.

  • Our ears .. so that we hear only what it wants us to hear.
  • Our eyes .. so that we see only what it wants us to see.

  • Our minds .. so we think only what it wants us to think.

  • Our hearts .. so that the only one we love is ourselves.

And then we will see only the realities that promise to further our desires. Oh, dear, what a calamity!

Jesus was totally humble – he was humility itself. He could see right through every disguise of the Ego, even the most subtle ones. Jesus never needed evidence about anyone – he knew what a man had in him and he noticed how he acted – either according to humility or pride.

  • Those who chose the places of honour.
  • The widow who put her mite in the temple coffers.

  • The tax collector, Matthew, who he called to be an Apostle.

  • The woman who anointed his feet at the Pharisees’ house.

Jesus was humble, a true servant. He did only the works his Father gave him to do and he spoke only the words his Father wanted him to speak.

So humble people are lucky people. Jesus says they will be exalted in the kingdom of heaven. But already here on earth they are lucky.

They don’t have to be jealous. They can let others have their gifts. They don’t have to hold grudges. Humble people can forgive easily because they know who they are; they know their sins. And humble people can stop hating themselves and start loving others.

Complete Homily by Fr. John Speekman

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Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

Posted on August 30, 2013 by William Ockham
Dr. Brené Brown

Dr. Brené Brown knows the power of vulnerability

“Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you’ve got all the answers, then don’t call what you do faith.” — Dr. Brené Brown

I recently did  a post on Jean Vanier and the L’Arche program on the wisdom of tenderness and vulnerability. Recently, George Farahat, author of the outstanding blog Today’s Questions had a post on Brené Brown and the power of vulnerability.  Dr. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She is a nationally renowned speaker and has won numerous teaching awards, including the College’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

Dr. Brown has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Dr. Brown’s scientific work supports two foundations of the Christian worldview: (i) the deep interconnection among humanity and all of God’s creation and (ii) the necessity of exposing ourselves and being vulnerable to others to become a complete person. Dr. Brown’s work helps address the deepest paradox of Christianity: that an omnipotent Creator would become vulnerable through the incarnation so that He can love humanity and provide humanity with an opportunity to love Him back.

I was introduced to the work of Dr. Brown by George Farahat, author of the blog “Today’s Questions” which focuses on the deep questions of purpose and meaning. Earlier this month, George Farahat did a summary of Dr. Brown’s talk.  I encourage you to read the entire article here but set forth are excerpts:

I found Brené Brown’s research work and words about vulnerability to be extremely on the right track for discovering that she is being loved by God who unconditionally loves his creation and works in all no matter who they are…Brown’s research opened for her the recognition of her own vulnerability. She resisted not being in control of what the outcome of her relationships may be. It is always hard to expose yourself to uncertainty.  She recognizes the difficulty in raising her kids, along with her husband who is a pediatrician, in a way that allows them to be themselves imperfect and to accept their imperfection but she now hugs them and takes care that they see her as she is… a vulnerable mother who loves them.

And we are always faced with the same kind of problems. We are probably controlling or insecure spouses. We probably fear the boss and his/her remarks at work because we are afraid of losing our jobs. We are constantly looking in the mirror to ensure that others will not shame us in any way. We care too much about how the world around us perceives and approves of our steps.

In my opinion Brené Brown has dared to become and live as a person who follows Christ. In an age of individualism, her talks about vulnerability are essentially and implicitly a call to live today a Christian life. More importantly she has become a living example as she struggles with her own vulnerability and become stronger to move on even if she may not be explicitly Christian.

Set forth below are two videos that expand on Dr. Brown’s work.  First, is Dr. Brown’s 2010 TEDx talk on the power of vulnerability, which is one of the most watched talks on TED.com, with over 10 million views.

The second is an outstanding presentation by the Preaching Friars connecting Dr. Brown’s scientific work in the context of the Catholic tradition.

 

 

 

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Teilhard de Chardin Quote of the Week (August 26, 2013): Calling Down Fire

Posted on August 29, 2013 by William Ockham

sunrise

“Because, my God, though I lack the soul-zeal and the sublime integrity of your saints, I yet have received from you an, overwhelming sympathy for all that stirs within the dark mass of matter; because I know myself to be irremediably less a child of heaven than a son of earth; therefore I will this morning climb up in spirit to the high places, bearing with me the hopes and the miseries of my mother; and there—empowered by that priesthood which you alone (as I firmly believe) have bestowed on me—upon all that in the world of human flesh is now about to be born or to die beneath the rising sun I will call down the Fire.”

— Teilhard de Chardin, “Mass on the World“

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Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo (August 28)

Posted on August 28, 2013 by William Ockham
St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo

“Our hearts are restless, O God, until they rest in You.” — St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo was an early Christian theologian whose writings are considered very influential in the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria) located in the Roman province of Africa. Writing during the Patristic Era, he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers. Among his most important works are City of God and Confessions, which continue to be read widely today. Augustine wrote in troubled times during the end of the western Roman Empire.

Confessions was particularly helpful to me as Augustine detailed his early life of rejecting the Christianity of his mother in favor of the trendy philosophies of his day and the pursuit of worldly success. God kept patiently knocking on Augustine’s door and when he finally opened it he became consumed by the fire of love of God.  For someone looking for a great movie on St. Augustine, I recommend Restless Heart.

Augustine  was born on 13 November 354 in Tagaste (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria), then a Roman city in North Africa. His mother, St. Monica, was a Berber and a devout Christian and his father, Patricius, a pagan. He was brought up as a Christian but not baptized. He studied rhetoric at the university in Carthage with the intention of becoming a lawyer. However, he gave up this idea and instead went into teaching and study. His study of philosophy, mostly of Plato, and later of Manichaeism over a period of nine years resulted in his effectively abandoning the Christian faith of his mother. Over a period of 15 years he lived with a mistress by whom he had a son, named Adeodatus (meaning, ‘a gift of God’). He left Africa and moved to Rome to teach rhetoric and later to Milan where he got a very prestigious professorship. It was at this point that he began to become disillusioned with Manichaeism and became interested in Neo-Platonism. He also came under the influence of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. In the year 386, he was greatly inspired by reading the life of St Anthony, a desert Father. There is also the famous story of his hearing the voice of an unseen child, while sitting in his garden in Milan. The voice kept chanting, ‘Tolle, lege’ (‘Take and read’). He opened his Bible at random and the text he found happened to be from Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh” (13:13-14).

Augustine decided to give up his promising career, give up the idea of marriage, and
become a Christian and a celibate priest. After a long interior conflict, which he graphically describes in his Confessions, Augustine was finally converted. Together with his son, Adeodatus, he was baptized by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil of 387 in Milan.

In 388, he returned to Africa, sold off his inheritance and gave it to the poor. He then set up a kind of monastery in his house. In 391 he was ordained a priest and, four years later, became coadjutor-bishop of Hippo. From 396, he was the sole bishop in the diocese. He left his monastery but continued to lead a monastic life in his bishop’s residence. He left a rule of life which was later adopted by what is known today as the Order of St Augustine (OSA). Augustine’s intellectual brilliance, broad education, passionate temperament, and deep mystical insight resulted in a personality of very special, if not unique, quality. His interpretation of Christian revelation revealed in his many writings probably has had more influence on Christian thinking than anyone since St Paul. Among his most famous works are his Confessions, Sermons on the Gospel and Letters of John, a treatise on the Trinity and, at the end of his life, his De Civitate Dei (The City of God). This last work deals with the opposition between Christianity and the ‘world’, occasioned by the invasions of the north European tribes and the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is regarded as the first Christian philosophy of history. Many other works were responses to controversies with Manichaeans, Pelagians, or Donatists and led to the development of his thought on the Church, the Sacraments, and Grace. Few, if any, Christian writers have written with such depth on love (caritas) and on the Trinity. Many of Augustine’s themes in City of God are very relevant today.

While Augustine’s great influence on Christian thought has been mainly positive, his teaching on Predestination has come in for criticism. Perhaps due to his Manichean background which he never fully shook off and guilt about his own immoral past, he became almost obsessive about sin and evil. He would condemn unbaptized children and others to eternal damnation. He has also been criticized for his teaching on sex and marriage. Even sex within marriage was seen as a necessary evil and never completely without sin. At the same time he did emphasize, against the Manichaeans, the threefold good of marriage – family, sacrament and fidelity. Later Christian tradition also set aside his view that Original Sin is transmitted through sexual intercourse or that intercourse is tolerated only with the intention of having a child. The Second Vatican Council made it clear that, in a marriage, sexual intercourse is an important expression of love and union.

As a bishop, Augustine lived with his clergy a community life and was actively engaged in church administration, the care of the poor, preaching and writing and even acting as judge in civil as well as ecclesiastical cases. As bishop, he was an upholder of order in a time of political strife caused by the disintegration of the Roman Empire.

He died at Hippo on 28 August 430. At the time of his death, the Vandals were at the gates of Hippo. The cult of Augustine began very soon after his death and was widespread. His relics were first taken to Sardinia. Later Liutprand, king of the Lombards, enshrined his body at Pavia. He is usually depicted in episcopal vestments with pastoral staff but later artists also showed him with the emblem of a heart of fire.

Sources:

Living Space
Wikipedia
Catholic Encyclopedia

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Christian Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Washington Civil Rights March

Posted on August 27, 2013 by William Ockham
A procession of African Americans carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias on August 28, 1963. Photo courtesy U.S. Library of Congress

A procession of African-Americans carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias on August 28, 1963. Photo courtesy U.S. Library of Congress

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington in the U.S. This march galvanized the country around the issue of civil rights and made the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into a national icon. Fifty years later, it stands as an unprecedented display of ecumenical cooperation by bringing together Catholic, Jewish and Protestant leaders. The Religion News Service put together an outstanding site where they asked participants to reflect on their lasting memories of the march and how it shaped their faith.  I encourage you to read it as the stories are very moving.

Also, I want to briefly mention another Civil Rights event from 1963, Dr. King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail.  I will have a more detailed reflection on this during Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. next January, but I want to quote one of the best lines from that letter which highlights Christian moral law:

[T]here are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “An unjust law is no law at all.” Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an “I – it” relationship for the “I – thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Isn’t segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?”

On this anniversary, let us reflect on laws are currently in effect and daily actions we do (especially the legal ones) that change the I-though relationship into an I-it relationship.

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The Christian Wisdom of Tenderness: Jean Vanier on Lived Compassion, L’Arche and Becoming Human

Posted on August 26, 2013 by William Ockham
Jean Vanier and Friend

Jean Vanier and Friend

The excellent National Public Radio program, On Being, had a replay of an interview with Canadian philosopher and Catholic social entrepreneur Jean Vanier.  I had heard this interview before and if anything, it was even more moving listening to it again. Vanier combines the best of Catholic teaching: a deep intellectual heritage, a strong prayer life and active social engagement.

I encourage you to listen to the entire interview here and read the full transcript here, but set forth below are key excerpts:

Considered by some to be a living saint, Jean Vanier created L’Arche. This model of community for people with mental disabilities celebrates power in smallness and light in the darkness of human existence. The French Canadian philosopher and Catholic social innovator speaks about his understanding of humanity and God that has been shaped by Aristotle, Mother Teresa, and people who would once have been locked away from society.

Ms. Tippett (Interviewer): The story of L’Arche, which is French for “the ark,” began in 1963. Jean Vanier was a professor of philosophy at St. Michael’s College in Toronto. He had done his doctoral work on happiness in the ethics of Aristotle. At Christmas time that year, he went to visit a friend in France who was working as a chaplain for men with mental handicaps. Vanier found himself drawn to these human beings shut away from society. He was especially moved by a vast asylum south of Paris in which all day, 80 adult men did nothing but walk around in circles and take a two-hour compulsory nap. He bought a small house nearby and invited two men from that asylum to share life with him.

This was not a linear move. Jean Vanier had entered the British Royal Naval College as a teenager and commanded an aircraft carrier in his 20s. At well over six feet tall with a head of white hair, he still has the bearing of a naval officer. He exudes an intriguing mix of intellectual intensity and extreme gentleness. When Vanier left the military, before he studied philosophy, he spent a year in a contemplative community in a poor area near Paris. L’Eau Vive, as it was called, “water of life,” was dedicated to serving the poor, praying, and studying metaphysics. I sat down with Jean Vanier in 2007, when he was 79 years old, to hear more about the life he’s lived and its lessons for our world today.

Mr. Vanier: That community near Paris had been founded by a French Dominican priest, and he was very, very deeply a man of God. I think I had a very open intelligence, you know? Since the age of 13, I had been in the world of the navy, I hadn’t done philosophy, I hadn’t done any particular reading. I mean, I was geared for the military. But here was somebody who opened up new visions, new vistas. I remember once following his courses — and he was so up in it — and he was saying, he was talking about something [unintelligible]. And he said, “You know, take a very concrete example, the angels, for example.”

And everybody laughed and he couldn’t understand, you know, why people are laughing, because it was, to him, a very concrete example. So he was a metaphysician. He was a thinker. He was really a man of God. And he was the one who encouraged me to do studies and encouraged me particularly to work on Aristotle. And the big thing with Aristotle is the primacy of experience over idea. A lot of people don’t know that. The worst thing that can happen is for Aristotelians to become Aristotelians, because then they start reading Aristotle, but they’re no longer in linked with reality — to touch reality, to listen to people, to see the world evolving and so on.

Ms. Tippett: I know you’ve written that, from the point of view of faith, those who are marginalized and considered failures can restore balance to our world. Talk to me about that.

Mr. Vanier: The balance of our world frequently is seen as a question of power. That if I have more power and more knowledge, more capacity, then I can do more. But does this tension between the doing and the being — and when you have power, we can very quickly push people down. I’m the one that knows and you don’t know, and I’m strong and I’m powerful, I have the knowledge. And this is the history of humanity.

Ms. Tippett: Yes.

Mr. Vanier: And that is all of what I’d call the whole educational system, is that we must educate people to become capable and to take their place in society. That has value, obviously. But it’s not quite the same thing as to educate people to relate, to listen, to help people to become themselves. So the equilibrium that people with disabilities could bring is precisely this equilibrium of the heart. Children. You see, maybe a father is a very strong man and businessman, and when he comes home, if he gets down on his hands and knees and plays with the children, it’s the child that is teaching the father something about tenderness, about love, about the father looking at the needs of the child, the face of the child, the hands of the child, relating to the child. And the children, the incredible thing about children is they’re unified in their body and in — whereas we, we can be very disunified. We can say one thing and feel another. [Editor’s note: This is so true. As a father, I see this in my children. They are very authentic in their feelings and actions. They do not have a need to hide behind a false self. That is why Jesus says we should act like children.]

Ms. Tippett: Right.

Mr. Vanier: And so as a child can teach us about unity and about fidelity and about love, so it is people with disabilities. It’s the same sort of beauty and purity in some of these people — it is extraordinary — and say, ‘Our world is not just a world of competition, the weakest and the strongest. Everybody has their place.’

Jean Vanier Interview Resources
Jean Vanier Interview Transcript
Jean Vanier Interview Recording (Edited)
Jean Vanier Interview Recording (Full)

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21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 25, 2013): Heaven, Nick Saban and an Adult Relationship With God

Posted on August 24, 2013 by William Ockham

heaven

“Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch.” -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (courtesy of Quoting Catholic Blog)

Today is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. The liturgical readings can be found here. The Gospel starts with an interesting question about how many people can be “saved”:

“Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” — Lk 13:22-24a

Heaven

Translated into today’s individualistic culture, the question becomes “How can I get to heaven?” Sections 1024-1025 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church describe heaven not as a place but as an eternal state of union with God and others:

“This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity—this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed—is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ, but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.”

Conversely, Section 1033 of the Catechism defines “hell” as a perpetual state of isolation; the absence of union with God and others:

“We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.'”

Process Approach to Union With God and Others

OK, so we have defined the goal of “heaven” as eternal union with God and others. Definitions are good and everything, but what do they mean for our daily lives? It is noteworthy that Jesus did not answer the question of how many people are saved. Instead, he replied: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” In other words, do not focus on the end goal of “getting to heaven.” It merely distracts us from the real task at hand; the process that it takes to achieve union with God. Fr. Robert Barron describes the dangers of focusing on heaven in his podcast this week, including the dangers of both a “fire and brimstone” view of the afterlife and a blasé approach to universalism.

As a contemporary cultural analogy, next weekend is the opening season of college football in the U.S. (yes, I am a big college football fan). The winningest coach in the last decade is Nick Saban of Alabama, who won four of the last ten national championships (I’m a Big Ten fan so my personal views of Nick Saban are probably closer to those of Auburn Tiger fans, but I admire Saban’s success:-). Saban echos Jesus in that he emphasizes focusing on those activities that cause success is more important than the end goal of winning. Focusing on winning will paradoxically will actually hinder your ability to win. As set forth in this Forbes article from last year:

“The secret to Saban’s success isn’t finding the latest and greatest blocking offensive and defensive schemes. Quite the contrary. What Saban preaches day in and day out to his players and staff is the tested and true fundamental known as process focus. Saban teaches his players to stop actually thinking about winning and losing and instead focus on those daily activities that cause success.

He encourages his players to adopt a definition of success defined not by results, but rather by effort. Instead of emphasizing scoring touchdowns, he asks players to define themselves with such things as completing each set in the weight room or completing practices with 100% intensity. Saban states: “Everybody wants to be a success. Not everybody is willing to do what they have to do to achieve it.”

According to Saban, process guarantees success. A good process produces good results. Likewise, if the process is off, the results will suffer. Focusing on the outcome is paradoxical. The more one emphasizes winning, the less he or she is able to concentrate on what actually causes success.” (emphasis added)

So, if Christians should not focus on getting heaven, what is the “process approach”. As the Catechism states above, it is union with God through a deep prayer life and love of neighbor. This is easy to say, but hard to do in practice. Developing a relationship with God involves stepping outside yourself and into a relationship with the other. Anyone who has been married or in a long-term committed relationship knows that it is not always easy to surrender your ego for the greater good of union with your spouse or partner.

Adult Relationship with God

Having a relationship with God is even harder as God, the Creator of the universe, transcends our limited human understanding. God invites us into a relationship with Him. However, he grants us the freedom to either enter into that union or not. As a result of this freedom and the infinite gap between our human limitations and God’s power, we often tend to project ourselves on God, which turns into narcissism (especially in contemporary Western culture). It is up to us to grow into an adult relationship with God. As James Predmore, S.J. states

God wants you to act like an adult. God can coddle, coax, and give you invitations as often as possible, but God wants you to enter this relationship as maturely as possible. Some of us see God as a stern, uncaring, harshly judging being who is remote from us while others will only develop a childlike image of an always sweet, always accepting, always permissive being who lets me selfishly do whatever I want because I’ve declared that I am essentially a good person. Both images are fantastic illusions and we have to come to get to know the real God. God is not an extension of myself, but a completely separate ‘Other.’ It could be that God is waiting for us to listen to him and converse with him like healthy adults do. In the long run, it is unsafe for us to hold an image of God that allows us to use our strong will to remain unchanged.

This adult relationship involves focusing on the process of what it takes to have a deep union with God: a deep prayer life and a deep commitment to loving and serving neighbor. Mother Teresa is an outstanding modern-day example of this, which is why I selected her quote above. As James Foley, S.J. says that we need to focus on developing the relationship with God in our daily activities, and not put it off:

“The parable for this Sunday instead shows people outside who are not friends with the master at all. Apparently they have no relationship to the man in the house and know about him only from hearing him teach in the streets! Their knocking comes at midnight only because they were too busy, or whatever else, to get there earlier.

Are you and I friends to Jesus, or just somewhat interested parties? God will open the door to us if we are there not merely for the sake of curiosity or tourist attraction, but rather for the loving relationship to God that underlies our needs. If we are not open to being friends with God, we have made a decision that he will reluctantly respect:, and the door we have not knocked on will remain closed.

The message? Get to know God now. Do not delay till you get to heaven’s gate and have no prior relationship to show for yourself.”

For further reading and listening:

James Predmore, S.J. Reflection
James Foley, S.J. Reflection
Fr. Robert Barron Podcast

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Scientific Potpourri (August 23, 2013)

Posted on August 23, 2013 by William Ockham
Picture of the galaxies in the universe 11 Billion years ago. Courtesy of NASA.

Picture of the galaxies in the universe 11 Billion years ago. Courtesy of NASA.

Here are some of the top stories from cosmology and evolutionary biology from the last couple of weeks:

On the Trail of Dark Energy.  From Science Daily:  One of the biggest mysteries in contemporary particle physics and cosmology is why dark energy, which is observed to dominate energy density of the universe, has a remarkably small (but not zero) value. This value is so small, it is perhaps 120 orders of magnitude less than would be expected based on fundamental physics. Resolving this problem, often called the cosmological constant problem, has so far eluded theorists. Now, two physicists — Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University and James Dent of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette — suggest that the recently discovered Higgs boson could provide a possible “portal” to physics that could help explain some of the attributes of the enigmatic dark energy, and help resolve the cosmological constant problem.  [Editor’s Note: This is a very interesting theory and Lawrence Krauss is a top-notch scientist.  However, he also strays into philosophy, where he exhibits the same tendency of some other scientists for the folly of scientism.

Has Voyager 1 Left the Solar System?  From The Guardian:  It’s 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet’s intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.  NASA scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun’s radiation. But a controversial study published last week in the Astrophysical Journal claims Nasa scientists misinterpreted magnetic field data and the satellite passed beyond the boundary known as the heliosheath a year ago. Put another way, Voyager 1 has left the solar system.

Galaxy Anatomy of the Early Universe was a “Cosmic Zoo”.   From Space.com: The diversity of galaxies in the early universe was as varied as the many galaxy types seen today, a massive Hubble Space Telescope photos survey reveals. The Hubble photo survey found that the assorted range of galaxy types seen today were also present about 11 billion years ago, meaning that the types of galaxies seen today, which astronomers described as a “cosmic zoo,” have been around for at least 80 percent of the universe’s lifespan. The universe is estimated to be 13.82 billion years old. At the heart of the new study is a galaxy classification system known as the Hubble Sequence. The research team found that this system still applied to galaxies 11 billion years ago. The research will appear upcoming edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

Why an Ice Age Occurs Every 100,000 Years.   From Science Daily:   Science has struggled to explain fully why an ice age occurs every 100,000 years. As researchers now demonstrate based on a computer simulation, not only do variations in isolation play a key role, but also the mutual influence of glaciated continents and climate.  Ice ages and warm periods have alternated fairly regularly in Earth’s history: Earth’s climate cools roughly every 100,000 years, with vast areas of North America, Europe and Asia being buried under thick ice sheets. Eventually, the pendulum swings back: it gets warmer and the ice masses melt. While geologists and climate physicists found solid evidence of this 100,000-year cycle in glacial moraines, marine sediments and arctic ice, until now they were unable to find a plausible explanation for it.

Quantum Teleportation:  Transfer of Flying Quantum Bits at the Touch of a Button.   From Science Daily:  By means of the quantum-mechanical entanglement of spatially separated light fields, researchers in Tokyo and Mainz have managed to teleport photonic qubits with extreme reliability. This means that a decisive breakthrough has been achieved some 15 years after the first experiments in the field of optical teleportation. The success of the experiment conducted in Tokyo is attributable to the use of a hybrid technique in which two conceptually different and previously incompatible approaches were combined.

“Crisis in Cosmology” Conference.  From The Northern Echo:  An ongoing “crisis is cosmology” is engaging academics at a conference this week. Experts from around the world have gathered in Durham to discuss the failure of the Large Hadron Collider to provide any evidence for dark matter particles. Scientists say most of the mass of the Universe is made up of unknown forms known as dark matter, or dark energy. Many believe this is made of sub-atomic particles. However, CERN’S findings, or lack of them, have provoked much debate among leaders in the particle physics field.

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