He Blinded Me With Silence

Readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

The Apostles were gathered with the Holy Mother, “devot[ing] themselves with one accord to prayer” (Ac 1:14). That is to say, they expressed with unity and fervor their desire to respond to the wise and loving Creator whose initiative always anticipates our own. Together they formed the heart of the infant Church who awaited the promised Holy Spirit, the seal of adoption as God’s Beloved Sons. Having received Our Lord’s call to unity, holiness, and mission, most notably at the very mountain of His Ascension (cf. Mt 28:20), the Apostles hunkered down for their first novena, imploring the divine empowerment needed to bring the Church to term. This grace God promises in abundant measure not only to the Apostles and their successors the Bishops, but to all who seek Him earnestly; and this great legacy of teaching, liturgy, morality, and prayer is found most reliably in the Holy Catholic Church (cf. CCC 1-3).

I’d bet that the Apostles’ novena included as much silence as speech. Like any conversation, prayer ideally includes both elements. The philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once attributed all the world’s problems to people not being able to sit quietly by themselves in an empty room. For this malaise we must thank the untamed ego that asserts itself “every which way but loose,” fruitlessly seeking to fill the God-sized hole in our hearts.

In St. Peter’s first epistle we are warned of the difference between suffering for noble causes such as our faith, and suffering as a result of evils we have committed. Now it is true that the sins of our past may cause us hardship, but even this can purify and strengthen us as we daily commend ourselves to the Lord. Peter is speaking here about those who are not at first inclined to repent of their evils. Note the categories he mentions: “a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer” (1Pe 4:13).

That last one, translated “intriguer,” is curious: ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος is a person who watches over another person’s business—a meddler, a mischief-maker. Placed in the same category as a murderer! We are not talking about someone who is merely impolite, or who lacks clear boundaries. The intentional stirring-up of jealousies, confusion, irritation, gossip, criticism, and discord is a sin! Suddenly it isn’t so strange to think that Pope Francis has preached so often and vehemently about these matters in his daily homilies and weekly addresses, and this without ignoring other infractions of the Ten Commandments.

The tender prayer of Jesus to His Father precedes His paschal “hour” of suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. In it He offers to the Father you, and me, and every human person who has ever lived or who will ever live. Jesus’ prayer further reveals His clear focus on doing His Father’s will steadfastly and serenely, despite the drama that surrounded His earthly life, from the intrigue of infancy to the commotion of Calvary. Wouldn’t you like to live with such quiet strength, come what may? So would I. Let’s sit quietly in a room for a little while, and see what happens.

I Would Not Give You False Hope

O Mary, crush the head of the ancient serpent on our behalf!

(Thanks to The Anchoress for the idea.)

Consider with me the Marian and Christological implications of the song and video.  

Mary comes to the aid of her endangered children who by original sin, the effects of original sin, personal sins, and the effects of personal sins, are "laid so low in such a mysterious way."  

And "the course of a lifetime"--yours, mine, of everyone before us and since--"runs over and over again."  It seems we learn as we learn--fitfully.  

But we no longer need to lament "that strange and mournful day," for sin has had its day.  The Day of the Lord, of which the prophets so often spoke, has come to us in Jesus.  

We can speak of Our Lady's loving subordination to the Master-Plan, which as JPII has affirmed, is indeed mutual subordination.  To jump a few decades on the Billboard charts: "Woman needs man, and man must [not in terms of necessity, but out of love] have His mate [the Church]--on that you can rely."  Such is the love of the New Adam for the New Eve.

Consult Fr. Z the Greater's treatment of this mystery here.

On Mary's Assumption and the Church's Clarity

For the past several years I have been making use of a reader’s guide to the Lectionary.  It offers helpful tips for proclaiming the Word at Mass, as well as some helpful commentary.  Regarding today’s solemnity with its remarkable first reading from Revelation, the guide has this to say: “Remember, you are recounting a mystical vision, not something that happened at the grocery.  Speak…with great reverence” (p. 223).  That observation and direction apply to the whole of Sacred Scripture. 

Up the street, our friends in the United Church of Christ advertise with the maxim, “God is still speaking: Listen!”  It is hoped that our lectors, as well as we clergy, proclaim the sacred text with “great reverence,” and it is equally hoped that the faithful receive it with “great reverence,” because God continues to be made flesh--in a manner of speaking--at each and every Mass, in the proclamation of the Word and especially in the offering of the Eucharist.  Today’s solemnity is an example of God’s continued action in the Church--in particular, the Catholic and Orthodox churches, who continue the Apostolic Tradition from the lips of Christ Himself and His chosen leaders.  It is not to say that our Protestant brethren care nothing for the Mother of God, but that the Church of Christ which is found most fully in the Catholic Church holds Mary in due regard for her role in salvation history. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church illustrates the ways that the Church grows in receiving the heritage of faith: through the contemplation and study of believers, in particular theologians; in the spiritual sense that believers exhibit through their disciplines; and in the charism that Bishops exercise in their preaching.  Quoting the Second Vatican Council’s document on Divine Revelation, the Catechism continues: “…Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others.  Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls” (CCC 95; DV 10§3).

I mention these points from the Catechism because the dogma of the Assumption was solemnly defined in 1950, within the lifetime of many.  At the same time, the Assumption of Our Lady was not a new notion.  Several early Fathers of the Church, most notably Saint John Damascene in the 8^th century, spoke much about Mary’s freedom from the corruption of death as a necessary consequence of both her exalted role as the God-bearer and every other way in which she participated most intimately in the life of her Son.  Pope Pius XII’s official declaration was the Church’s way of removing any confusion in the matter of Mary’s corporeal share in the glory of the Lord.  Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium combine as panes of glass through which Divine Light and Love shine with unparalleled clarity.

Mary as Ark of the Covenant and Keeper of the Flame—indeed not a matter for the “Daily Docket” or even for a front-page headline in the largest font!  It is the mystery of the ages: a lowly maiden of Nazareth has, by God’s design and by her free choice, become the firstfruits of universal salvation in Jesus the Christ; and we celebrate that mystery today in the way that she entered the communion of the Trinity with soul and body intact.  Lest we forget: it is the same hope shared by all believers.