Our Stewardship of Suffering and Love

It sometimes occurs as a point of meditation that the saints are human just like us, but at the same time we are called to the same holiness as they. We do a great job, don’t we, of putting different folks on a pedestal, whether it be the saints, or various political or religious leaders or inspirational people in our lives. We know we’ve put them on a pedestal when they inevitably give us reason not to keep them there, and as a result we become outraged; perhaps, in a quieter moment, we might become embarrassed at the thought that we invested the person with such esteem and paid so much attention to what they said—never mind that their words may have been true and valuable, but suddenly their own imperfection or hypocrisy prompts us to call everything into question. Please God, with a little perspective we learn to sift through everything to retain what is of value.

Anyhow, Saint Paul reminds us today of the exalted dignity that all the baptized share. He calls it a “stewardship” (οîκονομία), which refers to a plan for attending to the concerns of an individual or a household. It's where we get the word "economy": the aggregate of transactions (usually financial, but not exclusively so) by which a community of persons keeps going. Paul’s “stewardship” was the mission entrusted to him by God for the communities he’d founded (we’d call them parishes or dioceses). We might find the term more relevant if we considered our family, workplace, and even our own bodies and souls as a stewardship. Paul’s mission was to proclaim the Word of God in Jesus Christ through doctrinal and moral instruction, in order to form active, growing believers. Our responsibility as disciples isn’t really that different: by example and by words we want to show people who Jesus is and what He means for the world. We do this not as “lone rangers,” but as persons baptized into the visible Body of Christ on earth, found most fully in the Catholic Church that the Lord Jesus founded and has sustained for nearly 2,000 years with believers and leaders such as us.

As a result, we want to cultivate our relationship with the Lord in and through the Church, so that people are drawn not merely to us with our personal gifts and drawbacks, but to the Lord living and acting in the Church. We may need to brush up on our appreciation of our great Catholic heritage so as to become the best possible witness.

Now most of us don't have a pulpit from which to proclaim any sort of message, nor do we have any kind of script. In the absence of laborious research and skillful oratory, there is one element in most lives that can provide a compelling witness, and that is our suffering. Strange to hear, perhaps, but God’s honest truth. St. Paul said to the Colossians, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His Body, which is the Church.” We’d be foolish to suppose that, because Jesus suffered for us, we shouldn’t have to suffer, we shouldn’t have to experience pain, inconvenience, humiliation, and all the rest. Jesus experienced upon the cross the suffering experienced by every person in every place and time, so that as we come to experience that suffering in our own time, it doesn't have to be purposeless: we are able to make it something of infinite value by offering it in union with the Lord for those in need of repentance and healing. Thus we can create a space in our lives for the "inconveniences" that visit us, like those three men who visited Abraham and Sarah, and they can become a channel of unexpected blessing.

And when we don’t necessarily have any suffering on our plate, the other legacy in which we always share is the Eucharist that unites us to the saints of every time and place. The very Body of Christ that suffered upon the Cross is sacramentally made present here and now and everywhere the ministerial priesthood is found. In our worthy reception of Holy Communion we share in the sufferings and joys of the whole Church across time and space. Why, therefore, waste an opportunity to suffer well? Why waste an opportunity to love well? Why waste a chance to learn from the Master where He is most concretely found—in the Host and in our neighbor?

We Are Not Alone

When Jesus sent seventy-two of his disciples out to share their stories of living in His story, He sent them out in pairs, like the "buddy system" we experienced as children. It is always good to have a little reinforcement, some extra encouragement, or challenge, when you need it. This describes the "Communion of Saints," the Church in heaven and the Church awaiting heaven, our brothers and sisters throughout the world and throughout the ages. In addition, the angels who eternally attend to the throne of God also show His providential care--especially our guardians who protect and intercede for us.

One concrete way to remember that we are never alone is the fact that Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer in the first person plural: God is our Father, who gives us daily bread, forgives our trespasses as we forgive, leads us not into temptation, and delivers us from evil.

It is important to know that we are not alone because the Evil One is not alone. Satan is the enemy of God’s plan, the enemy of man’s salvation. In league with that enemy are a host of other angels—beings of superior intelligence and freedom, just like the holy angels, but with the difference that they decided to invest that superior intelligence and freedom in a manner contrary to the desire of God. While they cannot best God, they seem to have a way with us human beings.

They do that by capitalizing upon our weak spots, which are our memory and our imagination: the ways we reflect on the past and the future. Remember in Genesis 3 how Satan injected doubt into the minds of the first man and woman, leading them to question whether (in the past) God really said we would die if we ate the forbidden fruit. Satan further polished that fruit to make it look more attractive, leading his customers to wonder how great they’d become (in the future) with all the power, pleasure, wealth, and prestige they could eat. No matter that they would be contravening the will of God in the process, that we would keep turning against one another by using violence and sex as tools for our advantage, meanwhile exponentially increasing our sense of loneliness.

Here’s the Good News: The offspring of the woman—Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary—has crushed the head of the ancient serpent. He has delivered us from the eternal hold that sin, suffering, and death threaten to have over us. Our weaknesses need no longer define us. In the Genesis story, mercy showed itself in the fact that our first parents didn’t die as soon as they ate the fruit. That gave them, as it gives us whenever we sin, the chance to repent, to seek appropriate reconciliation, and to live again.

By God’s grace we can again appreciate what is beautiful, learn what is true, and choose what is good. That kind of activity contributes to the betterment of our world and the splendor of our God. People on the fence of faith can look at us when we’re striving to live that way and say, “This Jesus, this Catholic Church, is worth something. It might even be worth my life.”

Just Sowing Seeds

I have written before on St. Thomas Aquinas' Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua Gloriosi. The second verse is my favorite:

Nobis datus, nobis natus / ex Maria Virgine, / et in mundo conversatus / sparso Verbi semine / sui moras incolatus / miro clausit ordine.

Given to us, born for us from Mary the Virgin, and, sowing the seed of the Word during His earthly sojourn, He removed the hindrances with wonderful order. (my translation)

Jesus did not become flesh simply to go through the drama of the Paschal Mystery, or for that matter, to carry out His entire earthly life and ministry. The Incarnation is God's permanent investment in human nature and in the entirety of all its participants' lives.

By virtue of His ministry and Mystery the Lord definitely intended the formation of His Church as the living Sacrament--the material communication--of His Divine Person. Now we can declare with delight that there are no more "hindrances," for the lives of the righteous who lived before Christ have come into their fulfillment because they have become united to Christ, the Head and Spouse of the Church.

My focus for the current post (and I have one), is the role of Catholic blogging in terms of sowing "the seed of the Word" in the world online and off. Like most people, the better part of my occupation involves interactions with brick-and-mortar human persons. I should say, however, along the lines of the sister of Martha, that conversation with God is the "better part" of my business (cf. Lk 10:42).

An article on "The Point of Catholic Blogging," from the UK's Catholic Herald, inspires my current thoughts. The title calls it a "debate," but I think the article presents it more as a symposium. Harnessing the Internet for the sake of the Gospel is a fearsome enterprise. The Internet is fuel. The combustible engines (programs, applications, websites, and blogs) that employ it are as diverse as the intentions of their operators. And we often forget that we all share the same roadways.

Responsible use of the Internet engages and fosters virtue--specifically, the "cardinal" or human virtues prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. These acquired powers belong in every endeavor, but most especially online, as that's where so many of us so often "converse in the world."

The Herald article features five noteworthy voices in the Catholic virtual domain. I particularly appreciate the offering of the fifth and final contributor, Elizabeth Scalia. She highlights the ministerial aspects of Internet use. Since the Internet affords people an instantly accessible voice, Scalia notes that people now can ask, answer, and expect answers to questions "in real time," meaning now. (I grant that it isn't much different for those who field telephone calls.) To return to the hymnic reflection above, there is no time to delay; or the delay must be "ended with wonderful order." Ms. Scalia calls it "the tidy, almost transactional resolution of spiritual matters." This aspect of Online Life intensifies stress in those who are predisposed to stress. We have to "think on our feet," and that is a good thing. 

Our seminary mentors warned us that when we're hearing people's confessions, nobody is going to ask us what degrees we have, or how we did on our exams. They're just going to ask us questions--questions that they'd ask whether we were the class valedictorian or the one who scraped by. As the joke goes, "What do they call the guy who graduated last in his class in medical school? 'Doctor.'" The passage of time in these past few years has been humbling indeed. It occasionally hits me that the guy who graduated last in our seminary class (whoever he was) may well answer questions more satisfactorily than do I, who graduated closer to the top. All of us are called, and imperfectly strive to live as, "Father."

As a friend reminded me years ago, "we are just sowing seeds." Although we can give a quick answer here and there, the long-haul conversations (on or offline) matter just as much, if not more. It is easy for me to fall into the trap of desiring, indeed expecting, quick results. This applies not only to the gift and mystery of evangelization, but also to friendship; but should not the two converge?

A Light Has Shone

The Church in the United States begins its annual observance of “Catholic Schools Week.” Consider with me how today’s readings offer an oblique tribute to education.

Ignorance and error are often described as a kind of darkness, or a burden that inhibits people’s development. Education therefore provides a joyful release from the oppression of error and the darkness of ignorance, even as Our Lord declared: “The truth shall set you free” (Jn 8:32; veritas vos liberabit is the motto of numerous institutions of higher learning). 

The prophecy of Isaiah easily could be applied to the learning process and its results: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light […]. You have brought them abundant joy […]. For the yoke that burdened them…you have smashed” (9:2-3). Insight sometimes may come to people “in a flash,” but growth in knowledge and wisdom tends to be slow and incremental.

Such was the case for Peter, James, John, and the other Apostles, whom Jesus called into His school. They had to respect and trust the educational process. Like all other students of Truth, they would constantly need to “repent”—that is, to set aside incompatible ideas and practices. As Jesus’ disciples grew in knowledge and love, more would be revealed to them; more would have to be discarded to make room for the Lord’s light and life.

Our Catholic schools are privileged to teach the essentials of every academic discipline. In addition, they endeavor to form disciples of Jesus, devoted participants of the Kingdom of God and human society, people who are willing to set aside sinful habits in favor of virtues. This sort of formation has never been easy because of the wounded situations in families, wayward human inclinations and the enticements all around us. Both public and Catholic schools have to work with the support of their contributing families, who are the first teachers of their children in the ways of humanity and holiness.

I pray that every school does its best in these matters with our kids. But it is a true consolation that Catholic schools incorporate Jesus’ person and mission into their own, not only between the opening and closing prayers of each day, but also “after hours” when the real sacrifices must be made.

I can speak about the sacrifices my parents made toward tuition and expenses; although I helped, they certainly contributed the bulk of it—not to mention the rides to and from activities, and so forth. The teachers sacrificed time and effort and finances; some traveled to Pottsville each day from as far as Lebanon or Temple, and kept long hours in service to us kids. The priests in St. Clair and at Nativity were holy and human men who inspired me in my discernment of the priesthood. We also had a few religious sisters whose devotion was encouraging. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities for Mass and communal prayer, for nourishing friendships that endure to this day.

The sacrifices of every family and school community are movements toward the unity about which St. Paul spoke in the second reading. The Corinthians were given to creating factions based on whose sermons they listened to, whose curriculum they were following. Paul emphasized the centrality of Jesus and the need to stay close to the sacrificial love embodied in His saving passion. While Catholic schools work exceptionally well, especially in conjunction with a devout household and close-knit parish, we praise God for every context by which the new generation walks in Truth and Charity, celebrating Christ’s victory over the darkness of error and ignorance.

This Word is on Fire

I suspect that many people--more, as time goes on--are accessing religious and spiritual content online.

As is the case for all online material (good and evil), one can seek it here in comfort and privacy; here one can listen to it, weigh it, filter it with one's previous understanding and preconceived notions, and dismiss it, lest it disturb and foment personal change.

Of course, one also can learn and grow. That is, at heart, the fundamental desire of the seeker, no matter how much we may resist.

The Catholic Church, as a long-time purveyor of wisdom and truth, is sore indebted to Father Robert E. Barron, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who has a terrific thing going with the Word On Fire enterprise. I first became aware of Fr. Barron through his Catholicism video series a couple of years ago. He has since released a sequel, Catholicism: The New Evangelization. The latter term is what it's all about, according to Bl. John Paul II, with the generous agreement of his successors. The time is ripe for the sowing of the Good News of Jesus Christ, now as ever; but the Church cannot rely on older methods to accomplish this. Because the Internet is the place to be, the Internet is the place to evangelize, particularly on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and dozens of others that pop up when you press the "Share This!" button on an article or photo.

By order of his Ordinary, Cardinal George, Fr. Barron has been devoting his entire priestly ministry to the New Evangelization through "Word On Fire." If you become a regular listener, doubtless you will begin to pick up on some of his favorite words and phrases. That happens with any standing commitment or relationship; and the extent to which you are not deterred by that is the extent of your maturity.

Here is a link to Father Robert Barron's most recent homily, for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Enjoy it, and pass it on (by way of this blog, if you would; it may help me improve).

A Love-Hate Relationship

A tip of the biretta to Arleen Spenceley over at Ignitum Today for her recent article, entitled "People Who Hate Chastity Secretly Love It."

First, a word from the source's mouth: "Ignitum Today provides Catholic perspectives on every topic that matters to young adults--life, religion, relationships, and entertainment."  Originally it styled itself as the "Social Network of the JPII and BXVI Generation"; but what to do, with the election of Pope Francis?  Add to the Alphabet Soup?  Their response:

If you can't read this, you may no longer be a "young adult."

The "New Evangelization Generation."  I like!  Depending on the standard used, the Reverend Blogger may no longer qualify as a young adult, either.  Because my greatest aspiration from an early age was "to be older," it doesn't much matter to me.  But my qualification for the N.E.G. is clear, insofar as I had just turned two when JPII was elected.  He's the pope of my youth and early priesthood.  I got to meet him in January of 2003, six months before my ordination, when several dozen of us spent a fortnight in the Eternal City.  Two years later, as a young priest and high school chaplain, I prepared to "meet" Papa Bene alongside a million or so young people who would gather in Cologne for World Youth Day.  Pope Benedict's age was no impediment to our affections, as his predecessor gracefully permitted us to accompany him through his physical decline, all the way to the Father's House.  Benedict has not exactly deprived us of that chance, but we must accompany him from afar, respectful of the low profile that he is keeping for the sake of his successor and for the good governance of the Church.

The N.E.G. moniker is most appropriate because JPII and his successors have alerted the Church to a "springtime of evangelization," already underway around the globe.  Many young people are getting excited about Catholic doctrine and liturgy.  They are eagerly pursuing God's pursuit of them in daily prayer, and channeling their altruism into ardent sacrifice.

And they are being challenged by the Church's moral teaching...but are more up to the challenge than many people think.  Ms. Spenceley's article aptly demonstrates as much.

She quotes Karol Wojtyla (JPII)'s epic tome Love and Responsibility, where resistance to chastity is located in, of all things, resentment.  Chastity is resisted because it is hated, and it is hated because it is hard.  As for resentment, the future pope traces it to "an erroneous and distorted sense of values...a lack of objectivity in judgment and evaluation," ultimately because of "weakness of the will."

"It's too difficult [weakness of will].  I can't do this [sloth].  This sucks [resentment]."  Sound familiar?

The component called "sloth" is sadness at the difficulty of attaining the good.  Even amid the resentment, there is a modicum of reverence for the value that one appears to be rejecting.  The goodness of those who genuinely strive to live a chaste life; the truth of the value of a chaste life and the incontrovertible evidence of the chaste; the fascinating beauty of the chaste: these can be torture for the willfully unchaste to behold, for it seems to them that they can worship only from afar.

Appropriately, then, did I encounter this post on Divine Mercy Sunday.  What better time than the Present to hear the full truth about human sexuality!  Though at first it be a cross, yet it leads to resurrection.  "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13).

Be assured: sexual integrity is not easy for anyone, regardless of his or her state in life.  The rejection of chastity, indeed the pursuit of its opposite (dis-integration!), underlies much of the sadness, anger, and fear in this world.  The fallout of unchastity is all around us, all within us.  But the seeds of new life are sown in the Paschal Mystery that we are now (and always) celebrating.  The same mystery is renewed in each day's perseverance in chastity, and in every repentance from unchastity.

To be part of the "New Evangelization Generation" one doesn't have to be young; one has only to think and pray young.  And, perhaps, to speak young, by joyfully witnessing to the reality and relevance of the Faith through good old-fashioned conversation and good newfangled social media.  Every age has contended with chastity, and I believe that this generation will strive to witness to purer, deeper, truer love.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, so that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy Will, which is love and mercy itself.  (Our Lord to St. Faustina, Diary, 950)