I found the entrance antiphon of Sunday, 3 July 2022 to be particularly inspiring. So much to be unpacked in each phrase. Consider the opening line; “Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple”. Of all the names we have for our Triune God, merciful love is one of the most beautiful. This opening line could have read, Your merciful love is, O God. For God Himself is love and love shone through the prism of light reflects all the names and all the virtues we know and love about our God.
This opening line is a clear, practical and grateful appeal to our God to shower His goodness on us, as we receive in the midst of His holy place. It is our disposition which governs this compensation, for His grace is given in full measure and in this sustaining grace we receive as much as we are capable. It is our open hearts and empty hands which allow us to be filled with His gifts. Again, we are told, “Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends of the earth.” It is your righteousness and our right worship which has no bounds and no limits, for the ends of the earths encompasses all that is in our world and reflects all which is in Your heavenly realm.
Finally, we are told; “Your right hand is filled with saving justice.” The metaphor of the “right hand” shows the mighty power and prestige of what is working in our lives through His saving justice. We can see plainly that there must be justice and His judgment is justice. This is a spiritual physics anchored in the intelligibility, reason and logic of His genius. Unlike karma which we consider to be the cause and effect in our life in a world of contingences; His justice is His creation endowed with love and mercy on the path to salvation. Lord, thank you for Your purpose and the power to bring us into Your loving arms.
Author Archives: A. J. Reichel
Choosing a Model
Much has been said about the eighteen century “Age of Enlightenment” as a world phenomenon as well as it’s impact on American history. Let’s (for the moment) accept this historical movement in it’s entirety as a credible passage into a new era of understanding, including the hidden gems and also the down side of it’s assumptions, dead ends and shallow rhetoric. At the same time, let’s give ourselves credit for being in another era of enlightenment one of equally serious world beginnings and consequences.
Let us be cautious that we are not misled by our assumptions or the claims of pop culture. Let us have the wisdom to look through a lens of enlightenment, through what seems to be obvious into the truly obvious. A disturbing feature of today’s society and perhaps a long-standing feature of any era is our vulnerability to be misled by those who exercise power and control for the sake of pride and prejudice. These powerful people can be identified when they are engaged in their well ordered and effective effort to build empires and spread their influence. A tried-and-true method of claiming essence without substance paves the way to what they declare is common knowledge in an attempt to replace common logic. Their mass media rhetoric is designed to replace historical events and to use metaphors to replace an investigation of a case-by-case inquiry. These titans would have us believe that ambiguities lead to imagination, basic research or breakthrough innovations; they do not. They do demonstrate deceptive intentions and foster confusion, frustration and apathy. These titans believe once the focus is centered on the clash of conflict the serious consideration of the issues will be ignored.
As an answer to these titans of empire, we turn to wise commentary which tells us there is no political solutions to spiritual problems. As believers we will engage in a critical examination of what we are being told and shown by our pop culture versus what we know to be true in our hearts. This is not an exercise of spiritual superiority, a train we never want to get on. This is not a drill in relativism because the truth is not predicated on circumstances. This is a trajectory of orthodoxy, the moving under the action of a given force, that force being the Holy Spirit. Using this lens of enlightenment is in actuality praying for guidance, never assuming we are doing God’s work, only God can do God’s work. We are, however, praying that our actions are done with love and humility, appealing to everyone’s highest ideals and best intentions and we have considered all the attributes of the divine virtues. For us laity this is a monumental task, a venture which needs a model to follow. I am suggesting this model is the Catholic Church, the body and bride of our Lord. I am suggesting the metaphor for this Church is a finely cut diamond, seen through any of it’s facets depicts it’s fullness, brilliance, life and truth of itself. This allows each of us to view the Lord in ways we can understand. Through the facet of the magisterium, or the Bible itself, the homilies of our pastors and priests, the podcasts of our scholars, the ministries and charities, or the adoration and the prayers of our more contemplative moments and a host of other inspirational, devotional and sensational considerations we come to a deeper and richer understanding of ourselves and our Church.
Of all these possible facets it is Vatican II which is inviting us into a age of innovation established upon the traditions of orthodoxy: which makes the path from the past, the path into the future. The innovation is built upon this past trajectory. For example, a society is always operating at the top of the technological curve. What is currently being developed may, and in many cases does see beyond the immediate horizon. It is not farfetched to theorize what advancements could be coming, however, the next step is still bound by the workings of current technologies. This illustrates the accumulated culminations of technologies passing through the “lens of enlightenment” and into tomorrow’s future. This applies as well to Vatican II. The innovations are not tomorrow’s unrealized expectations, they are the well ordered and logical next step in the development of the Church.
With Science
To paraphrase Bishop Barron, we know the language of the ancient world was Greek. It was the language of commerce, philosophy, theology, mathematics and the natural sciences. Today English is that language, the language of commerce, science and technology. Bishop Barron offers us this; the simplest translation of logos would be tongue, logic and pattern. However, no one in the ancient world would have missed the idea of logos being the word of God. No one would have missed the idea of logos being the principle of divine reason and creative order. Realizing the Bible was not written to us as the audience, it is written to us as believers. So, what have we come to believe? We believe what Bishop Barron has illustrated so thoughtfully for us, that there is an intelligibility of all things and in all things. The Greeks knew this, even if they mislabeled the source, they understood the divine nature of all things which produced the natural conditions in all things. Even in ancient times our tradition took this idea a step further as the Catholic Creed states, He created all things, the visible and the invisible. Therefore, all things have their foundation in the created goodness of love itself. Today, we have allowed ourselves to separate the definition and description from the experience. By not asking “why”, we rely on the so-called definitive answers of “what” and “how.” This obviously releases us from the infiniteness of “this and that and this also”, all the while ignoring the ancient’s understanding that having the book does not negate the author.
We also believe in the objective experience of human life. Because creative intelligibility is built into the very fabric of all that is, even in our human condition we can see this intelligibility in all things. A beautiful sunrise over an ocean of wind, sea and mist is not subject to our frames’ of references; it is beautiful in itself, it is a standalone phenomenon, recognizable to all witnesses, not resting in their interpretation; it is alive and living in the moment as we are being created in this same moment. As we shall see next, this sunrise is as beautiful as all the God given virtues. Moreover, as with all of God’s gifts, they are more than the mystery of knowing.
Just for a moment, just for an exercise of exploration, let us unite the visible and the invisible. Let’s not separate ourselves from the author, let us become imitators of Christ, doing what we were shown to do, whether we understand or not. Let us consider all that is known, all that is witnessed, all that is rationally perceived, passes through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our conscience. The modality of our tradition allows us to understand this phenomenon as passing through our soul, or as part of the natural God given law, or as an experience beyond our unique life histories. It is a unique life experience subject to His divine nature as it is made manifest in our human condition. We are His children and like children we are maturing, yet this does not prevent us from experiencing the excitement and splendor of the moment. It is our conscience which filters all that is, first and foremost. This filter reflects essence, all that is, our ethics, morality, integrity, all the untouchables which have no atomic weight, yet are as real and intelligible as all of creation. Albert Einstein was looking for the “law of unification” an equation which could unite all of the natural phenomenon at any level, in any world of physics, chemistry or biology. I suggest this equation is, God is greater than the sum of infinity, the equation is God himself. It is not a coincidence that conscience literally means, “with science.”
Romans 5:6-8
Romans 5:6-8: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
For me, this is one of the most penetrating, profound, illuminating, and encouraging Word ever written. While we were “helpless” in our sin, our confusion, bewilderment, lost in our own design and the design of others, Christ Jesus died for us. He didn’t ask us what we wanted or what we did or why or where or how we did what we did. He didn’t judge us worthy or unworthy, improved and gaining or spiraling down. Let us pray, we never put the worldly psychological attributes of our personalities ahead of His spiritual gifts, His grace, and His mercy. Of course, we all want to be more holy, made worthy and found pleasing in His sight. We all know the score, where we’re at and what we should do, but so what!! How about we encourage each other to put more emphasis on our good works instead of our good looks. How about we actively contribute to caring for the necessities of others before the niceties for ourselves. These are times on the verge of desperation, let’s get ready and stay ready.