Category Archives: Essays

Choosing a Model

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    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

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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.”

Psalm 139

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In Psalm 139, we read; “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

For the next few months I would like to take a closer look at the form and content, as well as the syntax and language used in scripture. For me, the most important aspect of this examination is determining the original meaning and intention of the author. We know scripture is the Word of God, written in the inspiration of the moment by the hand of man. We know no work of man can be done perfectly, however, this is not a serious consideration when bringing the content out of the context, and I will not use this idea of perfection as an excuse when drawing conclusions. We are believers or we wouldn’t be spending our time in dialog on these pages loving and learning. I will return to these lead in thoughts from time to time. I am a “new age” kind of guy who believes the past is the path to the future. There is much to be learned from a traditional mind set, two thousand years of accumulated knowledge has produced a storehouse of wisdom. There is also much to be understood by complementing Holy Scripture with modern language and today’s academic disciplines. It is our intention as twenty-first century Christians to understand the original timeless message of Scripture written to first-century believers.

Jesus said in His genius that right worship is both vertical and horizontal; our praise to God coupled to our love for our neighbor. There is only one way to heaven and that is through our Lord and Savior. By defining right worship for us, He gave us permission to journey on our path learning how to open our hearts to receive His gifts. I believe this is the purpose of Scripture, and the mystery as well, to receive Him in ways we can understand and expanding our love for Him beyond our imagination.

So when reading Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Here we see the beautiful combination of the psychological and spiritual nature of Scripture, as it is presented to us time and time again. We petition God to search us and know us, realizing full well that God knows us better than we know ourselves, having created us, knitted us in the womb, and knowing our true needs before we ask Him. Yet we petition Him nonetheless, because laying ourselves before God in our humanity is humbling ourselves in the majesty of His goodness which is the right vertical worship He described. God does not test us; the world tests us. My anxious thoughts are a reaction to the world. “Put me to the test,” is not a request made to God or a reaction to anything He has done, it is a statement of supplication and surrender to His will. We live in a cause-and-effect world, filled with the rules of physics, as well as random causal energy. Of course we have anxious thoughts given the uncertainty of the world. “Put me to the test,” is an acknowledgment that the Lord created the world and allows the world to be created. Just as He allows us to create through our free will. He has given us the power to make bad choices. So, “see if there is any hurtful way in me,” is an appeal to our egotistical human condition; letting ourselves off the hook so to speak. Sort of hoping against hope that we are not as bad as we think we are. Of course, we are broken. If we didn’t realize our brokenness we wouldn’t be making this appeal in the first place. The prayer is for cleansing, so our thoughts are not obstacles. What we want is to live as we were created, predestined to follow His eternal way, not our temporal confusion.    

Now and Forever

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Our Mass reading from Monday, March 1st demonstrates how Christ Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Daniel 9:4b-10 begins, “Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments.” As the passage continues, it describes how the children of Israel had failed to love and observe God’s commandments. The failure includes the kings and princes as well as the fathers in antiquity. The passage appears somewhat disconnected because the missing component is the Word made flesh. We notice that the Lord is merciful, he is compassion and forgiveness, yet the people rebel and won’t listen. They won’t listen to laws given to them through the prophets. Daniel knows and praises God for his greatness, and the people know the same for they are “shamefaced” now as they were in the past. The remedy for all this brokenness and the consequences is Christ Jesus. He changes everything. It becomes, Lord, great and awesome God, You, who keep Your merciful covenant toward all of Your creation, all Your children great and small. Never to be shamefaced again, for the burden of your guilt will never outweigh the goodness of your creation, as a child of God, who you are. Listen now to the Word of the Lord, once and for all; for the Lord, your God speaks now and forever for all the prophets who have come before. I, your God, give you now and forever, a better covenant. A way forward, a way of right worship, sharing with each other your portion of your divine nature. I give you the Seven Sacred Sacraments. Love through these Sacraments, live, and learn through these Sacraments the peace I give you, the peace I leave you. Now and forever, through all generations, honor these Sacraments and you shall walk with Me in heaven as I have walked with you on earth.  

In Luke’s gospel, 6:36-38 he answers Daniel. Luke recounts Jesus speaking to His disciples.  It’s not karma, it’s spiritual physics. It appears to be an appeal to cause and effect, do this to get that, however, it is much more. Jesus uses judging, giving, and forgiving as examples. He is telling the people how their relationships should be. He is telling them to give an outpouring of their gifts to each other. He is telling them to love their neighbor as they love themselves. The message is, by your actions you are giving the material world permission to act as you have acted. He is telling them to behave through their brokenness, letting their divine nature shine through, because they are created creatures made in the image and likeness of the Lord. He says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”