Tag Archives: Catholic Faith

The Baltimore Catechism

Posted on by

The published catechism of the Catholic Church can easily be traced to the Council of Trent. This English version from the reformation era has been subsequently reprinted many many times through the work of councils, synods and popes. Although the language has changed over the years to appeal to the audience, the message and content has remained the same. Finding the roots of the Catholic Church from the time when Abram became Abraham, we can see the constant conversion of humanity’s world view growing from the fragmentation of a world dominated by many gods to this post-modern era. How different this world view is today from ancient times is a debate for another day. The Church knows the faithful of todays’ societies are certainly grateful for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is this gift which has led the laity and the Church in today’s continuing conversion.

The Baltimore Catechism of 1885 is certainly a product of the continuing conversion, a deepening of the faith and an ever-broadening scope of understanding in the cherished pages of the Catechism. Like Holy Scripture, the Catechism can be taken at face value. And like Holy Scripture, on each reading a deeper and more richly textured picture of love, meaning and understanding emerges. It is within this frame of reference that I offer you this continuing conversion.

The Catechism opens with “Lesson First” in which the questions and answers concerning God, who He is,  and how He relates to the world and the humanity He created are presented. And again, if we are to receive, accept and obey the Catechism on face value, it must be based on the objective dogma and doctrines of the Church as given in those pages. Broadly speaking exegesis is the process of drawing out the objective explanation from the text without the subjective bias of the reader. In the same manner, eisegesis would be bringing the readers bias into the text. Both of these situations, this author is painstakingly trying to avoid. It is my intention to show there are dual, reciprocal and complimentary interpretations. When the Catechism asks, “Why did God make you?”; the definitive answer is, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.” From the created ones’ point of view, this certainly fulfills the purpose and function for each of us. I offer you this: God made us because He loves us.    

Today’s Paradox

Posted on by

Today’s paradox is an examination of receiving what we already have. Take for instance, God’s love for us. We know He has given us a full measure of His love. We know as His children He could not love us any less or any more than He already loves us. Yet, there are those overwhelming moments of gratitude and thankfulness, when His presence, His providence and His love come streaming into our lives, surrounding us and our circumstances with His radiance. Perhaps, for some of us, this can be understood as an awakening. When in our worldly realm, we recognize and encounter what we know we have held in our hearts; what He has already given us.

  There is another aspect of receiving which is not paradoxical; it is an addition, a gift from Grace. Not a deepening of faith and understanding of His glory, something new, something which strengthens our reflection of His image and likeness in our creation. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  

  I have long struggled with the biblical reconciliation of what appears to be the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Realizing that God has never changed, could not change; how is it that the God of the Old Testament seems to be caught up in a world of cause and effect, stuck in an endless world of narrative discourse and dialog, entangled in fear and punishment? I explained this to myself, using the rationalization that I could not really understand the mindset, the mentality of the first century Zionist. I am not from an era of tribal  identity. I have never lived in a community of extended family. I do not know famine or the fear of famine, never witnessed war in my homeland, never watched my wife draw water from the well or trimmed my lamp at twilight. This leads me to the simple observation that the Bible was not written to us we are not the audience. The Bible was written for us; it is up to us to read, study and understand what is being taught to us through Holy Scripture.

  What also seems to be a reasonable observation, is how crucial to the process is the lens one looks through when considering Holy Scripture. Am I an anthropologist studying human behavior, looking for clues to why the civil constructs were formed the way they were, how the buildings reflected the ideas of the time, discovering how the priorities of the society shaped its goals? Am I a historian, tracing the dates and events, finding the key components which led up to the events and then evaluating the results? Am I a person of faith, looking up to the cross as our Lord looked down on us? Is it through His words that I search all the possibilities, looking for what is beyond my thinking, freeing myself from my frames of reference, striking out in a new direction into unexplored arenas and beyond the near horizon? And now I realize what all these options have in common; they are all about me, and in this lies the fatal flaw. None of it is about me and where I am in it. It is all about Him and the gift He brings, the Holy Spirit.

  Christ Jesus came into this world and  changed everything. As a Catholic, I realize through transubstantiation, substance is changed to essence. Beyond this sacramental process, every bit of the material world is affected by His coming which brought about a deeper reflection of God’s creation.  His baptism served as a model for all of humanity and His divinity changed the Jordan River into holy water. His ministry ushered in a new era of understanding, social justice, beauty and kindness which had never been witnessed in this worldly realm. His miracles showed the world the true glory of the Father Almighty, a glimpse of what lies beyond the unimaginable. His life fulfilled the prophecy of old and foretold of a coming age, a victory of peace and love. Christ Jesus is the bridge between death to life; all His promises are true, He will stand between us and the Father, not as our judge, as our Savior. He is the bread of life. We can share the body, blood, soul and divinity, in all times, in all places throughout the world,  and for all times. Through this sacrament, the Eucharist, Christ gifts us a portion of His union with the Father. Yet through all this majesty, the blessings, and the gifts, nothing is greater than the gift of the Holy Spirit. My peace I leave you, My peace I give you. His love written in our hearts, His presence forever with us, in every instance of every second.

   In His presence the Apostles received the Holy Spirit. He breathed on them, into them and through them, into a waiting world. A world suspended in the lifelessness of empty time. A world steeped in the identity of self. A world conceived in and of a man and woman, humanity without divinity. Christ Jesus changes all of this. It is this missing component, the Holy Spirit, in their lives and in my thinking, which is the obstacle. The Bible, written to an audience who could not understand God without His presence in their lives. It isn’t God who differs from one age to the next, it is His people, now fully alive, endowed with the Presence of their Maker, who are now ready to embrace His goodness. To see Him as He is, not as they made Him out to be. I see now that I was asking the first century Christians to witness and testify to what they had not seen or known. I see now that I was expecting the impossible. They like us, have to be shown the way; no one gets there on their own. Those who have eyes to see, should see and those who have ears to hear should hear.

Pilgrimage

Posted on by

                                                           

A pilgrimage by its very design is a quest. The question is, what do we seek? Are we looking for what has been forgotten or perhaps something lost? Is it a moment of spiritual epiphany or a glimmer of psychological clarity? Have we reached the point when we finally realize, what we are looking for, is not what we thought we wanted? Have we discovered the greatest paradox of all; we will never find what we earnestly want? What a comforting realization. How much easier has life just become. If you know me, you know I am looking for the next better question, not the best answer. The best answer never changes, it’s always the same, stop trying and start being.

If this all sounds like some mumbo jumbo; then consider this: you can’t find a gift, you can only receive one. In this world you may expect one, and rightfully so; it’s the Christmas season, or Valentine’s Day, or that long awaited graduation. This is similar in the sense that perhaps you have prepared for the gifting event, or maybe a life event has thrust you into circumstances which make you receptive to the gift you are about to receive. Perhaps it is an unexpected prayer answered or a long-awaited prayer fulfilled. The point being a journey has a destination; a genuine gift is beyond expectation.

Models in Action

Posted on by

                                                           

Jesus said: (Taken from: Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1488) My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love. You should not become discouraged but strive to make My love reign in place of your self-love. Have confidence, My child. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you. As often as you beg for it, you glorify My mercy.

First we notice that Jesus always gives His blessing, before any healing, any teaching or guidance there are His blessings through His love; simple, direct, without division or confusion, he simply says, “my child.” If we couldn’t wrap our minds around anything else, there would always be His authority and His sovereignty in our lives, made manifest through His love for us, His children. Glory and praise to You, our Lord, Christ Jesus. He is God, his name is Lord.

Why do I return to the models again and again? Because His words point to His spiritual truth. Whereas, our minds make observations and draw conclusions. His attention is focused on what is spiritual; while our minds contend with what is psychological. In His Oneness, everything is singular. In our brokenness everything is dualistic or plural. Christ Jesus tells us the greatest obstacles to holiness; holiness being His focus, are two aspects of our psychological brokenness, one being discouragement and the other anxiety. Through our examination we realize what hinders our holiness are not spiritual considerations rather psychological ones. In His holiness, His Oneness, He effortlessly makes the connection between what is spiritual and what is psychological which points to the correct examination for us. If we are listening, we hear Him tell us; these things of the mind, the discouragement and anxiety keep us from the application of His spiritual concern, virtue. Now notice, in His genius, that virtue spans both models, the spiritual and the psychological. Because of our experiences in this world of people and ideas we are forced to contend with ourselves before entering His domain of holiness. Since the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves, he shows us how these models work without calling attention to them.

Notice how He returns to the examination again and again. Next, He tells us all temptations, even all temptations of the world ought not disturb our interior peace. In this example, the internal peace, is His presence. Again, we see the psychological depicted as any and all temptations and His spiritual presence as peace; these models show the singularity of His domain and the duplicity of ours.

The Lord continues the inquiry for us by demonstrating how interchangeable our fragmented parts and pieces are, by introducing, sensitiveness. Here, He shows us how we decide what to consider. In our ego driven world, we take the lead, we pick and choose the obstacles, we decide what’s bothering us whether it be actual events or displaced energies is not important, only that we are deciding, holds any weight for us.

The next step in His carefully structured analysis, is to turn our attention to the root cause of our dilemma. He calls this, “self-love”; what we might commonly refer to as our pride. Call this feature what you will, the impact is to show us what happens when we put ourselves before Him, our Lord. We reinforce our brokenness, fortify our vanity and ignore the obvious. John the Baptist knew this well when he proclaimed, “I must decrease, and He must increase.” This process is not so simple. On closer examination, we see two words used which points to the spiritual and psychological model. Christ Jesus tells us, we “ought” to not let the world disturb His presence in us. “Ought,” is meant to focus our attention on Him in His perfection. “Ought,” expresses a condition of being perfect in a world of imperfection. Again, in His genius, He separates what is from what cannot be. Knowing full well we will never live in a world of what “ought” to be, He encourages us to “strive” to replace our human condition with what He has given us as our human nature. This nature is the likeness and image of Him, as He created in us and for us. The message is clear, this nature is unattainable but approachable; a reflection of God Himself being unattainable yet approachable. 

The final element in my prayerful discernment of this timely discourse to us is the intensity of mind and spirit with which it demands. Christ Jesus tells us His pardon, His forgiveness, His love and His mercy is always available to us, as long as, we beg for it…..for the time for praying has ended, the time for begging has begun.