The video below makes the point that “What’s important doesn’t change.” Not a bad reminder for us in modern times who have, to some extent, been bewitched by our technological advances. The fact that we have been to the moon and back does not mean that the moon, or the earth, or even we are different. Our knowledge may deepen our understanding of what is, but it does not change what is. There is a reality that we are discovering; we are not creating it. Today we have many new ways to communicate, but if anything, miscommunication is more common rather than less.
Our technology does not make us substantially different from our ancestors, nor does it fundamentally change the world, even if we do rearrange some of its elements.
Yet, sadly, many today think we can and have fundamentally altered what is, and that we are somehow different from and better than our ancestors. Thus the moral “rules” that they required no longer need apply to us, who are more “enlightened” and “mature” by comparison. This is pride; this is what it means to be “bewitched” by our technology. We may know more about particle physics, but that does not mean that we can say why there are particles at all, or how God instilled the order and laws that we call “physics” in all things.
God has made all things and ordered them rightly. And as for us, male and female He made us. Some people talk of bending “gender” and of being “trans-” this or that. No can do! Male and female He made us, as we are. What’s important doesn’t change. Human nature from God is important; it has not changed no matter what our distorted philosophies may conjure up.
And now to bring this discussion more to the level of the commercial in the video below: despite our computers and advanced science, a man still cannot fully understand a woman, nor a woman a man. We cannot even understand ourselves! As Scripture says, More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the LORD, explore the mind and test the heart, giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds (Jer 17:9-10).
What’s important doesn’t change. Technology may change; surroundings may change; errors may come and go. But the basics do not change, for they come from the Word of God, which does not change.
Enjoy the video!
thank you Fr. Pope. Perhaps we should say the same about the liturgy. Some are calling for a return to ad orientem in the Novus Ordo when liturgical east is already at the altar and tabernacle where God Is already present. This is happening in light of the fact that many will not even bow during the Creed and will not bow their heads at the names of Jesus and Mary. In chasing the fad of the unreformed way, they have moved past what is truly important – building faith and respect for the Holy Trinity, already present with Jesus in the tabernacle and respect for His Incarnation in Mary. So, then turning east was left behind as not being as important as God Himself, Who has already come into the world in Christ in the source and summit of our faith, the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Yet, some in their uncontrolled exuberance, not for what is in the heart, but for what appears on the surface, are calling for a return to what is not important…more external movements which do not teach right faith in God and right respect for the Holy Trinity and the Holy Family, and which will achieve no better success than profound bows during the Creed and bows at the Holy Names.
Good point about showing respect to the Trinity and to the Holy Mother of God, However, we never bowed, before or after VII, at the mention of the Blessed Mother’s name, only when the holy name of Jesus is mentioned. If you want to foster a deeper respect during the Creed at “the Word was Made Flesh and Dwelt Among Us,” why not kneel, as it is done in the Extraordinary Rite. This is more profound than bowing. The priest faces ad orientem because he is praying with the people to the new Dawn, the Son of God. It is also symbolic of the Wise Men being led by the star from the East to the stable at Bethlehem. So symbolism is important because Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, as we pray so do we believe.
Actually, the ancient tradition of praying toward the east was started by the Jews who prayed eastward because that is where Jerusalem and the Temple (Tabernacle) was. In like fashion, in that the Jews oriented themselves to God Present in the Temple, we should orient ourselves to God Present in the Tabernacle of every parish church. If we are not orienting toward the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, then we are deceived.
Ad orientem, when it does not acknowledge God’s Actual Presence, is an admission of no faith in the Real Presence. Likewise, if the Jews had oriented themselves toward Mount Sinai because of sentimental tradition that God once appeared in the burning bush, they would be forgetting God where He Actually was…in the Temple or the Tabernacle.
And Christ ascended upward into a cloud, and He will return that way, and the Angels chastised the Apostles for seeking Him up there. Let’s seek Him where He really Is.
If we face the Tabernacle, shouldn’t the priest do the same?
The priest is “in persona Christi capitis”. So, he projects Christ (the Head of the Body) to us, and in this manner, it is as if he is in the Tabernacle with Christ.
Msgr. Pope,
Daily you provide a clear window into the meaning of the gospel as well as focus our minds on truth. Truth does not change nor does God’s word. Our “advanced” world shouts loudly with technology but Christ whispers “this is the Way, follow Me”.
God bless you always … peace!
Helen
I was at an ordination service for a priest of the Norbertine religious order in Los Angeles and every time the Blessed Mother’s name was mentioned all of them would take their hand and lift the hat on their heads up, then put them back.
I avidly watched the PBS series “1900 House” “Frontier House” and “Colonial House.” In each series, several families lived and worked as if they were in those time periods. Those series not only completely dispelled any romantic notions I may have had of living in “simpler times,” they gave me a profound appreciation of the many things I take for granted. Despite their modern knowledge, those families struggled to make do with their surroundings.
Although advancement in knowledge and technology have provided us with many benefits (how would I learn from Msgr Pope’s wisdom were it not for this blog!) I think we’ve forgotten from whom our gifts really come. Except for the poor among us, we don’t have to work all that hard for what we have and we don’t have to wait for what we want. In fact, what we have isn’t a gift at all, but an entitlement. Why give thanks for what one thinks is one’s due?
“Some people talk of bending “gender” and of being “trans-” this or that. No can do! Male and female He made us, as we are.”–Amen! This idea arise out of the influence of Buddhism and the New Age movement on the West, especially from the idea of reincarnation. If the soul changes bodies and sexual identity and even species through past and future lives, then the attempt to change bodies, so to speak, in this life becomes understandable. It misunderstands the profound unity that arises from the soul being the form of the living body.–at times with tragic consequences.
Both surprisingly, and yet, not surprisingly, St. Thomas Aquinas even wrote about reincarnation: “I answer that, On this point the philosophers erred and certain modern heretics err. For some of the philosophers allowed that souls separated from bodies are reunited to bodies, yet they erred in this in two ways. First, as to the mode of reunion, for some held the separated soul to be naturally reunited to a body by the way of generation. Secondly, as to the body to which it was reunited, for they held that this second union was not with the selfsame body that was laid aside in death, but with another, sometimes of the same, sometimes of a different species. Of a different species when the soul while existing in the body had led a life contrary to the ordering of reason: wherefore it passed after death from the body of a man into the body of some other animal to whose manner of living it had conformed in this life, for instance into the body of a dog on account of lust, into the body of a lion on account of robbery and violence, and so forth–and into a body of the same species when the soul has led a good life in the body, and having after death experienced some happiness, after some centuries began to wish to return to the body; and thus it was reunited to a human body.
This opinion arises from two false sources. The first of these is that they said that the soul is not united to the body essentially as form to matter, but only accidentally, as mover to the thing moved, [Cf. I, 76, 1] or as a man to his clothes. Hence it was possible for them to maintain that the soul pre-existed before being infused into the body begotten of natural generation, as also that it is united to various bodies. The second is that they held intellect not to differ from sense except accidentally, so that man would be said to surpass other animals in intelligence, because the sensitive power is more acute in him on account of the excellence of his bodily complexion; and hence it was possible for them to assert that man’s soul passes into the soul of a brute animal, especially when the human soul has been habituated to brutish actions. But these two sources are refuted by the Philosopher (De Anima ii, 1), and in consequence of these being refuted, it is clear that the above opinion is false.”
Summa Theologica > Supplement > Question 79 > Article.
I can only agree with some of the comments above. The Church since V2 HAS changed things that matter like the liturgy and disciplines. This has only fueled the chaos around us yet we have a large percentage of the Church wanting to double down on the madness and change moral doctrine.
What if chaos were only due to disobedience and dissension of the few who do not accept Vatican II and its fruits?
We are enslaved, blinded by our own devices. We, as a people have lost much more then we gained through our addiction to cells, tablets, Android, and laptops. We no longer converse easily face to face. We text. Prolonged texting leads to a blunting of emotions, as everything becomes reduced to sterile pixels.
Parents, when confronted with their children’s declining grades and lack of interest in the world around them or their families have lost the sense to take these things away from their children and instead expose them to the vibrant life of nature and simply enjoying reality.
i posted on the reality of the price sodomy incurs in the human body. Several people were horrified and upset because they said they had not realised or understood any of this. One adult man, in his 40’s told me he cried. It horrified me to fully realise that many who support sodomy, have no clue just what they are supporting!
What has happened is that our native curiosity, our need to understand has been blunted. May God have mercy on our souls.