Community in Mission

In more dioceses than not, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated this weekend. The liturgist in me regrets the move, but here we are any way. So let’s ascend with the Lord, three days late!

This marvelous feast is not merely about something that took place two thousand years ago. For though Christ our head has ascended, we the members of his body are ascending with him. Since he was ascended, we too have ascended. In my own life as a Christian, I am brought higher every year by the Lord, who is drawing me up with Him. This is not some mere slogan, but something I am actually experiencing. An old song says, I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained with sin, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea, heard my despairing cry. And from the waters lifted me. Now safe am I. Love Lifted me, When nothing else could help. Love lifted me!

Yes, the feast of the Lord’s Ascension is our feast too, if we are faithful. Let’s look at it from three perspectives.

I. The Fact of the Ascension. – The readings today describe a wondrous event that the Apostles witnessed. The Lord, by his own power, is taken to heaven. In so doing He opens a path for us, too. The gates of paradise swing open again: Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in! (Psalm 24:7). In Christ, man returns to God. Consider three things about the Ascension:

A. The Reality – Imagine the glory of this moment. Scripture says, As they were looking on, he was lifted up and cloud took him from their sight … they were looking intently in the sky as he was going (Acts 1:9). So impressive was the sight that the angels had to beckon them to get along to Jerusalem as the Lord had said, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Yes, it was glorious. Jesus had once said as a summons to faith, What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? (John 6:62). He had also encouraged them saying, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51). So here is a glorious reality and a fulfillment of what Jesus had said.

B. The Rescue – In the Ascension, it does not seem that the Lord entered Heaven alone. As we have remarked, in His mystical body we also ascend with Him. But consider too this remarkable text that affirms that: Therefore it is said, When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things (Eph 4:8ff). Yes, the Lord had earlier, just after his death, descended to Sheol and awakened the dead and preached the gospel to them (cf 1 Peter 4:6). And now for those He had justified came the moment to ascend, with Jesus as a “host,” as an army of former captives now set free. Behold the great procession that enters behind Christ through the now opened gates of Heaven: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Judith, Deborah, David, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, John the Baptist, … and one day, you! Yes this is a great rescue. Adam and his descendants have not simply been restored to some paradisiacal garden; they have entered Heaven.

C. The Rejoicing – Consider how this once captive train sings exultantly as they follow Christ upward to Heaven. The liturgy today puts before us a likely song they sang: God mounts his throne to shouts of Joy! The Lord amid trumpet blasts. All you peoples clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, for the Lord the most high, the awesome is the great king over all the earth. God reigns over the nations, God sits upon his holy throne (Psalm 47:6-7). I also have it on the best of authority that they were singing an old gospel song: I’m so glad Jesus lifted me! Yes I also have it on the best of authority that they were even singing an old Motown song: Your love is lifting me higher than I’ve ever been lifted before!

Yes, here are some glorious facets of the Ascension.

II. The Fellowship of the Ascension – We have already remarked that, when Christ ascends, we ascend. Why and how? Scripture says, Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Cor 12:27). It also says, All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. By baptism we were buried together with him so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father, we too might live a new and glorious life. For if we have been united with him by likeness to his death we shall be united with him by likeness to his resurrection (Rom 6:3ff). So when Christ died, we died. When Christ rose, we rose. When He ascends, we ascend.

But, you may say, He is in glory while I am still here. How is it that I am ascended or ascending? Consider a humorous example using our physical bodies. When I get on an elevator and punch the button for the top floor, the top of my head gets there before the soles of my feet. But the whole body will get there unless some strange loss of integrity or tragic dismemberment takes place. In an analogous way, so it is with Jesus’ mystical body. In Christ, our Head, we are already in glory. Some members of His Body have already gotten there. We who come later will get there too, provided we remain members of His Body. Yes we are already ascended in Christ, our Head. We are already enthroned in glory with Him, if we hold fast and stay a member of his Body. This is the fellowship of the Ascension.

III. The Fruitfulness of the Ascension – Jesus does not return to Heaven to abandon us. He is more present to us than we are to ourselves. He is with us always to the end of the age (cf Matt 28:20). But in ascending, without abandoning us, He goes to procure some very important things. Consider four of them:

A. Holy Ghost power – Jesus teaches very clearly that He is ascending in order to send us the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you (Jn 16:7ff). He also says, These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (Jn 14:25ff). And yet again, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (Jn 16:13-14). So the Lord goes in order that He might, with the Father, send the Holy Spirit to live within us as in a temple. In this way, and through the Eucharist, He will dwell with us even more intimately than when He walked this earth.

B. Harvest – Jesus says, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32). While the immediate context of this verse is the crucifixion, the wonder of John’s gospel is that he often intends double meanings. Clearly Christ’s glorification is His crucifixion, but it also includes His resurrection and ascension. So, from His place in glory, Christ is drawing all people to Himself. He is also bestowing grace on us from His Father’s right hand to be His co-workers in the harvest: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Yes, from His place in glory, Christ is bringing in a great harvest, as he said in Scripture: “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor” (Jn 4:35-38). Harvest! And it is the Lord’s work from Heaven in which we participate.

C. Help – At the Father’s right hand Jesus intercedes for us. Scripture says, Consequently he is able, for all time, to save those who draw near to God through him, since he lives always to make intercession for them (Heb 7:25). The Lord links his ascension to an unleashing of special power: Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (Jn 14:12).

It is true, we must not understand asking in the name of Jesus as a mere incantation, for to ask in His name means to ask in accord with His will. And yet we must come to experience the power of Jesus to draw us up to great and wondrous things in His sight. Despite the mystery of iniquity all about us, we trust that Christ is conquering, even in the puzzling and apparent victories of this world’s rebellion. We read, In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Though, at present we do not see everything subject to him, yet we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor … so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb 2:8-9; 14-15). Thus, from Heaven we have the help of the Lord’s grace which, if we will accept it, is an ever-present help unto our salvation.

D. Habitation – Simply put, Jesus indicates that in going to Heaven He is preparing a place for us: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Jn 14:2ff). Yes, indeed. He has the blueprints out, and the hard hat on. He is overseeing the construction of a mansion for each of us that we may dwell with Him, the Father, and the Spirit forever.

Here then are the ways that Christ, by His love, is lifting us higher than we’ve ever been lifted before. Yes, love lifted me when nothing else could help; love lifted me.

Here’s a modernized version:

There is a line from scripture that says, Woe to the solitary man. If he falls he has no one to lift him up (Ecclesiastes 4:10).

Scripture also says, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:24-25). The teaching is clear: we must come together each week for Mass and learn to live in deep communion with one another. We are not meant to make this journey alone. We need encouragement and exhortation, food for the journey, and companionship and protection.

In the days of Jesus it was almost unthinkable for a person to make a lengthy journey alone. Once a person left the relative safety of the town, the journey got dangerous. There were robbers lying in wait along the roads just looking for vulnerable targets. For this reason people almost always made journeys in groups.

This is a good image for the spiritual journey we must all make. Alone we are easy targets. We are vulnerable and without help when spiritual demons attack.

Yet another insight says, Feuding brothers reconcile when there is a maniac at the the door.

Somehow I thought of all this when I saw these two videos. They are clever and make the point of partnership or perish, teamwork or terror, love or lose, hang together or hang separately. Yes, woe to the solitary man! How necessary the protection of the flock. How necessary for the herd to stay together.

One of the more imponderable aspects of the growing number of agnostics and atheists is their claim that there is no evidence for the intelligent creator of the universe that we call God. But clearly the created universe manifests intelligibility and order from the farthest reaches of the cosmos and outer space down to our small planet and further down into the “inner space” of microscopic bacteria, cells, and the intricate order of atoms and molecules. Science affirms the Creator by uncovering the inner order and intelligibility of created things. But strangely, the opposite trend seems be happening in this age of science.

Indeed, creation is a veritable symphony of billions of notes and movements working together in an extraordinary harmony and melody which seem to shout, “I was composed, and carefully though out. My master artist and composer is also the great conductor of my symphony, so carefully laid out.”

That the created world is intelligible is the very basis of the sciences. The world manifests meaning that we can discover and it moves along in predictable ways; it does not randomly change from one thing to the next from moment to moment. Because there is order and intelligibility, a scientist can predict, propose and test theories, and replicate results. Without order and intelligibility there could be no scientific method.

And yet many of the scientists who use this scientific method deny the Intelligence who gives the intelligibility that their science presumes. For if the created world is intelligible, then clearly an intelligence imposed this intelligibility upon it. That the created world manifests order demonstrates that someone so ordered it.

Even if one were to argue that all of this intricate order happened just by accident at one moment, it would then require something to maintain that order and keep it from breaking down the very next instant into something completely different. And yet this does not happen. Reality does not randomly mutate suddenly into something else. It follows predictable laws, and changes are orderly and exhibit continuity with what went before. Order is not only present at one instant, but is sustained over time and becomes demonstrably more organized as complex life forms have developed. Clearly creation tends toward a certain end in an orderly and progressive way.

That there is order and intelligibility to the created world is demonstrably true, and to deny this fact requires the status of a madman. The universe shouts out, “I was planned, and carefully executed! I have been intricately designed by an intelligent cause moving me in an intelligible direction!”

I would understand if the scientists of the physical sciences were to say that they are not equipped to opine on who or what this intelligence is. Indeed, the physical sciences are not equipped to measure the metaphysical. But that so many scientists claim the ability to deny that there is an intelligence that we believers call God, is for them to be unreasonable and to act outside of their field.

The claim that there is no God is not a scientific claim, it is a philosophical one. And those who claim that there is only the physical and not the metaphysical are making a metaphysical claim! They break their own rule in announcing it. The claim that physical science wholly explains all of reality is not a claim that can be demonstrated scientifically. So once again, the rule is broken the very moment it is announced.

Many will say that there is no evidence of God’s existence because they cannot see it under a microscope or through a telescope. But of course God is not a physical being; he does not tip our scales. He cannot be physically measured any more than can intelligence, justice, mercy, beauty, or any other metaphysical concept. None of these tip a scale or can be seen with the tools of physical science. But they are no less real.

For a reasonable person, there is a great deal of evidence of a Creator, as described above. The whole created world is steeped in intelligibility and order. There is a magnificent interplay between material, efficient, formal, and final causality. The created world shouts by its intelligibility of the intelligence that made it so. It sings, by its order, of the one who so ordered it.

Existence itself proclaims the questions: “Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is there anything at all?” The only reasonable answer that can come back from the existing cosmos is, “I was caused!” Something cannot cause itself anymore than you and I can cause ourselves. We, and the entire cosmos, were caused by someone other than ourselves and outside of ourselves. The cosmos says, “Someone outside of me caused me. That is why I exist. That is why anything exists at all.”

We moderns have become very obtuse and turned inward. If anything, we should be more convinced than ever that God exists as our sciences have revealed such incredible complexity and intricate order at every layer and level of creation. We should be on our knees singing of the incredible wisdom of the Creator who has so perfectly ordered every level of his creation. And yet sadly just the opposite seems to be happening—agnosticism and atheism are growing.

Far too many scientists, who should know better (for there would not be science at all without the intelligibility built into creation), make unfounded denials of God, a pronouncement that is clearly outside their field of expertise. And because so many of us idolize the physical sciences, we give great weight to their nonscientific claims.

In all of this tragic turn of events I am somehow mindful of a little parable told by Venerable Fulton Sheen many decades ago wherein he likens many modern men to a little mouse:

Those who refuse to unify the cosmos in terms of Pure Intelligence but content themselves with secondary causes maybe likened to an all-wise mouse living in a grand piano who…explained the music by the play of hammers on the strings, the action of which could be seen in his own narrow little world. Scientists catch the tune, but miss the player [Old Errors and New Labels Fulton J. Sheen 1931. P. 17].

Yes, we have become mousy in our thinking. We prefer to live inside the piano and explain the music of the spheres only internally, never thinking of the great artist outside, who gives and causes the magnificent, understandable, beautiful, and intricate melody we hear.

Sadly, the great debate over the existence of God seems only to grow, even as the evidence of intelligibility, order, and design increases. It is a great debate of mice and men.

Are you a mouse, or are you a man?

In this video, behold the song of the cosmos:

One of the subtleties of language is the use of euphemisms.  A euphemism is a less offensive word or phrase used in place of another  term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive. It substitutes an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that might offend or suggest something unpleasant. The word comes from the Greek  euphēmismos, which comes from eu (auspicious, good, pleasant) and phēmē (speech).

In many cases euphemisms are harmless, even rooted in a kind of charity and a desire not to offend unnecessarily. For example, we may say that someone has “passed away,” or “departed this life,” rather than that the person died. A woman may say she is going to “powder her nose” rather than that she is going to the bathroom. We may say a man is stocky, or a woman full-figured, rather than saying he or she is fat or overweight. Parents say they are going to have “the talk” with their kids or tell them about “the birds and bees,” rather than saying, “I’m going to talk to my kids about sex.”

In many ways these are polite circumlocutions that get across the basic message but seek to describe less pleasant notions in more pleasant or discreet ways.

Some euphemisms are downright silly: you aren’t poor, you are economically disadvantaged; a company isn’t failing it is being right-sized; you aren’t broke, you have negative cash flow; it’s not a used car, it’s pre-owned; your stocks aren’t losing money they’re underperforming; and that booze you’re drinking is an “adult beverage”—silly stuff, really.

But in some cases, euphemisms cause harm since they seek to deceive by hiding the truth of things that are morally wrong. It is one thing to describe a reality politely or softly, but it is quite another to outright hide the reality of something by using words meant more to distort or conceal.

Most odious is the use of phrases and terms meant to conceal the violent murder of a child in the womb by abortion. Thus proponents of this horrifying act use euphemisms such as “choice,” “reproductive rights,” “reproductive freedom,” “women’s health,” etc. Abortion facilities are called “clinics” or “Women’s Healthcare Centers.” The brutal reality is that the “choice” being advocated is the killing of a child in the womb, usually accomplished by methods such as chemical poisoning (abortifacients), chemical burning (saline), curettage (scraping), dismemberment, and suctioning. “Choice” and other such terms do not merely render this act more politely. Terms like this intentionally seek to deceive and to hide the awful reality of what is happening.

In the area of sexuality, too many euphemisms seek to render sinful things in more “pleasant” terms. These euphemisms are not merely polite terms but seek more to obscure and even celebrate what is sinful.

Thus what we used to call fornication, “living in sin,” or “shacking up” is now called “cohabitation,” “living together,” or “common law marriage.” Never mind that fornicators do not inherit the kingdom of God (e.g., 1 Cor 6:9; Eph 5:5; Gal 5:19-21) and that  this sort of behavior dishonors marriage and has caused great harm to families. Never mind the children who often die by abortion (85% of abortions are performed on single women) or if not still face the injustice of being raised in broken or incomplete homes.

Sadly, this sinful behavior is either rendered in abstract and pleasant terms, or even outright celebrated in popular culture. The euphemisms do not help in disclosing the reality that what is really going on here is illicit sexual union that is offensive to God, dishonoring of marriage (Heb 13:4), harmful to children, and destructive of culture.

And of course there are many euphemisms associated with homosexuality. Nothing could be more abstract and misleading than the term “gay.” Even homosexuality is a recently coined term to replace the biblical terms “sodomy” and “sodomite.” And while the Church is careful to distinguish between the orientation and the actual sin of homosexual acts, we must be clear that even the orientation is disordered. That is, the desire is not ordered to its proper goal. So euphemistic is the word “gay” that most people never even stop to consider what homosexual acts actually involve.

A recent article by Kevin O’Brien in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Chesterton Society speaks to the modern problem we face wherein homosexual acts are considered only abstractly:

Take the recent flap involving Phil Robertson of duck dynasty … who made what was once the rather normal observation that our sex organs are not designed for the degraded use that is made of them by male homosexuals …

The problem was that Robertson did not use euphemisms, but described rather vividly and accurately what “gay” sex consists of (Page 3, vol 17, No 4, Jan/Feb 2014).

Frankly, the physical reality is rather an unpleasant thing for the average person to consider. Uncloaked from euphemisms and abstractions like “gay,” and “two people loving each other,” the physical description of the act discloses to the average person how abnormal the action is, and that the organs involved are not intended for the purposes for which they are being used.

Frank language alert. Skip this paragraph if you do not wish to read non-euphemistic descriptions of sexual behavior. To be utterly non-euphemistic, an anus is intended to assist in the expelling of feces. It is not a sexual organ and those who use it as such (homosexual or heterosexual) engage in disordered sexual behavior. They deviate from what nature and God provide for and intend. It is no surprise that disease, tearing, and infection result from this sort of unhealthy behavior. Likewise too for the mutual masturbation that occurs in the other deviant and disordered practices of both homosexuals and some heterosexual couples.

O’Brien Continues:

Calling a spade a spade, as Phil Robertson did, blows the cover under which the abnormal folks are hiding – the cover of euphemism – of coming up with a false and fancy way of saying something to gloss over and obscure the truth it represents. GK Chesterton said it best, “[Many] depend almost entirely on euphemism. They introduce their horrible heresies under new and carefully complementary names … The names are always flattery; the names are also nonsense.”

O’Brien  Concludes: The furor of the “gay” community over Robertson’s statement belies a troubled conscience. (Ibid)

Other troubling euphemisms exist such as calling patient suicide or the killing of the sick and dying “euthanasia” (from the Greek, meaning good or pleasant death). It is not good; it is sinful. It is either suicide or murder, but in no way is it good and it cannot be captured in abstract terms like euthanasia. Human beings have souls and are not meant to be “put down” like animals. Suffering is clarifying, sanctifying, and noble for human beings. We are not required to prolong life by absurd means. But neither should we diminish the dignity of human life and the dignity of those who suffer by killing them.

There are a lot of euphemisms in the areas of war and politics as well. I will avoid discussing political euphemisms since this is not a political blog. But regarding war, I will say that we have tended to try to obscure the fact that war is awful. What we call “collateral damage” means that a lot of innocent people were killed or had their homes and neighborhoods bombed back to the Stone Age. At the end of the day, war is about killing people and breaking a lot of things; it is a foretaste of Hell. No euphemism (e.g., an action, an incursion, a coalition, a “war to end all wars,” “Operation Freedom,” etc.) can or should seek to cover this fact. I am no pacifist, but we need to be clear that war is terrible; it is bloody; and once a war is begun, it is VERY difficult to ensure that even the best intentions do not turn sour and evil in its fog. War sets loose and invites the very demons of Hell; it is ugly and awful no matter what party or president calls for it. It is no video game, and it should always be a last recourse used only in the gravest of circumstances.

So euphemisms have a place when charity and discretion are the goal. But too easily and too often today euphemisms are not used in charity but rather to hide the truth and to render abstract and murky what is sinful and wrong. We do well to insist on honesty in labeling. Charity, yes, but the truth cannot be sacrificed. Veritatem in Caritate (The Truth in Charity).

In the first reading for Tuesday’s daily Mass, there is a remarkable description of an event in the lives of Paul and Silas. And even more remarkable than the event itself is their reaction to it. Let’s pick up the story as told in Acts:

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake (Acts 16:22-25).

It is so easy for us to read passages like this and miss the severity of what happened. The two are beaten with rods. Such beatings might vary somewhat in degree, but the overall severity of the passage (e.g., having them cast into the deepest part of the prison and the jailer later having to bathe their wounds) leads to the reasonable conclusion that the beating was also quite severe. Beatings like these would often lead to deep bruises and contusions, both external and internal bleeding, broken ribs, and trauma to the kidneys and other internal organs.

After this severe beating, and likely bloody and in severe pain, they are ordered bound by leg shackles and cast into the deepest and darkest part of the prison. In this inner part, there were probably rats, snakes, mice, and vermin. There was likely also foul water, along with urine and feces.

No matter how we look at it, the external dimensions of both the prison and their pain are grave. It would be enough to have the average person in despair, self pity, and perhaps even a semiconscious state.

Yet what do we find?

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:26).

Yes! Despite an awful beating, severe pain, and terrible conditions, they are singing and praising God. It is loud enough that the other prisoners in other parts of the prison hear them.

And here is a remarkable teaching: happiness is an inside job. Paul and Silas, despite every external discomfort and tremendous physical pain, have a joy that cannot be taken away. They have a connection to God that cannot be severed.

It is too often the case today that we strive to root our happiness in external matters such as money, esteem, creature comforts, and the like. And yet it remains true that many who have these things in abundance are still unhappy, and conversely that many who lack these things in abundance are happy.

There is something deeper about happiness than mere comfort, riches, or externalities. I remember some years ago talking with the personnel director of the diocese about an impending transfer. I told him of my fear that I might be sent somewhere where I would not be happy. He told me, “Charles, you have been in four assignments now and have been happy at every one. The fact is, you’re going to be happy wherever you go, because that’s the way you are. Happiness is an inside job.”

I have come to discover he was right, and I’ve never been unhappy wherever they’ve sent me. There’s a joy I have that the world didn’t give to me and the world cannot take away.

Sure, there are moments of sorrow and tension in every life. But deeper down there is a stable serenity that the Lord has given me for which I am exceptionally grateful. And I have come to discover that deep, inner place of peace, joy, and contentment; and I have further discovered that it is largely unaffected by external realities.

There is a Greek word, “μακάριοι (makarioi),” which describes a kind of stable happiness or blessed state. The pagan Greeks used the verb to refer to the happiness of the gods, unaffected by worldly matters. Jesus takes up this verb in the beatitudes: Blessed (μακάριοι – happy) are the poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. In other words, “Stably blessed and happy are those who have their treasure in Heaven, rather than this passing and unstable world.”

Here then is a gift to be sought: the gift of an inner and stable happiness, the gift to be like Paul and Silas, to bless the Lord at all times, whatever the circumstances. This of course is the “normal Christian life.” As Scripture says,

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1).

And Paul himself says,

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:16-18).

And again he said, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil 4:4)

Yes the normal Christian life is to be one of joy, a joy largely unaffected by external events and accessible even in moments of sorrow. It is a joy in which a consolation, difficult to describe, is always at work.

Two final things to note from this passage about Paul and Silas, are the ways that their joy and confident disposition affect others. There is an old saying, “When I get better, others get better too.” In other words, we have important effects on others around us.

The first thing to note is the liberating power of their joy and confidence. For the text says, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose (Acts 16:27). It is the role of the Christian to exude joy, and to show a confidence that liberates others from the prison cells of despair, sin, and depression. Do people see you as a person of hope? Does your joy liberate and give confidence?

Second, note the love that is manifested by Paul and Silas and how that love moves the jailer to repentance and conversion. The text tells us, When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, Do no harm to yourself; we are all here. Now consider that the jailer may well have been one of the men who beat them with rods. And at a human level, the average person might rejoice to see the jailer try to kill himself. But Paul, not wanting the jailer to take his own life, calls out and seeks to save him, even at the risk being re-imprisoned. So moved is the jailer by this demonstration of love and faith, that he seeks immediate conversion. How has your love and reverence for life won the hearts of others?

Yes, happiness is an inside job. Here is a gift to be sought from God: a transformation to an inner peace that is stable and largely unaffected by external things. What a gift this is both to us and to others around us! For when I get better, others get better too.

Here’s some good advice form an old Spiritual, rooted in the story of Paul and Silas:

Paul and Silas bound in jail
Had no money for to go their bail
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

And they wore three lengths of Chain
Every link was in my Jesus’ name.
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

When the storms are raging High
You suffer and you can’t tell why
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

Keep on plowing don’t you tire
Every Round goes higher, higher.
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

I told you once, and I’ll tell you again
You can’t get to heaven if you’re stayed on sin
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

I you wanna get to heaven let me tell you
Keep your hand on the gospel plow
Keep your Hand on the Plow and Hold on!

A couple of years back, a remarkable book was published by Ross Douthat. I recommend it as required reading for anyone who wants to grasp what has happened to faith in the second half of the 20th Century up until now. It is Bad Religion – How we became a nation of heretics. It seems good to review some of his findings, since these heresies seem only to grow in the consumerist West, where we take attitudes that are fine for commercial markets and misapply them to the faith. We end up with a “designer” religion, designed to please the customer rather than proclaim the truth of our founder and Head, Jesus Christ.

In the book, Douthat documented how the churches (both the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations) rose dramatically in the years following World War II, but then quite suddenly saw their numbers collapse as they were overwhelmed with successive waves of heresies, which he describes with great precision.

Douthat uses the word “heresy” quite correctly to describe a version of the Christian faith that holds an incomplete version of the full truth, one that chooses certain tenets and discards many others that both balance and complete the picture. Of course there are often tensions in holding all the truths.

For example, how do we reconcile God’s sovereignty and power with our freedom and capacity to say “No”? Or how do we resolve God’s mercy and love with the existence of Hell? The orthodox approach is to hold both and leave the tensions largely unresolved, or at least to seek a balance that respects both. The heretical approach is to chose one and discard or minimize the other in order to be free of the tension.

Heresy has become quite the “art” of modern Americans who are often “genius” in crafting endless varieties of do-it-yourself faith: one from column A, two from column B. For most Americans, the Church is largely irrelevant, and tends to be considered an annoyance, what with all her rules and traditions. Hence while most Americans identify themselves as believing in God, the actual content of that belief varies significantly and often diverges widely from orthodox Christianity not to mention orthodox Catholicism.

God as He reveals himself in Scripture is quite easily tossed aside by moderns, and a tamed, more “fitting” god is crafted—one who affirms more than demands, one who consoles and almost never warns.

We used to call this idolatry (crafting your own god and worshipping it). But most moderns prefer softer terms such as “finding the god within,” and discovering the “god of my understanding.” Truth is cast overboard or doubted altogether and a self-referential (solipsistic) thinking emerges that is self-authorized.  Along with this private magisterium comes a self-congratulatory “tolerance” that is extolled as the highest virtue. If there is any reference at all to the revelation that is Scripture or to the dogmas of the faith, most moderns interpret them in a highly selective (i.e., heretical) manner, and subject what does remain to interpretations that are often so twisted as to be almost impossible to follow.

What makes heresy so dangerous is that it most often contains some truthful elements. As such, many believers can easily be duped by the “partial Gospel.” Plausible teachers, using smooth words, seem to be confirming some truth of Christian faith. But they stop short of the full Gospel. For example, the purveyors of the “Prosperity Gospel” extol the power of prayer and the truth that God does want to bless us. But they largely discard the cross and the call of Christ to endure hardships and even poverty for the Kingdom. Gone is any notion that we have been called out of this world and are thus hated by the world, or the idea that we cannot serve both God and money. They also conveniently set aside the very consistent warnings about wealth issued by the Lord Jesus.

But it all sounds so good and so right: pray, trust God, blessings in abundance! Doesn’t God want me to be happy? Yes, and thus heresy has its appeal in pointing to some truths, but it ignores others meant to balance, distinguish, and contextualize.

Consider another huge trend in the modern age that has sorely affected faith: the rise of the therapeutic culture. Douthat spends a good amount of time describing and critiquing it. Quoting Philip Rieff he begins,

“Religious man was born to be saved [but] “psychological man is born to be pleased.” [Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic, Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006, 19].

Douthat continues,

God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problem that arises, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves.” … [He] is not demanding, He actually can’t be, because his job is to solve our problems and make people feel good.

 Therapeutic religion is immensely tolerant: since the only true God is the one you find within, there’s no reason to impose your faith on someone else. But a tolerant society is not necessarily a just one. Men may smile at their neighbors without loving them and decline to judge their fellow citizens’ beliefs out of a broader indifference to their fate. [Tolerance can] easily turn out to be an ego that never learns sympathy, compassion, or real wisdom.

Therapeutic to its very core, it emphasizes feelings over duties, it’s impatient with institutional structures of any sort. [Kindle Edition Loc:4676-95]

Has it worked? Apart from the troubling heretical notions at work (again, heresy understood in terms of its classical definition, as an incomplete and unbalanced grasp of the true faith),  has the therapeutic religion worked even in its basic goal to “make us feel better about ourselves”? Douthat observes,

We’re freer than we used to be [since everyone can think and be what they want and construct their own little world largely freed from critique by a “tolerant” culture], but [we’re] also more isolated, lonelier, and more depressed … Therapeutic theology raises expectations, and it raises self-regard. It isn’t surprising that people taught to be constantly enamored of their own godlike qualities [since they are trained to discover the “god-within] would have difficulty forging relationships with ordinary human beings. Two Supreme Selves do not necessarily a happy marriage make.

Americans are less happy in their marriages than they were thirty years ago; women’s self-reported happiness has dipped downward overall. Our social circles have constricted: declining rates of churchgoing have been accompanied by declining rates of just about every sort of social “joining,” and Americans seem to have fewer and fewer friends whom they genuinely trust. Our familial networks have shrunk as well. More children are raised by a single parent; fewer people marry or have children to begin with; and more and more old people live and die alone.

Our society boasts 77,000 clinical psychologists, 192,000 clinical social workers, 105,000 mental health counselors, 50,000 marriage and family therapists, 17,000 nurse psychotherapists, 30,000 life coaches—and hundreds of thousands of nonclinical social workers and substance abuse counselors as well. Most of these professionals spend their days helping people cope with everyday life problems … not true mental illness. This means that under our very noses a revolution has occurred in the personal dimension of life, such that millions of Americans must now pay professionals to listen to their everyday life problems … gurus and therapists have filled the roles once occupied by spouses and friends. [Kindle version Loc:4819-38, inter al].

So no, it hasn’t worked. But its purveyors just keep coming out with the latest tome by the latest guru. To be fair, as Douthat notes, there are many causes of the social ills described above. But the therapeutic culture and its “spiritual (not religious!)” expressions do raise expectations for a great cure. Orthodox Catholicism on the other hand traditionally spoke of this world as a vale of tears and an exile to be endured before true and lasting happiness dawned. Contentment could be found here, and true faith is essential to that. But lasting happiness was found only in the Lord, and fully, only in Heaven. For now we should gather as a Church and console one another with the consolations we have received, and continue to retell the story of total victory promised us in the Lord, after the Good Friday of this life gives way to the Eternal Easter of Heaven.

But another reason the inward and highly personalized faith of the therapeutic culture does not work is that it rejects the communion for which we were ultimately made.

St. Augustine summarized our most fundamental problem as being “curvatus in se.” That is, on account of Original Sin, the human person will tend to be turned in on himself. This of course is exactly what a lot of modern versions of heretical religion peddle: a highly personalized, inwardly focused search for “God.” And it is a search that is apart from the community of the Church and the extended community of Sacred tradition. Chesterton called tradition the “democracy of the dead,” since it gave them a voice and a seat at the table. Through Tradition and doctrine we have communion, not only with each other, but also with the ancient Christians.

But modern heresy turns inward to a very lonely and rather dark place. It rejects the need for a Church or for any doctrines at all. Alone and turned inward, we cannot be fulfilled. It is no accident that the therapeutic “faith” emanating from a therapeutic culture is not fulfilling.

The real truth is that we were made for others and for God. Communion with God, and with each other in God, is THE goal of life. Christ founded a Church, and summoned us to a relationship with the Blessed Trinity. But it is the Trinity as revealed, not as reworked by us.

The “god-within” of modern heresy, is more often a mere emanation of our very self, a solipsism (from the Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self)). And “tolerance,” the way it is spoken of today (it is not true tolerance, more on that  HERE), does not join us together in harmony as advertised, it separates us into our own little worlds where “what’s true for me doesn’t have to be true for you.” Increasingly, we live in the little world of our own mind and are pulling up roots from any shared reality. God, if he is understood at all by these modern heresies, is a very local deity, who exists only in the mind of one person and is subject to later redefinition. He (or she? or it?) is a small and very contingent deity that has little role other than, as Douthot keenly observes, to be our butler.

One of the great challenges for us today, then, is to re-propose the need for the Church that Christ founded. He did not write a book and send us off to study it. He founded a community—a Church—and told us we would find Him there, where two or three are gathered in His name, where His actual words are read and heard, where His true body and blood are offered and received. Many are scandalized that He should be found among sinners, gossips, hypocrites, and the like (and saints too!). But that is where He is found. Indeed, one image for the Church is Christ, crucified between two thieves (one repented!). Yes that is where He is found: in the Church. And only within the Church and her careful, thoughtful doctrines and the accumulated wisdom of centuries is the journey to find God within us safe enough to consider. For yes, He does dwell within us too. But don’t make the journey there alone—no, never alone.

Memorial Day, for many, means the beginning of summer. To others, it is a day off to go shopping. But as I am sure you know, Memorial Day is really a day to honor those who have died in the service of this country. Here are some thoughts based on two words from a day like this: “memorial” and “monument.” 

The word “memorial” comes from the Latin “memorare,” which is in an  imperative meaning “Remember!” So Memorial Day is “Remember!” Day. To remember something is to allow it to be present to our minds and hearts so that we are grateful, sober, aware, and different.

This is a day to remember that there are men and women who have died so that you and I are able to live with greater security, justice, and peace. May these fallen soldiers rest in peace. We owe them both a debt of gratitude and our prayers.

In a secondary sense, we can also honor today those who currently serve in the military since they also have placed their lives on the line for our security and peace. And on Veterans Day we will have a second opportunity to thank those military who are still living.

God bless them all and may the dead rest in peace. We must remember that freedom is not really free—others paid the price for our freedom.

The second word is “monument.” There are many monuments honoring our fallen soldiers. Here in DC and in most cities there is a monument to the soldiers who died during World War II. There are other monuments to the dead from from World War I, the Korean War, and the War in Vietnam. Soon enough there will be monuments to the fallen from the Gulf War and to those who gave their lives in other wars. The Tomb of the Unknowns is a poignant monument to the many fallen who remain unknown to us. And who can forget the deep impression the rows of white crosses in a military cemetery make.

The word “monument” comes from the Latin words “monere” (to warn, remind, or advise) and “mens” (mind).  Hence a “monument” exists to admonish or advise us to remember the dead and/or what they have done. Not only do we owe a debt of gratitude to our fallen soldiers, but we must also hold in our memories all they have done for us.

The Love of one’s country (patriotism) is related to the fourth commandment. The Catechism teaches,

It is the duty of citizens to contribute to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom. The love and service of one’s country follow from the the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity (CCC # 2239).

The Lord Himself makes it plain: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Never forget the price others have paid for our freedom. Pray for our fallen soldiers of every generation and for their families. Perhaps you might use this video as a way to meditate on the sacrifices they have made. Here is the text of the song “Mansions of the Lord,” and the video follows:

To fallen soldiers let us sing,
Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing,
Our broken brothers let us bring
To the Mansions of the Lord

No more weeping,
No more fight,
No prayers pleading through the night,
Just Divine embrace,
Eternal light,
In the Mansions of the Lord

Where no mothers cry
And no children weep,
We shall stand and guard
Though the angels sleep,
Oh, through the ages safely keep
The Mansions of the Lord