21 October 2014

Humility Top Ten: Why It Is Good to Be Humble

Ok...trying something a little different here.  I hope you like it!



The top ten reasons it is Good to Be Humble:



10.  The delicious irony of being unable to point out that you are.


9.  You can commiserate with Mac Davis about how hard it is.


8.  High winds are not as scary due to your less inflated head.


7.  You are less likely to be injured as a participant in a bar fight.


6.  You find out a lot of interesting things when you are not thinking about the next thing you are going to say.


5.  Not always having to deal with hordes of adoring fans.


4.  "Humility goes before disaster, a humble spirit before a fall" ...or not! (verse 18


3.  Because it is easier than being whistlble.


2.  Others held in greater esteem than you?  Not a problem!

Pie
and...


1.  I hear there is pie.

14 October 2014

Is

I don't remember who said it, but I have been thinking about it for a long time now (along with a certain 8.5-month old who has taken up literally all of my blogging time).

I had said a phrase that I have always strangely enjoyed:  "It is what it is."  I am sure you have heard it and perhaps said it as well many times yourself, but my interlocutor of the day was not in a mood to accept such meaningless fluff.  Whoever it was pointed out what you see very clearly yourself:  the sentence is redundant.  Why would you even bother to say something like this?  When you get right down to it, the sentence is the equivalent of saying that something that is red is red or that the moon is the moon.  An idea like that and 8 dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.

I don't know why this criticism stuck with me.  I certainly did not take it personally.  Heck, I don't even remember clearly who made the objection in the first place!  I guess it is just the way that my mind works these days that I have to think through a problem long enough that such things start to seem a little bit profound.  You see, I do think that such statements have a significance in our current times.  George Orwell once put it this way, "We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." Such restatement is a call for us to check ourselves against the measuring stick of what has always been true.

We live in a time when the most basic elements of our society, such as the family and the rule of law are constantly being degraded.  Reality is fundamentally questioned, to the point that it can be very helpful to have that little reminder that what is has the significance of existence in opposition to all that is merely the dream (or the nightmare) of the imagination.   Our anxieties about a possible future overwhelm our reasonable reaction to the needs of the day.   It is impossible to come to the right conclusions when we are inaccurate in our understanding of the world around us.

Our thoughts about ourselves are perhaps the most significant example of this kind of inaccuracy.  How often do we really see ourselves and the sum of our actions for what they truly are?  Too often we are lenient to ourselves because we think that "what is" is that we are the image of the altruistic person who is only doing what anyone would do to secure our rights in some situation.  Too often we magnify our own faults to similar detriment because we see not who we are and where we fit in the world, but expect ourselves to be our own savior and salvation.  If we live in these fantasies (and they are very tempting fantasies indeed), we end up dissociated from ourselves and unable to make of ourselves a gift to the one who made us.  Humility is the very tool that lets us correct the mistaken ideas we have about ourselves so that we can know that we are what we are.

18 April 2014

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery



            -5-
The Cross

The darkness gathers in to form a shroud
o'er Zion's peak and all surrounding lands.
The crowd is quiet now that once was loud;
they see themselves in nails that pierce his hands.
The rasping breath of Christ comes with much pain,
but joy is still emblazoned on his face,
for he will see his Father once again
and open up a route for Adam's race.
Oh, ecce Agnus Dei, Christ the Lord!
who kindles hope for all who dwell on earth.
As blood and water round the lance are poured
He paves the way in death for a new birth.

Reject you now your sin, the source of strife;
come share with Him a death that leads to life.





17 April 2014

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery



            -4-
The Way

His back is bent, his knees are full of grit.
He falls and falls at almost every step.
The guards stand round like demons from the pit,
or stoners crowded round the demirep.
Do you feel pity, seeing him this day,
though all your eyes observe is weight of wood?
You think you would have helped him on his way!
A noble thought—you ponder as you should.
Yet with this cross the savior must begin
a lonely way, the burden his alone.
Unless he washes feet and cleanses sin,
we cannot have a place in our Lord's home.

Just walk with him, go step by step awhile
and on your face wear too his suffering smile.





16 April 2014

The Third Sorrowful Mystery





          -3-
The Crown

The crown of thorns stood in as Eden's hedge
for Veronica who wished to kiss his brow,
but she reached down to wipe around its edge
and took away his image on her towel.
So high a king the world has never seen,
this man who tastes the dust between his teeth,
the dust that but for him would not have been,
who made the very thorns he bleeds beneath.
Why does the whole Creation seem to turn
against this one whose being is to love?
Should not the very heavens start to burn,
and send avenging fire down from above?

But Christ will not be king by any art,
until you crown him so within your heart.





15 April 2014

The Second Sorrowful Mystery


     -2-
The Scourge 

Now cast your eye upon another scene
of that man's hands around a pillar tied
for Pilate, here Iustitia's machine,
tried to appease the crowd before he died.
As when one tries to right a toppling vase
but sends it only faster to the floor,
the bloody scourging served as a foretaste
and set God's chosen ones to cry the more,
“For him the cross!  Dear Caesar is our king!
You may deny us freedom, but not this!”
Then Pilate knew he had to grant the thing-
man's justice gave to Christ a poisoned kiss.

Oh Christian, now you bear your Lord's true name,
and yet, when tempted, treat him just the same!





14 April 2014

The First Sorrowful Mystery



     -1-
The Agony

When moonlight shone on olive boughs he came
and every stone found then it could not speak.
No more could thorn or brier plants untamed
deny him then that solitude to seek.
'Twas three alone disturbed him there that night
by sleeping when the hour was almost come
(though one would strike a guardsman deaf in fight,
and later on himself be stricken dumb.)
As man he had the choice to take the cup
or else, rejecting God, to harbor sin,
but he alone of men gave himself up.
Too soon the crowd arrived to take him in!

Weep now for Christ who in this garden knelt,
and share with him the agony he felt.




This is the first of a series of sonnet reflections on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  Although I started them some time ago while in grad school, I thought this would be an appropriate time and place to finish them up and share them.  Although they are intended to be a set, I will be posting the rest of the poems around noon each day this week, finishing on Good Friday.  Thank you for reading; I hope that they offer some food for spiritual thought.  Happy Holy Week!


The Stations of the Cross in Humility

What follows are some reflections on the stations of the cross that I presented in separate posts during Holy Week last year.  I collect them here only for convenience in case anyone wants to read them collectively.  I have italicized the brief prayers at the ends of the reflections, but have otherwise made no other changes.  I hope that they provide some edification.  Thank you for reading!




Holy Week is upon us.  In his Life of Christ, Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen points out an aspect of the significance of the suffering and death of Jesus which we celebrate:

"Christ entered human existence under a form which was not natural to Him as Son of God.  This assuming of a human nature was a humiliation, an emptying, a stripping and a kenosis ["self-emptying"] of His glory.  The fundamental renouncement of His Divine glory created a physical condition of life which made Him appear like a man; His suffering and death were the logical consequences of this humiliation.  As God He could not suffer; as man He could" (Image Books, 1990).

Although we have seen and heard the story of Christ's death and resurrection countless times in our lives, I believe it is essential to continually return to these events and try to see them with new eyes.  Over the next few days I will be sharing some brief reflections on humility as it is exhibited in the various points along the Way of the Cross (along with the Agony in the Garden, for thematic and mathematical reasons).



The Agony in the Garden
The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus' fervent prayer on the Mount of Olives.  He enjoins His disciples to pray that they "may not undergo the test."  Earlier, Peter told Him that he was prepared to "go to prison and to die" with Jesus.  Instead, Peter would deny Him three times.  We are the disciples who wish to be there with Jesus, but who do not fully grasp the significance of the moment and instead grow tired and fall asleep.  We are like Peter, rashly stating our intention to do good (and be praised for the intention), but when the moment of action arrives we are unprepared.

In this moment in the garden, as in all things, Jesus is our example.  He prayed and sweated blood before the time of testing arrived.  Unlike Peter, Jesus prayed that the cup might pass from Him, although He was willing to do the will of the Father no matter the cost.  How often does our faithful prayer lead us to experience distress?  If it seldom does so, is it because we are not humble enough to realize how hard the test will be?

Lord, help us to pray more fervently with the humility of Your example in the garden.


The First Station:  Jesus is Condemned to Death
Pilate had judicial power over Jesus because God gave it to him.  The judicial system of the Roman Empire was relatively advanced and admirable in many ways (e.g., the restriction against stoning a woman caught in adultery:  the Romans were on the side of Jesus on that one).  However, Roman justice failed when Pilate gave Jesus over to be crucified, despite his assertion of Jesus' innocence on multiple occasions (Luke 23:4, 14, 22).

Human justice and man-made law is only a shadow of the true source of Justice, which is God.  Pilate made a show of doing the right thing, but in the end decided to do what would be easiest for himself.  The humble Jesus, standing silently before His accusers, spoke more loudly of the vanity of human law than any verbal argument could have done.  How often do we rest on the unfounded belief that human society can arbitrate justice infallibly?  Have we trusted too much in the benevolence and wisdom of governments and other institutions instead of getting involved ourselves?

Lord, help us to see the things that human beings have created with the eyes of humility.


The Second Station:  Jesus Takes Up His Cross
The cross was a horrible instrument of torture and execution.  It was as much a means of inflicting psychological pain as physical pain.  Isaiah 53:8-9 prophesied that Jesus would be taken away and counted among the wicked.  On the other hand, Christian mystics throughout the centuries have told us of the joy with which Christ took up His cross.  As the instrument of his suffering and death, it also became the instrument of our salvation.

Christ teaches us that to love is to joyfully embrace suffering for the sake of the beloved.  Joyful suffering is a theme we find running throughout the lives of the saints and all who seriously follow Jesus in their lives.  Suffering is a contradiction to the World, but to Christians it is the source of ultimate joy and peace.  How often have we been slow to embrace an inconvenient means of helping others?  How can we say that we love someone and yet begrudge them the pain of suffering?

Lord, help us always to humbly accept the crosses that You offer for the sake of our brothers and sisters.


The Third Station:  Jesus Falls the First Time
Jesus was forced to carry His own cross to the place of the crucifixion.  He stumbled and fell three times in the course of the traditional Way of the Cross.  The crowds that had just called for His crucifixion mocked Him.  Many of the same people were cheering as He made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem not long before (Luke 19:28-40).  Jesus did not shout back or struggle with the guards who pressed Him on ruthlessly.  This only made them shout the louder.

The people in the crowd were, many of them, "faithful" members of God's people. They prayed, followed the law and listened to the readings of Holy Scripture.  They did these things for themselves, not for God, and certainly not for the spiritual benefit of others.  They were essentially proud of themselves.  Being faithful to God meant that they could consider themselves to be above others.  As long as Jesus could be seen as a triumphant leader, they were happy to applaud Him.  When He stumbled, they turned on Him as quickly as they could.  What do we think we gain by calling ourselves Christians--a relationship with our God, or the ability to consider ourselves "better" than others?  How do we treat the people around us who might stumble and struggle to live up to our expectations?

Lord, help us never to use our Faith as a weapon against others for the sake of ourselves.


The Fourth Station:  Jesus Meets His Mother Mary
Jesus' friends had abandoned Him with very few exceptions.  His Mother Mary, of course, did not.  She met her son Jesus along the road to Calvary and comforted Him--not in the words of Peter at the first prediction of the Passion in the Gospel of Matthew (16:22): “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You,” but with words of encouragement.  If anyone could understand the essence of what Jesus was doing, it must have been she whose heart was to be "pierced by a sword" (Luke 2:35).

So many of us have our hearts closed to the idea of suffering for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Sometimes this is even more true of our attitudes toward the sacrifices of our loved ones.  We don't like the idea of suffering, and it is often a great act of charity to alleviate it in the lives of others, but avoiding it is not the primary goal of our existence.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, loving mother of Jesus, had her priorities straight.  How do we react to the sacrifices others make or consider making to bring God into their lives and into the world?  Do we discourage people from considering the more difficult path without stopping to think of what God's plan might be?

Lord, help us to support the holy sacrifices that people we love might make, according to the example of our Mother Mary.


The Fifth Station:  Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
It is clear from the details presented in the Gospels that Jesus endured more torment than even the typical victim of crucifixion.  Simon was pressed into service against his will, not as a comfort to our Savior, but in order not to rob the angry crowd of the climactic spectacle at the end of the journey.  Simon came in "from the country" (Luke 23: 26), and was apparently not otherwise involved in the incidents surrounding Jesus' condemnation.  Now he is forever remembered as the one who shared the very cross with Christ.

Jesus is not jealous of the cross.  Rather, His example is always to invite others to share in what He is doing (e.g. Luke 9: 23-24).  The whole point of the Christian life is for us to join with Jesus beneath the wood of the cross and find union with Him in carrying our share.  We are not alone if we do not leave Him alone.  How often do we wish to keep our struggles from others and from God so that we can imagine that we suffer more than anyone else?  How seldom do we remind ourselves that the lives and struggles of Christians belong to Christ alone and must redound to His credit instead of our own?

Lord, help us to humbly bear our burdens and give all the glory to You.


The Sixth Station:  Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
While Simon had the honor of carrying the cross for Jesus, Veronica also aided Our Lord on His way.  Amid all the bitter afflictions of the way of the cross, at this one moment Jesus received an unlikely physical comfort.  Set in a scale against the sting of the lashes, the weight of the wood, the blows of the contemptuous guards and the coming anguish of the nails, the simple gesture of Veronica wiping the sacred face of Jesus would seem to weigh nothing at all.

It is often only in small ways that we are able to live out the Faith on a daily basis.  These small ways are also the easiest to ignore because we want to see great results from our good works.  Veronica, motivated by her great love for Jesus, reminds us that to God a small good can outweigh a great many evils, for "love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). How often do we reject an opportunity to do good for one another because it seems "unimportant?"  Do we give ourselves enough credit as powerful actors in bringing about the Kingdom of God?

Lord, help us to see all the gifts You have given us as worthy to share with your suffering people.




The Seventh Station:  Jesus Falls the Second Time
Jesus fell more than once along the way to Calvary.  It grew harder and harder with each fall for Him to rise again and continue on the road to Calvary.  But rise He did to endure more buffets and spitting (Isaiah 50:6) from the guards and the crowd.  He pressed on to His own crucifixion for the sake of the very people who hated Him, and for the sake of His absent friends, and for the sake of the Will of His Father.

For Christians, the hatred of others is a strong motivation to inaction.  It is right and good to love others, and to encourage positive feelings in our hearts toward those with whom we do not agree.  It is natural to want others to think positive thoughts about us in return.  At the same time, faithfulness to the Will of God will make us enemies.  We must stay faithful nonetheless.  In what ways are we afraid to live, act and speak as Christians in the public eye?  How often do we mistake actions that will protect our reputation for holy meekness and humbleness of heart (Matthew 11:29)?

Lord, help us to stay on the path of righteousness no matter what others may think of us, good or ill.



The Eighth Station:  Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus has a brief conversation with a group of the women of Jerusalem.  It is unclear from Scripture if they were lamenting the injustice of what had been done to Him or if their tears were for the evils of which He had been wrongfully accused.  What is clear is that Jesus replies by redirecting their tears to their own future progeny with prophetic words:  "Indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed’" (Luke 23:29).

In every generation since the time of Our Lord human beings have had the responsibility to hand down a way of life to the next generation.  This is a sacred responsibility.  And yet Christians seldom spend enough time learning from the wellspring of the Faith how to be good teachers or what, indeed, to teach.  If we let the World do the teaching, we shirk that responsibility and allow our society to sink further into the despair of our Lord's prophecy.  What is the source of the wisdom we personally pass down to future generations?  Do our children and others see in us a joyful concern for Godly things that is worth emulating and passing on?

Lord, help us to be more faithful to You that we may not leave the world barren.


The Ninth Station:  Jesus Falls the Third Time
Jesus fell a final time along the road to Calvary.  Many in the crowd must have expected He would not get back up again.  Perhaps some even remembered Christ's own words after enjoining His disciples to take up their own crosses:  "Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish’" (Luke 14:28-30).  But Jesus rose from this fall as well, in order to show us once again that God will not set a project before us without the resources to complete it.

It is humility that gives us the ability to follow God's plan for our lives.  Humility reminds us that we must put forth the time and effort to prepare for the great trials that await us as Christians.  Humility also teaches us to look to the God Who will supply the strength we lack.  How often do we fool ourselves into believing that we have reached our limit when we still have more to give?  How much could we do if we truly trusted God to help us make it over the last hurdle?

Lord, help us look to you for the strength to finish the race and keep the Faith (2 Timothy 4:7).


The Tenth Station:  Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
"They divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots" (Psalms 22:19).  The stripping of the victim's garments was intended to further humiliate him in the eyes of the crowd.  All of Our Savior's cuts and bruises were revealed before their eyes as they continued to jeer and mock.  For the friends of Jesus, these same wounds were precious--each one a reminder that He had held nothing back in His love for them.

Many of the earliest and most persistent heresies have had to do with the nature of Christ as both God and man.  It is easy to emphasize one to the detriment of the other, so that God is so far beyond us as to be meaningless or so close to us as to ratify our every whim.  In reality, we know by Faith that Jesus Christ was "true God and true man," and we cannot escape the consequences of believing each completely.  If Jesus is God, then we must worship Him as a being far above us with the right to rule our lives completely.  If Jesus is man, we must know that He loves us enough (far more than we can love ourselves) to debase Himself and become a creature so that we might be become His friends and siblings.  What level of humiliation are we prepared to undergo as friends and siblings of our Lord and Savior?  Do we take enough time in our prayer life to strip ourselves bare and see who we truly are?

Lord, help us to have the strength to face humiliations as a means of growing closer to You.


The Eleventh Station:  Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
The crucifixion itself was the culmination of a vast number of pains inflicted upon the victim.  A living body would be nailed to the cross, and a corpse would be removed.  As Jesus had earlier embraced the cross, now He spreads wide His hands over the crowds of humanity, the wood holding up His arms like Aaron and Hur did for Moses so that the people of God might have victory over their enemies (Exodus 17:12).

Just as when He first took up the cross, the pierced Jesus took on this agony for our sake.  Now He had been bound to the very instrument of His suffering and our salvation.  Part of choosing the Christian way of life is binding ourselves to instruments of suffering.  How often do we spend our time and imagination thinking about escaping our responsibilities?  Do we allow God to remind us that our obligations to our families, friends, coworkers and others are not inconveniences but opportunities to "work out our salvation" (Phil 2:12)?

Lord, help us not to flee from our holy attachments in life, especially when they cause us to suffer.

The Twelfth Station:  Jesus Dies on the Cross
Darkness covered the whole land as Jesus hung upon the cross, His detractors demanding that He come down and prove His power.  Long before this moment Jesus had warned His followers:  “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.  Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.  And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me" (John 15:18-21).  If you are a follower of Christ, the World hates you even now.  It cannot help but hate you because it does not understand the source of your Faith, Hope and Love.  Christians often latch on tightly to the idea of carrying the cross; let us not forget that the point of carrying the cross is that we should also die upon it, and that the World will not understand.

As we spiritually gather around the base of the cross to witness Our Lord who has died for our sins, let us remember that this is what Christ's victory looked like.  Let us not be afraid of what victory may look like in our own lives.  How much time, thought and effort do we put into being successful in earthly things instead of heavenly things?  Do we realize how often we must betray God in order to receive the affirmation of the World?

Lord, help us to remember and gain strength from Your crucifixion when the World has turned against us.


The Thirteenth Station:  Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
The body of Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the lap of His mother.  Michelangelo's famous Pieta depicts Mary in this scene as disproportionately large in relation to her son Jesus.  She is powerful in that moment of profound distress.  Jesus is our example of perfect humility in love and submission to the Will of God; Mary too is our example of humility expressed in her constant presence and indefatigable grace.

One of Jesus' last actions upon the cross was to entrust Mary to the keeping of John, and John to the keeping of Mary (John 19:26-27).  We too have been entrusted to the care of our Mother Mary as a powerful intercessor before her son Jesus.  Mary became the Mother of God through her exemplary acceptance of God's plan for her life; let us not forget that in the midst of our struggles we have been given so powerful an ally to call upon and from whom we may receive comfort and encouragement in the darkest hours.  Who do we allow to teach us how to live a good and fulfilling life--the holy ones of God, or someone else?  Do we have so much pride in our own ability to pray that we forget to ask others to pray for us?

Lord, help us to remember all the saints--and especially our Mother Mary--who stand ready to lift us up to God the Father.


The Fourteenth Station:  Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
The body of Jesus was placed in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea.  A great stone was rolled before the entrance, and a guard was placed before the stone.  Few expected that the story of Jesus had not yet ended.  Jesus had given them all they would have needed to keep hope alive through the whole ordeal.  He knew, however, that words were not enough.  He would rise from the dead and show His followers that the grave is not the place that the Father had prepared for them. 

"Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed" (1 John 3:2).  As Christians, our hope lies beyond this world.  Jesus did not just leave us with words, but with an empty tomb and a resurrection.  In humbling Himself to become a man, Jesus committed Himself to to all the stages of human life and death that He might point to something greater yet to come.  How often do we find ourselves putting our Faith away to take back out at a more convenient time, forgetting that the resurrection cannot come without the cross?  How seldom do we quench our pride in who and what we have become in this world which is even now passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31)?

Lord, help us to always place our hope in You, unafraid of the mystery which the Father has in store for us.



13 April 2014

Pride, Passion, and Palms


     One of the most gripping and meaningful parts of the Lenten experience is the dramatic reading of the Passion narratives.  Seldom are we treated to the opportunity to so clearly find ourselves within the story of our Lord than by putting such words to our own lips.  Today as I listened and participated in the reading of the Passion, I reflected on a few specific elements of significance for the man aspiring to humility:


The Citizens of Jerusalem Wave Palms before Jesus

It is interesting to think about how many things the palms of Palm Sunday represent.  They are first and foremost a sign of reverence and fealty to one we name as our King.  They are a symbol of the natural beauty that is our gift from God offered back to Him in glorifying His Son.  Finally, they are a reminder of the fact that we are ready, at a moment's notice, to betray this same God.

For his part, Jesus seems to be (as we should expect him to be) fully aware of this manifold meaning.  Scripture does not show him either quelling the crowd or attempting to make any practical use of the wave of popularity he is riding on.  This as much as anything could be why the people turned on him--what is the point of supporting a king unless he is going to wield power to accomplish what the supporter desires?  Jesus is the Son of God, not a political figure.

We must count ourselves members of both the adoring crowd and the scornful crowd, and then we must strive to cut our the pride which seeks to turn our acts of reverence into what are essentially acts of self-adulation.  If our praise of God suits us, it can be because we have brought our selves and our minds into line with Him, or it can be because we are not really praising Him but our own desires instead.


The Guards Arrest Jesus in the Night

The scene of the arrest of Jesus has always stuck with me as an especially poignant moment.  This is the moment of crisis when everyone seems nervous and unsettled except Jesus (who had just gone to prayer with the Father in his own moment of crisis), who hands himself over as if the arrest were taking place under his own authority.

The timing of this moment is also significant.  Darkness surrounds this act because they hope to hide its significance from any who might object to their decision.  The chief priests here exercise what they consider to be their power to decide right and wrong with regard to the Law of God.  As Jesus himself attests, this authority is legitimate within the religious practice of the Jews.  However, the legitimacy of authority is not the same as morality.

Only in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do we see perfect authority and perfect morality/goodness.  How often do those in positions of authority dispense with the question of how to use that authority rightly?  Probably the biggest reason our culture distrusts authority is because pride undermines the appropriate and natural connection between might and right.  Pride encourages the abuse of power while humility reunites it with the true and the good.  


Judas Returns the Silver

Not to be overly critical of the chief priests, but the scene in which Judas returns his payment to the floor of the temple emphasizes the points made above in a different context.  The money created an unanticipated problem for the priests.  In solving the problem, however, they missed its true lesson.

The attitude toward the rules is that they must be obeyed only in their letter and not necessarily their spirit.  The money was deemed unclean for adding to the temple coffers, but the priests still used it.  We can be critical of the way in which the priests allocated the recovered funds, but what they apparently missed entirely was the fact that this "blood money" the had just gotten back was just as much "blood money" when they spent it.  Whatever they decided to do with the thirty pieces of silver, the blood was still on their hands and the Law of God was not respected.

Contrast this perspective on the Law to that shown by Jesus.  In all his actions and interactions with people he strove to engage and unearth the hidden core of every person.  The outwardly righteous he showed to be corrupt at the core.  The outwardly sinful he showed to have a great and desperate faith.  A common thread in the former was pride; in the latter humility.


Peter Makes Himself a Liar

Much can and has been said of the scene in which Peter denies Jesus three times after having vociferously proclaimed his own incorruptibility.  I will only add that the depth of Peter's betrayal is increased by his insistence that he would not betray Jesus.  Had Peter remained silent he might still have done the same (and considering the threefold commission Jesus gives him after the resurrection, things did not turn out so bad), but he also might not have had so much unwarranted confidence in himself.  This confidence created a blind spot in which temptation was able to creep up and take him unawares.

Humility is one strong gift that Peter and the other disciples who abandoned Jesus at the crucifixion ultimately received.  If we have our eyes open, all of our failures can be moments for the same gift to be imparted to us.

This Holy Week, I pray that all of you who so graciously read these thoughts might grow closer to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that, dying with him, you may also share in the joy of his resurrection.  Please pray for me and my family in this holiest of weeks.




25 March 2014

Humility and Love of Neighbor



At one level it is obvious:  the way we can love and serve God is by loving and serving our neighbor.  Jesus gave more than a few heavy hints that this would be a good strategy--essentially the only strategy!  We can't see God directly, except behind the disguise of bread and wine, so it stands to reason that we must connect with our neighbors in order to experience the dynamic exchange that is a love relationship with the Holy Trinity. 

We have great trouble with this strategy, however, for the very reasons that make it a good strategy to begin with.  We can "love" God in an abstract way by focusing good thoughts toward Him and maintaining a good attitude to the world around us, confirming in our minds that God loves us back.  The whole thing can be quite pleasant and sanitary.  Other people are seldom sanitary and often not pleasant.  Relationships with real people in the real world tend to be much harder to feel good about without some strong basis in reality.  This is because other people react to what we actually do more than to the ideas we have about what we have done.  If we betray a friend in word or deed they may well let us know, even going so far as to end the friendship over it.  God does not react in ways that are so blunt and obvious (at least not for most of us most of the time).  This may be one reason that it is so hard to conceive of God as a real person, although that is the most profound truth about the essence of God:  Divine Personhood. Yet this distance from the personhood of God makes it easy to fool ourselves into thinking our relationship is strong when it might not be so.

Our neighbors are concretely "there" before us in a way that God is not.  In addition, we and our neighbors are equally called to be members of one body whose head is Christ. We should be aware of our neighbors in as vivid and intense a way as we wish to be aware of God.  Something holds us back.  Many things, actually, hold us back.  First among them is a lack of humility.

To illustrate, I have a disgusting tendency, especially when tired and easily distracted, to sit in Church and judge others.  I do not mean the kind of positive judgment that can make me an instrument to instruct others.  I mean the BAD kind of judgment.  I think long and hard and continuously about the clothes others have chosen to wear, or the amount of whispering they do, or even the kinds of homilies they give.  None of these thoughts as I experience them can be construed as Christian.  Although my opinion about whispering excessively in church may be well founded, there is no way in the place of the double hockey sticks I would ever say a word about it to the people doing it.  My critical thought is only a tiny flame of hate and comparative pride that I must continually fan. At the same time, I convince myself that my real concern is for their wellbeing and the more perfect worship of God.  I think,
"How distracted they must be doing that!"  How ironic that I am so distracted in unproductively minding their business.

Love of neighbor quite often involves making judgement, but these judgments must be made in the spirit of love. Only through humility can we place to ourselves in the right order of priority:  God first, neighbor second, self third.  In fact, lived humility tends to drop the self out of the picture entirely so that we see only our neighbors and the God we seek in them.  In this way we can begin to enjoy the life of membership in the body of Christ, giving to and receiving from our neighbors in good health and holiness.

07 March 2014

Bringing Humility Forth in New Life



My wife and I have just had a daughter at the end of January.  We are overjoyed with the event and all that it will entail for our lives.  On the other hand, we have also been dealing with a few challenges that seem at least to us to go beyond our abilities.  Georgia Lynn pretty consistently goes through long spells of inconsolable crying.  Even when she can be consoled, she often requires constant holding (and bouncing) for hours on end despite the fact that she is warm (not too warm), has plenty to eat and is changed every five minutes or so.  At the same time, we have been dealing with various random but significant plumbing problems and car troubles along with their attendant bills.  I don't intend to complain overly of these problems (I often don't even bear the brunt of them the way my wife does!).  I also know that many others have dealt with far worse.  And yet, in all honesty I have not handled things very well.  I must admit that I have occasionally wondered with varying levels of seriousness why God would not just intervene and deliver us from the burden of my daughter's cries in some miraculous cure for the colic.  I even give myself the fleeting satisfaction of believing I might deserve such a thing.  I am, after all, doing what He wants, right?  (If she would be a little more manageable, I would be freed up to write more in my profoundly important humility blog, after all!)

Obviously in my rational moments I realize that my level of frustration (the level, not the existence) is rooted once again in my personal pride.  I seem almost incapable of remembering how much I have to be thankful for in the midst of any amount of suffering because somewhere in my heart I think I deserve better than other people.

All of this has come to a sharp focus for me recently when I heard the story of one of our students.  This young woman was a mother of four when she was diagnosed with cancer.  She then found out she was pregnant with her fifth.  The doctors suggested that she abort the child, but she (heroically) chose to ignore this advice.  The child is healthy, but recently the cancer has spread to her brain.  Please offer a prayer for her and her family as she prepares for her next surgery.

My own troubles fade to nothing, of course, in the face of these events.  The mind recoils from the possibility that such a thing could happen to me.  But this sort of thing is happening all the time somewhere in the world.  If I can't deal with the little inconveniences of my own comfortable life, what would become of me in those circumstances?  Can I really afford to lack so much Christian character that I have no confidence I could deal with something like that?  I find myself in a classic catch 22:  I have it too bad to be content with my situation, and I have it too good to deserve to feel bad. 

Rather than give in to discouragement and frustration with myself over my limitations, I think it best to turn back to that principle of lived humility that drives the reflections in this space:  to humble oneself is the way one lives out the call of Christ.  I can only become a stronger Christian by going through this little desert because it is a desert for me.  If I were not pushed to my limits I would not be able to expand those limits in order to become the person God created me to be.  These are the but the early labor pains which will bring forth my own new life.

If anything, the stress I experience and will ultimately endure will be a means for me to give something back to God for the gift of such a beautiful daughter.  That is an encouraging thought for me to hold on to this Lent.

...I would say more, but I think Georgia may be about to cry...

25 January 2014

Humility and Ecumenism

 (Above:  The Crucifix for the forthcoming Georgia's room.  
Below:  The image of the pelican which pierces its own heart to feed its young.  
A fitting symbol of Christ's love and humility.)


I believe that the greatest danger to my spiritual life is the array of things that I am completely comfortable with on a day to day basis that go against the will of God.  I read sports articles on websites that advertise links to essentially pornographic "stories" as if this is simply the way things have to work (and whether I am personally tempted by the links or not).  I listen raptly as people share the latest office gossip with one another (here I need not discuss those times I join in myself).  I sit idly by while any number of worthy initiatives for the good of my fellow man languish for want of money or volunteers (of course I have things to do and bills to pay!).

These examples are not my problem.  At least, they are "not my problem" in the sense that I am personally responsible for their origination or continued existence.  I can not, however, absolve myself of responsibility completely.  There are things I could do about these problems even if I can not solve them all by myself.  Add to that the fact that if the world were filled with people otherwise similar to me who actually felt these things were worth fighting against, the world would be much more pleasing to the God I claim to serve.

A similar issue that is of inestimable importance today, but about which I have done essentially nothing, is the scandal of Christian disunity.  Perhaps this seems like a strange subject to bring up at a time and in a place of relative coexistence between the various "churches."  Pope Francis and his predecessors have broken new ground in many ways.  Yet there is still a very long way to go, to say the least.

For a long time I held the vague opinion--not stated in so many words, of course--that Protestants should just wise up and rejoin the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  This would, obviously, solve the problem in the best possible way.  In a sense, I still agree with this position:  I believe completely that the Church is the true Body of Christ on Earth and that other communities which claim the name of "Christian" are to greater and lesser extents sundered from that Body.  I might point out that Jesus had only one body and one set of disciples.  There seems to be no reason He would have chosen the current multiplicity of mutually exclusive paths. Have I convinced anyone yet?

Some people have been convinced by such arguments, but the problem of Christian disunity persists.  I recently heard a talk on ecumenism given by renowned Catholic convert, philosopher, and theologian Peter Kreeft (the audio for this talk is available here). Among many extremely important points he makes is that Protestants will not consider reunion with the Catholic Church until they are able to see Christ there.  He emphasizes that this is the only ground on which he (and likely God Himself) would wish to see Protestants come to the Church.  Any other motivation would really be a contradiction of the meaning of conversion.  If Protestantism is a movement by which Christians seek to be closer to Christ, Protestants should be moved to join the Catholic Church in order to be better Protestants.  Unfortunately, too often Catholics obscure the vision of Christ in the Church by how they speak and act in front of others to the point that it is no wonder so few believe Him to be there.

All of this makes me once again turn to myself and my own ideas and attitudes.  How often do I maintain a haughty attitude regarding the truth as I believe it to be?  The Gnostics believed that the truth was a secret, the knowing of which made one superior to others.  Christ Jesus intended His disciples to behave as if the opposite were true:  knowing Jesus should lead you to humble yourself to become the road on which others come to Him.
 
The answer is not to "soften" the truth as if hard truths were themselves the problem.  I do not concede anything about the Faith.  The answer is to allow the gift of humility to get me out of the way and allow others to see what I see, not to my credit but to the credit of the God who condescends to show it to me in the first place.