July | 2009 | Devil, Does Your Dog Bite?

Now a Timberwolf

Will the Wizards win 40 games this season? That would be 21 more than they won last season, more than doubling their win percentage.

I was sorry to see Darius Songaila go. But the Wizards’ off-season trades have been excellent. I think they will play better-than-.500 ball and will contend for a playoff spot…

…For the record: I can think of a lot of places where I would love to sit and drink a cold beer.

The White House is not one of them…

…As they continued their journey, He entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.

She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to him speak.

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to Him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”

The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” –Luke 10:38-42

There is plenty to do. But the life of action in this world is for the sake of reaching the life of contemplation in the next.

It is of the essence of the Church that she be both human and divine, visible and yet invisibly equipped, eager to act and yet intent on contemplation, present in this world and yet not at home in it; and she is all these things in such wise that in her the human is directed and subordinated to the divine, the visible likewise to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, which we seek. –Vatican Council II, Sacrosanctum Concilium 2

Read Full Post »

1.
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently.

–Much Ado About Nothing, Act V, Scene i

2.
If he be not in love with some woman, there is no
believing old signs: a’ brushes his hat o’
mornings; what should that bode?…
And when was he wont to wash his face?

–Ibid., Act III, Scene ii

Read Full Post »

Like all the chapters of all the gospels, the sixth chapter of John proclaims that the Messiah has come, and it is Jesus.

Moses

It will help us to understand this chapter if we recall some of the great deeds the Lord did through His prophet Moses in ancient times. Through Moses, the Lord taught His people a lot about how to hope for the Messiah—about how to hope for freedom and salvation.

Let us recall the Exodus of the Israelites. By the power of God, Moses brought plagues upon the Egyptian slave-masters. Then he parted the Red Sea and led the people across it. Later, Moses turned the desert rock into a spring of water.

Moses also demonstrated the power of God when he brought the Law down from Mt. Sinai and then consecrated the people in a covenant of obedience to it.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

It has been a month since the Monday evening that rattled me as much as I have been rattled in a long time. I think September 11, 2001, was the last time I sat in front of a televison in a state of such distress.

The Washington Metro opened when I was a little boy. My dad worked for the city then, and we rode on a special Metro ride for V.I.P.’s, the day before the system opened.

He was so excited about the Metro that he used to ride it one stop each evening, from his office at Farragut North to the end of the red line at Dupont Circle. Then he would catch the bus the rest of the way to our house (near Friendship Heights–only a shaded ‘future’ station on the map back then).

The Metro ride did not save him any time or trouble. He did it out of sheer excitement.

I guess children who grow up on farms have a special love for pigs and tractors. They do not like to see sick pigs or mangled tractors. For me, it is the Metro.

There was a deadly Metro crash in January, 1982–the same afternoon Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th-Street bridge and plummeted into the Potomac River. And a Metro operator was killed in a crash in 1996.

But I think the crash on June 22 is the event that will mark a turning point in Washington subway history equivalent to the turning point that was reached in New York City ten days before the end of World War I:

Have you ever been to Frederick Law Olmstead’s magnificent Prospect Park in Brooklyn? One of the exits of the park opens onto Empire Boulevard.

This street once had a different name. They had to change the name of the street, because the old name had become synonymous with death and horror. Empire Boulevard was once Malbone Street.

Click here for the New York Times account of the deadliest non-terrorist subway catastrophe in history, which happened in the tunnel outside the Malbone Street station on All Saints Day, 1918.

At least 93 people died. The crash occurred because a non-union scab with two hours of training was operating the Brighton Beach express during a strike. He took a six-mile-an-hour curve at 40 mph.

The responsible authorities were indicted for manslaughter.

The NYC subway bounced back. It became a professional operation. May the same happen here in Washington. And may all the dead rest in peace.

Read Full Post »

(the first 4:30…Dogberry’s precious expertise)

Read Full Post »

I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. (Matthew 13:13)

There are a lot of great stories. Some of them teach important lessons. Like “If you build it, they will come.”

But the parables of Christ are not like these. The parables of Christ are in a class by themselves.

If we think Christ’s parables are moral lessons, we will not understand them. What is the moral lesson of the Parable of the Dishonest Steward?

The parables of Christ are about Christ Himself. They are about the salvation which God won for us by becoming man, suffering, dying, and rising again. The parables of Christ make sense only by the light of faith. They are not interchangeable with other morality tales.

There is a key to entering into Christ’s parables. Without the key, they are impossible to understand. With the key, Christ’s parables explain all of life, all of reality.

The key is the Nicene Creed, the truth about Who Christ is.

Read Full Post »

I have no choice but to admit that in the past two days, I have witnessed not one, but two miracles of liberal journalism.

I.
Don’t know if you heard how a professor at Harvard was arrested in his own house. He claims to be the victim of police racism.

The first thing that occurred to me when I read the conflicting accounts of what happened: Wasn’t the police officer probably trying to secure the house after having received a burglary report? Why would Dr. Gates refuse to comply with the officer’s request that he step outside? Isn’t it reasonable to think that the officer asked Dr. Gates to step outside for his own safety, in the event that there was an intruder in the house?

Imagine my amazement when I read something in the Washington Post to the effect that the officer may in fact NOT be a racist goon, and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was probably acting like a defensive jerk.

II.
Don’t know if you have heard that there will soon be a new justice on the Supreme Court.

Imagine my amazement when I read something in the Washington Post to the effect that Sonia Sotomayor is a woefully uninspiring Supreme-Court nominee.

My brother used to write for the Washington Post. Of course I would always be glad to buy my brother a beer. But other than that, I have never wanted to buy beers for Washington Post writers.

But the Omnipresent Specter is full of surprises.

Read Full Post »

Preacher’s Status: Overwhelmed.

…Here is Reason #1,865 why it is impossible to take the Washington Post seriously.  A quote from one of today’s editorials:

…The United States…is dealing with the omnipresent specter of another terrorist attack…

Omnipresent specter?

Would the word “threat” not suffice? Or even the phrase “constant threat?” Who hired someone from the Ministry of Truth to copy edit the Washington Post?

The truth is that there is only one Omnipresent Specter, and He does not appreciate blasphemy.

He will indeed terrorize the proud. But He will exult the humble.

He will reward those who treat the language with reverence. But the cheap word-mongers He will crush.

…On the other hand, this pro-life essay by Alveda King, niece of M.L.K., Jr., is worth reading…

…You know that I love LeBron as much as anybody. My dream in life is to be the LeBron James of priests.

LeBron got dunked on recently. No big deal. It was a silly summer-league game.

He got dunked on by a college player. No biggie. College players are awful good.

He got dunked on by a college player who was wearing Nike LeBrons at the time.

Then Nike confiscated the videotapes. Here is the dunker:

Read Full Post »

John Daly’s pants just get better and better

Today I announced that a new parochial vicar will arrive at our parish on August 8. After Mass, I received the greatest compliment I have ever gotten:

“Father, we will miss your homilies and your cufflinks.”

…The Emperor who has no clothes is the Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Such emperors are always surrounded by toadies. In this case, the Washington Post, the City Paper, and the Washingtonian‘s one-time critic are among the cheer-leading toadies.

I was able to see King Lear at the Harman Center through the gracious generosity of a friend, and I am grateful for his kindness.

We have been down this road before. The Shakespeare-Theatre-Company production of Twelfth Night turned out to be painfully “gimmick-ridden,” and utterly unsatisfying for this “Shakespeare fundamentalist.”

The problem is: Their production of King Lear is laden with more gimmicks than twelve Twelfth Nights. And all of the gimmicks in this production of King Lear are gross with a capital G.

Gross beyond the point of gratuity. Gross beyond the point of abysmal taste. Gross to the point of embarrassment.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

St. Bernardine of Siena holding the insignia of the Holy Name of Jesus

This is what His Grace handed me:

For the welfare of the people of God, I appoint you, Reverend Mark D. White, pastor of Holy Name parish, Washington, D.C.

I hereby commit to you the full pastoral care of souls in this parish…May God grant you the grace and health to carry out this charge of priestly service for souls.

Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington

I am unworthy of such trust. Please pray for me. May the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, who together gave our Savior His Holy Name, watch over me and all the people of “Capitol Hill extended” and Trinidad.

Eleventh & K Sts., N.E.

Click AMDG above for more info

Old map–does not include National Arboretum

Read Full Post »

February | 2009 | Devil, Does Your Dog Bite?

John Salmons

Discussion Question #1: Are the Georgetown Hoyas the most disappointing ballclub in the nation this season?

President and Bulls fan Barack Obama was at the Verizon Center this evening, as was Moses-beard-wearing Bull John Salmons.

Both were disappointed. The Wizards managed to beat the Bulls by 23 points. (Not a typo.) Let’s hope the President comes to more Wizards games!

…Not long ago, the Bishop of Wilimington, Delaware, sent his people a pastoral letter about Abraham Lincoln. The title of the letter is a quote from President Lincoln’s first inaugural address. The quote concludes with the famous phrase, “the better angels of our nature.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »

A year ago today, our group of priests concluded our pilgrimage to the Holy Land with a visit to the “Cenacle.”

This is the Upper Room, where our Lord instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, and where the Holy Spirit descended upon our Lady and the Apostles.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Forgive me, please, for indulging in so many anniversaries.

Nine years ago today, the picture you see above was taken. (I mean the banner picture, the one at the top of the page.)

Preacher met Big Daddy on March 9, 2000. Not today’s date, but the same liturgical day: I had the privilege of meeting Pope John Paul II on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

Back then, your silly Preacher was a seminarian on a pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee Year. I traveled with a group of aspiring priests from the seminary at Catholic University.

We were invited to join the Holy Father for his morning Mass in the chapel in the papal apartment in the Vatican. After Mass, he greeted us in his study, and a photographer from the Osservatore Romano took our picture as we each genuflected to kiss the Ring of the Fisherman.

So far this week, dear readers, we have considered St. Polycarp’s resignation to marytrdom AND the poet T.S. Eliot. As you remember, St. Polycarp neither sought martyrdom nor fled from it.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

…you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

T.S. Eliot wrote a complex, difficult, breathtaking poem for Ash Wednesday.

The Holy Father keeps Ash Wednesday in the Dominican church of Santa Sabina, on the Aventine Hill in Rome. He approaches the church in a solemn procession down Via Santa Sabina from the church of San Anselmo, which is about a quarter mile away.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Basilica of the Nativity, where Christ was born

Archbishop Dolan with his second-grade teacher

Someone called the new Archbishop of New York “Falstaff in a mitre.”

With all due respect, I do not think that this is apt.

As we Shakespearians know, Sir John’s most lovable quality is that he is not, in fact, a good person. He is a lying, lecherous, selfish, cynical, dissolute coward.

Sir John Falstaff

Just because Falstaff is also jovial, garrulous, and imperious does not mean that he makes a suitable literary figure for His Excellency Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is an industrious and orthodox prelate.

A year ago today, your humble servant was in Bethlehem, venerating the birthplace of Christ.

The Israeli government has erected a wall around the Israeli settlements near Bethlehem.

Don’t forget to eat all the candy in the house today.

Read Full Post »

Here is a heartbreaking testimony: Reuben Jackson on Football Withdrawal

(Here is another link, if the link you just clicked didn’t work. Scroll down to the bottom.)

A year ago today, we pilgrims celebrated Holy Mass in a chapel at the place where the Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-42).

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mount Tabor, seen from the north

One year ago today, we priest-pilgrims with were with Archbishop Burke at the top of Mt. Tabor.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Two top-eleven college basketball teams came to town today. And the NBA-elite San Antonio Spurs, too.

Not too many people thought that the Hoyas would beat Marquette. (And they didn’t, in fact, beat Marquette.)

But even fewer people thought that the Terps would beat #3 UNC, and they did!

And nobody thought the Wizards could get three wins in a row, which they have yet to do this season.

The most cheerful basketball news of the day for me was this:

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Brothers and sisters: As God is faithful, our word to you is not “yes” and “no.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not “yes” and “no,” but “yes” has been in him. For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him; therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory. II Corinthians 1:18-20

Ancient Roman fountain in Corinth

As you may remember, this year is the two-thousandth anniversary of the birth of St. Paul the Apostle.

Since the end of the Christmas season, we have been reading at Sunday Mass from St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.

As we remember, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province in southern Greece, and it was a capital of pagan decadence. When he first preached in Corinth, St. Paul had great success. He won many enthusiastic converts, who became his beloved spiritual children. When he continued his travels, however, St. Paul received reports about the Corinthian church that troubled him. The Corinthians had begun to doubt his authority.

As you recall, St. Paul wrote First Corinthians while he was in Ephesus, across the Aegean Sea from Corinth. Then he had to leave Ephesus suddenly. The Ephesian silversmiths made a tidy profit producing pagan idols. They were not pleased with St. Paul’s success in converting their customers to Christianity. They started a riot. Cooler heads prevailed, but if they hadn’t, St. Paul and his companions likely would have been martyred then and there. After this close call, St. Paul’s friends persuaded him to leave town.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

President of Israel Shimon Perez nominated Benyamin Netanyahu to be the new Prime Minister. Tzipi Livni has refused to co-operate in a unity government. Netanyahu was Prime Minister before, in the late nineties.

May God grant peace and stability to Israel. Let us pray that our Holy Father will have a spiritually profitable visit in May–and our little band of pilgrims in November, too!

(more…)

Read Full Post »

May | 2012 | Devil, Does Your Dog Bite?

Today I celebrate Mass for the fourth time this month with the Visitation gospel reading from St. Luke.

This is the gospel reading assigned for a Quinceañera Mass, when a young Mexican woman renews her baptismal promises and consecrates herself anew to the service of God.

Recalling the Visitation suits the occasion of a Quinceañera Mass perfectly.

The Blessed Mother showed the kind spirit of a Christian woman in thinking of her cousin and going to help her. The moment when Mary and Elizabeth met gave the world a beautiful, quiet sign of the coming of the Messiah, when St. John recognized Christ–womb-to-womb, so to speak. And the Blessed virgin expressed the heart of a prayerful quinceañera when she sang her Magnificat, glorifying God for His immeasurable goodness and generosity.

We give thanks that we have life. We give thanks that Christ has given us every reason to hope for eternal consolation. We give thanks that He chose us and made us His own. The Almighty has done great things for us. Holy is His name.

Read Full Post »

When we come back to the green time of the year, it reminds us of at least one very important fact.

Green things grow. They burrow quietly and mysteriously into their source of nourishment and moisture. And green things fan themselves out to feel the invigorating sunlight.

Adversities come the way of green things, to be sure. They can suffer some rough strife. Not enough water. Sudden cold snaps. Predators of many kinds, including diligent human hands pulling them up to their deaths. Terrible calamities can befall entire metropolises of green creatures—like a large parking lot being laid down by bulldozer and steamroller.

But as soon as things quiet down, the green things will be at it again, growing in their inimitable, invincible way. Time seems always to be on the side of the green things. Their patience, over long, long periods of time—the patience green things have in calmly and quietly asserting their power to grow: this patience will outlast the era of the automobile. It will outlast all the fleeting human mechanisms of our present age. Someday the green things will re-take every parking lot on earth, and where our cars are parked now, a little dale of ferns will grow.

So it is, dear brothers and sisters, with the power of God’s grace. St. Peter’s first letter reads like a gentle and loving reminder to us of the evergreen-ness of God.

The world may seem to have grown old, decadent, even cadaverous. You may have tired yourself and worn out your own patience. The adversities we face—indeed, they are real. Satan loves to try to lay down parking lots on top of us.

But the love of God continues to pour itself out upon the world—with all the vim and vigor of the first day of creation. Today—May 30, 2012—today has been foreknown by the great Source of all life, foreknown in every detail. God planned that today would be the beginning of the eternal happiness prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Yesterday might have been a great day. On the other hand, yesterday might also have sucked. Doesn’t matter. As far as God’s power to make us grow is concerned, today might as well be Day One.

We just have to burrow a little into the soil, and spread ourselves out a little to the light.

The green things know the truth. Cold spells come and go. Weed-Eaters come and go. Bulldozers come and go. The earth will never run out of nourishing soil. And in the end the sun will shine.

Read Full Post »

We human beings have a tendency to get on each others’ nerves. Living in close proximity to each other can cause conflicts. We don’t see eye-to-eye. Each of us has our ticks. Sometimes we don’t co-operate very well. We annoy each other.

We need a way to coexist peacefully. Which brings us to the virtue that reigns supreme on today’s popular airwaves. We try to live together in peace by practicing the magnificent virtue of…TOLERANCE!

(more…)

Read Full Post »

We pray to start Mass today that God would pour into us the spirit that gave Pope St. Gregory VII his courage and zeal in the face of oppression by the king. We pray that God would do this

so that, rejecting evil, the Church may be free to carry out in charity whatever is right

Does that sound like a sentence you have heard recently? “We cannot co-operate with evil, even if the civil law stipulates that we must.” I promise that I did not write the prayers for this new Missal.

Seriously, though. Pope St. Gregory will certainly pray for us and inspire us to follow in his footsteps: namely, to seek to live worthily for God.

I think we must do everything we can to keep the phrase “religious freedom” from turning into an empty slogan.

The Lord gives no one license to assert a right without simultaneously acknowledging the responsibility that goes with it. No one can assert a right to ‘religious freedom’ without at the same time confronting the terrifying fact that this means that I really have to be genuinely religious.

If the Church has been treated with incomprehension and ill will by the federal government, which She has, then we rightly take umbrage, as Pope St. Gregory took strenuous umbrage when the Church was abused. But anyone who takes umbrage at being treated with ill will and incomprehension must at the same time treat the adversary with good will and understanding. Which is the way Pope St. Gregory always treated everybody.

In other words, the saintly pope of the lay-investiture crisis would never have asserted the prerogative of ecclesiastical authority as some kind of end in itself. He never claimed that the Church enjoyed an abstract privilege of “freedom.” He simply insisted that the Church has a duty to follow Christ. “Religious freedom,” considered as a human right, cannot justify us. Living in communion with Christ, acting according to His holy will, with the affections of His suffering Heart—this, and only this, justifies us.

Pope St. Gregory engaged in an epic legal battle with King Henry IV of Germany, as well as an epic pastoral and spiritual battle with him. Gregory knew a million times more about the law than the king did. The Pope argued with relentless fierceness. He did not hesitate to call his political enemies “precursors of the antichrist and satellites of our ancient foe.”

But the saintly pope never imagined that the Church had any rights that didn’t demand total dedication and self-sacrifice. And Gregory would have been immeasurably happier if the king had turned to God and brought the battle to an un-dramatic end. Then Gregory could have lived as an unremarkable eleventh-century pope, destined to be forgotten by history. The saint would much rather have been a forgotten pope than the great hero the king forced him to be.

St. Gregory never really wanted to be pope at all. He liked being a monk who quietly used his amazing mind to resolve conflicts and keep the Church true to Her mission.

When we stand up for freedom of religion in America, I hope we can do it with Pope St. Gregory’s courage, and I hope we can do it with his humility and his utterly unprejudiced love, too.

Read Full Post »

No human organization has ever endured with the sole purpose of everybody sitting around and looking at each other. We homo sapiens get together, stick together, and succeed together when we have a clear goal to work towards.

The goals that we seek together can be good or bad. Some people form bonds with each other by exchanging gossip at others’ expense.

To “form a good community,” we need a good goal. Actually, we need the best goal. We need the one goal that makes life genuinely worth living.

At the deepest core of our human selves, we seek God. We could go so far as to say: human being = God-seeker.

And our search for God brings us together in a uniquely intimate way. The bond that unites people who seek God together endures like no other bond, overcomes obstacles like no other bond.

Where do we find God? In Christ. Christ shows us the Father. In Christ, our seeking souls can find rest.

Nothing could ever bring people together like this: to seek God together and find Him together. This bond endures for all eternity. It is the communion of Christ’s Church, bound together in love by the Holy Spirit.

Read Full Post »

When we pray, how do we do it?

We pray to the Almighty Father. We thank Him for giving us everything. We offer Him His own Son as our sacrifice. We pray on behalf of the whole Church, that we would be delivered from evil and reach the final goal. We pray that everyone, living and dead, would be gathered into Christ’s fold. We give the Father all glory and honor through Christ, and we consecrate ourselves in the Spirit of truth.

We pray this way by praying the Mass together. We pray like Christ Himself prayed at the Last Supper. He prayed to the Father with confidence and trust. He gave thanks for the gift of everything: His existence, born of infinite love. His mission. The glory prepared for Him and for all those predestined for glory with Him. He offered to the Father His sacrifice of obedience. And Christ united Himself with all who believe.

Our prayer at the altar echoes Christ’s priestly prayer. Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper has not passed away; He hasn’t stopped praying to the Father for us. He prays perpetually as our High Priest in heaven. He prays for exactly what we need, when we need it. He pours out the right graces at the right time.

When we pray, we want only to pray with Him. Obviously, we cannot pray on our own any better than He can pray in us.

Praying with Him, uniting ourselves in our inmost souls with Him—that in and of itself can get us on the right track—and keep us on it. We can walk out of church peaceful, focused on what we need to focus on, full of love, ready to do what we need to do and help the people we need to help.

When we pray Christ’s prayer in union with Him, the world makes sense. Our lives make sense. Our duties make sense.

Which doesn’t mean easy. Easy doesn’t actually make sense for us. A self-respecting human being sitting around watching t.v. all day doesn’t make sense. A Christian living as if other people don’t matter doesn’t make sense.

Letting the Holy Spirit consume us with love, like He consumed Christ with love: that makes sense. Walking out of Mass dedicated to loving the least lovable people, like Christ has loved us: makes sense. Living at all times with gratitude to the Father, offering everything to Him, glorifying Him with the smallest, most apparently insignificant actions: all of this makes sense for someone who prays regularly with Christ the High Priest.

Pray like Christ, with Christ, in Christ. Live like Christ, with Christ, in Christ. One week at a time; one day at a time; one hour, one minute, at a time.

Next thing we know, we will be praying and living with Christ in heaven.

Read Full Post »

Just over a month ago, the world marked the 100th anniversary of the demise of the RMS Titanic. The unsinkable ship went down to the murky north-Atlantic deep. Like a floating city of lights, clean and fine and elegant in every appointment—it darkened; it fractured; it foundered. Now all its intricately carved banisters and mantelpieces, all its monogrammed china and crystal martini glasses—all of it lies in the mud, covered with aquatic mold.

Maybe you remember the scene in the Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet movie: the ship’s designer, on board for the maiden voyage—he knows that the Titanic will sink in one hour. He has surveyed the ice-berg damage, knows where the holes in the hull are, and he has reached his inescapable conclusion. The huge ship is slowly going down.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. –Jesus Christ (John 16:21)

“The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains, even until now.” (Rom 8:22)

From what I understand, giving birth is no picnic. No co-incidence that we call it “labor.”

No labor—again, they tell me—no labor is more back-breaking. An old friend of mine actually managed to break her coccyx while delivering her first child.

We all caused some poor woman some distress, back when we first started this pilgrim life. We try to make it right by sending flowers one Sunday a year.

The whole creation groans. The whole creation strains the tailbone. The whole creation writhes with a sore back. The labor continues. We press through the birth canal, groping our way toward the light.

The light is Christ, risen from the dead. The birth for which all creation groans is this: the end of futility, the end of strife, the fulfillment of everything we hope for and dream about.

The child coos. The body rests. The future opens. The pain fades.

Life. Life gets born. The pain is not the end. Death is not the end.

Creation groans because she is giving birth to eternal life.

Read Full Post »

When St. Paul spoke in Athens, he referred to the one, true God, Whom no pagan image can represent. The true God does not need our service. Rather, He freely gives us all that we have and are. He has made the whole world and the entire human race. He is everyone’s God, the only God.

St. Paul appealed to the fact that everyone, somewhere within him- or herself, knows this God. God is, after all, closer to every individual human being than he is to himself.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now,” said the Lord, to the Apostles.

St. Augustine made the best comment on this verse, in my opinion. We should not worry too much about knowing the ‘much more’ that the Lord intends eventually to reveal. If even the holy Apostles couldn’t bear it, we can be damn sure that we can’t, either.

The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. Someday we will know it all. Someday we will know things like: Why some people get cancer and other people don’t. Or why some people get born poor and hardly have half a chance, while some people are set-up so easy that they really have to work hard at squandering their advantages in order to wind up somewhere other than Easy Street. And we will learn why some people we know and love go ahead and do just that: work hard for pretty much their whole lives at squandering all their advantages.

In the meantime, though, even when we don’t understand something, we can always pray.

The time has come to make the original Novena. When He ascended into heaven, the Lord said, “You stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.” They prayed for nine days. Then the Holy Spirit came.

If you are like me, you can hardly get used to celebrating Ascension Day three days late. Especially since it turns the novena instituted by God into a sextena.

But the most important thing is to pray.

Lord, fill us with Your wisdom. Our own folly has become intolerably boring to us. Fill us with Your knowledge, because we are tired of our own ignorance. Fill us with Your prudence. We have made enough of our own mistakes.

We will gladly take on faith for now what You would have us take on faith. We know that when the time is right, Your Holy Spirit will make everything perfectly clear.

Read Full Post »